Omega Pathogen: Despair (7 page)

Jim approached his mother once the recovery of the multi-ton armored vehicle was completed. “Will the Queen of Peace Catholic church be okay, Mom?” Jim asked. It was the closest Catholic Church he found on the map he had.

“I like that church. That’ll be a good place for him, Jimmy,” Judith said.

Jim touched his mother’s shoulder and turned to go speak with the rest of the family.

Their plan was decided: they’d head to Hank and Jen’s farm, take them up on their invitation to rest and resupply. They would be someplace safer while they considered their options. On the way to Yates’ farm in Chiefland, they would stop and have John’s burial at the church.

Royce decided he wasn’t going to leave his pickup. He hooked it up to the tow truck. Jim asked Chris or Jeremy to ride along with Royce; Jeremy spoke up and said he’d ride shotgun and collected some water, snacks and ammunition. “Thanks, Jeremy,” Jim said and enlisted Chris’ help to carry the homemade propane flamethrower that had been used to attack his family. Chris had no problem with the task but it took some effort for his father to help get it secured side of the MRAP. Chris and the others noticed. They had all been keeping a close eye on Jim; they could tell he was weak and uncoordinated.

Chapter 6

It was all Jim could do to keep upright while he took his turn digging his brother’s grave. He willed himself not to pass out and not to vomit during the exertion. After Judith prayed and said some parting words, Jim wanted to say something in remembrance and respect. He couldn’t think straight and when he began to speak, his words were slurred and his thoughts lost. One minute he’d been standing in the cooling early afternoon air near the grave, the next he was laying on the fold-down seats in the back of the MRAP as Linda drove it down the road.

When Jim would open his eye periodically, Arzu was there. She sat on the floor of the vehicle near his head. She’d smile when he’d open his eye, but even in his altered mental state, he could see the concern through the exhaustion on her face.

Jim awoke again and found he was lying in a bed. He heard the distant sounds of voices that seemed to grow closer and then fade away. He heard the low humming of what he’d guessed was a generator close by. His right eye began to regain focus as he squinted and rubbed the sleep from it. “He’s awake,” Jim heard Arzu say. He turned to his left and saw her sitting beside the bed.

“Do you know who I am?” Arzu asked. She did a poor attempt at a smile to hide her concern.

“I know who you are, baby,” Jim said. He tried to smile, but it hurt the left side of his face. “You’re my awesome wife and mother of our two children, Berk and Kayra. You’re Betty,” Jim added.

Arzu smiled, a real one this time. “Don’t make me swell up the other side of your face, too,” she said and waved her clenched right fist at him.

“Where are we, hon?” Jim asked. Before she could reply, Jim heard a male voice from his right side say, “You’re at the Yates’ farm, Mr. Matthews.” Jim looked away from Arzu to the sound of the male voice and saw its source.

An older man, Jim guessed in his mid-sixties, stood near the right side of the bed looking down at Jim.

“Where’s everyone?” Jim asked and turned his head quickly back to his left where Arzu sat. The movement caused a wave of nausea and increased the pain in his head and face.

“Everyone’s fine, Jim,” Arzu answered and squeezed his shoulder. “Just relax and do what the doctor says,” she added.

“Mr. Matthews, your wife says you’re a paramedic. So you probably already know this from your training and professional experience, but you have at the least a grade three concussion. At the worst you could have intracranial bleeding,” the man said. “I’m sorry I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Sam Shultz.”

Jim shook his hand and asked, “You’re a doctor?” The older man nodded his head. “Yes, I am. I was a general medicine practitioner. Well, I guess that’s what I still am,” the doctor answered. Dr. Shultz explained to Jim that he’d been unconscious since he arrived at the Yates’ farm the previous day. Jim was told he needed to rest for several more days and would be staying in the farm’s hospital, which was the RV where he had just regained consciousness. 

The doctor informed Jim that he’d placed fourteen sutures to close a gaping laceration to his left forehead and six more to close the laceration to his left eyebrow. Jim’s eye was still swollen shut, but the doctor told him not to be too alarmed when the swelling went down and he noticed the blood in the sclera. Jim was told that his left eye had subconjunctival hemorrhage and the blood would take time before it dissolved.

Dr. Shultz tested his vision while he spoke. He had to pry open the swollen eye. Jim could see. It was blurry, but he could see. The doctor admitted he couldn’t be sure yet that Jim would keep the vision in the eye. An orbital fracture was suspected to his left eye as well as to the upper jaw and nasal bones. But without a CT scan or even an X-ray, the doctor wasn’t entirely sure of the extent of the fractures.

“By the way, don’t blow your nose until I say it’s okay, or you could cause more damage. Not to mention you’ll blow out the tampon I crammed up your left nostril,” Dr. Shultz warned.

Jim looked at the doctor questioningly and reached for his nose and felt the string.

“Royce shoved one up there the night you got hurt. Your nose wouldn’t stop bleeding. The doctor changed them out,” Arzu said. 

Dr. Shultz left his bedside and went toward the front of the RV, after informing Jim he had a urinary catheter in him and that he was to keep the head of the bed at its current thirty-degree elevation.

Jim asked Arzu about the rest of the family, and tried his best to stay alert and awake after he learned all were well. Despite his efforts, once he heard his family was safe, he slept.

Arzu alerted Dr. Shultz when Jim fell asleep; the doctor examined him and assured Arzu he was still stable. Arzu stayed by his bedside for a few hours but eventually left to check on Berk and Kayra and to see that they ate.

She found everyone at the MRAP. Kayra was helping her aunt Kathy check over the engine and handing her tools that Kathy patiently described in detail.

Berk was inside the vehicle with Jeremy, helping him clean and organize the interior.

Chris was on the roof of the MRAP with his mother Linda, Chelsea, and Royce. Chris and Chelsea were taking measurements around the turret while Linda wrote out the numbers as Chris called them out.

Royce was mostly staring at the turret; he occasionally pointed and suggested a different measurement be taken.

“Let’s get cleaned up and eat, kiddos,” Arzu said. Chris and Jeremy stopped talking and moving and simultaneously yelled out, “Woo hoo!” Although Arzu directed her statement to Berk and Kayra, everyone else decided it was time to stop and began to wash up before heading toward the chow line set up outside the Yates’ home.

“Where’s your grandmother?” Arzu asked Jeremy.

“She said she was going to help out the others prepare the lunch,” Jeremy replied as he helped Berk climb down from the MRAP.

“So has he been a good helper?” Arzu asked.

“Doing a great job. Much better than Dad,” Jeremy said and extended his fist; Berk smiled and gave him a fist bump.

Kayra and Kathy walked into view from the front of the MRAP. Arzu got a good view of Kayra and couldn’t help but laugh. Kayra was covered in dirt and grease.

“She’s a great mechanic, mom,” Kathy said with a smile. Kayra giggled and raised her greasy hands and displayed them proudly for her mother. Arzu ran as Kayra chased her and giggled as she threatened her mother with a greasy hug. They made their way to the makeshift public restrooms and washed up for lunch.

While the Matthews, Royce, Linda and Chelsea made their way through the chow line, they did see Judith helping serve food; she stopped and greeted them and said she’d join them shortly.

Their group picked a spot and sat together. Judith soon joined them. They discussed Jim’s condition and their good memories of John. Despite their loss of John and concern for Jim, they had also felt more relaxed the previous night and that day since the infection had began. The safety of numbers they felt at the Yates’ farm was reassuring.

Chapter 7

The farm owned by Hank and Jennifer Yates was located in Levy County, a mile southwest of the small town of Chiefland, Florida. The land consisted of thirty acres of mostly open field, with about ten acres of wooded area. The farm was fenced with barbed wire but the Yates family and their new residents had also placed semi-trailers, old school buses and a few twelve foot concrete T-walls directly behind the barbed wire along the front of the property.

They had turned the trailers and vehicles on their sides using a crane and front-end loader, to further reduce the view onto the property. The upturned vehicles and trailers helped prevent infected from crawling under any gaps. Spaced out along the inside of the barricades were ladders that led to the tops of the ad-hoc barriers. The placement of the large barricades was still a work-in-progress for the residents.

The south and west of the farm bordered Long Pond, which, depending on the rainfall for the year, actually could be called a lake when it swelled. In the weeks since the outbreak of the SCAR virus, the Yates’ property had grown in population and in structures. It became more like a compound out of the necessity for security.

Hank and Jen’s home was a single-story brick house of around two thousand five hundred square feet. It was no longer only occupied by them. They never had children of their own, but other family members and close friends had come for refuge after the infection had begun, and now filled the home. Several campers, buses, and tents were spaced out around the Yates’ home and were occupied by other friends and strangers that had joined together for mutual protection.

There was a large barn behind the home. The barn was larger than the home at about four thousand five hundred square feet and was two stories. Near the barn was a large chicken coop and a fenced area for pigs. Behind the barn was another fenced area with several cows, goats, and horses.

The Matthews had set up their own little area beside the barn, where most of the community’s tools were kept and could be more easily borrowed for maintenance and repairs on the MRAP, mostly done or directed by Kathy.

Royce had chosen to park the semi-tractor tow truck he had recently acquired close by the barn as well, and for the same reason. He felt a bond with the Matthews even after only the three days he’d spent with Jim and his family. He knew Jim had hoped to use his blood to try and save his brother’s life, but Royce believed Jim would have still risked his own safety to help him.

Over the next several days the Matthews continued to mentally decompress even as they helped out around the farm. The sounds of gunshots could be heard almost every night, but hadn’t been enough to prevent most from sleep. Some nights they hadn’t heard any. They all visited Jim in the RV hospital and Dr. Shultz had made an exception to the ‘one at a time’ rule when Arzu took Berk and Kayra to see their father.

Most of the family, as well as Chelsea and Royce, kept busy with modifications made to the MRAP and the tow truck. They also pitched in to help the other residents whenever needed. Judith helped out by assisting some of the adults in continuing with the education of Berk and Kayra and the population of twenty-eight other school-aged kids.

After five days of complete bed rest, Jim was permitted by Dr. Shultz to go out for short periods of time and spend time with his family and friends. He was happy to be upright and to have the urinary catheter removed. He had mentioned removing the catheter and getting out of bed before Dr. Shultz cleared him, but Arzu threatened him with further bodily harm.

Jim met with Hank again and was invited, once he felt better, to sit in on the afternoon meetings they conducted nearly every day. The residents got together and discussed current projects and plans for the near future for their community. Hank asked to meet privately with Jim and fill him in on what information had been disseminated by what remained of the U.S. Government, though Hank admitted much of it was probably information Jim and his family had heard or seen already.

Arzu, Berk, and Kayra escorted Jim to the barn where the MRAP was parked. Royce, Chris, and Jeremy approached to meet Jim with wide grins on their faces. “What’s with the shit-eating grins?” Jim asked.

“Language,” Arzu reminded him and pointed up at the roof of the MRAP.

Jim saw the reason for their proud smiles. They had finished the modifications of the MRAP’s turret. Before, it consisted of merely an opening in the roof with a hatch to secure it. It had been useful as an observation position but offered the outward opening hatch as the only protection. Now, mounted to the roof was an actual turret that could turn three hundred and sixty degrees, with a mount for a weapon. The sides of the turret had thick steel welded in place with small slits cut in as view ports. They had also manufactured a roof over the turret made from the same thick steel plating.

Jim pointed up to the turret’s weapon mount. “So what are we mounting on the there?” he asked.

“Come check this out, Dad,” Jeremy said.

Jim followed Jeremy to the rear door of the MRAP. An M249 light machine gun sat on the floor in the back, one that also had the designation of SAW (squad automatic weapon). It fired the same 5.56 x 45mm ammunition as the AR-15s, but was loaded by a two hundred round belt.