“I’m sorry son.”
“I know, dad. The hitting. It hurt.”
“I know. It won’t ever happen again.”
“And, not just here,” Jake said pointing to his cheek. His hand fell to rest over his heart as fresh tears welled up. “Here.”
Cooper felt a vice over his heart and his eyes offered remorse, “I promise never again. And, I ask for your forgiveness, son.”
Jake simply nodded in response. Cooper saw tenderness in his son’s eyes that melted his heart. He grew wistful when he saw something else in those eyes that he had not seen in a long time. The sympathy held in Jake’s eyes was reminiscent of the forgiveness he’d often see in Elena’s eyes after he had wronged her in some way. God, do I miss her. He felt relief at pulling Jake back from a deadly precipice of despair. Worry clawed at him and chilled his insides. Can I keep him away from this edge with everything all around us is pushing him towards it?
“You ready to get back to work?”
“Yup,” Jake said, and a smile that Cooper would have sold his soul to the devil for crested across his face.
Cooper returned it, “It’s good to see you smile, son.” Jake blushed, but the smile just grew wider.
They quickly searched the mobile home, looking for items of use. It had been stripped of most things useful to a group on the move, but Jake found a forgotten box of 9mm pistol cartridges in the back of a dresser drawer. They moved outside, this time in tandem. Cooper went first and Jake covered him from the back door. After double-checking that no one was in the immediate area, he motioned for Jake to join him next to the disabled pickup truck.
Cooper had to strike the gas tank’s lid with his rifle butt to get it moving. Freeing it, they found it able to easily fill their five gallon can.
“We have to hope that the gas ain’t gone bad,” Cooper intoned as he fastened the lid onto the jerry can.
“What do you mean? I thought gas lasted forever?”
Cooper shook his head, “Nope. It only lasts for a year at most before becoming unusable in a car. Only if it’s treated with the right additives will it last longer.”
Jake shrugged, “Weird.”
“It does smell good and strong, so I think it will work,” Cooper said as he handed the can to Jake.
Upon first grabbing it, his arms didn’t hold the weight and it fell to the ground. Cooper laughed, “Heavier now, isn’t it?”
Jake laughed too, but steadied his feet and hefted it again, this time successfully.
The cackle from the radio caught their attention, “Cooper, you there?” He recognized Dranko’s voice.
“Yes. Here.”
“You better get back here, fast.”
“Why?”
“There’s news on the ham radio. You aren’t going to like it.”
The smiles faded from their faces. “On it. Back in ten.”
“Let me carry the can so we can move faster. I need you on point, eyes sharp and your rifle ready to go.” Cooper couldn’t help but think about the absurdity of such an order being given to an eleven-year-old just a few weeks ago.
Now, in a different world, Jake took it in stride, “Got it.” He handed the gas can to his father and unslung his rifle. He marched out ten yards before looking back to make sure he was following him. Cooper shook his head in disbelief and began following his son back to where the others were holed up.
Everyone was gathered around Dranko’s portable ham radio in the kitchen, except Calvin, because he was on watch and Freddie, who was sleeping on the nearby couch.
“They’re still talking about it,” Angela exclaimed just as soon as Cooper pushed open the door.
“What?”
“Just listen,” Dranko ordered.
“…of Oregon and California are welcoming the aid, while the Governor of Washington is calling it, and I quote, ‘an unprecedented act of underhanded aggression at a time of perilous need.’
Cooper shot Dranko a confused look. Dranko responded by motioning him to keep listening by extending his index finger and drawing small circles in the air with his hand.
“…the President has said that our nation needs any assistance that can be lent and that his administration will ‘fully investigate’ the allegations that Chinese troops have accompanied the medical and police personnel.”
“In other news related to the Brushfire Plague, the reports of reduced lethality have now been confirmed in all corners of the globe. Medical and scientific personnel report that the Brushfire Plague is now no more dangerous than the common flu to most people. Casualty figures have proven impossible to determine as many governments are either unable, or unwilling, to provide accurate figures. However, our statistical department has extrapolated the casualties from three cities on three continents and we estimate that close to 1.2 billion have died worldwide from the Brushfire Plague. The dead and those wounded from widespread violence in the wake of the disease is impossible to responsibly estimate. We now go to an interview with Doctor Zhao on the likely path of the Brushfire Plague in its new, less deadly, form…”
Cooper and the others let loose a collective exhale. Angela’s hands went to her mouth and tears filled her eyes. Julianne collapsed into a chair and laid her head on folded arms, weeping. Lily remained stoic, merely shaking her head in disbelief. Dranko caught Cooper’s eye as he surveyed the room.
“There’s worse.”
“Of course there is.”
“They are talking about you quite a bit.”
“I bet. What are they saying?”
“Just that you are a crazed liar. And, that every American should look for you and turn you in just the same. The one thing I can’t figure is that they say they have ‘reliable information’ that you are headed from Portland to southern Oregon. Your ultimate destination is for you to rejoin your extended family in the Sacramento area.”
Cooper burst out laughing and slapped his leg, “Really? It worked! The goddamn chickenshit did it!”
“What the hell are you talking about,” Dranko demanded.
“When I didn’t put a bullet into Gus’ brain, I found another use for it. I told him to tell the authorities that I was going back home, to my family in Sacramento. That I could be protected and hidden there.”
“Who are you talking about?” Angela asked.
“Gus! I had Gus feed them that line, to try and throw them off our trail.”
First, Dranko smiled, and then he chuckled, “You are a sly son of a bitch! I wouldn’t be surprised if we still get a visit out at my cabin, but this just might throw their main search efforts in the wrong direction.”
Cooper’s laughter faded, “Well, thanks for raining on my parade! But, I misled Gus even there. I couldn’t trust that weasel, so I told him to tell the authorities I was heading to Sacramento and not the coast!”
“The coast? Nice, that’s the opposite direction of here. So, you covered yourself on both sides of the misdirection,” Dranko finished, pride creeping into his voice.
“Yup!” Cooper returned.
“Ssshh,” Lily beckoned their attention by pointing to the ham radio.
“…the Russian government is calling for ‘retribution and justice’ for the ‘gravest sins committed by the Americans that can only be said to be worse than what the Nazis did in the Great Patriotic War’. They are demanding that an international community tribunal agree to surgical nuclear strikes against select U.S. cities. It is threatening unilateral action in the absence of such an agreement. Our President has promised swift retaliation for any such attack. Meanwhile, governments of twenty-seven other nations are calling upon the United Nations to investigate whether the release of the Brushfire Plague was the act of a small group of madmen or whether the United States government was complicit or had foreknowledge of the plan.”