Plague: Death was only the beginning! by Donald Franck, Francine Franck Page A
Authors: Donald Franck, Francine Franck
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MOPP 4 gear and would spray down the trucks with bleach afterward. No one could be trusted with just their word any longer, as the death tolls climbed into the millions. Jim, Kim, and Joanne were expected before morning, and Tom was shocked to hear that the news reports of shootings had been about them. Sally could only express her horror that her best friend had been reduced to killing strangers so quickly as it had less than a month since the first death had been reported in New York. She was also glad that it had been the strangers dead and not her, but it still sucked.
Jim Thompson and his family were pushing the time limit as traffic had slowed to a crawl across most of the country. Many smaller towns were directing travelers around them and not letting them inside city limits in a vain attempt to slow down or stop the plague from visiting them. But, no one could cover all the back roads, open fields, and waterways that allowed strangers and family members to meet.
What was normally a two-and-a-half-day trip had already passed into three, and the deadline was only hours away as they struggled to move faster than conditions allowed. They were only in Ohio and still had to pass St. Louis before they could reach safety in the south.
Jim and Tom had been on the HF radio using 7 MHz and 14 MHz Single Side Band (SSB) frequencies to span the distances between them as they discussed and plotted different routes of travel to aid Jim’s family. By monitoring the airwaves, Tom could hear which areas of the national highways system were still functional and which had to be bypassed. As the time passed, more and more areas had to be written off and marked unusable due to the volume of immovable traffic. And it came down to which bridges were still open to traffic and which were packed solid with dead.
“Well, Jim, I found you a route, but you’ll be on every back road and boondock there is. But, it is still possible to cross the river at Chester, Illinois. And it would be clear sailing from there on State150 through Poplar Bluff to US 60 to here,” Tom reported after a long pause between transmissions. “St. Louis and points west will be officially closed by 11:00 AM CST tomorrow. And they are crowding everyone into the county fair grounds and parts of the military depot after that time. No one will be allowed through St. Louis for any reason. And they are getting really pissy about anyone even asking.”
“Well, I’ll be over the Ohio border soon, so where do I go from there?”
“Head for Terra Haute, Indiana and on to Effingham, Illinois on I-70. Then head south on US-45 to US-50 to US-51 South. You need to get down to the bridge at Chester, Illinois as soon as possible. Don’t stop for anything or anyone at this point. The stakes are just too high.”
“I read ya, buddy. We’ll do the best we can. AA0A out.”
Tom stared at the maps and charts in front of him, and he laid his head on his arms. The pressures were building for all of them, and they needed everyone and everything to be in place before they closed the doors and locked the world outside them.
“The days of Man are troubled and filled with pain. Sometimes, every damn day.”
-Thoughts from the Author
Chapter 16
Worldwide Deaths: 1,755,000
Jim clamped his fingers around the steering wheel as he watched the Highway Patrol push another car off the road. Minutes later, they were moving again, but he could see the blood and dead bodies that lay twisted by the plague into contorted shapes.
By this time, everyone was wearing the N98 filter masks fulltime. They were being exposed every time they drove by another car, and they were rolling the dice each time. The radio had reported that the plague was now airborne and could infect you for several hours outside the body. At the beginning, the Highway Patrol had been given orders to light each plague vehicle on fire. This was soon stopped as the plague was exposed to the
Jim Thompson and his family were pushing the time limit as traffic had slowed to a crawl across most of the country. Many smaller towns were directing travelers around them and not letting them inside city limits in a vain attempt to slow down or stop the plague from visiting them. But, no one could cover all the back roads, open fields, and waterways that allowed strangers and family members to meet.
What was normally a two-and-a-half-day trip had already passed into three, and the deadline was only hours away as they struggled to move faster than conditions allowed. They were only in Ohio and still had to pass St. Louis before they could reach safety in the south.
Jim and Tom had been on the HF radio using 7 MHz and 14 MHz Single Side Band (SSB) frequencies to span the distances between them as they discussed and plotted different routes of travel to aid Jim’s family. By monitoring the airwaves, Tom could hear which areas of the national highways system were still functional and which had to be bypassed. As the time passed, more and more areas had to be written off and marked unusable due to the volume of immovable traffic. And it came down to which bridges were still open to traffic and which were packed solid with dead.
“Well, Jim, I found you a route, but you’ll be on every back road and boondock there is. But, it is still possible to cross the river at Chester, Illinois. And it would be clear sailing from there on State150 through Poplar Bluff to US 60 to here,” Tom reported after a long pause between transmissions. “St. Louis and points west will be officially closed by 11:00 AM CST tomorrow. And they are crowding everyone into the county fair grounds and parts of the military depot after that time. No one will be allowed through St. Louis for any reason. And they are getting really pissy about anyone even asking.”
“Well, I’ll be over the Ohio border soon, so where do I go from there?”
“Head for Terra Haute, Indiana and on to Effingham, Illinois on I-70. Then head south on US-45 to US-50 to US-51 South. You need to get down to the bridge at Chester, Illinois as soon as possible. Don’t stop for anything or anyone at this point. The stakes are just too high.”
“I read ya, buddy. We’ll do the best we can. AA0A out.”
Tom stared at the maps and charts in front of him, and he laid his head on his arms. The pressures were building for all of them, and they needed everyone and everything to be in place before they closed the doors and locked the world outside them.
“The days of Man are troubled and filled with pain. Sometimes, every damn day.”
-Thoughts from the Author
Chapter 16
Worldwide Deaths: 1,755,000
Jim clamped his fingers around the steering wheel as he watched the Highway Patrol push another car off the road. Minutes later, they were moving again, but he could see the blood and dead bodies that lay twisted by the plague into contorted shapes.
By this time, everyone was wearing the N98 filter masks fulltime. They were being exposed every time they drove by another car, and they were rolling the dice each time. The radio had reported that the plague was now airborne and could infect you for several hours outside the body. At the beginning, the Highway Patrol had been given orders to light each plague vehicle on fire. This was soon stopped as the plague was exposed to the
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