FORSAKEN: THE SYSTEMIC SERIES (6 page)

The rest of us decided that since we were in a new environment, to be on the safe side, we’d set up a night watch.  We split the night into two-hour shifts, splitting them between Ray, Will, Joanna, Claire, and me.  We found a rocking chair up in the second-floor apartment and hauled it down to the front porch.  I felt like Pa Kettle sitting outside on the porch, rocking away, my gun laid across my lap.  But it was actually kind of nice.  I had the 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. shift, and the peace, solitude, and complete stillness of the early morning was actually kind of soothing.  I listened to the crickets chirp and the wind rustle leaves or pieces of paper and trash down the town’s deserted central thoroughfare.  It was all very relaxing.  I would have been happy to comfortably nod off in my rocker like the old timers before me who had probably done so in the exact same spot.  I’m sure plenty of old fellers had whiled away many a summer afternoon sitting here rocking on the general store’s wood-plank front porch in days gone by.

At around ten minutes to four, Joanna came out and joined me in the darkness.

“You’re early,” I said after she’d pushed through the storefront’s screen door, closing the main door behind her and coming to stand beside me as I rocked.  “Still got ten minutes until your shift.” 

“Couldn’t sleep,” she said.

“How’s Shane doing?” I asked.

“Fine…I guess.”  She paused, “How are any of us doing, really?”

“Guess you’re right,” I agreed.  “But maybe we can call this place home for a while…maybe longer.”

“Maybe,” she said, but her voice didn’t sound confident.

“How are
you
doing?”              I asked after an awkward silence.

“Same,” she said shortly. 

Ever since the mountains of Tennessee, where Joanna had revealed that she had feelings for me, things had been slightly strained between us.  It’s not that I didn’t find her attractive – just the opposite in fact.  Maybe that’s what made things feel so uncomfortable.  I didn’t fully trust myself around her and therefore tried to act more innocent than I was actually feeling.  I think she knew there was something there, but it was something that would never be realized as long as Claire was in the picture.  And I guess that maybe my understanding of this made me even more uncomfortable.  I had to trust everyone in our group not just with my life but with the lives of my family.  And while I trusted Joanna, it made me slightly nervous knowing that she had feelings for me that would go unrequited while Claire was by my side.  It wasn’t that I thought Joanna would ever do something intentionally to get Claire out of the way, but when faced with life or death decisions that could affect Claire or her well-being, I’m afraid that a decision – consciously or not – might be made by Joanna that could allow Claire to be removed from the picture and in turn open the door for her to take a place by my side.  I of course would never voice these concerns to her, as I guessed that doing so would only make things worse, but they were there nonetheless.

“We should pull a few extra mattresses and bedding from the houses around town tomorrow and bring them over here,” she said in the blackness.  She slowly walked over to the porch’s front steps and took a seat.  I watched her, my eyes having adjusted to the darkness so that I could make out her blackened silhouette.

“I was thinking the same thing,” I said.  “We can take the trailer from house to house, loading up anything we need.  This time we can take our time and make more thorough searches too.  See if we can find any more food.  I’m going to talk to Sharron tomorrow too.  I’m hoping that once Paul’s better, she could start working on a garden.  If we’re planning on being here for a while, we should start getting the ground ready for planting.”

“I wouldn’t mind finding a bottle of whiskey or beer or
anything
to drink for that matter,” Joanna added. 

“You’re telling
me
,” I chuckled.  “I could go for a stiff drink myself.”  I fished in my pocket for one of the packs of stale cigarettes I’d found in a house we’d searched yesterday.  I stood from the rocker, walked over and bent.  “Cigarette?” I asked, nudging Joanna’s shoulder in the darkness to alert her that I was offering her one. 

“Thanks,” she took it and waited as I lit it for her and then lit one for myself.

I sat down on the steps beside her where we continued to smoke largely in silence.  Occasionally, one of us would offer a brief observation on the night or the town, but neither of us seemed to want to get into anything deeper, and certainly not anything regarding one another.

After I’d finished my cigarette, I flicked the butt away out onto Main Street and stood.

“I think I’m going to try to get a bit more sleep,” I said.  “You got everything covered here?”

“I’ve got it,” she said.

I turned and walked up the steps, “See you in a few hours.”

“See you,” she said.

* * *

I awoke later that morning to the sun blasting through the open blinds of a nearby window.  We’d slept – Claire, Jason and I – in a queen-sized bed in one of the second-floor apartment’s bedrooms.  Cashmere was curled up between Jason and me.  She eyed me sleepily, watching as I yawned and stretched, and then following suit.

I rolled quietly off the bed, doing my best not to wake Claire or Jason in the process, and walked out into the apartment’s living space.  Joanna had slept on one living room sofa and had left Shane sleeping on the adjoining love seat when she came out to relieve me on night watch.  Will and his family slept together in the master bedroom, all four of them squeezed into a king-sized bed. It seemed that little Paul was on the mend – as was dad – and we hoped that the medications we were administering were doing the job.  Meanwhile, we gave the upstairs apartment to Ray and Pam so that they could enjoy a little privacy together and pregnant Pam could get some much-needed rest.

I got a drink of water from a bottle I’d left on the kitchen counter, grabbed the pack of cigarettes I’d left beside it when I came in earlier from watch, and made my way downstairs and back out to the front porch to make sure Joanna was doing okay.

I was surprised to find when I arrived though, that she wasn’t at her post.

I looked at my watch.  It was a quarter to seven.  Technically, she was only on watch until six, but I’d assumed she’d stick around out front or come back upstairs to rest with Shane afterward. 

Something was up with her, but I didn’t know exactly what.  It bothered me, and while it wasn’t my business, at the same time, it kind of was since she was now a part of our family.  I wanted to be there for her if she needed it, but I also didn’t want to become overly intrusive so that it appeared that I cared in a way that was inappropriate to our current situation.

I leaned against one of the porch’s support pillars and lit my cigarette, bothered by it all, but determined to do my best not to be.  After a moment, I pushed off the pillar and strolled slowly across the porch.

I inspected the old soda machine, making a mental note to break it open later and search its interior for forgotten sodas.  Just past the soda machine there was a newspaper dispenser.  The dispenser contained copies of the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
. 

Such an item was now completely useless to us, but for some reason, I paused before it.  Looking down, I could see newspapers still inside.  The headline on the lead paper’s front page blared, “PANDEMIC WREAKS HAVOC WORLDWIDE!”

The date above the headline was September 12
th
. 

While obvious, it suddenly hit me that this was the last newspaper ever delivered here…maybe the last edition ever printed by this particular publisher.

I found myself instantly curious.

I realized that we actually knew very little about society’s final days and how things developed with the spread of the flu.  Since we’d been down in the vast forests of southern Illinois, and cut off from the data-dependant world during the nation’s death throws, we’d largely isolated ourselves not just from the effects of the flu itself but from the last days of the world as we knew it.  Now I found myself with a sort of morbid curiosity about how things had played out. 

I stood there, staring at the machine and the newspaper inside.  Part of me wanted to know; but part of me was fine not knowing.  It really made no difference now.  And it would likely be an intensely depressing edition to read knowing the final outcome, but still, human curiosity pushed me to know more about how the majority of my fellow human beings had met their demise.  Like not being able to turn away from a freeway accident, a dark side of me wanted to see, wanted to know more, wanted to understand and observe.

I fished in my pocket for quarters and then felt foolish.  It was yet another of those old reactions that no longer fit in today’s world.  I thought for a moment, then went and got a big rock from around the corner of the building.  I used it to smash a large enough hole in the dispenser’s front so that I could pull the front newspaper from within.

Since no one else had yet made it downstairs, I took a few minutes to peruse the paper.  I first pulled out the advertisement and auto pages that comprised a good three quarters of the newspaper’s bulk and set them down on the porch. I also pulled out an entire four-page insert of obituaries, the top of which noted, “Special Obituary Section in Tomorrow’s Edition.” I dropped this onto the porch as well.

I was left with the front page news section, the financial page, and the sports and entertainment sections. 

The front page’s headline article spent a brief paragraph reviewing the flu, its origins in China, and how it had spread throughout Asia, into Russia, and then to Europe at almost the same time as it hit the US.  Africa and South and Central America had been hit soon thereafter, and then Australia, which had managed to stay flu-free for several days longer than any other continent, finally began to succumb.

The article touched upon how, as the flu reached each new country or continent, it began spreading almost instantaneously, the number of cases growing exponentially in the ensuing hours and days. 

Then it discussed statistics.  This was what I found most interesting. 

The piece noted that computer models were estimating eventual worldwide exposure at close to 90 percent in the next week to ten days.  The mortality rate at the time was running somewhere between 85 and 95 percent, although the writer made sure to note that statistics were spotty in this regards due to the disease’s rapid spread and the chaos at many area hospitals and medical centers nation and worldwide. 

The article ended with a brief section on the CDC response, which from what I read, appeared to have been lacking in any real fortitude.  The piece noted that the CDC had run through the standard flu-fighting advice – hand washing, staying indoors whenever possible, and wearing face masks to help reduce transmission of the disease – but had done little else to combat the flu’s spread.  An unnamed source at the CDC was quoted as saying that several drug companies were in the process of working on a new vaccine; however, it would likely be weeks or even months before the new drug was available in the doses necessary to start combating the current pandemic, which as the author noted in his final sentence, would likely be of little help considering the flu had already spread worldwide in less than three weeks time.

Then there were a litany of other articles in the main section, almost all of which were focused upon various aspects of the flu and its effects.  There was one about how to protect against the flu.  There was another about looting in the Atlanta area, which also discussed similar situations in other big cities across America and around the globe.  The article below this one discussed what to do to protect your home, family or business against looters.  There was also a sizeable piece about the Atlanta metro area services that were currently closed or operating at minimal capacities.  A huge alphabetical listing of area closings ranging from schools and libraries, to hospitals, city halls, social clubs, and even churches, accompanied the article and comprised almost two entire pages.

The financial section was brief to say the least.

It started off with an article about Wall Street and how markets would be closed for a seventh consecutive day.  Then there were pieces about the huge worldwide financial ramifications of the flu, and yet another about the best companies to invest in to make money off the pandemic.

I had to laugh when it read this one.  “Still preaching stock investments and greed up until the very end,” I wondered aloud to myself as I shook my head sadly.

The sports page was another meager section.  Nearly every type of sporting event had been cancelled or postponed, and all public venues shuttered for the foreseeable future.  There was even a piece about notable figures in the sporting world who had caught the flu or already succumbed to its deadly effects.  Pictures of famous athletes from basketball, football, soccer, baseball, auto sports, and more lined the page, their condition or date of passing noted below each face.

The entertainment page ran a similar section for television personalities and movie stars.  Then there was an article about the effects of the flu on reality television and how certain channels that relied heavily on revenue from these sorts of programs might fare during and after the flu.  Filming for many such programs had already been suspended, delayed or cancelled.