“There’s medicine here that could prevent deaths like those.”
“Yes, I see that. But that’s my point. Maybe those deaths shouldn’t have been prevented. I have some antibiotics, but I chose to save them for future events. Sometimes it’s best to let nature run its course.”
“Would you feel that way if the tetanus victim had been your child? You brought antibiotics and other medicines with you from Knoxville. Why would accepting these gifts be different?”
Serena Jo sighed. “That is what I’m grappling with now. A lot has changed in the three years I’ve been here. I’ve come to see how a simpler existence is actually a superior one. I watched you last night at the celebration. You were having a good time. Can you imagine having done that before the plague? Rubbing elbows with a bunch of backwoods hillbillies and actually enjoying their conversations?”
“Yes, I can. I’ve never discriminated against folks because of their education. I’ve run across plenty of fascinating people who didn’t make it past the third grade.”
The golden eyes narrowed. “I’ve been meaning to ask you about that. Exactly what was your former profession? I know you lied about being a professor.”
“Lie is a strong word. Perhaps I bent the truth a bit, but it all turned out for the best.” He was eager to change the subject. “How about this: don’t decide now. Memorize that code in case you change your mind. The setup here is automated. I know Ray performed regular maintenance checks on this place, but I have a feeling all these goodies will be preserved for at least another decade or two. Maybe even consult with some of your people back in the holler. Form a consensus...”
“Absolutely not,” she said, cutting him off. “This is a decision for one person, and for now, that person is me. We’re not a democracy, Fergus. That’s why everything runs so smoothly.”
“Benevolent dictatorship?”
“Call it what you want. I know what’s best and what works for the holler folk as a society. The grumblings of a few short-sighted people don’t matter.”
“They’ll matter if they foment rebellion.”
Serena Jo didn’t reply, but a deep line formed between her eyebrows. The notion had evidently occurred to her before.
“Very well,” Fergus said. “It’s your decision. I’ve satisfied the moral obligation of presenting my case, and now it’s time for me to move on. Before I go, though, I’m curious about your escape from Knoxville three years ago and what led up to it. The contents of the U-Haul were impressive in their detail and foresight. Is this something you’re willing to talk about? I know the journey itself must have been harrowing. I too was out there when the world fell apart.”
He watched her wrangle with the question for a few moments. Finally she began talking.
“I started planning the day US deaths hit thirty thousand, just above a hundred thousand globally. The CDC said the mortality rate of the disease was around two to three percent, but I didn’t buy it. I made a list while the kids were asleep that night. For the next three days, I didn’t slow down for a minute. I rented the U-Haul and gathered every item on my list, in whatever way I could. Everything went into the cargo hold. The kids, wearing jammies and sneakers, were tucked into the back seat. I gave them Benadryl so they’d sleep. I decided to wait for dark before leaving, even though safety-wise, it seemed counter-intuitive. People were getting buggy by then and the real freaks tended to emerge at night. But I wanted the cover of darkness.
“I had a shotgun on the passenger seat and a .38 Special on my lap. We hit a rudimentary roadblock on 441 southbound. People approached us. Each time I fired the gun, I thought the kids would wake up, but they didn’t. That Benadryl is good stuff. They hadn’t done a very good job on the roadblock. Once the people were no longer a...deterrent...our truck plowed right through the wooden barricade. The drive should have only taken a couple of hours, but it took a day. Abandoned cars clogged up the lanes of the highway. I say abandoned, but they probably weren’t. The drivers were most likely dying or dead inside their cars. I didn’t look. Didn’t care to. All that mattered was getting the kids to safety. And so here we are. The mission was a success.”
She took a deep breath. Not a trace of remorse was visible in her smile. Fergus studied the beautiful face for several heartbeats, then forced an answering smile.
They had meandered back to the entrance. As Serena Jo punched in the code again, Fergus was pondering the tearful goodbyes he’d had that morning with Skeeter and the children. He would miss them all, perhaps as much as he missed Dani and Sam back in Kansas. The snowbird fantasy expanded more fully in his mind, then transitioned to a mental image of the map he’d studied back at the village. He planned to leave on the road leading west out of the self-storage complex. A hankering to see another coastline had been needling him for a while now.
He was wearing a smile when the door lifted again, the very door Ray had opened to welcome him just a few days ago.
The smile faded instantly. Lightning fast, Serena Jo’s relaxed posture shifted to defense mode. One of Skeeter’s fancy Mossberg rifles pointed now at the small band of people positioned on the blacktop — specifically at the one who seemed the likely leader of this ragtag pirate-crew of vaguely sinister mountain people.
“Well, if it ain’t Euel Whitaker’s purdy little girl, all growed up and askin’ for trouble.”
Fergus wouldn’t have thought a human could move so fast. The man dropped to his knees and fired a round into Serena Jo before her
