End of the world – Chapter 4

When Mary, my oldest daughter, ran into the kitchen and asked if she could go out and see the people, I sat there trying to figure out what game she was playing. It never occurred to me that she might be talking about real people. We had been alone here for so many years. I had not even thought about other people in several years.

I just sat there speechless for the longest time. What could she be talking about? What people? Was this just a kid’s game with imaginary players? Just as I was about to ask her about it, another of the children, Janice, ran in shouting, “There are people out by the barn”.

I got up and went to the window followed by mom. Everyone else crowded around behind us. Sure enough, there were four people over by the barn. They were just standing there in a group watching the house. There were two kids and a woman standing in front, and a man standing behind them. They were not making any attempt to hide. They just stood there, watching, waiting. The man appeared to be forty or so, around mom’s age. I guessed the woman might be thirty. She definitely looked younger than my mom. The other two were young teenage girls and were probably thirteen or fourteen.

The man was white and very stocky, about the same height as me. The woman was a light skinned black and very slender. She reminded me of someone I had seen on one of our movies but I could not remember the name. I guessed one of the girls might be her daughter. She had the same shade of skin and body type. The other girl was Asian. I thought they were a pretty odd group to be together. They did not seem a very likely family.

They were all wearing clothes; shirts, pants and shoes. Except for winter we pretty much never wore clothes. It was late spring, and already warm, so we were all naked. I could also see that the man had a rifle that he held close to his leg. If I had not looked close I would have missed it. They also had backpacks, and a few yards behind them I spotted a cart that had bags and boxes stacked in it. The man put one hand to his mouth, “Hello the house”.

I started to turn to get out of the pack by the window, “I guess I should go out and see what they want”.

Mom took my arm and pulled me back. “Dan. We need to be careful here. He is armed”, she had seen the rifle. “We don’t know where they came from or what they want. But our biggest problem is what if they carry the virus? One touch from them could wipe us all out”.

I looked back at the man, and then at the rifle. “I’ll go out and see what he wants”.

Mom stopped me again, “Just go on the porch. Don’t let them approach you. They need to stay a good distance away. I just hope that is enough”. She turned to Terri, “Terri. You are the best shot here. I want you to take a rifle, go out the back door and around behind the woodpile. If you can don’t let them see you. I want you to cover Dan. If the man makes a threatening move I want you to shoot him”.

Terri, still looking out the window said, “I don’t like him”.

I almost laughed. “How can you say that? We don’t know anything about them”.

She looked back at me. “Look how they are standing”.

I looked back at the group. “You don’t like him because how he stands”?

She looked at me a bit exasperated, “No, not how he stands, it’s where he is standing. The women are in front. He is behind them, like he is using them as a shield”.

I looked back out. “I see what you mean. But it might not mean anything”. I did not want to make a big point of it in front of the others but she had something there. Terri was pretty sharp.

Terri looked back at me, “Don’t worry Dan. I won’t let him do anything”. Then Terri went over to the gun closet, pulled her rifle out, made sure it was loaded and walked to the backdoor. She stood there waiting for me to go out. “Give me a minute to get in position before you go out”.

When I got to the door I stopped and looked back around the room. All the kids and my sisters were at the windows staring at the strangers. This was huge for the kids. They had never seen another person outside of the family. Hell, we did not know there was another person outside the family.

Just as I was about to open the door mom touched my arm to stop me. “When you are talking to them, we are your wives, not your mother and sisters”. I must have had a hurt look on my face, that was how I felt, because she immediately said, “No, I’m not ashamed. If you think about it, we are your wives. But anyway, I want him to see us as yours. We are an intact family. I don’t know what his intentions are. I don’t want him to think there might be opportunities for him here”.

I opened the door and stepped outside, mom followed me. Before I could stop them, Megan and Shelly stepped outside also. I motioned for them to go back in but they both shook their heads and stayed. Both mom and Shelly were pregnant and almost ready to deliver. I did not think it was the safest place for them but I had to admit, he certainly could not miss the fact that we were a family.

They had not moved. I raised a hand in a greeting and the man waved back but stayed where he was. I remained silent. I wanted him to begin. After a few seconds he began, “Hello. We saw your smoke. At first we thought there was a fire but we should check it out. We have not seen another person in so many years. Can we come in”? As he said that he reached forward and nudged the kids and they took a step forward. I immediately held up my hand and they stopped. “Okay, would you happen to have some extra food you can spare”?

I finally spoke up for the first time, “Yes, we have some food. Where are you from”?

“Thanks. We are from Virginia. We have been slowly walking across country for years now. We explored and looked for people all the way but we never saw a soul. For the first few years all we saw was bodies. Now we don’t even see that. My family lived down there in the valley. We stopped there. I hoped, but they are gone too. How did you all escape the virus”?

It was the crux of the matter, what we both wanted to know. “We were up here before it happened. We stayed here and did not see anyone until everything was over. We have never visited another farm and we’ve never gone down to the town below”. I waited for a moment and then asked, “And you”?

The woman started to answer but the man grabbed her arm and she stopped. Then he replied, “Kind of the same thing as you. We were all in a wilderness retreat. We were the only ones there. We did not even know what was happening until it was all over”.

I was curious about one thing, “You have been walking through towns and have had no problems”?

“You mean the virus? No, it must be over now. I guess that explains the lack of clothes on you people. I mean, you’re staying here and not visiting a town”.

The four of us had been standing there talking with them in the nude.

“Can we come up to the house now”?

Mom spoke up for the first time, “No. We need to talk first”.

We turned around to face each other. “The fact that they are here does not mean the virus is gone. They could be carriers. That is, they could have the virus but do not get sick. They just pass it on to others”. Mom had a good point.

“But how can we tell”?

“One of use needs to spend time with them. It works fast. Two days should be enough time to tell”.

Megan turned to mom, “You mean one of us could die if they have the virus”.

She nodded. “Our choices are limited. Either we send them away or we have to test to see if it is safe. The only way we have of testing is to expose someone”.

I spoke up, “I’ll go”. It did not seem right to have one of the girls go. The man should protect them. It also seemed unreasonable to send away the first people we encounter.

Megan then put up a hand to stop me. “No. It should be me”. Before any of us could say anything she continued, “Mom, you and Shelly are both about to deliver. It would not be fair to the babies if something happened to you. And Dan, don’t be such a guy. You are the only man we have, and you are the father to all those kids back there. It can’t be Susan. She is the one mom has been teaching to be a nurse. And Terri is the one with the gun over there covering us. And we certainly cannot send one of our babies out there. It has to be me”.

I could not think of a single point to refute but I felt bad about not being the one to protect them instead of the other way around. I finally just nodded. Mom told her to go and get several days worth of food packed. We turned around to the group waiting for us. “What are your names”?

“I’m John, this is Sharon and the two kids are Janelle and Myoku. And you are”?

“I’m Dan. This is” and I had to stop and think. I had not heard mom’s name since dad had used it, what, fifteen years ago or so. With the slight pause I added “Meredith, and this is Shelly and that was Megan who went back inside”.

They started to walk towards us and I held up my hand to stop them a second time. “We still have a concern about the virus. You might be carriers. We have talked it over and the plan is to have one of us stay with you for a couple of days to be sure there is no problem, a quarantine of sorts”.

If a few minutes Megan returned. She gave each of us a long hug and then we watched as Megan joined them. They pulled a tent out of their cart, set it up and then sat around on the ground and talked. We gave stern warnings to the kids that they were off limits for a couple of days. After a while the novelty of just watching them wore off. Terri had rejoined us earlier and we sat around in the kitchen and discussed what to do. After some heated discussion it was decided that if they were not carrying the virus they could stay here with us for a while. Take some time to see if they were compatible with our group. If not they would be asked to move on. Terri, who had disliked the man from the start, argued to have them move on now.

After a couple of days Terri was showing no sign of the virus infection. From what we saw on news reports from when we were little, we knew it took about a day after first exposure before you knew you were infected. Blood vessels throughout your body would simple fall apart. You would turn black from all the internal bleeding. You had total organ failure. After three days we decided it was safe and they came up to the house to meet us. While the adults met in the kitchen to talk, all the kids were out on the porch talking with Janelle and Myoku. It took about fifteen minutes for the kids to begin calling Myoku, Mikey. Our kids had never seen anyone with different skin color outside of a book so they were constantly touching the new girl’s skin.

In the kitchen we decided they could use a bunkhouse we had out past the barn. It had several bunk beds in it and a wood stove that could be used for heat and cooking. Future plans could be worked on later. At the worst they could stay through the summer and winter and then move on. I thought it might be a good idea if they stayed with us. It would give us some genetic diversity plus it would be good for mom. There would be two people she could relate to, one her age and the other close to her age.

Later that night, after the kids had been put down, it was just my sisters, mom and I seated around the kitchen table. We had been bugging Megan for more information about them and she had been putting us off until later. Later had finally arrived.

“Here is what I remember, and a few things that I read between the lines. Sharon was married to a man who was much older than her”.

Several of us interrupted asking where the husband was.

“If you will all be quiet I’ll get to that. Janelle and Myoku were foster kids of his. They went on a trip into this wilderness area and that is where they met John. He hired out as a guide and he took them up to this small lodge that was way out in the middle of nowhere. They were the only people there. Food had been stocked there for guests. The guests were expected to hunt for meat.

They had a radio but hardly ever used it. When they got there they knew about the problems in Asia but they were out of touch when the virus took over. The radio was a hit and miss thing because they were out in the middle of the mountains.

When they finally heard about the virus spreading it was pretty much all over everywhere. They decided to wait it out there. Then it was like it was for us. They just did not hear anything on the radio anymore. Then something happened to Sharon’s husband and he died. They did not say much about it, John changed the subject whenever I asked.