The Liddy Scenario (3 page)

“My! You two have done an amazing amount of work! How late did you work last night?”

“Midnight. It was a lot nicer, even at eighty-five degrees, than it was earlier in the day. Not as hard on the Case, either.”

“That should be better. The Bobcat skid loader should be here any mi-nute. Is there anything else you need?”

“I’m a little uncomfortable burying these people with no good ID to each location.”

Julie Anne’s face fell and she looked about to cry. “I know. But we just don’t have the means. The manifests indicate which trench, but that is all. We have to be careful to make sure the trenches are marked as to which each is.”

“There is a map in the garage I’ve been marking with what I know,” Brody said.

“That’s good.”

All three turned when the rental delivery truck showed up, right on the heels of the first reefer tractor trailer. With sighs that Julie Anne noted, Brody and Ranger suited up for the handling of the bodies.

“Just have them park it here,” Brody told Julie Anne. “We’ll come get it when we need it. Oh. And I’m using my truck to get around faster. Just replacing the fuel from the cemetery tank. I hope that’s okay. Speeds things up a great deal.”

“I suppose that will be all right. But just what you use. Fuel, even for the city services, is almost gone.”

Brody nodded and he and Ranger got into the pickup and led the semi to the slit trench. It was as hard as Brody thought it would be when the body bags ran out and the frozen bodies were in only the clothes they’d died in, in most cases. A few were wrapped in bed sheets or blankets. It made the bodies much harder to handle, too. The body bags had handles. The bodies didn’t.

Julie Anne, good as her word, showed up Monday morning with several tubes of silver coins. “I thought we’d better just do it and I’ll work out the required financial details with the city later.”

“Excellent!” Ranger said, as Brody counted out his share and then pocketed his own.

“Thank you,” Brody told Julie Anne. “I know this was a bit out of the ordinary, but it was important to us.”

Julie Anne shrugged. “The price of things is going up and even cash isn’t taken everywhere. I’ve already seen one service station that has their sign posted ‘No checks. No credit cards. No cash. Gold or silver coins only.’ I guess you aren’t the only one with the same idea.”

Brody and Ranger exchanged a glance. She had no clue.

“What is the cause of all these deaths?” Brody asked the question that had been on his mind for days.

“Heat and dehydration for the most part. Without power there’s no AC or water. The cooling shelters are full, but even they are limited as to what they can provide. Without fuel the generators aren’t running. There have been several deaths from people on electrically powered respirators and other critical life support systems.. Even those with battery backups are dying as their batteries die and can’t get recharged. The hospital gen-erators are out of fuel for the most part and the city hasn’t been able to get more.

“I was in the EOC this morning before I came out here and it’s like this all over the region. All over the country.” She looked down at the ground for a long moment. “I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to keep our bargain. I’ve got all the water I could round up, and MRE’s. The silver… Well, to be honest, I bought all the junk silver, as you called it, three coin stores had. Two more didn’t have any. They’d already sold out. Only numismatics were left, and I didn’t think you wanted those at that value. “What I have is only enough for another full week for the two of you.”

“Well,” said Brody slowly, “Let’s just get through this week and see where we stand.”

“You’ll continue to work this week?” Julie Anne asked. Her body language was saying she had her doubts.

“I said I’d stick by you for this,” Brody said. “Ranger?”

“I’m good. As long as I can stay at your place,” Ranger replied. “My rig is half full, but I don’t know when I’ll be able to get more fuel.”

“Okay. That’s settled,” Brody said. “You have your crew for the week.”

“Thank you,” Julie Anne replied. “It means a lot to me.”

So Brody and Ranger worked the week, putting in ten to twelve hour days, through Sunday. Julie Anne hadn’t shown up much. Only once with three more cases of water and a case of MRE’s.

Brody and Ranger lost several pounds each over those few days, between the work and the heat. They conserved water and food as they could, but couldn’t take the chance of becoming dehydrated or lose strength due to lack of food.

They used only a case of the water between them per day, and one MRE each per day, supplementing both from Brody’s prep stocks. Ranger would give him some in return, once he could go to his place and get them. To save fuel, Brody was leaving his truck in the garage at the cemetery and riding his bicycle back and forth. Ranger had his bike locked down in the back of his truck and they both rode.

It was a month after the attacks, and Brody had put in two weeks and three days at the City Cemetery, along with Ranger. The number of bod-ies they were burying went up every day. Fortunately the city had re-cently enlarged the cemetery and there was enough room for the slit trenches.

Monday after the two full weeks rolled around Julie Anne showed up at the cemetery right after Brody and Ranger rode up on their bicycles.

“You don’t look good,” was the first thing Brody said when she got out of her car.

“I guess I haven’t eaten in a couple of days…” her words faded away as she stood up outside the car and swayed slightly.

Brody grabbed her on one side and Ranger the other. They got her sitting down on the edge of the back seat of her car. Ranger ran around to the other side of the car and opened the doors on that side to collect what little breeze there was.

“Why haven’t you said something, for heaven’s sake?” Brady asked. He turned to Ranger. “Get one of the MRE cookies and a bottle of water.”

With a quick nod Ranger was off like a shot to the garage and was back only a couple minutes later with the requested items.. Brody was fanning Julie Anne’s face. The heat wave hadn’t broken and it was already nine-ty-five degrees at seven in the morning.

Ranger handed Brody the water first and Brody wetted his bandanna with it and bathed Julie Anne’s face gently. She finally came around and Brody helped her get a sip of water and then took the cookie that Ranger had unwrapped. “Nibble on this,” Brody said and guided her hands with the cookie in them up to her mouth.

It took a few bites for her to come fully cognizant of what was going on. She tugged her hands gently from Brody’s. “I’m okay, now. Thank you.”

“Why haven’t you been eating?” Brody asked.

Julie Anne gave a slight shrug. “Sometimes I forget, and there just isn’t much around. And I can’t get any money out of the bank for what is available.”

Brody looked around at Ranger. “You bring the rest of the MRE?”

“Right here,” he said, handing the package to Brody.

Against Julie Anne’s rather feeble attempts to prevent it, Brody made sure she ate everything in the meal package, over the next hour. Ranger had gone on and fired up the equipment, getting ready for the expected deluge of corpses.

“Please stop fussing over me,” Julie Anne managed to say with a show of her old self. And you should have Ranger stop what he’s doing. I don’t have any more money to pay you.”

“Don’t worry about that right now. Why’d you come out here, anyway? Things are working fine.”

“I can’t let you work for no pay. I can’t even get you any more food or water. And the fuel must be about gone in the cemetery tank. I can’t find any to refill it. We’ll have to stop pretty soon, anyway.”

“Well, for the moment you just sit here and relax. Let Ranger and me worry about whether or not we get paid. The fuel could be a problem, but I have an idea about that.” Brody moved off, got on his bicycle and headed off to talk to Ranger.

When Ranger saw Brody coming, he stopped the Case. They were stop-ping it every time now, to save fuel.

“She’s doing okay, now,” Brody told Ranger. “Look, she’s admitted she can’t pay up anymore. No more food or water. And the diesel is about gone…”

“You want to keep going, somehow,” Ranger said. He knew his buddy pretty well.

Brody nodded.

“I’m okay with it, since we have food and water to eat. Need to be doing something, even if we don’t get paid. But I don’t know about the fuel. No way to dig all these graves by hand.”

“Yeah. About that. You’re right. But… You know… We could actually fill them by hand. Just dig them with the backhoe and Bobcat until the fuel runs out. Maybe hold onto a reserve for some kind of emergency.

“And this isn’t an emergency?” Ranger asked dryly.

“You know what I mean,” Brody said with a short laugh. “You in?”

Ranger nodded. “I’m in.”

“Okay. I’ll tell her. It should make her feel better.”

Ranger waved in acknowledgement and Brody rode back to the parking lot. Julie Anne was sitting in the back seat, her legs inside now, with her head back on the seat. Brody hated to bother her, but decided she would rather know as soon as possible.

“Ms. Baumgartner…” At Brody’s words Julie Anne came awake abruptly. She looked around frantically for a moment and then relaxed when she saw Brody.

“I’m sorry to wake you.” Brody looked at her quizzically. “You not only haven’t eaten, you haven’t slept much the last few days, either, have you?”

She shook her head, too tired to put up a front.

“Well,” Brody said, hoping the news would cheer her as much as he was hoping it would, “Ranger and I came up with a plan. We’re going to keep working. The pay, if any, can be straightened out later. We have enough food and water to get us through for a while. To conserve fuel, we just going to dig the trenches with the backhoe and Bobcat. We’ll fill them by hand as we get more… deliveries.”

To Brody’s astonishment, Julie Anne began to cry. “I thought you’d be pleased!” he hurriedly said, having no idea how to handle a crying wom-an.

“I… I… I… am. It’s just such a relief… and I don’t know how to thank you… or pay you… or even if this is legal.” Julie Anne swayed on the seat and then fainted, leaning over to one side.

It looked uncomfortable and Brody reached into the car and straightened her up. She was breathing fine, and Brody decided she was just too tired and worn down. She’d be okay if she got some sleep. Working as gently as he could, Brody shifted her again, this time to a prone position on the back seat. He closed the doors all around, after rolling down all the win-dows. He’d check on her occasionally, but a semi was coming in and he needed to get back to work.

Grabbing his PPE, he climbed on the bicycle and headed for the semi. He gave the driver a ‘come with me’ sign and pedaled toward the slit trench now in use. Ranger saw them coming and met them there. Brody and Ranger suited up as the driver opened up the trailer.

After the bodies were laid out in the bottom of the trench, Brody rode back to check on Julie Anne, and got a shovel from the garage before he went back to the trench. Ranger was waiting. “Where’s my shovel?” he asked.

“Well, since this was my idea, I figured I’d do most of the shoveling, and let you do most of the digging.” Brody saw Ranger start to protest. “Don’t worry. There is going to be plenty of shovel work to go around, after we run out of diesel.”

“Okay… I guess,” Ranger said, rather reluctantly. He headed back to the trench he was working on.

It was hard, grueling labor in the heat, shoveling the dirt back into the trench. And it was worse when he had to put his PPE back on to continue. Some of the bodies had been well into decomposition when found, and now, as they began to thaw in the heat, since it was taking so long to cover them, the smell was terrible.

But with the respirator in place, and acting quickly to get at least an inch or so of dirt over the bodies, Brody was able to take off the respirator again, and shove the coveralls down to his waist, tying the arms. to keep them from falling down to his boots.

He had to take a break or pass out himself, so he got on the bicycle and went to check on Julie Anne. She was still asleep. Brody got a bottle of water out of the garage and downed it. He took another down to Julie Anne’s car and put it where she would find it if she woke up before he returned.

Brody watched her sleep for a few minutes, as he rested, and then forced himself to go back to work. It was noon the next time he checked on Julie Anne. Ranger rode up on his bicycle and asked, “How’s she doing?”

“Okay, I think. She fainted and then fell asleep. I’m beginning to get…” Brody’s words faded when Julie Anne groaned and sat up, her face bathed in sweat.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled. Seeing the water she reached for the bottle eagerly and drank half of it in a very unladylike manner.

“Oh, that is so good!” she said, between sips now. “How long have I been out?”

“It’s a little after noon, now,” Brody replied.

“Oh, my Lord! I should have been at the office hours ago!” She scrambled out of the back of the car.

“Wait a minute,” Brody said, laying a hand on her arm as she swayed slightly. “You’re going to eat something first, and drink some more water.”