Mark Clodi - Discovery

After dropping Tom off in North Platte, Max planned to move on to Iowa, where he knew his friend Bill would welcome him and anyone he brought with him with open arms. Bill went way back with Max, they grew up on the same street when they were kids and attended the same schools, albeit Max was four years younger and had not ever gone to with Bill at the same time. However as the only two boys on a street full of girls the two were bound to become friends despite their age difference. The friendship born in primary school continued through high school and even prospered into college and beyond. After college Bill had moved around a lot, returning to Denver from time to time until finally settling down with his wife, Trisha, in Iowa. Still he and Max took turns hosting each other's families on alternate years and everyone got along very well together. The annual get together in Colorado or Iowa was something both families had grown to love.

Unlike Max, Bill had started his family early, barely out of college and he had five children now, the oldest was seventeen and they alternated in gender down from there every two years. Max had kidded Bill that he and his wife were like machines, you could set a clock by the birthing of their children. Bill worked in technology as a computer programmer, but he was always spouting off about "Armageddon" and being prepared for whatever life threw at you. He was heavy into Boy Scouts of America as well, his oldest son had made Eagle Scout a year early and his other boys were involved in camping, hunting and fishing all year round. The only complaint Sarah had about Bill was that he seemed way more focused on the boys of the family than the girls. On more than one occasion she had heard Bill say he took care of the boys and his wife, Trisha, took care of the girls.

Max felt, in some way, Bill would be more ready for the storm of zombies than he ever would be. He knew with the financial markets fluctuating so badly over the past few years that Bill had been planting large gardens on his land, learning how to preserve meat by drying it out and teaching the boys to hunt and fish as more than a hobby. Max was hoping his perception was not off and that his friend would be the rock in the storm that he needed him to be right now. Somewhere in the back of Max's mind there was a little nagging thought that things might not go as planned, Bill could get fickle when his families welfare was on the line, would he treat Max as family or as a drain on the family resources? It was a small disturbing thought and Max resolved to show up to Bill's house with as many resources as he could cram into the van, if that meant driving seven hundred miles with gas cans on the top of the car, then that was what he would do.

‘ Just another day at work’ , Bill thought to himself as he crawled into his old Ford Ranger. Of course it was not ‘just another day’ anymore. The news had mentioned all sorts of problems lately, riots, drug crazed terrorist attacks, power outages. The worst of it was the power outages, nothing like losing your air conditioning in July in Iowa to make you appreciate the wonder of electricity.

Bill was worried too, the news said that there were riots in Denver and the last time he had heard from his friend Max was over a week ago, no phone calls, no emails, nothing. His parents also lived in a suburb of Denver, where Bill grew up and he could not get a call in to them either. He didn’t worry about his old man too much, since retirement Bill’s dad had spent more time dragging his mom around camping than staying at home. Most of the time they were out of cell phone range too, what with the mountains they typically camped in. Max on the other hand, had to work, which meant he was probably right in the thick of things when the rioting, or whatever was going on, started. Calls to Max’s home line just met with a “Your call cannot be completed as dialed. Please hang up and try your call again” message. Very weird. Today he vowed to send more email messages and call and call until he got through to Max. It was Wednesday, if Bill did not get through today or tomorrow he was going to take Friday off and drive out to Denver over the weekend, National Guard be damned!

As a programmer Bill also succumbed to cruising the internet most days, he was a mild news junkie and the situation in his hometown had him concerned. His boss had to drag him in and speak with him about his internet usage yesterday, but understood that Bill was simply not going to be worth a shit until he had confirmation that his family and friends were okay.

As Bill drove into the city he hit a traffic jam. ‘ What the hell?' he thought to himself, ‘ It's six-thirty!’ In the three years since he had been driving this route he had never once hit traffic this far back. Cursing, he cut off Jimmy Buffet mid song so that he could listen to the radio. National Public Radio was funneled through a local station which sometimes did traffic updates for the poor suckers coming in to work, usually only if there was a major accident. Bill caught the news caster in mid sentence “…reasons there is no work today. Officials are asking everyone to remain home except for essential personal only.” As Bill listened he could tell this was not ordinary alert, ‘Not go to work? That makes no sense.' As he thought about it Bill had a scrotum tightening moment of anxiety that seemed to grow and grow. He was in the left hand lane of the highway and he came to a decision fairly quickly. He checked for oncoming traffic then shifted his truck into four wheel drive and drove across the median and headed back home. He was about ten minutes away and as he drove he fumbled for his cell phone to call his wife.

Trisha woke to the ringing of the telephone. “Six-thirty!” she moaned, “Someone better have died!” She rolled over to Bill’s side of the bed on her hands and knees to prop herself over the half awake form of her semi-sleeping nine year old, Max, and answered the phone.

“Hello?”

“Hey Trish, it's me. There is some kinda emergency, the authorities are saying for everyone not to go to work. Turn on the radio or TV and see what it is all about. I am gonna run by the market and load up on stuff before everyone beats me to it.”

At first Trisha was thrilled, she was behind on a big project at work, no work, meant the project would be delayed and her tardiness would be unnoticed, really good timing! Then the realization of what was going on hit her. She stammered, “What? There has to be some mistake, no one is going to work?”

“Yeah nobody, that is what the radio is saying, no wait they said the national guard, police and medical personal are to report to work as normal. You just stay put, I am gonna burn our checking account at the store. I will call ya if anything goes wrong. You call me if there is anything else. Get John up, so we can put up the plastic sheeting around the vents and windows when I get home, okay?”

“Sha-sure, sure. See you soon. Be careful!”

“Careful? Of what? Nah, I get it; I will be. Love-ya-bye!”

“Love-ya-bye!” Trisha responded as Bill hung up the phone. That phrase had been one of their standbys for years and saying it added some normality to her life as she uttered those three little words.

Bill sped along at five miles an hour over the speed limit, not wanting to get stopped for a ticket, especially if the world was ending. ‘ The flu’ , he thought, ‘ That has to be it, some goddamn extremist unleashed biologicals on us and it finally spread to Des Moines. God damn it! I knew I shoulda bought those cases of military rations off of ebay! '

He pulled into the gas station to fill up his truck before heading to the grocery store, for good measure he also filled up both gas cans he kept in the pickup bed too. The town only had a small grocery store simply called ‘The Market’. It was not officially open until seven am, but the owner typically opened it up a half hour early. Bill was pleased to see that was the case today and he grabbed a cart on his way in.