The Flu 2: Healing (16 page)

“Thirteen and a half,” Chris corrected.

“Still too young to drive, and I’m sure you were nervous.”

“I was, sir.”

“Commander Briggs,” one of the men called, “there are all kids in that car.”

“You guys alright?” Briggs asked.

“Yes. We’re just trying to make it home,” Chris answered.

Briggs walked by Chris and to the car. He opened up the driver’s door to see Tigger, who had slid all the way as far as he could on the driver’s seat. Hand on the wheel, his head barely came to the bottom of the steering wheel as he diligently tried to reach the pedals.

“What the hell are you doing, little man?” Briggs asked.

“I got this,” Tigger said, and then looked up. His eyes widened and he jumped quickly from the driver’s seat onto Jake’s lap. “I wasn’t driving. I didn’t hit you.”

“I know.”

Chris asked, “Are you okay, mister?”

“I’m fine. It takes a lot more than a Honda to kill me,” Briggs said, then held out his hand to Chris after looking at the others in the car. “Jonah Briggs, and you are?”

“Chris Hughes. That little guy is my brother Tigger. Don’t let his size fool you, he has a growing problem. And these guys, Jake and Emmie, we met at a camp. Our camp was hit by bad guys. Aw, geeze …” Chris stepped back in sudden realization. “You’re wearing uniforms too.”

“I’m not a bad guy, son. I know you don’t have a reason to believe me, but I’m not. Where’s home?”

“Lodi,” Chris replied.

“Ohio?” Briggs shifted his eyes to his men. “You’re going the wrong way.”

“We were supposed to go west.” Chris hung his head low. “We made a mistake.”

“A good mistake. There’s some trouble ahead. Chris, I want you guys to come with me, okay? I’ll explain later. I want you to come, we’ll get you fed, cleaned up and maybe try to contact Lodi to work out a way to get you back there.”

“Do we have a choice?” Chris asked.

“Not really,” Briggs said. “Trust me, it’s for your own safety.”

“We ain’t under arrest for almost killing you, are we?” Briggs shook his head. “You said you wanna clean us up. Are we that dirty?”

Briggs closed one eye and shook his head. “Nah, but …” he dropped his voice low. “You guys kinda smell.”

“Ah, geeze, those babies keep peeing their pants, that’s why.”

“You’ll have that.” Briggs placed a hand on Chris’ back. “Let’s go. Get your stuff and your gang.”

Briggs stepped to one of his men by the Humvee. “We’re gonna take these kids back to base. They were trying to get to Lodi, but since that’s not possible, head west, see what’s up. Do some reconnaissance, see what’s going on, and get back to me. And by all means, if there are a lot of them, don’t be a hero. Got it?”

The soldier nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Good luck.” Briggs stepped way. “Check in. I mean it.” He walked back to the car where Chris, Tigger, Jake and Emmie stood. He motioned his head for them to go to the jeep, then loaded them inside.

Briggs took a moment to watch the Humvee drive off, and then climbed in the jeep. He looked back at the group of kids. To him they looked scared, except the little guy. He looked completely unfazed and that made Briggs laugh. After telling them that everything was going to be all right, and hoping they believed him, they took off for Damon.

* * *

Las Vegas, NV

At a knock on her door at the crack of dawn, Lexi was greeted by Matt telling her that Palmer had taken a turn for the worst.

She gathered her bearings, got dressed, and went to see the man who was two doors down from Matt’s mother. He had definitely gotten worse. His lungs had filled up even more and he wasn’t responding to the antibiotics.

Matt’s mother was the same, no improvement, and Charlie the slot machine guy didn’t take his morning post at the video machines.

It was a tough strain of pneumonia, and though Lexi attributed it to remnants of the flu, she had to wonder if the deadly flu made the particular strain combative. Pneumonia after a bad case of flu was not uncommon, but this strain was stubborn.

It only reiterated to her that she needed to head to the medical center. While she was certain the flu epidemic had probably wiped out the hospital pharmacy, she was confident that other areas of the hospital would still have supplies.

It was a search and seize. She sent Bill with two of Matt's men to neighboring towns and communities to search for supplies. Bill knew what to get: intravenous supplies, antibiotics, chest tubes, suction devices.

She and Matt hit the hospital. A temporary fence was set up around the medical center with huge hand painted signs reading ‘Closed’. The front area was filled with cots and tents and Lexi could only imagine what was inside. The bodies inside were baked in the sun like some old fashioned means of dehydration. Leathery, prune like arms extended from beneath blankets. Exposed faces were tanned and the eye sockets, cheekbones, and the areas under the necks were sunken in. Not one exposed body contained eyeballs. They had either popped out on their own or were carried away by one of the thousands of birds that seemed to take over Las Vegas after the epidemic.

The avian population survived the flu; they were the impervious and the dominant species in numbers now.

Lexi devised a search plan with Matt, and just as she was about to step into the hospital, she heard the ringing of her phone. At first she thought it was Bill until she looked down.

Henry Wilson.

She gasped out loud, asked Matt to wait, and answered her phone. Henry Wilson was the foremost authority on viruses. While Lexi was certain she knew what she was dealing with, it never hurt to get advice from a genius on the matter.

“Oh, thank God.” Lexi said, then answered the phone. “Henry?”

“I got your text,” Henry said.

“Henry, it is
so
good to hear your voice.”

“You, too, Lexi, you too.”

“Are you still in Lodi? Last I heard that’s where you and Kirk were headed.”

“We are. We made a home there,” Henry answered. “Where are you?”

“You’re not going to believe this,” Lexi said. “We’re in Vegas.”

Henry laughed. “Getting in some gambling?”

“In a sense. It’s weird. A lot of people — more than you would think — are on a pilgrimage east. Life’s pretty dead and dry out this way.”

“Well, it was first hit, least prepared. Why Vegas?”

“It’s a major junction. A stop through. People on their way east stop here, rest, get supplies and move on. Just this morning, ten came in. They’re headed to a place in New York. Do you know anything about it?”

“A little. Some new group trying to put civilization back together. Word reached there?”

“Yes, they’re getting it through militia groups.”

“So when should we expect you?”

“Bill and I will be here for a little bit. We’re needed at the moment. Seems we have some serious post-flu cases of pneumonia. Four cases, tough strain. In fact, I’m at the medical center now rummaging for supplies. All of the patients said the cough never went away after the flu, and now they have these symptoms.”

“I’d like to say we saw this one coming,” Henry stated, “but unfortunately, we all brushed off that possibility.”

“You seeing it on your end?”

“No. Are they residents there that are sick? Or pilgrims?”

“Residents.”

“Don’t dismiss the possibility that maybe a traveler brought something in.”

“But they all have a common denominator,” Lexi said. “They all lived here, and they all contracted and beat the flu.”

“Just don’t dismiss it, in case you find someone who doesn’t fit that pattern. It could be something else.”

“Like what?”

“Lots of things. Hanta virus out west is a big thing, lots of rodents.”

“How do I check for that without proper equipment?”

“You’re in a hospital now. Find a power scope. Vegas runs on the Hoover Dam. Right? You got power.”

“We do. I’m gonna be honest, though. I rely heavily on programs to identify the organism. I’m a field doctor.”

“Find a lab there. Find a scope. Take that and the monitor. Run a sputum sample and blood sample through for me and take pictures with the phone. Hopefully, Lars, Kirk, or I will be able to identify it. We’re old school.”

“I’ll do that, thank you, Henry.”

“Talk soon.”

Lexi hung up the phone.

“Everything okay?” Matt asked.

“Yes. That was the head of the CDC, and he’s with a top virologist now. We’ve got other things to get aside from medical supplies. We’re gonna try to transfer images of our pneumonia bacteria or virus, whichever it is, to them, and maybe they’ll be able to tell me what course to take to beat this.”

“That’s excellent to hear.”

There wasn’t a smell of death. The decomposition smell had long since faded, and it had been replaced with old and musty. Some lights still flickered. The emergency room lobby was packed with bodies, but aside from the hum of the lights, there was another sound.

Coughing
.

Lexi turned to Matt. Obviously someone was there, and not only were they coughing uncontrollably, they were dropping things. The cough was deep, rumbling and chesty. They followed the sound to the back hall, where they saw an open storage door.

The coughing clearly was coming from there. The back of the ER was dark; the lights didn’t flicker. They barely worked and the only illumination was what little sunlight made its way through.

Lexi and Matt snapped on their flashlights.

“Hello?” Lexi called as she neared the storage room.

“We know someone’s here,” Matt said. “Do you need help? I have a doctor with me.”

A long five second cough, and then a man replied with a choking, “Yes”.

Lexi hurried to the closet. When she reached the doorway, her flashlight lit the face of the man. As soon as he saw her, her teetered and weakly slid to the floor. His face was gray, eyes dark, lips bloody and cracked.

“I’ve never been so sick in all my life,” he said, then coughed again. “I can’t breathe.”

“We’re gonna help you,” Lexi told him, walked over to him and crouched down. “That’s why we’re here. We’re getting more supplies. Can we take you with us where I am treating others?”

He coughed. “Others are sick too? Is it happening again?”

“No.” Lexi smiled reassuringly. “What you and the others have is a repercussion of the flu. Sometimes the lungs don’t clear after the flu, and pneumonia sets it. It’s a tough strain, but we’ll beat it.”

“That’s all well and fine.” He choked on a cough and beat his chest. “But I didn’t get the flu.”

Immediately, Lexi looked up to Matt. He hadn’t heard what Henry said, but Lexi did. Lexi wasn’t only looking at another patient; she was looking at someone with the same symptoms, only he, unlike the others, was different. He didn’t have the flu to blame.

Journal Entry

Well, we aren’t dead and we actually made it. Not home. Not yet. Soon. My last journal entry I was kind of scared. We were staying in a dark store and were walking.

I drove for the first time and I think I’ll be good at it. I hit a big man, but he was fine. He is so big, I bet at one time he dreamed of being a professional wrestler. No one that big doesn’t dream of stuff like that.

His name is Commander Jonah Briggs and he runs what he hopes to be the new Army in the US, he said something about how we have to defend ourselves.

I don’t think he’s with the bad guys that hit the camp because he kept making calls looking for them.

He seems nice enough, except he keeps saying he’ll tell me why he can’t take us back to Lodi.

He hasn’t yet.

It didn’t take long for me not to be scared. He gave us some chocolate for the ride. Emmie peed her pants again. I’m thinking all that potty training her mom did is probably out the window now.

That happens. I remember when Tigger got potty trained; we got a new video game and darned if that potty training didn’t go right out the window.

Right now, I’m all showered and some doctor guy just took a look at me.

We rode through this small town; it looked a lot like Lodi. People were moving about, acting normal, which is cool. Jonah told the doctor guy after he cleaned us up he wanted him to take a look at us.

I told Jonah I was healthy as a horse. He didn’t believe me until the doc said I was healthy as a horse.

But Jonah was right, I think we all did smell. I didn’t notice until I got out of the shower and got a whiff of Tigger. Man …. did he smell.

I’m waiting right now for the others to get bathed. Then we’re meeting with Jonah. Hopefully, then we’ll call home.