The Emerald Virus (23 page)

    
“I’m planning on it. I did some checking on Ben also and I’m impressed with
him. In fact my only concern is how independent he is. I’m so used to running
the ranch my way that I’m afraid I’m going to offend Ben.”

    
Ben spoke up for the first time and said, “Ms. Klein, you don’t have to worry
about that. Pop is pretty authoritative and he and I get along fine. When I
don’t agree with him I’ll tell him and we talk through it. I’d like to do that
with you as well. But I do plan on following your lead. You have more
experience than I do and if Pop has proven one thing to me over and over it’s
that experience does matter.”

    
“Ben, that sounds good to me. We can talk through anything at all. One thing my
father taught me was that if I couldn’t explain the why of something it
probably didn’t have too much value.

    
“By the way, you have to start calling me Sam now.”

    
Ben looked a little chagrined and said, “I’ll be happy to do that but I have to
tell you something first. I’m planning on bringing my dog with me, and his name
is Sam also. He’s a seven year old border collie and you’ll like him, except
maybe for the name.”

    
Sam laughed and said, “I don’t see that as a problem, but if you don’t mind
could we maybe call him Sammy or something like that, just to avoid confusion?”

    
Ben looked relieved and said, “Yeah, we can call him Sammy, I do that half the
time anyway. I’m glad you aren’t offended by the name. People can be funny and
I worried about that last night.”

    
Wiley spoke up and said, “Sam, have you given any thought to when you would
like to leave?”

    
Sam felt like she had been punched with reality and she looked at Wiley and
said, “Mr. Mason I have two people to put to rest before I can leave. I think
now maybe I have three. I don’t quite know how to ask this but can you tell me
your plans?”

    
“I wanted Ben to leave before the end. I thought I’d fix my bedroom up as
comfortable as I could and I would spend the end by myself thinking about the
people I’ve loved in this life. I don’t know what else to do. Ben hasn’t agreed
with me on that though.”

    
Ben said, “Pop, you know I can’t leave you alone at the end. I don’t think I
could live with myself if I just walked away and left you.”

    
Sam said, “Mr. Mason, I don’t want to be forward but why don’t you and Ben
consider coming to our ranch for the last couple of days. I would be honored to
have you, and Ben and I will be able to put you and my Dad and Ned to rest
before we leave. You don’t need to answer me now, the offer is an open offer so
just call and tell me if you want to come.”

    
Ben said, “Pop, let’s do that. I won’t leave you here alone, and I think
spending our last days with these folks will help us both.”

    
Wiley said, “Sam, I think Ben is right. We don’t need to think about it. It’s a
generous offer and we appreciate it. I think I’ll spend a couple of days
visiting some folks here in town and if it’s okay with you we’ll come to the
ranch on Monday. But first you’ll have to agree to stop calling me Mr. Mason,
and secondly maybe you should check with your Dad first. If he would rather not
have other folks around, Ben and I will understand.”

    
“Wiley, please don’t worry about my Dad. He told me this morning that if things
worked out I should extend the offer to you. He thought Ben and I could use the
time to get to know each other a little better, and to do some more planning.
So now that we all agree on that I’m going to get on home. I’ll look forward to
seeing the two of you Monday morning. If something changes Ben has my cell
number.”

Saturday:
Near Boston, Massachusetts

    
Karl
Schumann lived just north of Boston. He had been having a ball since the virus
panic had started. He had often dreamed about a world without law enforcement
and lo and behold he was now living in one. Although to be fair he had to admit
there were still some police out and about, but they were rare in today’s
world. He had spent the last ten days doing whatever he wanted to do. Eating,
drinking, looking for women, breaking into stores just for the sake of breaking
things, stealing what he wanted, and then leaving the stolen goods on the
street, and anything else he felt like doing. He was armed and he didn’t care
about anything except having a good time.

     
Karl had been released from the Massachusetts State Prison at Concord just four
months ago. He had been doing seven to ten years for a second offense of grand
theft auto. He had served four years in the same facility in the early
nineties.

    
Karl had been caught in a stolen car during a routine check by a traffic
policeman who thought Karl had looked funny. Karl still shook his head about
that. Some rookie cop had run his plates for no apparent reason.

    
Karl knew now he would have been better off simply pulling over when the
flashing lights came on, but he had panicked and tried to outrun the cruiser. The
rookie was probably still getting off on that. He had chased Karl through
Boston for about five minutes, until Karl had driven the car into a bridge
abutment. By then there were multiple cruisers involved in the chase. You would
have thought he had tried to assassinate some big shot, the way they had
treated him.

    
They had thrown the book at him. Even his slimy lawyer couldn’t help him on
this one. The one good thing was that Karl had never admitted that he was
acting as lookout and driver for a jewelry store heist at the time. He had
protected the crime and the identities of the two other men, who had heard the
sirens and cancelled the robbery before it started.

    
For his silence the two men had helped set him up with a new life when he was
released. Well, Karl thought, not exactly a new life. But at least he had a new
identity in the form of a Massachusetts driver’s license, a workable social
security number, and two thousand dollars. He thought they could have done
better, they thought it was generous. But he wasn’t complaining. They could
have blown him off.

    
Karl wasn’t sure how much value the license and card were since he wasn’t
planning on going to work anytime soon, but as things turned out the new name
became priceless.

    
Karl was now officially a survivor. He had shown up at the city hall of his
small town and they had not questioned his standing as a survivor. He had
presented his driver’s license and they had looked without suspicion at a man
showing no signs of the virus and he had been presented with a brand new RV. He
never knew if they had conducted a background check on his new name, but he was
sure it would have come up clean had they done so.

    
He couldn’t believe his luck. After spending a lifetime hoping for a break, he
had just received the biggest break of all. They had even made sure he was
armed of all things. He had to laugh about that every time he felt the weight
of the 9mm handgun stuck in his belt.

    
He didn’t even mind telling them where he was headed. He had often dreamed of a
home in the Florida sun and he was now going to cash in on that dream. In fact,
he was now a wealthy man. He could own any house he chose, any car he wanted, anything
he wanted, and anywhere he wanted. He also knew he could have any woman he
wanted. Well, maybe not any woman, but he knew there was a type of woman out
there that couldn’t resist men like him. Strong men willing to take anything they
wanted without regard to rules.

    
During daydreams like these Karl often forgot things like the fact that he was
a two time loser, had spent a good portion of his life in juvie halls and
prisons, and had rarely been able to attract any woman who wasn’t at or near
the bottom of the ladder. His dates were often drug addicts and prostitutes who
would date anyone, because even men like Karl were a step up for them.

    
He also forgot the Aids thing. He was HIV positive. He was bitter about this
and blamed the system for his condition. He was perfectly healthy when he
entered prison, but many of the inmates were not. The prison system didn’t
provide rubbers for the inmates to wear, nor did it spend any resources making
sure prisoners weren’t violated. Not that Karl needed protection. He had played
both sides of the fence since he found out in juvie hall that he could sell sexual
favors.

    
Karl was now driving a new RV with a huge sign taped to both sides that read
“Good Luck Survivor”. The people that gave him the RV started to take the signs
down but he had told them to leave them up. He liked advertising his luck as a
survivor. It was the only good luck he had ever encountered. They had looked at
him kind of funny when he told them to leave the signs alone and one old busy
body had suggested it might be dangerous to leave the signs up. Karl had told
them to mind their own business and that he could take care of himself.

    
They had also suggested that he park in some nearby remote area, like a camping
ground at a state park or such. He told them he would do that, but knew he was
headed for Florida as soon as he could.

    
He was now on I-95 entering New Jersey. He thought if he were to run into
trouble anywhere it would be while driving through New York City, but he had
been surprised. A lot of people had honked at him, some had waved and some had
waved only their middle fingers, but no one had bothered him. He was amazed at
the number of cars abandoned along the highway. Some were stranded with the
hood up, others had obviously been involved in wrecks and there were two or
three burned out shells. In the last of these he saw what he thought were
burned bodies in the front seat.

     
He had seen smoke in the distance a number of times during his drive but he
didn’t know what it was. Now, looking to the east he could see a huge fire
burning out of control. It looked like the entire port of Bayonne was on fire
and as the wind shifted he found himself driving through heavy smoke. Karl had
to slow down in order to see and he drove through thick smoke for some miles.
He had not seen a single fire truck, although the fire was not yet to the
freeway. He wondered how long a fire like that would burn if left alone. Right
now if looked like the entire metro area could burn to the ground, and this was
a huge metro area.

    
Karl smiled when he realized that it just didn’t matter to him. The people that
were still alive would not be for long, and none of this would have the
slightest impact on him. He wouldn’t even have to listen to the disaster
stories on the evening news.

    
As he left Bayonne behind him he settled into a comfortable speed of eighty
MPH. Traffic wasn’t too bad and eighty seemed to be the right speed. He drove
in the left lane and didn’t plan on changing lanes unless he had to.  

    
Just as he was feeling really good about the trip four or five cars blew by him
like he was standing still. They were all laying on their horns as they went by
and they must have been doing 150 or more. He had never seen cars driving like
that. Two or three of them were sports cars but a couple looked like full sized
cars. He didn’t know what kind of cars could drive that fast. As they passed
him the cars moved back into the left lane and were out of sight in less than
thirty seconds.

    
Karl’s heart was still racing. The noise of the cars and of the horns had
scared him pretty badly, and now he was getting angry. Those fools could have
killed him just when life was looking grand.

    
He told himself to settle down. This might not be the only time this happened so
he would have to pay more attention to his mirrors. He wasn’t planning on being
killed during the trip to Florida. Those idiots would be dead soon enough, and
if they kept this up it would be real soon. 

    
A little later he was lost in his thoughts and realized he was about to run
over a small car driving in the left lane. The car must have been doing only
fifty or so and Karl had to brake hard to avoid hitting him. This really pissed
him off and the more he thought about it the angrier he became. He wasn’t used
to driving a vehicle this size, with no back window or side windows, and no
easy way to tell if it was safe to change lanes. That guy up there was
endangering his life and didn’t seem to care. Karl watched the right side
mirror for a minute and started to change lanes. As he moved to the right he
heard a car horn blasting angrily away and he jerked the wheel back to left. As
he swerved back and forth trying to control the RV and trailer a large sedan
driving fast passed him still blowing its horn. It must have been driving so
fast he didn’t see it coming when he checked the mirrors. 

    
He got the RV under control but now he was really mad. The back seat of the car
ahead of him was packed full and Karl couldn’t see if there was a passenger in
the front seat but that didn’t matter to him. As the RV picked up speed again
he closed on the small car. He didn’t want to hurt the RV but he was too angry
to worry too much about it. Besides, he knew he could get another RV if this
one was seriously damaged. With that thought he smiled as he drove into the car
in front of him. The small car jumped ahead a couple of feet and then started
to slow down; Karl hit the car again, a little harder this time. The car jumped
again and swerved back and forth as the driver fought for control. As the
driver brought the car under control the car moved into the right lane, but
Karl wasn’t going to let him off that easy. He followed the car into the right
lane and then bumped the car again.

    
This time the driver moved onto the shoulder and slammed on the brakes. Karl
passed the car and laid on the horn as he did so. He laughed as he thought
about the other driver. He wished he could have seen the expression on his face
as he went by. The asshole deserved to be scared.

     
A couple of minutes later Karl was back in his own world driving in the left
lane when he noticed a large truck moving closer to him, but in the right lane.
As the truck came alongside the driver blew his horn a couple times. Karl
looked at him and saw the trucker holding a microphone in his right hand and
waving it at Karl. He then held up his index finger, retracted it and held it
up again, all the while nodding his head at Karl. His face was a bright red,
his nose and eyes were running and in general he looked like hell.

    
Suddenly the realization of what he was doing hit Karl. The guy was telling him
to turn on his CB radio and put it on channel 11. The channel the people
earlier today had told him was going to be used by survivors. Karl looked at
the trucker and nodded yes to him. He then looked down and figured out which one
was the CB radio and turned it on. The indicator light came on and the display
showed 11. Karl picked up the mike and said, “Hello, hello.”

    
A voice immediately came back and said, “Hey asshole, you could have killed the
driver in that car back there, what in the hell are you doing.”

    
Karl was shocked that the trucker seemed to be mad at him and he said, “He
shouldn’t have been driving like that, he could have caused an accident.”

    
“What in the blazes are you talking about, all you had to do was change lanes
and pass him. Just because you’re a survivor doesn’t mean you have any more
rights than the rest of us. You pull something like that again and you won’t be
a survivor for long.”

    
Karl couldn’t believe it. Someone was talking to him like that? Now he was
really pissed. He keyed the mike again and said, “Hey asshole, I’ll do what I want
and there ain’t anything you can do about it. Now piss off and go somewhere
dark and die.”

    
Karl looked over at the driver but the truck was slowing slightly and he could
no longer see the driver. As he watched, the driver slowed until the front
wheels of the big rig were even with the rear wheels of the RV Then the truck
turned hard to his left, slamming into the right rear of Karl’s RV

    
Karl was stunned. He couldn’t imagine someone trying to kill him just like
that. But there wasn’t anything he could do. He was still driving about eighty
MPH when the back end of the RV left the pavement and entered the median. Karl
hit the brakes and tried to steer but he was out of control. The RV was sliding
down the median now, towards the small drainage ditch in the middle. When Karl
hit the ditch the RV simply flipped onto its left side and bumped and slid to a
stop. Karl wasn’t wearing a seat belt and ended up flat against the inside of
the windshield, unconscious. The last thing he heard above the tearing noise as
the side of the RV was demolished was an air horn being blasted as the truck
continued on.

    
Karl didn’t know how long he had been out, but he didn’t think it had been too
long. His head hurt and he had a large knot on the right side of his forehead.
The skin had been broken and as he touched the knot and looked at his hand he
saw blood. Karl tried to move and felt a sharp pain in his right side. If felt
like someone had kicked him in the side and maybe broken a rib or two. Both of
his arms seemed to be okay and his left leg moved when he wanted it to.