Linda Andrews - Extinction Level Event

The dogs and cats converged on the food. People surrounded them, waiting their turn to touch and stroke the soft fur. The dachshund and Chihuahua were passed from hand to hand until they reached the food. Manny blinked back the tears swimming in his eyes. With the return of the animals, things could only get better.

Day Six

“Thank you for waiting for us.” The goat lady standing in front of Mavis adjusted her straw hat.

“I said we would.” Between the sunglasses and the mask, Mavis had only recognized the woman when she’d spoken. Of course, the herd of horses, mules, donkeys, goats and two llamas accompanying her had helped.

Mavis’s watch ticked off the time. Today was day two without electricity. Two. If Palo Verde’s generators had been fully stocked on that first day, they had only one more day left of fuel.

Then rods would start to boil off the water cooling them.

Mavis checked her watch for the fifth time in ten minutes. They’d have five days to walk to safety. Seven tops. And with so many sick, how would they make it?

A billy butted the goat lady’s leg. She staggered a step before absently patting his head. “I had a hard time convincing the others we had to leave. The governor didn’t say anything about it in her statement yesterday.”

“The governor is dead.” As well as the rest of the government—local, state and federal. The underground shelters were now tombs. Mavis watched men unload mares from a long horse trailer backed against the park’s curb. Barbed wire, strung from tree to tree, created a large corral for the animals. In the neighboring set-up, goats chomped on the grass surrounding caged chickens. Nearby, a peacock pecked at the black dots littering the gravel under an olive tree.

“Yes.” Goat Lady pulled her handkerchief from the billy’s mouth. “That’s what convinced them to come.”

General Lister walked up on Mavis’s right. “Corpsmen checked on your niece. No change.”

Mavis contained the flare of hope heating her from the inside out. No change didn’t mean Sunnie was recovering. It just meant Mavis would have to wait one more day to see if the antibiotics were working.

Goat Lady patted Mavis’s arm. “Your niece is sick? Hon, I’m so sorry.”

“I am hopeful she’ll recover.” And it was true, but sometimes hope was such a bitch. Mavis jumped when a rooster crowed. Stupid poultry.

“Why are they unloading when we’re just going to bug out tomorrow?” Lister rocked back on his heels.

“Tomorrow?” Goat Lady pushed the Billy toward the open field with the rest. The animal went a distance before returning.

“What’s the plan for getting all these…” He waved his hand at the livestock. “…these animals to Colorado?”

“Colorado.” Goat Lady lowered her voice. “I didn’t realize we were going so far. We pooled our gas into big trucks that will take the goats, llamas, and some of the chickens, but there isn’t enough to get all the way to Colorado. Heck, I don’t even think they’d make it to Camp Verde.”

“And the horses, donkeys and mules?” Mavis stared at the larger animals. She could use them.

“They’ll carry the sick as well as some supplies.” Removing her hat, Goat Lady waved it to the west where more people arrived—this time in rickety wagons that looked like they’d once been lawn art. “We’ve also brought the wagons we could find. My neighbor created a yoke for a car trailer to haul even more. Unfortunately, many of the horses objected to dragging it. But three wagons are better than none.”

Lister pulled his computer tablet from his pocket. He scrolled down the page. “If your trucks run on diesel, we can supply them. We’re going to need those animals.” He tugged his pant leg out of the Billy’s mouth and pushed it away with his foot. “These guys make pretty useful garbage disposals.”

“I’ll go tell the others to be prepared to move out at first light.” She slapped her hat on her head again, then pushed the billy into the corral and shut the makeshift gate behind him.

“Well, that’s a bit of good luck.” Lister consulted his pad. “Dawson’s little civilian group hasn’t budged from their location. I’m thinking they lost people last night, too.”

Turning away from the park, Mavis headed toward her house.

Headquarters.

Where a ton of work awaited her. The Western United States new seat of government was a rambling brown slump block ranch house. No marble Grecian columns or centuries of history in sight. Sometimes it was just too much for one person to bear. And despite the ready and capable hands of the servicemen around her, they wanted her to make the decisions, needed her to lead. All except David. He pushed her, challenged her ideas, and made her look at things differently.

David.

Where was he? Why hadn’t he returned last night? Was he out looking for his group to rescue? She boxed up thoughts of him. Lister would have said if something had occurred. And David wasn’t actually due here until tonight. One night of rest before tomorrow’s evacuation. “What’s our current population?”

“We have five thousand personnel on base.”

Mavis sighed. Five thousand was a good number. There were six thousand yesterday. “I thought we lost some folks last night.”

“About four grand. Ninety-five percent were civilians. But people have found our camp all through the night.”

The rest were soldiers partially immune to the anthrax. Still, if the trend kept up, it would spell trouble. There needed to be a balance between the sexes and ages or violence would erupt. Mavis scanned the civilians walking from the outdoor mess hall to their assigned houses. She recognized the predatory lope of some of them. There’d already been rumors of two rapes. If she found out they were true, she personally put a bullet in the perpetrator’s head.

Her fingers twitched. Killing for a cause would be a relief in the face of this mindless slaughter. “What happened to the bodies?”

“We’re using the abandoned corporate center as a morgue.” Lister flashed the map at her.

“When you contact your men setting up camps down the line tell them to dig trenches about a hundred yards from the camp.” She nodded to a coughing man. “We’ll need a place to dispose of people as we go.”

The general’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “Yes, Ma’am.”

Northeast of the valley, military vehicles lumbered along the washes, clearing the road, setting up the evacuation sites and digging graves. Their sick comrades, the ones with the entire series of anthrax shots and thus the best chance of recovery, had been sent ahead with them. Almost a hundred healthy civilians had joined them.

“We’re getting reports of flooding just outside of Carefree.” Lister zoomed in on the area north of Seven Springs. “If we can make it to Power Plant Road we should be able to hit a dirt road, jog into Strawberry and head up north on the State Route.”

She leaned closer. Little bubbles meant towns, towns meant traffic and delays. She glanced to the west and the nuclear power plant. At least, Strawberry was in Mogollion Rim country and the metals in the hills would provide them with some protection. “We might be able to pick up some folks, too.”

“I’ll order the supply trucks to divert to the new course.”

She nodded. Fuel, supplies and tents would be deposited along the way as they made their way to the Southeast corner of Colorado. “See if anyone has any radiation badges.”

The general snapped his attention to her. “You think we’ll need them?”

“Yes.” She cleared her throat. “Satellite maps show hot spots in China. They might already have lost control of some of their power plants.”