Mischief in a Fur Coat (6 page)

The next few weeks were easily the happiest weeks of Drew’s life. He could hardly believe that a woman as amazing as Hope not only wanted to spend time with him, but loved him as well. They endured their fair share of teasing from the rest of the group, but it was a small price to pay. Honestly, Drew almost enjoyed the teasing. Every jab someone threw at him was another reminder that he had managed to somehow snatch up the beautiful Hope as his own.

Things were going so well for Drew that sometimes he almost forgot about the horrors going on in the rest of the world. Shifter scanners had become widespread, and almost all of the shifters had either gone into hiding or been imprisoned. No one really knew what the government’s plans were for the imprisoned shifters. Some called for a mass execution, some said they should be forced to do hard labor, and some worried that imprisoning a whole group of people without any trials set a bad precedent for America—even if those people were shifters.

The rioting and protests continued, and, in the span of just a few months, America had become a divided, bitter nation. Something had to change, or the country was going to implode on itself.

And then, as if the war on shifters wasn’t enough for the country to handle, a worldwide flu epidemic broke out. Around the world, people had begun to drop like flies from a strange, vicious disease that seemed to mimic influenza. The disease was highly contagious and seemingly impossible to treat. The epidemic had started somewhere in China, where entire villages had been wiped out in days. From there, the disease had spread to the rest of the world with lightning speed. No one seemed to be able to survive the flu once infected, and the world’s population was dropping at an alarming rate. Large cities were quickly becoming ghost towns.

At first, Drew hadn’t paid too much attention to the news about the epidemic. After all, wasn’t there at least one new deadly disease every news cycle? Someone was always hailing this or that disease as the thing that was going to wipe out the human race. So far, the human race was still standing.

But this latest disease seemed particularly insidious. Scientists had been trying with no luck to come up with a cure or vaccine. And several scientists had been infected with the disease while trying to study it, despite the numerous precautions taken to prevent this from happening. It was almost unbelievable, but, for a short time, the war on shifters was actually not the top news story. Even the mass hunting and incarceration of shifters took a backseat to the threatened extinction of humans. But this didn’t last long, because it only took a few weeks for the media to decide to blame the shifters for the epidemic.

Top news channels started claiming that the shifters had created a virus to kill off humanity as retribution for locking them all up. This didn’t make much sense, since the shifters who were in prison didn’t exactly have free access to the kinds of resources one would need to create a virus. Not to mention there was no legitimate connection between shifters and the virus. But little details like that had never stopped the media from airing a story. Soon, the epidemic had been nicknamed the “bear flu,” since most of the shifters in the world right now were bears.

Drew was disgusted by the way the media was handling the flu, and by the way people were eating up the story that the virus was because of shifters. But he shouldn’t have been surprised. Everyone always needed someone to blame for everything that went wrong. This attitude had been one of the main reasons Drew had escaped to live in the woods in the first place. He didn’t have a lot of patience for people who could never take responsibility for their own actions, or who couldn’t understand that sometimes bad shit just happens and you don’t need to blame someone else for it for no reason.

To Drew’s surprise, the clan hiding out with him took the news of the epidemic in stride. Maybe they were just so used to shifters being villainized that it didn’t faze them at all to hear about the “bear flu.” Even Hope, who tended to get more fired up than anyone else about the shifter war, wasn’t impressed.

“So let them blame us,” Hope said with a shrug. “They’re wasting their energy. They should focus on finding a cure instead of blaming a group that they’ve already locked up, anyway.”

Drew agreed, but the rest of the world didn’t. There wasn’t much Drew could do about it, though. At least he and the clan were relatively safe out here in the woods. They were so far removed from civilization that it was unlikely the disease was going to get to them anytime soon. Hopefully, a cure or vaccine would be found before then. Drew determined to do his best to put the situation out of his mind, and he went about living his day to day life as though nothing out of the ordinary was happening in the rest of the world.

His favorite part of day to day life was spending time with Hope. Now, when he went to town for supplies, he took Hope along for the hike. She never actually came in to town with him, for fear that the bartender or general store owner would becomes suspicious of her—a fear she, thankfully, seemed to finally understand. She would wait for him in the forest on the outskirts of the small town, and then help him carry supplies back to the clan.

Supply days had become Drew’s favorite. He loved the long walk in the woods with Hope, and he loved the feeling of having a fresh batch of supplies to take back to the crew. He had a sturdy wooden wagon that he would fill, and now that Hope was helping him he had extra hands to take even more supplies back. The weather had turned cold by this point, and there had been a few snowfalls. But the cold never bothered Hope, which was no surprise since she was a polar bear shifter. And Drew was so used to winters in Northern Michigan by this point that he almost enjoyed the snow.

Today was a supply day, and Drew couldn’t have asked for better weather. Although it was cold and crisp, with a generous layer of snow on the ground, the sun was bright and the sky was a deep blue. Every time Drew breathed in deeply, his lungs filled with fresh, freezing air. He loved that sensation. It was one of his favorite parts of living in a place with cold winters.

As they neared the edge of the forest, Hope found one of her favorite waiting spots. An old tree trunk made a perfect seat, and the snow-dusted pine trees made for a great view.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Drew said, leaning down to kiss her softly on the lips.

“Take your time,” Hope said. “No rush,”

Drew smiled at her and gave a little wave as he finished the rest of the short distance to town alone. He felt badly having to leave Hope alone there, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. The population out here was sparse, but there were enough people spread out in these woods that Drew felt confident at least one of them would be more than happy to turn in a bunch of shifters in exchange for a hefty reward. All Drew and the crew could do for now was keep quiet and hope the shifter war ended sooner rather than later so they could all get back to their normal lives. Whatever normal even meant anymore.

Drew stomped the snow off his feet as he walked into the general store, leaving his wooden wagon outside. The owner nodded at him from behind the counter, where he was ringing up the purchases of another one of the county residents. Drew was surprised to actually see another customer. He almost never ended up in the store at the same time as someone else, and it always felt a little strange to be reminded that he did indeed have “neighbors.”

“Howdy,” the man said, glancing up at Drew as he paid for his purchases. Drew nodded politely, and then went to start looking for the supplies he wanted. This general store was a bit of an oddity. It had been around for decades, and still bore some resemblance to the simpler days of earlier times. The place hadn’t been completely computerized yet, so some of the prices for items were written on small chalkboards instead of being displayed on computer screens. The only part of the store that had been totally modernized was the front counter. The checkout system was state of the art, allowing you to pay via fingerprint sensor if you wanted to. Drew always used cash cards, though. He didn’t like to leave a trail of his fingerprints everywhere he went.

Drew began loading some canned food into one of the two small shopping carts that the general store owned. Then he went to look at the meat selection. Today, there was a sale on venison, and Drew loaded a bunch of that into his cart. He looked uneasily over at the counter, where his neighbor was still standing around, talking to the owner. Drew didn’t necessarily want his neighbor to see how much food he was buying, since it was clearly for more than one person. The general store owner, happy for the business, never asked questions or raised an eyebrow. But Drew wasn’t sure if the other man might get a little bit too nosy.

Drew realized the two men were both watching the television screen built-in to the wall behind the front counter. For the first time since he walked into the store today, Drew focused on the news that was playing out on the screen. A chirpy reporter was standing in front of the White House with a grim look on her face.

“
The White House confirmed this morning that the Vice-President has passed away from complications due to Bear Flu. The President is currently being hidden in an undisclosed location for security reasons, but the White House confirms he is currently healthy and has plans to address the nation via video later this afternoon.
”

Drew’s eyes widened. This was the first major leader he had heard of that had died from the flu. Things were more out of control than he had thought.

“Damn,” the general store owner said as he gazed up at the screen. “I hope the President doesn’t get infected. If he dies too, things are going to turn into complete pandemonium. Even more than they already are.”

The other man snorted. “Yeah, well, they should have gotten things under control while they still could. Everyone was too wishy-washy about crushing the shifters, whining about things like human rights and blah blah blah. Now look at us. All of humanity is gonna be wiped out by this bear flu. Who cares about due process of law when you’re dead?”

The store owner didn’t reply, other than to raise an eyebrow in the direction of the man. Drew quickly turned back to his shopping. The last thing he wanted right now was to be dragged into a conversation with someone who hated shifters. Drew knew the best course of action was to keep his mouth shut, but that was hard to do when someone was criticizing shifters. His family, closest friends, and girlfriend were all shifters, and they were some of the most amazing people he’d ever met. He hated seeing them treated like criminal scumbags when they had done nothing wrong.

After a few more minutes, the other customer finally left the store, and the store owner turned back to arranging some items on a shelf near the front door. As he loaded up his cart, Drew watched the television out of the corner of his eye. The camera had cut to scenes of a several burning buildings, and the reporter was doing a voiceover to describe the scene.

“
Austin, Texas is the latest city to fall victim to rioters. In the early morning hours today, protesters who were dressed in bear costumes stormed the streets and began setting fire to buildings in random order. By the time the sun had risen, half the city was on fire. With its manpower cut in half due to losses from the bear flu, the Austin fire department is struggling to keep the blazes contained. The Texas governor is calling on the President for help from the National Guard, but there has been no word yet on whether help will be forthcoming. With a large percentage of the National Guard lost to bear flu as well, options for assistance are dwindling, even as rioting is on the rise.
”

Drew bit his lip as he walked toward the front counter to checkout. Things were getting nastier by the day. As Drew stood by the counter waiting for the store owner to come back to the front, his eyes were glued to the images on the screen.

Chicago and New York City were complete ghost towns. The flu had wiped out their entire population. Los Angeles was full of dying people. Oklahoma City had just confirmed its first case of bear flu, and many more were expected to follow. In Florida, Disney World stood empty, closed until further notice.

Overseas, many other major cities were ghost towns. Europe was at a standstill, with no major airlines flying due to lack of pilots. Food was scarce, and those who weren’t dying from the flu were dying from starvation.

The whole world was falling apart.

“Pretty depressing, eh?” the store owner said, finally making it to the front counter, and seeing Drew looking up at the television screen.

“Yeah,” Drew said. “It’s crazy. For the first time in my life I’m legitimately scared that humanity might be wiped out. At least we all live way out here. Less chance of coming in contact with someone who’s infected.”

The store owner snorted and shrugged. “Don’t feel too safe. You might feel isolated, but we’re still pretty connected to the outside world. Look at all that food in your cart. Where do you think it comes from? People out there, in the big cities. Who knows how all these germs travel. It’s totally possible you’ll get infected by that meat you’re holding right there and you don’t even know it. And even if you don’t get infected, we’re eventually going to run out of people to make this food, package it up, and ship it to us. So you’re gonna starve. It’s a lose-lose situation, man. Something’s gotta change, and fast, or we’re all gonna be goners.”

Drew looked down at the meat in his hands and shrugged. What could he say, really? The man was right. Something had to change. Drew felt pretty confident that he and his friends could survive by hunting and living off the land. But not everyone could do that. Humanity was in crisis. Drew finished paying for his purchases without any more small talk. He bid the owner a good day and went to transfer his food from his cart into his wagon. The bartender, who was standing outside the bar smoking a cigarette, waved at Drew. Drew waved back, but quickly turned away and started walking toward the forest. He didn’t want to keep Hope waiting any longer, and, besides, he didn’t feel like having another conversation about the news.