" ER/Stand 12"
It was getting dark. Luka stood on the porch, a coffee in
hand. He watched as the sun set, noticing with worry that the
dark black clouds of burning fires seemed to be closer. The west
side had been smoldering ever since the riots had started and it
had flared up again over the past few days. We need to do
something, he thought again, I just don't know what.
It had been four days since they had retreated to Carter's
home. Aside from an occasional excursion to grocery stores, they
hadn't left. It was some much needed rest for all of them, and he
knew it had been needed. Oh sure, he wasn't in too bad of shape
himself. He had hidden himself away during the worst of the
crisis, and he knew that his calmer mental state was due partly
to that. His companions had improved markedly and that was going
to make it a lot easier to bring up the issue of doing something
about their current living conditions.
He still wasn't entirely sure if he really wanted to stay
with his newfound companions. If he prodded them into leaving,
the way he was considering, it obligated him to go with them. It
was a serious obligation, one he didn't intend to take up
lightly. He had spent the better of the day trying to make a
decision and he still wasn't quite sure. I have to do it soon, he
thought as he sipped his coffee. If you aren't going to stay, he
told himself, then you need to pack your rucksack and go. A clean
break was best for everyone.
The sun slowly dropped below the horizon. I don't want to
leave these people, he thought suddenly. It was a gut reaction
and he had no intelligent or even well thought out reason to back
it up. From a strictly survival stand point, it was a horrible
group. Their best skill, medical knowledge, was something he
already possessed. Aside from that, they weren't a group filled
to the brim with positive traits. One was HIV positive. One was
on his way to a serious drinking problem. And one was not only
physically disabled, but also having some serious mental issues.
Out of the remaining three, Lucy was pleasant and eager to please
and somehow managed to make a mess out of everything. Carter was
trying, and Randi seemed to view the situation with a cross
between irritation at the inconvenience and a sort of underlying
amusement. In many, many ways, they were trouble, and yet he
wanted to stay. Luka, a small voice that sounded more than a
little like his long dead wife, trust yourself. You want to stay,
so stay. There must be a reason, and you'll find it.
The porch was dark, but the gentle glow of kerosene lanterns
shone through the windows. He could see people moving inside.
Dinner had been a half hour earlier and while they weren't much
for evening activities, he wanted to talk before Doug got too
drunk. The day time drinking had eased off, he gave the man
credit for that, but Doug had drunk himself into oblivion the
last four nights. It wasn't healthy, and it wasn't very helpful.
He sighed heavily. It wasn't going to be a fun night.
The screen door squeaked as it opened. He turned around,
startled by the noise. No one had seemed interested in joining
him for coffee. Generally no one seemed interested in having much
to do with him at all. It wasn't dislike on their part, it was
more a sort of inability to reach out. Everyone, and he included
himself in that assessment, was emotionally tired. Making friends
with the new guy was far down the list. He was willing to admit
that he just didn't feel up to conversation a lot of the time.
It was Kerry, and that pleased him on several levels. She
had kept very much to herself over the last few days. He wasn't
surprised. It was obvious that she was tired, and upset, and
embarrassed, and he had no doubts that she would be barely
functional without the medication. It worried him that she hadn't
really spoken to anyone over anything that had happened. It was a
sign of withdrawal, a withdrawal from the situation that, all
things considered could precipitate a withdrawal from reality.
Judging by what the rest had said about her normal personality,
and by his own conversation with her before they had started with
the medication, he was starting to think she might be over
medicated. Doug had come right out and said it a day earlier, but
Luka didn't put much credence to a diagnosis that started with "
I know I'm pretty drunk but...." and ended with, " and that'd
normally bring out her raving bitch side in under ten seconds,
max." Still, it said something about her condition that Doug,
who seemed to greatly enjoy sniping at her, was worried.
" Kerry, " he softly. She did look and act very subdued, but
it seemed wrong of him to judge when no one was jumping for joy
at the situation. She was holding a cup of coffee in one hand,
and he idly hoped that she was drinking decaf. She didn't look
like she'd been sleeping well. Not that I have so much to brag
about, he thought as a slight smile came across his face. I
hardly slept a wink last night because of bad dreams and I'm
still drinking the good stuff.
" Luka. " She blinked. Then she stepped forward, as if she
suddenly remembered what she had come out there for. " There's
desert if you want it. Ice cream. John doesn't think the power
will last through the night so we were going to eat the ice
cream." She sipped her coffee.
" No more ice cream..." He sighed again, his memories of the
war coming back to him. His children had loved ice cream, to the
point that they could gorge on it all day. He shook off the
thought. That was a different world, he told himself, and a
different time and you won't do yourself any good by wallowing in
memories. " Any vanilla?"
" French and regular. And chocolate." She smiled slightly.
I'm more of a chocolate fan. I don't know what I'll miss more,
chocolate ice cream or bananas. "
" I forgot... no more bananas." He wasn't that fond of them
but he got the point. " Kerry, listen, about the medication...
How are you doing with it? Side effects? That sort of thing? " It
was hard to politely say, " Do you think you've been zombified?"
She shook her head. " It's fine. I'm fine. I haven't noticed
any side effects." A wary look crossed her face. He mentally
sighed. He doubted that she would mention side effects or
continued mental issues. Kerry was the sort that thoroughly
understood the stigma of poor mental health. It didn't help that
she had heard some of their remarks, both at their impromptu
meeting and some that had been made after.
" Is it helping? If its not helping, we can try something
else." That was what worried him. If it wasn't helping her, then
there was no point in her taking it. Much as he had thought
before, he wasn't physically afraid of a disabled woman half his
size. Her unstable period seemed to have passed, and he was fully
convinced that Captain Walker had deserved the many shots to the
back and head. " Doug seemed to think that you were over
medicated. "
" How drunk was he?" Her tone was matter of fact. She
stepped closer. " He's not generally a drunk you know. He lost
someone. Someone that was pretty special to him." She smiled
pensively as she sipped her coffee. " I guess, in the back of my
mind, I always thought they'd get married." She shook her head,
still smiling. " I somehow saw them running off together, and
coming back with silly grins on their faces, full of stories of
how they were married by some Elvis impersonator in Vegas. And
now she's dead."
" My father had something he used to say," Luka started. "
The only thing we really know about life is that at the end,
everybody dies."
She laughed. Or rather she chuckled, but he was glad to see
someone laugh. They had all been decidedly serious the last few
days. " Doug is a good man. We don't get along well." She
gestured with the hand that she held the coffee mug in. " I think
its pretty obvious we don't get along. He'll get past this, but
it'll take time. It's a hard blow... loosing someone that close."
She looked at him, a surprisingly piercing look, and seemed ready
to say something more, but stopped herself. " There's plenty of
ice cream anyway." With that, she turned around and went back
into the house.
He followed her after a moment. There was no reason to wait,
and perhaps ice cream would keep everyone calm and focused. That
would certainly be a switch.
The ice cream was delicious. It was up to the usual Carter
standard of quality, one of those Italian brands that he
remembered from Europe. He didn't even think it was sold in the
States. No one seemed too tired to concentrate, which was a
rarity. Doug was drinking a beer, but that wasn't a concern. It
was usually a little later in the evening that Doug would go
after the harder stuff. Luka suspected he was having trouble
sleeping, which didn't seem to be a rarity in their group. He
hadn't slept well himself and the night before, while pacing in
the hallway, he had heard Jeanie tossing and turning, and he
considered her the most laid back and calm in the group. Of
course that didn't mean she wasn't prone to nightmares, but it
worried him. Lucy and Randi were chatting about clothes. Randi
had definite opinions and evidently viewed Lucy's look as
"dowdy". Luka rather liked the young woman's somewhat
conservative look, conservative compared to Randi anyway. I'm
just old fashioned, he decided as he averted his gaze from
Randi's revealing top. It wasn't a new way of dressing either.
Carter and Doug were too comfortable with it. Kerry was twirling
ice cream around in her bowl. She didn't seem to be eating, which
was starting to worry him. Lack of appetite was a side effect of
Prozac, and it wasn't like the woman was overweight by any means.
And, he thought suddenly, she never did say whether she thought
was over medicated. Carter was leaning back on the couch beside
her, his dish of ice cream long gone. For a group of people that
had been highly stressed, they all seemed pretty relaxed. That's
a plus, Luka thought.
He leaned forward in his easy chair. " Listen, I think we
need to talk about what we're going to do. We can't just stay
here forever. I mean, this is a pretty nice house but come
winter, its going to be a little cold." Not that he knew that. He
usually left for Louisiana as soon as the weather started to
turn, the plus to the life of being a doctor temp.
" And there's all the... all the bodies." Carter added. "
There's a disease issue. Cholera comes to mind. And typhoid."
" And mutant strains of the superflu." Kerry said softly.
Luka was surprised that she joined the discussion but he realized
that she had a point. " Not to mention some old favorites like
bubonic plague. And then there's animal borne diseases. With
humanity out of the top place on the food chain, we're going to
see an explosion in the animal populations. Rats for starters,
have a lot more food available," her voice caught a little there,
" and rats carry disease." There was a long silence after she
finished.
" That's such a charming thought, Kerry." Doug chuckled. "
Is this what you've been thinking about? The rat population?"
Luka saw anger flare across her face, but it faded after a
second. He looked at everyone else. They clearly expected more of
an argument but instead, Kerry simply leaned back on the couch.
Her quiet abdication seemed to startle Doug and surprise the rest
of them. Luka wished he knew her better, because it just didn't
seem that odd that she didn't want to fight. Perhaps the most
disconcerting thing was that she had made a very good point.
He set down his ice cream dish down, letting it bang a
little to regain everyone's attention. " Disease is a problem.
So is the fact that the city is burning down. That's not going to
stop until it rains. "
" What about other people?" Jeanie asked. She caught his
eye, as if agreeing that they needed to keep the discussion
moving. " We're not the only ones left alive in Chicago. We've
all heard the gunfire."
" I don't think I want to know the people that are
shooting." Lucy smiled as she spoke but her tone was serious. She
looked a little more together than when Luka had met her, but he
still wasn't taken with her. She was just so young, and maybe
just a little too naive.
" But that's Luka's point." Jeanie pressed. " This may not
be the safest place to be and we need to start thinking about how
we're going to live. It's going to be pretty cold this winter
without electrical heat and its pretty damn hot here without air
conditioning. Stop and think a minute. This heat is not helping
preserve all of the corpses. If we stick around we are risking
illness at the very least. "
" But where do we go? " Carter spoke as if it was a
rhetorical question. Judging by his tone, Luka suspected he had
something in mind. The younger man waited a long moment, and then
gestured expansively around the room. " I know this might be a
shock, but this isn't the only house my family owns."
Randi shook her head. " I don't think visiting the small
tropical island paradise where the Carters are worshipped like
gods is entirely practical."
Everyone laughed. Carter took it fairly well. He waited
until the laughter died off to continue. " I meant, " he said
good naturedly, " that we could go to the hunting lodge."
" The hunting lodge?" Doug snickered. " We have the mansion,
the tropical island, the hunting lodge.... What else? The bomb
shelter and the thoroughbred horse farm?"
Carter smiled. " We have several thoroughbred horse farms.
We even had a few horses at the hunting lodge. It has a bomb
shelter too. We believe in being prepared or at least my
grandfather did. He was a little paranoid on the subject
actually. The hunting lodge is very self sufficient. It has its
own generator, lots of solar power gadgets, lots of tasty animals
to shoot, and its pretty isolated. My grandfather said it was our
place to ride out a crisis." He smiled sheepishly. " I guess this
is an official crisis."
" So where is this hunting lodge?" Jeanie asked.
" In Colorado." Carter got up and strode over to the
bookshelves. He returned with a large atlas. He opened it on the
coffee table. Everyone gathered around. Carter's face grew
animated as he pointed to a dot that represented a town in the
Rockies. " It's really not that far. We could be there in a
couple of days if the roads were clear. It'd be nice and cool for
the summer."
" The roads are terrible though." Lucy said. " Come on, you
guys remember the drive here. We were lucky to get the cars
through."
Luka held up his hand. " That's not really a problem.
Motorcycles would be fine." It was something he had already
thought about. He wasn't fond of motorcycles but they were a good
way to get around blocked roads and there were surely going to be
roads blocked.
He noted with pleasure that almost everyone seemed to be
interested and in agreement. " So do we all want to go there?
Anyone have any other suggestions?" He noted with interest that
Randi looked liked she wanted to say something, but after a
moment she leaned back in her seat. " Anything?"
Kerry raised her hand hesitantly, her face blotched with
red. She was angry or embarrassed, it was hard to tell. He hoped
it was embarrassment. Carter had told him that her temper was
quite brutal and judging by the sudden worried looks on their
faces, everyone was in agreement on that point. She lowered her
hand as soon as he acknowledged her. " You realize, " she said
curtly, " that there's no way I can ride a motorcycle for ten
minutes, let alone over five hundred miles. You need full use of
both legs to maintain balance on the turns and stopping. I don't
have full use. Even riding behind one of you wouldn't work. Its
painful. I can't even drive for long periods of time."
Both anger and embarrassment, Luka realized. Embarrassment
from having to admit to being incapable of a task, and anger that
they didn't think about her problems ahead of time. It had never
occurred to him that she'd have problems with a motorbike, but
then he didn't know exactly what was wrong with her. " All right,
" he said easily, " that's not impossible. We're not in a hurry.
What about a truck or a jeep?"
" I can't drive a stick shift either." Kerry said. " There's
too many pedals. It would need to be an automatic."
Doug started to laugh. " Any other requests? Is a cd player
a vital necessity too?"
Luka tensed as Kerry rose to her feet. Now there was no
mistaking the fact that she was pissed off. " Doug, " she said
calmly, but coldly, " If you think I'm enjoying this, you are
sadly mistaken." Her eyes blazed, and she started stomping away.
" I really could care less where we go or how. Just let me know
when you all make a damn decision." With that, she left the room.
There was silence. " Well, " Carter said finally, " are we
all agreed on Colorado?" Everyone nodded, though it seemed
desultory to Luka. Carter seemed emboldened by the general
acceptance. " Then tomorrow we'll go looking for vehicles and
supplies. "
Wonderful, Luka thought, we made a decision and no one got
slapped.
It was getting dark. Luka stood on the porch, a coffee in
hand. He watched as the sun set, noticing with worry that the
dark black clouds of burning fires seemed to be closer. The west
side had been smoldering ever since the riots had started and it
had flared up again over the past few days. We need to do
something, he thought again, I just don't know what.
It had been four days since they had retreated to Carter's
home. Aside from an occasional excursion to grocery stores, they
hadn't left. It was some much needed rest for all of them, and he
knew it had been needed. Oh sure, he wasn't in too bad of shape
himself. He had hidden himself away during the worst of the
crisis, and he knew that his calmer mental state was due partly
to that. His companions had improved markedly and that was going
to make it a lot easier to bring up the issue of doing something
about their current living conditions.
He still wasn't entirely sure if he really wanted to stay
with his newfound companions. If he prodded them into leaving,
the way he was considering, it obligated him to go with them. It
was a serious obligation, one he didn't intend to take up
lightly. He had spent the better of the day trying to make a
decision and he still wasn't quite sure. I have to do it soon, he
thought as he sipped his coffee. If you aren't going to stay, he
told himself, then you need to pack your rucksack and go. A clean
break was best for everyone.
The sun slowly dropped below the horizon. I don't want to
leave these people, he thought suddenly. It was a gut reaction
and he had no intelligent or even well thought out reason to back
it up. From a strictly survival stand point, it was a horrible
group. Their best skill, medical knowledge, was something he
already possessed. Aside from that, they weren't a group filled
to the brim with positive traits. One was HIV positive. One was
on his way to a serious drinking problem. And one was not only
physically disabled, but also having some serious mental issues.
Out of the remaining three, Lucy was pleasant and eager to please
and somehow managed to make a mess out of everything. Carter was
trying, and Randi seemed to view the situation with a cross
between irritation at the inconvenience and a sort of underlying
amusement. In many, many ways, they were trouble, and yet he
wanted to stay. Luka, a small voice that sounded more than a
little like his long dead wife, trust yourself. You want to stay,
so stay. There must be a reason, and you'll find it.
The porch was dark, but the gentle glow of kerosene lanterns
shone through the windows. He could see people moving inside.
Dinner had been a half hour earlier and while they weren't much
for evening activities, he wanted to talk before Doug got too
drunk. The day time drinking had eased off, he gave the man
credit for that, but Doug had drunk himself into oblivion the
last four nights. It wasn't healthy, and it wasn't very helpful.
He sighed heavily. It wasn't going to be a fun night.
The screen door squeaked as it opened. He turned around,
startled by the noise. No one had seemed interested in joining
him for coffee. Generally no one seemed interested in having much
to do with him at all. It wasn't dislike on their part, it was
more a sort of inability to reach out. Everyone, and he included
himself in that assessment, was emotionally tired. Making friends
with the new guy was far down the list. He was willing to admit
that he just didn't feel up to conversation a lot of the time.
It was Kerry, and that pleased him on several levels. She
had kept very much to herself over the last few days. He wasn't
surprised. It was obvious that she was tired, and upset, and
embarrassed, and he had no doubts that she would be barely
functional without the medication. It worried him that she hadn't
really spoken to anyone over anything that had happened. It was a
sign of withdrawal, a withdrawal from the situation that, all
things considered could precipitate a withdrawal from reality.
Judging by what the rest had said about her normal personality,
and by his own conversation with her before they had started with
the medication, he was starting to think she might be over
medicated. Doug had come right out and said it a day earlier, but
Luka didn't put much credence to a diagnosis that started with "
I know I'm pretty drunk but...." and ended with, " and that'd
normally bring out her raving bitch side in under ten seconds,
max." Still, it said something about her condition that Doug,
who seemed to greatly enjoy sniping at her, was worried.
" Kerry, " he softly. She did look and act very subdued, but
it seemed wrong of him to judge when no one was jumping for joy
at the situation. She was holding a cup of coffee in one hand,
and he idly hoped that she was drinking decaf. She didn't look
like she'd been sleeping well. Not that I have so much to brag
about, he thought as a slight smile came across his face. I
hardly slept a wink last night because of bad dreams and I'm
still drinking the good stuff.
" Luka. " She blinked. Then she stepped forward, as if she
suddenly remembered what she had come out there for. " There's
desert if you want it. Ice cream. John doesn't think the power
will last through the night so we were going to eat the ice
cream." She sipped her coffee.
" No more ice cream..." He sighed again, his memories of the
war coming back to him. His children had loved ice cream, to the
point that they could gorge on it all day. He shook off the
thought. That was a different world, he told himself, and a
different time and you won't do yourself any good by wallowing in
memories. " Any vanilla?"
" French and regular. And chocolate." She smiled slightly.
I'm more of a chocolate fan. I don't know what I'll miss more,
chocolate ice cream or bananas. "
" I forgot... no more bananas." He wasn't that fond of them
but he got the point. " Kerry, listen, about the medication...
How are you doing with it? Side effects? That sort of thing? " It
was hard to politely say, " Do you think you've been zombified?"
She shook her head. " It's fine. I'm fine. I haven't noticed
any side effects." A wary look crossed her face. He mentally
sighed. He doubted that she would mention side effects or
continued mental issues. Kerry was the sort that thoroughly
understood the stigma of poor mental health. It didn't help that
she had heard some of their remarks, both at their impromptu
meeting and some that had been made after.
" Is it helping? If its not helping, we can try something
else." That was what worried him. If it wasn't helping her, then
there was no point in her taking it. Much as he had thought
before, he wasn't physically afraid of a disabled woman half his
size. Her unstable period seemed to have passed, and he was fully
convinced that Captain Walker had deserved the many shots to the
back and head. " Doug seemed to think that you were over
medicated. "
" How drunk was he?" Her tone was matter of fact. She
stepped closer. " He's not generally a drunk you know. He lost
someone. Someone that was pretty special to him." She smiled
pensively as she sipped her coffee. " I guess, in the back of my
mind, I always thought they'd get married." She shook her head,
still smiling. " I somehow saw them running off together, and
coming back with silly grins on their faces, full of stories of
how they were married by some Elvis impersonator in Vegas. And
now she's dead."
" My father had something he used to say," Luka started. "
The only thing we really know about life is that at the end,
everybody dies."
She laughed. Or rather she chuckled, but he was glad to see
someone laugh. They had all been decidedly serious the last few
days. " Doug is a good man. We don't get along well." She
gestured with the hand that she held the coffee mug in. " I think
its pretty obvious we don't get along. He'll get past this, but
it'll take time. It's a hard blow... loosing someone that close."
She looked at him, a surprisingly piercing look, and seemed ready
to say something more, but stopped herself. " There's plenty of
ice cream anyway." With that, she turned around and went back
into the house.
He followed her after a moment. There was no reason to wait,
and perhaps ice cream would keep everyone calm and focused. That
would certainly be a switch.
The ice cream was delicious. It was up to the usual Carter
standard of quality, one of those Italian brands that he
remembered from Europe. He didn't even think it was sold in the
States. No one seemed too tired to concentrate, which was a
rarity. Doug was drinking a beer, but that wasn't a concern. It
was usually a little later in the evening that Doug would go
after the harder stuff. Luka suspected he was having trouble
sleeping, which didn't seem to be a rarity in their group. He
hadn't slept well himself and the night before, while pacing in
the hallway, he had heard Jeanie tossing and turning, and he
considered her the most laid back and calm in the group. Of
course that didn't mean she wasn't prone to nightmares, but it
worried him. Lucy and Randi were chatting about clothes. Randi
had definite opinions and evidently viewed Lucy's look as
"dowdy". Luka rather liked the young woman's somewhat
conservative look, conservative compared to Randi anyway. I'm
just old fashioned, he decided as he averted his gaze from
Randi's revealing top. It wasn't a new way of dressing either.
Carter and Doug were too comfortable with it. Kerry was twirling
ice cream around in her bowl. She didn't seem to be eating, which
was starting to worry him. Lack of appetite was a side effect of
Prozac, and it wasn't like the woman was overweight by any means.
And, he thought suddenly, she never did say whether she thought
was over medicated. Carter was leaning back on the couch beside
her, his dish of ice cream long gone. For a group of people that
had been highly stressed, they all seemed pretty relaxed. That's
a plus, Luka thought.
He leaned forward in his easy chair. " Listen, I think we
need to talk about what we're going to do. We can't just stay
here forever. I mean, this is a pretty nice house but come
winter, its going to be a little cold." Not that he knew that. He
usually left for Louisiana as soon as the weather started to
turn, the plus to the life of being a doctor temp.
" And there's all the... all the bodies." Carter added. "
There's a disease issue. Cholera comes to mind. And typhoid."
" And mutant strains of the superflu." Kerry said softly.
Luka was surprised that she joined the discussion but he realized
that she had a point. " Not to mention some old favorites like
bubonic plague. And then there's animal borne diseases. With
humanity out of the top place on the food chain, we're going to
see an explosion in the animal populations. Rats for starters,
have a lot more food available," her voice caught a little there,
" and rats carry disease." There was a long silence after she
finished.
" That's such a charming thought, Kerry." Doug chuckled. "
Is this what you've been thinking about? The rat population?"
Luka saw anger flare across her face, but it faded after a
second. He looked at everyone else. They clearly expected more of
an argument but instead, Kerry simply leaned back on the couch.
Her quiet abdication seemed to startle Doug and surprise the rest
of them. Luka wished he knew her better, because it just didn't
seem that odd that she didn't want to fight. Perhaps the most
disconcerting thing was that she had made a very good point.
He set down his ice cream dish down, letting it bang a
little to regain everyone's attention. " Disease is a problem.
So is the fact that the city is burning down. That's not going to
stop until it rains. "
" What about other people?" Jeanie asked. She caught his
eye, as if agreeing that they needed to keep the discussion
moving. " We're not the only ones left alive in Chicago. We've
all heard the gunfire."
" I don't think I want to know the people that are
shooting." Lucy smiled as she spoke but her tone was serious. She
looked a little more together than when Luka had met her, but he
still wasn't taken with her. She was just so young, and maybe
just a little too naive.
" But that's Luka's point." Jeanie pressed. " This may not
be the safest place to be and we need to start thinking about how
we're going to live. It's going to be pretty cold this winter
without electrical heat and its pretty damn hot here without air
conditioning. Stop and think a minute. This heat is not helping
preserve all of the corpses. If we stick around we are risking
illness at the very least. "
" But where do we go? " Carter spoke as if it was a
rhetorical question. Judging by his tone, Luka suspected he had
something in mind. The younger man waited a long moment, and then
gestured expansively around the room. " I know this might be a
shock, but this isn't the only house my family owns."
Randi shook her head. " I don't think visiting the small
tropical island paradise where the Carters are worshipped like
gods is entirely practical."
Everyone laughed. Carter took it fairly well. He waited
until the laughter died off to continue. " I meant, " he said
good naturedly, " that we could go to the hunting lodge."
" The hunting lodge?" Doug snickered. " We have the mansion,
the tropical island, the hunting lodge.... What else? The bomb
shelter and the thoroughbred horse farm?"
Carter smiled. " We have several thoroughbred horse farms.
We even had a few horses at the hunting lodge. It has a bomb
shelter too. We believe in being prepared or at least my
grandfather did. He was a little paranoid on the subject
actually. The hunting lodge is very self sufficient. It has its
own generator, lots of solar power gadgets, lots of tasty animals
to shoot, and its pretty isolated. My grandfather said it was our
place to ride out a crisis." He smiled sheepishly. " I guess this
is an official crisis."
" So where is this hunting lodge?" Jeanie asked.
" In Colorado." Carter got up and strode over to the
bookshelves. He returned with a large atlas. He opened it on the
coffee table. Everyone gathered around. Carter's face grew
animated as he pointed to a dot that represented a town in the
Rockies. " It's really not that far. We could be there in a
couple of days if the roads were clear. It'd be nice and cool for
the summer."
" The roads are terrible though." Lucy said. " Come on, you
guys remember the drive here. We were lucky to get the cars
through."
Luka held up his hand. " That's not really a problem.
Motorcycles would be fine." It was something he had already
thought about. He wasn't fond of motorcycles but they were a good
way to get around blocked roads and there were surely going to be
roads blocked.
He noted with pleasure that almost everyone seemed to be
interested and in agreement. " So do we all want to go there?
Anyone have any other suggestions?" He noted with interest that
Randi looked liked she wanted to say something, but after a
moment she leaned back in her seat. " Anything?"
Kerry raised her hand hesitantly, her face blotched with
red. She was angry or embarrassed, it was hard to tell. He hoped
it was embarrassment. Carter had told him that her temper was
quite brutal and judging by the sudden worried looks on their
faces, everyone was in agreement on that point. She lowered her
hand as soon as he acknowledged her. " You realize, " she said
curtly, " that there's no way I can ride a motorcycle for ten
minutes, let alone over five hundred miles. You need full use of
both legs to maintain balance on the turns and stopping. I don't
have full use. Even riding behind one of you wouldn't work. Its
painful. I can't even drive for long periods of time."
Both anger and embarrassment, Luka realized. Embarrassment
from having to admit to being incapable of a task, and anger that
they didn't think about her problems ahead of time. It had never
occurred to him that she'd have problems with a motorbike, but
then he didn't know exactly what was wrong with her. " All right,
" he said easily, " that's not impossible. We're not in a hurry.
What about a truck or a jeep?"
" I can't drive a stick shift either." Kerry said. " There's
too many pedals. It would need to be an automatic."
Doug started to laugh. " Any other requests? Is a cd player
a vital necessity too?"
Luka tensed as Kerry rose to her feet. Now there was no
mistaking the fact that she was pissed off. " Doug, " she said
calmly, but coldly, " If you think I'm enjoying this, you are
sadly mistaken." Her eyes blazed, and she started stomping away.
" I really could care less where we go or how. Just let me know
when you all make a damn decision." With that, she left the room.
There was silence. " Well, " Carter said finally, " are we
all agreed on Colorado?" Everyone nodded, though it seemed
desultory to Luka. Carter seemed emboldened by the general
acceptance. " Then tomorrow we'll go looking for vehicles and
supplies. "
Wonderful, Luka thought, we made a decision and no one got
slapped.