Chapter 3

“You should wear a sign that warns unsuspecting women about that thing in your pants,” Cheryl was playful following our tryst. She lay sprawled across the bed, on top of the comforter due to the wet spot we’d left in the wake of our hurricane of passion. Her eyes sparkled as she sought to hold a post mortem on our liaison.

“Tommy, I’ve never felt so completely fulfilled. Where did you learn to please a women like this?” Fortunately there was no response expected. The order of the day was this: Cheryl was going to talk and I was going to listen.

“Your ... your ... you know ... You! You really shocked me. I had no idea I could even feel so ... so ... so fully pleased. It was like I was inhabiting an alien body. It was like you were doing this all to someone else, and I was inside them watching it all happen.

“Don’t get me wrong. I had a WONDERFUL time, but it’s not like I was raised in a cave and spent my adulthood in a convent. I’ve been around the block. It’s just that I never went around this block.

“And it was spectacular.” Once she got over her post coital blabbering, we settled down, cuddling like experienced lovers instead of first timers. Cheryl still wanted to talk, just not with so much energy. That would have been fine except for the part where we heard our bus engine start up and roar off like the devil himself was after our bus driver.

I was first up and off the bed, peeking around the curtain to watch our bus slewing out of the motel parking lot and careening out into traffic with such a small amount of consideration for safety that it was clear the driver was truly and terribly frightened.

“What do you think that was all about,” Cheryl was at my elbow, watching the bus disappear around the bend.

“I think you better call Judy and find out where they are and what they’re doing, before we worry about the bus driver. While you do that, I want to check the TV for news. Something bad might be happening at home and the driver is rushing to help.” Cheryl called Judy as I dressed and headed back to my room to see what I could see.

It didn’t take long...

Every channel was broadcasting the same basic message.

“Fox News has learned that those reports we have been receiving about a outbreak of the plague are not only turning out to be true, but that the severity of the outbreak is far beyond anything we have been led to believe. Authorities in Washington, D.C. have confirmed at least five-thousand four hundred cases of what they are calling a manufactured viral outbreak have been confirmed by local hospitals all over the world.

“Speaking of world reaction, The World Health Organization, in conjunction with our own Infectious Disease Center is warning all Americans to avoid public places, stay off the roads, out of shopping centers and away from populated areas until more is known...”

The news got worse by the minute and the last report had confirmed cases at over forty thousand.

“The President is urging everyone to remain calm, stay indoors, keep away from crowds, airports, train stations, bus depots, and places where people might congregate and share germs...”

He went on, but I was out the door running.

Cheryl saw me coming and rushed to head me off. “Judy and the girls have hired a resort shuttle to bring them back here. She said the driver got a phone call and told her he had to leave immediately because his wife and daughter were both terribly ill back home.” I could see the makings of a terrorist attack behind the outbreak, and I knew from experience that there be hundreds of thousands of infected people, if not millions.

“We need to get the girls out of here and somewhere safe. The government will be closing the roads very soon, trapping us out here. Go rent us the biggest van you can find. It doesn’t matter what it costs. If this thing is as bad as it looks, the people who would be collecting your credit card debt won’t be alive to send out your bill in a few weeks.”

For whatever reason, Cheryl believed me and pulled out her phone to call for a rental van. The motel manager was in his office, and I asked him if he could rent me his small box truck for a few hours. He was a kind, older man and wanted to help, so he suggested that he do the driving and we could both go to the warehouse store, together ... but only after I handed him two-hundred dollars in twenties.

Once I got a sufficient sized rolling cart, I bought four pallets of quart sized, bottled water, ten full, five gallon size propane cylinders, all the dehydrated food I could find, as well as flashlights, lanterns, batteries, a small Honda generator, five gallon gas cans, oil, a spare battery for the generator, and a bunch of other supplies.

It was early in the crisis and there was no run on anything, yet.

We stopped to fill up the gas cans, the box truck, and stopped at a sporting goods store to buy inflatable camp mattresses, sleeping bags, blankets, sheets, towels, pillow cases and all sorts of bathroom and bedroom paraphernalia, warm clothes, camp stoves, hiking boots of various sizes and heavy socks. Our purchasing was complete when I found four four-man tents that looked both sturdy and light weight. I also added five semi-automatic shotguns, along with cases and cases of ammunition for just-in-case purposes.

Then I saw a four-wheel drive, four door, extra heavy duty, Toyota pickup, with a huge fifth wheel camper attached and all for sale, outside a used car lot.

It didn’t take long to buy the truck, transfer money from Tommy’s bank account and buy a thirty-day temporary license plate and auto insurance policy.

I sent Harold the manager back at the motel and Cheryl was pacing frantically with Judy, outside my room when I turned into the parking lot. Judy looked worried but not frantic. Cheryl was way out past that. The girls were waiting nearby anxious to see what would happen next.

Judy was beside me the instant I parked the pickup. “The radio just announced that all highways were to be closed by order of the President. We’re stuck...”

“No,” I said with conviction to calm her and Cheryl who had just walked up, looking just as frightened. “I’ve got a truck, a camper that will hold us all in a pinch and lots of supplies. We need to get everyone packed and out of here as fast as possible. Judy, while I get the girls packed and loaded, you and a couple of helpers take the van and go buy all the non-perishable foods you can find without causing a panic. There’s a grocery just up the highway about five miles. Here’s my debit card. Spend as much as possible and buy anything you can think of to help us while we see how long it takes for the sickness to die out.”

Judy proved to be a great partner for an emergency, as she picked two girls and left immediately.

I got the others packed, had a couple of girls pack up Judy’s things, as well as the belongings of the two that went with her, and we stowed it all in the center of the fifth wheel. As we loaded I was trying to keep the load balanced without spending all day worrying about it. She was back with the rear of the van packed to the roof, in record time. That raised a smile from me and a sneaky look from Judy, so there you go...

“Judy, you will drive the box truck. Mr. Motel manager doesn’t know it, yet, but we are buying the use of that truck for as long as it takes to get us to safety and unloaded. We’ll leave the rental van with the motel, in case Harold needs a vehicle.”

They needed convincing, so I told Harold we would pay him another five-hundred dollars to use the truck until I could get us unloaded, and was shocked when he waved me off. “You have these youngsters to look after. Take the truck and bring it back when you can ... if you can...” The sad look on face told me that he knew, or at least suspected, what was coming. I handed him the keys and contract for the van and told him to keep it out of sight until he needed it, in case the bad guys decided to steal it and kill him in the process. He refused the gift of the van and insisted we use it instead of having sitting around doing nothing during a national emergency, at the motel.

After thanking him I told everyone to call their families and assure them that everything was OK and that our teachers were on top of the situation. We were going somewhere safe in case of looters, or violent gangs, and would stay out of sight until things calmed down. The idea of roving rapists convinced them that I had a good plan, just as I knew it would, and we were on the road.

We pulled out in record time, Judy driving the box truck, with Cheryl in the van with the rest of the girls, and both vehicles following me pulling the camper. It was close quarters but manageable and we weren’t going very far. We had purchased ten walkie-talkies and Judy asked me about my decision to buy a pick-up and fifth-wheel, commandeer a box truck, and purchase enough supplies to outfit the Lewis and Clarke expedition. There was no way I was going to talk about that on an open channel and let her know we’d discuss it when we weren’t on the air.

When I was living as Noah Guthrie, Angela and I traveled around the mountains near Ashville and Gatlinburg just seeing the sights and having a good time. We happened upon a dirt road, that led to a campsite, that was far off the beaten path, but accessible by truck, and a perfect place to hole up and wait out an epidemic. It wasn’t more than an hour from the motel where our group stayed, and I knew I could find it on the first try.

About ninety minutes later our caravan pulled into the clearing and the girls spilled out of the vehicles to stretch their legs. The clearing was bigger than I remembered, and when we tucked the vehicles to one side, we had lots of room to build a campsite and fire ring without feeling cramped.