U.G.L.Y (7 page)

    
When
the
town
closed
itself
off
there
was
water,
food,
and
the community pulled together
.
The
people
of
this
small
town
had
a
well
organized
system
for
supporting
the
community
in
the
event
of
a
natural
disaster
which,
in
everyone’s
mind
was
eminent.
Massive
wild
fires
frequented
the
area
seasonally,
and
the
town
itself
sat
on
the
eastern
edge
of
the
pacific
plate,
on
a
section
of
the
San
Andrea
’
s
fault
line
that
was
said
to
be
on
the
verge
of
a
major
shift
and
was
long
overdue.

The
potential
for
a
major
catastrophic
event
was
always
present
and
part
of
the daily lives of the
people that lived there.
S
o
they
prepared continuously,
they
were
organized
and
had
a
strong
chain
of
command.
When
it
was
time
to
sequester
the
town,
the
good
people
did
so
without
much
more
than
a
question
as
to
what
each
individual
could
do.
This
was
a
relief
for
me
,
I
had
been
through
so
much
over
the
previous
few
years
I
didn't
think
I
could
make
a
good
call
if
things
got
too
rough.

But
it
was
easy,
like the years I had served in
the
Navy,
all
I
had
to
do
was
ask
where
they
wanted
me
and
they
pointed
the
way.
I
was
able
to
keep
my
family
safe,
my
kids,
and
even
Amanda
who
was
frantic.

     I
was
comfortable
in
this
environment
for
some
strange
reason.
Maybe
it
reminded
me
of
the
many
months
I
had
spent
at
sea
during
the
gulf
war.
Month
after
month
of
flight
quarters,
battle
stations,
ship
and
aircraft
fires,
and
the
chaos
that
comes
with
an
operational
unit
in the
military.
Although
there
were
long
periods
of
stress
and
very
little
sleep,
there
was
a
serene
structure
to
it
that
gave
me
peace
and
purpose.

This
situation
felt
the
same
even
though
it
was
clear to me
the
world was coming apart.
A
t
least
the
world
I
knew
was unraveling, but still
there
was
that
serene
peace
again.
It
made
me
consider
how
the
different
eras
of
my
life
had
felt.

There
were
periods
when
I
was
in
situations
that
felt
out
of
control
but
I
felt
solid
and
excited
to
get
up
in
the
morning.
There
were
times
during
my
military
service,
that
were
perilous
but
I
felt
completely
in
control
and
calm.
There
were
moments
when
nothing
out
of
the
ordinary
was
happening,
just
life
as
usual,
but
the
pressures
of
those
times
initiated
my
health
failing
and
I
became
a
slave
to
the
horror
of
my
own
drug saturated
mind.

This
situation
was
comfortable at the moment,
stable
and structured
even
among
the
chaos
. T
here
was
a
calm
in
thinking
the
end
was
near.
We
were
all
safe
for
the
moment
with
the
sentries
on
the
ramparts
of
the
town.
W
omen
and
children
were
safe inside the boundaries of the town.
T
here
were
food
supplies,
and
most
of
all
there
was
hope
for
that
time,
that
moment,
not
for
a
future
but
for
that
moment.
Nothing
else
on
the
planet
mattered
more
than
that
moment.
Humans at their best.
But
it
wouldn't
last
long.

7
.

-Prisons-

    
The
first
wave
took
a
huge
toll
on
the
population
of
the
Los
Angeles
area.
O
ut
of
roughly
10
million
people
that
lived
and
worked
in
the
greater
Los
Angeles
area,
approximately
nine
million
people
suffered
and
lost
their
lives
within
days
of
the contamination
beginning
to
take
effect.
The
people
most
effected
were
those
that
were
using
water
from large reservoirs just outside
the
city
.
Much of the city's water was supplied from the north
by
the
California
Aqueduct.

T
he
areas
affected
by
contamination
didn't
erupt
all
at
once,
there
was
a
slow
progression over several hours
across
the
basin
as
the
contaminated
water
propagated
from
community
to
community.
In
the
end,
once
the
madness
began
there
was
nothing
anyone
down
stream
could
do.
No one
knew
what
the
root
cause
of
the
bloodshed
was
until
it
was
long
over
and
the
clean
up
had
begun.

    
Most
Prisons
in
the
area
fell
with
in
the
first
few
days
of
the
first
wave of infection.
In
the
end,
there
were
very
few
prisoners
left
alive
and
the
most
common
reason
there
were
any
survivors
at
all
seem
to
be
that
they
were
all
already
suffering
from
an
ailment
that
had
them
locked
up
in
the
prisons
infirmary.