Many Mexicans and South Americans Carlos knew had decided to leave America and return home by the end of the second week. The absence of emergency services was an indication that whatever was happening was far graver than any disaster the country had previously experienced. When food ran out in their neighborhood, Carlos and Salvador set out to find work, which was what he’d always done in order to survive. Look as he might, he only found danger along with others sharing the same predicament he and his son were in.
There were no wealthy Americans to work for anymore. In fact, these people seemed to be dying by the thousands, which scared Carlos immensely. He was robbed, but no one was ever violent, and he attributed that to his having young Salvador along. Within the first month the two had moved across the San Mateo Bridge, traversed Hayward, and were in the countryside, looking for anything to eat. They slept on the ground, lost everything they’d brought from their studio when they were again robbed, and were constantly thirsty and hungry.
Carlos found the machete he carried while scavenging and figured he could use it as a self-defense weapon if the need should arise. Carlos’s time in the marijuana fields helped him to understand there was food and water to be had in the countryside if one was able to cope with eating things a normal person before the event wouldn’t have even considered touching.
Two or three weeks before they happened on Calvin and Shannon, Carlos heard a shot as he and Salvador were walking through the hills, looking for food. They later came on two men and a woman who just killed a small doe with a rifle one of the men held. It was clear to Carlos the trio killed the animal, but had no idea what to do next. Carlos made his presence known to the group, wasn’t shot, and offered to help dress the animal for a portion of the meat.
The three agreed, and Carlos set about doing what he’d regularly done while stuck in the marijuana fields. He dressed the animal and laid the meat out for the three hunters. In the end he cooked his portion right then and there, feeding Salvador and himself. They hadn’t eaten anything of any great nutritional value in days, so the venison was like hitting the lottery. Deep down, Carlos felt he would never see Rosa or Maria again and would die along with Salvador out in the countryside, eating lizards and worms. Carlos was used to suffering and living a life full of hardships, but seeing his son in those conditions filled Carlos with a great anguish.
Then Carlos happened upon Calvin, and here the former landscaper was on his third glass of whiskey, his face beet red and his body feeling more relaxed than it had been since he left Mexico all those years ago. Calvin and Shannon sat staring at their glasses, thinking about the life Carlos just described. The man had been living a life of terrible hardships, and just when he’d pulled himself from the depths of that former life, the solar flare smashed him back to an even worse situation.
Just after 0300 hours, the four men silently crawled out of the sandbox and crept across the openness of the park. Once they reached the residential area, they snuck through front yards, which not too long ago had been a rich green, but were now dead and brown. This made for slower moving since the dry vegetation threatened to wake the dead with every step.
John was sure his neck would need Icy Hot after their morning walk based on the number of times he turned to give dirty looks to Barry and Dwight for crashing through the dead landscape like a couple of wounded boars. The looks didn’t seem to help, so in the interest of his own health, John kept to scanning the neighborhood in front of the little group.
Jared walked behind Barry and Dwight and could see John was not only perturbed with their inability to walk with even a remote semblance of stealth, but he was also worried that their clumsiness might bring unwanted trouble. Even in the semidarkness of the early morning, Jared could see the results of the event. Yards were barren, grass and flowers dead, while the trees were the only plant life that seemed unaffected by the lack of irrigation.
The world was dying a slow and steady death, it seemed, but then Jared thought rationally about what was really happening. The death and decay they were seeing at the present time was just the scab on a wound. After the death rotted away, returning to the earth, Mother Nature would devour the nutrients from this, and the world would flourish again. Humans may or may not be part of the flourishing segment of events, but if they were, it was becoming more apparent they would have a significantly reduced role on planet Earth moving forward.
The four men continued for several hours into the morning before John stopped and withdrew a city map from one of his cargo pockets. He studied the map, squinting in the direction of the two nearest street signs. After committing the directions to the iron shop to his memory, John rose and moved quietly down the street. It was shocking how a city with a population of roughly one million people could be so deserted and quiet. John figured most would have died by now from causes like dehydration, starvation and medical issues, but their absence nevertheless was unnerving.
If folks succumbed from lack of food, water and illnesses, this would explain to a large degree
