Survivors (23 page)
Authors: Rich Goldhaber
It took Mary about a minute to find the bullet and remove it with a forceps. Then she cauterized some of the smaller veins. She loosened the
tourniquet and tied off the minor bleeders. She
waited a few minutes to make sure she had
stopped all of the bleeding and then began sewing
the young man up.
It was all over in twenty minutes, and an
hour later Donny was being awakened by Phyllis.
Mary was shaking as she collapsed onto a chair
outside the operating room. She looked at me. “Only one casualty; it’s hard to believe. I was expecting
a lot more.”
I answered, “Lieutenant Monroe had it all
figured out. It was professionals against amateur
thugs.”
I decided to look at the entrance road. Like
a historian, I took note of the devastation. The soldiers had taken out the first and last car in the attacking group with two missiles. With their movement stopped, the soldiers and residents alike
caught the bad guys in a deadly crossfire. Most
were probably killed before they could leave their
cars, and the others were mowed down as they
sought cover.
As I walked back to the North Lake Village
Apartments, I thought about how our people responded to this threat. For the most part, they all
assumed they needed to step up to the plate and
fight for their survival. They all understood the
threat, and they all understood the risks. They all
stood there in that battle line and fired their weapons at the evil men and women who were trying to
take away their new-found way of life.
It took guts, and I was proud of them all. I
also took note of the lack of a celebration after the
battle. There was no yelling and screaming or
jumping up and down in a victory dance. They all
seemed to be fully aware of the ethical cost of killing other human beings, and it clearly disturbed
them all.
I sat at a table in the dining area and observed my fellow citizens. The children came running out of their classrooms demanding information about the battle. The older kids, especially,
wanted to know every detail about the fight. Most
of the adults didn’t want to talk about it. They just
avoided the question and merely said we had won.
Bill came up to me and sat down. “Who
would have thought in the same day I had to kill
some evil people and then worry about shit backing up in the toilets? Is this my new role in life?”
the problem?”
“First, you need to understand what happens to the crap when it’s flushed down the toilet.
It goes down into the sanitary sewer. The sewer
system slowly goes deeper in the ground as gravity
conveys the crap toward the sewage treatment
plant; but the closest plant to us is over nine miles
away. That’s a long distance to flow downhill; so
every few miles or so there’s a pumping system
that lifts the sewage upward to the next line of
sewer pipe. Actually, there are two such pumping
stations in our sanitary sewer system, and obviously they had no electrical power. So eventually
the sewer just backed up.”
know your shit.”
We both laughed at my joke, and then he
continued. “We’re going to steal solar arrays from
the houses in the area and bring power to the
pumping stations and sewage treatment plant.
There is good news however; Manny’s people can
use the end product of the treatment plant as fertilizer.”
again?”
“With any luck, tomorrow in the afternoon.”
Bill left to get his team started on the toilet
problem, and I poured myself another cup of coffee. Paul sat down a few minutes later and told me
Donny was doing well. “Jim, I want to have a meeting tomorrow. The people are in need of spiritual
guidance. I can see it in their eyes. Many are embarrassed about what they did today. What do you
think?”
tonight after dinner. Should the children be there?”
Paul thought for a moment and said, “Yes,
what I have to say they should hear. My message
will be of hope and the future.”
With the sewers clogged, I decided to take a
swim in the lake. Several of the residents had the
same idea, and the cool water felt wonderful. There
was something therapeutic about taking a bath in
the ocean or even a lake. I dressed in some fresh
clothes, and Jasmine, Hunter, and I left for dinner.
The word had been passed around the
campus, and I believe everyone in our community
stayed after dinner to listen to our community’s
chaplain. The children as well as many of the residents were sitting on the grass. Phyllis wheeled
Donny from the emergency room. He insisted on
being there. Even the soldiers from MacDill were
there.
Paul Wooden walked up to a table near the
front, pushed aside some dinner plates, and sat
down facing the community. This singular act was
a major departure from what any of the residents
had ever experienced from their religious leaders.
“My fellow residents, thank you very much
for coming here tonight. After today’s experiences, I
thought it would be helpful if we all met and
shared our thoughts. I am a relative newcomer to
this community. As many of you know, before the
global pandemic I was the head of a small church
in Cape Coral. After I arrived here, I asked our
leader if I could start a church. It is after all my
chosen profession. Jim surprised me by saying yes,
but with the understanding that my spiritual work
must service the entire community.
“At first I felt disappointed; perhaps more
disappointed than you know; but I spent the next
few days thinking about Jim’s constraint. Yesterday I had an inspirational moment. Perhaps some
people would say God spoke to me. I’m not sure if
it was God or just one of my better angels, but
here’s what I realized for the first time in my life.
“There have been so many people killed in
the history of humanity in the name of religions:
Jews versus Muslims, Sunni versus Shia, Blacks
versus Whites, Catholics versus Protestants; more
deaths than I care to imagine, and all in the name
of God. It wasn’t the fault of religions, just the misguided spiritual leaders of those religions
“This global pandemic forced me to question my faith. How could it not. Each of us here
tonight have lost love ones: mothers, fathers,
brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, and countless
friends. What kind of God would kill over 99.9% of
humanity? For what purpose? These questions
were very disturbing to me. Finally, I saw a glimmer of understanding. Maybe there was a Divine
purpose after all in what was done.
“My friends, look around this meeting. I
see; blacks, whites, Hispanics, Native Americans,
Asian Americans, Jews, Muslims, and I’m certain a
few agnostics and atheists.
“What happened today was a fight of good
versus evil. Luckily the forces of good were victorious. As I walked around our complex this afternoon, I was struck by the lack of celebration. Instead I saw profound sadness; sadness for the taking of human lives; something none of us ever
thought we would be forced to do. I believe the reactions I saw today on all your faces is a sign of a
society steeped in moral conviction. You have indeed passed God’s test.
“The melting pot of the cultures and religions and ethnicities that has made our country
great was here in force today. I have seen all of you
embrace with no constraints your fellow residents.
I am reminded today of the words of Martin Luther
King in his famous I have a dream speech. Ladies
and gentlemen and children, all of you who are
here tonight, you are seeing before you the realization of Dr. King’s dream.
“I believe God has given us this chance to
start over, to work together to form a more perfect
community, to create an environment where we
value a person not by the color of their skin or
their ethnicity but by their words and deeds.
“Now I would like for us all to share a moment of silence to honor all of those people in the
world who have fallen to the pandemic. Let us silently pray to God, each in our own way.
There was absolute silence in the audience.
After a minute Paul spoke again. “My fellow residents, I am here to serve the spiritual needs of this
community. I am here to offer assistance to anyone
at any time. As for getting together for some type of
religious service, I’m open to your suggestions, but
with the understanding that whatever we do will
show deference to all religions.”
I looked around the meeting and every person old enough to understand Paul’s words were in
tears. He had been able to encapsulate all of our
feelings into just a few words, powerful words that
would be long-remembered in our community.
“And now my fellow residents, let us go
forth with new resolve; let us create a new community, a new country, and yes a new earth together and with mutual love for one another.”
As Paul ended his sermon, everyone stood
up and clapped their hands. Everyone walked up
to the front of the room and embraced the man. I
waited at the back of the line behind Margaret. The
little frail lady stood proudly in front of him.
“Thank you Paul. You spoke from your heart tonight, and whatever the person’s religious views
were, you touched us all. I think you’re right; God
is giving us one last chance to get it right. I think
all of us know that to be true thanks to your
words.”
Margaret then embraced the man and
kissed him once on each cheek. The emotion of the
moment finally caught up to Paul, and they both
held their embrace for a long time with tears in
their eyes and hope in their hearts.
Margaret finally left, and I sat down next to
Paul. We looked at each other and he finally asked,
“How do you think it went?”
“You brought the house down my friend.
You did something I thought was impossible. You
appealed to every religious and non-religious person here, saying what most of us have been unable
to put into words. I think you have created a new
standard for religious leaders in our new world.
Some people have the gift of being able to speak
from the heart, but tonight you spoke from your
soul.”
The two of us just sat there and watched
the residents as they walked to their apartments. I
wondered what the future of our little community
would be like. I thought of my wife Gloria and my
daughter Sarah. I thought of all the things we had
accomplished in such a short period of time, and
finally I thought of the people who had lost their
lives here today and the frailty of man. I considered
all these things, and then I left to tuck in Jasmine
and Hunter and get some much-needed rest.
Chapter 35
It was over four months since the battle to
save our community, and I was making notes for
our regular morning governor’s meeting. It was difficult to imagine, but the campus was in pretty
good shape. The sewage treatment problem had
been resolved, and things were back to normal, at
least concerning our sanitary sewer. Manny’s people had been harvesting the first of the new crops
requested by our residents. The dairy farm had expanded and several new farms in the area had become our suppliers of fresh meats, poultry, and
many dairy products, the best of which was a delightful cheese. Stan had been managing a fleet of
fishing boats out of Fort Myers Beach, and their
weekly trips had been supplying the community
with fresh fish.
The most noteworthy fact, however, was all
the kids seemed to be enjoying their schoolwork.
Most importantly, the older kids interacted well
with the guest lecturers, who were imparting a love
for each subject probably not possible in the traditional public education model.
Our daily meeting started as always with
status reports on our major projects. Manny started things off. “I visited the dairy farm yesterday.
Barbara insisted we plant our corn crop in the next
few weeks. I found seeds for feed corn and sweet
corn for the campus. We identified a great field for
the corn, but it needs to be plowed and prepared
before we plant the seeds. Bill, I’m going to need
your help getting some of the farm equipment up
and running.”
probably the best. I’ll talk to him.”
Manny continued, “One more thing, Beth
talked to me this morning. Some bugs got into her
supply of flour in the warehouse. A one-year supply has been ruined. She estimates we have only
six months of flour left. The problem is wheat won’t
grow well in our climate, so if we can’t find a supply of flour, we’re going to have to switchover to
cornbread.”
“Okay, I said, let’s come back to this after
we get the updates. Bill, how’s the photovoltaic cell
project coming?”
“We’ve got the cell efficiencies up to 70% of
the Opti-Solar cells. The problem still appears to be
the purity of the quartz. Greg thinks he knows
what the problem is, and he thinks we’ll be good to
go in the next month. He needs to solve the problem because we’re very low on solar arrays.”
“We’ve identified another photovoltaic cell
supplier in the Atlanta area. We could try to confiscate their inventory.”
It was George’s turn. “As you all know, Bill
and I have formed a working group to figure out
the long term solution to our energy needs. We’ve
gotten it down to three possible solutions to the
problem.”
“Our first option is to activate the natural
gas pipeline running south from Georgia. That
means powering up several pumping stations along
the route, and of course that will require more solar arrays. But the good news is the Fort Myers
power plant uses natural gas.
“The second option is nuclear power.
There’s a nuclear power plant in Saint Lucie, Florida. It’s northeast of Lake Okeechobee on the east
coast. We’ll still need a solar array to start it up,
and I don’t know the first thing about nuclear power, except it’s dangerous.
“The third option is kind of crazy, but also
novel. Stan came up with the idea. He says there’s
a strong water current in the Gulf of Mexico just a
mile off shore. He wants to put something like wind
turbines underwater. The water current would
power the water turbines and high voltage electrical towers above the water would bring the power
here. What’s interesting about the concept is the
water is much denser than air, so one water turbine can generate maybe twenty times the power of
a wind turbine.”
we need to be able to make a decision?”
George answered, “We’ve got the plans of
the gas pipeline from Teco, the natural gas utility.
We need to figure out how to startup the pumping
stations.”
“Just north of Fort Myers and alongside Interstate 75.”
“So why don’t you try to start one pumping
station,” I said. “At least you’ll get an idea of the
magnitude of the project.”
George and Bill both agreed, and we moved
along to Jessie. “We did surgery on a wild dog yesterday. We removed both kidneys and then sewed
them back in place. The dog lived; at least he was
alive this morning.”
“He was bothering the children when they
were playing outside. He looked dangerous so we
trapped it and brought it to the Science Building.
Right now our goal is to do one operation each
week, and by the end of the year we hope to be
able to place a stent or do simple open heart surgery. We figure heart disease is the biggest potential risk in our population.”
should we do?”
Jessie spoke up first. “Growing wheat is a
Midwestern skill. I think we go see Major Connors
and train his spy satellite on Kansas. I know
there’s a lot of wheat grown there. We can search
for survivors in the farm belt. Then we can take a
trip there in Blaine’s airplane and trade flour for
electrical power and citrus.”
asked.
Jessie was ready with the answer. “I talked
to him as soon as I heard about the bugs in the
flour. We can make it one-way without refueling,
but we’ll need to refuel wherever we land, but
Blaine thinks that won’t be a problem as long as he
brings a generator and pump along with us.”
We talked through the issue and then Jessie clinched the deal. “Look guys, we’re going to
have to expand our contacts, and we have the energy technology everyone will need. It will be a winwin situation.”
Our morning meeting was over and Jessie
stayed for a one on one. “What are you doing the
rest of the day?”
“Let’s go hunting; I want to talk to you.”
“Something serious?”
“Maybe.”
Chapter 36
We took a U-Haul and headed for a heavily
wooded area just east of the campus. Jessie had
her bow and arrows, and I was carrying my Remington 740 Classic with a telescopic site. Jessie
said, “Marco told me he saw a herd of deer here
last week.”
I let Jessie choose the spot where we sat
down on the grass against a tree and waited for an
unsuspecting Bambi to arrive. Somehow I understood hunting for our dinner was not the real reason for our little adventure.
Jessie was silent for a long time, and then
she suddenly turned her head and kissed me on
the lips. “Why did you do that?” I asked.
“Because I love you stupid. I have since the
first day when we were in your swimming pool together.”
I didn’t know how to respond, and Jessie
didn’t give me time to think about what had just
happened. She pushed me back onto the ground
and kissed me again. My lips and tongue screamed
of an urgent desire I hadn’t felt for a long time. I
loved her like a sister, and I hadn’t considered sex
as part of that love. I reacted by wrapping her in
my arms and squeezing her almost to the point of
pain.
Her hands were on my face caressing my
cheeks. Without a spoken word, she unbuckled my
belt and pulled down my pants and briefs. She
stood up and pulled down her shorts and underwear and then straddled my waist. It was all happening too fast; it was raw emotion.
When it was all over I thought about the
first time Gloria and I had sex. It had been just like
this, not a conscious decision to do it, but rather
an impulsive reaction to a romantic moment in a
movie we were watching in her apartment.
You’d think I would feel guilt, or maybe I
should have waited longer to respect my wife’s
memory; but you know what, love doesn’t work like
that. This certainly wasn’t planned on my part,
and after so many years of marriage to Gloria, I
knew she would understand; and if she was looking down from heaven at what had just happened,
she might be laughing and asking why it had taken
so long for me to see the obvious.
We just lay there for a long time. Jessie was
cradled in my arms with her head resting on my
chest. I could feel her heart beating against mine. I
looked up at the cloudless blue sky. A bird was circling overhead, seemingly floating in space. I
kissed her again on the lips. “You taste like strawberries.”
She laughed, “It’s my lipstick; I found it at a
beauty shop; they have all kinds of flavors. It was a
toss-up between the strawberry and the chocolate.”
gone?” I asked.
“I’ll put it on our priority list, and it will be
right near the top. I’m thinking just above a new
telephone system.”
I laughed at the nonsense of her banter,
and I didn’t have a care in the world until something bit me in the ass.
I tossed Jessie unceremoniously to the
ground and jumped up. I swatted away a large spider and saw a huge red welt growing larger on my
butt. Jessie couldn’t stop laughing. I turned
around, and Jessie inspected the damage. I think
Mary needs to look at this. It’s really swelling up.
We got dressed, and Jessie put her arm
around my neck and kissed me again. The kiss
wasn’t passionate, just filled with love. I looked her
in the eyes. “What does this mean?” I asked.
“I guess this hunting trip is over,” I said.
Jessie took out her phone and called Mary.
“Hi Mary, Jim and I were hunting, and he just got
bitten by a spider. It’s really swollen. Can we meet
you at the emergency room?”
Mary was waiting for us in the Science
Building. We walked into the operating room, and
with some embarrassment, I pulled down my
pants. “Wow,” she said, “that’s about the worst
spider bite I’ve ever seen.”
pain? It really hurts.”
Mary looked at me with a very serious face.
“I checked in the medical books before you got
here, and they said the venom should be sucked
out, but I can tell you right now, I’m not going to
do it.”
not going to suck it out.”
They were both laughing now. “Well the
next best thing I can do is give you some epinephrine.” She got an EpiPen from a cabinet and stuck
me in the ass with the drug. Then she gave me two
Tylenol and told me to go home and relax. As we
left, I could see Mary and Jessie exchanging a
knowing glance. What the hell, it didn’t take a
rocket scientist to figure out what had happened.
We drove back to the village, and we sat
down in lounge chairs outside my apartment. Our
two chairs were closer than necessary. Jessie held
my hand in hers and said, “That’s not why I took
you hunting. I wanted to talk to you about our future; not about you and me, but about our country; and then I don’t know, something just came
over me, and I wanted you so much, and I wanted
to let you know how I felt. I’ve been holding it in for
too long.”
“Jessie, that spider interrupted a very special moment. I knew I had special feelings for you,
but I couldn’t bring myself to think of it as a sexual
attraction; but it was, and in hindsight, I guess I
should have seen the obvious.”
Jessie left to get us both some water. She
returned with two cups filled with ice and a pitcher. She poured and I sat back on the lounge chair
not knowing what she would say.
I could see her composing her thoughts.
This was going to be a very serious discussion. “I’m
going to ramble a bit, but I know you’ll understand
what I’m getting at.”
and you’ll get it right.”
“Okay, think big picture, I mean really big
picture. As best as we can tell, there’re a little over
300,000 survivors left in the country. We think
they’ve left the large cities because just like us,
they realized their survival would depend on being
able to live off the land. We instantly became an
agricultural community, and other groups of survivors probably did the same thing.
“So we have many pockets of survivors
coming together in small communities. Let’s say
the average size is 500 people. That means there
are 600 communities, mostly just like ours, spread
across the country. Unfortunately some of these
groups are like the thugs who were killing and raping outside Tampa. Here’s the thing; these bad
guys aren’t settling down in an area trying to survive. They’re like nomads, moving around the
country taking what they want, living off the work
of others, and then moving onto the next victims.
“Long term we’ve got to put this country
back together, and it’s going to take decades. How
do we do this with all the communities spread all
around the country, and more importantly, how do
we do it with these bad guys creating havoc?”
know you have. What’s your take on it?”
“We’ve got to make contact with all the good
groups, at least the ones that are thriving? We
can’t ever hope to put the country back together
unless we have tens of thousands of people working together. There are just too many specialized
skills we’ll need. Look at the meeting today. We
don’t have a nuclear engineer; we don’t have any
experts on the electrical transmission grid; we
don’t have a material science expert to make pure
quartz for the photovoltaic cells; and we don’t have
experts in software programming or solid state devices. They must be out there somewhere, and we
need to find them.”
“Okay, here’s my plan. We go talk to Major
Connors. We look for places in the country where
they’ve reestablished electrical power. We’ll be able
to see lights at night. I’m guessing we should look
in the Southwest because they probably use solar
power out there, and it’s the easiest way to start
things up.”