The Forgiven The Fallen The Forsaken Read online

  Jim and Susan financed an insanely large used fifth wheel and a new diesel dually pickup to tow it. Jim felt a twinge of guilt knowing that he would never bother to pay it off if Rob was right, but it made sense to stretch the cash as far as possible. Besides, the cabin was too small to live in, and this RV offered some real long term comfort. He could always take a job in Flagstaff if Rob was wrong.

  Susan had turned in her notice with the convention authority the day they had gotten back from Utah and cashed out her IRA and 401K shortly thereafter. So far, she had their living room filled to the ceiling with freeze dried foods.

  They sat at the kitchen table over coffee. Susan was looking over a map of their property, and said, "I'm thinking we need to come up with a better plan."

  "I'm listening," said Jim.

  "Right now we're thinking too small. What if this ends up being a couple of years instead of several months? We need to plan a small town and we're still thinking trailer park."

  "It just makes sense," said Jim.

  "We need a sustainable community. That means storage, meeting places, green houses, livestock, water supply, septic systems, and power generation, for starters. It would make more sense to buy a large farm with a well."

  Jim chewed his lower lip for a moment. "Too visible. Our property is hidden enough that it should limit people being aware of it. Don't have to fight them if they don't even know you're there."

  "Then we need to do this right. We get enough RV's to accommodate extra people. What about around twenty RV's? They don't all need to be new, just functional."

  "Twenty?! That's a lot of infrastructure to install. I'll have to put in multiple water and septic systems."

  "Bear with me, Jim. I'm thinking that we set them up in groups of three or four, maybe here, here, and here," she said, pointing out areas on the map. "That way everyone gets a view and we can run water from tanks on this hill to the side. The other thing is that it prevents a fire in one unit from burning out everything."

  "Okay."

  "The next thing we need is storage for food, supplies, equipment, and fuel. We need food storage first. Shipping containers should work well, but root cellars will be important, too. It makes sense to me to have far too much storage than not enough."

  "What about electronics?"

  "We can use Airstreams to provide shielding, like Rob said. We can get old trailers for a song. We can start with that eyesore that you've been going to restore for the last fifteen years."

  He winced, started to get angry, and then thought for a moment. "I hate it, but I can see that."

  "You can still restore your vintage trailer someday. I promise!" Susan pointed to an area a short distance away from the trailers and said, "I'd like to put in showers and washing machines here and drain them into a large gray water tank that we can use for watering plants. I'm thinking about putting commercial sized greenhouses over here."

  Jim poured another cup of coffee, and said, "We can put the fuel tanks over here, away from everything else."

  "That's what I'm thinking."

  Jim asked, "How did you get so good at this?"

  Susan laughed and pointed to a stack of books and magazines, "I've been spending a lot of time reading lately."

  Jim picked up a magazine. "I didn't know there was a Survivalist magazine."

  "You should see what's online. You want a two and a half ton military truck?"

  "Sounds thirsty."

  "But it would be good for flattening Smart Cars."

  "There is that, I suppose, but I think I'd rather have newer vehicles stored in shielded garages unless you're a much better diesel mechanic than I am."

  Jim picked up a book on AR-15's off the table. "Are we turning gun nut?"

  Susan answered, "A girl's got to be prepared. I can pick them up Tuesday."

  Jim shook his head and laughed. As usual, she was far ahead of the curve.

  That afternoon, Jim and Susan towed their fifth wheel to the ranch property and parked it near the cabin. The property was a good twenty miles from the freeway, about a half mile off of a little used paved road through the mountains. They had paid a small fortune to get electricity routed to the house, because they had no intention of living off of generators when they had bought the place. It seemed like a moot point now.

  Jim uncoupled the truck from the trailer and they drove into Flagstaff to check into purchasing more land adjacent to their property.

  The real estate agent was more sleazy than helpful, to the point where they threatened to walk if he didn't hurry up with the transaction, but by the end of the day they had purchased another 80 acres, all of it bordered by national forest land.

  On the way back to the cabin, Susan said, "I never would have believed buying a piece of raw land with cash could be such a pain in the ass."

  "Welcome to the world of small town real estate agents," said Jim.

  That night they lit a fire in the Franklin stove in the cabin and enjoyed the quiet night. As always, the quiet was a welcome contrast to Las Vegas. No helicopters, sirens, or gun shots. It was perfect.

  The next morning, they drove back into town where they bought a used diesel truck with a fifth wheel hitch and another fifth wheel RV trailer. Jim found a thirty foot sliding axle trailer as well. From there, they split up, with Susan spending much of the afternoon shopping, and Jim taking the sliding axle trailer to Kingman to pick up a used tractor with a back hoe and a bulldozer blade.

  Jim made it back first and used the time to start leveling an area for the RV's and another for the first of the shipping containers. When Susan looked over the leveled area that evening and said, "You know, I think this is going to work."

  "If it doesn't, we're going to look pretty damn foolish while we starve to death," said Jim.

  Susan smiled and said, "You know how I hate to look foolish."

  "No doubt! You want some more ribs?"

  They enjoyed the rest of the meal together, but Jim had to drive back to Las Vegas afterwards because of work the next day. Susan said she would stay at the cabin working.

  "Just be careful, okay?"

  She answered, "Of course. I'll see you in a couple of days."

  Jim worked a couple of shifts before he could drive back to Flagstaff. He was shocked when he drove up the driveway to see the dozen forty foot shipping containers lined up on one of the cleared area. He stepped out of the truck just stared for a moment with his mouth open. Susan had also cleared a dirt road back to the newly purchased property and had cleared a large field there as well.

  "I can't believe how much you got done," said Jim. "This is amazing! Who are you and what did you do with my wife?"

  "I love this bulldozer! Is my ass crack showing? That's what happens when you drive a bulldozer, isn't it?"

  Jim chuckled, "Only if you're a plumber, but I will need some help with the septic systems, so it's likely to happen next week." He hugged and kissed her. "You always amaze me."

  "Well how about you amaze me with a hot bath?"

  "You've earned it and then some," said Jim as he walked into the bathroom to start the claw tub filling for her.

  "Tell me about this, 'then some,' you're talking about," she said with a mischievous grin.

  I don't know how I ever got so lucky, he thought. It was a very nice evening.

  By the end of the week, the property was beginning to look transformed. They had purchased two 30' x 40' x 15' metal buildings without windows. It had been worth the expense to have cement slabs poured and the buildings installed by the company that sold them. Afterward they followed Rob’s instructions on EMP shielding and covered the floors with metal sheets attached to the walls with rivets. Jim laid rubber matting over the metal.

  Jim had ten 40 foot shipping containers dropped off behind the cabin in the second area that Susan had cleared. He moved the containers into two square configurations for use as reasonably protected livestock pens, with the idea of installing doors to the inside of the pens later. T
he containers could be used as small barns for storage of feed and shelter for the livestock.

  In two of the containers, he installed shelves for tools and started filling the rest with food supplies. Next to them he parked his old Airstream. He caught himself thinking, Why do I get the feeling that this will never be restored? It felt like a dumb thing to be bothered about, but it bugged him, just the same.

  For water, they purchased five metal 10,000 gallon potable water tanks and placed four of them on the side of the hill that ran above the cabin and the fourth just below them for easy filling. He planned to fill the bottom tank and pump the water from there up to fill the other tanks.

  Susan had arranged for large liquid propane tanks to be installed, with one extra for the cabin and two more for the large generator they had purchased. The gas company employees looked at him like he was nuts, but he wasn’t about to explain.

  He felt very fortunate to find LP freezers, though they weren’t cheap, and set up four of them in a small, well ventilated metal shed with their own LP tanks. They should be able to run the freezers for just a few hours a day and keep anything in them frozen solid.

  In one of the large shipping containers, Susan set up a library. She had argued that they would need all the books they could get once the power was out. Susan was often out scouring new and used bookstores for anything and everything that might be useful.

  Jim and Susan continued to look at other options but everything pointed to the wisdom of using an RV park as the model for their camp. The zoning wouldn’t allow more than a single residence on the property, but parking a few RV’s was not likely to land an inspector in his lap early enough to matter.

  Jim installed multiple septic systems, with each pod of three trailers sharing a large septic tank. He also ran PVC pipe with redundant shut off valves to each of the lots and connected the pipe to the water tanks on the hill above them to supply water pressure to the lots. By the time he finished that, it was time to go back to Vegas to finish his remaining work shifts.

  He and Susan talked during the drive back to Las Vegas.

  "I'm having some problems with all of this," said Jim.

  "Which part? Wondering if it's all a big con job, or if Rob is nuts?"

  "He's right, I'm sure. Even if it turned out that he wasn't, we would still do okay. No, the problem I'm having is with his premise that we can't save more people. And even if we can't, who's to say that we're the ones who should be living it up in comfort while others starve."

  "That's the way we've lived our entire lives, Jim. You don't have to travel very far in the world to find starving people and we've never worried about them before."

  "Yeah, but we couldn't do anything about them. Their political systems prevented any kind of real help for them."

  Susan half smiled and said, "Sound familiar?"

  "Well, we're inside of this system."

  "And we still can't do anything about it."

  Jim thought for a while. "I'm just not sure that there's nothing that can be done."

  "Nothing that's worth the risk of preventing our own survival. Right now we have an unfair advantage and I intend to press it as far as possible. We're not competing for supplies yet. You know that will change. And it's not just us we need to think about, either. We have our nephews and nieces to take care of as well."

  "Surviving isn't enough."

  "We'll survive and we'll rebuild, Jim. But first, I'm going to make damn well sure we survive."

  Jim looked out the window and said, "It's frustrating as hell."

  "I know what you mean but it's going to get a lot worse later."

  SHANGHAI, CHINA

  OCTOBER 18th

  The van pulled up to the front of the hospital with four security vehicles. These people are idiots, thought Justin Wang. If you want to keep something hidden, you treat it like it's no big deal. You don't gift wrap it in security to help foreign intelligence agencies find it. He'd been sitting on this case for months now and was so sick of working as a hospital flunky that he could barely stand it. But today was the day that would change.

  Everything was in place: the box of last year's vaccine, the bags to transfer the vaccine doses into, and three different get-away plans. Everything.

  He couldn't wait to get the hell out of Shanghai. The pollution was disgusting. The people were the same as people anywhere else in the world, once you got to know them. He liked them, but it was way past time to get home to the States. Screw this place, he thought. He might be of Chinese ancestry, but he was Chinese-American, with the emphasis on American.

  Here they come! He casually moved to the front so he could get the first box out of the van. He picked it up and took it inside the hospital building. The storage room was on the fourth floor and he had stashed the box of last year's vaccine in the third floor stairwell.

  He hurried up the stairs, leaving the others behind him. Slackers, he thought with a brief smile. In seconds, the deed was done. He replaced the box with the decoy and covered the real one with a black cloth and shoved it far under the stairs. It would be safe unless someone already knew it was there.

  Soon he was up at the pharmacy, dropping off the first box and flirting with Chuntao, one of the pharmacy workers. He'd used a condom every time given the prevalence of Hepatitis, but she'd shown him some inspired evenings. Now she, he would miss. But not much else.

  It took an hour to move all of the boxes and soon he was chain smoking and sharing jokes with the rest of the work crew, much as he hated smoking. Whatever I have to do to fit in, even if it is going to take a few years off my life. I just wish the cigarettes were better. Sucks to get lung cancer from this cheap ass shit.

  By the end of the twelve hour work day he was tired, but still felt wired. He transferred the vaccine bottles to a large Prada knock off purse and put whatever wouldn't fit into his lunchbox. Thank God for Chinese men being into bags, he thought. Fifteen more minutes and it's all over.

  Ten minutes later, he was chewing nicotine gum and walking out the back doors of the hospital and into the back streets with the purse thrown over his shoulder, happily abandoning the identity he had assumed for the past several months. He would be out of the country in the next few days and would never return to the shithole, if he had any choice in the matter.

  OKINAWA, JAPAN

  OCTOBER 20th,

  Rob was delighted to see Justin and shook his hand with an iron grip. "You did it! You got the vaccine!"

  Justin laughed and said, "And I got laid a lot too, sir."

  Rob laughed loudly. "I'm glad to hear it, but I'm still going to insist on a Distinguished Intelligence Cross for you. Just realize it may take a few years."

  "Thank you, sir, but right now I'd be more interested in a hot blonde and a weekend in a five star hotel."

  Rob laughed deeply. "When I hear talk like that, I want to adopt you. I'd like you to think about joining my team."

  "Of course, sir, but I still want the blonde first," said Justin.

  "I'll pay for the hotel, but you don't need my help with the blonde. And my crew calls me Rob."

  Justin smiled and said, "Thanks, boss!"

  Rob took the vaccines and boarded a military cargo plane to Hawaii. From there, he would be flying back to the mainland and distributing the vaccines to several secret labs. It would cut months off of production time. They might have a chance after all.

  One more set of missions and the United States might just be around for another few centuries, Rob thought. Now comes the fun part. See you soon, General Evans.

  LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

  OCTOBER 21st

  It had been a long week at work for Jim, with lots of difficult goodbyes. It wasn’t the best job he’d ever worked, but it had been better than most. Lord knows I won't miss transporting bums, he thought. He could still smell that last derelict from a couple of hours ago. It was disgusting. They would beg for money to buy booze, drink until they passed out and pissed all over themselves, then
take an ambulance to the nearest hospital to sleep it off and catch a meal. They'll probably survive the apocalypse and continue stinking right up to the end of time. They're like cockroaches, except worse.

  He knew he would miss his coworkers. It had been a good crew and they did a difficult job well. He had even taken several of them aside and told them to make preparations, but he knew most of them thought he was turning into a kook survivalist. Hopefully some of them would pay attention.

  Jim's going away party was held at his favorite bar, an internationally known tiki bar near the county hospital. Spanky's had the best Mai Tai's he had ever tasted. There was actually a two drink limit for some of their specialties because patrons consuming a third generally required help to get out of the building.

  The entire place was decorated with hand carved tiki statues and furniture, and had several blowfish lamps hanging from the ceiling. He could never figure out how the hell they changed the light bulbs in the fish but, in fairness, he tried hard not to think about it. There were flat screens playing 1950's and 60's clips from B movies and strip shows. In short, it was heaven.

  Tonight was packed with his fellow paramedics and EMT's, as well as a bunch of ER nurses from around the valley. Jim was touched that so many would show up. It was a great party, and he hated that he wasn't likely to see any of them again.

  Jim opened a pre paid tab for four thousand dollars, paid in cash, and left instructions for the drinks to be shut off once that amount was reached. He also tipped the bouncer a grand with instructions to make sure everyone got home ok.

  With that taken care of, Jim was determined to try to do something productive. He talked to everyone who would listen about the weaponized bird flu and the need to take extraordinary precautions. They would be among the first wave of casualties and he knew it well. He begged them to start wearing masks once the flu started showing up.