Band of Preppers (Book 2): Life is Hope Read online

  Band of Preppers

  Part II

  Life is Hope

  1.

  Sometimes when Megan woke up, she forgot where she was and instantly felt frightened. That hazy moment between sleep and consciousness was always painful- like a bee sting- and it took a few seconds for Megan to remember she was safe, as was Britney. The sting melted away, leaving blissful relief. She and Britney slept in Adam’s old room, who now took the floor in Buckle’s bedroom. Buckle had been wary of her for a while, which came as no surprise to Megan, but his heart was too big for much bitterness. Megan worked hard to prove herself and kept her complaints to herself. At first, Britney required much of her attention. After having spent the first half of the winter outside, without the appropriate nutrition, Britney wasn’t quite as well as she should have been. Adam was especially taken with Britney and soon split his time between his regular chores and looking after the baby, leaving Megan with more time to help around the village. She didn’t have many survival skills besides the basics like starting fires, but being attentive meant she learned quickly. Baking was her favorite activity and the first thing she learned how to make was bread over a fire with flour, olive oil, water, and salt. Crouching down in the snow over a lit firepit, she would mix all the ingredients together into a dough ball and knead it out flat onto a heated rock. It didn’t take long before the bread turned golden-brown and was ready to be eaten. Despite her preference for baking, Megan was mostly needed for sewing. Clothes had to be repaired regularly before rips and snags got too bad to fix. Megan’s fingers were quick and soon she took over from Amy for all of the village‘s sewing needs. People found it difficult to not trust her, which was what Megan had hoped would happen. The group from the woods had been tense with fear, no one fully trusted anyone, and Megan always feared speaking up. The one time she had, it had nearly cost her everything, but had also led her to the village and the Evers. Thank God Amy had been able to see the manipulation towards Megan and that she wasn’t malicious at heart.

  Megan felt close to Amy, like they had known each other for years. She knew Amy had lost her best friend in the chaos of the outbreak. Understanding Amy’s pain wasn’t hard as Megan had also lost someone, her sister, Lily. Amy could never replace Lily, of course, but she helped heal the raw grief Megan always carried with her. At the same time, being with Amy made Megan miss Lily even more, and at night when Britney cried for attention, Megan held her close and quietly wept.

  “Your mommy would be so proud of you,” she would whisper. “She loved you so much.”

  Megan Lawrence became Megan Cooper one year and one month before Derek Evers herded his family off to Mineral Point. The sun blazed, as was no surprise for an Alabama summer, but Megan and her new husband Blake didn’t care. They had waited five long years to get married, until Blake’s military service and Megan finishing up dental school finally allowed the procedure. Megan soaked in every moment of the day, determined to remember every tiny detail, from the jars of honey as favors, to the lavender-flavored lemonade, to how Blake’s eyes brightened right before he kissed her at the altar. They didn’t go on a honeymoon. They were much too eager to start their lives together. No wonder, the first year of marriage went by quickly and happily. Blake took a job at a tech company and Megan joined a dentist office as a hygienist. Both being exceedingly optimistic and not interested in the cynicism of news or politics, the first whispers of the blood pox completely missed the Coopers. It was Lily who first brought it up, back from a trip to Texas.

  “Have you heard about this blood pox thing?”

  “No, not a thing.”

  “Well, you will soon. Apparently it’s kind of like small pox, but the vaccines aren’t working. It’s from Mexico or somewhere. Really scary. Everyone in Dallas is talking about it. Apparently some people got caught at the border with it.”

  Lily’s tone on the phone was oddly nonchalant, as if that kind of thing happened all the time. She worked at a funeral home though, so her attitude on death and other serious situations had toughened over the years.

  “Eesh,” Megan said, picturing leper-spotted zombies crawling across state lines as border guards shouted at each other.

  “Flights didn’t seem to be affected much though, thank God. I hate airport security. I just want to get through the flight and back home to my baby girl.”

  “How is Britney?” Megan asked.

  “The sitter says she’s been great. She’s such a good baby. So quiet.”

  Megan smiled. Britney was only a few months old and had not yet entered the noisy separation-anxiety phase. Lily took advantage of that and managed to tear herself away to attend a work conference, the first of five that year. She was required to attend at least one, and, still being on maternity leave, it seemed like a good time.

  “When does your flight leave?” Megan asked.

  “In an hour. I’m just sitting at the gate.”

  Megan and Lily talked a while longer about other things, Blake’s job, Lily’s ex-boyfriend, and so on. When Megan hung up and returned to her reading, she had no idea that that would be the last time she would hear her sister’s voice.

  Megan got a call from Britney’s babysitter later that night. Harper was panicking, nearly choking while trying to stop breathing so hard. It took Megan a few moments to understand what exactly the girl was saying.

  “Lily never came home,” Harper said. “She was supposed to call me when she left the airport, but it’s been two hours.”

  Megan and Blake drove the half hour to Lily’s house right away. Megan cradled Britney and tried to calm Harper while Blake called the airport, the taxi company, the Dallas conference center, and anybody who might have seen Lily. He even called Ronny, Lily’s ex and Britney’s father, in Florida to see if he had heard from her. He insisted he hadn’t heard from her in a week.

  “It’s like she just disappeared!” Megan cried. “We need to call the police!”

  “It hasn’t been long enough,” Blake explained, hugging his wife. “We’ll figure this out, don’t worry.”

  After sending Harper home, Blake and Megan sat staring at the phone. Britney fell asleep in Megan’s arms and Megan didn’t move until she started dropping off, too.

  “Go to bed,” Blake insisted. “I’ll be here.”

  Megan slept, but her dreams were broken and nightmarish. She had a recurring stress dream where spiders laid eggs under her skin that kept hatching, pouring out of her ears and nose and mouth. She awoke sweaty and out of breath, still exhausted, but unwilling to go back into the dream. After fighting fatigue for a few moments, she went to the bathroom to splash cold water on her face. Blake was still in the living room, dozing in front of the TV. Megan cuddled up next to him and saw that he had the news on. It was something about quarantines and disease. Heart sinking into her stomach, Megan turned off the mute button.

  “All passengers on flights coming into the United States from Texas, Mexico, and South America have been stopped by the CDC and quarantined. It appears that many flights from out of the country were cancelled to avoid this outcome, but Texas flights did continue today as usual. Family and those expecting the passengers were reached by phone and informed of the regulation quarantines.”

  “Blake! Are you hearing this?” Megan cried, shaking her husband.

  “Huh?”

  “Lily’s flight was quarantined! Did anybody call? The CDC?”

  “No, I’ve been waiting all night, I would have heard it.”

  They stared at the TV for another few minutes, but the story had switched over already.

  “They were supposed to call,” Megan insisted. “They can’t just keep her like that
, can they?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Where would they be quarantined? A hospital?”

  Megan and Blake tried looking for answers on the Internet, but only came up with more questions. They found a bunch of conspiracy theory and prepping websites where people were talking about the flights and quarantines. There were mostly horror stories about people disappearing from Mexico and northern South America, things hidden from the press, infected people just exterminated. Eventually, Blake made Megan close her computer and held her while she cried. Megan felt fragile, like an eggshell, and crying was the only way she knew how to express her fear. She cried herself to sleep on the couch and when she awoke, Blake was sitting beside her with two mugs of coffee and a taut look on his face.

  “Some important guy called,” Blake said. “He said he was with the CDC.”

  “Does he know where Lily is?”

  “He said she’s in quarantine, that everything will be ok, and they’ll keep us updated.”

  Megan felt a surge of relief followed by a deep sense of foreboding. The stories about quarantines going on for weeks, people not getting food or water, and all other terrors swam through her head like piranhas, chewing away at her hopes. She tried to occupy herself with Britney, but as a newborn, Britney didn’t need much care besides being fed and changed before she fell back asleep. Megan called in sick to work and begged Blake to do the same. He obeyed and so they sat on the couch again, at a total loss about what to do. Fearful about what the website forums had said, Megan decided the only thing she could do was tell as many people as possible about what had happened. The more people who knew about Lily, the more people who would be able to vouch for what the CDC guy had told Blake. Megan called Ronny, Blake’s parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, co-workers, and friends. She posted the story on her Facebook and Twitter and asked everyone to share it, so maybe the press would pick up on it. She was just beginning to feel more hopeful when the Internet shut down.

  “This is weird. Like it is some kind of conspiracy.”

  Blake almost spoke like he was just talking to himself. He paced the living room, his hands stretching out the pockets of his hoodie.

  “Don’t get crazy, Blake, or I’m gonna get crazy.”

  “I’m not crazy! I’m just thinking out loud. They don’t want people panicking, right, so they are trying to make sure stories don’t get out there. The less we know, the less they have to explain.”

  “Who are they?”

  “I don’t know! The government. The CDC. Both. They screwed something up big and now they’re trying to cover their asses. It happens all the time, it’s just affecting us now, so now we care.”

  It sounded reasonable when Blake talked about it. He was a smart guy, he had been in the military. He understood more about those big organizations and the government than most people.

  “Is there anyone you know who might know more?” Megan asked, moving her neck around to try and get out a kink.

  “Maybe...they probably won’t talk about it, though.”

  “Can you at least try?”

  Blake disappeared into the bathroom with his cell phone. Megan was wondering what to do about lunch when the landline rang. Megan shot across the room to answer it.

  “Hello?”

  “Is this the Cooper residence?”

  The voice sounded official. Professional. Detached.

  “Yes.”

  “I’m calling in regards to Lily Lawrence. I believe she is a relative of yours.”

  “My sister. What…”

  “I’m sorry to have to inform you that Ms. Lawrence passed away this morning at 11am central time. She contracted the blood pox virus sometime in Dallas, Texas, and was quarantined with the other members of her flight late last night. She….”

  The voice droned on as if reading from a script. Megan could hardly believe her ears.

  Dead? But how…

  She tried to ask more questions. Lily was fine last night; the blood pox was supposed to take at least a week before people started showing symptoms. How did they know she had been infected? How had it moved so quickly? What had happened to the other passengers? Nothing made sense. The voice just kept talking, saying something about the body needing to be disposed of properly, that they wouldn’t be able to see it, and that the CDC would be in touch with Megan. When Megan hung up the phone, she sunk to the floor, her back against the wall. She just stared at everrything and nothing in front of her, paralyzed.

  “Dead,” she said aloud, as if it would help her process what had just happened. “Lily.”

  It couldn’t have been true. She must have imagined it. Some kind of waking nightmare, a hallucination. Stress could do that. Megan tried so hard to convince herself she had made up the phone call that she didn’t say anything to Blake when he came back into the living room. He started talking to her, saying how no one he called knew much either, except some vague rumors about a manufactured virus getting out of control in South America.

  “It sounds crazy, but crap like this actually happens. Megan?”

  Megan looked up at him and he could tell by her eyes something terrible had happened. He crouched down to get on an eye level with his wife.

  “Babe? Are you ok?”

  “Lily’s gone.”

  Megan’s voice sounded hollow to her ears, like it wasn’t even coming from her. She felt disembodied, caught half in her body and half out of it. The tears brought her back down, like she was falling. Blake didn’t say anything, but held her as she wept. Megan buried her face in his chest, sobbing incoherently. Each second was like a hammer driving a nail into her head, cementing the grim truth further and further into her brain. She cried until her eyes and throat were raw and all she could do was lie motionless on the kitchen floor. Blake tried to make her drink a glass of water and when she wouldn’t move, he left it beside her. She stared at his feet as he brought a blanket. After trying to coax her to the couch, he draped it over her without another word. Britney began to make fussy noises from the bedroom, which made Megan’s heart break even more. The little girl had no idea that her mother was gone. She would never again hold her, make her laugh, or feed her late at night under the glow of a lamp. Lily wouldn’t be there for birthdays, first days of school, first best friends, boyfriends, dances….thinking about Britney forced Megan to stop thinking about just herself and what she had lost. She slowly sat up from the floor, the blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Britney needed her now. They were all that was left of Lily.

  Without hope of recovering Lily or getting more information, Blake went into a frenzy. After wracking his brain for phone numbers or ideas about who to call, he punched a wall, nearly breaking his hand.

  “Goddamn it!” he shouted. “They’re just expecting us to lie down and take this? Where’s her body? Why can’t we see the body at least? What the hell is going on?”

  Blake had been holding it together for Megan’s sake, but now, his trust in the government and authorities at large was severely shaken. None of his friends in the military had answers, or if they did, they weren’t telling him anything. Some didn’t even pick up the phone. Blake felt abandoned and betrayed. Megan couldn’t concentrate on the bigger issues; she was trying to come to grips with a life without her sister.

  “We’re going to Georgia,” Blake exclaimed, throwing his hands up as if in surrender. “To my mom’s. They’re preppers, they would have thought about something like this before. We’ll be safer there.”

  “What do you think is going to happen? Are we in danger?” Megan asked, terrified of the look in Blake’s face.

  “I don’t know, but the Internet went down and the power might be next, water, everything. More people could get sick, and I don’t want you or Britney to get sick, y’know? It’ll be safer in Georgia, my family has supplies.”

  Blake instructed Megan to pack their bags. After getting Britney’s stuff together, they stopped off at their house. Blake was incredibly anxious and distracted. He
didn’t seem to know what to pack, so Megan tried her best to help him. She got all the water bottles from the garage, granola bars, cereal, and the cash they kept in a shoebox under the bed. There was about three hundred dollars in there, more than Megan had expected. She started to feel a little better. Blake had the TV on to the news, which did not help with his anxiety. People were starting to freak out. Stores were overrun and stories about the missing passengers were starting to leak. Police came out in full combat gear and were tackling looters left and right. When Megan, Blake, and Britney began the drive, they were faced with miles of traffic all the way to Georgia. News had spread quickly, and Georgia didn’t look much better than Alabama. There were crowds gathered around stores, some being jostled by police, others just running wild, and abandoned cars on the side of the road. Megan held Britney a little closer to her chest until they pulled into the driveway. Blake had not thought to call ahead and Megan had been too exhausted to remind him, so their arrival was a surprise. Blake’s brother, Cash, opened the door.

  “What the... ? What are you guys doing here?”

  “Long story,” Blake groaned, pushing his way through the door.

  Megan followed, carrying Britney and her bag. Cash unleashed a flurry of questions, concerned but also exasperated, and listened with crossed arms to Blake’s answers. He frowned when Blake said he had thought of them because they were preppers.

  “So...you just thought to come crash here? Without asking?”

  Blake swore at him and began to raise his voice, but Megan stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

  “Honey, please calm down,” she whispered in his ear. “This isn’t helping.”

  Blake lowered his voice again and Megan went to find the others. Blake’s mom, Astrid, was standing by the kitchen listening, and gave Megan a side hug when she approached.

  “What’s going on, Megan?” she said quietly.

  Megan tried to explain, but broke down in tears again. Astrid took her aside and held both her hands while Megan told her about Lily and the quarantine and all the questions. Astrid had been watching the news and heard that Lily had disappeared, but hadn’t been aware of just how serious things were. Everyone gathered in the living room - Cash, his fiance, Astrid, Blake’s sister Tara, and Blake’s half-brother Lewis - to figure out a plan. Cash wasn’t the only one who was frustrated that Blake arrived unannounced and expected to be able to share in their supplies.