Jacqueline Druga - Reset

He couldn’t get the door open and he climbed through the first floor window. After a few moments, he emerged from the side. “Come around back. It’s fine.”

Nora thought there was no way it was fine. What possibly could remain at the house?

Apprehensively and with some fear, she went inside. As soon as she stepped through the side door, she knew, her husband hadn’t sold the home; in fact, the house was empty not long after she had presumably died.

The furniture was the same. Every piece was moss covered. The light green substance grew on the walls and every surface. Going upstairs wasn’t an option, it just wasn’t safe with the roof collapsing.

When she walked into the living room, a mouse scurried across the floor and ran into the couch which was full of holes.

“If I knew you were coming, I would have cleaned up,” she joked halfheartedly.

Jason gave her a closed mouth smile. “Where did you keep things? Pictures? Papers? Anything that could possibly tell us what happened to your family.”

“In the kitchen, the junk drawer. Upstairs in my room. The pictures…” She looked around. “The pictures are gone.”

“Are you sure?” Jason asked.

“Yeah. The girls’ school pictures and our family picture on the wall. Gone.” Nora turned left to right. “Maybe he sold the house. Maybe he just left the furniture and sold it.”

“You check here, I’ll go in the kitchen.”

Nora nodded. After Jason walked out, she examined the living room. It was surreal. Two weeks ago, in her mind, she was complaining that no one ever vacuumed and now the carpet was a pool of slime. The television was the same, the drapes the same. The two books she never finished reading were on the shelf.

“Nora,” Jason called from the kitchen. “Come here.”

She walked across her small first floor and into the kitchen. Jason held an envelope in one hand. It was moldy. In another, he held up paper, two sheets stapled together. “Rick was your husband’s name. Who was Catalina?”

Breathy, Nora answered and rushed to him. “My youngest. Why?”

He handed her the papers. “I found this on the table under the centerpiece. There are no contents in there other than this. Read it.”

Nora did. “Dear Mr. Lane. We are pleased to inform you that you and your daughter tested positive for the immunity factor to MES5. Enclosed please find a copy of your application and your admittance papers for Salvation. Please bring the certificate of approval along with proper identification on the date the facility opens.”

“Salvation? That must be the place you theorized about. You said it. You said they put everyone together. Nora, this means your family is alive. We need to find this Salvation. Is there a location?”

“Yeah, it’s right…” Nora flipped the page. She closed her eyes.

“What is it?”

“Lilly died. The application has her and I both as deceased.”

“Any dates.”

“Lilly died six months after I went into stasis. Wait this can’t be right.” She flipped back and forth.

“What is it?”

“The facility open date.” Nora looked at him. “It’s fifteen years after we went into stasis. Jesus, Jason how long were we out?”

Rusty had a full head of hair and a beard to match, and not a strand of it wasn’t gray. He more than likely was pushing seventy, but it was hard to tell. He could have aged badly, after all, it was a harsh world. He didn’t look like a man who was starving either. A healthy built man with a few extra pounds. In fact, John worried that he was slated to be Rusty’s next meal. How was he not starving in a post apocalyptic world?

“You looked pretty pathetic on the side of the road,” Rusty said, helping John sit up in bed. “Like road kill. I thought you were dead until the woman called out for help. Both of you were in bad shape. My son and I loaded you in the cart and brought you back here. She woke up before you. At least you ain’t stupid. That bleeding head, you could have been rendered stupid. Then again, you were in Wrecker Land.”

Meredith asked. “Wrecker?”

“That’s what we call them. Wreckers. The ones that claimed the land. Well, what was left of it in these parts. They only come out at night. Most of them are products of post war. Their parents tried to stay. Not right in the head and can’t see too well. Sun bothers their eyes. Catch them in the day, you can run right around them. Boy they did a number on you.” Rusty whistled. “Course, you’re not too right in the head being in that area at night.”

“How come they don’t come after you?” Meredith asked.

“I live too far for them to walk, plus my dogs will tear them up.”

“What were you doing there?” John asked. “I mean, when you found us.”

“It was daylight. I was duck hunting. Since DC took a nuclear nosedive, the swamp lifted and the ducks are plenty.”

“DC?” John asked. “Nuclear nose dive. When?”

“During the war. What? You been living under a rock?”

“More like in a refrigerator,” John said. “Pretend I don’t know anything. What would you tell me?”

“Well, you ain’t from Salvation or you’d know. Plus, you wouldn’t leave there.”

“Salvation?” asked John.

“The place where all good immune go to live out their lives normally away from the rest of the shithole world. It’s huge. Never could get in there. They said I wasn’t immune. Ha. What do they know?” Rusty said. “So we bide our time out here. We do well. Got horses, a nice farm.”

“When did they build it?”

“Christ.” Rusty looked up to the ceiling. “They started building the wall on year three of the virus. Took a while to complete. That was after the war, though. Was a short war.” Rusty winked. “Took out everything north of here. All along the east coast. Gone. Dust. Probably not dust anymore, but things don’t grow.”

John was trying hard to process what he was being told, decipher it and get information. There was no way Rusty would understand that he and Meredith had been in stasis.

Then Meredith asked. “Rusty, how old were you when the virus first broke out?”

“I wasn’t young,” Rusty answered. “Hard to recall.”

“Think,” John said. “How long ago was it that the virus began?”

“Thirty years. Or it will be thirty years in September.” Trey said as he placed a steaming cup of tea before Malcolm. “Dad, you really don’t look well.”

“I … know. I’m sick. My arm is bad. But I have to know.” Malcolm said. “I have to.”

Trey joined him at the table. “This is unreal. I knew it. I knew it. I told Mom you weren’t dead.”

“They probably dismissed it as you not accepting it.”

“They did. But my gut kept saying you weren’t dead. I wanted to go to New York to the explosion site, but they closed it off. There was an exodus from New York shortly before the virus. It was weird, too, we were one of the first people to get the vaccine.”

“Trey, I am so sorry. I am so sorry that we fought before that.”

“Me, too.” Trey reached out and laid his hand on Malcolm’s.

Malcolm looked at his son’s hand. They were worn and old. “What about your mother? Your brothers?”

“They didn’t make it. They passed away. I stayed here. Made this a farm.”

“I missed your life.”

“You missed a mess. Be grateful for that.” Trey said. “The terror attack. The president was killed…” He paused. “Or so we thought. The new president vowed revenge on the attack and just sent out troops. Then the virus broke out in Singapore. From what I recall, it was a big deal because right after, it was discovered that it was deliberate. The president came on TV and told how he uncovered the plot by some organization called the Genesis group. They tried to stop it, Dad, they did.”