The Emerald Virus (28 page)

    
“I don’t know about you but I’ve had enough for now. Let’s eat dinner.”

    
After dinner the two of them went for a long walk, but stayed on the road to be
safe, Jack didn’t want to chance getting lost in the woods this first night.
The walk was eerie. There was absolutely no man made noise at all. No traffic
noise, no airplane noise, just nothing. He had rarely experienced anything like
this, and never while in the U.S. This would take some getting used to.

    
On the positive side, he would be able to hear another vehicle from a long
distance away.

    
While they walked they talked about the future and Jack tried to make Jane
optimistic about what she was going to go through, even though he knew
intuitively that it was going to be a hard life.

    
Jane remained unconvinced but tried for Jack’s sake to think positively. Her
biggest concern was in thinking about the kind of people she was going to be
with. She was going to be thrown in with a group of strangers. And she knew
herself well enough to know that she wouldn’t leave a group of people and set
out on her own unless there were extreme circumstances.

    
Jack tried to convince her that she was going to meet people like herself. The
others would be just as scared and just as concerned with how they were going
to get along with the group. The more Jack talked the better Jane felt about
it. She was becoming convinced that Jack was probably right, most people were
normal people with the same aspirations and desires, and they wouldn’t be much
different from her. She just didn’t want anyone who was domineering in the
group. She had known too many control freaks in her life and she didn’t want to
be pushed around by one as she entered this unknown world.

 
   Especially since no one was going to know any more than anyone else. They
were all going to have to learn as they went along.

    
When they returned to the RV Jack insisted that Jane sleep in the bedroom and
he would use the fold down sleeper in the living section of the RV. Jane helped
him make up the bed and they said good night. It had been one long day and they
were both exhausted.

    
Sunday morning Jane volunteered to make breakfast while Jack checked email. He
found a couple of people along the eastern seaboard who were interested in
joining up with Jane. He checked the database to find out where they had come
from and when they had started. They both seemed like reasonable people,
although he knew at this point that everyone would seem that way in the
beginning.

    
One was a sixteen year old female named Heather Sharp who was starting her
journey this morning. She had answered the email last night and said she was in
northern New Jersey and would be driving south on I-95 in the morning. That put
her less than a day behind Jack and Jane. He thought that would work okay since
he was planning on spending part of today showing Jane how to shoot and part of
the day on email and in the chat room.

    
Since they were not going to make much progress anyway they could just as
easily stay here for the day and Heather could join them this evening.

    
Jack called Heather and found that he liked her. She was scared to death, she
was upset, she was grieving and she didn’t know where she was going. But even
with all of that she was convinced that she could do what she needed to do. She
was also very honest about all of her fears. She explained to Jack that she had
only recently learned to drive and that driving the RV had really scared her,
but she had gone by herself to pick it up and had then driven it back home
where she had stayed the last couple of days while her family ended their
journey through life.

    
She was now on the road and had found that the driving wasn’t really that hard.
She was the only vehicle on the move, unlike when she had gone to pick up the RV.
She was driving slowly she said, maybe fifty MPH, and found that she had to
steer around other cars sometimes, but all in all it wasn’t bad.

    
She wasn’t sure how she was going to get gas when she needed it, although the
people that gave her the RV had showed her how to do it. She could put the gas in;
she just wasn’t sure what to do if the gas stations weren’t open.

    
Jack told her she didn’t have to worry about that. If her tanks were full when
she left this morning she would be able to drive to him without refueling, and
then they could all worry about it together. This by itself seemed to help her
immensely.

    
Jack told her he would call her around noon, but all she needed to do was drive
south on I-95 and look for the signs to I-64 west.  She would find I-64 West in
Richmond, Virginia, about six hours from where she started. She would then take
I-64 West for maybe two hours, to exit 107. Jack promised her he would meet her
on I-64 just before the exit so she would only have to worry about changing
highways one time during the entire trip. Jack knew this wasn’t the faster
route, but it would be the surest route for Heather. He also told her to call
him anytime she wasn’t sure of a turn or a ramp, especially in the cities.

    
The second person who had answered the email about Jane turned out to be a
middle aged man name David Schultz. He was in Dayton, Ohio and was caravanning
with two other RVs he had met up with. His email response told Jane he was
heading southeast today and that she should call him if she wanted to join him
and the other two folks. One was a retired school teacher named Jean, and the
other a young mechanic named Scott.

    
Jack called and found him to be a pleasant individual who had lost the last of
his family five days ago. Consequently he had had more time to grieve than
most, and had spent most of the time planning his next steps. He was more than
willing to meet up with Jane and Heather, and after talking he and Jack thought
they could meet up the day after tomorrow about eight hours west of Jack’s
current location. They agreed to stay in touch via telephone.

    
Jack told Jane about his conversation and she seemed relieved that she was
going to be part of a group that Jack would approve of. Jack knew this was a
result of the current circumstances. Jane had always been a very confident
woman who could be assertive when she needed to be. Jack knew in a short time
she would revert to her natural self and would rely less on him. In the
meantime he was happy to make the decisions.

    
Jack continued to watch the chat room and his email. He noticed that Sam Klein
and Ben Mason had teamed up and had started their trip this morning. They were
going from north central Montana to Yellowstone. Jack had been to Yellowstone
and knew it was in the high Rockies, which seemed to be a strange destination
with winter just around the corner, so he called Sam.

    
He was surprised that Sam was actually a Samantha. She told Jack that Ben was a
sixteen year old whom she had met a week ago and that they had decided on
Yellowstone because it was already too late in the year to get through the Mountains
to the coast, especially with no snow removal equipment working. They were
going to try to enter the park through the west entrance and use the snow
removal equipment in West Yellowstone, Montana to clear the road to the hot
springs area of the park, where they would winter. Failing that they had a
couple back up locations in Montana where they would stay.

    
Jack thought the explanation made a lot of sense. He asked, “Sam, have you
talked to any other survivors from you region who would also need to winter
east of the mountains?’

    
“No I haven’t, and I’ve been checking the chat room regularly. But it seems as
if the virus took a couple of days longer to get here than to most other areas
of the country.”

    
“How concerned are you that your group has a female and a kid. You could hook
up with the wrong types and be in trouble.”

    
Jack heard Sam snort and say, “Obviously you don’t know either of us or you
wouldn’t have asked the question. Don’t worry about the two of us, we can pull
our own weight, and Ben isn’t a kid any longer. I couldn’t ask for a better
partner.”

    
Jack said, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you, I’m just trying to make sure
all of our survivors are in good hands.”

    
“You didn’t offend me, or at least not much, and I appreciate your concern, but
our only problems are going to be getting to Old Faithful.”

    
“Understood. Would you mind if I refer others in your area to you for advice on
how to get into the park or would you rather be alone for the winter.”

    
“Actually I think we would both rather be alone, but I don’t think that’s
realistic. We won’t be the only ones that realize the coast is out of reach
until spring, although some of the people will go south for sure. Yellowstone
will be an obvious place to winter for other survivors as well. We’ll work with
whoever wants to join us for the winter. Anyone who chooses Yellowstone will
know this area and they’ll be hardy folks like us.”

    
“Thanks, I appreciate that. I’ll ask anyone I talk to tell you I referred them
to you, just so you’ll know.”

    
“Sounds good. Before you go tell me where you are, this isn’t the number you
were showing on your web site.”

    
“That’s pretty observant, and you’re right. I’m in Virginia now with another of
the survivors.”

    
“I’m glad to hear that. I assume that means that you’re a survivor also?”

    
Jack grimaced and said, “No I’m not. I drove here from the bunker to help out a
friend, who is a survivor. Don’t put too much into that, the seals in the
bunker were going to fail anyway. All of the others had.”

    
“I’m sorry to hear that. I hope you don’t mind me saying so but you seem pretty
at ease for someone who’s about to die. Oh hell, I’m sorry, that didn’t come
out the way I had hoped.”

    
Jack laughed and said, “Don’t apologize. I’ve had enough time to think about it
and I’ve come to grips with my own mortality. Or at least I think I have. I’ll
know more in just a short time.”

    
“Jack, I’m going to compliment you by telling you that you remind me of my father,
who I buried yesterday. It was so strange; if I didn’t know better I would’ve
thought he just had a cold.

    
“I’ve loved and looked up to him my whole life; and he was always larger than
life to me. He was a combat veteran of Vietnam and a Montana rancher. I can’t
think of anything harder than those two things, and yet he impressed me more
these last two weeks than ever before.”

    
Jack realized that he was now sharing Samantha’s grief and he was happy he
could help her. He said, “Sam, your Dad sounds like a man I would have enjoyed
being with. I’m also impressed with how he raised his daughter. I’m guessing he
was very proud of you. How about your mother? You didn’t mention her.” Jack
felt that he might have asked the wrong question but he wanted to help Sam get
through all of this if he could.

    
“You would have liked her too, but she died when I was in high school. There
was just me and my Dad after that.”

    
“I’m sorry Sam. If you aren’t driving in the mountains why don’t you take a
couple of minutes and tell me a little about your father. You’ve made me curious
about him.”

   
Sam talked for the next minutes and cried a little and told a couple of funny
stories about her dad and the ranch. When Jack asked she told him how the ranch
had come to be known as the Blue Wolf Ranch. When she had talked herself out
Jack told her he would call her again in the next day or so, but she should
feel free to call him if she wanted to talk.

    
When he hung up Jack told Jane about the woman he had just spoken with and as
much of the conversation he could remember.

    
Jane said, “It sounds like Ben is in good hands anyway. He’s going to grow up
the hard way now, but it looks like he has a good mentor.”

    
“Yes it does.

    
“I’ve been thinking today about how to stay in touch with so many people and
help them get together. I really don’t like the thought of anyone spending the
winter by themselves, unless they really want to. I think I may ask others who
I think I can trust to help me out. Samantha would be a good choice for the
northwest I think.”

    
“That sounds like a good idea to me. Maybe we can spend some time this
afternoon going over the database and chat room notes and start screening
people for the job.”

    
“Great, I could use your help with that. Especially when I call folks, you’ve
always had great intuition for people, certainly better than mine.”

Sunday:
Shenandoah State Park and I-95

    
Heather Sharp was thrilled that she had talked to Jack Sweeney and now had a
specific destination and someone to help her. The past couple of days had been
more than she thought she could survive. Her parents had both died yesterday,
along with her older sister. She had only received her driver’s license two
months ago, but she had gone by herself to get the RV, her family had insisted
on it. She thought she was going to be killed on the freeway. It seemed to be
full of crazy drivers.

    
Her father had made things as easy as possible for her by digging the family
grave in the backyard. He had insisted that the three of them spend their last
day in the living room so Heather would be able to move the bodies out of the
house herself. He had been alive, albeit barely, when her Mom died so he helped
with the first body. But Heather had to move her dad’s body and her sister’s
body by herself. She was sure it would prove too much for her but she surprised
herself. She just couldn’t stand the thought of leaving her family without
burying them.

    
She read the bible verses the family had selected and prayed for them and for her.

    
She was now on the road but wasn’t enjoying the drive. However, she thought she
was doing okay. The weather was clear thank goodness, and there were no other
vehicles on the freeway. Heather was trying to stay in the right lane and drive
slowly. She was still nervous, but with no traffic she knew she would be okay as
long as she paid attention. Her biggest fear was failing to see another vehicle
in time and plowing into the back of it. There weren’t a huge number of
abandoned or wrecked cars on the roadway, but there were enough to be scary.
And she kept losing her concentration and thinking about what she had gone
through, and what the future would hold for her.

    
Out of nowhere a horn honked loudly and had it not been for her seat belt she would
have jumped out of her seat. She looked to her left to see another RV driving
along side of her. It was being driven by a middle aged man who was looking at
her and smiling and waving. For a minute she didn’t know what to do and then
she realized that this had to be another survivor who had been driving faster
than her. That was no surprise.

     
She looked over and tentatively smiled and waved quickly and then looked ahead
and put both hands back on the wheel. She didn’t know what to do except let him
go where ever he was going. However, he seemed to think differently since he
continued to drive along side of her. She turned on the CB radio and waved the
microphone at him. She remembered that channel eleven was the one they were
supposed to use, but he just looked at her and shrugged his shoulders.

    
After a while he slowed down and pulled in behind her. Maybe he wanted to go
where she was going. She thought most adults would have a destination in mind,
but maybe not. Well, if he wanted to follow her he was welcome to do so, but
she didn’t think she was going to stop for anyone until she was with Jack
Sweeney. She felt he was the only one she would be safe with. Her parents had
spent time warning her of the potential danger a young girl would face in the
new world.

    
Karl Schumann had been driving along minding his own business when he saw
another RV ahead of him. The vehicle was still a long way but he was obviously
driving faster than the RV so he knew he would catch it.

    
Looking over at the other driver he felt his luck had come back to him after
almost being killed by that maniac truck driver. He could still see the truck
bearing down on him from the rear with the driver blasting away on the air horn
and grinning from ear to ear as he bounced through the median. Out of
desperation Karl had jumped away from his RV as the truck slid further into the
median than the driver had intended. Between the air horn blasting and the noise
of the truck smashing into the RV he thought the world was coming to an end.
But the truck went hurtling past him, pushing the RV ahead of it. The explosion
and fireball started as the trailer of the truck passed Karl and he knew he had
won this round because he had lived and the truck driver had died.

    
He had located another RV by luck only. First he had found an abandoned car
with the driver still inside. He had to pull the driver out and let the car air
out before he started it and headed south on the Interstate. Two exits down the
road he had seen a hand written sign that said ‘RV’ with an arrow to the right.
He exited and drove for about two miles and saw an RV with a trailer parked
outside of what looked like a public building. There was a man and a woman
standing next to the RV.

    
Karl parked and walked over. He knew he looked like a mess so he said, “Hi, I’m
a survivor, some guy just ran me off the road. I think he was trying to kill
me. He must be jealous of survivors.”

    
The woman looked at him and said, “How would he know you were a survivor, there
are a lot of RVs on the road.”

    
“The people that gave me the RV had put large signs on the side of the RV
saying ‘Good Luck Survivor”. They insisted I keep the signs on the RV and this guy
tried to kill me before I stopped to take the signs off.”

    
We’ll obviously you’re a survivor and we have one RV left. We just gave our
other RV away but no one has spoken for this one yet. How did you find us?”

    
“I saw your sign on the freeway off ramp. I gotta tell you I really appreciate
you putting that sign out. Without it I never would have found you. I don’t
know what I would have done otherwise.”

    
“That was pure luck. The person who picked up the other RV was afraid she
couldn’t find us so we promised we would put up a sign on the Interstate. We
were just about to leave. Why didn’t you look us up on the computer?”

    
“We’ll I’m not good with computers. In fact I’ve never owned one so I have some
learning to do. And my RV was totally destroyed. I was lucky to get out alive.”

    
“You look pretty beat up, I’d call a Doctor for you but there aren’t any left
that I know of. What we can do is take you through the RV and make sure you
know where everything is.”

    
An hour later Karl had driven away in his new RV. He was banged up pretty good
so he spent time lying around letting himself heal. He wasn’t interested in
getting back on the freeway until he was sure that the other drivers had all
died. He wasn’t going to chance running into any other crazies.

    
He did drive around until he found a liquor store and helped himself to a nice
variety of booze. He also found a grocery store. He didn’t know who thought he
was going to cook, but they were wrong. He managed to find a nice assortment of
snack food and grabbed a handful of microwave meals. He was confident he could
continue to find food like this until he found someone to cook for him.

    
And now he had found a sweet looking young girl he thought would be perfect for
his needs. He couldn’t see how she was built and he really liked big boobs, but
he figured anything would be okay to start with. He might have to teach her a
few things, and he smiled at the thought of how much he would enjoy doing that.

    
She didn’t look old enough to drive, which was probably why she was creeping
along. Well, that was fine with him. He would drive along slowly and drink his
beer and dream of the evening. She had to stop somewhere and when she did he would
show her what a nice guy he could be. He thought that by tomorrow morning they
could ditch one of the RVs and he could spend some quality time getting to know
her. After all he had all of the time in the world.

    
He saw her wave the mike for the CB radio but he acted dumb. He didn’t want to
talk to her until he was sure he would be the one in control.

    
Karl followed the RV for what seemed like forever. She had slowed down driving
through D.C. He was sure she was worried about getting on the wrong highway.
That was okay with him. He didn’t want her getting lost. She seemed nervous
enough as things were.

    
In the early afternoon Jack called Heather. She sounded relieved when she
answered the phone. He asked her how she was doing and she said, “I’m doing
really well, but another RV joined me some hours ago and has been following
ever since.”

    
“Did you talk to the driver?”

    
“No, he pulled alongside and honked the horn. I thought I was going to have a
heart attack, but I didn’t want to stop. It’s a middle aged man with scratches
on his face and my parents warned me about being cautious with strange men. I
waved the CB radio microphone at him but he just shrugged his shoulders like he
didn’t know what I was talking about. Maybe his RV doesn’t have one.” 

    
“That would be unusual but it could be true. I think you’re right about being
cautious. Jane and I aren’t doing anything this afternoon that can’t wait until
this evening. I think I’ll drive to Richmond and meet you there. I should get
there a little before you do so I’ll park our RV on I-95 at the I-64 ramp. You
won’t have to do anything but stay on I-95 until you see our RV in the right
lane. I’ll call you after I park and see how far you are.

    
“If anything untoward happens, call me and I’ll tell you what to do. Remember,
if something comes up we aren’t very far from you.

    
Heather thanked Jack and hung up. All of a sudden she felt relieved. She was
almost with someone who would help her, and she didn’t have to worry about who
was driving behind her. She thought she was probably being paranoid anyway. He
would probably turn out to be a nice guy and she would feel bad about the
thoughts she’d been having. The good thing was that he would never know about
that part.

    
It was getting later in the afternoon and Karl was starting to wonder how long
he would have to wait. He didn’t mind spending the afternoon drinking beer, but
he could do so in a more comfortable setting than driving at a crawl. Maybe he
needed to move up and try to get her to stop.

  
  Karl moved up and honked, and again the girl jumped out of her skin. He had
to laugh at that. He would have to make sure she had a couple of drinks
tonight. She obviously needed to relax a little.

    
Heather looked at Karl who was smiling and waving at her with a can of beer in
his hand. He had one of those silly smiles on his face, like her father got on
the rare times that he drank too much. Maybe she should worry about him. He
seemed to be asking her where she was going. At least it looked like he was
mouthing an exaggerated ‘where’ over and over, but very slowly.

    
She looked at him again and mouthed ‘Richmond’ in the same exaggerated manner
he had used. He smiled and nodded and his RV drifted back again.

    
Karl smiled to himself and thought that this was really good. She was cuter
than he had remembered and she had told him she was going to Richmond, which by
the signs was less than an hour ahead, even at this speed. He could contain
himself that long.

    
Forty Five minutes later Jack called Heather and asked where she was. She told
him the last sign had said she had just entered the city limits.

    
Jack said, “That’s great, you’ve made really good time. You should see me
shortly so I think I’ll stay on the phone until I see you. Flash your
headlights when you see our RV.

    
Heather smiled and said, “Thank you Mr. Sweeney. I can’t wait until I’m with
you.”

    
“Heather, please call me Jack, and I’m looking forward to meeting you also.”

    
Shortly after that Heather flashed her headlights and Jack said, “Okay, let’s
hang up and I’ll see you in a minute.”

    
As he hung up Jane said, “I think I’m going to go to the bathroom first. I’ll
join you outside in a minute.”

    
Jack walked to the back of his RV and smiled as Heather pulled up. He thought
she looked like she was twelve years old.

    
Karl sat up as he realized that the girl was slowing down. He wondered where
she was going to go from here, but she didn’t go anywhere, she just stopped on
the road. He saw her get out of the right side door of her RV and he did the
same thing. When he got to the front of her vehicle he saw she had stopped
behind another RV and was talking to the other driver. He tried to hide his
disappointment as he waited to introduce himself.

    
Heather on the other hand was very animated. She was almost bouncing and she
was still shaking Jack’s hand. Then she just couldn’t stand it any longer and
threw herself at Jack and hugged him while she said, “I was so scared all day,
I didn’t think I was going to get here. Thank you, thank you for meeting with
me.”

    
Jack smiled and said, “I’m glad you’re okay and that you’re here. Everything
will be alright now.” Jack disengaged himself from Heather and looked at the
man who had joined them. He looked a little messy and Jack realized he smelled
like he had been drinking.

    
Jack tried not to be judgmental, he knew everyone was coping in their own way.
He still wasn’t excited about the idea of someone drinking while they were
driving one of these big RVs.