Wilhelm Schoff said in a press interview.  “Our resources to combat this virus are stretched to the limit.”

Atlanta, Georgia – The CDC has expanded it travel warning to include European travel.  “With over 10,000 reported cases of Cape Town flu within Western Europe, we feel it is necessary to expand our scope,” reported Dr. Wendy Johnson from within the CDC.  “We are continuing to focus our efforts on finding a vaccine and anti-viral drugs to combat this new deadly flu pandemic.  It is only a matter of time before cases are reported within the border of the United States.”

You know, it really does seem like these outbreaks and epidemics are becoming part of normal life.  It seems they are much closer together in epidemic proportions as opposed to the once usual 20 year epidemics.  Maybe it is just a matter of time before one becomes a deadly force that sweeps over the world.  I always thought that the more we messed with stuff and pressed deeper into unexplored areas of the world, the more deadly the viruses would become.  And, the more we use and depend on anti-viral drugs, the less we will actually be able to combat those deadly strains.

DEATH TOLL CLIMBS

Washington DC – The death toll from the Cape Town flu continues to climb.  In an unconfirmed report, the estimated death toll from this deadly virus has reached 20,000.  The number of cases has climbed to an estimated 250,000 worldwide with cases being reported in almost every major country.  The first cases have now been reported in Los Angeles and New York. 

The House and Senate are meeting to pass emergency legislation authorizing funds for vaccine research.  The expectations are……..

Atlanta, Georgia – The CDC has confirmed reports of the first cases of Cape Town flu within the United States.  “We have eight confirmed cases within Los Angeles and ten within New York,” reports Dr. Wendy Johnson of the CDC.  “We expect this number to rise over the next few days and weeks.”

The CDC reports the symptoms to look for with the Cape Town virus are nausea, headache, sore throat, and fever.  “What really makes this one different is the extremely high fever associated with the Cape Town flu,” said Dr. Johnson.  “We have reported temperatures reaching 104 degrees which puts us into a danger zone.  If you have any of these symptoms, please report them to your nearest medical facility at the first sign.”

I really have to stop reading this stuff, I thought noticing that Lynn had come online.  We talk about it some but are both under the impression that there is a fair share of media hype involved.  Yes, we both think that the numbers are pretty high and it is perhaps fairly dangerous if your immune system is not up to par.  She even told me that there are a few people in her unit and other surrounding units that are getting sick.  She has even had to pull extra shifts to cover those sick.  More of an annoyance than any fear.

Washington DC – Both the House and Senate passed an emergency funding bill authorizing vaccine research for the deadly Cape Town virus that has truly reached pandemic proportions.  The bill authorizes government health officials to use every means at their disposal to find a remedy to this threat.

Federal government health organizations have formed a coalition with 7 major worldwide pharmaceutical corporations to combine efforts in order to…….

Oh boy!  Here we go!

Washington DC – Federal health officials issued a statement today that, with the combined efforts of the world’s major pharmaceutical corporations and government experts, that a viable vaccine has been discovered to combat the Cape Town flu virus.

“With over 100,000 confirmed deaths worldwide, and, with an estimation of that many deaths within the United States alone, this couldn’t come soon enough,” said Senator Jesse McCaffery in a statement issued by his office.

FDA approval of this vaccine within days is expected as this vaccine is expedited through the approval process……the military will be the first to receive this vaccine with it becoming available to the general public as soon as 24 hours later.  Special clinics and locations are now set up in locations around the world and are now only awaiting the FDA approval and arrival of the vaccine.  A list of facilities can be found in your area at http://……….

I am not taking this when it comes around, I think reading the story in a fit of boredom.  I have not had a flu shot, well, since the Air Force and I don’t plan on taking this one.  The flu shots I have had generally made me sicker than the actual flu itself so, no flu shot for me.

These are the last thoughts I have before succumbing to sleep.  I find myself lying in a boat on the water, drifting slowly in the lake.  The boat rocks me gently as I stare up at the blue sky above.  The sun shines down onto my face, its warmth caressing me.  The boat is not rocking in a constant motion but more in sporadic waves.  A rocking, then nothing, then another after a moment.  I stare into the blue sky to see an eagle soaring above me.  I hear its screech as it rides the winds.  It wheels and circles back around dropping lower until its shadow is large across me, blotting out the sun as it passes between it and me.  Calling out as it passes by.

“Dad,” it calls out.  “Dad.”  What the fuck, I think starting to sit up in the boat.  I open my eyes to Robert gently shaking my shoulder and his flashlight staring straight into my eyes.  “Dad,” he softly whispers once more.

“Yeah, I’m up,” I reply back.

“It’s two,” he says removing the light from my eyes.

“Okay.  Anything going on?”  I whisper taking a moment to adjust to waking up.  The radiant light from his flashlight illuminates the room slightly showing lumps on the floor around me like tiny hills.

“No.  It’s been completely quiet.”

“Okay, I’m good. Get some sleep,” I tell him climbing out of my sleeping bag, grabbing my own flashlight, and sliding my Beretta into my holster.  I inch along the floor on my butt to the wall, dragging my sleeping bag with, and drape the bag over my legs.  It is a little chilly in the room after the warmth of being in the bag.

Robert climbs into his bag and his light goes off.  Everything is completely dark and I am not even sure I have my eyes open.  I blink to make sure and things slowly become a lighter shade of darkness.  The soft breathing of everyone sleeping come to my ears in the darkness.  Robert moves in the gray darkness, adjusts the bag and drifts off.  I remember the times when it was just him and I on our weekends and we would talk the night away about some story or another once the lights were out.  We would probably be doing just that right now, talking about the day’s events, if it weren’t for the exhaustion that those events brought about.  My mind drifts to Lynn, hoping she is truly okay, wanting to be there now, to what the future may hold, to the peacefulness of the dream, and once again to the beginning of all of this…..

Washington DC – The Food and Drug Administration reports approval of the Cape Town flu vaccine.  In a statement issued by the administration, the armed forces will be receiving the first vaccinations within the next 24 to 48 hours.  Vaccinations will be available to the general public within 48 hours.  Local flu shot locations can be found at http://.......

“This is a worldwide effort and vaccinations will be delivered to all world countries at the same time it becomes available to the general public here in the United States,” reported a spokeswoman for the FDA.

With the death tolls reported to reach over 200,000 and over one million confirmed cases worldwide, the lines at flu shot locations are expected to be long as fear of the virus spreads.  “We have produced enough vaccine to inoculate approximately 75% of the world population with more being produced daily,” The FDA reports.  “This is due to the world governments and major pharmaceutical corporations focusing their efforts the production of the Cape Town vaccine.

I am so not going to ‘get my flu shot’ nor stand in line to do so.  I don’t usually find myself in groups of people and so I am not overly worried about getting the flu.  I avoided all of the other ones to date and was sure I will not be getting this one either.  More than likely, this will become old news once the vaccine has been distributed.  I talked to Lynn that night, asking if she knew when she was getting hers.  She mentioned that they were required to get theirs within 48 hours of deliverance, the first of which were expected to be the next morning.  She also mentioned that there were an increasing number of people going to sick call, to the point that she had to fill in double shifts and she no longer had her usual day off.  ‘Well, that sucks,’ I told her at the time.  ‘That means we won’t have our usual long skype session.’

“Are you going to get yours right off?”  I asked.

“I won’t have time tomorrow but will have to find time within the next couple of days.”

Washington DC – The Pentagon reported that the first soldiers received the Cape Town vaccine yesterday as the first vaccines were administered to the general public today.  While the death toll and reported cases continues to climb,……..

In my talk with Lynn that night, she mentioned that there were a lot of people who were reporting into sick call.  This was annoying her because her unit was getting ready to deploy back to the states.  The people who needed to be there and help with the deployment were not showing up and it was becoming a huge cluster fuck.

Washington DC – The Pentagon today denied reports that service members were reporting into sick call in vast numbers.  It also denied rumors that armed forces personnel have died as a result of either the Cape Town flu virus or the associated vaccine.

“We do not release details of deaths until the next of kin have been notified,” a spokesman for the Pentagon said in an issued statement.  “We can neither confirm nor deny reports at this time.”

In my nightly talk with Lynn, I mentioned the article.  She gave that look she always gives when she can’t talk about something.  “I can only say that things are a little crazy around here right now,” she mentioned looking back over her shoulder.

“Did you get your shot yet?”  I asked.

“No, but I am supposed to get it tomorrow.  We were given an extra 24 hours to get it done as the waiting lines are huge.  Did you get yours yet?”

“Hell no,” I told her.  “I don’t plan on it either.”

“Well, you’re a big boy now and can make your own decisions.”

“I love you!”  I told her.  “I can’t wait until you are back home.”

“I love you too!”  And that was the last I have heard from her.

Washington DC – Rumors continue to circulate today about large numbers of deaths within the armed forces supposedly associated with the Cape Town flu vaccine.  Other reports indicate violent attacks upon armed forces personnel by unknown assailants.  In one report being circulated by various news sites, these personnel are being attacked by other service members.

A news blackout has been enforced by the armed forces from all bases.  The Pentagon has refused to comment……..

Wow!  What the hell!  I tried to see if Lynn was online.  Nothing.  I tried her phone and sent a message via email.  I even tried her army email address.  I never use that one but I was a bit worried.  So far, nothing back.

A noise outside intrudes on my wondering thoughts.  A shriek very similar to those I heard in my encounters with whatever these things are or have become.  This one sounds far away; almost like the coyote howls I would hear on some nights.  Lonely yet calling their message to others.  Another one answers out in the distance of the night.  I sit against the wall thinking about waking the others.  I will if I hear them get any closer, I think listening for more sounds.  Only the continued soft breathing intrudes upon the night.  After a bit, my mind heads back……

New York, NY– Hospitals have been swamped today with people reporting into emergency rooms citywide.  Sore throats, headaches, and high fevers are being reported similar to those symptoms associated with the Cape Town flu.  Sirens have been a constant sound within the city as emergency personnel respond to the numerous calls.  City officials report that emergency resources have been stretched past the limit of being able to respond to any emergency in a timely fashion.

Numerous deaths in the thousands have been reported within the city of New York alone.  Other major cities across the United States and other countries are reporting similar stories.  The death toll could possibly reach in the millions by the end of the day according to reports being received.

Los Angeles, California – Fear has spread across this city as the reports of deaths and sicknesses continue to mount.  Many businesses and government offices have shut down due to very few people showing up for work.  Hospitals and clinics have been filled up since early this morning from people showing up with high fevers and flu-like symptoms.  Most people are being sent home as emergency services are unable to cope with the sheer volume of the sick.  This is a trend being seen nationwide.

Attacks and riots have been reported within the city and in many of the outlining areas.  The governor has called in the National Guard to restore order to the cities but response has been limited so far.

Reports of people attacking others continue to mount with many deaths from these attacks reported.

Atlanta, Georgia – The CDC has issued a joint statement with the FDA today recalling all of the Cape Town flu vaccines.  All clinics and flu shot locations have been instructed to cease the administration of the vaccine.

Washington DC – The Pentagon is continuing its media blackout and remains quiet refusing any comment.  Rumors continue to circulate through the capital that the armed forces have established quarantine areas within its bases.  Many rumors mention violent attacks by armed forces personnel.

Schools and public service buildings have closed across the country until further notice.  Many businesses…….

I called the kids to see if they were alright.  They said they were doing fine but I could tell they seemed a bit worried by all that was going on.  I don’t have TV service and haven’t in a few years so they were probably getting quite inundated with reports.  They told me that even Shelton here has had reports of deaths and attacks but that was only hearsay.  “Okay,” I said.  “Don’t go anywhere if you can help it.  I’ll see you this weekend.”

Amsterdam, Netherlands – Reports coming out of the Netherlands capital city tonight are staggering.  Government and emergency services seemed to have come to a standstill. 

“The infrastructure has collapsed,” commented one citizen standing in front of his home with his wife and two children standing beside him.  “Riots and fires are burning out of control in some places.  There has apparently been a number of attacks by others and even reports of cannibalism,” he mentioned shepherding his family back into their home.

“I can confirm the reports of attacks on others,” one emergency worker commented while helping another worker lift a stretcher into the back of an ambulance.  “Many of the people we are now responding to have bite marks taking gouges out of their flesh and report these attacks are being made by other people.”

Deaths in the hundreds of thousands have been reported in the city.  Government sources……..

Washington DC – The Pentagon, after maintaining silence for the past 48 hours, has issued a statement today stating that it had established quarantines in many of its bases but that the quarantine has been breached.  It admitted that it has lost contact with a majority of bases worldwide.

Atlanta, Georgia – In a statement issued today, the CDC indicates that the Cape Town flu vaccine has apparently interacted with human DNA on a base level.  These base level changes seem to invoke a violent reaction in those that have not succumbed to the vaccine.  Preliminary figures indicate that the mortality rate from those that have received the vaccine at around 75 percent with a margin of plus or minus 5 %.  The wide margin is due to the small amount of confirmed data currently present.  Reports seem to indicate that approximately 1 percent of the population has a natural immunity.

“The interesting thing we are seeing in this data is that the natural immunity seems to be familial,” Dr. Roberta Kline said speaking from her desk inside the CDC.  “That is, we are seeing that immunity bestow within family groups.  We just don’t have enough data to fully support this but the preliminary figures seem to indicate this.  Another interesting thing that is coming from our data is that the ones who are mutating due to the vaccine seem to have an aversion to light.  Again, our data is limited and needs further study.”

Seaside, Oregon – Fear has spread through this small Oregon coastal community as the number of attack and death reports continues to mount across the nation.

“I have seen people attacking others in the middle of the night,” says one Seaside resident.  “There only seems to be the dead, the sick, or those attacking around.”

“They don’t look right,” chimes in another resident, “and they attack everything in sight.”

It is at this point that a little notice appeared at the bottom right of my laptop.  ‘Network Connection Lost’ it said on my network connection icon.  I looked up at the router on top of my big screen TV to see most of the lights have gone dark.  The link light was still blinking at me but the receive and send lights were dark.  Damn!  No Internet!  That totally, totally sucks, I think as my phone rang.  It was Robert on the line.

“Hey, bud,” I said after pressing the send button.

“Hey, Dad,” he whispered back.

“Are you okay?”

“There’s someone or something in the house,” he said.  “I have Brianna and Nicole down in the basement with me.  We can hear something moving around upstairs.  I have the basement door shut.”

“Can you get out of the basement?  I mean through a window or something?”

“No.  The windows are too small.”

“Okay, keep very quiet and put your cell on vibrate.  Tell Bri and Nicole to turn theirs off if they have them with.  I’ll be there shortly.”

“Okay, Dad,” He said and hung up.

I grabbed my weapons, my keys, and walked to Mom’s house.  After telling her that the kids called and I was going to pick them up, I stepped outside, sliding my Beretta 9mm into the speed draw holster at my side and carrying my 12 gauge pump shotgun.

Mowing the Yard

The sound of a dog barking outside startles me out of my reverie.  The barking is frantic and sounds as if it is coming from the driveway in front of the house.  I am not sure what time it is but it feels like I have only been awake for a short time.  But then again, reveries like that will do funny things to time.  I pick up my gun and scoot over to the darkened lump that I think is Robert, turn on the flashlight but cup my hand over the end to control the light escaping.  I barely make out Robert’s face lying there with the bag pulled up to his chin.  I set the light between my legs as I kneel over him and gently cup my hand over his mouth.  He instantly comes awake and gives his head a twist trying to shake free.

“Ssshhh,” I whisper in the dark.  “It’s dad.  I think there might be something outside,” I whisper as he comes awake and I remove my hand from his mouth.  “Quietly wake the others and watch your light.  Cup your hand over the end.”

I hear him slide out of his bag and move over to the other mounds on the floor silhouetted by the faint light escaping from his flashlight.  I move over and wake Mom.  A light stabs into the darkened room.

“Lights out!”  I whisper sharply and the light disappears, darkening the room once again.  I hear the rustling movement of sleeping bags being moved as the girls slide out of their cozy beds.

“Against the wall like we talked about,” I say softly to everyone amidst the sound of the dog barking outside.

The barking has taken on the continuous aspect of when a dog has spotted something and is doing the territorial thing; sort of that alpha dog thing.  Over the frantic barking comes a shriek.  Like a threatening scream.  I want to head over to a window or the front door peephole to see what is going on but feel this is one of those times to become a black hole, only without any of the gravitational affect.

The frantic nature of the barking is now replaced by silence outside.  One additional bark sounds out followed by more silence.  Now two barks and silence.  A high pitched shriek once again interrupts the silence but with a different tone.  If I can put a tone on it, it seems like a surprised and pained sound.  I hear a loud thump against the house solid enough to be felt followed a split second later by the sharp, short yelp that a dog emits when in pain.  I hear Bri emit a soft moan of sympathy.  She has always loved animals and is, well, was, wanting to become a veterinarian.  The yelps are now coming in a continuous series.  Five, six, seven, and then total silence once again descends upon us in the darkened room.

I look around at everyone through the dim light emitting between my fingers from the flashlight.  Robert has his gun out and is on his knees pointing at the back hallway.  Michelle is facing the windows against the outside wall on the other side of the room.  Mom is behind me with her pistol pointed down at the floor between us and the back door.  Bri and Nicole lean with their backs against the wall surrounded by us; their knees drawn up to their chest, one arm around each other with the other grabbing their outside leg below the knee.  They look like bookends.  It is amazing how they seem to do this without thinking.  Their habits are so similar.   I have a theory that many habits and motions may be DNA based.  I guess it could be mimicry from them being around each other so much but I don’t think so.

We sit there in silence for what seems like an hour but in all actuality is only a matter of about fifteen minutes when I hear the rattle of cans coming from the front of the house.  The noise goes on and on, like someone playing Yahtzee with a tin shaker and metal dice.  One set of the cans on the front porch has been knocked off, and, somewhat amusingly, may be tangled up with whatever is out there.  That would be nice if the cans have in fact become a more permanent part of it.  That way, we will perhaps know where that one is at least; sort of like a cow with a bell around its neck.  I swear I hear a muffled growl and the cans stop banging around.

“Everyone keep absolutely quiet no matter what happens outside.  If something gets in, then different story, but until then, quiet,” I say as silence once more dominates the world around us.

BANG!  The sound at the front door startles me and does a kick start to my heart.  My heart pounds hard as it starts the adrenaline flow through my body.  Another bang as something large slams into the front screen door.  A shriek sounds out amidst the sound of glass breaking and falling to the ground.

“Flashlights on but stand them with the ends on the floor,” I whisper glancing to the darkened shapes around me.  “If anything gets in the front door and there are too many, we are out the side door.  Robert you lead to the door and I’ll cover the rear.  Once outside, we’ll switch and I’ll take the lead.  Everyone else as we talked about before.”

We are quickly illuminated in momentary strobes as lights come on but the dimness returns quickly.  Quick enough that night vision is not drastically affected.  More sounds of glass breaking come from the screen door followed by a grinding, metallic twisting sound.  The aluminum of the screen door screams in protest as though it is being bent in ways it was not designed to.

“Don’t concentrate on the sound in front but focus on listening for sounds in your coverage area,” I whisper not taking my eyes from the kitchen entrance.

I can’t see the kitchen from this angle so the first visual sign I will have of anything will be when it enters the room some twenty feet away.  This is where I keep my gun aimed.  I’m on my knees holding my gun in my right hand with my left hand wrapped around the shaft of the flashlight on the ground next to me, ready to bring it up if necessary.  More of the metallic, twisting sound comes to my ears and then a loud pop.  I am guessing either the screen door latch or hinge has popped off.  I hear Bri sniffle and Nicole whisper to her, “It’s going to be alright Bri.  I’m here.”

A loud, thundering boom comes from the front door.  I don’t hear the wood give way so I think the door is still holding.  I should have put something across the door, I think as another booming thud sounds.  I wanted to leave two routes open to leave from in case we needed to but I never thought anything would be slamming into the doors with a semi.  I feel my heart beat faster as it keeps my adrenaline flow up.  My gun is still pointed at the kitchen entrance.  My hand is steady but my mind is shaking as I think about my kids being here.  I also feel myself bracing for another impact but only the deadened sound of silence prevails but with the afterimage of the thuds still ringing in my mind.  The silence worries me almost as much as or more than the banging.

Another shriek reverberates through the night.  This one seems to come from a little distance away.  If I have to hazard a guess, I would say from a neighbor’s house or a little further.  Another scream erupts from about the same area.   It sounds more human and of someone experiencing total fear.  Oh my god, I think, there’s someone still alive.  Another screams shatters the night but is overshadowed by an ear-piercing shriek from just outside the house.  Tin cans rattle outside once again.  The last sound of the night is another shriek but a ways off in the night.  I hear no more screams or shouts.

“Everyone wait here,” I say and edge to the kitchen entrance with my cupped light and gun.  At the corner, I peek around low and let a little beam of light escape from between my fingers toward the front door to see it is still shut tight in the frame.  I creep silently toward it, steeling myself in case another sudden thud comes.  Damn I have to go to the bathroom, I think edging up to the door to look through the peephole.  If something bangs against the door right now, I may just let loose.

The clear, starlit night is the only thing that greets my vision as I look out of the peephole.  It is amazing just how much light reaches the earth and lights it up from stars millions of light years away.  Many of them probably no longer in existence but their light still comes to rest on us.  Mind boggling sometimes.  The end of the gravel driveway and small rock wall across from me are lit up by these far away stars.  I see a corner of the screen leaning outward to the right.  Nothing is moving.  I pull the door slightly, testing its integrity.  There is only a little give.  I thank whoever it was in the night that screamed, drawing that thing away from us, and send my prayers their way asking the spirits to help them as they did us.

I walk back to the group.  “Is everything okay, Dad?”  Nicole asks from the shadows.

“Yeah, babe, I think so.  For now at least.”

I head into the bathroom to relieve my bladder brought on by my over-worked glandular system making a mental note to flush come morning.  We drag our sleeping bags to where we were sitting, draw them over our legs for warmth, turn out our lights, and wait.

An hour or so passes by before everyone settles back into their bags to try to get some sleep while I keep watch.  Judging from the rustling of the bags, not much rest is actually getting done.  I am exhausted from the day and night and want to drift off.  Luckily, my mind is still keyed up and going a mile a minute with various thoughts, so I don’t quite head off into dreamland.  The only indication that morning has arrived is the sound of birds greeting the dawn outside.

I walk to the back door peeling the blanket back a bit to ensure that the day has indeed come to us.  The light of the coming dawn shows through the crack between the blanket and the door’s window.  “Up and at ‘em,” I call out but am met only with groans and the motion of teens rolling over in their bags.  Well, apparently they did drift off at some point.

“Come on everyone, get up, we have a busy day,” I call out heading outside to start the generator.

I am greeted by the morning sun peeking its way through the trees; just rising over the mountains to the east.  The world spins around as it has in the past and will continue to do regardless of what happens to the life inhabiting this rock flying through space.  The day is beginning to warm up.  The screen door hangs outward and to the side, held on only by the bottom hinge.  Broken glass lies on the deck in front.  I look at the jamb and find it has come marginally loose but held up amazingly well considering how hard the front door had been hit.  The cans lay twisted on the deck with the string still attached.

After heading back in to check that everyone is up, I tell them to roll up their bags before heading over to my place to gather my stuff together.  Arriving at the front door, I take out my gun and throw the door open.  Light reaches inside through the door turning the darkness into a lighter gray.  No movement.  I reach in to the right of the door and flick on the lights.  It is only a large single room so I can see at once if there is anything inside.  It is just as I left it the day prior.  I switch into a flight suit and gather clothes, toiletries, and such putting them into my olive drab duffle bag, heading back to Mom’s house once I have finished.  I also put my abalone shell, cedar, wooden matches, and my black and red paint into a red bag to take along.

“What’s that for? Cool factor?”  Robert asks as I walk back in referring to my flight suit.

“Nah, lots of convenient pockets, and, if there are any military personnel left, I may be able to bluff my way through.”

“Can I wear one?”

“No.  Although we may be able to pass you off, the chances are slim.  Not with them both having the same name tag.  Besides, I only have one flight cap.”

We grab a quick breakfast and throw most of our gear into the vehicles.  I grab a ladder from outside and bring it in to provide an access to the attic for Mom to use as a last bastion of refuge.  I also store some candles, food, water, matches, flashlight, and batteries so she will have items already there in case she has to move fast.  She is still adamant about staying.

“If you have to use that, bring the ladder up after you and shut the access hatch.  You may be able to get down during the day but be very careful about that as it’ll be dark inside the house at all times.  You may have to stay up there for a few days.  Don’t forget to bring your gun and ammo if you have any more,” I tell her standing at the foot of the ladder.  “We’ll be back in a few days.  You can set the cans up on the deck steps each night to give you some warning.”

The water has had a chance to heat up some by this point and so we all bathe.  With the last of the gear loaded, and feeling a little refreshed, we head to the vehicles.  Robert and Michelle will be in the Honda; Nicole, with Bri on her lap, will ride with me in the Jeep.  Robert, Nicole, and Bri all give Mom a hug before I step up to give her one.  “I love you Mom,” I tell her with our arms wrapped around each other.  “I am so thankful for you.  You be careful.”

“I love you too!”  She says and I leave her embrace with tears welling up in my eyes.

 “Stay right behind me,” I tell Robert as he opens the driver’s door.  “If you need to stop or pull over, flash your lights or pull up beside me and let me know.”

“Okay, Dad.”

“If I pull over, pull over with me but keep a little distance.  I’ll wave you closer if I need to.  I’m planning on stopping at Kennedy Creek for a little bit and then the Fred Meyer in Tumwater before we head up north.”

He gives me an odd look and a nod before picking up the keys and climbing into the car.  The sun hasn’t yet cleared the top of the trees as we pull out of the driveway and begin our journey.  I look into the rearview mirror and see Mom waving to us from her position on the front porch.  We turn out of the driveway and she disappears from sight.  I feel an immense sadness fill my heart.  “Be safe,” I say under my breath.

We head down the road and onto the highway.  I glance over at the gas station as we pass.  Everything still looks as it did yesterday; the white truck still parked as it was before.  The roads are quiet.  Passing by the casino once again, I notice oddly that there are significantly more cars parked there than there were at any of the stores or any other places we have been.  Funny, I think shaking my head, how people would still flock there despite all that was going on.  Perhaps a little indication about human nature.

Further down the road, I make the turn toward Kennedy creek.  We have spent a lot of time there in the past, whether hiking up the creek, mountain biking in the hills and woods, or just climbing around.  We park the vehicles and climb out.

“Are we going to your place?”  Nicole asks stretching her legs.

“Yeah, babe.”

“Can I go with you?”  She asks.

“Sure, hon, I would love to have you with.”

“Are you guys coming with?”  I address the rest of our little group. “Or do you want to wait here?”

“How long will you be?”  Robert asks.

“Not long.  Under an hour.”

“I’ll stay here with Michelle,” Robert pipes up.

“No offense, Dad, but I really don’t want to walk that far,” Bri comments.

“Okay guys.  Watch out for others and honk the horns if you see anything,” I say as Nicole and I begin to head up the dirt road.

We all have our own special place in these hills.  For Robert and me, we have our mountain which we have dubbed Mt.Robdad.  We have spent the better part of summer days riding our mountain bikes up there; prowling around the ridge lines and exploring various trails.  It takes us around two hours of hard riding to get up there.  We also hike the creek for miles under the hot sun.  Sometimes I’ve taken Bri to the creek down a little lower on hot summer days.  There are several pools there where we play in the water all day long.  But Nicole, I take her to my special place in the woods.

We hike up the road, mostly in silence, enjoying each other’s company even in our present circumstance.  This place has always been a place of peace and harmony for me.  We turn off of the road after a bit and start up through the trees.  The land slopes upward into the firs and cedars blanketing the area and we climb up to where an old cedar stump sits on the hill.  The stump stands taller than me and is about six feet across.  The scar of an old lightning strike is sliced into it with bits of still scorched wood and bark lying about its ancient roots.  This is where I gather the charcoal for my black paint.  Beyond is a little clearing between sharply rising hills ending against a cliff.  A very small creek flows through the middle originating from beneath the cliff at the far end.  I found this place long ago.  It is a place where the spirits live, showing themselves from time to time.

“I love coming here with you, Dad,” Nicole says as we place our phones, money, knives, guns, and anything along those lines at the base of the stump.  “It’s so peaceful here.”

“I love you here with me, hon,” I say reaching my arm around her shoulder and giving her a quick hug.

I pull out my abalone shell, cedar, and matches.  Putting the cedar in the shell and lighting it, we smudge ourselves before stepping past the stump and out into the clearing.  The sun beyond the cliff wall has not reached the bottom of this small valley but casts streaks of light as it glows through the trees growing at the top of the cliff.  Walking across the spongy ground, I lean down to the small creek splashing my face and hands.  We climb and take a seat on the ground a little ways up the hill.  This is a place where I come to settle my mind and contemplate.  Nicole comes with me when I do.  I sit and let the place fill me.  Squirrels run up and down the trees chasing each other and who knows what else as Nic sits there by my side, taking in the place herself.  Sometimes clear answers will come to me here and sometimes it is just a spiritual filling up.

As the sun’s rays touch the small valley floor, I reach over and pat Nic’s knee a couple of times, “Ready, hon?”

“Yeah, Dad,” she says looking up at me with a smile.

We head out of the valley, gather up our stuff, and head back to our vehicles.  On our stroll back, I think about this whole area and how we have all enjoyed exploring here, wondering if we will still be able to in the future or whether all of this and our time here will just be memories.

Back at the vehicles, we take our places once again and drive away, leaving the trees to go their way and perhaps reflect on our passage.  Hitting the highway, we turn right to continue our journey to the beach.  If all of this had to go down, why couldn’t it have happened in another month?  Then, Lynn would have already been home.  Everything for a reason I guess, I think glancing into the rearview to see Robert driving along behind.

Reaching the Interstate, I turn southbound heading toward the next exit which will take us to Fred Meyer.  The flight computer and watch will come in handy.  While that is a mostly true statement, I also know it is a little bit of a rationale.  Part of it is that it is a nice watch, I want it, and it is just sitting there.

The lanes of the Interstate stretch out before and behind us.  There are a couple of cars to be seen on the shoulders of the road but for the most part, it is as empty as any other road we have seen.  A semi is pulled off just prior to the exit with triangle hazard reflector sitting along the road behind it.  Passing by the semi, I take the exit ramp up to the right.  I had expected the exit ramps this close to town to be partially blocked or at least have a few more cars on them but it is completely clear.  Coming to the intersection at the top of the ramp, I notice the traffic lights are dark.  Either the emergency power that was operating yesterday has now failed or just in this part of town.  Proceeding across the street, with Robert behind, we pull into the parking lot.

I stop just before and in front of the first doors in the shadow of the building.  There are no cars in the parking lot and the front glass doors stare back at us with darkness inside.  I leave the Jeep running as I step outside and walk to the back meeting everyone else there.

“The jewelry store is just inside these doors to the right so we won’t have to go in very far,” I say nodding in the direction of the doors.  “It opens up in front and to the left as well.  I want Robert and Michelle inside but just at the doors.  Nic and Bri, you stay here with the cars.”

I open up the back of the Jeep and pull out flashlights we brought with us.  “Robert, you cover to the left with your light and Michelle, you cover ahead.  I’ll be going in and to the right,” I tell them passing out the lights.  “We don’t need anything here so we leave if there is anything inside.  Call out if you see anything.”

Before closing the rear door, I take the new duct tape and slide it around my left wrist once more thinking, this would have been a great ad for duct tape.  Bite protection.  I actually plan on using it to tape and smash in the glass in the jewelry counter.

“Robert, go start your car and leave it running,” I tell him as I slowly move toward the front door.

There are two sets of double doors with glass panels set in between.  Looking inside the glass panel to the right, I see that the radiant light from outside stretches a fair ways inside.  Clothing racks to the left and fruit stands ahead.  Looking to the right, I see the security fence to the jewelry store is still open.  Thank god, I think flicking on my light.  Pressing the light against the glass in the same manner as I did at the gas station, I move the light around the inside.  A Starbucks counter comes into view as does a deli counter stretching into the darkness next to it.  I play the light into all of the area I can see but there is no movement within.

“Test the doors,” I tell Robert as I continue to run my light around the inside.

I see one of the doors open slightly in my peripheral.  “They’re unlocked,” he says.

“Okay,” I say pushing myself away from the glass panel glad for 24 hour stores.  Pushing the door open with my shoulder, I step inside followed by Robert and then Michelle.  “You two hold these doors open.”

Glancing back outside, I see Nic and Bri leaning against the Jeep.  “Robert, you have that area there,” I whisper sweeping an arc with my light to the left.  “Michelle, you have that one,” lighting another arc in front.  I step ahead and to the right as their beams sweep the various areas around.

It’s a little darker in the jewelry portion of the store due to the angle it sits with not much radiant light from outside.  The same goes for the rest of the store.  An inky blackness swallows up the areas where my light doesn’t reach.  I edge up to the jewelry entrance and peek around the corner with the flashlight extending past the corner.  A slow check of the inside reveals nothing but the glass cases of rings, bracelets, and watches.  Inside, I lean over the first counter to my right shining the light along the aisle behind the counter.  Nothing.  Moving to the far glass case, I do the same.  Nothing.  Checking back out into the store proper, I flash my light down the aisle stretching away.  Nothing.

I set the light on the glass in front of me with the light playing out into the store, covering that area as best as I can while ripping off several lengths of duct tape.  I cover a section of glass with the tape to prevent glass flying and it cuts down on the noise.  I pull out my knife and smack down on the glass with the butt hearing the glass crack below the tape.  I smack down again and the glass gives.  I tap a few more time to clear away the glass around the edges and lift the tape peeling the broken glass with it.  Reaching in, I grab the watch sticking it in my pocket for later as a loud CRACK-BOOM fills the inside of the store.

I grab the flashlight and spin around toward the front entrance, going to my knee and bringing my gun to bear.  My light stabs out toward the entrance.  I am just in time to see a strobe-like light flash out and another gunshot sounds rolls through the interior.  I don’t see Robert or Michelle as the wall to the jewelry store blocks my view of the front doors.  I see both of their lights are flashing over the clothes section where Robert was covering.  “What is it?”  I call out.

“I saw something moving over by the clothes racks,” Robert calls back.  “I think there were a couple of them.”

“I’m coming out,” I say and walk to the entrance, panning my light once around my area and then focusing it over where theirs are flashing.

My light catches something lying on the ground under and next to a section of clothes racks.  I can’t really make out what it is but it does resemble a shoulder or something like it.

“Anyone there?”  I call out circling around to the right to get a clearer look.

No answer.  I continue to circle around.  “Did you hit anything?”  I ask panning my light to check out the area to my side and behind me.

I look over to Robert and Michelle who are holding the front doors open with their bodies with their lights and guns pointed into the area I am circling toward.

“I think so but I’m not sure,” Robert answers.

“Michelle, cover the area behind me to your right,” I say and see her switch her positions.  Her light momentarily flashes over me as it transitions behind me.

I approach whatever is lying on the ground.  It is definitely a shoulder with pale skin but not the pale gray skin of the things I saw yesterday.  The body is wearing some kind of light halter top.  I also see what appears to be another body on the ground next to the first one.  The head must be at an awkward angle as I can’t see it or any hair.  And, if they were hit, where’s the blood?  Then, a sudden flash of understanding goes off in my head; the light bulb comes on shining brightly.  I chuckle and then my flashlight wavers as this turns into a full blown laugh.

“What?”  Robert asks confusedly.  “What?”

“And the score after a round one is Robert – 2, Mannequins - 0,” I call back noticing they were actually pretty nice shots from that distance with a .45.  It looks like he hit the mannequin closest to me in the neck, turning that into dust and launching the head somewhere off into the darkness.  I don’t venture closer to the other one to find out where he hit.

“”You’re kidding!”  He calls over.  “But I saw it move.”

“Trick of the darkness.”

I start to turn back toward them and catch a trickle of movement out of the corner of my eye.  I drop to my knee once again, focusing my light toward where I caught the flash of movement.  My light focuses on the end of a row of shelves and such where underwear and socks hang on display.

“What the hell!?”  I whisper trying to focus my eyes even sharper.

Yes, I talk to myself quite a bit.  I swear I am looking at part of a hand poking out slightly from the end of the shelf about twenty five feet away.  I am at an almost right angle to the shelf unit and so I can’t see down the aisle much.  Really not at all.  It looks like the pale fingers of a hand poking out in an almost sprinters start position.  Fingertips on the ground; fingers rigid and palm raised off of the ground.  A thought crosses that perhaps Robert’s second round hit the arm and the hand flew over there.  Possible perhaps.  But what moved then?

I start to rise from my knee to a crouching position when I see the hand move back slightly into the aisle.  Not much, just an inch or two.  Okay, I’m outta here, I think rising the rest of the way and back toward the front doors.

“There’s something back there,” I mention as arriving at the doors.  “I think you maybe did see something.  Nice job.”

“What is it?”  Michelle asks as we step out into the shadow of the building and let the front doors swing shut.

“I don’t know and I’m not all that keen on finding out.”

“Time check?”  I ask as we step towards Nicole and Bri.  “Oh, wait.  I don’t need to ask that anymore,” I say reaching into my pocket and pull out my new watch.

I see the hands move as it automatically synchs up.  As long as the satellites stay in place, we will have auto time.  I don’t how long we’ll have the use of satellites but I don’t think it will be for that much longer.  Satellite orbits decay fairly quickly if they don’t get their boosts to help them stay in orbit.  Even if those boosts are set automatically, they will eventually run out of fuel, fall back towards Earth, and burn up in the atmosphere.  I set the watch for Greenwich Time on the digital display and the analog time for Pacific.  The watch hands wind to 07:27.  Time to head north.

We head out of the parking lot and catch the Interstate northbound.  We have about a thirty minute drive north to McChord providing the roads stay clear and all goes well.  The sun continues its climb across the cloudless summer sky.  A sky devoid of any human activity.  As motionless as the roads below.  I have only witnessed such a sky devoid of any contrails once before and that was on a fateful September day years ago.  It is amazing just how much sensory input we notice yet on a more subconscious level.  A certain piece here and another there; forming a picture of our reality at any given moment.  We know what should be there and our mind automatically forms it.  We know birds should be flying around but we don’t really see them.  But take a piece out and we notice.  Our subconscious notifies our conscious that it needs to be aware of something.  And then there is the part that filters out things so bizarre that it just automatically drops them.  We have to train our minds to bring those filtered aspects back in.

A couple of miles into our northbound journey, I notice cars lining up in the right hand lane.  At first there were no cars and then suddenly, a traffic jam of cars all in the right lane.  I slow down and pull over into the right middle lane with the Interstate being four lanes wide at this point.  I look into the rearview and see Robert mimicking my lane change.  We proceed a little further and soon the middle right lane begins filling with abandoned cars.  There are some with their doors open but not in one of them do I actually see anyone.  I move over to the far left lane.  We are separated from the southbound lanes by a concrete divider and there is only the random car off the road or on the shoulder in those lanes.  This is a puzzling but we continue north, hoping that the road does not become completely blocked.

The abandoned cars now begin to fill the lane next to us as we drive further north.  It appears like they were trying to edge into the far right lanes, like you find at rush hour when a lane become blocked ahead and vehicles have to merge into one less lane.  I slow way down.  Again, I don’t see anyone; alive or otherwise.  I imagine if the Christian rapture were to ever happen, then this is what it would look like.  No, I take that back.  There are far too many people gone.

We proceed along this strange procession until, up ahead, I see the traffic jam has continued up the ramp of the next exit.  Cars are completely blocking all lanes of the ramp and I see the jam continuing across the overpass.  Again, the light bulb brings clarity to the fog of the unknown.  This is the exit to the hospital.  Okay, note to self:  the hospital areas and roads leading to it will most likely be blocked.  I imagine all the roads leading to the hospital are blocked like this.  The on ramp to the southbound lanes remains clear.  Funny how we tend to be such cattle at times.  Why didn’t they think to just use the other lanes?  Well, that is a Monday quarterback-type of question.  I might have done the same thing.

Passing by the off ramp, I notice a couple of bodies on the sides of road leading upward.  I guess people just got tired of waiting and tried to walk to the hospital.  That’s why I don’t see anyone in the cars.  I also see cars now backed up in the southbound lanes leading to the hospital off ramp there.  The road clears on our side and I accelerate.  I start hoping the off ramps to McChord and FortLewis aren’t like this; or worse.  I am not so keen on having to walk to the flight line with all of our gear.  And yes, I am aware that these two installations had recently merged.  It is just that I still think of them by their former names.  Just past the exits, five dogs stand on a grassy slope next to the road.  Their heads turn slowly as one as we pass slowly by.  Our heads turn just like theirs as we watch them.  Once past them, I look into the rearview and see them trot toward the long line of cars.

About ten miles further north, the main FortLewis exit appears.  There is no traffic in or out of this gate.  Traffic barricades are in the road out front and the gate is shut.  There is no movement whatsoever at the entrance gate.  The first visible buildings of Fort Lewis appear on the right behind a barbed wire topped, chain link fence as we drive a little further north; a few office type buildings and then family housing units.  I have passed by many times and have yet to see anyone moving about the area so seeing no one there is not all that strange.

There are a few more cars pulled off of the road as we progress further north.  We pass by an overturned semi in the south lanes that appears to have slid off of the road.  It seems so strange that we haven’t seen a soul.  I mean, there should have been someone about.  Even with the supposed CDC odds of immunity.  But nothing greets our journey but the grass, trees, blue sky, and empty, gray lanes.  The off ramp to another Fort Lewis exit is as clear as the first.  I can’t see the gate from the road but imagine it would look the same – closed.  I am not sure, but this also may be the entrance for MadiganHospital as well.  Apparently the Army was a little better, or more persuasive, at turning people away.  Perhaps something to do with the quarantine I read about.

A blue sign stating “McChord AFB Next Exit” stands by the side of the road ahead of us.  I slow down and move over to the right lane.  Robert, behind me, does the same.  I really want to take the exit further up by the mall but I know there is a hospital at that exit and I don’t want to be blocked.  Pulling over to the side of the Interstate, I turn off the Jeep and exit.  Nicole and Bri, taking this as a clue, get out as well and walk to the back of the Jeep.  Robert and Michelle, seeing me get out and apparently deciding I want them to do the same, get out and meet me.

“The gate is off the next exit to the right,” I tell them.  “I don’t know what to expect so I’m going to go up there alone in the Jeep.  If I’m not back within thirty minutes, assume something happened.  You four get in the car as best as you can and get back to Grandma’s house.  Understood!”

“Dad?  Maybe we shouldn’t do this,” pipes up Nicole.

“It’ll all be okay, hon.”

“Can’t we just go with you?”  Bri asks

“No, babe.  I really don’t know what to expect and so want to scout this one alone.  Okay, any questions?”

“What about if we just go to the top of the ramp and watch from there?”  Robert chimes in.

“Okay, fine!  You can drive to the top but stop a little before you get there.  Then you can walk to the intersection.  But for god’s sake, don’t go all of the way into the intersection and make yourself totally visible,” I say in exasperation, feeling my hair go a shade grayer.

Stepping back into the Jeep, I crank it up and turn right at the top of the ramp where I am immediately met with a closed gate.  Well, I didn’t make it very far.  I get out and step up to the gate.  It is a chain link gate topped with barbed wire and operated by a motor driving a chain which then propels the gate open and closed.  The motor is located at the base of the fence by where the gate withdraws.

With the sun staring me in the eyes, I look up the road through the gate.  The roads bends slightly to the right with trees alongside, hiding the security point.  There are no sounds except for the occasional chittering of small animals as they scurry amongst the bushes and the sound of a light breeze as it blows across the tops of the trees.  I make out what appears to be a body in the middle of the road where it bends.  Are they under a ‘shoot on sight order’?  Is there still anyone there at the checkpoint?

I grab a section of the gate fencing and pull as I ponder my approach.  I am not too keen to take a round just for showing up at the party.  Let’s see, how best to not get shot? I think, pulling harder on the gate.  The gate doesn’t move in its tracks more than a couple inches so I head to the gate end keeping an eye up the road.  Grabbing hold of the aluminum post on the gate end, I pull to the side attempting to open the gate.  Other than moving a few inches, it holds firm.  I put my foot to the end fence post and strain once again.  The fence holds firm initially but then, with a jarring clank, it opens about four inches.  The gearing teeth on the motor or chain gave slightly.  Another try but apparently, the gate, anticipating this move, holds firm once again.  Heading back to the Jeep, I glance back down the road towards the ramp to see the four of them looking at me with hands to forehead shielding their eyes.

Grabbing my wire cutters and a couple of screwdrivers out of my tool box, I walk back to the mule-headed gate.  I snip the wires holding the chain link to the post along the side as far as I can reach up and a few along the bottom.  Enough so that I can peel the fencing back and slip through.  Taking a look around me, I walk over to the gate motor.  Next, I unfasten the housing around the chain driving the gate and take the chain off of the gear wheel with the screwdrivers similar to the way you take a tire off a bike.  The gate moves freely back as I pull it toward me.  Okay, we don’t have to walk.  Well, from here at least.

I debate walking up to the bend in the road but decide to drive for a couple of reasons.  Driving will give me a certain amount of protection in case I am fired on plus it will give anyone at the checkpoint notice that someone is coming, giving them time to think rather than react as they might if I just materialized on the road.  There is another factor – If humans are at the gate, they know anyone driving is as well.  I am quite sure these “things” aren’t just driving around in the middle of the day and so, hopefully, it will give notice to anyone there that I am quite human.  I can’t label whatever these “things” are.  To me, there is human, these “things”, and the dead.

I pull the gate the rest of the way open, walk back to the Jeep, and put away the tools.  Climbing back in, I start slowly up the road keeping to the middle.  As I drive forward, more of the road that was hidden by the bend appears and I see bodies lying both on the road and alongside it.  Warily, I drive to the bend and stop before reaching the first body.  The road continues to a set of checkpoints similar to double-sized toll booths that are connected together by a single, overhead roof; the inbound lanes split into several ones; each to a booth.  The traffic barricades are down in the lanes.  One lane curves off to the right to a visitor center with a small parking lot in front.  There is an exit lane passing by the security point but it is blocked by a Humvee.  I see the silhouettes of more Humvees parked behind the booths.

A few bodies lie on the ground; from here all of the way up to the checkpoint and scattered throughout the area.  I look for any sign of movement but see nothing but the tip of the trees bending in the breeze.  With the engine running, I step out slowly and take another step or two away from the Jeep with my arms raised fully expecting a call from a bullhorn, a warning shot, something.  Nothing.  Keeping my arms up, I step next to the first body noticing several bullet wounds in the chest, abdomen, and legs.  The skin has turned that reddish color.  Putting my arms down, I survey the area for a few moments before heading back to the Jeep.

Climbing in, I drive slowly toward the checkpoint weaving slightly to avoid the bodies, each one with that sunburned look.  All of them have bullet wounds of some sort; some whole, others with a limb or face or most of a head missing.  I can feel my stomach clinch as I approach.  Parking about twenty feet from the booths, I notice a black boot sticking out of one of the booth doors with the toes pointed skyward.  My vision past the checkpoint is blocked by the Humvees parked lengthwise across the road.  I step out into the shadow of the booths cast by a sun still low in the sky and notice just a hint of an odor in the air; like the beginning of milk souring.

Still not knowing what to expect or if there are any security personnel about, I leave my gun holstered.  An armed person with a weapon ready will bring about a supersonic, steel-jacketed bee quicker than one without a weapon in hand.  I haven’t been stung to this point and am looking to keep it that way.  Edging slowly in a circular fashion up to the booth with the boot sticking out, I notice shell casings on the ground around the booth and behind it.  Finally reaching the open door and stepping up to the opening, my heart jumps up a notch at the same time as a twist of nausea grips my stomach.

Lying before me, stretched across the booth, is what must have been one of the base security personnel.  It is absolutely unidentifiable as to what gender it once was.  The pants and left shirt sleeve are completely shredded revealing devastation beneath.  The skin and most tissue have been removed from the arms, legs, and face leaving behind only bits of tissue, tendons, and dried blood still clinging to the bone.  Dried blood lays everywhere with shell casings littering the floor.  The right arm, from the elbow down, lies close to the body with the still intact portion of the sleeve surrounding it; the hand still gripping a Beretta 9mm pistol with the slide back and locked open signaling an empty chamber and magazine.  The right leg is completely missing from the knee down.  The only intact portion of uniform is a combat vest still attached to the torso and the boot pointing skyward at my feet.  Small bits of intestines and organs poke out between the pelvic bones. 

What a mess, I think and notice the stock and lower half of an M-4 poking out from under a small desk.  Hmmm, that will come in handy as will the combat vest but removing the vest won’t be pretty.

I step away from the door, duck under the barricade, and edge to the rear of the booth toward the Humvees.  The ground behind the booths is covered with shell casings to the point where there isn’t really much pavement to be seen below them.  Four Humvees have been parked front to back across the lanes with driver sides toward me and open and machine guns on top angled skyward.  I walk to the front of one and look further into the base.  The scene before me transfixes in my mind.

The ground is littered with bodies.  Bodies are piled upon each other forming walls and mounds in places right up to the Humvees themselves.  Some lie singly between mounds, the bodies decreasing in number the farther away I look.  Holy shit; there are easily over a hundred of them.  Maybe hundreds.  I guess I know where that smell is coming from, I think looking around for any sign of movement or any form of mankind.  Nothing greets me but a multitude of crows hopping on the ground amongst the bodies.

I walk along the line of Humvees, looking inside each one.  More shell casings lie thick on the floors of each one with dried blood spattered throughout; reminiscent of the security booth.  I do a quick check inside each to see if the mounted guns have any ammo left.  No luck.  I do find an ammo can sitting in the driver side floorboard of the second Humvee.  Opening it up, I see it is about half full of 5.56mm rounds.  I close it up, pull it out and follow along the line.  Coming to the last Humvee, I reach into the driver’s compartment, and turn the start switch to the right.  A moment later, the orange light comes on letting me know that the glow plugs are warm.  Very nice, the battery still works.  I jump in, set the ammo can in the floor next to me, and turn the starter switch over.  The engine cranks over and comes to life after a few revolutions.  Way cool.  Looking at the gauges, everything seems to be working fine and plenty of fuel.  I close the door and do that wonderful three-point turn a few times until I can steer clear of the other vehicles.  I drive the Humvee up over the curb and grass, park beside the Jeep and shut it down.  I look and listen to see if my antics have drawn any attention.  One more thing to do, I think sighing heavily and not looking forward to it.

I walk back to the booth and step inside trying my best to ignore the carnage within.  I reach down, grab the black, plastic M-4 stock, and pull it to me.  The bolt is back.  I remove the magazine and find it empty as suspected.  I slide the magazine back in and bend down to the separated arm and hand to pick up the pistol but the hand doesn’t want to let go just yet.  I am able to pry the forefinger out of the trigger guard.  I then look to the combat vest still secured to the body and see a couple of magazines poking out of their compartments.  I take the carbine and pistol out and look on the ground beside the Humvees.  Ah, there we go, I think strolling over to them.  Several empty magazines lie on the ground by the front wheels.  I should have noticed that before.

Gathering everything up, I walk to the front and set everything in the passenger side of the Humvee.  Oh crap, I have to get back to the kids, I think closing the passenger door.  Otherwise, I may find they have actually driven back to the house.  Looking at my watch, I see 0820.  I have been here about twenty minutes.  Time to get back and then finish up here.  I drive the Jeep back to the gate and see them standing on the side of the road as I round the bend.  I wanted to bring the Humvee just to see the expressions on their faces but I could also see them jumping in the car and taking off thinking security forces were approaching.  That would be great fun; chasing them all of the way back to the house and starting the trek over.

“There’s no one manning the gates,” I tell them after arriving back.  “I parked a Humvee at the gate and we can transfer the stuff from the car into it and drive that instead.”

“Do I get to drive it?”  Robert asks with a not too well concealed grin.

“No, I’ll drive it and you take the Jeep,” I answer as he hangs his head in mock disappointment.  Well, he pretends the mock part but I know he really does want to drive it.

“Let’s head up as before.  Watch the road, there are some bodies lying on it but you can maneuver around them.”

We get back into our vehicles and proceed through the gate slowly with Robert behind me and we park where I had before.  “Dad, there’s other ones we can drive,” Robert says nodding over to the parked Humvees.

“What!?  And leave my Jeep just sitting here.  I don’t think so,” I reply and take a step toward the booths.

“But,” he starts but stops immediately as my head whips around toward him, not completing the rest of his sentence.  “Okay, Dad.”

“You guys unload the stuff in the Honda into the back of the Humvee.  I’ll be right back.”

Back at the booth with the corpse lying in it, I step inside.  I don’t really want to go through with this and consider leaving the vest there, but it will come in handy.  If this were a fighter base or I had time to find the security detachment building, I could easily find another, but you take what you can get.  I bend down by the side of the body and keep my eyes focused on the vest as much as possible.  This is not going to be easy to get off just by pulling the arms through so I take my folding blade out and snap it open.  The upper arms are being held onto the shoulder by tendons, the muscle structure, and skin in back.  I pull the left socket bone away and slice my knife through the tissue setting the arm bones away from the body.  I do the same to the right side with my stomach doing flips.  I undo the front clasps and lay the right vest front out on the floor, grab hold of the left side, and pull.  The body rolls over to the right as I lift and pull.  The head stays in place for most of the way and then starts following the body before bending backward with the back of the head almost touching the back.  The body flips over and the vest comes free, the head flips forward and comes to a rest looking over the left shoulder.  I scramble out and upend my breakfast behind the booth.

“Alright, fuck it,” I address the group coming back around to the front.  All heads turn from loading the last of the gear.  “Robert, go get the Humvee on the right.  If you can manage to get it over here without hitting a building, running over any of us, or hitting any wildlife, you can drive it to the flight line.”

“Yeah!”  Robert says with his eyes lighting up and he starts fast walking over to get it.

“Wait,” I say before he gets very far.  “Come here.  I’ll show you how to start it.”  I see some confusion in his eyes trying to judge whether I am joking or not.  “It’s a diesel and they start differently.”

Throwing the vest onto the passenger seat, I show him the start switch and light, explaining to him that diesels don’t have spark plugs but glow plugs and they need to heat up.  “The orange light here tells you when the plug is warm and you can crank it,” I tell him finishing with the mini diesel lesson.

He walks behind the booths and disappears.  I hear an engine crank up a short time later and see the rear of the Humvee emerge from behind the checkpoint as he backs up slowly.  He then turns down the lane to the visitor center, through the parking lot, and catches the lanes back by the bend in the road to where we are.  I sigh heavily, part of it from that he didn’t hit anything, part of it knowing that my Jeep and I will soon part company, and another from thinking that some things are just ingrained in our mind.  We are going to have to all start thinking outside some of the civilization we are apparently now leaving behind.

“You could have just driven over the curb there,” I say upon his return from his extended scenic road trip and nod to where I had driven over it earlier.

“Oh. Yeah, I guess I could have.”

I can tell there is a bit of glee in his eyes that he had just driven, and was going to drive, a Humvee.  Some pride and some chest puffiness as well.  I see he wants Michelle to be impressed.

We finish loading the gear.  I drive the Jeep to the visitor center and park it in an empty parking spot.  No, I didn’t go over any curbs.  This is my Jeep after all.  I make sure I have my cell phone, the battery powered charger for it, and look around to see if we have everything.  Ugh, I think, the kids left the tool box here so I grab it out of the back.  Setting the tool box on the ground, I climb back in for a moment.

“See you later my friend,” I say softly patting the top of the dash.  “I’ll be back.”

Climbing out, I grab the toolbox and put the keys in my zippered sleeve pocket.  With the sun starting to warm the air, I start back to the checkpoint.

Back at the Humvees, I grab the 5.56mm magazines.  “Here, you can help me load these,” I say handing each of them a magazine.  Unloading the ammo can, I set it on the ground.  “29 to a magazine and here’s how you do it.”  They gather around and we load up the 8 magazines I found.

“Ok, let’s move out.  We have a lot to do and the day is moving on.  I doubt we’ll be able to get out of here today.  Bri, I want…”

“Why aren’t we leaving today?”  Robert interrupts.

“A couple of reasons.  First, we need to plan our legs around flying and arriving during the day if at all possible.  That way, we can fuel up when we get to our destination.  Secondly, I want the flight to be during the day in case we have a problem and have to land.  I’m not certain any airport lighting or nav aids are working so I need to be able to find the airport and land in daylight.  Plus, we have to flight plan yet and I have to learn the new aircraft so I’ll have to go through the manuals and checklists, if we can find them, and take it up for a spin to get used to flying it,” I explain.

“Now, if Robert is done interrupting, Bri and Nic, you are with me.  Robert and Michelle, you take the second Humvee.  Follow a little behind.  If we meet anyone and have to stop, you park a short distance away.  Be ready to turn around and get the hell out of here if anything goes wrong.  Ready?”

They all nod and we board the Humvees.  Nicole is in front with me and Bri is in the back seat.  We start up and head around the checkpoint.  Passing by the other parked Humvees, I do my best to maneuver through the piles of bodies but unable to avoid all them, we ride over some like driving over a speed bump; only, these speed bumps have a little give to them.  The bodies eventually decrease in number the farther away from the checkpoint we get until I can maneuver without running over any more “speed bumps.”

I continue driving slowly further into the base and toward the morning sun with Robert about twenty five yards behind.  We pass by a golf course to our left and buildings begin to appear on either side of us.  I am constantly looking around for any sign of life but am only met by the occasional bird crossing the road ahead of us or riding the air currents above us.  It’s like driving through a ghost town.  There are no cars on the streets or people walking the sidewalks.  No one is standing outside a building taking a smoke break or running errands.  The building windows stare back as if in a surrealistic dream.  I take a left onto another major road knowing the flight line lies to the north end of the base.  Buildings continue along the road with their large brown signs outside denoting what unit or service they housed.  A three story building appears to our left, set back from the road with a large parking lot and open fields surrounding it.  The signpost outside reads “McChordAFBHospital.”

I pull to a stop at the road entrance staring at the structure.  There are several cars in the parking lot, more than I have seen at any of the buildings.  That’s to be expected though and keeps with the general trend I noticed on the way up and the assumptions I made.

“What are you doing Dad?”  Bri asks from the back seat.

“Thinking.”

I want to go inside and check things out for a couple of reasons.  The first is there are medical supplies we could use in there and the second is that I figure if anyone has some idea of what happened or some information on these things, it would be a military hospital.  There must be some sort of report floating around there, I think with only the idling motor keeping my thoughts company.  I would guess with the hospital administrator.  Maybe even some information on bases overseas although it may only be reports from other Air Force bases and units.  I am really only interested in Army units though and truly only one in particular.  But any information on what we are dealing with would be beneficial.  I sit contemplating the risks and time involved versus information.  The seconds on my watch tick slowly by as thoughts and plans streak through my mind.  Finally deciding, I put the Humvee into drive and turn left into the hospital and look in the rear view to see Robert following.

Pulling around to the emergency entrance on the south side, I park a short distance from the doors and shut off the motor.  The first four rows of parking places are filled with cars and trucks as was the parking lot of the main entrance.  Not as packed as the civilian hospitals, no traffic jams, but still busier than any of the other buildings.  An ambulance is parked under the covered drop off by the entrance doors with its back doors open.  I get out and head around to the back watching Robert and Michelle exit their vehicle and hear the doors shut from the other side of mine indicating Nicole and Bri have exited as well.

“What are we doing here?”  Robert asks.

“Medical supplies and hopefully some info on what we’re dealing with,” I answer pulling the combat vest out, the dried blood almost blending in with the camouflage.  Putting the vest on, I adjust the straps for a more comfortable fit.  I slip magazines into pouches as Robert asks, “So, what’s our plan?”

“You all stay here.  I’m going in alone.”

The amount of cars in the lots indicates that there are a few people inside; either alive, dead, or one of those transformed things.  I don’t want to have to worry about them in a larger building like this.

“I’m not going in far and I won’t be long,” I say.

Finishing with the magazines, I duct tape the cylindrical flashlight to the left side of the M-4 as near to barrel alignment as I can and make a mental note that the center of the light is a couple of inches off of the left of where any bullet will strike.  I test the light to assure myself of its brightness and put the tape roll on my left wrist again.  Sliding a magazine into the lower receiver, I flip the bolt release and thumb the selector to ‘safe.’  I glance down at my watch and note the time.

“Okay.  It’s 09:10.  If I’m not back by 10:00, head back to Grandma’s.  Don’t come in after me.  If someone does come by or you see someone, try to hide as best as you can but do not, under any circumstances, draw any weapons.  If they see you, do what they say and tell them the truth.  Don’t go making anything up.  If you tell them I’m inside, they’ll wait here until I come out so we won’t be separated.  Questions?”

“What about if we just cover the doors like we did at Freddie’s?”  Robert asks.

“No, I have this one.  You just stay here and don’t go exploring.”

I pass the rear of the ambulance to the emergency entrance room doors.  The back end of the ambulance is empty with the stretcher missing and there are a couple small pools of dried blood on the floor.  I’ll grab the med supplies out of here as well, I think to myself turning once again to the doors.

The main doors are double glass doors that slide open automatically with a glass, push-open door flanking each side.  Approaching from the right side, I see that quite a bit of ambient light reaches inside illuminating a black and white checkered linoleum floor.  I kneel down by the red brick wall and peek through the right hand door.  It appears the room opens up to both the left and the right with a hallway leading off into the darkness directly across the room from me.  A large nurses’ station counter abuts the back wall to the left of the hallway entrance and is dimly lit by the light.  The left and right walls are shrouded in darkness.

I reach over to the pull bar on the right door and give a pull.  The door gives a fraction of an inch before stopping with a slight metallic thud.  Okay, I try pushing.  Same thing – locked.  I sidle over to the pneumatic doors keeping my eyeballs on the interior.  I don’t expect them to automatically open, and they don’t, but I try pulling them apart.  They don’t budge.  I try the left door but it only gives the same response as the one on the right.  Righty-O then.  Another tape job coming up.

I am a little worried as I have snuck onto a military base, taken a couple of their vehicles and weapons, and am about to break into a building.  If I do run into anyone on base, they are going to be slightly displeased.  And, with what I am sure is a martial law status going on, that displeasure could sting.  Wait until I take one of their airplanes.  They are going to positively love that!

Leaning my gun against the brick wall, I peel off strips of duct tape and tape the lower pane of the glass door on the right.  Taking out my knife, I bash the handle end against the glass.  My knife rebounds without any resounding crack or shattering of glass.  Another bash gives the same response.  Damn, this has always worked before, I think giving one more smack.  “Okay you son of a bitch!  Be that way!” I mutter as I turn and walk back to the ambulance.

Climbing into the back, I lift the bench seat that lines the right compartment wall.  Inside are folded blankets and small pillows.  I grab three of the blankets and a pillow, close the lids, and walk back to the titanium door that has cleverly disguised itself as glass.

I fold two of the thin blankets slipping a pillow between them.  I put the pillow sandwich against the glass and hold it there with my shoulder.  I take my Beretta out and drape the other folded blanket over it and my hand.  Putting the draped pistol against the blankets on the door, I remove my shoulder and fire.  The shot sounds loud but is muffled substantially by the blankets.  There is no rebounding echo off of the buildings around so I know the shot couldn’t have been heard from very far away.  Laying the bundled blanket on the ground and holstering my handgun, I chip away the rest of the glass starting at the bullet hole until the entire pane comes clear.

Grabbing my M-4, I turn on the flashlight and pan it around the room.  The light comes to rest on several bodies lying on the floor.  From this low angle, I can’t really see much of the room, but of what I can see, nothing moves.  I crawl into the room and stand up at the entrance.  The smell immediately hits.  It smells exactly like the inside of that truck I opened yesterday; blood, vomit, and feces.  It’s like a solid cloud permeating the room, gagging me.  Taking short, shallow breaths, I shine the light around the room.  Molded plastic chairs line every wall except where the nurses’ station is.  Double wooden, swinging doors are set into the far right wall.  The hallway across the room and in front of me stretches away past the limit of my light tapering off into unrelieved blackness.

Bodies are scattered across the waiting area and are in the same state as the corpse in the guard post.  The bodies have been stripped of most of the skin and tissue with only small strips of tendon and muscle still clinging to the bone.  Most still have their hair attached to the top of their heads.  Pieces of entrails stretch away from some of the bodies and the floor is covered with dried blood.  I have seen many, many things in my life; badly burned bodies, disembowelments, bodies of villagers killed, mutilated and stacked like cordwood, bodies thrown from speeding vehicles; but never anything like this.  The darkened room, with only my light illuminating the ruin as it pans its way around the room, coupled with the overwhelming stench, is enough for me.  I scramble my way out of the door and lean against the brick wall outside, letting the nausea subside.

It won’t be long before the flies and disease crop up from so many bodies.  Most of the diseases, plague, cholera, and typhoid in particular, will become rampant in the most populated areas.  I am not so keen on going back in there.  I just won’t shine my light on the bodies and head over to the nurses’ station, I think reaching down and taking the pillow case off of the pillow.  Folding the pillow case into a triangle, I tie it around my face covering my nose and mouth; not so much as a precaution for disease, but more so for the smell.

Crawling back in, I keep the light and M-4 pointed at the ground straight ahead.  Approaching the counter, I notice bloody footprints leading down the hall.  Not just one or a couple of them, but lots of them.  Too many to count and they almost form a trail.  I suppose they could have been from hospital workers here before or during this tragedy, but with my experience from the gas station and the footprints there, I am going to assume there are a few of those things in here.  My thumb subconsciously slides the selector to ‘burst.’

Stepping behind the counter, my light catches a multitude of charts and papers lining the desk.  Some charts lie open and others are just stacked on top of each other with individual papers scattered in every way.  I shine my light on the charts hoping for a folder that would give me information on what I am looking for but they only have individual names on them.  Keeping my ears open, I check out the various papers on the desk.  One is a memo detailing the immediate cessation of the Cape Town flu vaccinations, another outlining a quarantine area and ordering those with flu symptoms to report there or medical staff observing these symptoms in others, to call security.  I search through files and desk drawers but come up empty on anything related to CDC or military findings.  So, that leaves the medical services commander or hospital administrator.

Near the phone in middle of the desk is a hospital telephone directory.  On the top page is the commander’s name, Col. Sarah Jensen, ext.  2856, room 350.  Of course it would be on the third floor, I think setting it down and looking at hospital diagrams taped to the top of the counter.  Using my folding blade, I liberate the diagrams from the counter, each diagram depicting a floor of the hospital.  I notice the commander’s office two floors above me on the complete opposite side of the hospital.  Wow!  Two for two.  A third strike and I’m outta here, I think stepping from behind the counter and into the hallway.

Heading quietly down the hall, I come to an elevator and a steel stairway door to my right.  The bloody footprints continue down the hallway fading and disappearing altogether a short distance away.  I shine my light at a doorway across the hall from the elevator and see a black engraved sign on the wall that reads ‘Dispensary.’  The door is a half door in which the upper half can be opened separate from the bottom half with a small counter separating the two halves.  And, the top half is open.  Aha, my luck seems to be changing, my thought bubble hanging out there in hope.

I edge across, alternating my light between the dispensary opening and the hallway.  Reaching the door, I pan my light around the small interior of the room.  Bottle-filled shelves line the walls with three smaller bottle-filled shelves in the middle of the room creating small aisles between them.  A small, open doorway opens in the middle of the left wall.

Entering the room, I quickly clear the small aisles inside and swing back to the open doorway.  It is a small storage room and is empty with the exception of several open cardboard boxes filling the wall space to the left.  Bringing the empty boxes into the dispensary room, I fill them with various bottles.  Now, I am no Pharmacist by any stretch and so I start with the ones I do know.  Various antibiotics and pain killers start the transfer from shelf to box followed by most everything else I can pack into them.  Time to sort later, I think filling box after box.  There is a Pharmaceutical book on the counter and so that goes with.  Can’t Google stuff anymore so we’ll need this.  After the boxes are filled, I bring them to the front doors making several trips, making sure to keep an ear and eye alert for any sound or movement.

I head back into the hallway and the metal fire door leading to the stairwell.  Yes, I plan to go further inside than what I told the kids.  I pull slightly on the handle and the door swings open.  Opening the door, I shine the light inside while holding the door open with my foot.  A flight of concrete stairs leads upward to a landing with another flight of stairs leading off in the opposite direction to the next floor.  I step into the stairwell noticing only a folded wheelchair next to the wall in the alcove next to the stairs as the door slowly closes behind me.  Focusing my light on the stairs and landing above me, I step onto the first step.  The stairwell is completely dark except where my flashlight radiates a small circumference of light.  Away from the light, an oppressive darkness prevails and presses in on me.  No emergency exit lights.  No light of any kind.

I proceed up the stairs counting them as I go and focusing my light and carbine as far up the next flight as my vision permits.  My stomach is clenched tight with a tingling sensation as my system continues to pump adrenaline through my bloodstream.  No matter how many times I have done this in the past, it is always the same feeling.  Hyper-alert.  Time slowing.  My heart beats strong in my ears, to the point where it seems that it can be heard externally.  With a team around, this feeling was minimized to a certain extent, but when solo, the feeling intensifies.  You can get used to the feeling but not the circumstances.  Keep focused and keep moving. 

Approaching the second floor, I see two metal fire doors exiting off from the landing to either side.  With my back to the wall, I continue up to the third floor landing.  Two more fire doors exit here.  Crouching by the left door, I ease it open with my shoulder, and enter into an inky black hallway.  To my left, towards the emergency room parking lot, the hallway goes a short distance before turning left to another hallway.  A single door sits closed in the wall at the juncture with a small amount of light leaking from under it; a natural light most likely from windows facing the parking lot.

To my right, the hallway extends into darkness and I see several closed doors set into the walls.  The stairway door closes behind me with a soft thud.  I check to see if it opens, find that it does, and so I am not stranded having to find another way down.  The hospital diagram shows the administrator’s office lies down the hallway to my right at the other end of the building.  I edge down the darkened hallway panning my light from left to right.  I see the third door down on the right is open.

As I approach the opened doorway, I see it is actually a set of double doors and begin to pick up on a faint panting sound.  Much like a room full of dogs on a hot day or after a day of chasing sticks but heard from a long distance.  This sound fills my ears at the same time as my light zooms into the room.  There, I see the end of a folding table on its side jutting slightly out into the doorway with several orange plastic chairs lying upended and scattered throughout the room.  And, against the far wall, huddled together on the floor, lie fifteen to twenty bodies, their skin pale and blotchy.  It is from this huddled mass that the panting sounds emit.

The one closest to the door, and hence me, opens its eyes, staring back at me through the light.  Rising with lightning speed to its knees, its mouth opens and lets out an ear-blasting shriek of alarm.  I pull the trigger and the gunshots join in this sudden escalation of noise, the flash of my rounds giving a quick strobe-like quality to the room and hallway, affecting my vision only slightly.  The burst of rounds stitch across its body from the chest upwards, hurling it back into the huddled mass; its scream changes in mid-shriek; from alarm to pain to nothing.

The smell of gunpowder wafts in the hallway as time stands still for a moment.  The only sound that of the empty cartridges bouncing metallically on the floor.  The stillness ends with an explosion of activity and noise as the things all seem to rise instantly and as one, the shrieks from them deafening as they charge for the door.  Two more bursts lift the two in front off their feet and into those behind as the others streak for the door.  I am going to have to reload before I can take them all down therefore allowing them to pour into the darkened hallway.  With this in mind, I start backing down the hallway toward the stairway focusing on the room’s entrance and thumbing the fire selector to ‘semi.’

The first one appears at the door.  My round enters its head just beside the left eye, rocking its head backwards.  The back and side of its head explodes outward, coating the doorjamb with blood and bits of bone and gray matter.  It falls forward to the ground onto its chest and face, its momentum carrying it forward further into the hallway.  A second one appears leaping with a shriek over the body falling in front.  Another strobe of light and popping sound of a round leaving the chamber fills the hall.  The body is thrown sideways in mid-leap from the round slamming into the side of its chest, cutting the shriek off mid-way.  Hitting the floor, it skids across the linoleum, coming to rest against the hallway wall.

Three more enter into the hallway at an almost full run, turning toward me as they exit.  Three more rounds fly from my barrel, sending them all to the ground; the one on the right flies backward with its feet over its head, slamming head first into the floor with a meaty smack.  By the time the last one has fallen to the ground, five more have poured into the hall and launch themselves toward me.  I continue backing toward the stair door with the smell of cordite strong in the air.  I fire once at the one closest, bringing its forward momentum to a sudden halt.  It just stands there as if its body doesn’t believe it has just been shot in the sternum.  Unable to continue forward, it slumps toward its final resting place.  A movement brings the next one in line with my barrel as a loud, metallic crash erupts close behind me.

I’m so outta here, I think turning to bolt towards the fire door that stands between me and the stairs.  Racing to the door, my light catches the aftermath of the metallic crash.  An upended aluminum cart lies on its side at the hallway juncture.  Shards of glass on the floor glitters faintly in the light.  A beaker rolls in slow circles amidst small metallic shapes scattered about.  Three more of the things have rounded the corner running in my direction, the one on the right shrieking loudly.  I hear footsteps pounding behind me mixing with those that have now entered the hallway in front of me with more sounding from the hallway around the corner.

I reach the steel fire door at a run, throwing it open and race through it on the fly with those things right on my heels.  I can almost feel the warmth from their bodies on my back and hear their breathing seemingly inches away.  Launching down the stairs, I keep my light focused on the stairs themselves.  This would be the absolute wrong time to trip or stumble.  Rounding the corner of the landing and using my hand on the railing to help my turn, one of them enters into my cone of light just ahead on the stairs, having apparently jumped over the railing from the flight of stairs behind me.  Too close to bring my M-4 to bear for a shot from the hip, I duck my shoulder and head and slam into its chest knocking it backwards.  It flies off the stairs and lands almost to the bottom, close to the second floor landing, hitting the stair with the small of its back, sling-shotting its head backwards to smack into the concrete landing with a sharp, meaty crack.  Blood spurts outward from where its head was introduced to the concrete and it slides backward into the concrete brick wall with another, slightly smaller, wet, crack, coming to rest face up.  Blood immediately begins pooling outward around its head.

The impact slows my momentum.  I feel the brush of a hand against my left shoulder as my feet continue their flight down the stairs, the thing reaching over the stair railing directly beside me.  Leaping off the second stair from the landing and over the prone body, I turn quickly in mid-leap facing both the next flight down and the flight I just traversed, thumbing the selector to ‘burst.’  My light flashes to the stairs coming down, my direction reversed.  The stairs are completely filled with an ashen gray horde barreling toward me, a few scant feet away.

Just before my feet come into contact with the landing, three rounds exit my M-4 at the nearest one sending it backward into its companions as the steel jacketed rounds pound into its chest and neck, spraying blood outward.  I feel a few warm splashes hit my cheek and forehead.  Flashes bounce off the concrete brick walls as my feet contact the landing and gunshots echo loudly in the stairwell, overwhelming the growling emitting from the horde.  My second burst slams into the next ghoulish thing setting foot on the bottom stair, spinning it to the right and into the arms of the one behind, gaining me another foot of separation.  I launch forward, tearing off down the stairs toward the first floor.

I hit the magazine release button before reaching the third stair down.  The magazine clatters down the stairs, its sound of metal bouncing on the concrete mixing with the growling right on my heels.  Clearing the bottom of the upward flight of stairs, I grab the hand rail with my left hand and vault over to the final flight, concentrating on landing square on a stair.   Hitting a stair edge could cause a trip, stumble, or twisted ankle and that is something I can’t afford right now.  Several shrieks fill the enclosed space as I land with bent knees and race to the fire door.  Reaching into my vest pocket, I withdraw a fresh mag and slam it into the receiver.  I hit the door at a dead run, slamming into it with my left shoulder and spin through the opening.  Planting my right foot, I shift my momentum toward the emergency room lobby and exit.  The first of the many things streaks out of the still opening door before I have taken my second step.

The lobby opens just ahead with the glare of the light outside pouring through the glass doors.  I feel something swipe across my back and am jerked backwards slightly, the back of my flight suit in the grasp of a hand for a split second before being released.  Fucking A!  These things are faster than I am.  This may not end well, I think focusing every bit of energy into my legs.

I sweep into the dim grayness of the emergency room lobby, the light growing brighter the closer to the exit I get. Almost across the lobby and to the doors, I slide down to my knees, do a 180 across the linoleum, and face back toward the hallway as I slide to a stop bringing the M-4 to my shoulder.  The roar of seemingly a thousand shrieks fills the room.  The ghostly outlines of gray faces mill agitatedly at the edge of the radiating light.  I fire a burst into the milling crowd, concentrating on one face that is thrust toward me, its mouth open and emitting a loud, shrieking roar, and watch its head explode as it falls backward into the darkness beyond. 

“Motherfuckers!!!  Come and get some you assholes!”  I yell back into the gloom.  Adrenaline-rushed fear seems to refocus itself towards anger in me once a situation has stabilized to a certain extent.

I rise to my feet and step toward the darkened hallway, firing another burst into one of the dimly outlined bodies only to watch it too launch backward into the darkness.  More popping sounds combine with the roar of the crowd beyond as I continue stepping toward them squeezing off bursts.  The cordite smell once again fills the air, mixing with and then overwhelming the previous stench.  My barrel makes slight alterations in the air as I focus on one target after another, cartridges clinking as they bounce across the tiled floor.  I reach the halfway point in the lobby and a single, unified shriek sounds out.  The ghostly faces disappear seemingly as one.  The only sounds are growls and pounding footsteps as they run away down the hallway, diminishing in volume as the darkness swallows them up.

I stop and reload, contemplating chasing after them as my heart pounds from the adrenaline and chase.  Sanity prevails, in the darkness and with their number, the advantage is theirs.  With a heavy sigh, I stoop to pick up the empty magazine as silence returns to the room.  “Well, I’m not going to get any info here,” I mutter crawling out of the door and into the mid-morning light with the aftermath still roaring in my ears.

Stepping out from the entrance shadows, I walk over to the Humvees.  The kids stand huddled near the front of the first Humvee, watching my approach.  “What the hell was all of that?  Did you find anything?”  Robert asks.

“Yeah, I found something alright,” I answer.

“What happened, Dad?  Are you okay?”  Nic asks noticing the splotches of blood on my face.

“Yeah, babe.  It’s not mine,” I say wiping my face with my sleeve.

“There sure are enough of those things in there,” I continue realizing I have to pee like crazy as my heart slows to normal and the adrenaline levels decrease.

Taking care of business behind a Humvee, I reload the empty magazine, depleting the remaining ammo in the can, and stick the now full mag back into the vest pocket.  “What happened in there?”  Robert asks as I finish up and rejoin them by the front passenger door. 

“Never mind.  Let’s head to the flight line.  Same thing as before,” I say removing the vest and set it inside.

In the Humvees once again, we turn around and head north after exiting the hospital lot.  The tails of C-17s stick up from the buildings as we close in on the flight line and I am still amazed that we haven’t seen a single other soul.  I know we can’t be the last ones.  Thoughts of Lynn pass through my mind as we take several turns and enter onto the ramp proper.  Some of the roads here cross taxiways and I drive along them looking at the control tower, fully expecting to see a red or green light flash from the top.  The dark, tinted windows stare blankly back.

I pull out onto the ramp looking at the seven C-17s parked there.  This is certainly going to be interesting, I think looking at the behemoths squatting silently on the concrete in front of what I guess to be the wing operations building.  We park and exit the Humvees, walking further out on the ramp toward the C17’s, my mind wondering which one we should to take.

My gaze travels along the ramp to the north.  “No way!” I breathe loudly.  There, sitting off by itself, like an outcast and lonely kid on a playground, a familiar shape is parked on the transient ramp.  The familiar hump above the wing with its four huge four-bladed props.

“What?”  Robert asks in response.

I merely point toward the aircraft sitting to the north of us and his head swivels in that direction.  “Is that a 130?”  He asks knowing full well that it is.

“Yep.  And, you see that hump.  That tells me it’s an HC-130.”

“Isn’t that what you flew?  Are we going to take that instead?”   He asks.

“It’ll add to our time enroute, but yes, let’s go check it out.”

We walk back to the vehicles and drive north along the ramp, coming to a stop by the nose of the C-130; the red flags from the various pins and engine covers sway in the breeze.  We jump out and I look toward the base operations building adjacent to the ramp by us.  Surely there is someone around here, but only the gentle summer morning embraces us.  I walk around the aircraft, looking for any leaks or signs that it is not airworthy, everyone walking around behind with me.  A ground power unit sits by the left nose of the aircraft with its lines hooked up.  External tanks are attached to both wings.

Finishing with a quick perusal, I walk to the crew entrance door on the left front of the aircraft.  Undoing a latch by the door, I pull on the handle inside and the door swings slowly downward, opening up.  Stairs are built into the door.  Above me, immediately inside the entrance, the small galley sits and a step or two inside, stairs lead up to the cockpit.  To the right, the cargo compartment opens up; a bulkhead separates the cockpit from the cargo compartment.  Taking the first step up, the cargo compartment is dimly lit by light streaming in from two windows, each one set into the fuselage on each side.

Stepping off of the stairs and walking to the rear of the 130, I undo another latch and lower the rear ramp.  The sound of the motors inside stops when the ramp lowers itself to the asphalt with a clunk.  I walk around to the ramp entrance peering inside.  There, taking up most of the cargo area, are large fuel tanks with a small aisle leading to the front from the left side.  A catwalk leads up over the inside tanks to the right.  Only a little cargo space is left in the rear.  Other than the fuel tanks, the cargo interior is empty.

“Wait here,” I say stepping up on the ramp.

With my hand on the butt of my pistol, I walk inside and up the left hand aisle.  Next to the bulkhead and over a window, a cot lies against the right fuselage.  An olive drab helmet bag lies on top.  Several red nylon troop seats are folded up against the left fuselage.  I continue forward and up the cockpit steps.  Helmet bags lie on the four seats within along with the various consoles filling the interior.  The memories jostle around inside my head as I reach over and turn the DC power switch to battery and the AC to internal.  Needles flicker on the various instruments and I hear the instrument gyros spinning up.  Looking up on the fuel panel, all gauges on the main and aux fuel panels have swung over to the right indicating full.  Stepping over to the fuselage tank panel, I see both tanks register full.  Very cool, I think flipping the switches back off.  Opening the helmet bags, I find a helmet and night vision goggles nestled within each one. In the side pockets, I find kneeboards, checklists, grease pens, and marking pens.  Very cool indeed!

I walk back outside.  “Are we taking this one?”  Robert asks as we all gather around by the ramp.

“Yeah, this one looks operational so I think so.  I’ll have to take it up to make sure and acquaint myself with it again.”

“Are we going with?”  Nicole asks.

“I don’t know as yet.  Let’s get the stuff loaded out of the vehicles and I’ll think on it.”

I am in a bit of a quandary.  It has been a while since I took one of these babies aloft and so really don’t want them onboard for a familiarization flight, but I also don’t want them on the ground if someone does show up while I’m airborne and off gallivanting in one of their airplanes without even asking permission first.

We load the stuff out of the Humvees and into the cargo space, stacking it as best as we can.  I rummage through the crew chief’s space finding several tie downs and lash the equipment down, leaving out the sleeping bags and some water.  Finishing with the offloading and parking the Humvees over by the base ops building, we meet by the ground power unit at the front of the 130.  A set of headphones sits on the handle with a long cord coiled up next to it.

“This is a start cart.  Michelle and Nic, you’ll be outside here during the start.  Nic, you’ll have the headset and when I tell you to disconnect, you pull the cart and headset cords out, wrap them up, close the latch, and then wheel it around the ramp to the back and push it in if you can.  If not, Robert or I will come back after the start up.”  I tell them and show them how to operate the cart.

“I guess this means we are coming with then huh,” Bri says.

“Yeah, I guess so,” I say not completely realizing I had made a decision.

“What about the props, they are pretty close?”  Michelle asks eyeing the giant propellers close by; each one extending outward 13 feet.

“Not to worry, I’ll be starting the other side first.  Both of you come inside the cargo area when you get the cart to the back and one of you come into the cockpit to let me know you are clear of the outside area.”

“Robert and Bri, you’re with me,” I say and walk around the aircraft pulling the pins, intake covers, and chocks before climbing up inside and into the cockpit, shutting the front door behind me.

“Robert, you are in the co seat and Bri, you sit here in the flight engineer seat.  Bri, I want you to study the fuel panel here for a bit and get acquainted with it, that’s going to be your job,” I tell her pointing to the panel mounted in the center above.

The panel itself is pretty self-explanatory with the valve switches aligning with lines marking fuel pathways.  The switch either blocks the flow or aligns with it.  Much like a maze puzzle.  The electrical panel by it is in much the same manner.

“Robert, you’ll have the gear, flaps, and, if we need it, the radios.  The gear is easy, up or down.  You know three green means down with the handle down.  I will call ‘gear up’ or ‘gear down’.  The flaps here are in ten percent increments so I will call out a percentage or ‘flaps up’ or ‘full flaps.’”  I show them both how to operate the radio panels at their stations.

“Okay, Bri,” I say leaning back to her station.  “It’s pretty self-explanatory,” and continue to show her how the system and switches work.  “Make sure you turn the pump on and the switch allowing fuel to feed from the tank you are switching to before closing the switch from the tank you are switching from or you’ll get the chance to see just how quick I can go through an engine restart.”  We practice switching tank feeds until she has several flawless changes including the fuselage tanks which is located on a different panel.

I show them how to buckle in and then slide into my seat.  We slip on the helmets and plug into the radio consoles.  Bri’s is a bit loose but stays on for the most part without sliding completely over her eyes.  Hearing the power cart start up outside, I reach up and switch the AC switches to external power and the DC to battery.  The cockpit starts coming alive, the gyros spinning up as I complete the preflight and before starting engine checklists talking to Robert and Bri about what I’m doing.

“Nic, can you hear me?”  I say through the mic.

“I hear you, Dad,” she responds.

“Okay, we’re ready to start.  Once I get the first engine online, I’ll have you disconnect and then you two push the cart to the back.  Make sure you don’t go past the ramp to the right side.”

“Okay, Dad.”

“Everything clear on the right?”  I ask Robert.  He leans forward and looks out of the right windows, swiveling it back and forth.  “It’s clear,” he answers.

“Bri, make sure the engines are feeding out of the main tanks.”

“They are, Dad,” she responds back.  I peek back up over my right shoulder.  All crossfeed switches are closed and the boost pumps are on.

“Good job Bri.”

“Number three turning,” I say moving the prop control lever to run, reach up to the #3 engine start button – the inboard one on the right - and depress the button.

Out of my line of sight, the propeller begins to turn; the only indication is a rise in the instrument readings.  The fuel flow gauge immediately rises.  By the time the RPM reaches 25 percent, the turbine inlet temp gauge begins to increase showing that ignition has occurred.  I release the start button at 60 percent and monitor the gauges.  The aircraft vibrates as if alive as the engine comes up to speed and a dull, deep, throaty roar is heard throughout the aircraft and only slightly minimized by the helmets.  I bring the engine generators online and switch the electrical system to the internal power.

“Okay, Nic. Disconnect.  See you inside.”

“Okay, Da…”  I guess she was in a rush to disconnect as the last part didn’t come through.  I look down through the windows and see Nicole and Michelle pulling the cords loose from the aircraft and disappear as they push the cart beyond my field of vision.  I start engine number 4 in the same manner.

“Robert, go back and help them with the cart and secure it in the back.”

“Okay,” he says disconnecting from the seat and heads into the back.

“All done,” Robert says reappearing after several minutes with Nicole and Michelle in tow.

“Nic, hon, Michelle, good job.  Take the Nav seat there and Michelle can take the pull down seat beside it.  Robert, show them how to put on their helmets, buckle in, and plug into the radio.”

With everyone in their seats, I tell Robert where the ramp controls are and we close the cargo ramp up before I start the remaining two engines on the left.

“Alrighty then.  I haven’t blown us up yet,” I say finishing up with the before taxi checklist and advance the throttles to start us moving.  I also show Robert how to taxi with the taxi wheel rather than the rudders.  Looking at the windsock, I taxi to the north runway completing the various checks along the way.

Verifying flaps at fifty percent, I maneuver out onto the runway.  This part is easy, I think lining up with the center line.  It’s the getting down part that gets tricky.  I run the throttles smoothly up to max ensuring I don’t over torque and the 130 starts down the runway.  The muted throaty roar of the engines permeates the interior, memories of how much I loved rolling down the runway washes over and through me.  Easing back on the control wheel with my left hand, the right on the throttles, the nose wheel lifts off of the ground followed by the main gear a short time later.  The VVI –Vertical Velocity Indicator – jumps up; we are airborne.  What an awesome feeling!!!  The events that have transpired are momentarily swept away as we leave the earthly bonds.  That is one thing I loved about flying, once the wheels are up, all worries leave and a peace settles inside.

“Gear up,” I call over the mic.

Robert reaches over to the gear handle and yanks it upward as I turn off the landing lights.  A loud rumble courses through the aircraft as the gear are drawn upward.

“Flaps up,” I say almost immediately as the airspeed increases.

He reaches over and moves the flap lever up.  I reset the trim as the aircraft becomes heavier, wanting to settle back with the change in configuration.  We climb up to 5,000 feet turning over Puget Sound in the cloudless, blue sky.

“Everyone alright?”  I ask looking back and getting thumbs up from everyone.  “You can unbuckle and look around if you want.”

Nic and Michelle move over to the windows, staring out from behind the pilot seats.  Bri stays in her seat being able to see the blue water of the Puget Sound sliding along beneath us from her position.  The Olympic Mountains rise majestically in the distance ahead.  A quick glance behind through the windows and across the wing on my side shows Mount Rainier overlooking Tacoma and the Cascade Range.

“Okay Bri, lets switch to the external tanks now,” I say looking back inside to monitor her moves.  She does perfectly, turning on the external boost pumps and opening the valves before switching off the main boost pumps.

I spend about thirty minutes flying around getting used to the feel of the aircraft once again, letting Robert fly for a bit; his excitement and enthusiasm radiates.  We switch to the main tanks before heading back.

“Everyone buckle back up,” I say banking back toward the field.  “We’re going to see if I can remember how to land this elephant.”

Completing the checklists, I start my descent.  Approaching the airfield, Robert blasts out, “Holy shit!”

“What?”  I say in response, everyone sitting up a little straighter.

“I think I see a car driving below us.”

“Where?”

“In the mall parking lot.”

I bank the aircraft around so the parking lot on my side and look down.  Sure enough, there is a red car driving in the lot.  It comes to a stop and the door opens as I continue to circle around.  Someone gets out and gazes up at us, their hand up to their forehead shielding their eyes.  I continue circling as I write a note down on the tablet on my knee.  ‘McChord.  You’ll see us parked on north end.  Meet us there,’ it says.

“Robert, go back into the cargo area storage and see if you can find something fairly heavy.  Michelle, go get two toilet paper rolls, rope, and the duct tape and bring them up here please.”

They unbuckle and head into the back as I circle around the mall, keeping the car and person in sight.  They wave as I circle around.  A few minutes later, Robert and Michelle return; Robert with a large wrench he found somewhere and Michelle with the items I asked for.  I wrap the note inside another sheet of paper and duct tape it to the wrench.  I cut off a section of rope and put it through the two rolls of toilet paper, tying both ends to the wrench and taping it in place.  I flip the parachute door air deflectors to the open position after slowing the aircraft down and trimming it up.

“Robert, can you keep us here while I head into the back?”  I ask.  His head swivels over to me with his eyes opening wide and eyebrows raised with the rest of our little group mimicking the look.

“I think so,” he responds back.

“Dad, are you sure this is a good idea?”  Bri asks behind me.

“Shut up Bri!”  Robert answers instead.

“Easy,” I say.

“Okay, you have the aircraft,” and transfer control to him.  I sit there for a bit watching to make sure he does okay.  “I’m going into the back and toss this out of the door.  Robert, when I say that I’m ready, I want you to tell me when we’re coming to the north end of the lot.”

“Okay, Dad.”

I unbuckle and take my contraption to the rear parachute door unraveling a large part of the toilet paper rolls and bunching them up.  “Can you hear me?”  I say plugging into the intercom system and attaching the safety line at the left door.

“I hear you,” I hear through the helmet speakers.

I swing the door open and am greeted by the rush and roar of the wind outside, protected from the blast by the shield doors extending out into the slipstream.  The ground looms outside and I have an unrestricted view of the roads, buildings, and greenery below.  The angle of bank is altering and the nose rising and descending.

“Easy there buckaroo,” I say into the microphone.  “Small, easy corrections.  Tell me when we are approaching the north end.”  The aircraft stabilizes to a degree.

I can see where we are but want a verbal verification of my visual.  The lot appears in my frame of reference as we circle again and I see the red car in the middle of the mostly empty lot.  “Coming up on the north end,” I hear.

“Okay,” I respond and toss the wrench complete with the bunched up toilet paper rolls out of the door.  The slipstream immediately carries the contraption back and almost out of sight.  Peeking my head out of the door into the chilled air, I see the toilet paper unfurl creating a white streamer as the wrench plunges toward earth.  I hope it doesn’t land on any building roofs, I think seeing the wrench head toward the north end of the parking lot.  Or hit them in the head.  That would really suck.

I watch the wrench plummet and strike the roof of one of the few cars in the parking lot at its most northern end.  The car roof caves in and glass explodes outward.  “Ouch,” I say softly, cringing slightly.

“What!?”  Robert’s question comes through the earphones.

“Um, nothing,” I say as I close the door, unhook the safety line and comm cord, and make my way back to the cockpit.  Buckling in and taking control, I continue our descent to the airfield, arriving on a downwind leg.

“Gear down,” I call at about mid-field.  The rumble of the gear is both heard and felt in the cockpit.  Approaching the turn to base, I call for ten percent flaps.  On base leg, I call for fifty percent flaps and continue descending to final.  “Full flaps,” I say after rolling out on final and aligning with the centerline, pushing forward on the wheel and trimming to compensate for the increase in lift and drag.  Aiming at the threshold, I make small adjustments with the throttle to keep the indicator glued to the final approach airspeed.  Coming up to the threshold, I start the nose up and the throttles back until they hit the flight idle detent.  I feel the main gear touch rocking the aircraft slightly.  Still got it, I think lowering the nose to the runway.  I always had a knack for landing the 130.  “Flaps fifty percent,” I say applying power once again doing a touch and go.  We do a few more landings before I pull the throttle into reverse thrust on the final one, taxi back to the ramp and shut down.

“We need to gather charts and flight plan,” I say.  We are standing on the ramp again having left our helmets and gear inside the aircraft.  “The base ops building here should have everything we need.  Robert, see that truck over there,” I say pointing to a fuel truck parked by the building.

“Yeah.”

“Go get it and pull it up behind the right wing.  Your goal is to not hit the aircraft.  I’m going into the building to get what we need.”

I pull the M-4 and vest from our stuff in the cargo area and walk to the building.  Robert walks alongside me until he heads over to the fuel truck.  A “Welcome to McChord AFB” sign is posted above the double glass doors leading into the building.  With the vest secured on my chest, I test the doors leading in, finding them both unlocked.  Hmmmm, that’s odd, thinking that all of the buildings would have been locked like the hospital.  The light from the door shows a hallway extending deeper into the building with doors opening off at various intervals before disappearing into total darkness.  A sign above the door to the immediate left indicates that it is the base weather shop.

Perfect, I think stepping into the hallway from outside.  With my light on, I edge carefully up to the wooden door remembering my wonderful and fun-filled adventure from the hospital.  Looking in through the large, glass panel set into the upper portion, I see an open area with chairs and coffee tables.  Across from this resting area is a large counter spanning the length of the room with darkened television monitors hanging down from the ceiling just above the counter.  This is obviously where pilots get their weather briefings.  A room opens up to the right of the open area with a large table sitting in the middle.  The entire room and area are lit fairly well from the light streaming in from the many windows.  The door is unlocked and I step inside.

A very musty smell greets my entry.  Not quite the same musty smell as at the hospital, this is more from disuse than anything else.  The room opening to the right contains various charts and is meant as a flight planning area.  Just past this room, between it and the counter, a small hallway heads off to the right.  Stepping across the room and peering down the hallway, I see that the light doesn’t quite reach all of the way to the end.  A couple of doors open to the right and one to the left.  The one to the left apparently the entry into the weather shop and the ones on the right with ‘Men’ and ‘Women’ posted on them.  Pretty obvious what they are.

Back into the flight planning area, there are two very large maps of the world on the back wall.  The first one is a depiction of the VFR charts covering the various areas of the world and the other has the various IFR charts.  I grab a pencil and jot down the ones I will need.  Looking over the charts, I also note the approach charts I will need.  Slots in the walls are filled with individual charts and approach books in them along annotations denoting which ones lie within.  In the past, it always seemed to take a small fork lift to bring them all but that was usually handled by the nav.  Most squadrons had everything in large carry cases regionalized.  Hopefully they have some here as well, I think, not really wanting to head into more buildings but these charts are crucial.  I hear Robert start the fuel truck outside and drive away; the sound diminishes as it gets farther away until vanishes altogether.

With my light on, I creep down the hall.  Adrenaline is already making its appearance again.  My light shows the hallway ending in a door at the end with no light showing out from underneath.  Drawing close to the thin, wooden door and with complete silence around me, I put my ear up against it.  I hear a faint panting coming from within along with a now familiar shuffling-like noise.  The shuffling sound stops and I flick the M-4 to burst mode.  With my ear to the door, the shuffling changes to a sniffing sound.

A loud bang resounds as whatever is inside slams against the door, rocking my head off the door and ringing my ears.  Fuck this!!!  I think, recoiling backward and bringing my gun to bear.  I fire a burst into the door noticing the rounds penetrate completely through.  I fire two more bursts making sure the last burst centers on the door latch.  Raising my right foot, I kick the door just beside the knob.  The door flies inward before instantly rebounding back shut.  I kick again and this time, the door flies all of the way open.  My light picks up a creature staggering backward into the room.  I fire a burst into the staggering thing propelling it even further backward, launching it off its feet to slam into steel shelves set against the walls.  It slumps to the ground, sitting there momentarily before slumping sideways to the ground.

I quickly pan the rest of the room only to see another one launch at me from the back corner.  Another quick burst into its chest and this one slides to the ground at my feet.  A dark liquid begins gathering on the floor beneath; the flight suit it was wearing is shredded in the back and stained with fresh blood.  My light flashes throughout the room but is now only met by cases sitting on the steel shelving around the room and the two bodies crumpled on the floor.  Motherfuck this is getting old!  I am getting really tired of this and it’s only been one day.  Obviously populated areas are not the place to be.

With cordite strong in the air, I eject the magazine and replace it with a fresh one.  I step into the room looking at the cases on the shelves.  Markings on them indicate various regions.  Now, that is a welcome sight, I think, grabbing several cases and carrying them outside.  I deposit them on the ramp after taking several trips and verifying they are the ones I need.  I walk back into the lobby and grab some of the comfortable chairs and drag them out onto the ramp.  Lastly, I grab the large, round coffee table out and add it to the arrangement

I walk over to the 130 to find everyone gathered around the fuel truck parked just behind the right wing by the fuselage.  I look at my watch, 10:57.  “Michelle and Nic, grab some packaged food from inside and meet us over in front of base ops,” I say above the sound of the running truck beside us.

I walk over to the fuselage and undo a latch, opening the refueling point.  After unwinding the fuel hose and connecting it to the aircraft, I put the truck into its PTO position and open the fuel lever, flipping the switches to the tanks at various intervals and fill them.

“Drive this back and meet us at the building,” I tell Robert after finishing the task of reeling the hoses back and latching the refueling point.  I walk with Bri back to the outdoor seating area I have created.  “I love you, sweetheart,” I tell her wrapping my right arm around her and giving her a hug.  “I love you too, Dad,” she responds leaning into me.

Back in front of base ops, I take off the vest and set it beside a chair, sitting down as Robert, Michelle, and Nic arrive.  “My guess is that we won’t be able to take off today, so we’ll flight plan, input the coordinates in the nav system, and hunker down in the aircraft for the night.”

Michelle and Nicole put packages of food on the table and we all dig in.  I pull some of charts out and lay them on the table as I eat, marking routes and jotting down various coordinates to input into the onboard navigation system.  The only time I get up is to retrieve some rubber bands and sticky note markers so I can later quickly find various pages and approach charts.

The planned route takes us first to Naval Air Station Brunswick in Maine.  The Coast Guard flies HC-130’s out of there and so I know there should be plenty of fuel available.  The route takes us basically along the US/Canadian border on a route of 075 degrees out of McChord.  The first leg is about 2,500 miles and should take us a little over 6 ½ hours without any wind either helping or hindering us.  From Brunswick, our next stop is the Azores, a flight of almost 2,400 miles and a little over 6 hours with a bearing of 085 degrees.  Then the dicey hop from the Azores to Kuwait.  That leg is about 4,200 miles leaving very little margin for error as our max range is about 5,000 miles.  That will be the doozy taking almost 11 ½ hours to complete on a route of 075 degrees.

On our first two legs, we will lose three hours due to the time difference.  The sun sets around 2030 so we will need to be off of the ground by 1100 in order to make it there in daylight hours.  Our last leg will cost us four hours and so we need to be off from the Azores by 0500.  Calculating the flight times and fuel, jotting down the coordinates, arranging the approach charts, marking the maps and putting them together has taken a little over an hour.  Finishing the flight planning, I take the charts up to the cockpit, laying the ones for the first leg on the nav table and stowing the remaining bags under it.  I sit there and contemplate the options; leave now and try a night landing with night vision goggles thereby gaining a day but at substantially higher risk, or wait until morning.

I walk out of the aircraft and hear a noise that I have not heard in days.  There is the sound of a vehicle driving and its noise shatters the stillness we have become accustomed to.  It sounds as if it is coming from farther in the base.  I look over at the kids and see they have all turned to look in the sound’s direction; Robert and Michelle stand alert and tense.  The sound is nearing and I pick up the pace and trot over to our nice outdoor patio where I have left the M-4 sitting by my chair.  I pick it up as a red car pulls out onto the ramp.  It stops for a moment and then turns towards us, slowly approaching our position.

It stops about thirty feet away and out steps a man in his mid-twenties, dressed in jeans and a blue Old Navy t-shirt.  White tennis shoes poke out from the bottom of his jeans.  Turning toward us, he is holding something and smiling from under his short, wavy brown hair.

“Lose something?”  He calls, waving the wrench we threw overboard and walks over to us.

Setting the M-4 back down, I smile and take the wrench offered in his hand.  “Yeah, we kinda dropped something back there,” I say nodding in the direction of the mall.  “Much obliged to you for bringing it back.”

“You made a pretty big dent on that BMW.  It’s pretty much scrap metal now.  Impressive though,” he says smiling back.

“Did you hit a car with that?”  Robert asks putting the current dialog and my previous ‘ouch’ comment together.

“Um, yeah, kinda,” I answer.

“I’m Jack,” I say reaching with my hand toward the young man.

“Andrew,” he says, shaking mine in return.

“Have you seen anyone else around?”  I ask after introducing everyone else.

“I saw a couple of cars heading down my street yesterday and a few people in some windows but no one as yet today.  Heard lots of those things screaming and hollering last night.”

“So, what’s your story Andrew?”

“Well, I’m a biology student up at ‘UW.’  At least I was until this whole thing started.  I’ve been holed up in my apartment for the most part but ventured out to see if I could get some supplies then I saw you guys and your note, and, well, here I am.  Are you in the Air Force?”  He asks looking my flight suit up and down.

“Um, yeah sure, I guess so.  Well, I was some time ago.  My girlfriend is over in Kuwait and we’re heading over there to pick her up.  You’re welcome to join us if you like.”

“Well, I’m actually going to head over to Spokane to look for my parents.  But thanks anyway.  It’s just good to know that there are actually others around.”

“We’ll be back in about six days.  Why don’t we just check in here around noon a week from now and we’ll hook up then.”

“Sounds good.  I wish you luck then,” he says holding his hand out again.

“And to you Andrew,” I say shaking his hand goodbye.  He gets back into his red Acura and retraces his route back; the sound of his car diminishes in the distance until the sound of silence embraces us once again.

“Okay guys, I’ve been thinking, yeah, I know, a dangerous thing, but I’ve decided we should start as soon as possible.”

“What about wanting daylight for landing?” Nic asks.

“Well, if it’s clear and we can find the airport, which should be simple enough with GPS, then we’ll hopefully pick up the runway with the landing lights clearly enough.  If not, then we always have night vision available but that’s the iffier solution.  These things seem fairly rampant and a day could make all of the difference.”

“What about the chairs and stuff?”  Bri asks standing up with the others.

“Just leave ‘em.  I don’t think there’s anyone around to mind.”

“Michelle, you’ve been awfully quiet.  Feel free to speak your mind if you have any thoughts or input.” I say as we arrive at the aircraft.

“Okay, um, Jack. Will we need the cart from the back?”  She responds.

“No, we’ll make this start on battery.”

Closing the crew door behind us, we step in and buckle up in the same seats.  I turn the electrical systems to battery and let everything warm up.  The aircraft has two navigation systems.  One is operated by equipment located on the center console and at the nav station receiving their input from the various ground navigation systems throughout the world.  The other is a separate GPS navigation system getting its information from satellites.  It’s a complicated system with many very nice features, such as the ability to input any coordinates and create an instrument approach anywhere.  It’s this system I plan to use as the ground nav systems will most likely be inoperative.  With the system warmed up, I test it and ensure the coordinates shown are identical to the ones stenciled on the ground by our parking place.  The next twenty minutes are spent inputting our route coordinates and setting up approaches to mimic the instrument approaches at the various fields we will be landing at, showing everyone the basic functionality.

Starting the aircraft up, we taxi to the runway and take off into the early afternoon sky.  “Okay, it’s 1300 so we should expect to arrive around 2230 East Coast Time,” I say turning the aircraft on an easterly heading of 075 degrees then reach up to set the pressurization system.  “Let me know if you have any problems with your ears.”

We climb up with the sun overhead, the mostly forested hills of the Cascades float below.  Mount Rainier slides by to the south of us, its snowy peak still reaching up above the horizon.  At 16,000 feet, I raise the nose slightly and retrim the aircraft to 160 knots from the 180 knots we were climbing out at; the steady roar of the engines reverberates throughout.  There is not a car moving on the few roads and highways that thread their way through the high, desert plains of eastern Washington below us, growing smaller as we continue our climb.

“Set altimeters to 29.92,” I say as we pass through flight level 180 and reach ahead to make the setting, watching Robert do the same with his altimeter.

We level off at flight level 250 and let the aircraft accelerate to 250 knots before powering back to maintain that cruise airspeed.  “Robert, look on the nav system.  It should give a ground speed readout on the front screen,” I say looking back to check on the pressurization system and ensure I have indeed stabilized at the 10,000 foot setting previously inputted.

“396 knots,” he replies back.  Nice, I think, we have a tailwind.  If that continues, it should shave about thirty minutes off of our time.  I am worried about our long leg from the Azores to Kuwait and any headwinds we might encounter there.  We can’t afford to have much of one due to the distances involved.

“Bri, let’s switch to the external tanks,” I say looking over my shoulder as the ground continues to slide beneath us.

The props keep turning giving a strong indication that she switched everything correctly.  I set the autopilot and reflect a moment on the days past and what to expect in the days coming.  Eventually, without any manufacturing, everything mechanical will fail.  Fuel will eventually dry up, autos will break, anything with a moving part will cease without any way to manufacture and replace the parts.  We will begin a fast or slow decline back into the medieval stages or beyond.  Any energy source will depend upon some type of heat production which probably means coal, and, without any way to transport that from the coal producing regions, that will mean limited ways to manufacture anything.  There is solar or wind power to consider but those also rely on parts that eventually fail and need replacing.  Mankind and civilization as we know it has reached it pinnacle.

My mind tracks along this theme wondering if this has happened before.  Has mankind flourished in the past only to be brought down again to re-establish itself from scratch?  Did we miss something in the growing up process that brought this about?  Do we continually miss something?  The civilizations before leaving only small markers of their existence, whether by physical markers or by legend or myth.  It seems we grew up with intelligence only, leaving the wisdom of our actions behind.  Blinding ourselves or ignoring the ramifications.  Certainly the indications were there, but in our selfish ways and thinking only of our own time, we ignore them and continue on as before, hoping others would rectify our mistakes.  Yes, our time has reached its pinnacle during this evolution.  We will crawl and scratch our way back, hopefully doing it right this next time.  Respecting and being a part of nature rather than over-controlling it.  Living in harmony with it rather than trying to bring it to heel, for, nature seems to take care of itself when pushed over a boundary.  We need to live in synchronicity and have a synergy with the world rather than a destructive and over-controlling one.

The drone of the engines pushing us through the sky slowly seeps back into my consciousness as the tall peaks and mountain chain of the great continental divide appears on the horizon.  The dry, barren, rocky hills of what was once northern Idaho crosses under our nose and wings, sliding behind us as we push our way eastward.

“Otter 39 on UHF guard for anyone receiving,” I call, switching the UHF radio to guard and listening in between calls.  I switch over to the VHF radio, “Otter 39 on VHF guard.”  Although silence is the only greeting to our calls, I continue to make radio calls on both frequencies every thirty minutes.

The only exceptions to the blue sky around us are a few lonely high clouds to the south.  The air is completely smooth as we drone ever more eastward.  I spend some of our time showing everyone the various aircraft systems and letting them take turns flying from the right seat.  Approaching the Rockies, we pick up a little turbulence from the westerly winds sweeping up and over them.  Not much, but enough to bounce us around a little.  Just as the last of the Rocky Mountains pass under our wing and we begin crossing over the high plains of Colorado, I make my usual thirty minute radio call on UHF.  This time however, a static-filled response crackles in our headset, “Ot…..Che…..res…..on thr……co…….” 

“Calling on UHF, say again.  You are weak and garbled.”  I transmit.

“…ine….enne….col…ngs….rep…..”  The static interferes with the message to the extent that I can’t come close to making out what they are saying.  It’s like playing audio ‘Wheel of Fortune’.  Being on UHF, it is most likely military in origin and I am itching to hear and talk with them.  I call for the next twenty minutes, even turning south in order to close the distance but am met by silence.  The turn to the south assumed that the radio call was American in nature and, with us cutting the US/Canadian border – or what used to be the US and Canada, the caller would almost assuredly have to be to the south.  I look at the coordinates on the nav system and mark the map with a small circle and put ‘UHF contact’ with the time and altitude and turn back eastward to intersect our route.

Much of the flight is spent stretching our legs, switching tanks, developing systems knowledge, and taking turns flying.  Although some conversation is spent on speculation of the past events and the future, most of the time is spent wrapped up and absorbed in our own thoughts.  The only change is the land below as it transitions from mountainous areas to the flatter plains and hills of Montana and then North Dakota.  The occasional smudge of smoke billows skyward from fires to the south of us. Some are small with light brown smoke but several others are large and the smoke is dark and oily; the nature and size of the plume indicates the possibility that some large refinery or city is burning.

As we drone on across the northern part of the country, I spot the tops of a line of cumulus clouds on the horizon directly on our route ahead, stretching far to the left and right.  This, I think, is the problem of flying distances without any weather forecasting.  I was really hoping to avoid weather of any kind but it is hard to navigate the distances we are without encountering some.

“Are those going to be a problem?”  Robert asks as the dark clouds loom larger in our windscreen.

“I’m hoping not,” I reply back with some trepidation.

With the autopilot engaged, I unbuckle and walk over to the nav station where Michelle and Nicole are sitting.  Reaching across Nicole, I turn on the radar to warm it up.  The radar has both weather radar and forward looking infra-red capabilities.  With the radar warmed up and on, I step over to Robert, “This is a repeater scope,” I say pointing at the round dial by his right knee.  “The grand master plan is to maneuver around anything red on that scope so you give me the number of degrees to turn left or right.  The red will be the thunderstorm cells.  As we turn, you’ll see the objects on the radar move in relation to our line of flight.  The idea is to maneuver around those cells having the red objects either left or right of center.  We’ll thread our way through as best as we can.  Keep us going generally eastward though.”

Sitting back in my seat, I look ahead to get a visual indication of where the major thunderheads are and mark them in my head to maintain situational awareness.  This is a pretty big squall line and looking both north and south, it is apparent we would have to travel several hundred miles off our route in order to divert around it; if we could at all.  I hate thunderstorms and have an immense appreciation and respect for them.  In jets, we could just pop above them for the most part and maneuver around the highest buildups.  My memory flashes to one anxious moment when I was caught in one over Texas in a T-38….

A large squall line had marched across most of northeastern Texas cutting off our route home.  Traffic control was overwhelmed due to the large number of weather diverts going on and we were being vectored all over the place in order to sequence us into the divert base.  Well, I was given a vector to the northwest which would take me directly into the squall line.  I requested an easterly heading letting the controllers know the heading they gave me was into the weather and that my preference was to avoid being immersed in a paint shaker.  They came back that they didn’t show any weather along my vectored flight path.  I told them I was staring right at some and that heading would merge me with it.  I think their care factor was pretty low at that point as they repeated that they didn’t show any in that area and repeated the heading.  Huh, I must be imaging things then, I thought and turned northwest figuring that continued requests might be met with an even worse heading.  I was at 10,000 feet and was enveloped in clouds almost immediately.  The turbulence wasn’t too bad initially but being small and relatively light, I was bounced around a bit.  Then, the sky turned dark; I mean black dark.  At the same time, it felt like a giant hand had punched the jet.  It wasn’t just rough turbulence; it was like being repeatedly slammed into the ground by my ankles.  I was all over the sky.  The altimeter went anywhere from 16,000 to 6,000.  Approach control came on at one point, “Otter 57, we show you several thousand feet off your altitude, maintain one zero thousand.”

Want to know what my thought bubble said at the time – Fuck you!!! You are the ones who sent me into this god-awful mess!  What actually came out was, “Otter 57, unable.”  They then came back and said, “Otter 57, you are cleared maneuvering airspace from six to one six thousand.”  Yeah, right, Maneuver! Are you kidding me!  If I only could.  My ability to ‘maneuver’ had ceased long ago and the aircraft had lost any functional aspect of the term ‘flying’ and became more like a high speed puppet; pulled this way and pushed that.  Oh yeah, did I mention it was raining.  I mean, raining inside the cockpit.  It was raining so hard, it was coming into the cockpit through the canopy seal, dripping, no, pouring onto my lap and side consoles.  Yay me!

After a three hour battle – okay, more like five or ten minutes – and aging twenty years, I was finally given an easterly vector and eventually flew out of the cell.  After landing, I crawled out of the cockpit furious.  Seems that happened a time or two.  One of my buds that had just parked next to me came over and asked me what happened.  I was absolutely soaked.  “Never mind,” I told him.

“I mean with that,” he said pointing at my jet.  I looked back and my heart froze.  Every bit of paint from all of the leading edges of the aircraft was gone leaving only the gleaming metal showing.  The rain had been so intense that it had stripped the paint off.  Yes, I respect thunderstorms!

Other stories flash around in my head, such as the one where my wingman was struck by lightning, but the line of thunderstorms is looming large ahead and so I focus on the coming penetration.  In the 130, we will maneuver through them as best as we could.  I know the aircraft can take just about anything but I hate them nonetheless.  After all, the weather chasers would fly 130’s through hurricanes into the eye to get telemetry data so I knew the aircraft could take it.  I wouldn’t want to be one of those pilots though and there was one thing I could never understand about them; how they could fit their balls inside the cockpit.

As the sun sinks down below the horizon behind us, the Great Lakes appear ahead on our route and slightly south of it; the line of thunderstorms is rising to incredible heights above them.  Large cumulus clouds rise above our altitude with even larger, imbedded cells within.  Lightning strikes downward against the earth’s surface in a continuous light show.  Flashes of light show within and between the clouds; their strobes, in almost continuous intervals, highlight the rising mass.

“Everyone buckle in tight,” I say slowing the aircraft down to 180 knots.  “Robert, give me a heading around that monster,” I say pointing directly ahead.

We have turned on the instrument and outside lights and I dimmed my instrument lighting enough to read them clearly.  I look over at the NDB – non-directional beacon – and see the needle swing left and right.  Another lesson learned from thunderstorms, the beacon will point to lightning.  One night, I threaded my way under a squall line at low level and at night using the NDB and my mark-one eyeball to show the imbedded cells.  That was another time I had to have the seat cushion removed via a surgical procedure.

“Come left thirty degrees,” he replies as I bank the aircraft and we enter the outlying clouds; the sudden turbulence within the billowing clouds bounces us and welcomes us to their domain.

Rolling out, I notice the NDB needle is now swinging to the right with occasional trips to other parts of the compass row.  The outside of the aircraft is dark with the exception of flashes of light off to our right.  With each flash of light, the outside environment is shown to us like a Polaroid; the propellers caught in mid revolution and the rain frozen in time, each drop stark still yet giving the indication of movement.  I turn on the wing lights and check for icing.  None.  Good.

We are being bounced around inside, feeling an updraft for a moment only to be dropped downward, the downward motion stopping with an abrupt slam before we are propelled upward once again.  My hands are in constant motion making adjustments to the control wheel countering the constant changes in the aircraft’s attitude.  It’s very much like riding a high speed roller coaster except the corners, hills, and valleys are squared instead of round.  I look at the NDB again and see the needle fluctuating between our immediate right and dead ahead.  I glance over at Robert and see him silhouetted by the instrument lights, his widened eyes staring outside.

“Robert, the radar!”

He looks down to the scope after shaking his head.  “Um, turn right here shortly.  There’s a red cell to our right and one ahead.  I see some more on the edges of the screen around us,” he says refocusing on his task.

“Okay, let me know when we have enough clearance to cut between the one on the right and the one ahead.”

“Okay.”

A minute or two more pass before he says, “Turn right 60 degrees.”

“60 degrees!  Are you sure about that?”  I ask thinking that will take us too close to the one on the right.

“Yeah, the two are pretty close to each another but there’s yellow in between them.”

Oh great, here we go, I think banking to the new heading.  The bank is hard to control as the 130 is being tossed about.  I try to anticipate the forces and apply corrections.  That is one thing having a few hours of flying time will give you and knowing your aircraft, the ability to tell, almost in advance, what the aircraft is going to do and applying a correction before or just as it happens, negating the opposing force.

I roll out on our new heading and the aircraft is suddenly caught in the grips of the storms.  Our initial turbulence nothing compared to the beating we take now.  I am barely able to hold our altitude to within a few thousand feet.  I pull the throttles back and attempt a descent to a lower altitude keeping the airspeed as close to 180 knots as possible thinking I should have done this prior.

“What are you doing?”  Robert asks shakily.

“Descending so a large updraft won’t launch us above our service ceiling.  That would be bad.”

I hear a scream, actually a couple of small screams, through the headset as the bottom drops out from under the 130; the kind of drop that tickles the stomach for a seemingly endless period of time.  That is followed by a bone-jarring crunch as our descent is slammed to a stop.

“Well, that’s one way to do it,” I say applying power and leveling off as best I can.

We have just lost 5,000 feet in a single moment.  A mile drop.  This plane certainly was built well, I think, thanking the engineers who designed it and amazed the wings are still attached.  I am pretty sure, for one split second, that my hips and shoulders became as one; compressing my torso into the size of a dime.

“Come left 45 degrees,” Robert says, threading us around another one.  “There’s a little more distance between this one and the one we are passing.”

On rolling out, I see the NDB needle twitches are mostly off our left wing now with a few to the upper right quadrant.  The turbulence, although mighty, has decreased a bit from the roller coaster ride from hell to more like being in a paint shaker.  We momentarily fly into open airspace; clouds built up all around us and two, very impressive monolithic towers, one to the left of us and one to our right front.  These monstrosities are lit by flashes within.  We gaze up at them in complete awe before we are immersed in the clouds once again.

Threading our way around three additional large, red cells and feeling like we have been bashed against the side of a cliff repeatedly, we are suddenly launched out into clear weather.  One moment we were enclosed in the clouds, shaking to bits, and the next, thrown out of the system, emerging on the other side.  The turbulence slows and then stops altogether, the drone of the engines filling the sudden silence, the 130 shakes it off and continues its harmony with the skies as if nothing happened.

“Fuck me,” I say breathlessly, pushing the throttles up to accelerate back to cruise airspeed.  We had only been in the thunderstorms for about thirty minutes but it seemed like an eternity.  I am coated in sweat and am pretty sure I will need to visit a proctologist to remove the seat cushion.  “Good job everyone.”

I glance out the windows to the wing on my side looking for damage.  Looking back over the wing, the storm continues to flash mightily as if angered we got away.  The moon is out and reflects on the cloud tops with the thunderstorm anvils reaching out towards us.

“Check the wings on your side for any damage Robert,” I say after verifying that everything looks fine on mine.

As he glances out and behind him, I look up to the pressurization gauge.  It still reads 10,000 feet and steady.  Good.  No leaks so the fuselage looks to be intact.

“All good over here,” Robert says and I turn off the wing lights.

Once we intersect our course, I set the autopilot.  “I’m going in back for a look around,” I say unbuckling from the seat.

“Dad, I have to go to the bathroom,” Bri says.

“Me too,” says Nicole.

“Okay, you two come with me.”

They unbuckle and we head into the back.  I turn on the interior cargo light and inspect the inside after showing them the toilet.  All appears normal with the exception that some of our supplies have been tossed loose.  While Bri is in the screen-enclosed toilet, Nic and I gather the stuff we can see and put them back as best as we can.

“Dad.”

“Yeah, hon,” I say stooping over to pick up a water bottle that has rolled loose and looking up to her.

“Thanks.”

“For what, hon?”  I ask standing up with said water bottle in hand.

“I was terrified and thought we were….