The Forgiven The Fallen The Forsaken (3 page)

"No doubt! 
You want some more ribs?"

They enjoyed
the rest of the meal together, but Jim had to drive back to Las Vegas
afterwards because of work the next day.  Susan said she would stay at the
cabin working. 

"Just be
careful, okay?" 

She answered,
"Of course.  I'll see you in a couple of days."

Jim worked a
couple of shifts before he could drive back to Flagstaff.  He was shocked when
he drove up the driveway to see the dozen forty foot shipping containers lined
up on one of the cleared area.  He stepped out of the truck just stared for a
moment with his mouth open.  Susan had also cleared a dirt road back to the
newly purchased property and had cleared a large field there as well.

"I can't
believe how much you got done," said Jim.  "This is amazing!  Who are
you and what did you do with my wife?"

"I love
this bulldozer!  Is my ass crack showing?  That's what happens when you drive a
bulldozer, isn't it?"

Jim chuckled,
"Only if you're a plumber, but I will need some help with the septic
systems, so it's likely to happen next week."  He hugged and kissed her.
"You always amaze me."

"Well how
about you amaze me with a hot bath?"

"You've
earned it and then some," said Jim as he walked into the bathroom to start
the claw tub filling for her. 

"Tell me
about this, 'then some,' you're talking about," she said with a
mischievous grin.

I don't know
how I ever got so lucky,
he thought.  It was a very nice evening.

By the end of
the week, the property was beginning to look transformed.  They had purchased
two 30' x 40' x 15' metal buildings without windows.  It had been worth the
expense to have cement slabs poured and the buildings installed by the company
that sold them.  Afterward they followed Rob’s instructions on EMP shielding
and covered the floors with metal sheets attached to the walls with rivets. 
Jim laid rubber matting over the metal.

Jim had ten 40
foot shipping containers dropped off behind the cabin in the second area that
Susan had cleared.  He moved the containers into two square configurations for
use as reasonably protected livestock pens, with the idea of installing doors
to the inside of the pens later.   The containers could be used as small barns
for storage of feed and shelter for the livestock.

In two of the
containers, he installed shelves for tools and started filling the rest with
food supplies.  Next to them he parked his old Airstream.  He caught himself
thinking,
Why do I get the feeling that this will never be restored?
  It
felt like a dumb thing to be bothered about, but it bugged him, just the same.

For water, they
purchased five metal 10,000 gallon potable water tanks and placed four of them
on the side of the hill that ran above the cabin and the fourth just below them
for easy filling.  He planned to fill the bottom tank and pump the water from
there up to fill the other tanks. 

Susan had
arranged for large liquid propane tanks to be installed, with one extra for the
cabin and two more for the large generator they had purchased.  The gas company
employees looked at him like he was nuts, but he wasn’t about to explain. 

He felt very
fortunate to find LP freezers, though they weren’t cheap, and set up four of
them in a small, well ventilated metal shed with their own LP tanks.  They
should be able to run the freezers for just a few hours a day and keep anything
in them frozen solid.

In one of the
large shipping containers, Susan set up a library. She had argued that they
would need all the books they could get once the power was out.  Susan was
often out scouring new and used bookstores for anything and everything that
might be useful. 

Jim and Susan
continued to look at other options but everything pointed to the wisdom of
using an RV park as the model for their camp.  The zoning wouldn’t allow more
than a single residence on the property, but parking a few RV’s was not likely
to land an inspector in his lap early enough to matter.  

Jim installed
multiple septic systems, with each pod of three trailers sharing a large septic
tank.  He also ran PVC pipe with redundant shut off valves to each of the lots
and connected the pipe to the water tanks on the hill above them to supply
water pressure to the lots.  By the time he finished that, it was time to go
back to Vegas to finish his remaining work shifts. 

He and Susan talked
during the drive back to Las Vegas. 

"I'm having
some problems with all of this," said Jim. 

"Which
part?  Wondering if it's all a big con job, or if Rob is nuts?"

"He's
right, I'm sure.  Even if it turned out that he wasn't, we would still do
okay.  No, the problem I'm having is with his premise that we can't save more
people.  And even if we can't, who's to say that we're the ones who should be
living it up in comfort while others starve."

"That's
the way we've lived our entire lives, Jim.  You don't have to travel very far
in the world to find starving people and we've never worried about them
before."

"Yeah, but
we couldn't do anything about them.  Their political systems prevented any kind
of real help for them."

Susan half
smiled and said, "Sound familiar?"

"Well,
we're inside of this system."

"And we
still can't do anything about it."

Jim thought for
a while.  "I'm just not sure that there's nothing that can be done."

"Nothing
that's worth the risk of preventing our own survival.  Right now we have an
unfair advantage and I intend to press it as far as possible.  We're not
competing for supplies yet.  You know that will change.   And it's not just us
we need to think about, either.  We have our nephews and nieces to take care of
as well."

"Surviving
isn't enough."

"We'll
survive and we'll rebuild, Jim.  But first, I'm going to make damn well sure we
survive."

Jim looked out
the window and said, "It's frustrating as hell."

"I know
what you mean but it's going to get a lot worse later." 

OCTOBER 18
^th

The van pulled
up to the front of the hospital with four security vehicles.  These people are
idiots, thought Justin Wang. 
If you want to keep something hidden, you
treat it like it's no big deal.  You don't gift wrap it in security to help
foreign intelligence agencies find it.
  He'd been sitting on this case for
months now and was so sick of working as a hospital flunky that he could barely
stand it.  But today was the day that would change.                 

Everything was
in place:  the box of last year's vaccine, the bags to transfer the vaccine
doses into, and three different get-away plans.  Everything.   

He couldn't
wait to get the hell out of Shanghai.  The pollution was disgusting.  The
people were the same as people anywhere else in the world, once you got to know
them.  He liked them, but it was way past time to get home to the States. 
Screw
this place
, he thought.  He might be of Chinese ancestry, but he was
Chinese-
American
, with the emphasis on
American
.

Here they come!  
He casually moved to the front so he could get the first box out of the van. 
He picked it up and took it inside the hospital building.   The storage room
was on the fourth floor and he had stashed the box of last year's vaccine in
the third floor stairwell. 

He hurried up
the stairs, leaving the others behind him. 
Slackers
, he thought with a
brief smile.  In seconds, the deed was done.  He replaced the box with the
decoy and covered the real one with a black cloth and shoved it far under the
stairs.  It would be safe unless someone already knew it was there. 

Soon he was up
at the pharmacy, dropping off the first box and flirting with Chuntao, one of
the pharmacy workers.  He'd used a condom every time given the prevalence of
Hepatitis, but she'd shown him some inspired evenings.  Now she, he would
miss. 
But not much else
.

It took an hour
to move all of the boxes and soon he was chain smoking and sharing jokes with
the rest of the work crew, much as he hated smoking. 
Whatever I have to do
to fit in, even if it is going to take a few years off my life.  I just wish
the cigarettes were better.  Sucks to get lung cancer from this cheap ass shit.

By the end of
the twelve hour work day he was tired, but still felt wired.  He transferred
the vaccine bottles to a large Prada knock off purse and put whatever wouldn't
fit into his lunchbox. 
Thank God for Chinese men being into bags, he
thought.  Fifteen more minutes and it's all over.

Ten minutes
later, he was chewing nicotine gum and walking out the back doors of the
hospital and into the back streets with the purse thrown over his shoulder, happily
abandoning the identity he had assumed for the past several months.  He would
be out of the country in the next few days and would never return to the
shithole, if he had any choice in the matter.

OKINAWA, JAPAN

OCTOBER 20th,

Rob was
delighted to see Justin and shook his hand with an iron grip.  "You did it! 
You got the vaccine!"

Justin laughed
and said, "And I got laid a lot too, sir."

Rob laughed
loudly. "I'm glad to hear it, but I'm still going to insist on a
Distinguished Intelligence Cross for you.  Just realize it may take a few
years."

"Thank
you, sir, but right now I'd be more interested in a hot blonde and a weekend in
a five star hotel."

Rob laughed
deeply.  "When I hear talk like that, I want to adopt you.  I'd like you
to think about joining my team."

"Of
course, sir, but I still want the blonde first," said Justin.

"I'll pay
for the hotel, but you don't need my help with the blonde.  And my crew calls
me Rob."

Justin smiled
and said, "Thanks, boss!"

Rob took the
vaccines and boarded a military cargo plane to Hawaii.  From there, he would be
flying back to the mainland and distributing the vaccines to several secret
labs.   It would cut months off of production time.  They might have a chance
after all.

One more set
of missions and the United States might just be around for another few
centuries
, Rob thought. 
Now comes the fun part.  See you soon, General
Evans
.

OCTOBER 21
^st

It had been a
long week at work for Jim, with lots of difficult goodbyes.  It wasn’t the best
job he’d ever worked, but it had been better than most. 
Lord knows I won't
miss transporting bums
, he thought.  He could still smell that last
derelict from a couple of hours ago.  It was disgusting.   They would beg for
money to buy booze, drink until they passed out and pissed all over themselves,
then take an ambulance to the nearest hospital to sleep it off and catch a
meal. 
They'll probably survive the apocalypse and continue stinking right
up to the end of time. They're like cockroaches, except worse
.  

He knew he
would miss his coworkers.  It had been a good crew and they did a difficult job
well.  He had even taken several of them aside and told them to make
preparations, but he knew most of them thought he was turning into a kook
survivalist.  Hopefully some of them would pay attention.

Jim's going
away party was held at his favorite bar, an internationally known tiki bar near
the county hospital. 
Spanky's
had the best Mai Tai's he had ever tasted. 
There was actually a two drink limit for some of their specialties because
patrons consuming a third generally required help to get out of the building.

The entire
place was decorated with hand carved tiki statues and furniture, and had
several blowfish lamps hanging from the ceiling.  He could never figure out how
the hell they changed the light bulbs in the fish but, in fairness, he tried
hard not to think about it.  There were flat screens playing 1950's and 60's
clips from B movies and strip shows.  In short, it was heaven.

Tonight was
packed with his fellow paramedics and EMT's, as well as a bunch of ER nurses
from around the valley.  Jim was touched that so many would show up.  It was a
great party, and he hated that he wasn't likely to see any of them again.

Jim opened a
pre paid tab for four thousand dollars, paid in cash, and left instructions for
the drinks to be shut off once that amount was reached.  He also tipped the
bouncer a grand with instructions to make sure everyone got home ok. 

With that taken
care of, Jim was determined to try to do something productive.  He talked to
everyone who would listen about the weaponized bird flu and the need to take
extraordinary precautions.  They would be among the first wave of casualties
and he knew it well.  He begged them to start wearing masks once the flu
started showing up. 

Most of them
thought he was nuts, but promised to be careful.  He hoped that when the flu
cases started that they would remember and pay heed, but he didn’t know what
more he could do.  Even with that much warning he was taking a huge risk.

The party
started winding down around three AM even though the prepaid tab still hadn't
run out.   Jim was relieved that he had made a point of drinking only Cokes
after the first two drinks.  He asked the bartenders to split the rest as their
tip and accepted a ride home from Janet and Evelyn.  On the way home he told
them, "I know this sounds nuts, but it's real.  If this flu hits it's
going to take out eighty to ninety percent of its victims.  You're going to
have to demand that the company has extra masks and safety equipment ready. 
You need to make sure they take it seriously when it first shows up or ninety
percent of you are going to die."