“Get your head out of your ass. Hitler tried it once, you saw how it worked out for him.”
Ace laughed. “Yeah, well, he gained a lot in the process, now didn’t he? He just made mistakes.”
“I have nothing of value and I’m an old lady that no one wants to barter or bargain for.”
“I wager differently,” he said. “Where are you from?”
“Nowhere. Everywhere. I was just roaming the country.”
“I call that bull. You’re in good condition, other than the accident. Not starving, not dirty. Your bike was in good repair and you had limited supplies. You’re local. Cleveland…maybe a pocket of civilization that we missed, or the golden town of hope. Lodi.”
“Lodi?” Rose scoffed. “Last I heard, Lodi went under.”
“Last I heard from the president, Lodi was spared pretty good from the major losses and they stockpiled heavily. I was wondering where everything from the warehouses went. When we got there, maybe a quarter was left.”
“I don’t know about the warehouses. I don’t know about Lodi.”
“We’ll see,” Ace said arrogantly. “I was hoping you’d talk. But I see, you’re not ready. When you are, let me know. I’ll get you some water and fresh bandages so your wounds don’t get infected. Have a good evening ladies.”
Rose held back the waves of pain and fought tooth and nail not to show how hurt she actually was, but when he left, she folded. Lola helped her to sit. It hurt with every step she took, every word she spoke.
She wondered what his purpose was for stopping in. To see if she was dead? Ready to talk? Did he actually think he would get information from her? He probably didn’t realize he gave her more information than she had given him. Or had he done that on purpose? Maybe a way to scare her, make her concerned for her town. If that indeed was his intent, despite what she showed or conveyed, Rose was scared. She was scared to death for Lodi.
Las Vegas, NV
They were all getting worse, and after getting the diagnosis from Lars regarding their ‘coughing’ patients, Lexi realized why. She wasn’t treating them correctly. And in actuality, there wasn’t an effective treatment for SARS at all. Antiviral medications in studies were somewhat effective, but the defense was time, oxygen and fluids in conjunction with any medication that Lexi could give. But she was limited; there was very little of anything remaining.
Those who were infected wasn’t what worried her, it was the fact they were dealing with something as contagious as their flu. Though not as deadly, it spread just as easily. She was certain more cases would pop up over the course of the next several days, and that didn’t include those who passed through Vegas. How many of those took the virus with them?
There were no other cases of smallpox, but another illness appeared in the suburbs of Vegas. Matt’s team discovered that not long after.
Things had quickly become a mess in Vegas.
Matt conveyed his gratefulness to her because had Lexi not shown up they would not have known what they were dealing with.
Lexi still didn’t know how it was occurring. How all of a sudden, these severe illnesses were appearing. Had civilization and technology really kept them at bay?
Her visit with Slot Machine Charlie was depressing. He was the worst. He barely moved. The oxygen flowed into him but Lexi was certain he had gone into respiratory failure.
They retried a respirator from the hospital, actually several, but it may have been a little too late.
A rush of nerves caused her not to sleep the night before and she had been going all day long. She was beat and took a break. Bottle of water in hand, heart heavy, Lexi walked outside. It was hot, but it felt good.
“Someone said they saw you come out,” Bill said as he walked up to her where she sat on a bus stop bench. “Can I join you?”
“Please.”
“What’s wrong?”
She sipped her water and didn’t answer him.
“Okay, that was a bad question.”
“Oh, Bill.” She leaned over and rested her head on his arm. “What the hell is going on? Haven’t we seen enough death and suffering? This is going to get bad. People aren’t the only things that spread this.”
“I know. But we’re gonna face this and fight it, just like we did with the flu.”
“What if we get sick?” she asked. “What if everyone gets sick?”
“Lex, this isn’t like you to be talking like this. You’re tough, strong and smart. You’ll figure out what to do.”
She pulled away and hung her head. “I’m just so tired of death.”
“We all are, but this doesn’t mean these people are dying. They’re just sick. Sick with a couple of odd diseases. But still sick.”
“And now the new cases.”
“You heard Matt, they aren’t using the city’s water purification system. Could be that.”
“With our luck it’s cholera or hemorrhagic fever.”
“How the heck are we getting this soup pot of sicknesses?” Bill asked. “Look at all these birds, I’d say they found a general store and are flying the germs in here.”
Lexi’s head sprang up. “Oh my God.”
“What?”
She stood. “When is our telephone call?”
Bill looked at his watch. “Fifteen minutes. Why?”
She reached down and grabbed his hand. “Come on.”
“Where we going?”
“To find a map,” she said. “I think I know what this is.”
Lodi, OH
Henry watched Lars while he was on the phone, as did Kurt and Tom. Lars didn’t say much, he wrote down more than he spoke. He ended the call simply and said, “We have a telephone meeting in a few minutes. Hang tight. I’ll call you back.”
Lars hung up.
Henry said, “I take it the video store boy was wrong and it wasn’t a wrong number.”
“Not at all,” Lars replied “Seems their commander remembered your store number, Tom, and he gave it to Dr. Kiddi.”
“It’s easy,” Tom said. “That’s why I picked it.”
Kurt asked, “So what’s going on? Something is up.”
“On the positive front,” Lars said, “Mick couldn’t get by Erie either. Seems he met up with some men from the UAA.”
“Tell me he is with the boys,” Tom said hopefully.
“He’s with the boys.”
“Hot dog.” Tom smiled.
“But not so fast, that wasn’t the point of the call,” Lars said. “They have three cases of what this doctor believes to be hemorrhagic fever.”
“W-what?” Henry stuttered. “How is that possible? That’s not possible. He has to be wrong.”
Kurt added, “It has to be something else. They just developed symptoms of hemorrhagic fever? Can’t happen.”
Lars shook his head. “No. They arrived with it. Travelers from west to east. It’s a big thing now, you know, going east. Well, at least for those not going through Erie. This is strange.” Lars leaned back. “If there were enough readers left alive, I’d write a book.”
Tom chuckled. “Probably end up one of them gay erotica novels you write.”
“I wrote romance,” Lars corrected. “Romantic comedy. I resent that.”
“Lots of people said it,” Tom replied. “Called that one book gay erotica.”
Lars shook his head. “One scene. One paragraph and I’m scorned with quips from right wing fanatics.”
“Rose called it that,” Tom said. “You think she’s right wing?”
All them, Lars, Henry, and Kurt responded at the same time. “Yes.”
“She ain’t right wing, she swears too much,” Tom argued. “And I’m worried about her. Nelson said he was sending a party out for her and he’d get back. Something is wrong.” He looked down when his phone rang and he lifted it. “Maybe not. There is a bright spot.” He grinned.