Chapter 14: Snake bites

[Summer 2261 AD]

The new headquarters of the 'District Rangers' had been dedicated and officially opened on July 4th 2261, and according to what I heard the rangers got quite busy. Gale and Johanna somehow managed to get some work done and train the junior rangers at the same time, but that would have impossible, or at least almost so, without the assistance of some volunteers from Europe who helped with the tasks.

Once a week the two leaders had a quick session with the mayor and me to report on progress and problems, and we were looking forward to the time when they'd be able to initiate some larger expeditions into some areas not adjacent to the city, like in the vicinity of Hillbonia; for now, they need to focus on the neighborhood.

Later on during the school summer holidays Prim somehow managed to talk Johanna into allowing her on one of the ranger field trips. The group of four junior rangers, two visiting rangers from Europe, Primrose and Johanna were going to be out for a full day, and they planned to explore an area which had been mostly neglected so far. There was a region with some creeks, pines, and dense vegetation, and Prim suspected some medical plants in there. They were taking two ATVs out to get close to the area.

The group left on a nice and sunny day, and once I had kissed my girl I went back to work. During the day I somehow had a bad feeling, like something was going to happen, but I did not know why. I had some fish for lunch, and when I was done with my work for the day, I took the tram out to the ranger station, hoping that the ranger group might be back soon. However, nobody arrived, and now I was really getting worried. Darkness descended, and they should have been back already. Suddenly the ranger on duty stepped next to me, put her hands on my shoulder and told me:

"Ryan, I just got word that the rangers drove directly to the hospital. Some of them got a snake bite, and I think that your Prim is one of them."

I did not bother to ask for details she might not have anyway and took the next tram back to the city; from the station I ran to the hospital, and when I got in, I asked the nurse at the front desk about what was happening; she told me:

"Yes, we have two in with snake bites. They are currently being treated. May I ask if you are related to one of them?"

I showed her a copy of my custody contract for Prim, and she nodded:

"Yes, she is one of them. She is in one of our ICU rooms, and we have to wait for her body to react to the universal antidote we got in her. If you want, you can join her there."

I was shown into the room, and a very pale Prim was on the bed. She was barely conscious, but when I grabbed her hand and said her name, she started to smile:

"Rye, is that you?"

"Yes, it is me, my love."

"Good. Stay with me?"

Of course I stayed, for the entire night, and I observed her doctor and nurses coming and going all night long. When the sun came up, I had barely slept, but Prim looked a little better. Eventually one of the doctors asked me to join him for breakfast, and he explained:

"It appears that two people, your fiancée and Johanna Mason, got snake bites during their expedition yesterday. Primrose got one, but Johanna got two, and she is still critical. One of the rangers was smart enough to catch the snake and bring it in, and we managed to extract some venom. We are trying to analyze it so that we might be able to generate a proper antidote, but this takes time. Our universal antidote helps some, though, and Primrose seems to be recovering already. We are not sure if Johanna is going to survive, though; it depends on how long it takes to get the special antidote."

I had not been inside the hospital since the building had been founded, and I used the opportunity to ask about what they had here; the reply was:

"Almost everything we have there, specifically equipment and medicine, was brought over from Europe. It is probably not quite like what they have in your Capitol, but it's something at least. The few semi-automated ICUs we have, courtesy of Bavaria, are keeping Johanna alive and prevented your Primrose from going into a potentially lethal shock the snake venom was about to trigger. I am from Europe as well, but I like being here, and cases like that offer opportunities to extend my own knowledge. See, I am an expert on poisonous plants and animals, but we don't have many of those in Central Europe. Here, there are more, both in fauna and flora."

"And the snake bites? Was that an animal you knew already?"

"It was indeed; I was able to identify it as an 'Eastern Coral Snake'. It is actually quite pretty, with alternating yellow, red, and black rings with various width. But, although I knew of it, we do not have an antidote for it's poison, and producing one will take time. We hope that we can keep Johanna alive until we get there."

"So, how can you actually do that, produce an antidote?"

"That's mostly taken care of by an automated analyzer. We have identified the composition, and I am going to send the details to colleagues of mine in Europe via wireless radio. Fortunately we can transmit some information via shortwave radio, though with a low data rate. My colleagues will help to generate the formula with their more powerful computers, and they may be able to reply the recipe within a few days, so that I can generate it here."

"That's amazing!"

"Yes, it is, and it will be much better once we have a full equipment here. But, let's get back to our patients, shall we?"

The doctor lead me back to Prim՚s room, and once he had asked her if it was all right for her to get examined in my presence, which she agreed to of course, he showed the bite mark on her right arm. Before he left to check on Johanna, he told us:

"Unless complications come up, this young lady here will be transferred from intensive care to a normal room later today, and she will be able to get home in a few days. I have learned that her mother is a healer, so that she will get proper care at home, and she will have fully recovered in a week or two."

That was good to hear, and I was very happy about Prim getting off lightly. Johanna was a different case, but there was nothing I could do to help her. Prim needed to rest, and I decided to get out for now. When I left the hospital, I met Gale, and his face was almost ashen. He looked like he badly needed a distraction, and I had an idea:

"Gale, why don't you come with me for now? I am preparing my move into our new family home, and you could help me."

He nodded, almost absentmindedly, but he came with me. We took a tram to the city's periphery, and next to the big new bakery building there was a new large house, almost completed. This was where Dad, Peeta and I were going to live soon, and we all had our separate bedrooms and studies. I did not plan to spend a lot of effort on decorating my rooms and getting fancy furniture, as I was probably going to move to the Capitol mid of next year, but there were a few things to do, like painting the walls. Somehow I manage to get Gale helping, and at least he was busy for an hour or two. Once I had organized some food, which he barely touched, he could not suppress several yawns, and I assumed that he had been sitting next to his girlfriend for the entire night, same as I had done with mine. We had a big tent outside with a few cots in there, and I got him to claim one of those; he was asleep less than one minute after he had closed his eyes. I was tired as well, and took the next one; I had called in earlier, of course, to take this one day off work; there was no way I'd be able to focus on anything, but the monotonous painting effort had worked.

A few hours later Gale woke up and left to go to the hospital again, while I toured the new house. Judged by the progress I saw I estimated that we'd be able to move in within a month or so, and it would be nice to live with family again. Mabel was going to move in, too, and she was looking forward to working with the doctors in the hospital. Lizzy and her parents were going to stay in the old town and continue running the apothecary there and working with the few other healers, and they'd also take care of Prim for her final year of school.

With all of the people planing to move in, we had made sure that the common area in the house was large enough. There was a dining room with a table large enough for up to twelve people, there was a living room with a fireplace and comfortable seating on couches and easy chairs for the same amount of people, and of course there was a kitchen to match, with a large oven, too. The living room had a cathedral ceiling and a small gallery, and I could already imagine a tall Christmas tree being there in December; that would be nice. We were fortunate that Dad had saved some income from the bakery in the old town, so that, matched with Peeta՚s and Katniss' victor's money, we could afford to build all of that.

Eventually I also got back to the hospital to see Prim again before the day ended. As planed she was in a normal room now and no longer connected to all kind of devices, and she had regained some of her color.

"So, how did you manage to get the snake like you so much?" I teased her.

My pretty fiancée smiled at me and replied:

"Close to the end of the day, just before we were going to return, we found that spot with many beautiful flowers, of a type I had never seen before. I got down on my knees to admire them, and Johanna did the same next to me. Both of us missed to see the snakes entirely, and all of a sudden Johanna screamed. Before I could react, one of the animals was on my arm and I screamed, too. Fortunately, one of the team, a visitor from Europe, had some experience with snakes, and he managed to quickly grab one of them and store it in a big bag he had with him. He claimed that the caught animal might help with identifying the poison. Then the others got us into the cars and we raced back to the city, directly to the hospital. Johanna was already unconscious when we got here. How is she doing, by the way?"

"The doctor told me earlier today that she got two bites rather than just one, and her condition is still critical. Based on the venom from the snake which was brought in, they are now running an analysis, hopefully to create an antidote."

As we had been told, Primrose was indeed back to full health in time for the start of the new school year. She started tenth grade now, and if things went according to plan, this was going to be her last year of school her in our district. She was even more eager than before to pay attention at school, as she knew that there was going to be a final test before her admission to the Capitol University and her scholarship were going to be confirmed.

Johanna Mason was a different story. The ICU in the Appacolia hospital kept her alive for the time being, but she was unconscious a lot, and according to the doctors, she wasn't having much time left. Eventually, though, some experts in Europe managed to construct an antidote and sent the details over, and a team succeeded in manufacturing a small quantity. They injected half of it into Johanna right away and the other half one day later, and that was the turning point. On the next day she could have a proper conversation with Gale, and a few days later she was moved out of intensive care.

I was of course not privileged to learn about all of those details directly, but Gale needed someone to talk to, and for some reason he picked me. Maybe that happened because I had distracted him on the first day or because we had worked together before, but that did not really matter.

Meanwhile, our family had moved into our new home next to the big bakery building. We were now five people together – Dad and Mabel, Peeta and Katniss, and myself. Fortunately, we all harmonized well with each other, and there was little disagreement on daily topics. Contrary to our earlier home above the bakery in the old town, we had a few additional amenities, such as a dishwasher and a proper washing machine. Also, most rooms were bigger, and there was altogether more space. Of course, I missed Prim a lot during the week, but that could not be changed. I also had to admit that having her in my bed every night might have been too much temptation, and thus we settled for the weekends, usually from Friday afternoon to Sunday evening. A few times Prim came out on a weekend and we explored the city together, too.

Meanwhile, the old bakery in the core district was run by Philip and Lydia. Dad or Peeta checked how they were doing once a week, but that worked out fine, and they were able to cope with the reduced demand due to the much lower population there. Sometimes, when here was a special request for a celebration like a toasting, Peeta would go and do that, Philip was getting quite good, but my brother's gift in decorating and some special recipes was a different story, and his skills in that direction were almost impossible to match.

In September, in the middle of the week, the mayor's office got a warning sent from the city's small meteorological station. Based on some long range radar positioned on mountains and on the coast, including the former attack warning radar site on Mount Mitchell, they anticipated a storm coming in soon. In addition to their readings we also got a wireless broadcast from a ship out on the sea; the ship was supposed to get to our dock in the port, but the captain decided to turn around and flee from the bad storm and high waves.

During my work in the mayor's office I had learned that there was something like a hurricane season in this region of the world, which could last from June to November. During the last few years, while we had founded and extended Appacolia, we had been lucky, and the real big storms had hit somewhere else. Apparently the old town was far enough from the coast to be safe from almost all of the bad storms coming in, but this settlement were was not; according to the station, this particular incoming storm might hit us full force, but they were not yet sure. At this time, temperatures had been extraordinarily high for almost a week already, almost like in mid summer, and I had also learned that high temperatures could make storms bigger and wetter, as the air was able to be more humid and store more water at higher temperatures.

Mayor Undersee, who had been in the old town for the last few days, came out to Appacolia and decided to play it safe; he made an official announcement to everybody. He asked all citizens to prepare their homes for lots of rain, potential flooding and strong winds, and he promised to publish updates when he got them. Fortunately we had adopted the mandatory screens from the earlier regime, and while we did not have mandatory viewing per se any longer, the screens had a setting where government messages could be displayed as text and notes for upcoming public announcements could be sent and shown; that was good enough to reach most people, and those who missed that got informed by family, friends or colleagues.

At the end of the day, winds on the coast picked up and waves became higher, and all fishing boats were recalled to the harbor. The last one almost did not make it, and they reported extremely dark clouds they had seen close to the horizon. The expert manning the weather station told us that he was now almost certain that the storm would hit our region, and he mentioned that it would be a bad one.

In the evening Dad, Peeta and I checked the bakery main building and our home, fixed anything which was lose and double checked that all windows were properly closed. Fortunately we had outside blinds, and they were not cheap plastic ones, but real sturdy ones with a metal core, not only supposed to keep the hot sun out, but also to discourage potential burglars. All of those were lowered and locked, and we also made sure that our emergency generator was working and had enough fuel. Before I went to bed I called the apothecary and asked to talk to Prim; when she got to the phone, I told her about the big storm we expected and that I might not be able to come back on Friday as planned. I also told her that the storm was very unlikely to extend to the old town, but that I needed to stay here.

On the next day, Thursday, there was some strong wind already, and I spent my morning checking the supply depot for any spares we had to do repairs after the storm, and then I worked with others to prepare the official buildings. We got an update from our weather expert, and Mayor Undersee sent another public broadcast, telling everybody that all businesses were going to close at noon and that people should go home afterwards and check their homes.

The rangers could not do any further excursion, so that they helped me and some others to walk though the main roads and check if there as anything to do. We picked up a few pieces of trash, but mainly we helped various citizens to get their houses ready for the storm, and we promised that we'd help with repairs if required afterwards. We also warned that power might be out for some time, and they should be prepared for that. At least for those who had come from the old town, this was nothing unusual – in the old District Twelve, electricity had been every unreliable, and people knew how to live without it. In the bakery, the main ovens were powered by electricity, but we had a smaller oven which could be heated by wood or coal for emergencies, so that we'd at least be able to bake bread if the power was out for an extended period of time.

In the evening the first squall of rain hit the city. Unlike a comfortable steady rain, this was more a heavy downpour, and its short duration prevented flooding at this time. More was to come, though, and this had just been a warning. For the night, Gale, the mayor and I left the administration building, or the town hall, as we sometimes called it nowadays. Mayor Undersee wanted us back early in the morning, if possible, to assess the situation; one of his employees volunteered to stay and man the phones, just ins case. I got home in time before the next downpour started, and Dad, Peeta and I made a last check to make sure all windows were properly barred. For the bakery itself and our house, we were not so much concerned about flooding, as both buildings were on a slight elevation, rising like ten or fifteen meters above the city center. We also expected most parts of the city to be safe. When we had founded the city, we had had a couple of experts from Europe with us, and they had advised to keep distance and altitude difference to the rivers in mind. Now we were going to learn if our planing had been good enough.

During the night the winds increased, and in the morning we had a full storm outside. So far, precipitation had not been too bad yet, but more might come. I left the others at home and took the ATV I had borrowed yesterday from the administration pool to get to the town hall, where mayor Undersee had arrive minutes earlier. He was already on the phone to our weather expert and just listened to the latest updates, and when he saw me coming in he switched to speaker, so that I could hear the rest of the message:

"… will pick up more during the day, getting up to wind speeds of 150km/h and maybe more. Around noon time we expect more precipitation, maybe something like 50 liters per square meter, but we cannot say exactly. With dusk the worst should have passed, and wind speed and rain should be more moderate then."

"Thank you for the update; so I guess that people should not venture out much during the day, right?"

"No, certainly not. Even if you take a car, it might just be blown away."

"What about our big 6x6?"

"Oh, yes, that's how big exactly? Twenty tons or so?"

"Twenty five tons" I supplied.

"That should be good enough to be safe" was the answer.

Courtesy of our European friends, we had a special big multi-purpose truck, electrically powered with a small battery and a fuel cell. The truck had huge tires and all wheel drive, and I knew that it could still drive safely in one meter deep water. One of the reasons I knew was that the mayor wanted me to be able to drive that monster, and I had been taking driving lessons. Only a week ago the mayor had signed me off and declared me one of the official drives for our big trucks; next to that one 6x6 we had a few for transportation purposes.

We did not have an official system yet for driving licenses, and for now, everybody who felt capable could just drive a car or a truck. For the official vehicles, at least, the mayor decided who was allowed to drive which vehicle, and he knew that we'd have to have some official registration sooner or later, but that was going to be a task for the central government in the Capitol.

For most of the day, Marc Pherson, who was also a qualified truck driver, and I took turns to drive around our city in the big 6x6, together with another person, to see if somebody needed help and to check if any kind of problem showed somewhere, like a flooding or so. In addition, we checked if the man streets were still passable.

Almost as expected, the main power supply went down later in the morning, most likely the lines between our few wind turbines and the city had been cut somewhere, but we would have to check and repair at a later time. The wind turbines themselves should be safe; in storms, they were supposed to got to safe mode by themselves, and in that mode they were specified to survive wind speeds up to 200 km/h and even more without damage.

Like other critical buildings, the town hall had an emergency generator driven by a fuel cell, so that we could at least keep the phone lines and some other gadgets up and running. For the next night, though, the city was going to be very dark.

During my afternoon round with the big 6x6 I also drove out of the city towards Kirchheim, but I stopped when I came close to the bridge which we had had halfway to cross the river. The river had much more water in it then usual, and it had flooded some areas around it already. The road bridge was still there, but some of the foundation was now in water, and I could see that the water had started to erode the bridge access road; I had a feeling that it might not be safe any longer. Madge Undersee was with me in the truck for that trip, and I turned towards her:

"Madge, what do you think? That bridge does not look safe any longer, or does it?"

"The bridge is a preliminary one anyway, as far as I recall, and we never expected it to withstand severe weather conditions."

"Correct, Madge, and we had planned to start the new bridge, wide enough also for the tram line, not far from here. Maybe we need to reconsider and fond a place where more solid foundations can be built. But meanwhile, citizens of Kirchheim will need to make a long detour if they want to get into Appacolia. Maybe the preliminary bridge can be reopened later, but first we need to inspect it after the storm has passed."

"Shouldn't we post a sign that the bridge is not safe?"

"Sure, we should, but I don't have a clue how to rig a sign outside in that storm. I am not even sure if it is safe to leave the truck."

"Oh, yes. Let's turn around and tell my Dad at least."

"That we can do. But first, we should also check the river on the other side of the city."

The darkness outside was close to night, although we were supposed to have a couple of daylight hours left, while I drove the big truck through the city and out of the south end. To our surprise, though, the winds got less violent, the rain slackened, and we could see some blue sky almost on top of us. I asked Madge while I drove:

"Is that it? Is the storm past now?"

The mayor's daughter replied:

"No, I don't think so. According to what I learned from our weather expert, strong storms like this one have something called an 'eye', some kind of rotation center. We are going to have about two hours of a break, and then the back side of the storm will hit."

On this side of the city, there were no major settlements yet, and only a dirt road lead on towards the river. Not far after the last houses that dirt road start to drop into water, and flooding had obviously been happening here, to. We did not have anything to measure elevation, and thus we were not able to tell if the houses would be safe. However, we could see that the water levels were still rising. With all of the rain which had come down in the last hours, this was not really a surprise.

All we could now was to get back to the town hall to report and check the maps. Just when I turned the truck around, Madge called out:

"Wait a second – I see something out there!"

I stopped, and we both looked; and indeed, the amount of daylight we had now in the 'eye of the storm' was good enough to see a human person on some kind of very small island, barely more than a rock protrusion, in the middle of the river.

[Author's Notes: Flooding can be a real issue. At the time when I am writing this, mid July 2021, we have had a major flooding in some parts of Germany, with more than 100 people dead and many houses destroyed or at least damaged.

I am currently thinking about content for the next chapters, and progress may be slower for some time until I got that figured out; please be patient.]