LeRoy Clary - Humanaty's Blight

Not knowing exactly what she meant by the statement, I hesitantly asked, “Come to what?”

“Living in a hole like a friggin rabbit.”

“A rabbit?”

“We’re in a rabbit hole. We will dart outside and grab a little food, then hop back into our hole again, while hoping a hawk does not swoop down and attack when we’re outside. I know we’re safer here than most people and all that stuff you’re about to tell me, but we may as well have cottontails on our butts.”

I saw her point. Said nothing. There was no way to change what we did.

She sighed, then added, “You know what the real problem is?” Then, she answered her own question before I could. “The problem is that all those little bunnies eventually get snatched by eagles, or coyotes, or foxes, or cats. Everything feeds off rabbits. They’re like the potato chips of the animal world. Other animals snack on them and there are never any old rabbits.”

There was no humor in her voice. While part of what she said struck me as funny, she hadn’t intended it that way and I managed to keep any humor from my voice as I said, “What are you trying to tell me?”

“As good as this place is for us for now, we’re just like rabbits. We’re going to be seen one day, someone will see our tracks in the snow, or someone will accidentally find us. Today, tomorrow, or the day after. Maybe we’ll shoot at something and draw them in. Or we’ll go in search of food or medicine, or for a pair of dry socks. Which reminds me, we need to carry that wolf body outside unless you plan to eat it or let it rot where it is.”

“What else are you really trying to say?” I asked, fairly sure the answer wouldn’t be to my liking. “Stop talking in circles like I’m smart enough to understand what you mean.”

She paused with a dreamy expression as her eyes went blank. “This is a good hideout for now. But only for now. Another day or two. What are our long-term plans? Maybe I should be asking what yours are and see if they include me.”

“Of course, they include you.” The answer spilled from my lips. Going on without the girl was hard to conceive. For the first time in years, I had a friend. Not a girlfriend, but a friend who I could talk to, express my dreams and fears, and feel safe around.

She shook her head sadly. “From your viewpoint, your plans include me, and for that I thank you. From my viewpoint, I have to decide whether to stay with you, go with someone else, or move on alone.”

My mouth wouldn’t work. I’d assumed a lot of things, and in that instant, I realized how wrong making assumptions can be. My social skills hadn’t improved a bit.

The idea that Suemight not accompany me in the future was a lot like a spring thunderbolt that seemed to come from nowhere. I turned to her. “What do you want?”

“Don’t be silly,” she said. “I want things to go back to normal. They won’t, I know that. But other than living minute to minute and doing a wonderful job of it, you have told me nothing about your future plan.”

“It’s only been two weeks,” I protested. “We’re been together for two days, depending on how you count them. You can’t expect me to have it all figured out or share it with you.”

She didn’t look at me. Her attention was somewhere inside her mind. “Fair enough. Let’s talk. What are your short-term plans? I mean, if you could safely leave here and do something in the world as it is, what would you do?”

“Seriously?” The word came out unintended. It was a stall, so I didn’t have to answer before thinking it over. She ignored it, and waited, her eyes now centered on mine. I thought quickly. “I would go find a laptop.”

She giggled.

“No, I mean it. Computers are one thing I know. They’re my friends.”

“What Internet would you connect it to? And where would you plug it in?”

“I’ve been thinking.”

She grinned and motioned for me to continue making a fool of myself. I plunged ahead, “I read somewhere that an idle server uses only about as much power as in one of those flat batteries the size of a nickel, you know the ones?” At her nod, I went on, “For a month, maybe more, the servers maintain their memory after the power goes. Besides, a lot of them are connected to battery backups of one sort or another and will last longer. I don’t know how long, but longer. Even then, most do not lose their memory, they just shut down.”

“Missing your video games?” she teased.

I was getting a little angry. She had asked me to share my thoughts and now she was making fun of me. “Listen, this flu may not be a worldwide thing. Or others may be holed up and trying to contact survivors via the internet. There might be a sanctuary city and we could go there. Besides, they contain a lot of knowledge. There might even be a cure for the human blight.”

I had her interest.

She said, “Your laptop needs power.”

“I had a sleeve to carry my old tablet in. The sleeve was a poor excuse for a solar panel, but a full day in the sun charged it to half. There must be better ones. Or maybe connecting it to one of those solar panels on the roofs of houses will charge it.”

She said with cautious optimism, “Wi-Fi? Where you gonna get it?”

“Maybe the cell phone grid is still working, and I can use a phone as a hotspot. Or a sat phone if we can find one and get a signal from a satellite. I’m sure they are still up there circling the Earth.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and made a phony scowl, but she was still interested. “Then you will call people in England and tell them to come to rescue us? Tell them where we are?”

“No, I had another idea. Most big depositories of digital information have backups for power and access. Many are self-repairing. Imagine how much easier it would be if we could download a few eBooks on how to survive, what to eat, how to trap animals in the northwest, and how to make shelters. If I could log in to one of them and find the right information, it would make our lives so much easier.”

“You know what?”

I shook my head.

“You’re a stupid geek who only looks at the world through a dumb-ass computer screen. You look like a geek and you think like one.”

Offended, I snapped, “You don’t think my plan will work? Or that information won’t make our lives much easier if I’m successful?”

“This sort of thing is why you need to talk to me, Bill. Tell me about your ideas. Think of all the obstacles you’re going to have to climb over to use a laptop and access data behind a firewall if it is still there. That is if you’re a genius that can get past their firewalls. Yes, I know a little about computers.”

“It will work,” I persisted. “I’m pretty good with a computer.”

“Just stumble on any one of those steps and it will prevent you from succeeding. While you think you’re a master gamer or guru, trying to read a database with all the protections money can buy will be difficult or impossible, and you know it. They’re programmed by the best in the world to keep people like you and me out of them.”

“That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. Even now, their batteries are running down, information is becoming harder to reach and download. You asked for my plan and that was it. Unfortunately, we need to do it quickly. The window of time is shrinking.”

She sadly shook her head from side to side slowly as if correcting an errant second-grader. “Or… we could just visit my school library and take the books we need, you silly geek.”