Rise of the Prepper: A Story of the Coming Collapse (2 page)

              He shook his head. Men liked to hunt prey. They’re natural hunters after all. Humans used to hunt their food hundreds of years ago out of necessity although nowadays people just liked to hunt for fun or for profit. Nothing bad with that, he supposed. Humans were at the top of the food chain and he can do what he wants with the environment as he desired. But there’s this little thing called karma and Seth believed in it. What’s up must come down, or so the saying went. He couldn’t really remember.

A thought occurred to him. What if one day, Mother Nature decided she had enough of man’s bullshit? What would happen to them? He took a sip of his beer and shook his head.
This is what you get for staying alone in the mountains, old man. You’re getting too gloomy.

Seth decided he’d had enough contemplating for the day and went inside the cabin as another round of gunshots fired off in the distance. The raccoon chasers were too damn noisy that he couldn’t continue relaxing on the porch anyway and his favorite show was gonna be on in a few minutes. It was definitely time to head back inside.

Chapter Three: The Beginning of the End

[April 8, 2016 – Seven Days after the Outbreak]

              President Hillary White massaged her throbbing temples. She was having a terrible headache, what with that long meeting she just had with her Chief of Staff. To say that things were in dire straits was a huge understatement.

It was positively apocalyptic.

*****

              Her Chief of Staff, Sheila, entered the President's office looking haggard. Her hair was disheveled and there were huge dark circles under her eyes. Her eyes were bloodshot and her face looked pale.

"Sheila, what's wrong?" Hillary asked, rising from her seat.

Sheila waved away her worry and dropped some files onto Hillary's desk. "There's something really bad going on."

Hillary looked at the piles of folders and back at Sheila. "I can see that."

"Something really horrible is going on, Madame President. Something that could potentially change the future of this entire country."

Hillary perceived that Sheila was in no mood for a joke. She realized that whatever it was that got her Chief of Staff shaken up like that had to be very serious.

Hillary straightened her back and in a formal manner, opened the files before her.

She frowned as she read the reports. "What is all this?"

Sheila adjusted her glasses and took a deep breath. "Seven days ago, there was a leak of a potent virus at the Army's Biological Warfare Lab in Fort Detrick. One of the researchers inhaled a small amount of this virus and promptly got infected. The researcher failed to report his infection immediately and in fact took to great lengths just to hide it." Sheila paused and looked as realization dawned on Hillary's face.

"The virus has already spread outside of the lab."

"And this happened seven days ago?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"
Shit.
" Hillary got up from her seat and paced back and forth on the carpeted floor of her office. "Where's that researcher now? How is he?"

Sheila fidgeted with her notepad. "Well, he's currently under quarantine at Roberts Hopkins in Baltimore but he's... He's expected to die within a few hours."

Hillary turned to her. "What!? Are you telling me he's dying right now and it's just been a week since he contracted this virus? This virus must be very powerful. I know we built that lab to conduct researches and make biological weapons but what in God’s name were they making there?” Hillary threw her hands up in the air. “What do we know of it?"

Sheila was an optimistic person by nature. She did not want to be the bearer of bad news. She desperately wanted to be anywhere else but in the office at that moment. In fact, she was starting to feel faint again as she repeated what she learned about this virus. There was no doubt in her mind that America was in deep, deep trouble. "It's a virus called Superpox-99. As the name suggests, infected people will show the same symptoms as normal smallpox—high fevers, vomiting, and abdominal pain. The biggest problem with this virus is that it works fast and if not treated within the first two days of contraction, about 99% of those infected will die within two weeks. The virus is highly contagious and it is also airborne."

Hillary buried her face in her palms as she felt the beginnings of a massive headache.
Oh, this just keeps getting better.

"Okay.
Relax.
" Hillary murmured to herself as she closed her eyes and took a deep, calming breath. She looked at Sheila and gave the following order. "Notify the National Guard as well as the entire armed forces to seal off Fort Detrick and contain that virus."

Sheila nodded. "We only have preventative medicine to treat early symptoms. The Generals are requesting for all our available stocks."

"All right, give it to them. Make sure everyone gets their share including civilians."

Sheila nodded and scribbled the order down on her notepad.

Hillary went back to her desk and took a seat. "Alert everyone else the CDC, FEA, Homeland Security—everyone—about the outbreak. Speaking of which, is the CDC working on a cure right now?"

"Yes. They are working 'round the clock but they still don't have a definitive cure. They say that it could take weeks or months at most."

"We don't have that kind of time. Going by how fast this virus works, half of the country's population would be wiped out by the time a cure is found!" Hillary nearly screamed.

Sheila flinched. "I'm sorry."

Composing herself, Hillary shook her head. "No, I'm sorry for raising my voice."

"Has the virus infected civilians yet?"

"None that we know of so far but we're diligently looking out for any word of an infection among the general public."

Hillary nodded thoughtfully. "Good, good. When this gets out to the public and they learn how this virus got made, we can't protest our innocence, not when the government publicly signed the Biological and Toxin Weapons Conventions back in '72. We hoped that signing that convention would strengthen America's modern warfare—not kill our citizens!"

Hillary slumped in her chair, suddenly feeling drained. "What has the world come to, Sheila?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, Madame President."

Hillary sighed. “We have to find out exactly what happened at the lab. In the meantime, we’ve got to get everything under control and take great precautions to not let this virus spread out too far.”

“Understood.” Sheila nodded.

"What's our next move?"

"For now, we have to get you to safety, ma'am. A helicopter is already headed this way and will be here in a few minutes."

*****

Hillary and Sheila stood side by side outside of the White House, waiting for the helicopter to arrive. They didn't have to wait long before the Marine One appeared. It landed on an open field, scattering grass and sand everywhere violently. The whirring of the helicopter's blades blasted in Hillary's ears.

"The chopper's here, ma'am. It will take you to the Mountain Weather Emergency Operations Center in Bluemont." Sheila escorted her onto the waiting aircraft.

Before getting on, she paused and looked at the person who had been her most trusted confidant. "Will you be all right?"

Her Chief of Staff gave her an assuring smile. "I'll do my best. We'll all do our best. Don't worry."

Hillary nodded and got on the helicopter. Sheila watched the helicopter lift off and fly away. "Yeah, we'll try our best." She said. "But there's no guarantee that we’ll survive."

Chapter Four: Ghost Town

[April 8, 2016 – Seven Days after the Outbreak]

              Seth was in his truck, driving to his favorite coffee shop in Boone called Hazel Brews. It was his habit to stop over Hazel every morning to have a cup of coffee. The road to Hazel Brews was narrow, just enough for one vehicle at a time. The coffee shop was located in a bit of a secluded area in the corner of town but Seth wasn’t complaining because they made the best coffee he’d ever had. The road leading to it was smooth and well-paved. It was also situated near a small river, so driving there offered a pretty, scenic view.

              Seth focused on his driving, not once taking his eyes off the road. As pretty as the river was, there were some pesky critters that liked to cross the road when drivers least expected it. He won’t be responsible for running over some chipmunk.

              A few more minutes of driving and he’d be at Hazel Brews ordering a cup of his morning caffeine boost. He was leisurely coasting along when he noticed a blue Chevrolet pickup. It looked old and well-used. It was parked halfway off the small road. Can’t say that he found it odd to find a car parked out there that early in the morning. Hikers came to Boone all the time to go see Silver Stretch Falls and spend their mornings chilling by it.

              Still, something about the scene made him feel uneasy. Call him paranoid but years in law enforcement had honed his instincts. He can tell when something was wrong.

              He drove towards the pickup, slowing down as he approached it. He pulled up beside it and got off his truck. Moving carefully towards the pickup, he opened his jacket to reveal his badge. He placed a light hand on the grip of the Supergrade tucked on his hip—a gun that his friend and fellow officer Norton Sivers had given him a few years ago.

              Everything was quiet inside the car. There didn’t seem to be anyone inside the pickup. Seth saw that the driver’s side window was open. He put a hand on top of the rolled down window and took a peek inside.

              There were three dead bodies inside. The surprise at his discovery made him step back a bit. Catching himself, he took a closer look at the dead bodies sitting on the cloth bucket seats.

              The driver, a male in his mid-fifties, had his head down against the steering wheel. He was shot through the right temple. On the front passenger’s seat beside the driver, were two females—an adult and a child. They were both shot through the heart.

              Seth thought it better to leave the crime scene untouched. He took a last peek at the bodies and stepped back from the window. He took a turn around the pickup, looking for clues. He went back to the driver’s side. The only clues he’d found was that the shots to all three looked very precise. It was almost as if the victims let themselves be
shot
. The circular powder burns on the front of the women’s shirts suggested that the perpetrator had time to put the gun right on their chests before firing a shot. The same could be said for the man in the driver’s seat. His gunshot wound looked too precise, too
perfect
to have been done by some criminal who would’ve been most likely feeling panicked after killing three people. This was either done by a professional or… It was strange and rare, to be honest, but that didn’t mean it doesn’t happen. This was a triple suicide. Why these three people, who looked to be a family, now that Seth thought about it, killed themselves, he didn’t know. Judging by the way the corpses hadn’t started swelling yet, he guessed that they had been dead no more than two or three days, tops.

              Seth went back to his truck and took out his two-way radio. He turned it on but only static could be heard on the other side. He frowned. The radio was a modern wideband digital transceiver. He couldn’t manually control the channels. He decided to see if he could use his phone. Nope. No service. His best option now was to drive down to town and let the local authorities know what happened. Before going, he made sure to take some pictures of the crime scene with his phone for evidence.

              All set, Seth got on his truck and started the fifteen-minute drive to town. As he drove, he noticed the lack of travelers around. There were usually several out on any given day. Some went fishing in the river for some trout while others went biking. 

He spotted two cars up ahead. One was a white Lincoln Town Car and the other was a black Honda compact. They appeared to have suffered from a strong head to head collision. Both of the cars were badly mangled. The front parts of the cars were totally smashed. There was no doubt in Seth’s mind that the drivers and passengers of both cars did not survive the crash.

              Never in all his years in his line of work did he encounter two gruesome scenes in the span of a few minutes
in the same day.
Both scenes were unattended too.

              What was going on? Seth checked the cars and took pictures of the scene for evidence just as he did with the pickup before. Once he was done, he got on his truck again and started driving away. He really needed to get to town and get some sense of what was happening. This wasn’t normal.

              He took a turn from Buckeye Road and suddenly stopped. Hundreds of cars in all forms of disarray scattered about the road like litter.

              “What the hell is going on?” Seth said as he got out of his truck once again to look at the mess before him. The scene looked like it came straight out of a doomsday movie.

              He checked his phone to see if he finally had service. Still the same—no signal. He tapped his phone on his thigh as he thought of what to do next.

              He had a lot of questions and he needed answers. This, whatever this was that’s going on in Boone can’t be normal. Something was happening and he needed to know what it was.

              He got back on his truck and turned it around. He decided to head back to his cabin. He just hoped his questions won’t be answered on his way there.

Chapter Five: Saved by the Cabin

              Seth’s mind was racing and his blood pounded hard in his veins as he jumped off his truck and rushed to the cabin. His mind kept replaying the dead bodies and the abandoned cars.

              He quickly took off his jacket and dropped his bag down on the floor.
Okay
, he thought as he walked over to the fridge,
let’s calm down and think about what to do next.
He grabbed a bottle of water and chugged it down. The cool water refreshed him and his mind felt clearer.