Jacqueline Druga - Fallout

“We expect runners,” Troy said. “We’ll chase them down. The plan is to get them all as fast as we can, keep it silent so word doesn’t spread. Silence is crucial.”

“What about other camps and towns?” Steve asked. “I know there are more out there than the ones we’re hitting.”

“There are.” Gus nodded. “But if this phase goes well, then we will put a huge ass dent in their efforts. Game changing.”

“So, this camp liberation is phase two? What’s phase three?”

“Welch is working on it now,” Gus said. “It’s the biggie. If all goes well it will go down about the same time as these coordinated camp attacks or shortly thereafter. So much will be happening, they’ll be chasing their tales.”

Troy looked at Steve. “I know this has come together awfully fast and it seems rushed but is has to be. We have to do this before the second wave arrives or before they send them back. Right now, they’re so vulnerable they don’t even know it.”

“As long as everyone follows the plan,” Gus said.

“What do you mean?” Steve asked.

“I mean unlike the previous phases which only had a time frame, everything in this phase is coordinated and is to take place at the exact same time. All it will take is for one team to jump the gun and it could backfire with a devastating ripple effect,” Gus said. “Let’s just hope that doesn’t happen.”

When Joe found out Saul was ill, he was concerned. His friend looked bad and even though he tried to portray otherwise, he was quite ill. He ran into town to get Saul something but there was absolutely no medicine on the shelves of the stores. In fact, he couldn’t buy anything in the store, everything was confiscated and taken to distribution.

He knew Mary Lou was close to a woman in town who worked with natural remedies, so he called her.

She was the one that told him about the new plague. Only it wasn’t a plague, more of a virus that had been hitting other areas pretty hard and had arrived with a vengeance in Swall.

“I heard outside of Los Angeles close to a million are sick,” Mary Lou said.

“That’s just rubbish, ain’t been nothing like that since the Spanish flu.”

“I’m telling you, Joe. It’s bad, even the State News network is reporting it. If they’re reporting it, you know it’s out of control.”

The State News Network showed a fifteen-minute news segment every hour. They were always bright and smiling, reporting things like citizens who are ‘helping the Cause.’

Mary Lou told him there was a hospital set up at the gymnasium at Farmersville High School. She had been placed on volunteer duty there on weekends.

Joe convince Saul to go. When he first took him, the ground of the school was clear. Only a few military vehicles were around, a few official tents and no more than a dozen soldiers. Inside he checked him in, then they found him a cot. There weren’t as many people as Joe imagined. He believed Mary Lou was exaggerating.

Until suddenly his workers dwindled down to twelve, then six. Joe had a great visual of the severity of it when he stopped to see his friend on the way to drop off his quota one day.

The wide green lawn was completely covered with tents and cots, and inside there was barely enough room between beds for healthcare workers to walk through. There weren’t that many of them.

They stopped Joe before he could go inside and told him it was far too dangerous.

“I’ll wear one of those masks,” Joe told them.

The refused. No one was to go in.

Joe peeked in the gym trying to see Saul, but he couldn’t. Saul wasn’t in the same spot as he had been the day before. The sounds of sickness were so loud, he had even heard it before walking into the building. Coughing, moaning, crying out. People moved a lot on their cots, probably trying to get comfortable.

“I’m just worried about my friend, is there any way to see how he’s doing?” Joe asked.

The reply he received was, “Same as everyone else.”

Joe left frustrated and angry.

He understood though and it was evident how bad Swall was hit when he went into the center of town.

Very few people walked around. There was no line at distribution and the drop off was empty as well.

For the first time, there were more soldiers on the street than Joaquin Valley Citizens.

“Joe,” Mary Lou called his name. “Hey.”

Joe paused in unloading his truck. “I didn’t see you at the table. I got worried for a second that you were sick.”

“No, not me.” Mary Lou said brightly. “I’ll keep on going, you know me. The pierogi club keeps me strong.”

Joe looked at her curiously. “Okay.”

Mary Lou looked over her shoulder and reached to the back of the truck for a crate. “I know that back of yours is bad, let me help.”

“What are you…?”

“No, Joe, I insist.”

Joe wasn’t quite sure how much Mary Lou thought she was helping to lift that crate, but it sure felt as if he were carrying the load and her hands were just placed there. He realized that was the case when he set the crate down and saw the blue card with his picture on it. He made eye contact with her.

“What’s a travel permit?” Mary Lou said slightly above normal level. “Oh, those are for people who have to make cross state deliveries. It allows them to get gas, you don’t need one of those.” She mouthed the words, “Take it.”

Joe looked down at the index size card. Slyly, he pulled it to him as he reached for the last crate.

“Put it in the glove compartment,” she whispered, then backed up. “There. Whew! Those are heavy. Come on I’ll check you in.”

She walked over to the table and Joe, as he normally did, brought the cases to the drop off door. With his dolly in tote, he walked over to Mary Lou.

She handed him the clipboard. “Sign, Joe. Give me the top and take the bottom for your records. You haven’t been doing that.”

“Must be something new,” Joe said. He signed for his drop off, lifted the sheet to grab the one on the bottom and paused.

“Take it. And don’t forget, Sunday is a day of rest. I don’t want to see you in town that day.”

“Yeah,” Joe muttered and looked at the sheet. It wasn’t a copy, it was a delivery order for Fat Joe tomatoes to be dropped off in Ohio. More than the order form, the Post-it Note on top nearly made Joe’s heart stop. The note read, “Toby’s alive. Prisoner. Caldwell, Ohio.”

“Have a great day.”

Joe handed her the sheet, then folded the order, closing his eyes for a moment. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”

Mary Lou stood, leaned across the table, and kissed Joe on the cheek.

It took everything Joe had not to lose it right then and there. He took the dolly, loaded it in the truck, waved to Mary Lou, and then got in.

After placing that order on his seat, he removed the Post-it and crumbled it in his hand. He couldn’t move or breathe, he was overwrought with emotions and gratefulness.

Toby, his only family member was alive and Mary Lou pretty much broke some serious rules to give him a ticket to go get him.

After pulling it together, Joe drove off. He was indebted to Mary Lou, more than she ever would realize.

While they fed her well, gave Madeline a clean and comfortable environment, they found a way to torture her.

It wasn’t physical, it was mental.

There was a television in every single room, including the bathroom. They all played the same thing all day long and straight through the night. Nonstop. She didn’t have the ability to turn off the sets or even unplug them. The volume adjustment was manipulated as well. She could increase it but not lower it.