Chapter 34 The Plague
Sheldon's wrist throbbed in time with his heart and it was both annoying and distracting.
"Okay, Jeremy, now where did the bad guys come from? Which direction? Do you know where they live? Are your mothers with them or – "
"Across the Canal. They live across the Canal and that's where they took the grownups. Across the Canal."
'Crap on a cracker. Sturgeon Bay is 'across the Canal. I wonder if there's a connection between these marauders and the research facility? Jeremy said they wore black uniforms and black helmets with black visors – probably for intimidation. But still – we'll need a better plan if we're going to slip in and search the research facility. Bernadette may have some information she hasn't thought to share with us yet.'
Sheldon stood with Jeremy at the foot of the gangway to the Badger. It wasn't a train but it was a magnificent mode of transportation and Sheldon appreciated its functional design and it sheer size.
"Are you guys gonna steal the Badger? Can I come? It'll be like being a pirate sailing the – "
"No, Jeremy, we're not thieves. We need it to get our people to someplace where other people won't take away the women and moms and kill or take away the dads. No one is using it and it's a shame to let it just rust away when others need it."
Jeremy scuffed his torn tennis shoe on the dock and looked disappointed. "So then you're not really pirates? You're just like us but looking for a new home?"
"Would you and the other kids like to join us? We're nice and there are lots of people who would love to take care of you and teach you things you'll need to know. We can ask your friends if they want to come along."
"But what about our moms and dads? Aren't you going to save them?"
"Yeah, Moon Pie. What are we going to do about the bad guys across the Canal?"
Penny had followed one of the kids to where Sheldon was 'talking' with the kid who'd shot up his pickup truck and almost killed him and Howard. She hoped he wasn't being too hard on the kid. He was just trying to survive.
She was surprised when she saw him standing with a child of maybe 9 or 10 and talking with him earnestly about how they weren't pirates or thieves, just people looking for a safe place to live. He wasn't his normal 'lecturing Sheldon' and she was surprised at how easily he was talking with the kid.
She could see his injured arm and the swelling on his face but it didn't stop him from being gentle with the boy. He was always surprising her. Considering his germaphobia and his dislike of 'rugrats' in restaurants and movie theaters, he was doing okay with the scared boy.
"Hi, Penny. This is Jeremy, the Machine Gun Kid. He's a good shot and I think we should think about asking him and his friends to join up with us. We can use a few younger men, don't you agree?"
"What about their folks, Shel? We can't just – "
"They're across the Canal and ain't ever coming back. No one who goes across the Canal ever comes back," said the boy, in a quiet voice as if talking to himself.
Penny stooped down and pulled the boy into her arms and hugged him, ignoring the stink and filth, and just hugging him like she felt he needed. Sheldon watched with the strangest look on his face but when he saw her watching him, he looked away.
"Are you hungry, Jeremy? I'll bet I can find some peaches or something else good to eat. C'mon, let's let Dr. Cooper alone while he plans what to do with this big boat, although he might be in trouble with his girlfriend if he doesn't quit haring off at the drop of a hat. She'll probably want to kick his butt for not seeing the nurse and our doc about his arm. I think that would be fun to watch, don't you?"
There was a message in there and even Sheldon Cooper could detect the subtext. She was pissed and he was in serious trouble.
"I'm sorry, Sheldon, but I don't have any idea of what the Veridian research facility actually looks like, just its location in Sturgeon Bay, nothing more. There were 10 research scientists attached to the facility. If I remember correctly, a couple of virologists, some biochemists and a couple of neurobiologists."
Sheldon nodded and thanked Bernadette and then fazed out for a moment thinking about Amy and wondering what happened to her. She wasn't a Natural Immune and she'd left once the Choker's mortality rate hit 50% to go home and be with her mother.
'I don't even know where 'home' for Amy is? All that time together and she never really spoke about her home other than all her crazy aunts and other demented relatives. Odd. I haven't even thought of her once since leaving Pasadena.'
"Sheldon, are you okay? Want me to get Penny or Leslie?" She said his name two or three times but he had a faraway look in his eyes like he was seeing something far away.
"Um, no, that won't be necessary. I was just thinking, that's all. Thank you for your input, Bernadette. It's nice that you and Howard are so right for each other. I never would have imagined you two dating and here you are, married and everything."
Now she really was worried. Sheldon talking like a normal person and being all nice and pleasant was highly unusual.
"Why don't you be a lamb and have Leslie find us a nice place where the kids can clean up and we can all relax and get to know them – and feed them, of course. Growing bodies and all that…"
They set up shop in a school yard and the first order of business was feeding and then examining the kids. Scavengers picked through Walmart and Target and found clothes and shoes and other items the kids would need. Sheldon had insisted on looting the toothbrush displays and gathering up all the toothpaste they could find.
"We have no idea when we'll stumble across a competent dentist and an abscessed tooth could be fatal in these times."
The kids' new 'dormitory' was simply the activities room strewn with sleeping bags and various toys. Shower facilities were nonexistent so the colonists, as they now referred to themselves collectively, started up a school bus and drove the kids to the local high school and used the facilities in the field house.
That evening the group met all together in the small auditorium to discuss options. No one wanted to remove the children from Manitowoc if there was the slightest chance their parents might return.
"According to Machine Gun Jeremy, 'no one comes back from across the Canal'. It would seem that they are being held as slaves or forced labor somewhere north of the ship canal. Before we can do more, we need intelligence on the opposing force and also ways of crossing the canal."
Several men volunteered to take small boats and cross the Canal but Wyatt vetoed the idea. "If they're using the Canal for defense, they'll have it under observation. Using small boats is a good idea but I'd head up the coast a bit and then land somewhere and come at them from the rear."
Bomber had been strangely quiet throughout any discussions since it was decided to head for the research facility to find the insulin substitutes. He felt humbled that no one thought twice about the risk, just the reward and so he'd kept any opinions to himself but now he just had to speak up.
"I don't want anyone hurt or killed if the opposition is heavy. It's just not worth it. The needs of the many come before – "
"Bullshit!" Sheldon was on his feet and angrier than anyone had ever seen him. Penny reached up to pull him back to his seat but he shook her off.
"That Spock crap has no place in this situation. Not only do we need to get to the research station but we also need to try and free up the kids' parents, or have you forgotten the storage units so quickly?"
He fixed them with a glare and then said quietly to Bomber, "Our primary objective remains unchanged, Hideki. Finding the drug. You will not be the only diabetic in our group in the future. Would you doom those people, too? Our secondary objective – well, it's our obligation to at least try and free the captives."
Howard had been impressed with Wyatt's handle on tactics and so he proposed, quite loudly, that Wyatt be appointed their military commander for any operations. There was no dissent.
The nurse had wrapped Sheldon's wrist in an ace wrap and cautioned him to see her immediately if he experienced numbness of if the fingers of the hand got cold and then sent him on his way with a few aspirin for the pain.
Penny ate dinner with Sheldon and then said 'good night' and left. He knew they hadn't had their 'talk' about the 'execution' of the mutineers and figured that she'd just stay with her folks until things calmed down – until he calmed down. It's what he would do if their positions were reversed.
He talked to the kids again, trying to see if anyone knew anything about what was 'across the Canal' but struck out.
He and Howard sat in the Beast drinking tea and talking about 'before' until well after dark. They talked about Raj and how he would have fit in perfectly with the melange of people they'd swept up in their quest.
Howard finally succumbed to the rigors of the day and Sheldon wondered if the Engineer's health was failing. He seemed out of breath a lot and Bernadette seemed to be keeping an eye on him more than what was normal. He made a mental note to ask Bernadette.
Everyone else had retired but his mind wouldn't let go of things and so he launched the balloon antenna and sat in the dark listening to the sounds of a dying world.
Arms snaked around his neck and he stiffened in preparation for a fight when warm, wet lips found his ear and breathed, "Come to bed, Sheldon. It's cold without you. I'm sorry for arguing about what Winkle did – the arguing not my opinion. C'mon, Moon Pie…make me forget."
Wyatt kissed his wife goodbye and walked with Sheldon down to the small marina where his 'reconnaissance' team waited. Four boats, twenty men, and an agenda. Bernadette had wanted to go along just in case the way was clear to the Veridian research facility but Howard had had a fit and Wyatt vetoed it anyway.
"Sheldon, I know we haven't talked much but I want you to know that Jenny and I couldn't ask for a better man for Penny. You take care now and don't take any shit from her unless she's right."
Sheldon didn't know what to say so he just nodded in agreement. He remembered how Wyatt had fawned all over the idea of Leonard and Penny and wondered if he ever thought back to those times and what his opinion would be today. Not to speak ill of the dead, but Leonard would have got them all killed by now.
"Sheldon, see if you and Howie can't get a head of steam up on the Badger. I'd appreciate it if you could put together a loading plan so if we have to un-ass this area in a hurry it won't devolve into a cluster fuck."
"I'll have everyone ready to load up before you return. I think we should also consider taking everything we can get from the Tractor Supply lot like we discussed. I've already assigned a team to bring the entire contents of the Purina Feed & Grain mill. We should also look to the outlying areas and begin bringing in livestock and chickens and whatever."
"Make up one of your lists and we'll get right on it when I get back."
He and Wyatt had poured over the information available on the destination Sheldon had finally settled on – a large island in the Straits - once he found the Badger and coal. It was large enough, easily defended and offered what they'd all been seeking – a safe haven to begin the process of rebuilding.
Wyatt was impressed with the facilities on the island and with a small population of year-round residents, they wouldn't be seen as invaders considering what they had to offer in return for sanctuary.
Recon Force
Upper Door Peninsula
Final Overnight
So far they'd found nothing but devastation and bodies. They had beached their boats on the Lake Michigan shore and proceeded inland figuring that no one would expect them from the northwest.
The village of Sister Bay, once home to 800 people, had been burned to the ground. There were decayed bodies in the street and in cars. It was like someone was trying to burn out the Choker by eliminating anyone or any place that might be infected. Even the boats in the small basin had been burned or taken elsewhere.
The same was true of every hamlet, cluster of homes, and farmstead they came across including the Town of Egg Harbor and the village of the same name just south of it.
This was their final night before advancing to recon Sturgeon Bay 4 miles to the south. Nerves were frazzled and there was little conversation among the group. Wyatt had planned on splitting his force into two groups – one to secure a bridgehead at the Canal while the other investigated the Viridian research facility that had been surprisingly easy to locate since it had a Yellow Page ad.
They set out at first light. It was raining and hopefully it would hide their presence from whoever had taken the people from below the Canal.
Manitowoc
They took two school buses, the Army fuel truck and several pickup trucks that they managed to get running. The 'Relief Force' of 60 men and women, armed to the teeth with everything from pistols to assault rifles, set out at 2am for the Canal. It was a two-hour drive in the old days but Sheldon and Wyatt had allowed 4 hours to make the 50-mile trip.
They never planned to cross the Canal. It was only for show, a distraction to allow Wyatt's force to slip in, do their recon and then slip out again.
At least that was the plan.
Upper Door Peninsula
The recon element of Wyatt's force came across ploughed fields and stockyards of cattle and long sheds of chickens and turkeys. They also found the slave pens where more than 80 starving men were huddled under sodden blankets under tin roofs.
It was the hardest decision Wyatt Ford had ever had to make but it was the right thing to do. He noted the location on a Exxon roadmap and pushed on to the research station itself. In the back of his mind he was planning a rescue mission.
The research facility was empty. It looked like the staff had just walked out leaving computers on and half-eaten meals in the cafeteria. The labs were open and Wyatt and his people took their lists and started taking equipment and drugs and research notes.
One man found Wyatt and held out a large bottle of pills labeled 'Insulin Substitute Samples – quarterly dosage'. There were over a hundred pills in it.
"There's a carton with 20 more bottles in it. We also found notes and computer discs, all nicely labeled. We got what we came for."
"Good work. Let's get out of here and back to our people."
Sturgeon Bayou Ship Canal
Southern shore
"What do you think, Sheldon?" Bomber had used binoculars to scan the far shore. There was no sign of any people, no fires, no movement of any kind.
"I think whoever took those people is a lot smarter than I am. The eastern end of the channel has a large jetty where boats and lake craft can discharge cargo and yet there are no signs of equipment or even litter. I think it's a trap designed to lure us in and then catch us with the Canal to our backs."
"So what do you think we should do?" Bomber had an idea. They'd driven by a sign that point to a Coast Guard station and he wondered just what kind of water craft might be there. The Coast Guard was the law enforcement arm for the Great Lakes and had armed craft.
"I think we should wait for Wyatt and get a report on what they've seen across the Canal. There is no point planning a crossing if we don't know what's waiting for us. Too risky, Hideki, and we're too lightly armed to take on an organized force that's dug in. This isn't paintball and we've been very lucky so far."
The small group of colonists where were tasked with reconning the Canal never made it that far. They stumbled onto a facility where the women were being housed – a glorified brothel – and after a brief firefight, they headed north with almost 50 women.
They had 4 small craft and no way to transport that many people south of the Canal.