The Emerald Virus (20 page)

    
“Do you live in a house with a yard, and if so is the yard fenced?”

    
“Yes, I’m staying with my parents at their house. It has a privacy fence across
the back yard and on both sides. The front is open.”

    
“Okay, you call me at the end of the week and I’ll bring the RV to you. I’ll
take down the fence on one side of the front yard so I can back it into the
back yard so it’s kind of hidden behind the house. When you leave you should be
able to just drive straight ahead onto the street and to where ever you want to
go. I can’t imagine that your parents would worry about the yard at this
point.”

    
“Mr. Olliphant that would be perfect. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate
your offer. It’s so hard for me to think about anything right now and it’s such
a relief to not have to worry about the RV”

    
“That’s okay Jane, I’m glad to be able to help. I’ll need your address and
probably a phone number just in case.”

     
Jane gave him the information and ended the call. She sat and thought about how
amazing it was that during all of this horror that some people were still
trying to be nice. Mr. Olliphant must be showing signs of the virus by now and
his family was surely affected also, but here he was offering to go out of his
way just to make this easier on her. She would have to remember to tell Jack
about Mr. Olliphant.

Thursday
thru Saturday: On the Judith River, Montana

    
It was Thursday, almost three weeks after the first death in Scotland had
occurred and Will Klein had been showing symptoms since this past Saturday. His
first thought had been to hide the symptoms from Sam and his second thought was
that he couldn’t do it. It wasn’t fair to her even if it was possible. He knew
it could only be a short time before she began to show symptoms as well, and as
with all other crises in Sam’s life, they would go through this together.

    
Now after six days of waiting for Sam to show symptoms Will was sure that she
would be one of the survivors. He remembered Jack Sweeney saying that if anyone
exposed to the virus didn’t show symptoms after seven days they would be
survivors. He felt like asking Sam to make a turkey to honor Thanksgiving and
the fact that she was a survivor. But Sam had not even mentioned Thanksgiving
and Will didn’t think she would feel thankful, even if he did.

    
As Will, Sam and Ned sat around the breakfast table Will said, “Sam, we need to
start planning on what you are going to do after I’m gone. I know you don’t
want to talk about it but we don’t have much time left to get you ready.”

    
Sam said, “Dad, I told you yesterday that I’m not planning on leaving you. Jack
Sweeney said seven to ten days and today is only the sixth day. I’m ready to go
through this with you and Ned, but I’m not ready to go on without you.”

    
Ned had spent the last week at the Blue Wolf Ranch, and had been showing
symptoms since the day after Will. He now said, “Sam, your Dad’s right. This is
no time to get stubborn on us. Everyone we know is showing symptoms and some of
them started last Thursday, that’s nine days now. I know you don’t want to hear
this but we have to start planning.”

    
For the first time Sam started crying and said through her tears, “This isn’t
fair. I don’t want to be a survivor, I want to be with the two of you and I
want it to end for all three of us at the same time. For the first time in my
life I want to be like everyone else.”

    
Will smiled to himself at the irony involved in Sam’s wish, but he said,
“Sweetheart, I know this is hard for you, but I don’t believe I could stand to
see you die. I’m so happy that you’ll be one of the survivors and I know you’ll
do well in the future. But we need to talk about what options you have and how Ned
and I can help before we leave you. You can’t do anything to help us except to
let us help you. It’s all we want and I think it’s all you can offer us that
would make any difference at all.”

    
Sam sat quietly for a few minutes and said, “I know you’re right, I know it’s
needed, I just have such a tough time thinking about losing the two of you.
I’ve spent my life understanding that if I was going to run a Montana ranch I
was going to need to be tough, and I think I’ve done okay in that regard. But I
don’t want to be tough now. I just want to be with the two of you. This one is
just too hard.”

    
Ned spoke up again and said, “Sam, you’re the most sensitive person I know.
You’re as tough as you need to be and you’ve never let that take you over. You
actually care about every living thing. I can’t think of a better person to
help build a future. You’ll get to use every skill you’ve ever learned, and
then some. And you’ll get to make a difference in the lives of other survivors.
They’ll need people like you who are independent, tough, and sensitive.”

    
Will added with a wry smile, “Sam, you know Ned is right, the world needs
people like you a lot more than it needs a broken down cowboy like me.”

    
Samantha almost smiled at that. Her Dad had been claiming to be a broken down
cowboy for so long now it had become a private joke between the two of them.
She just couldn’t bring herself to smile or laugh, not even for her Dad.

    
She did say, “Dad, give me a little time to myself. You know as much as I hate
it I’ll do this for you and Ned. I’ll clean up the kitchen and then I’m going
to ride Black and Blue to the south end of the box canyon and back. I’ll be home
for lunch and I’ll be ready to talk by then.”

    
Will said, “That’s good Sam; Ned and I’ll use the time to get ready also.”

    
Sam hadn’t realized until then how hard this was going to be for the two men
and she felt a hint of guilt about being selfish. She said, “Okay Dad, I’ll be
back around noon and we can talk over lunch.”

    
After cleaning up the kitchen Sam saddled her stallion, whom she had nick-named
Black and Blue because the horse had given her so many bruises in the early
days or their relationship. She and the horse were now fast friends, but Sam
remained the only person to ride him and she didn’t think he would ever allow
another rider. The horses’ actual name was Steel, and he would answer to either
name, but only to Sam. Steel was five years old now and was as good a horse as
Sam could hope for.

    
The two of them rode into the canyon south of the ranch at a steady pace. Steel
would let her know when he wanted to run. He normally waited until he reached
the canyon floor and then sprinted until he began to tire. He seemed to love
the exercise as much as Sam did.

    
They rode to the end of the canyon and Sam dismounted at the small spring to
let Steel drink and graze a little on the sparse fall grass. She sat on a
downed tree trunk and looked at the watering hole. She clearly saw the tracks
of a pack of wolves. She often saw wolf tracks here, but not always. The wolves
ranged for a lot of miles and spent most of the summer in the high country.
This time of the year they were more apt to be seen in the higher canyons and
valleys, but by late December they would move even lower; like everything else
trying to survive the hard Montana winters.

    
Sam thought long and hard about what she needed to do. She had watched the news
reports diligently and had searched the web nightly tracking the virus. In the
beginning many of the local ranchers, farmers and townspeople had thought that
the virus would take a long time to reach this remote area of Montana. Some of
them had even packed up their families and moved to cabins in the high Rockies
thinking they could miss the virus for months or even longer in the more remote
areas. They were soon proven wrong and many of them had already returned to
their homes and friends. The virus was simply unstoppable. The winds had
brought the virus from the west and spread it across the entire region.

    
The first outbreaks in the country were in the large cities, which surprised no
one. Air travel had spread the virus to these population centers. The west
coast cities and towns were right behind the population centers, and within
days people across the mountain states and the Great Plains were showing
symptoms. The speed at which the virus had spread was shocking, even to those
who understood how quickly the virus had spread throughout Europe and Asia. Now
there was almost no area left that was free of the virus.

    
There were still a couple of mountain towns who were virus free, but there were
only a small number of these remaining. Each evening the national news
broadcasts would report on the number of these towns and each evening there
would be fewer. As for local news, there weren’t many local stations still broadcasting.
At least they weren’t broadcasting anything live. Many had simply looped a
series of programs that played the same three or four hours of programming over
and over again.

    
One station out of Denver had taken the time to loop Discovery Channel survivor
programs covering a twenty-four hour period. This loop played over and over
again, but was directed towards helping survivors. Some of the other stations
and cable networks were starting to do the same thing now. Fortunately they
were trying to air different but pertinent programs. The National Geographic
station was going to loop all of its recent programs regardless of length. Sam
wasn’t sure if any of it would be helpful but she knew none of it would hurt.

    
She knew she had to come to grips with what was happening in the world but she
didn’t know if she could. She would play along for now just to satisfy her Dad
and Ned. She didn’t know what else to do. She didn’t have a single positive
thought about anything that was occurring or her role in it. Well, she would
have to do her best to keep her men happy, and when the end came she’d do what
she felt she had to. With that thought she mounted Steel and rode slowly back
to the ranch.

    
Ned had made lunch for the three of them and as they sat down to eat he said,
“Your Dad and I made some phone calls this morning. Quite a few Montana cities
and towns have prepared RVs for survivors. I called Lewiston and was told they
have a couple of them. I told them who you were and they know your ranch, and
your Dad, and they’ve reserved an RV for you. It’s got four wheel drive, and I
asked them to outfit it to pull a horse trailer. I didn’t think you would want
to leave Steel behind.”

    
“Thanks Ned. Of course Steel will go with me.”

    
Will said, “We’ve talked about where you could go for the winter. The snows
haven’t started yet down here but the high mountains are already covered.”

    
Sam said, “I haven’t thought too much about it, but my first thought is to go
south and winter in or near Yellowstone. I like the thought of the hot springs providing
heat for me and the animals throughout the winter. That will also make it
easier to care for Steel during the winter. If not Yellowstone, I’d head for
the Pacific coast I guess.”

    
Will said, “I like the thought of Yellowstone also, I’m just not sure you can
still get in this late in the year. But you can try and if it doesn’t work you
can reverse course. But you’re going to have to cross the mountains somewhere
and there won’t be any snow plows out there clearing the roads for you. The
bottom line is you need to be prepared to winter in Montana and wait for the
melt next spring. Remember, we’re talking about a complete melt since no snow
removal equipment will be working the mountain passes. It could be mid-May
before you can get through any of the passes.”

    
“Yeah, the more you talk the more convinced I am that I need to plan on driving
to the coast in the spring; the only other option is to go east and then south
from here, but I think I’d rather spend the winter in Montana than in one of
the southern states, especially if I can get into Yellowstone.”

    
Will said, “Why is that, it seems to me you would want to get to where the best
weather is?”

    
“Well, I’ve been doing research the last couple of nights and I found that
Southern California and the southwest states are going be one of the first
places with an energy problem. The electrical plants are almost all gas fired
and they’ll be shut down any day now. Add to that the problems with fresh water
and I think in the beginning survivors will be better off in Washington and
Oregon. Eventually all of the electrical plants will shut down, but the
hydroelectric plants ought to be able to last for some years before mechanical
failure shuts them down. Plus there is more fresh water than a person could
hope for. It doesn’t make sense to drive to good weather now, just to turn around
and drive back in the spring. I’m not sure how much fuel will be available or
how easy it will be to find.”

    
“You have been busy.”

    
“Yeah, I’ve been wondering where the survivors would go. I never planned on
joining them but it looks like my curiosity is going to pay off for me anyway.”

    
“It does sound that way. Have you found out anything else that might help.”

    
“Not really. I’ve been doing some reading but my biggest concern was where
people would congregate. That’s how I came up with Yellowstone as my first
choice.”

    
“You know more than either Ned or I at this point. For now let’s plan on
Yellowstone as your first destination and if that doesn’t work out there are
any number of options between here and there that would be okay as a winter
camp.”

    
Will continued, “That begs the question of if, how, and when you are going to
contact other survivors. I don’t like the idea of meeting up with one or more
people without having a feel for what those people are like. Have you given any
thought to that?”

    
“Actually I have. Again out of curiosity about how survivors would react. I
don’t think I want to contact anyone until I get to my winter camp. I don’t
particularly want to winter alone, but that’s a better option than getting
hooked up with a couple of crazy men who want to drink their lives away, or worse.
There are going to be some mean people in amongst the survivors, and I need to
avoid them, especially at the outset.”

    
“I agree with that. I don’t like the idea of you being alone either but you and
I have spent enough winters here on the ranch to convince me that you’ll
survive isolation well enough.”

    
“Okay, I’m glad you agree. I’ll set up winter camp and start trading emails
first and then cell phone calls with other survivors. Some of them will be in
this region I’m sure. Others will be out of range but we may be able to help
each other. And sooner or later the survivors are going to need to gather in a
limited number of places and work together to start new towns.”