mnn fiction:Get busy living - Completed

[mnn2300]

Get busy living All rights reserved

Get Busy Living is the story of a Global Pandemic

This is Book 1. Now complete

I will warn you, that while Book One stands on its own, it only takes the story a couple months past the pandemic and is very limited in its characters. Book One is the story of Mark Larson a man that personal tragedy hit and then along comes a global pandemic.

Books 2 and 3 (short stories actually are both here in the completed section and book 4 is in the ongoing stories section (now completed) Book 5 is a work in progress.

As always: Comments are welcome and even desired - good or bad, let me know if you like it or if you don't.

Chapter 1

Monday morning

Mark Larson opened his eyes and looked at the clock on the bedside table: 3:15 AM.
He had gotten almost 4 hours of sleep before the dreams woke him, again.

He got up, walked to the bathroom, turned on the light and looked into the mirror.

"You look like crap." He said to himself running some cold water over his face . After relieving himself, he pulled on a pair of sweat pants and a sweat shirt and slipped on his tennis shoes, poured himself 3 fingers of scotch neat, opened the door and walked out onto his deck, sat down in his chair and stared at the moons reflection on the lake. The thermometer on the post near the door read 47 degree's by the light of the full moon. It was late April on Half Moon Lake, about an hour north east of St Paul, Minnesota, too early for the summer people yet, though they would start trickling in over the next month, then when June hit they would be out in full force, at least on weekends. He hated the crowds, avoiding going into town as much as he could, all he wanted was solitude - he should have bought a place further away from the cities he thought to himself -- wouldn't have mattered, all the people from the Cities, as Minneapolis and St Paul were called, wanted to go to the lake, any lake, on the weekends, or on vacation. He preferred the solitude of winter, true there were the snowmobilers and ice fishermen, but the ice fisherman were usually solitary folk themselves and this part of the lake didn't have any snowmobile trails and it did have a lot of fences so the snowmobilers tended to go where they had an easier time, leaving the few winter residents on this end of the lake in relative peace.

Fourteen month now, when was he going to get on with his life? Fourteen months since his wife and unborn child were killed in an auto accident. The line from the movie 'The Shawshank Redemption' came back to him "you got to get busy living or get busy dying" but how do you do that? He was 25 years old now and he felt a sense of hopelessness, he couldn't do either, so he continued to be stuck in-between, going through the motions. He let his mind wander.

18 Months earlier - mid October

"Really? I'm going to be a father? We're going to be parents?" Mark excitedly asked his wife Sherrie.
"That’s what the doctor said." She replied. "In about 7 months."
"A boy or a girl?" he asked.
"Does it matter?" she questioned.
"No, not at all." He replied, "We'll have to get a bigger place, a house."
"Slow down, we have plenty of time, we have enough room here in the apartment for a while. We still need to save up for a down payment on a house, we're not quite there yet. Our goal is still a year away, could be a bit more as I'm going to lose some pay when the baby is born, this place is fine for us and a baby for a while." She said.

"I can pick up some overtime now and we'll bank the extra so we don't miss out on our savings while you're out. There are a couple of big projects that are starting so it'll be easy to pick up the extra hours." Mark said. Mark was a software developer for a company that made video games, he made good money, as did Sherrie his wife as a database administrator for a grocery chain, but they had their eyes set on being in a house not this year, but by the following summer. Unlike many people their age they didn't go out and buy everything they wanted using charge cards or loans. Both had worked their way through college, what scholarships didn't pay for, came out of college funds both of their parents had started for them when they were children or was earned by working part time jobs. They both graduated with no student loans hanging over their heads unlike most of their friends. They both drove used vehicles and Mark maintained them himself, having learned the basics from his father and older brothers, they lived in a nice 1 bedroom apartment, midway between their places of employment. The apartment, while furnished nicely, was mostly 2nd hand furniture, handed down from family or bought from Goodwill rather than, like many of their friends, bought new on easy credit.

They had financial goals in mind and were financially disciplined enough to achieve them.

- - -

"Shit." Mark said, shivering in the cold early morning air, walking back into the cabin he saw it was a bit past 4 AM "Sat out for almost an hour feeling sorry for yourself, again" he thought to himself. He sat the glass on the counter near the sink and went back to bed.

A few hours later he awoke again, this time with the sun filtering in through the bedroom window, looking at the clock it said 8:30 AM "Well, you managed 8 hours even though it was in pieces." He said to himself.

His life was a routine these days, it's what kept him going, after his wife was killed and all the insurance was settled, he bought a small cabin on Half Moon Lake, quit his job and moved out here. His parents tried to talk him out of it, his mother in particular pressed him to do something with his life and not become a bitter old man at the young age of 23 at that time, 25 now. In his mind he knew she was right, but that’s just the way things were right now. To begin with after the accident his mother called him daily and after he bought the cabin last year even made the trek out to the cabin at least once a month, during the winter those treks died down.

The 2 passions he had left in life, running and fishing he was able to keep up, the country around the lake offered numerous country lanes and county roads that he could run to his heart's content, just disengage his mind and run - it helped. His other passion, fishing was the one that caused him some problems more often than not, for the most part it was much more passive than running and gave him time to think, sometimes too much time.

His small cabin had a combination kitchen and living room, a bathroom and 2 bedrooms. In the spare bedroom he had installed a treadmill and some weights since Minnesota's weather was unpredictable at best and downright hostile for outdoor activities at times, although unless the temperature was in the dangerous level or it was snowing, he still ran during the winter, he just wore more clothes to do it and tended to stay closer to home. Fishing, well, once the ice was thick enough he had a fish house he put out on the lake and he'd continue fishing until March when all fish houses had to be off the lakes. He usually practiced catch and release as he caught way more fish than he could possibly eat. During the summer he used a bass boat that had come with the property and would usually be on the lake 2 or 3 days a week. He had satellite TV and the area had enough important summer people that it had cell phone coverage so he had a wireless internet connection through his cell phone company. Coming from a gaming programming background he spent a lot of time online gaming. He often thought of himself as waiting, although for what he had no idea.

After getting up he'd go out running for an hour or sometimes an hour and a half, he always varied his route and he'd probably seen all the cabins and houses around the lake, he'd been out on the county roads and down various country lanes, seen the farms and hunting cabins, ran to and all around the nearest town Avery, about 6000 people there. He probably knew the county better than most people who had lived there all their lives, yet he knew very few of the people that lived there since he rarely interacted with them other than maybe a short wave or nod of the head as he was jogging by. After his morning run he would eat something else and take a shower, then depending on the weather and his mood he'd watch TV, do some online gaming or go fishing, that usually took up most of his afternoon, then he'd make supper and usually read til he was tired and then go to bed, each day was maddeningly, yet in a way comfortably, the same, most nights he'd sleep all the way through, some nights like last night the dreams woke him up.

Tuesday Morning

Mark Larson opened his eyes and looked at the clock on the bedside table: 2:45 AM.
He had gotten a bit over 3 hours of sleep before the dreams woke him, again.

He got up, walked to the bathroom, turned on the light and looked into the mirror.

"You still look like crap." He said to himself running some cold water over his face . After relieving himself, he pulled on a pair of sweat pants and a sweat shirt and slipped on his tennis shoes, poured himself 3 fingers of scotch neat, opened the door and walked out onto his deck overlooking the lake and sat down in his chair, staring over the lake. The thermometer on the post near the door read 49 degree's by the light of the full moon.
Perhaps he should start going back to the psychologist he thought, or maybe not, the first time he tried that it was a total waste of time, he didn't feel like talking about it, it's not what he did, so much of the time was spent talking about other things but always the accident was there, in the back of his mind, like the 2 ton elephant in the room he was trying to avoid. The dreams were taking their toll however and he felt if he could get those to stop he might be able to get busy living again.

14 months ago: February, Sunday evening

His wife was sick, she had some bleeding and while it sometimes happened with pregnant women it could mean there was a problem with the pregnancy, there could be something wrong with the baby, it was early evening when he drove her to the emergency room, it was lightly snowing, they were predicting 2-3 inches overnight, not a major deal in Minnesota in the winter. They checked her out in the ER and discovered nothing major wrong, but suggested she stay overnight and get some bed rest and they'd check her again the next day.

The following day they pronounced her and the baby to be ok, but suggested she take the rest of the week off from work and get some rest as she was probably overdoing it and to make an appointment with her ob/gyn for later in the week. She made the appointment for first thing Friday morning. Mark wanted to take the day off and go with her but she wouldn't let him, said she was fine and he had already babied her enough. Having already missed Monday and having a deadline on a new piece of software coming up he let her talk him into working. Thursday night they got another 3 inches of snow and Mark got up early and brushed off and warmed up her car before heading to work himself.

14 months ago: February - Friday Morning

Sherrie promised to call him right after the appointment and sure enough by 9:30 she called while her car was warming up in the doctor’s parking lot. She told him that her doctor wanted her to slow down a bit and not try to do so much, working was still ok, but more rest at home, that they'd keep an eye on her and go from there, but that everything looked fine and the baby's heartbeat was nice and strong and showed no signs of distress.

14 months ago: February - Friday Afternoon

At 1PM that afternoon two police officers were shown into his office by his boss.

"Mister Mark Larson?" One of them asked.
"Yes" he said hesitantly.
"You have a wife named Sherri Larson?" the officer asked again.
His heart sinking he said "yes".

"I am sorry sir, there's been an accident, you're wife's car was hit by a semi that slid on some ice on the river bridge." The officer continued.

"Is she ok?" Mark asked, knowing the answer in his heart already.
"I regret to inform you she didn't make it sir. I'm sorry for your loss." The officer said.
Mark broke down at that point. "Is there someone we can call for you sir?" the other officer asked.
"Yes, No, I……no.“ Mark asked, tears running down his face. "What about the baby? She was pregnant."

"I'm sorry sir." The first officer said shaking his head.

"What do I do now, where is she?" Mark asked through the tears.

"She's at the county morgue sir, we'll need you to come down and positively id her as part of procedure, but she matches her drivers' license. After that your funeral home may pick up her…may pick her up." The second officer said.

-------------

"How many times are you going to replay that in your head?" he asked himself.
"Until it makes sense" he replied there in the dark on his deck.
"It's never going to make sense.' he answered himself. "That’s why they call it an accident"

He lifted the glass and took another drink.

---------

The funeral was the following Tuesday morning, held at the same funeral home that handled his grandparent’s funerals a few years before. Marks uncle was an attorney and after the funeral offered to assist him with the insurance papers and to handle the legal aspects of the accident, the insurance company for the company that owned the semi offered a generous settlement even though it was really not the drivers fault, the truck had hit a patch of ice and skidded into Sherri's car crushing it between the semi trailer and the side of the bridge, she was dead before the paramedics got to her. Even Mark knew it was an accident, he didn't really blame the driver, well, that wasn't quite true, but it was an accident, it just happened. He blamed himself more than anyone, he should have insisted on driving her rather than letting her talk him out of it.

Mid March

Between the insurance money and the settlement from the trucking companies insurance, Mark had enough to drop out. His had tried going back to work a couple weeks after the funeral, but couldn't get anything done. The first week he was back he didn't write 50 lines of code all week, something he usually did in about 30 minutes on a good day. He didn't have any good days anymore. He decided he was not doing himself or his employer any good and turned in his notice. His boss told him he could come back when he was ready and Mark thanked him but said he couldn't even think of that right then. They had his paperwork ready for him that afternoon and while they paid him for the rest of his 2 week's notice time they let him go that day.

It was even worse at the apartment, he couldn't stand to be there, but he didn't want to be anyplace where he had to talk about it. He went to a lot of movies over the next couple weeks, but probably couldn’t even tell you the main plots lines as he was there just for the solitude and the noise. He finally decided he was going to find a place in the country and after looking around for a couple weeks found the lake cabin on Half Moon Lake. It had been someone's cabin and they wanted to get rid of it quickly since the housing market had tanked a couple years ago and the economy was headed south, Since he had cash and they were not living there they closed in two weeks. Mark spent some money turning the cabin into a year round house, insulating it, putting in new windows and a new wood stove. He did the work himself to keep himself busy.

The cabin came with 2 acres of land and while he had some trees that he wanted to take down he knew he was going to have to buy some wood for his new wood stove for the following winter. Spring time was not a good wood selling time so was able to get a decent price on 6 cords of wood delivered and stacked, he bought a couple of tarps and covered it. That summer he also built a garage/workshop and kept himself busy. He also discovered he had a number of blueberry and raspberry bushes and some apple trees all which had seen better days, there were also a couple of rhubarb plants that came up in the spring near what had been a garden. Mark wasn't a gardener by any stretch but he did put a couple rows of sweet corn in, but other than that the garden grew mainly weeds that year and his sweet corn mainly disappeared; squirrels, raccoons, deer or most likely all 3 enjoyed most of his corn and the birds made pretty quick work out of his berries.

The first few months he found himself going to town 3 or 4 times a week because he really didn't know how to plan out meals and shop accordingly. He finally figured out how to stock a pantry and he bought a chest freezer from an appliance store in town and he slowly cut his trips into town back to a couple times a month.

------
He finished his drink and walked back in the house, this time he had been outside for an hour and a half sitting in the moonlight. He got back into bed and told himself once again "Time to get busy living or get busy dying" His answer was "yeah, whatever."

He awoke the next morning and found his next door neighbors had arrived, he waved to them as he went on his morning run when he saw them coming out of their driveway. Having arrived late last night they were going into town for some supplies.

------

He solved one mystery shortly after he moved in and that was his neighbors place. There was a driveway near his that led to a clearing near the base of a hill but he couldn't see a cabin or house or anything. From the lake, however there was a dock and a path leading up from it. One weekend in late May he saw an older man and woman on the dock and he introduced himself as their new neighbor. He found out that they were weekend people during the summer and had an earth sheltered home in that hill. They invited him over for dinner and he accepted to be neighborly but mainly to satisfy his curiosity about the earth sheltered home. He quit fishing early, got cleaned up and drove into town to get a couple bottles of wine, not knowing what they would serve he got one white and one red.

The older couple turned out to be the Johansson's: Bret and Margaret, and they were in their late 50's, a nice couple with one daughter named Jean who lived in the cities with her boyfriend, the way Bret said that Mark could tell he didn't approve. Bret was a Stock Broker and Margaret didn't work outside the home but did a lot of volunteer work in the community. Near the end of dinner when they got around to asking about Marks bachelor status, his explanation caused a bit of a lull in the conversation.

"My wife died in a car accident last winter, she was pregnant with our first child at the time." Mark told them.
"I am so sorry." Margaret said.
" I'm working through it but still don't like talking about it too much." Mark finally said.

Finishing the meal Bret changed the subject and offered Mark a tour of the home and to be honest that’s really why Mark was there, he had never been in an earth sheltered home before and was interested in it. Surprisingly, for being mostly underground it was a very bright and cheerful home, 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, dining room, living room, laundry and pantry, the rooms were in the front of the house and a very wide hallway with bookshelves at the back of the house joined the rooms together. The entire house faced south, towards the lake and had large windows and high ceilings letting both light and air in. The floor was dark concrete which tended to hold in the daytime heat from the windows but they also had hydronic radiant heating tubes in the floor. Bret explained that hydronic tubes carried a mix of fluids through tubes in the floor that heated the house. Solar panels were above the house in the hill and 2 small rotary style wind mills were near the lake. The Johansson's were on the grid but so far, since they had built the house 3 years ago, the power company ended up paying them rather the other way around as they always produced more electricity than they used. Of course they didn't live there full time either. They used LP gas for the hydronic heating system and also for their 2 on demand water heaters – one near the kitchen and laundry and the other near the bedrooms on the other end of the long narrow home, also the stove and clothes dryer were gas. Bret said that the few times they had come out in the winter the house stayed between 45 and 50 degree's even without the heat on due to the passive solar heating of the windows and the concrete flooring. The kitchen was a gourmet kitchen and the rest of the house matched, Mark was pretty sure a professional interior decorator had been involved in the process. When Bret and Margaret were there and outside they would always wave any time he went by on the boat.

[mnn2300]

Chapter 2

Not having any set pattern for his run, Mark turned whichever way he felt like, he started out slowly as part of his warm up, which actually started at the house stretching and then after a short warm up period he sped up. Mark had been on the cross country team in both high school and college and had the lean runner’s body and very muscular legs of a long distance runner. Today he turned left off of the country lane that led from his cabin onto the county road that led to town. Going this direction he could either go into town itself or turn down one of 4 other roads on the way into town. He usually decided as he got to each road whether he would turn or keep going straight based on nothing more than a whim, or perhaps which way the wind was blowing or if the sun was in his eyes, in other words it was pretty much chance and more about the running rather than a goal. He had passed by the first 3 of the roads on his way into town and was just about to reach the fourth when he heard what sounded like crying, he stopped and listened, yes there was definitely some noise coming from off the side of the road, he edged closer to the ditch and saw a dog laying there apparently hurt, he walked closer, talking to the dog as he did so, the dog he saw was actually a pup, maybe 7 or 8 months old, it attempted to get up but was favoring one side. Mark walked slowly to it, knowing that hurt dogs could be dangerous, all the time he was talking softly to it, and even obviously in pain it wagged its tail. Mark got to the dog and couldn’t see anything obviously wrong with it other than it was favoring its entire left side.

“Poor thing, probably got hit by a car” Mark said petting the dog. There was no collar and no tag on the dog, there were no close houses but it could have wandered a ways or more likely, as happens in the country quite a bit, had been dumped.
Mark had had a number of dogs growing up and couldn’t just leave this one by the side of the road to live or die by itself; he was only about a half mile from town right now and from his running knew the vet’s office was on this end of town. He took off his jacket and wrapped the dog in it and picked it up, it whimpered even as it tried licking him.

A few minutes later he walked into the vet’s office and spoke to the person at the counter who got him and the dog into an exam room. A few minutes later the vet walked in.

“I’m Doctor Jessica Martin.” She said holding out her hand.
“Mark Larson” Mark replied shaking her hand.
“…and who is this?” the vet asked.
“Good question, I found it near the side of the road, I think it may have been hit by a car.”

The vet running her hands down the dogs side said “I think you’re probably right, doesn’t feel like anything is broken but there no way of telling for sure without x-rays. You don’t know who the owner is?” she asked.

“No, I was just out for my morning run and spotted it, you don’t recognize it either?” Mark asked.

“No, not one of my patients, a lot of dogs get dumped around here, people from the cities think country folk will take in their dogs and cats if they drop them off. Most end up hit by cars or eaten by animals. Mr. Larson….” The vet started.
“Please, it’s Mark, my dad is Mr. Larson.” He said.
“Mark then, while I would love to treat every animal for free, because I really do love animals, X-rays, office visits, medicine and staff and everything involved with the practice does cost money, what would you like to do?” she asked him.

“What do you think the chances of her being claimed are?” Mark asked her.

“Honestly, from past experience, about 2 in 10 animals that get turned into the county shelter are ever claimed or adopted; the other 8 end up being put down.” Dr Martin told him.

“This one is a lab mix, perhaps part Chow, and a female and near the end of its puppy stage, probably about 8 or 9 months old I would guess, frankly if you are not ready to take it in, I would recommend turning her in to the shelter and they will probably end up putting her down, lab mixes are plentiful and once they’re above 3 or 4 months old they never get adopted.” She told him.
Mark exhaled sharply.

“It’s a sad fact of life Mark; most people are not responsible pet owners.” She told him.

"What are we talking to have her completely checked out, x-rays, etc?"

"To do a proper job about $300 and that assumes nothing is broken or any internal injuries" Dr Martin answered.
He was petting the dog as he was thinking. “Ok, check her out, looks like I have a dog if there’s not too much wrong with her to recuperate. Look I was out for my morning run; I don’t have my credit cards or anything on me right now.” He told her.

“The X-rays and everything will take a couple hours, why don’t you finish your run and come back early this afternoon and we’ll know more then, you have a name for her yet?” Dr Martin asked.

“No idea yet.” He said.

“Well, give it some thought; the receptionist will have some paperwork for you before you leave.” She told him picking up the dog. “I’ll see you this afternoon.”

“OK.” He said leaving the room and walking up to the receptionist, got an appointment to come back at 1:30, a few minutes later after filling out the paperwork he was back outside and jogging on his way home.

* * *

After his shower and lunch he saw the time was not quite yet noon and he wasn’t due back at the vet until 1:30 so he got on the computer to read his email and caught up on the online news.
One news story caught his eye, seemed that a new strain of the Flu virus had appeared in Africa and was causing quite a few deaths very quickly, with some area's being quarantined, he then moved on to sports, Mark did enjoy Baseball in the spring and summer, and it appeared the sports writers did not think too much of the Minnesota Twins prospects this year. What a surprise, he thought sarcastically.

A bit after 1PM he got into his SUV and drove into town after throwing an old blanket in the back for the dog, assuming of course it was going to make it.

The receptionist led him into one of the exam rooms and a couple minutes later the vet came back in.

“Good news, no broken bones and no internal injuries that we could see. My guess is that she got sideswiped by a car and has a lot of bruising but no real other problems. I’ve got her on some pain pills right now that tend to make her a bit sleepy, I also gave her some vitamins and a bowl of food. You can take her home, but I want her on a special diet for a week or two along with some medicine. You’ve owned dogs before?” She asked.

“Yeah, my parents always had dogs when I was growing up and when I got old enough it was my job to take care of them.” Mark replied.

“Good, Ok, here’s what I want you to do…………..”

Mark walked out with a case of canned dog food that was formulated for dogs recuperating from illnesses, the vet told him when the dog was healed she could go on a regular high quality dog food but for a couple weeks to stick with this kind and told him how much to feed it. He also had 2 bottles of pills, one a pain pill and the other a general antibiotic. He also had bought a collar and leash. Mark was to bring the dog back the following week unless there were further problems before then.

After putting the food and pills in his vehicle he went back in to settle his bill and pick up the dog.

“Have you settled on a name yet?” the receptionist asked him.
Looking at his bill he said “not yet, I should probably call her the money pit”

The receptionist smiled and asked “Do you want to make next week’s appointment now?”

“Yeah, might as well.” Mark replied.

After the short drive back to the cabin, he lifted the still woozy pup out of the SUV and put her on the ground and walked her around a little, she squatted after finding the exact right spot and then he brought her into the house. He brought the blanket from the SUV and put it down on the floor near his easy chair, went to the kitchen and grabbed a bowl and filled it with water, showing her where it was. She explored the cabin for about 5 minutes then plopped down on the blanket next to the chair he was sitting in and the dog fell asleep and was out for the rest of the afternoon.

About 5pm Mark got up to make his dinner and the dog woke up too, and barked at the door.

“Well at least it appears you’re housebroken.” Mark said as he took the dog outside.

Going back inside after the dog took care of its business, “Well, time for another set of pills hidden in your food. You’re going to get a lot of sleep this week, but it’s for your own good, you’ll feel better in a few days. Now what shall I call you? Nothing doggie, nothing cutesy, a real name, a girl’s name. I got it, you kind of look like a girl I went to school with, how about Suzie? How’s that sound to you?” he walked across the room and called “Suzie, here girl.” The dog ran over to him wagging her tail.
“Ok, Suzie it is.”


The dogs pills lasted through the weekend but the vet wanted to see the dog undrugged on Monday, so he gave Suzie the last of the pain pills Sunday morning. She was visibly much better to Mark.

They both got into the SUV Monday morning at the appointed time, Suzie riding shotgun this time instead of sleeping in the back. At the vets office Dr Martin examined Suzie and declared her pretty much healed, that she might have some soreness for another week or so, but that she should start exercising, going for short walks and gradually increasing it until she was taking morning runs with Mark.
Not knowing if Suzie had been vaccinated or not the doctor recommended they give her a full course of vaccines which Mark agreed to.”You’ve got a good dog there Mark, I’d like to see her again in 2 weeks, but I think she’ll be fine.”

Now that the dog was off the drugs, Mark started training her in earnest and it turned out Suzie was a quick learner, she picked up on the simple commands very quickly and by the time her next appointment rolled around he was able to have her off the leash for the most part and they were going for short runs together and then. Mark would put her in the cabin while he did his extended run. He was still having the frequent dreams that would wake him up in the night but he now had a companion to sit on the deck with him and she would often get him out of his middle of the night sadness and back to bed.

He still spent most of his time by himself but the dog was starting to draw him out of his shell, he still spent a lot of time on the computer, or reading or watching TV but now he had a companion to do it with, one with 4 legs, but still a companion.

Baseball season started and the Minnesota Twins started out with a 4 game losing streak, looked like the sports writers were right. Mark was also still following the news story about the new strain of Flu in Africa, now nicknamed E2 and the efforts to quarantine it, seems like every time they got it confined a new outbreak happened, it was hard to keep people in quarantine with other people who were sick and dying, Johannesburg South Africa had an outbreak that from reports had killed thousands before martial law was declared. South Africa was declared a no fly zone to try to contain it. Mark was glad it was over there and not here.

[patience]

Great start! I like this guy, and already want to see him get through his grief and succeed. He's real, and a very decent sort. Let's hope he sees more of that Vet lady. He needs someone in his life, but the dog is a fine start. Labs are cool critters, very intelligent, sensible, and great outdoor dogs for the area.

[mnn2300]

Chapter 3

In late May, Mark had to do one of his every other week grocery runs. He had been working on a project that day and it was now close to supper time, he didn’t feel like cooking and decided to stop off at one of the town’s restaurants to eat and then take care of his shopping.

He walked into the restaurant just as the hostess was about to seat Dr Martin, the veterinarian.

“Mark, how are you and Suzie doing?” Dr Martin asked.

“Oh, Hi Doc, we’re doing well, and you?” He replied, still remembering the social graces even though he hadn’t practiced them in a long time. After a bit of small talk she asked if he’d care to join her.

“I wouldn’t want to impose.” He told her.
“Not a problem at all, I usually eat alone most nights, it would be nice to have some conversation for a change, if you don’t mind that is”. She said.
“No problem at all, I’ve been eating alone for so long myself, I might have forgotten how to have a dinner conversation though.” Mark replied.
“Confirmed bachelor?” she asked.
“Actually a widower, my wife died in a car accident not quite 2 years ago.” He replied.
“I’m sorry. If it helps, I’m a widow myself; my husband was in Afghanistan, although it’s been almost 4 years.”

He took a better look at the doctor, in the office with a lab coat and her hair pulled back she looked every bit the professional, he was bad at ages but would have guessed 35 or so. Tonight with her hair loose and wearing jeans and a blouse he adjusted his guess of her age downward, still a bit older than he was but perhaps late 20’s or 30 at most. For the first time since Sherri died he was actually able to lose himself in conversation, later as he was shopping he found himself actually humming under his breath, true it was to the store Muzak, but it was something he hadn’t done in a long time.


A week later, the news was reporting the new strain of Flu named E2 had spread to both Europe and Asia. The President was scheduled to address the nation that evening.

Mark was scheduled for his dental checkup that morning, he drove into town and for a weekday in Avery there was an unusual amount of traffic on the county road. He passed by the grocery store and saw the parking lot was almost full, there were a couple of cars waiting in line at the 2 gas stations he passed, that never happened on a weekday, maybe on a weekend when all the city folk were in the area. He parked at the dentist office and walked in and was taken back by the hygienist right away.

Mark could never figure out why, when they were working on someone’s mouth, they would ask questions that took more than a grunt or two to answer, but it appeared that she had seen the same traffic he had and come to the conclusion that everyone was panicking about the E2 virus and the Presidents message that evening, that perhaps he was going to declare martial law. She continued talking the whole time she was cleaning Marks teeth and he grunted at the appropriate times. When she finished the dentist came in and said the x-rays looked good, and asked Mark the usual questions about his teeth. Everything was fine and Mark was out of the office a few minutes later. He wondered if he should stop and pick up some more groceries just in case, he had a couple weeks worth of food at least in his pantry and freezer and always had the lake, but then eating fish all the time would get old real fast so maybe he should...... naw, he was just scaring himself. He pulled into the store anyway.

“Worst case is I don’t have to shop for a couple of weeks” He justified to himself.

While there were more people shopping than normal, nobody was in panic mode like the hygienist suggested they were. Mark picked up all his normal pantry items, but a few extra of most things than he normally would on his usual 2 week shopping trip. When he got to the pet food aisle he picked up a couple of big bags of Suzie’s dog food. He chuckled to himself as he was loading the bags into his SUV at his panicking, but figured he could go at least a month and a half with what he now had, and if worst came to worst, he could supplement it with fish from the lake and go a couple of months with no problem. He hoped he had enough room in the freezer for the meats he had purchased.

----

Later that day after the President’s speech “So there you have it, to recap: the President has closed the borders, no international flights will be allowed to land after midnight Eastern daylight time today, which means for the most part if it’s not already in the air, it will not be allowed to land. Passenger ocean liners that originated in this country will be allowed to dock but passengers and crew will be quarantined onboard for 1 week and no further outgoing cruises will be allowed. Cruise ships not originating in this country will be turned away. The National Guard will be stationed along the Mexican border and in fact a number of units have already been deployed. All cargo ships to be quarantined off the coast with both the Navy and the Coast Guard enforcing it.
As of right now there is no quarantine within the continental United States, but if there is an outbreak of E2 that could change. Now for analysis we turn to…….”

“Well girl,” Mark said to the dog “Looks like I bought the extra food for nothing, stores will remain open, everything’s under control, business as usual.” He wouldn’t find out until the next day how wrong he was.

[shewoff]

I like it so far! Good character development going on, even the dog LOL. I like a man who loves animals. And the deal with the neighbors could develop into an interesting read too. Hope to read more, lots more of this one!

She

[mnn2300]

Chapter 4

Thursday morning after Marks morning run, he decided to go out fishing again, he checked the gas level in his tank knowing he didn’t have any extra in his gas can having used the last of it to mow his yard a few days previously. He had enough for today, but would need to make a run into town and pick some up when he got back. He and Suzie spent a couple hours on the boat, Suzie was pretty good about laying down while he was fishing, but usually got excited and started barking when he pulled in a fish, overall though she was a good fishing companion. Back at the dock, after tying up, he gathered his equipment and put it in the shed and grabbed his empty gas can and put it in his SUV.

“Come on girl, let go get some gas.” He hollered and Suzie came running and jumped up into her usual shotgun position. Fifteen minutes later they were in town. Mark did a double take when he saw the sign on the first gas station; it was double what it was yesterday.”What the heck?” he said out loud. A block further was another gas station with the posted price the same as the previous station. Both stations were part of large chains. He drove a bit further to an independent station he usually used. The gas there was lower than the two large chain gas stations but only by a couple cents. While he was waiting in line to get to the pumps he spotted Les the owner and motioned him over.

“What going on with the prices?” Mark asked.
“Didn’t you hear the President’s speech last night?” Les asked him.
“Yeah, but what did it have to do with gas prices?” Mark questioned.

“All the supertankers of oil won’t be docking for a while and there’s been a lot of cases of E2 in the Middle East so there may not be any more oil tankers being loaded. I wouldn’t be surprised if gas was triple what it is today or even more if you’ll be able to buy it at all within a couple weeks.” Les said.

Mark decided he would fill up his SUV along with the 5 gallon gas can for the boat even though he still had a half tank, he wondered what people that had to commute to work every day were going to do.

Mark had felt a bit of a sinus thing coming on while they were out fishing and was developing a headache while they were in town. He decided rather than going home and fixing lunch he would just stop at one of the small town's only 2 fast food restaurants and pick up something to eat at the drive through and then to go home and take a couple of aspirins and lay down for a bit, now did he want a burger or Mexican? He ended up at the Taco shop and ordered a couple of soft shell tacos and a Coke. Never one to eat while he was driving he drove home and brought the food in with him, he waited long enough for Suzie to do her business and then tossed the fast food on the counter while he grabbed a bottle of aspirin out of the medicine cabinet. Washing a couple of aspirin down with the Coke he opened the first taco, ate about half of it and decided Mexican had not been a good idea, maybe he was coming down with something. He decided to lay down for a while, he checked the dogs bowls, refilled the water bowl, the food dish was still fine, he got undressed and lay down.

Suzie barking and whining at the door woke him up, he noted the sun had gone down as he walked to the patio door and opened it up for the dog. He felt so hot he left the patio door open while he grabbed the bottle of aspirin he had left on the counter and downed 3 of them with a glass of water. Feeling dizzy he flopped down on the couch and that was the last he remembered for a long while.

He vaguely heard a thunderstorm, then heard a large crash, it pulled him out of his sleep and he looked around the house, sweating from the fever he had, he grabbed a couple more aspirin, noticing the dogs bowls were empty again he just had the presence of mind to refill them, the bag of dog food dropping from his hand onto the floor when he was done, he left it. In a daze still he continued trying to find the source of the loud noise that woke him up. Not seeing what made the crash, he went into the bathroom and when done laid back down on the couch.

Suzie couldn’t figure out why the man wasn’t getting up, at least she could stick her head in the bag of food and eat it and she could always drink from the lake. The man smelled wrong though, she licked at his hand not knowing what else to do, she lay down next to him. Every so often he would get up and get a drink himself or go into the bathroom, sometimes he slept on the couch and sometimes on the bed, she would follow him, going outside through the open door when she had to or to drink from the lake since he hadn’t filled her bowl in days now, but always coming back to him, twice she chased an inquisitive squirrel from the house that had come in through the still open door. The man usually so attentive was still sick, all he did was sleep, she tried to nudge him when he got up to drink, trying to wake him up but he ignored her. This went on for days

When he awoke the sun was just going down, the patio door was still open and he was feeling very weak. Suzie was lying by his feet and looked up at him, he got up and walked into the bathroom, after relieving himself he washed his hands and ran some water over his face, he looked like he hadn’t shaved for a week or more, but he had just shaved the morning before when he went fishing or was that this morning?. His mind was still foggy, he seemed to remember waking at various times and noticing light and darkness, he seemed to remember a thunderstorm at one point also, he walked back to the kitchen noticing that both of the dog’s bowls were empty and the open bag of dog food laying on the floor.

How did that happen?” he mumbled to himself, “How long was I out?” he hoarsely whispered to himself as he filled the food and water bowls. Suzie came over and wolfed down the entire bowl of food and half the bowl of water.
“Sorry girl.” He said as he watched her, when she was done he refilled both bowls.

He felt hungry himself and seeing the bag with the tacos still sitting on the counter he opened it up and took one out, opening the wrapper he saw it was dried out with a greenish mold all over the tortilla. He threw the bag in the garbage.
Mark grabbed a bottle of Vitamin water from the fridge and then opened a can of soup and heated it up. He sat at the table eating it, still very much in a daze, he just knew he was hungry and felt very weak, he could barely lift the spoon to his mouth. When he finished he went back in the bedroom, thinking he had forgotten something he looked back at the living room and kitchen, he noticed the patio door was still open enough to let Suzie in and out, it was just too far to go to shut it. He flopped down in the bed again.

When he awoke the sun was high in the sky and Suzie was laying next to him on the bed.

“Hey you have your own bed.” He said hoarsely, coughing trying to clear his throat just brought up a bunch of mucus, he grabbed a facial tissue from the bedside table and coughed it into it. “Yuck” he mumbled when he was done. He stomach was growling, it felt like he hadn’t eaten in a week, but he remembered fixing some soup last night, it was last night wasn’t it? He thought to himself.
He stumbled to the kitchen, thinking to himself that he’d never felt this weak in his life. He poured himself a glass of orange juice and a bowl of cereal, the milk he poured on his cereal was from the new bottle he had bought a couple days ago – Thursday….no Wednesday, it didn’t smell bad, but it also didn’t taste fresh. Probably his taste buds. Finishing eating he left his cereal bowl and his glass on the counter, it was just too much trouble to take them to the sink. He flopped down on the couch covering up with the blanket and pillow that were there, not remembering when he had brought them out.

The sun was going down when he woke again, his mind still in a fog and his body very weak, he opened another can of soup and while it was heating grabbed a couple pieces of bread out of the bread box, looking at them he saw mold growing on the edges, he tossed the remainder of the loaf into the garbage and went to the freezer and pulled another loaf out. He popped 2 pieces into the toaster to thaw them out and ate them with his soup. After finishing his meal he looked around “What a mess” he said, but he didn’t have the energy to clean it up, instead he went into the bathroom and turned the shower on. He looked in the mirror and couldn’t figure out how his beard had grown so much in just a couple days, he got into the shower and let the warm water wash over him, The warm water felt good, he finally grabbed the soap and rubbed himself down and then once again let the warm water run all over him. After toweling off he lay down on the bed again and was asleep almost before his head hit the pillow.

He awoke again, his mind a bit clearer today, he knew he had been sick for a while, a couple of days probably, he wasn’t quite sure, but he was now getting better, his body was still extremely weak though, it was an effort to move around, he went into the bathroom and looked at his beard.” How long have I been out of it?” he said out loud. “What day is it?” best he could figure was the President’s speech was Wednesday, he got sick Thursday, he was out of it for only a couple of days he figured so this must be Sunday or maybe even Monday. His beard looked longer than that though. He was so hungry though and his body was craving protein, was he up to fixing bacon and eggs? Only one way to find out. He walked out into the kitchen – “What a mess” he said looking at the counter and the floor. He picked up the dirty dishes and placed them in the sink. He picked up the bag of dog food from the floor and refilled Suzie’s bowls.

Mark poured himself a glass of Orange Juice from a carton in the fridge and started the bacon, when it was almost done he scrambled 2 eggs, added some cheese and salt and pepper to it and dropped some bread into the toaster. He ate like he was starving, which, thinking about it, he felt he was. When he was done he rinsed the dishes and put them in the dishwasher and started it. He sat down on the couch and grabbed the remote control for the TV and turned it on. He got the “Looking for Satellite’ screen that he usually only got during storms. He turned it off, figuring he would check it in a bit. He drifted off to sleep again.

The sun was low in the sky when he woke up again, looking at the clock it said 7 PM. “Dang, what is wrong with me?” he asked out loud.

Hungry again he grabbed a couple of frozen hamburgers out of the freezer and put them on a plate in the microwave for 30 seconds to thaw them out, he then moved them to a pan on the stove, he got a couple of buns out of the freezer and set them on the counter to thaw, when you were cooking for one you tended to freeze a lot of things so you didn’t end up throwing them away. While the burgers were cooking he opened a can of baked beans and warmed them up in the microwave. When the hamburgers were done he put a piece of cheese on each burger and then the buns and put a cover on the pan for a couple minutes to melt the cheese and soften the buns. He pulled out another bottle of vitamin water from the fridge and sat at the counter once again and ate. Finishing eating he felt good enough to empty the dishwasher and put his dinner dishes in. He usually washed by hand, but he wasn’t feeling energetic enough, he was still very weak, he knew he had been sick for a few days, he couldn’t figure out why he was as weak as he was. He grabbed the remote again and turned the TV on, again he got the ‘Searching for Satellite’ screen. He went outside and looked up at his dish and immediately saw the problem, the crash he vaguely remembered hearing when it was storming was a rather large branch that crushed his dish and was still lying on the roof. He’d have to call the satellite provider in the morning. He really wanted to know what day it was so he started up his laptop, trying to pull up his homepage he got a “Page Not Found” error. Not feeling like figuring out what was wrong with his internet connection right then he double clicked on his clock in the lower right hand corner to pull up the calendar.

“It’s Saturday” he said then he saw the date “June 18th? No way!” He looked at the calendar, let’s see, the President’s speech was on Wednesday which was June 1st, that means I got sick on the 2nd -- I lost two whole weeks?” He looked for his cell phone looking for verification of the date, but it was off, he tried turning it on, but it wouldn’t come on, “Battery must have died.” he said. He put it on the charger. “How could I have been so out of it I didn’t know 2 weeks had passed?”

He still felt very weak but knew he had to work his muscles a bit, he did some stretching exercises and then got on the treadmill, he didn’t last 3 minutes on it before he had to get off, winded like a old man and his legs were weak.”Well, we’ll have to work on that.” He said.

[mnn2300]

Chapter 5

The next day he awoke to the sound of thunder and flash of lightening and heard rain falling on the roof. Suzie was lying on the bed next to him. He felt…… well how did he feel? His mind was a bit fuzzy what day was this? Oh yeah Sunday, he sat up and stretched, muscles weak but functioning, he was hungry again though, his stomach was rumbling. He got up and went to the kitchen, noticing that the dog’s bowls were empty again.
“Not much of an owner, am I girl?” he said as he filled them again, at least she didn’t wolf them down like she was starving this time.

He ate listening to the thunderstorm, his mind drifting. Finishing his meal he got up and decided to do some stretching exercises to limber up his muscles and then tried the treadmill again, he forced himself to spend 10 minutes on it and then weak-kneed he went into the bathroom and started the shower, he looked at his razor but decided against it, it would be just too much trouble shaving the way he was feeling. He stood in the shower long after he was clean, just letting the warm water wash over his tired muscles. Getting out he dried off and got dressed, he noticed his clothes were very loose on him. He was still hungry, not surprising as he probably had lost 15-20 pounds, he decided on an apple, just as he was getting one out of the fridge there was a big flash of lightening and very loud clap of thunder that sounded very close and the power flickered, went out, came back and went out again, this time it did not come back.

“Great!” he said, he looked outside making sure there was no power line down or fire since the thunder had sounded very close. Even though it was storming outside it was still light enough to see. The battery powered clock on the mantle said 11:30 A.M., he wondered how long the storm would last and how long before they got the power back on again. He picked up the phone to report the power outage but didn’t get a dial tone. He grabbed his cell phone that had been charging overnight but all he got was the ‘Looking for Service” screen and never did get any bars. Living out in the woods, power outages happened 3 or 4 times a year, usually for less than a day, but a couple times they lasted 3 or 4 days and once last winter it was almost a week. He had purchased a gas generator and had an electrical hook up for his well pump and could run his fridge and freezer and a couple of lights. From past experience he found if he ran it twice a day for a couple hours his fridge and freezer would keep everything cold and if he timed it right he would take care of his shower and dishes while the well pump was running along with anything else requiring electricity while it was running. As soon as it stopped raining he would go out and start the generator.

“Oh well, we just took a jump back a hundred years Suzie.” He said to the dog. He went into the front closet and got out 2 of his battery powered lamps, didn’t need them yet there was enough light now, but he’d probably need them tonight if the power didn't come back on before then. He had a couple of Coleman lanterns out in the garage but he wasn’t going out in the storm to get them. He grabbed a book off his nightstand and spent the afternoon in his recliner reading and yes, napping. About 3PM the storm stopped. He threw on a light jacket and went outside to make sure there were no power lines down where Suzie might run into them, not finding any, he opened the door and let her out.

He walked out to the garage where the generator was, made sure the exhaust pipe to the outside was attached tightly and not blocked, checked and filled its gas tank and checked its oil, then satisfied, he started it up. He had a direct link to the well pump, the fridge and freezer, and the main over head light in each room in the house along with one garage light and one patio light. He also had a power strip in the house hooked up to the generator that he could plug things into as needed. He set a timer for 2 hours, the length of time he had found he needed to run the generator twice a day to keep food cold in the fridge and freezer. By the time he got back to the house he was winded again. “That’s what you get for sleeping for two weeks.” he told himself. Nevertheless he got back on the treadmill for another 10 minutes then worked with free weights for an additional 10 minutes, he promised himself that he would exercise twice a day until he was back to his old endurance level. Having a gas stove and water heater he was not worried about cooking himself a meal, although he would have to watch his water usage while the generator was off since he had a well pump. He grabbed a couple of buckets of water for flushing the toilet later after the generator was off and decided he was hungry enough to eat again.

He figured he would get up the next morning and go into town and report the power outage if it wasn’t back on by the morning and also arrange to have his satellite dish replaced, his illness had other idea’s though and by morning his fever had came back. This time the illness was not as bad as before, he never lost any days, at least he didn’t think he had, but he was mostly stuck in bed for the next 5 days, getting up only to feed and let the dog out and occasionally drink some juice or broth. On the morning of the sixth day he once again was able to hold down real food, although looking in the mirror he was very thin, he didn’t own a scale but he knew he had lost at least 20 pounds and being a runner he hadn’t started with a whole lot of extra weight.

It took him 3 more days to build up his strength enough that he trusted himself enough to drive into town, he needed more gas for the generator anyway. Checking the calendar on his laptop today was Monday June 27th, it had been 26 days since the President’s speech, it was also 25 days since he had any contact with the outside world since his satellite, computer and cell phone was down. Come to think of it, while there never was very much traffic on this road, he really didn’t remember any recently, not unusual, he was a ways off the road and had been sick, he probably wouldn’t have noticed if a parade had gone by his house.

Remembering what Les at the gas station said about the price of gasoline he wondered what the cost would be up to by now. He decided to leave Suzie at home since he’d have to make a number of stops, first on his list was the power company, it had been a whole week now and the power still wasn’t back on. Also he needed to stop at the phone/wireless internet company, and the satellite dealer. He also wanted to refill the 5 gal can for gas for the generator. He’d also stop at the grocery and pick up some milk and bread and maybe replace all the soups and juice he had gone through in the last few weeks.

His mailbox was on the main road as was everyone else’s on the lake road, he pulled over figuring it would be packed full after not getting it for almost a month. There was only about 10 items in it.

“That’s strange.” He said to himself, looking at the postmarks all were for the first week in June. Seeing nothing vitally important he tossed the mail into the passenger seat and continued on his way. Coming up on the first gas station on the outskirts of town he still hadn’t see any other cars. The price on the sign for a gallon of regular unleaded read $27.959. “Wow! Les was right; no wonder I haven’t seen anyone else on the road – who can afford that? That’s going to be close to $140 for 5 gallons for the generator. Getting into the town proper he didn’t see anyone walking either and there was a lot of trash on the streets. He pulled into the parking lot at the power company. There was only one other car in the lot. Mark felt a shiver run up his spine. He opened the door into the office and saw someone sitting with his back towards the door.

“Excuse me?” Mark said. The figure did not turn around.
“Hello” Mark said louder, the figure still did not move. Mark went around the side of the desk and saw a man sitting there, obviously dead for days, bugs were at work, Mark backed away quickly not quite making it out the door before puking his breakfast up.

“Geeze! What the hell?” The police station was 2 doors down; he ran over to it and opened the door.
“I need some help here!” he yelled. No one answered. Mark looked over the counter and saw a body in a police uniform laying behind the counter, he heard flies buzzing. Not looking at the body he went behind the counter, down the hallway, he saw another dead cop slumped across a desk in an office.

“Hello!” Mark shouted, “Is anyone here?” he continued down the hall to a solid looking door, he opened it and saw 4 jail cells, he saw bodies in 2 of them, he heard the flies buzzing here also, he turned and ran out of the station and dry heaved in the parking lot.

“Oh my God, what happened?” he screamed “E2, it must have hit here. Oh my God!” He ran back to his SUV climbed in and locked the doors and sat there hyperventilating. After about 15 minutes he calmed down enough to drive away. The power was still on in town and he still needed gas for the generator so he pulled into the convenience store advertising $27.959 a gallon. The pump wouldn’t start until he scanned his credit card, something that took a few tries as his hands were shaking, finally getting it scanned he filled up the 5 gallon can looking around cautiously as he did so. He looked around and didn’t see any other dead bodies, after putting the can of gas next to his car door he cautiously walked up to the door of the Convenience store and opened it.

“Anyone here?” he asked cautiously “please don’t let any bodies be here.” He said softly, “no more bodies please”. He heard flies buzzing from behind the counter but he didn’t look.

“Nope, if I don’t see it, it’s not really there, it’s just flies buzzing.” He walked down the back aisle and grabbed the only two gas cans they had, he saw some small jars of Stabil© which would make the gas stable for longer and grabbed those too, he thought of grabbing some food but all they had here was junk food and the files buzzing .

“No, no, no, don’t want any of that.” He said almost running out the door.

He filled the two gas cans full and just because he could, he filled his SUV as full as he could – it only took 2 gallons since he had hardly driven since he filled it last. Putting the filled gas cans on the floor of the back seat he peeled out of the gas station.

[jtpatriot]

Great story and characters. I kind of like a guy who talks to himself on occasion. Hope the Doc is alright, gotta believe she is.

[mnn2300]

Yeah, at this point in the story he only has himself and the dog to talk to.

[mnn2300]

Chapter 6

He almost missed the turn off for the lake road and had to slam on the brakes at the last minute, he still over shot it and had to back up about 20 feet before he could make the turn, he sped down the lake road and whipped into his driveway, he parked in front of the garage and sat there trembling for a good 5 minutes before he could get out.

He forced his breathing to slow down and put his brain in neutral, he had to get the cans of gas out of the SUV and fill the generator and then get into the house. He managed to get all three done, and half running into the house, he threw all the locks on the door and poured himself a scotch.

“It must have been E2, Oh my God, no more dead bodies please.” He said out loud.

Suzie put her head on his leg and was wagging her tail knowing the man was excited not understanding why. Mark started rubbing her head and eventually it helped to calm him down a bit. Having lost the contents of his stomach earlier he started to feel the effects of the scotch quickly.

He didn’t watch a lot of network TV but he had a couple shows each week set to record on the Satellite systems DVR. Even though he couldn’t get a satellite signal the DVR would have recorded any shows set to record before the dish was broken. He unlocked the door and went to the garage and started the generator. Back in the house he got an extension cord and plugged in the DVR and the TV and started watching. The first show that was recorded on the DVR was on the day after he got sick and the recording was really the actual show, the next thing set to record was the Baseball game on the next Monday night and that’s where he got the first of the news about what had happened. The baseball game and in fact all public gatherings had been cancelled, there was a national quarantine in effect, only emergency personal were allowed out and only on their way to and from their work, the National Guard had been called out to enforce the quarantine. From what the newscasters were saying E2 had been reported in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia on Friday. Friday night the President declared Martial Law and put the quarantine in effect for that night, it was too late though.

Mark watched it until they started repeating the same information for the 2nd and 3rd times, he then switched to the next show set to record, that would have been on the following Friday one week after the previous recording, this is where it got interesting, what he saw was an sign saying just “Emergency Broadcast” but the sound was a 10 minute sound loop in a typical Government broadcasters voice, urging calm, and reminding everyone to stay where they were, anyone on the streets would be subject to arrest, anyone caught looting would be shot. Remain calm; a vaccine is coming, tune your radio to the local Emergency Station for local instructions. Mark listened to it all the way through twice before moving to the next recording, it also was a repeat of the last one, in fact everything else he watched right up until his satellite dish got smashed was the same “Emergency Broadcast”

That was one thing he hadn’t even thought of, his radio, he really didn’t listen to the radio very much other than occasionally a ball game but that was about it. He turned on his radio and started going up and down the dial. Nothing but static, what was the local emergency station? Probably WCCO out of Minneapolis, it was probably the most powerful of the local radio stations, he turned it to the AM dial and tuned it to 830 – nothing but static, he went up and down both the AM and FM dials and got nothing but static.

“What now?” he said to himself. “Surely there are other people alive, I should try to find them, but please God, no more dead bodies with the bugs and flies.”

Mark poured himself another drink and since he had lost his breakfast earlier and hadn’t eaten anything since then, the alcohol made him tipsy and then sleepy. He awoke about 8 PM with a slight headache and fixed himself something to eat. He decided since he was still very weak from his illness that he would take some time gaining his strength back and some of his weight back before going out and trying to find others. He spent the next week eating and exercising and trying to build up his strength and turn his brain off, he was waking up in the night every night during the week, but instead of his wife’s accident waking him up, it was the dead bodies and the flies - always the buzzing flies he saw. The alcohol only helped a bit.

[mnn2300]

Chapter 7

He worked both his strength and his courage up to the point where he was ready to go out trying to find people. He thought he would start with his next door neighbor’s house, the only people he actually knew from more than just a quick nod on the road. Walking next door he saw that their car was there, he didn't know if that was good or bad. He knocked on the front door, waited a minute and knocked again, still no one answer, he tried the door knob, it was unlocked. He opened the door and shouted "Anyone home?, Hello!"

No one answered, opening the door further he saw a large black plastic bag on the tile floor a few feet away from the door. He gasped when he realized it was a body bag, seeing a piece of paper on it he walked up to it and saw written on it was 'Margaret Johansson, age 59, Died June 8th of E2' Looking around he saw a piece of paper on the dining room table a few feet away. There was a 2nd body bag folded up on the table.

"We left the city two days after the Presidents first announcement hoping to shelter here until everything blew over, it was too late, we were already infected. I don't know how long the incubation period is before you start showing signs of illness, but once you do, it's all over in 2 or 3 days. Margaret came down with it on the 6th and died today, the 8th. I'm feeling it now but was able to get her into a body bag the government handed out but I'm too weak to bury her, I am going to lay down and rest, hopefully it will pass and I can bury my dear wife."

Mark had some tears in his eyes as he read this and knew he would need to bury Margaret, he also was not looking forward to going into the bedroom.

--
Bret had indeed, laid down on the bed and had died there. The house being cool, the smell wasn't too bad but there were already signs of decay. Mark steeled his will and rather than trying to pick up Brett, he dragged the blanket he was laying on off the bed, having already gotten the body bag from the table and laid it out on the bedroom floor, Bret's body hit the floor with a bump.

"Sorry." Mark said out loud, he then rolled Bret's body into the 2nd body bag and dragged the body out near the front door with the other body. ""Now what?" Mark wondered what he should do with the bodies, the land around here was rocky, it would probably take the rest of the day to dig a hole big enough for both bodies, but yet that would be the right thing to do. The towns cemetery was just down the next county road, he could take the bodies there, surely they had digging equipment, he could figure out how it worked and bury them there. He didn't really want to put them in his SUV though. He decided to drive down to the cemetery and get things ready, maybe they had a hearse or something he could put them into to move them.

He walked back to his house, got into his SUV and a couple minutes later was at the gate of the cemetery. He gasped at what he saw, there was an Army truck there and a bulldozer that had obviously opened and then mostly closed a 100' long trench near the back fence line, there was a dump truck parked at the far end of it. Realizing what had happened he was glad he hadn't eaten breakfast that morning. He got out of the SUV and walked up to the trench, there was still about 20 feet of it uncovered, he could see body bags sticking out of the dirt at the edge if it. Apparently a mass grave had been dug by the Army or the National Guard and they were using dump trucks to carry the bodies and then the dozer pushed the dirt back on top. He saw a couple of bodies laying on the ground in protective biological hazard suits with respirators on, it hadn't helped, they were dead also. He felt his stomach churning again and turned away from the trench. Looking at the office building for the cemetery he saw what had to be the groundskeeper’s pickup. He walked over to it, it was unlocked, he opened the door, and checked to see if the keys were in the ignition, they were not. He opened the center console but they were not there either, he flipped down the visor and the keys dropped onto the floor. He sighed, he wasn't sure he could do this, nevertheless, he started the truck up and drove to his neighbors house, parking the truck as close as he could to the door. Bret had still been dressed as he lay dead on the bed, and Mark had not seen any keys laying around. He knew he needed to check Bret's pockets for keys, he just wished he had thought of that before he zipped up his body bag.

"Oh God, get over it, it's just a dead body, the faster you do it the faster it'll be done and you can get on with it." Mark told himself. He bent over the body bag, hesitated another minute then unzipped it. Slowly pulling the bag away from the body he reached inside the pockets. He found the keys, he zipped the bag up again and laid the keys on the dining room table on top of the note that Bret had written before he died.

It took him 20 very uncomfortable minutes to load the bodies in the back of the truck, Since the Johansson's had solar and wind power, everything in their house was still working, Mark went back inside and washed his hands and looked in the fridge and got out a bottle of water and drank it. He was not looking forward to the next part. Driving back to the cemetery he backed up as close to the trench as he dared and worked the bodies out and into it. He decided he also needed to drag the other bodies, the two in the bio hazard suits, into the trench before something ripped their suits and they became a bio hazard themselves.

When he got the last of the bodies into the trench he looked over at the bulldozer, he had never operated one in his life, he was a software developer not a construction worker, besides he may need to bury more bodies. He got into his SUV and drove home, that was enough for that day, he was exhausted. He started the generator and then he took off his clothes on the deck and walked naked into the house to the shower, scrubbing himself over and over until he once again felt clean. After drying off and getting dressed he poured himself 3 fingers of scotch neat and tried to decide whether to wash the clothes he had been wearing today or just burn them. Something was tugging in the back of his mind but he couldn't figure out what it was. Feeling hungry but not knowing if his stomach would hold anything big after what he had seen and had done today, he opened a can of soup and heated it up. If he kept that down and still felt hungry he could fix himself something else later.

He noted he only had a couple cans of soup left, "Been going through it kinda fast, haven't you?" He said to himself, "and you've been talking to yourself too."

"Well I'm going to have to go into town and stock up sooner or later, I guess tomorrow morning would be good." He said out loud, giving himself a specific time to do something helped he had found the last couple weeks, otherwise he'd put it off as long as possible.

[mnn2300]

Chapter 8

The following morning Mark awoke and got dressed, he was hungry but didn't want a full stomach just in case he had to deal with more bodies, he fixed himself some toast and put some jelly on it, washed it down with a cup of coffee. He went out and filled the generator with gas, emptying his 5 gal gas can and putting it in the back of his SUV, he would fill it again and see if he could find any more gas cans, he didn't know how long the power would stay on, if it even was.

"Well how are you going to get gas if the powers out?" he asked himself.

Thinking about it for a couple of minutes he decided he should be able to find a siphon at the auto parts store in town, probably a few more gas cans too. He added it to his list of things to get.

"OK, you've stalled long enough, let's get moving." He said out loud to encourage himself.

He started his vehicle and drove to town, it still looked the same as before, appeared the power was still on.
"Hmm, that’s strange." he thought to himself. "I'm still going to try to find a siphon and extra gas cans." he said pulling into the auto parts store.

He walked up to the door and saw the Closed sign, pulling on the door, it was locked.

"Hmmm what now? Break in?" he wondered. "With what?" like most modern drivers with newer vehicles he really didn't carry any tools with him. He walked over to his SUV and opened the back, lifted up the carpeting and lid over his spare and saw his tire iron, would that do it he wondered? He grabbed it and walked back to the door, he tried using it as a pry bar between the edge of the door and the frame but that wasn't going to do it., turning it over to hold the end, he swung it at the window, it took a chip out of it, but the window remained intact. He took a harder swing and this time the door shattered, immediately a shrill alarm went off.

"Oh Shit" he shouted, looking around to see if anyone was coming to see what he was doing. He looked around, spotting a bull horn style speaker as the source of the shrill alarm he took his crowbar to it, 3 mighty swings later the alarm died. He stood looking outside to see if anyone was still alive and coming to see what all the noise was about, after 3 or 4 minutes he decided he was all alone in town. He wasn't sure if he was relieved or disappointed.

Looking around the store it took him a couple minutes to find a siphon, basically a long clear hose with a pump ball on one end, there were 2 models, he took the one with the longer hose hoping it would reach the gas in the stations underground tank when he needed it, he had no clue how deep they were buried. He also found 6 more gas cans and a small display of Stabil©, he loaded these all into a shopping cart and took one last look around, he spotted some tools and grabbed a large hammer in case he needed it at the grocery store to break in and headed out to his SUV with his items. Next stop was the grocery store.

Mark pulled into the grocery store's parking lot and saw that he would not need the hammer, the front door had already been broken, it looked like someone had driven their car into it as the frame was on the ground and all the glass was shattered. It must have happened well into the quarantine as no one had come to board it up. Mark was cautious as he entered the store stepping over the glass from the shattered door. Taking a cart he started going through the aisles as if he was on a normal shopping trip.

The store was very disorganized, some stuff was on the floor, shelves had not been restocked, what was left of the bread was moldy, the dairy was spoiled, the produce for the most part wilted, he did find some root vegetables and some fruit worth taking and placed those in the bags he had placed in his cart. When he got to the meat aisle he had to hold his nose as the meat had long expired, turning away he started going up the aisles, he had a bit better luck there, at least the store had not been completely looted like he had feared when he had first pulled up and saw the broken door. He loaded his cart with; pasta's, rice, beans, canned fruits and veggies. The selection was not as good as it usually was, but there was still some variety. He pushed the cart up near the door and grabbed another, then another and even a fourth, loading them with the bottled vitamin water he liked, toilet paper, flour and sugar, dog food, soaps and paper towels. Walking down the freezer aisle he saw the freezers still running. 'Why is the power still on in town?' he asked himself for about the 3rd time, thanking his lucky stars it was, the question however was bugging him until he remembered the dam on the river just up the road about 4 miles north of town. "So we could have power here for quite a while, or at least til the next storm comes through and knocks down a power line.

He decided to take the carts out to his vehicle and load it to see how much more room he had, he still needed to stop at the gas station and fill the gas cans he had gotten at the auto parts store. As high as he had piled the carts he had just about filled his SUV. He decided to get the gasoline and then take this load home and come back for more.

At the gas station he opened all the gas cans and set them by the pump and started filling them, again he hadn't used very much gas in the SUV but since the power was still on he was determined to keep it full, it only took 3 gallons to refill it, he placed the caps on the gas cans and started to load them, he got 4 cans loaded when he heard growling, he quickly looked around and saw 4 large dogs inching towards him, two of the dogs were shorthaired, he could see their ribs sticking out, he took a step towards the open door of is SUV leaving the last 2 cans on the ground by the pump, the dogs charged him.

[patience]

OOOOOH boy. Hope this guy can duck into the truck right quick.

Wonder how the lady Vet came out of this? Hope she's okay.

Got me hooked...

[mnn2300]

Chapter 9

Mark made it into the SUV and slammed the door with about a 1/2 second to spare, he sat there for a minute while the dogs jumped up on the side of the vehicle trying to get at him; 2 Rottweiler's, and a couple of large mutt's of some kind. There was no way he was going to be able to get the remaining 2 cans of gas, he decided to drive away, easier said than done as the door he had jumped in was the passenger side, he had 4 cans of gas on the floor and his center console to climb over, it took him a bit of maneuvering but a couple minutes later he was in the driver's seat while the dogs still skulked hungrily outside. He put the car in drive and pulled away, leaving the 2 cans of gasoline on the ground near the pump, the dogs chased him for a little ways, then gave up as he speeded up. He was going to have to find a gun for protection. He was glad he hadn't brought Suzie as he was sure she would have tried to protect him and would have surely lost to the 4 big brutes. What was he going to do? He didn't have a gun at home, hadn't even shot one since summer camp when he was 12 or 13, was there a gun store in town even? Maybe the hardware store? He didn't know, but he was going to have to start being armed.

He also thought about the freezers being on at the store, he could bring home a bunch of frozen items, but he had just had the chest freezer and it was almost half full already and he was running off a generator to boot. He unloaded the SUV while he thought about it.

"Wait a minute." He said to himself, "The Johansson's next door have both solar and wind power and its working and I seem to remember them having a freezer in the kitchen." He let Suzie out and then grabbed the keys he had taken off of Mr. Johansson and Mark and Suzie walked next door.

"Yes, power is still on and they have a large upright freezer in the kitchen" he said, opening it up, it was about 1/2 full, mainly meats, some frozen vegetables, a couple containers of ice cream: mint chocolate chip and cherry vanilla.

Mark decided to look around, the last time he had been inside other than to find and bury the owners was last summer and that was just a short tour, this time he wanted to really see the place. The kitchen was at the west end of the earth sheltered home, well actually that wasn't quite true, there was a small room off of it on the west side with the batteries and inverter for the power system, it also had the heater and pump for the under floor heating system and Mark saw, the room housed the homes water pump and pressure tank also. The room was only about half as deep as the house was.

The first room back inside the house was the combination kitchen and dining room. The kitchen was at the rear of the home, and the dining area in front towards the large windows. The kitchen was pretty standard although it had all top of the line appliances, granite counter tops, what looked like cherry wood cabinets. The back wall held the freezer, fridge, a counter and the stove; all looked to be restaurant quality, there was a broom closet large enough to walk into on the west end and floor to ceiling cupboards on the east end. A center island with sink, dishwasher and plenty of counter space and under counter storage. The cupboards held what Mark assumed was high end china, he doubted that it was from Target as his was. The food looked like the stuff his parents had in their cupboard: bran cereal, quite a few baking supplies, crackers, a couple packages of chips and cookies of various sorts, some boxed side dishes of scalloped potatoes, rice dishes, some glass jars that held pasta of various sorts, some canned goods. Looking in the cabinets under this island, he saw a number of pots and pans, a slow cooker, a bread machine, "Hmm may have to try that." Mark thought to himself having run out of his frozen bread a few days earlier. There was also a microwave and toaster on the counter. On the opposite side of the island were 4 stools and a few feet further was an expensive looking wooden table and 4 padded chairs, Mark remembered seeing a couple of leaves for it in the large broom closet so the table was the expandable kind.

The next room to the east was the living room; couch, love seat, recliner, wide screen TV, fireplace, again all very high quality furniture. At the rear east side of the living room was a 5 or 6 foot opening to a hallway, the hallway was about 10 or 12 foot wide and there was a half bath right off the living room in it, then the hallway opened to its full depth, it was actually more of a library as there were bookshelves and a couple of oversized stuffed chairs in it, there were also 2 skylights, one near each end, letting in a surprising amount of light, at the far end was a massive built in desk.

There were 3 doors off of the hallway leading to bedrooms, the first two had a Jack and Jill bathroom between them, one was set up as a sewing room, the other was a guest bedroom, then the master bedroom with its own bathroom, this was the largest room, it was also where he had found Bret earlier in the week. Looking in the large walk-in closet, he spotted a gun safe, it was locked. Mark pulled out the keys he had taken from Brett and one of them fit. Opening it he saw 3 rifles, but they looked much different than the 22’s he learned on in summer camp, and also 3 handguns, he really knew next to nothing about guns, so he didn't even know what kind they were or what caliber, there were four ammo cases on the bottom shelf. He opened those up and saw that two of the cases were filled with what the boxes inside said was 9mm ammo, there were drawings of handguns on the boxes, so he figured that must be what the handguns were, the other two boxes held what the boxes said were 5.56mm and since the drawings on these showed rifles, he figured that’s what those were for. Maybe he could find some books and learn about these. Summer camp hadn't taught him anything about handguns or this type of rifle. He looked in the drawer at the bottom of the cabinet and saw the owner’s manuals for the guns.

According to the manuals the rifles were Smith & Wesson M&P Sport AR-15 Rifle and the handguns were Smith and Wesson 9mm M&P 9L. Well, he had heard of Smith and Wesson, but he had no clue what the M&P stood for. Sad to say, he saw the need for a gun, but knew next to nothing about them.

“Damn it, why me? I’m not a survivalist, I don’t know anything about guns!” he yelled. Suzie, who had been lying on the floor near him, ears perked up and she whined.
“Sorry girl, I’m just frustrated.” He told her.
He grabbed one of the handguns, a manual for it, a holster that was on the bottom of the gun safe, and a box of bullets to take back to the house with him and then locked the gun safe again.

He decided to spend the afternoon learning to use the hand gun he had brought back to his house. He sat on the deck overlooking the lake and read the manual all the way through comparing the diagrams in the book to the actual gun. The manual actually was very good and helped him a lot. He then went back through the manual actually following through on the procedures of loading and unloading the magazine, checking the chamber, and everything else. Satisfied that he knew everything the manual could teach him, he put a couple of empty plastic water bottles on a stump about 40 feet away from the deck, by the time he got back to the deck they had both blown off the stump.

“Ok, dumb idea, let’s put some water in them. He got a couple more empties from the trash, filled them halfway with water and walked them out to the stump, picked up the 2 empties from the ground and brought them back to the house. Not knowing what Suzie's reaction to the gun firing would be he put her in the house and walked back to the deck.

He picked up the handgun, aimed it at the first bottle, pulled the trigger and shot the gun, missing the target, the kick of the gun forced his arm up a bit. Thinking back to his old summer camp lessons he remembered he was supposed to take a breath and then let a little of it out and squeeze the trigger rather than pulling it. Could he steady the gun with his other hand? Yes, it felt a bit awkward but he could do so. He aimed again, took a breath and let a bit of it out, he gently squeezed the trigger, and actually hit one of the bottles – it wasn’t the one he was aiming at but it was only about 2 inches away from the one he was aiming at. 3 more misses and then he hit the 2nd bottle.

“Not bad for a rookie.” He said to himself. He grabbed 4 more empty bottles, filled them half full of water so they had some weight to them and walked them out to the stump. This time he got some practice filling the magazine. The four bottles took him 14 bullets but he believed he was close on all of the shots, so he was pretty satisfied that he could take out one of those dog's that had attacked him if he had to. He removed the magazine from the gun, cleared the chamber per the instruction manual, he then refilled the magazine. He then brought everything into the house and made a spot in a kitchen drawer for the gun and magazine. From here on out he would not leave the house without it, that was too close of a call with the dogs this morning.
It was after 4 PM when he was done, feeling better about his abilities now and having only had some cookies he had grabbed from the store for lunch, he fixed himself a meal. After eating, he decided he needed a plan.


He needed to do another trip to the grocery store and wanted to start raiding the freezer section, but he didn’t have a whole lot of space. He would go to the appliance store in town where he had bought his freezer from and pick up another one and put it at the Johansson’s, he wondered how much capacity their power system had, he didn’t want to over load it. Well, there was a control panel on their battery/inverter set up, he could bring one freezer home and see what that did and maybe get a second one. Ok, he would need a truck for that. He thought back to the pickup at the cemetery. It was close enough that he could jog to it, something he wasn’t looking forward to, and then drive it back here. He still had over 3 hours of daylight left and he figured he could jog to the cemetery in about 15 minutes. Best to do it now so he could get an early start in the morning, he’d finish his list of things to do when he got back. He changed into his running clothes and strapped on his new holster, he loaded the magazine into the gun and double checked to make sure the safety was on.

He decided he would take Suzie with him as he really hadn’t had her out for any long runs since before he had gotten sick. He did a few stretching exercises on the deck, then took off at a slow pace to warm up. “Come on Girl” he said. Suzie paced him at his side. He kept his slow pace for about a quarter of a mile, then picked up his pace a bit. He had just gotten to the top of the hill on the lake road he lived on and could see the main highway from there and saw a black pick-up truck heading south away from Avery on the main highway.

“Hey! Hey! Wait!” he yelled, waving his arms trying to get them to notice him, but no one in the truck heard or saw him and by the time he got to the highway the truck was gone.

“Shit!” he yelled. “Come back!” but the truck was gone. “Come on girl!” he told Suzie as he took off at full speed for the cemetery, he would get the Pickup truck from the cemetery and head after the truck he had seen. The cemetery was only about a 10 minute run from where he was, he made it in 7 minutes, he got into the truck and started it, Suzie riding shotgun. He got to the main highway and headed south. The problem was this was a main highway with a number of roads intersecting it, the next nearest town was Jackson 12 miles away. He slowed down at every road that crossed the highway, but didn’t see the truck, problem was that it had at least a 10 minute head start and he had no clue where it was going.

He continued on and slowed as he reached Jackson, across the main road leading into town was a line of vehicles blocking the road, he stopped about 50 feet from the blockade and got out of the truck, he stood behind the open door for a couple minutes, trying to see if there was anyone at the blockade. Not seeing anyone he hollered “Hello! Anyone there?”

Not getting an answer he slowly walked forward. “Hello!” Still no answer, he walked around the line of vehicles slowly and saw 2 dead men in the back of one of the trucks blockading the road, with rifles lying near them, he looked around, didn’t see any one else, living or dead, he got close enough to see they didn’t have any obvious wounds, it appeared they died from E2 while guarding the road, it made some sense, except for the incubation period, they were no doubt already long infected before it even showed.” He said to himself. Looking around he saw a few tire tracks down in the ditch, obviously a few people had gone around the road block. Mark wondered if any of the tracks were recent. Did he go on or head back? By now he probably had no chance of finding whoever it was in the pickup. At least he knew he was not the last person on the planet anymore and that raised his spirits a bit.

“Come on Girl, let’s go home.” he said walking back to the truck.

- - -

Mark was moving towards the truck with Suzie at his side when the shot rang out, he felt the bullet go into his back, the force of the bullet made him turn as he fell to the ground he saw the truck he had see earlier with a man with a rifle pointed at him standing near it, the last thing he heard was Suzie barking at him, urging him to get up.

[mnn2300]

Chapter 10

Suzie was barking at him, urging him to get up, his blankets were all askew like he had been struggling in his sleep.

The clock at the side of the bed read 3:10 AM, he was drenched in sweat, Suzie was on the floor next to the bed. He quickly felt for any bullet holes or blood but didn't find any.

“Wow, what a nasty dream. I guess with E2 and the bodies, and the dogs and the guns, seeing that pickup yesterday did a number on my dreams” He said.

He got up, walked to the bathroom, turned on the flashlight he had started keeping on the counter after the power went out and looked into the mirror.

"You look like crap." He said to himself running some cold water over his face. After relieving himself, he pulled on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt and slipped on his tennis shoes, poured himself 3 fingers of scotch neat, opened the door and walked out onto his deck, sat down in his chair, staring over the lake.

Talking to himself, something that was happening more and more lately, he said. “Well it appears the old psyche doesn’t think too much of my chasing after the pickup or going up to the barricade last night. I suppose E2 didn’t discriminate on who it left alive, there will be good as well as bad people who survived, so how do I find the good and stay away from the bad?”

He heard some rustling out in the bushes, probably a raccoon but he got up and went inside and locked the door. He finished his drink, grabbed the gun out of the kitchen drawer and brought it into his bedroom, he went out and double checked his doors to make sure they were locked

“Ok, its official, I spooked myself.” He said. He lay in bed staring at the ceiling for quite a while trying to think of a safe way to hook up with other people, he didn’t come up with an answer.

By 10 AM the following day he was at the appliance store in town, he had both Suzie with him and his handgun, just in case. While he had spooked himself during the night he was much more relaxed today. He still hadn’t come up with a way to hook up with other people safely yet, but he was in no hurry. He had a number of things to do, right now he was going to load a freezer in the back of the cemeteries pickup truck he had ‘appropriated’ and get it set up at the Johansson's house next door, he was also going to fill up the pickup with gas and pick up the 2 cans he had left when the dogs attacked yesterday morning.

Then he would come back to the grocery store and do some shopping, he also wanted to hit the hardware store at some point, to see if they had any more bullets and he also figured he would have to get into gardening big time next spring so he might as well stock upon everything he could now, get some garden beds ready and from past experience of his first summer living here, he would need to fence them in also. At some point he would no doubt need to head to a larger town, maybe even the Twin Cities, but he’d do what he could here first.

Mark debated whether to get another chest type freezer or an upright, but really liked the fact that chest freezers would keep the cold air in with the door open better than an upright, they were however harder to move around. He found the one he wanted and after struggling a bit got it loaded and tied down. ‘So far so good’ he thought, he pulled into the gas station and immediately saw that his gas cans were missing.

“Great!” he said, whoever was in the truck last night got his gas cans he figured. He filled the truck up with gas and headed for the Johansson's, 40 minutes later he had the freezer unloaded and placed on the side of the dining area against the wall and plugged in. He went into the battery room and checked the gauges to see how much capacity the system still had. Apparently Bret had built in a lot of excess capacity into the system as it really appeared he could add another freezer with no problem, of course he wasn’t living here and there was almost nothing turned on. He looked around and wondered if this would be a better place to live, certainly had much more room, he could turn one bedroom into storage and another into his workout room. Maybe later, this winter it would probably be a good idea, but he was happy where he was, he could still use this place for storage. He decided he would get another freezer, but would fill this one first and then see what time he was done doing that and then pick up another either later today or tomorrow morning.

Heading back to the grocery store with Suzie this time, he remembered the broken glass in the entry, leaving Suzie in the car he went into the store to the aisle that had brooms and got one and swept all the glass to one side, he then got Suzie out of the SUV, went into the store and grabbed a cart and some bags and headed for the freezer aisle. He concentrated on meats and ended up with a lot of frozen hamburger, sausage, turkey, and chicken and got a cart and a half with just those, he figured it would take another 2 - 3 carts to fill up the new freezer and finish filling his and the Johansson's freezer, he then started on the family sized dinners' trays of lasagna, beef and gravy, Salisbury steak and ice cream. Deciding he probably had enough he rolled the carts out to the SUV and started loading them. When he was almost done Suzie started barking and started to run down the road. Mark reached for his gun and yelled, "Suzie! Come!, Suzie!"

[mnn2300]

Chapter 11

Suzie, stopped running down the road but continued her barking, she looked back at Mark and then turned and barked some more, by this time the two deer that had started her barking were 1/4 mile further down the road, using main street as an easy path to wherever they were going.

"Come here girl!" Mark yelled again, Suzie ran back to him this time.
"What would you do with one if you caught it?" He asked her. She cocked her head as if trying to figure out what he was saying, then turned her head and barked again, having to get the last word in.

"Yeah, you really showed them." Mark said chuckling. He finished loading the SUV and opened the door and got in after Suzie assumed her now normal 'shotgun position' in the passenger seat. Back at the Johansson's he filled the freezers, moving some items from the Johansson's upright to the new chest freezer to keeps similar things together, he brought a number of things over to the freezer in his house. Too bad he couldn't have gotten some of the fresh meats and frozen them, but they had expired long before he had gotten over his sickness. He thought eventually he should round up a few cows for dairy and meat, but he knew nothing about cow's. He could read up on it, too bad the internet is not up, he thought, again. Well libraries were still around, Avery had a small one, Jacksons was larger and he could always drive into the cities, although the thought of driving into Minneapolis or St Paul with its three million people probably all dead was not something he wanted to do, of course he could probably find people there, living people, even if E2 had a 99.9% mortality rate, that would mean out of 1 million people, 1000 people would still be alive and the Twin Cities had close to 3 million people in the metropolitan area. That would mean 3000 people still alive, but again, how do you separate the good from the bad people? There were as likely to be gang bangers and druggies as there were to be good family values type people. No, he would need to do a lot more thinking on that before he'd head into the cities.

It was a little past noon and he fixed himself lunch, when he finished eating, he knew he had plenty of time to get another freezer and load it up too. The sky was clouding up but it didn't feel like rain yet, so he and Suzie got into the pickup and headed back to the appliance store, the rest of the afternoon was spent as the morning was, he got the 2nd freezer set up in the Johansson's dining room and then went back to the store and loaded up carts, figuring the second freezer was all the Johansson's power system could handle he was choosy about what he took, outside he heard that it had started raining. At some point in the day he realized that he should also grab all the salt and pepper he could or meals would be mighty boring after a while, so he loaded up a few bags with that and also other spices. Looking around he saw that there really was a lot more items he could grab, and figured he would make another trip tomorrow if the rain had stopped. He loaded the truck, getting soaked in the process and unloaded it at the Johansson's getting even wetter. Rather than walking over to his place he drove, Suzie was soaked too, so he grabbed a towel and dried her off, then he took off his clothes and hopped into the shower, having already started his generator up while he was unloading the SUV.

What started out as a light rain turned into a pretty good thunderstorm during the night but had passed through by morning and by mid morning the sun was drying everything out. Mark and Suzie headed to town, planning to make another haul from the grocery store, he wanted to finish up with the grocery store today so he could start on a couple other projects. He wanted to get the garden ready for next year and get a small greenhouse up, he would need to fence the garden or he would lose it again and now it wouldn't be just inconvenient, it could be a matter of life and death. There was also a nursery down in Jackson he wanted to see if they had any fruit tree's left, and of course check out the town while he was there, he also needed to check out the library for books on livestock. This was starting to sound like a lot of work.


It actually took Mark 2 days to clear out the store of everything he wanted, but then he stopped and made some shelves to put the items on. The room at the Johansson's that was set up as a sewing room, he cleared out, actually he put everything into the small walk-in closet in that room and then lined the walls with shelves, floor to ceiling and organized what he brought in. He still had a large pile of items in the middle of the room, but he could live with that for now. Another thing he had done was to raid the local library for everything he could find on gardening, farming and livestock.

The following day he and Suzie took a trip to Jackson, he drove the pickup as his major interest today, beside scouting was to see if the nursery had any fruit trees that he could plant, he took the caution of taking one of the other handguns and put it in the center console of the truck beside the one he always had in his holster whenever he left home, he also had extra magazines with him having learned his lesson not only from the dogs in Avery but also he was cautious due to a couple of dreams he had had. While he wanted to find people, he only wanted to find good people and he knew E2 hadn't picked and chosen its victims based on his desires.

This time when he got to the blockade he drove down through the ditch to get around it, luckily for him the ditch was not too steep and he had no trouble making down and back up again, eventually if he was going to do much scavenging he would need to move the vehicles out of the barricade to make it easier to get in and out. He drove the length of main street. As with most small towns, main street was actually part of the main highway into and out of town. Jackson was a bit over double the size of Avery, the town sign boasted a population of 14,623, it had, besides the nursery and library already mentioned, 3 Churches, a bank, a post office, 2 grocery stores, 3 gas stations, a theater, a small regional hospital, doctors offices and pharmacy, 8 or 9 restaurants, a small Ford dealership, a Home and Farm store, a small industrial park on the far side of town, and a number of other small businesses and offices. The highway then curved west and about 14 miles ahead after one more very small town you would hit the Interstate highway about an hour north of St Paul. At the junction of the state highway and the interstate was Miltown, it had started out as a place for grains to be brought to for milling but as the highway became an Interstate and population moved north, it became a bedroom community for St Paul, now it boasted tons of shopping, entertainment and restaurants, a few warehouses and a large industrial park.

At the far end of Jackson, just past the entry to the industrial park was another blockade, having not seen anyone living he turned around. Unlike Avery there was no power on here, none of the signs were on, the stop lights were not working, the sign on the bank no longer flashed the time and temperature. He drove back to the nursery and indeed did find some fruit tree's 19 to be exact: 8 apples, 5 plums, 3 Pears and 3 cherry's. He wasn't even aware you could grow cherry trees in the part of the country. He also found 2 Black Walnut trees. Inside the nursery he found 2 display stands of seeds and a variety of potting mixes, seed starters, pots, and various fertilizers. He was able to fit 15 of the tree's in the back of the pickup and drove slowly back to his house so as not to harm the leaves, he then drove back to the nursery and loaded up the remaining 4 fruit trees, the 2 black walnuts, both displays of seeds and filled the rest of the truck with potting mix and a couple containers of Miracle-Gro© and one of every book they had on tree's and gardening, and again slowly drove home so as to not disturb the tree's too much. They all looked dry so he started up his generator so he had power to his well pump and hooked up his only hose and gave them all a drink. He would spend the rest of the afternoon going though the books he had gotten from both the library and the nursery and see what he could find out about the different variety trees he had brought home and then decide where to plant them.

He got a lot of information from the books as far as spacing, light requirements and he also discovered that Black Walnuts should never be placed anywhere near a garden, even their leaves were toxic to many plants. Looking at the clock, it wasn't even 3PM yet, plenty of time to look around and decide where his orchard was going, the area around the lake was heavily wooded but there were some cleared area's and he could cut down some tree's if necessary, he would need firewood at some point anyway. The area across the road and down about a quarter of a mile, away from the lakeshore might be ideal. The land had recently been sold and the new owner had been clearing an area for a home set back a ways from the road, there was currently a long dirt driveway leading back through the trees about 100 feet and then it opened into a clearing about 100' by 150'. There was a large pile of logs from the tree's the new owner had felled at the very edge of the clearing. Mark remembered last fall, in November the new owner had had a dozer in and they had removed the roots from the tree's and pushed them and the brush into a large pile then set it on fire in the middle of the clearing.

Mark wanted his garden closer to the house but the orchard could be out of sight and the area was all cleared for it already. Yes, this was the spot. From what he had read, if he planted the trees on a 20'center he could get 7 rows of 5 which was more room than he had tree's, maybe he would find more tree's or eventually could grow his own. He went back home and got out a measuring tape, a ball of twine and his shovel and threw them into the back of his pickup, well he was thinking of it as his pickup these days. Back at the clearing he measured out the ground and pounded some branches in at the edge of the clearing and then strung twine between them until he had a grid laid out, where the twine intersected, every 20 foot, he would dig a hole and put a tree in, the digging was easy for the first row on the far side of the clearing, the 5 holes took him a bit more than an hour. But he had dug them as the books stated he should about 3 times the size of the root ball he was planting. The next row the digging was harder as the bulldozer that was used to remove the root balls from the tree's that had been removed had compacted the ground, He had just started digging the 2nd hole in this row when the wooden handle on his shovel broke.

"Well, that’s it for today I guess." He said. He called Suzie back from chasing some squirrel or chipmunk and got into the truck, the clock on the dash said 5:15, still plenty of daylight, he decided to drive to Avery and stop at the hardware store and pick up a few more shovels, and see if he could spot anything that would make digging the compacted soil easier. He got to main street and headed down towards the hardware store, he slammed on his brakes at the grocery store, there was a car there, one that hadn't been there before.

[mnn2300]

Chapter 12

He pulled into the parking lot and parked next to the car, well it was a small SUV actually, there was someone sitting on the driver's side, the sun was in his eyes though and he couldn't make out who it was, he took the safety off of gun and got out of his vehicle. Suzie jumped out with him, he slowly walked up to the car and saw it was Doctor Martin, the vet, but she wasn't moving, he tried the door, it was locked. He knocked on the window and yelled her name, her eyes came open and she turned her head, but her eyes didn't focus, he saw a bead of sweat on her brow. Apparently she had moved her hand and unlocked the door as he heard the familiar click of the locks opening.

"Dr Martin, Jessica?" he said opening the door. She looked dazed, confused. She tried to focus on him "Mar…." was all she got out before passing out, Mark stopped her from falling out the door. Looking at the seat, lucky for him it was a bench style seat, he went around to the passenger side and pulled her over and fastened her into the seat belt, he got Suzie in the back seat and drove back to his house, he drove as close to the door as he could, got out and opened his front door and propped it open, he then went to the passenger side of her car and picked her up and carried her into his bedroom, she was fading in and out of consciousness as he carried her, and laid her on the bed. While she had not been fat before she was mainly skin and bones now. He felt her forehead, she was burning up, he got a cool wet washcloth and wiped her brow. He went to the kitchen and got a bottle of his vitamin water and opened it poured some of It into a glass and brought it into her.

"Jessica, Jessie," he said, raising her into a sitting position, "Drink this."

She drank about half and the lost consciousness again, he laid her back down and covered her with a blanket and put the rest of the glass on the night stand, he sat in an easy chair he had in the bedroom and tried to get some fluids into her as she floated between consciousness and unconsciousness. Mark sat with her, reading his gardening books, snoozing at times. About 48 hours later he was napping in the chair and woke to find her sitting up in bed, staring at him. He got up and handed her a glass, again with more of his supply of vitamin water.
"Mark? I….." she cleared her throat, "I have a lot of questions but right now could you help me to a bathroom?" she asked him.

He got up and guided her to the bathroom, he turned and said "Holler if you need me, I'll be right outside." and pulled the door closed. A few minutes later he heard the toilet flush and the sink running.

"I'm a mess." She said, opening the door.
"Don't worry about it, I was in the same condition a couple weeks ago." Mark said."Are you hungry? Would you like some soup?" he asked.
"Famished" she replied.
"Vegetable Beef, Chicken Noodle, Tomato?" He asked.
"Chicken Noodle sounds great." She replied.

A few minutes later he brought in a cup of soup and a few crackers, "Do you need me to help you?" he asked.
"I think I can do it." she said sipping some broth from the cup before taking the spoon. She broke up a couple of crackers and put them into the cup, stirring them in. She finished the cup in a couple of minutes, he handed her the glass of vitamin water and asked her if she want more soup.

"If you can spare it." She said.
"I have plenty, you can have as much as you want. I'll be right back with more" he said.
When he came back Suzie was on the bed with Doctor Martin with her head in Jessica's lap. Jessica was petting her. He handed her the cup, "Want me to get her down?" he asked her.
"She's fine." Jessica answered, "How did I get here? And where is here?"

"Well, this is my house, about 6 miles south of Avery on Half Moon Lake, as to how you got here, you were passed out in your car at the grocery store. I drove you back here and brought you into the house, that was 2 days ago." Mark told her. "What do you remember?"

"I was sick, funny, I lasted well into the outbreak, martial law had already been declared, the Guard was hauling bodies out and burying them in mass graves and then I finally caught it. That would have been probably the 3rd week of June, what's the date today?
"It's Monday July 5th" Mark answered.
"I've been out about 2 weeks." She said. " I remember waking up hungry and there was nothing to eat in the house, nothing at all, we had been under quarantine for 2 weeks by then, the Guard was arresting and even shooting people who broke quarantine. I had no idea if they were still doing that, but I was out of food and hungry, I really don't even remember driving to the store, but that’s where you found me, so I must have. You were sick too? Are there others alive?"
"I got it early, the 2nd or 3rd of June, came out of it after about 2 weeks then had a week long relapse. I did see another vehicle about a week ago, a black pickup, but I was on foot and it was long gone by the time I got into a vehicle to chase it. As far as anyone else, I haven't seen anyone and I've been into Avery a number of times and down to Jackson twice." He told her.

"My God, 2 people out of probably 20,000 in the two towns." She said, they sat there in silence for a couple minutes.

Finally she asked, "Can I take a shower?"
"Sure." He said.
"You don't by any chance have anything I could wear, do you?" Jessica asked him.
"I could get you a T-Shirt and some sweat pants, they'd be too big, but once your done in the shower I could wash your clothes." Mark replied.

"OK." She replied.
He got her a couple of towels, a washcloth, and a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. Do you want a pair of socks too?" he asked her.
"Go ahead and get a pair out just in case, if you don't mind." She told him.
"Not at all." He told her, "There is shampoo and soap in the shower, and a spare unopened toothbrush in the drawer on the right side of the sink.

20 minutes later she came out with a towel wrapping her hair and wearing his T-shirt and sweat pants. He smiled at her.

"I know, I look terrible." She said.
"No you look great." He said.
"Yeah, sick for two weeks, gaunt, no makeup, clothes 4 sizes too big." She said.
Having been married he knew it was an argument he couldn't win but it was important to try, he said, "Really, you look fine." Then changing the subject he said, "I was about to make a couple hamburgers, would you like some?"
"I don't think my system could handle a hamburger, but if you have any more soup?" she questioned.
Pointing he said "That cupboard is full of soup, pick a flavor and I'll warm it up for you." She opened the cupboard and it literally was full of cans of soups, at least a dozen varieties, she took down a can of Vegetable Beef "You wouldn't have any bread would you? She asked.
"No bread, but I do have some frozen hamburger buns that I could thaw out for you in the toaster oven." He told her.
"Sounds wonderful." She replied. 10 minutes later they were sitting at the table eating. She had taken the towel off her hair and combed it out, sitting there with no makeup and wet hair she reminded him of his wife Sherrie, he looked away.
"Something wrong?" she asked him.
"No, just thinking." He replied.
"I understand." She said and he knew she did, knowing she had lost her husband also.
"So, you must have been one of the first to catch E2 in this area, did you even know about it?" she asked.
"Yeah, I had been following the news online when it was in Africa, and I heard the President's speech closing the borders, but the next day or so, I was out of it……….." he explained about going into town and finding everyone dead and then what he had been doing since.

"So you're planning on staying here then?" she asked.
"Yeah, it's my home, I've got the generator here and the house next door if needed." He told her about the Johansson's earth sheltered home and his plans for an orchard and garden and his thoughts on getting some cattle.
"I think I can help you there." She said.
"Yeah, I'd been thinking a Vet should know about cattle and other animals while I was reading the books on farming and gardening." Mark said.

Jessica yawned. "I'm sorry, you've been sick and I've kept you up talking." Mark said.
"No, that’s ok, I am weak though, you don't mind that I stay here for a while?" she asked.
"As long as you want." Mark replied.
"I'd be happy to take the couch." She told him.
"No, I've slept on It many nights, besides I get up in the night occasionally, you take the bedroom." He told her. "let me get a couple things out of there first though." He said standing up and going into the bedroom. She followed him in and sat on the side of the bed while he gathered the next day's clothes and a pair of shorts to put on tonight.
"I'll leave the generator running tonight so there's water pressure and lights, there's also a night light in the bathroom." Mark told her.
"Thanks for everything." She said.
"It's ok, good night" he replied.
"Good night."

The next two days, she spent relaxing and eating, gaining some of her strength back. Mark took the opportunity to go into town and get the shovels he wanted and some other supplies from the hardware store and to finish the holes for the tree's. On the third day he drove her home to pick up some clothes and a stop at the drug store to pick up a few items he had not thought to take. Later that night her fever came back, and she was in bed for the next 4 days similar to the relapse Mark had. Mark watched over her, made sure she had fluids and ate when she could. On the fifth day her fever was gone and her appetite was back, it was a good thing too as she was looking extremely thin, unhealthy thin even. 2 days later he had shown her his store room at the Johansson's and she had taken over the cooking and they started eating better. The next week he made her concentrate on gaining some weight and getting her strength back. He was able to start getting some fresh vegetables from various gardens in the area even though many were growing mainly weeds, he was able to find enough to feed her and himself some healthy fresh food. By the end of the week she was getting on the treadmill in the 2nd bedroom and also went with Mark on some of his gardening and salvage forays. During that time Mark got his fruit trees planted and was laying out the garden. He was doing this on the clearing at the Johansson's above the house, there was a clearing about 100' x 80' that only had a couple tree's in it, the soil was so rocky however that Mark decided on raised beds. He discussed this with Jessica and she agreed. He was planning on using landscape timbers until she talked to him about how they were treated with chemicals that could leech into the soil and recommended regular building blocks, these not only had no harmful chemical but had the advantage of your being able to use the holes to put hoops into and cover in plastic to get a longer growing season. The lumber yard on the far end of Jackson should have plenty.

They planned a trip to Jackson for the following day to check out the lumber yard and hopefully start bringing some home. Mark had figured that in the 80' x 100' area he would make raised beds 4' wide with 4' in between them, that would give them 10 rows 100' long, well actually he was planning on dividing the rows in 2 lengthwise, so it would actually be 20 rows almost 50 ' long, assuming the cinder blocks were 18 inches long he would need very roughly 2600 blocks to make his rows 2 blocks high. That would be back breaking work in itself, but then he'd need to fill them with dirt too. Flat beds were sounding better all the time. Of course a couple weeks of hard labor now and then they wouldn't have to stoop over pulling weeds for years.

They had fallen into an easy domestic routine during the time that Jessica was recuperating, she would go with him where ever he was working and assist until she got tired, she took care of cooking at the house, in the evening they would read or occasionally watch a movie from the video store in town that he had raided. Thursday night, the night before the run into Jackson, they were both sitting on the couch watching a movie, about halfway through it she laid down on the couch her head in his lap
"Is this ok?" she asked.
"Yeah, fine." He replied. The only thing he found was awkward was what to do with his left hand, he started with it on the back of the couch, but eventually that got uncomfortable, he moved it down and it rested on her arm tentatively.
"It's ok, I don't bite." She told him. She moved her hand to his, holding it, rubbing his hand with her thumb.
A bit later, she got up "I'll be back in a minute."

He took the opportunity to make a needed adjustment, she was an attractive woman and he was finding himself aroused, something he had turned off when his wife died. He wondered if Jessie knew the effect she was having on him.
He heard the toilet flush, but she didn't come out right way, when she did it was in her robe rather than the shorts and top she had been wearing. Rather than sitting or lying down again, she came to him and straddled his lap and leaned forward, their lips met, tongues exploring. Jessica's robe fell open, she wore nothing beneath it. They made love on the couch the first time; hard, thrusting almost violent in their need for each other. Later he carried her to the bed, they made love again, slower, more passionate this time, they slept in each other's arms and the next morning he awoke to her once again arousing him, this time she climbed on top and they rode to a climax together.
"mmm that’s much better than an alarm clock." She said when they had finished and she had collapsed on top of him. "I'm going to hop in the shower, do you want to wash my back?" she asked.
"We might not get too much done today if I do." He teased.
"Would that be a bad thing?" she replied.
They spent a long time in the shower, but in the end they were quite clean. While Jessica was getting ready, Mark made a big breakfast, Bacon and scrambled eggs, toast, and he had gotten a can of frozen orange juice ready.
"Wow, must have quite an appetite today." She said when she walked out to the kitchen.
"I do." He said giving her a kiss.
"We may have to do that more often." She joked.

As they ate they talked.
"Don't take this the wrong way, but why?" Mark asked.
"Because you are a good and honorable man and probably never would have made the first move, even though you know you wanted to." Jessica said.
"You're right, on both counts, I wouldn't have, but I wanted to." Mark said.
"Let's get something out in the open: I am not asking you to forget your wife any more than I'll ever forget my husband, just love me for who I am and not as a replacement for Sherri and I'll love you for who you are and not as a replacement for Jack." Jessica said.

"Thank you for understanding and I am falling in love with you, and not just for what happened last night. That night you woke up here and took a shower, you were complaining about how you looked when my first thought when you came out was how good you looked, even back further than that, I really enjoyed our dinner together that night back in May. I was just starting to come out of my shell then, and I found myself whistling to the grocery store music when I was shopping." He told her.
"Then why didn't you ask me out again, I was expecting you to." She said.
"Like I said, I was just starting to come out of my shell." Mark replied.
"It's ok, I understand, Jacks been gone over 4 years and its only been less than 2 for Sherri, anyway, we're together now." She said, reaching out for his hand.
"Yes we are and the morning is almost half gone, you ready to get to work?" he asked.
"Half gone?" She said looking at the battery operated clock on the wall, "it was just barely sunrise when I woke you up, it's not even 9A.M now."

"Like I said, half the day gone, you ready to get to work?" he asked.
"Oh sure use me and abuse me." She said laughing.
"That’s right Wench, wake me when you have 2500 bricks loaded. He joked back.
"How are we going to get the brick back here?" she asked.
"I don't know yet, I thought we'd take a look around, I’m sure they have a forklift and a truck." He said.
"You know how to use a fork lift?" she asked him.
"Haven't a clue, but have you seen the guys they have driving them at the Warehouse stores? How hard can it be?" he asked.
"Remind me to stand waaaaay back." She said.

"We're going to have to move that roadblock to get a truck through here on the way back." Jessica said as they went around it. "Is that a body in the back of that truck?"
"Actually 2 bodies, one must have fell down." Mark said.
"Gross, don't expect me to move that truck." Jessica said.
"Sorry, I threw up the first few times I found a dead body, but now I just try to ignore and avoid them." He said.


They got to the lumber yard and looked around and found pallets of Cinder Block, Mark measured and counted, 96 to a pallet but they were only 16" not 18" a rough estimate upped their need to about 3000 and there were not 30 pallets here, there were only 21, so that made about 2000 bricks, 2/3's of what they needed, oh well, that would get them started. The lumber yard did indeed have a forklift, in fact they had 2. They also had 2 delivery trucks in the yard, both with flat beds. They were not Semis thankfully, Mark doubted he could have figured out the shifting in a semi, but these were heavy duty trucks with standard transmissions, good, Mark could drive them, if he could find the keys, they were not in the trucks. They looked around and found the keys for the trucks and for the forklifts in the office, which they had to break into. Looking around they also found 6 pallets of top soil, good, that would be a start. They would no doubt have to drive into Miltown to pick up the rest, Miltown had both a Home Depot© and a Menards© there as well as an independent Garden store.


"This is where you may want to stand way back." Mark said climbing into a forklift.
Jessica moved back a ways. Mark practiced for about 10 minutes, going back and forth, raising lowering and tilting the forks then he went to work. Each truck held 2 pallets side by side and 8 rows so he was able to load 16 pallets on each, that left 5 pallets they would need to get along with the 6 pallets of top soil, so one more load after these two. It only took him an hour to load the 2 trucks.
Jessica was looking all around when Mark finished. "Something wrong?" he asked.
"No, just kind of spooked by those dead bodies I guess, felt like we were being watched." She answered.

Mark looked around, "I don't see anyone." He said.
"No, like I said, those bodies spooked me a bit, I'll be glad to get home." She answered. "Now, you got the pallets loaded, how are we going to unload them at home?"
"Well I was thinking about that, the pickup I've got belonged to the Cemetery and there was a low trailer next to it with lawn mowing equipment, I thought we could take everything off the trailer and load up one of the forklifts and bring it back with us." Mark replied.
"Cemetery? I've been riding in a cemetery truck?" she said.
"It’s a landscapers truck, no dead bodies, just lawnmowers, weed wackers, stuff like that." Mark said deciding not to tell her that he used it to transport the Johansson's bodies."

"OK I'll drive the delivery truck back, you drive the pickup." Mark said.
"The Cemetery pickup." She said
"The Landscapers pickup." He corrected.
"Don't forget the dead bodies in the truck at the roadblock you'll have to move." She said.
"I haven't forgot, I'll clear the roadblock so we can make it through." Mark said.

After pulling out of the lumber yard, neither saw the figure in camo that had been watching them get up off the ground from behind a stack of lumber and move silently towards his hidden motorcycle.

[nancy1340]

Jezzzzz , why is it always a motorcycle?

Good chapter. Thank you.

[patience]

I'm glad these two got together. They are going to need each other to get along, from the sound of things.

Let's hope the shadowy figure isn't a threat. If he (?) is wearing camo, could be a military refugee. If not, uh, we might have a problem. Our fine couple need to be carrying ALL the time now. Probably ought ot have that dog along, too, for more eyes and ears.

The tale is going great! Thanks for your work. ;D

[fastback08]

Thanks for this story. This is well written and very addictive. Is there somewhere that more of your writing is available?

[rvm45]

I finally got around to reading this.

Great Story So Far!

I hope the lady Vet kicked the bucket.

It would be so refreshing for once, to read a PAW Story that Did Not have a "Love" interest.

Thought One: Dogs will eat rotten meat. The Supermarket is full of spoiled meat. Those two Rottweilers, and the other two big ones probably wouldn't be that hard to coax in, and get them to play nice.

A five Dog Praetorian guard would be a happy-making thing.

Thought Two: O please tell me that he didn't go off and leave the National Guardsmen's Rifles laying on the ground to rot away.....

A couple M-16s would be a fine addition to my battery. M-4s--

But still worth gathering up.

Thought Three: Every Cop Corpse would loose his Holster Gun, and get a quick pat-down for back-ups--stinky or no. Extra magazines too.

The Cop shop might also have a small Armory.

Thought Four: Do tell me that there were at least a few books in the Library about True Hardcorp Survivalism.....

And Books on Self-Defence Pistolcraft that take you beyond walking around with an empty chamber.

Thought Five:--Why doesn't he just move into the Hobbit Hole next door?

.....RVM45

[mnn2300]

Dec 30, 2011 10:04:06 GMT -6 fastback08 said:

Thanks for this story. This is well written and very addictive. Is there somewhere that more of your writing is available?

Thank You

Powers Out was my first story, its available in this section. This one is actually my 3rd story, however the 2nd one (titled Vanished)which is quite long (novel sized) is still very much in progress and moving slowly. This is my 3nd one, 2nd one posted and was finished except for final editing when I started posting -- just a couple more chapters to go, although as I stated in the first post, this is Book 1 of this story, there's still plenty of tales that can come out of this situation.

[mnn2300]

Dec 30, 2011 11:00:01 GMT -6 rvm45 said:

I finally got around to reading this.

Great Story So Far!

I hope the lady Vet kicked the bucket.

It would be so refreshing for once, to read a PAW Story that Did Not have a "Love" interest.

Thought One: Dogs will eat rotten meat. The Supermarket is full of spoiled meat. Those two Rottweilers, and the other two big ones probably wouldn't be that hard to coax in, and get them to play nice.

A five Dog Praetorian guard would be a happy-making thing.

Thought Two: O please tell me that he didn't go off and leave the National Guardsmen's Rifles laying on the ground to rot away.....

A couple M-16s would be a fine addition to my battery. M-4s--

But still worth gathering up.

Thought Three: Every Cop Corpse would loose his Holster Gun, and get a quick pat-down for back-ups--stinky or no. Extra magazines too.

The Cop shop might also have a small Armory.

Thought Four: Do tell me that there were at least a few books in the Library about True Hardcorp Survivalism.....

And Books on Self-Defence Pistolcraft that take you beyond walking around with an empty chamber.

Thought Five:--Why doesn't he just move into the Hobbit Hole next door?

.....RVM45

Thanks.
You got to consider that this guy is not a prepper or survivalist in any sense of the term, the most food he kept on hand was a couple weeks worth, and that only came about because he hated going to the store every few days once he moved to the lake.

He's a common everyday man from the city, even though he lives in the country now. The only time he has ever touched a gun was in Summer camp when he was 13, and that was a .22 rifle shooting at paper targets. He wasn't even thinking of guns until the dogs jumped him

As far as love interests, he has to have one, I readily admit I'm a romantic at heart. There will be a loner coming along soon (or maybe he already has) as well as a couple more people and (hopefully) interesting confrontations. To me love is what makes survival worthwhile, but then like I said I'm a romantic at heart.

My stories tend to be about non-preppers or minimal preppers caught in a situation and making the best of it they can. As I said back in the beginning of the story, if you start with a hard core survivalist with a full shelter and every weapon known to man, you kind of expect them to survive. Percentage wise very few people in this day and age are like that though and the flu pandemic is an equal opportunity killer. Especially one like E2 in this story with its long incubation/contagious period. People were infected before they even knew there was a problem.

I prefer to write about a common man or woman and have a bit of mystery about whether they'll survive or not and what their learning curve is. Possibly because I became a prepper so late in life. Like the character in this story I had a quick lesson in guns in summer camp at age 13 but then didn't touch another gun for 25 years.
I grew up in the 'burbs to a family that gardened but were not preppers or hunters and I had a big learning curve later in life, so I guess I tend to write from that angle.

He's learning as he goes along and he's doing ok, certainly not great, but he's learning. Was there a better course of action he could have taken so far? sure of course there was, but he's learning and to me that's the important thing and even the interesting thing.

Thanks for reading and a BIG Thanks to all for the comments.We writers like them all, good and bad both help motivate us and make us better writers.

[mnn2300]

Dec 29, 2011 19:47:58 GMT -6 nancy1340 said:

Jezzzzz , why is it always a motorcycle?

Good chapter. Thank you.

may surprise you.

I may have to make a change in an upcoming chapter to do with motorcycles and bad and good guys.

Thanks!

[mnn2300]

Dec 29, 2011 21:50:59 GMT -6 patience said:

I'm glad these two got together. They are going to need each other to get along, from the sound of things.

Let's hope the shadowy figure isn't a threat. If he (?) is wearing camo, could be a military refugee. If not, uh, we might have a problem. Our fine couple need to be carrying ALL the time now. Probably ought ot have that dog along, too, for more eyes and ears.

The tale is going great! Thanks for your work. ;D

Yeah, he hasn't quite learned that a dog is an early warning system yet or the importance of carrying, but he's learning.

As far as the Doc and Mark getting together, like I told RVM, I'm a romantic at heart.

Thanks. I have a quick revision to make brought about by one persons comment, may or may not be able to post a chapter today, but if not today it will be tomorrow for sure.