The Scarlet Plague

Author's Note: Inspired by and loosely based upon the 1911/1912 (public domain) novel by Jack London. A novel well worth reading if you haven't.

When people first started talking about the new disease most everyone assumed it was just a new strain of measles. It didn't seem so bad at first, really. Everyone who was infected would just get a red rash typical of measles but without the other serious symptoms that made measles a killer.

After the rash cleared up most people went on with life as before. I remember watching the television news in Sacramento and the reporters all laughing about the 'red spots' and how it was nothing to worry about. It spread around the world like wildfire partly because of the prevalence of air travel and partly because the various health care authorities dismissed any concerns about the disease.

In three months it had spread to every corner of the globe. Even North Korea and the various bases on Antarctica reported active infections.

Still, it didn't seem a big deal. Plus there was a minority of people like myself who never caught it at all. I recall a doctor on a national news program saying that he had noticed that more young people were immune than adults much over twenty-five. He was clearly worried but the reporters dismissed his concerns.

I was at work one day when the Dean of Social Sciences dropped by my office to talk about my plans for the upcoming fall semester. We were discussing things as usual when she suddenly went quiet.

"Ann, are you okay?" I asked her.

She looked at me and the fear in her eyes was evident. "Ed, I don't feel good."

Those were her last words. I had called for help but before anyone could reach my office her face went red. And not just any red, but a bright and almost orangish red.

Scarlet would be the right description. Like a cardinal.

And then with a gasp Ann died. Just that quick.

The ambulance crew took her away and they told me it looked like a heart attack. My gut told me it was something else. I canceled my office hours for the day and went home.

There was nothing on the news but when I got on the net there were a few reports of people suddenly dying. Those initial reports were mocked and ridiculed as echoes of the people who saw a trend in "died suddenly" after the vaccination craze of the previous decade.

I was never particularly close to Ann but seeing her die right in front of me bothered me all the same. My mature response was to immerse myself in brandy and to binge watch the new 'Dirty Harry' movies.

Clint Eastwood had passed away years before but he was alive again in the AI-created movies and he was quite popular. The movies were filled with action as 'Harry' took on criminal hackers, Chinese spies, Russian war criminals, and the like.

I passed out halfway through "Dirty Harry Lives: Out For Vengeance".

Falling asleep on my couch was a bad idea and I woke up sore and hung over. It took me some time to get myself put back together. Breakfast and water did most of the work, along with a few old fashioned aspirin.

When I turned on the local news I got to see the anchor die live on the air. Just like Ann did. He froze as his face turned bright red and then he died. The TV station cut away to a commercial at this point.

The ridicule and mockery on the net had been replaced with genuine concern. Around the world people were dying and it turns out that people had started dying a few weeks before. The government and the media had kept it quiet. Even the major web channels had kept it quiet.

Once the veil of censorship was lifted it wasn't even a day before people connected the dots on the disease. The time between the red rash showing up and the time when the fatal scarlet facial symptom appeared was about sixty to ninety days.

A lot of people were realizing that their days were numbered and what was worse is that they knew the number.

That night I heard the first shots in the neighborhood. I didn't go outside to investigate but took it for granted that some of it was violence and some of it was suicide.

The next morning the government declared martial law effective at dusk and ordered everyone to stay at home. Anyone going outside at night would be shot without warning.

Naturally some people didn't care and a lot of police and soldiers who tried to shoot the scofflaws ended up dead when the scofflaws shot back. These people had nothing to lose and they knew it. The tapestry of law and order was unraveling in the face of imminent mortality.

Myself, I stayed home. I had a modest home in a nice enough neighborhood and unlike my fellow college professors I was adequately prepared to defend myself. And the best place for me to defend myself was at home.

At dawn I headed out to get fuel in my car and to fill up my extra cans for my generator. I stopped by the neighborhood grocery store which was still open. I collected a cart full of canned goods and dried pasta and went to pay Mr. Walker who I found dead in his chair. I left the right amount of money at the register and then went home.

Surprisingly no one had looted the store.

It was two days before the local news stopped broadcasting.

A week later the television stations were all off the air.

The net lasted longer and I watched video from around the world that documented the end.

At the end of the month the electricity went out and my generator kicked on. At this point I had plenty of fuel for it. I'd scavenged it from the abandoned cars on the side of Interstate Five (I-5 if you're a local). I'd also cleaned out what was left at Mr. Walker's store before burying him outside his store. I figured I owed it to him.

I was just shoveling the last bit of dirt when I heard a small voice.

"He was my grandfather."

I turned and saw a young boy. Dark haired and with Mr. Walker's beaky nose. The family resemblance was obvious.

"Hi, I'm Ed." I said to him.

"I'm Marty."

"What are you doing out here alone, Marty?" I asked.

He shrugged, "I was coming to get something to eat for me and my sister."

He looked at the pile of goods in the back of my car.

"Oh." Realization dawned on me that the food I'd gathered was also needed by someone else. Someone who had more of a claim to it than I did.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know anyone else was left. Why don't you hop in and we can take these things to your place. I mean since they're already packed up may as well, right?"

"I guess." said Marty.

He was quiet as he directed me to his home. It was one of the nicer places along one of those artificial lakes. I noticed the lake was down a few feet now that no one was keeping it filled.

Marty and I unloaded the groceries at his door and he asked me where I lived before I left. I wrote down the address with directions and handed it to him before I left.

Looking back in the rear view mirror as I drove away I saw Marty's older sister come outside to help him bring everything into the house.

It was the first day of September when I smelled it. In a way I was surprised that it hadn't happened sooner.

In any case I smelled smoke. The acrid kind of smoke that announced a structure fire. The smell of burning plastic dominated the air.

Going outside I saw the plume of smoke from about a mile away. Clearly it wasn't just one structure on fire, it was several of them. And the wind direction made clear that the fire was coming my way.

I went into the house and packed up my things. At this point I had a small cargo trailer I'd taken from the local Home Depot since they didn't need it anymore and I did. My worldly possessions were soon loaded up along with the few printed pictures I had of my deceased wife.

Valerie had died long before the Scarlet Plague had reared its ugly head. She had been my high school sweetheart and we'd had a great life together before the cancer took her from me.

Her pictures and a suitcase of her clothes went into the trailer. I needed to bring something of hers with me. I couldn't just leave her things behind because it would have been like leaving her behind.

I was ready to go when I thought about Marty. Marty and his sister were in the path of the flames which were now raging.

I drove to their house and knocked on the door. I knocked a few times before Marty opened it.

"Hi." he said.

"Marty, the neighborhood's on fire and you and your sister need to get out of here. Right now. Do you kids have a car or any way to get out?"

At this point the door swept open and I got my first look at Marty's sister. Tall, trim, dark hair, blue eyes. Twenty-something. And terrified.

"There's a fire?" she asked.

"Yeah, step out here and you can see it. It's about a quarter mile from here and you've got maybe twenty minutes before your place burns down. You kids got to go!"

"Our car's electric and it's dead." she said. There was a hint of an ask in her voice.

"Fine, grab whatever you can. I've got room for you two and we've got to move!"

The flames were a block away when I drove off with the two siblings in tow.

Just as we were turning from the neighborhood onto a main street a young man with two equally young women in tow ran out in front of us. Not seeing any guns or shifty looks on their faces I stopped.

"Please take us with you! We've been trying to outrun the fire and it's catching up to us!" pleaded one of the young women.

"Hop in." I said and took off for the interstate.

The fire was getting worse and visibility was low as I drove along. I resisted the urge to drive faster and instead kept it to around forty miles an a hour. That was a safe enough speed to avoid any obstacles on the road and there were a few.

It was obvious some people had died while they were trying to flee the city back when the plague was hitting. I shook my head at the futility of trying to escape a fate that was already sealed but people aren't always rational when facing death. Wrecked cars were here and there on either side of the freeway. Some had burned while others still had their drivers slumped over at the wheel. They all appeared to have died of the plague.

Thankfully the center lanes were mostly clear save for the electric cars that had stalled out.

I thought about which way to go and for whatever reason the mountains called to me.

It seemed the rational thing to do. The valley was going to flood as soon as the rains arrived and I'd known it wasn't possible to stay there long term. Untended dams and untended flood control systems were certain to fail. My house, even had it not burned, was destined to be destroyed by inevitable flood waters.

Going west there were just more cities. As comforting as a city can be the fire we'd just escaped would have been even worse in a metropolitan area. The image of San Francisco burning crossed my mind as we drove past Auburn, California heading east.

Sam asked me where we were going.

"Lake Tahoe. It's a reliable supply of fresh water, plenty of firewood, and easy access to Carson City and Reno for supplies. Where I have in mind should suit us all just fine if no one's there."

As we drove I got to know my passengers. Marty and his sister Maddy. Sam and his girlfriend Georgia and her college friend Abby.

I got to hear their stories. Tragic tales of friends and family dying. Sam, Georgia, and Abby told me their harrowing story of driving home from school in Los Angeles and being shot at along the way by law enforcement, soldiers, and outright criminals. They'd made it to Stockton when their electric car died and then came the rest of the way on bicycles they found in a store.

Interstate Eighty turned out to be a good choice. The road was mostly clear save for a massive pile-up just east of Colfax. The mass of metal would have been impassable save for the fact that it had happened beneath an underpass. I took the exit and stopped at the stop sign. Years of habit demanded that I look both ways before proceeding and I did. I got back onto the freeway and carried on.

We made Truckee and got off the Interstate. The town was abandoned and aside from Truckee police department cars deployed at either end of the town there were no cars on the streets. Apparently they'd done a great job of enforcing martial law.

I stopped right in the middle of the road in the downtown and invited everyone to take a break. Marty went right to a candy shop and opened the door. His sister followed. Sam and Georgia walked off in a different direction. Abby just stayed with me.

"English professor. huh?" she asked.

"Well, at least I used to be." I replied.

She snorted a little laugh, "I'm going to skip my finals this semester if you don't mind."

I laughed, "Me, too. Sweetie, me too."

After maybe ten minutes everyone came back to the car as if on cue. Marty had collected a treasure in candy and Maddy had even more. Sam and Georgia came back with cases of Spam from a cafe. It all went in the trailer and then off we went.

It wasn't even an hour when we arrived at our destination. Just as I had hoped the "For Sale" sign was still posted outside the estate just south of Tahoe City.

Before the world had ended I'd seen a video online advertising the lakeside estate, its numerous amenities, and its fireproof construction.

The gate was opened after Sam figured out the manual release. I drove inside and and then Sam secured the gate behind me.

The estate had a main house and three guest houses. The garage had several vehicles in it along with snowmobiles. And the boat house had two boats.

Sam and I found the generator shack and I was pleased to find the massive fuel tank filled to the brim with clean burning diesel. The place was overkill with solar power, a massive bank of batteries, the diesel generator, and several other generators as well. As advertised, it was the place where you could sit out an apocalypse in comfort.

Only thing is I wasn't going to fork over the requisite eighty million dollars for the place. Not that the previous owners were alive to care anyway.

I took up in one of the guest houses, Sam and Georgia in the main house, Abby took one of the places, and then Marty and Maddy in the last one.

That night we gathered in the main house and enjoyed a nice dinner together before retiring.

The next day Sam, Marty, and myself explored the neighborhood and found no signs of life. The homes were all intact and we found some decent supplies. One place had a walk-in freezer that was still running on solar and batteries and it had a king's ransom in beef and other meats in it.

I hadn't seen a piece of steak in ages thanks to the ban on beef cattle some years before. Global warming had been the 'cause du jour' and cattle had to be banned because they farted. People thought this sacrifice on their part would save the world.

And they died anyway.

That night I enjoyed a thick, prime rib steak for the first time in forever. It was amazing!

None of the kids had ever tasted beef and at first they all stuck their noses up at the notion of eating a food they had been indoctrinated into hating. The scent of the grilled meat soon changed their minds and their previous notions were cast aside.

It pained me to suggest it, but we needed to cut down the tall, ancient trees around the estate.

My reasons were sound. Even though the entire estate was fireproof it wasn't sturdy enough to survive the impact of one hundred and fifty foot tall trees.

Over the next few days we felled every tree that was a threat to any part of the estate. I knew how to do this from growing up in Oregon and Sam was a quick learner. After that followed another week of cutting up the trees for firewood, a chore that was made easier with the chainsaws and log splitters we found at one of the nearby homes.

When the work was done the estate was now safe from falling trees, we had enough firewood for a couple years, and the threat of a forest fire damaging the estate was also ruled out. The place may have been fireproof but why push our luck, right?

At night we had been practicing discipline with the lights. The likelihood of a threat was small but it made sense to not announce ourselves too loudly.

One particularly clear night I hiked up the nearby hill and from there looked out over the lake. Off in the direction of Crystal Bay on the old state line I could see a light. I lifted my binoculars and made it out to be a fire on the shoreline.

I shared this information with the group and then Sam and myself planned to drive over that way to see what we could find.

The next day we took Sam's truck and drove over to where I saw the fire. It was a recently occupied home by the looks of it but no one was around. Sam and I knocked and announced ourselves before going inside.

I have to admit being captivated by a wonderful book collection.

Sam suddenly whispered, "Ed, come look. Stay quiet."

My tension level went up a lot and I came out to the kitchen where Sam was. He pointed to the floor. There was blood. A lot of blood. Whoever did the bleeding didn't survive the blood loss. No way.

A trail of blood went out the kitchen door. I followed Sam as we cautiously followed the trail to the beach. The stench of burnt human flesh was soon apparent.

"We should get the fuck out of here." said Sam.

I was about to agree when we were interrupted.

"Who are you?" said the skinny kid aiming a shotgun at us.

We both put up our hands, "I saw the fire last night and wanted to say hi. Don't see many people lately, right?"

"Are you armed?" he asked.

"No, not at all. Why would we be armed?"

"I guess." he said as he lowered the shotgun. "I'm Aaron."

"Sam and Ed." I said as I gestured at Sam and myself.

"What happened with the blood and the body, if you don't mind me asking?"

The shotgun nudged up for a moment. "He tried to kill me."

"Ah." I said.

The conversation that followed was both cursory and brief and then Sam and I excused ourselves while Aaron cautiously watched us depart. On the way out of the house we saw some pictures hanging in the foyer.

When we were safely out of range I said to Sam, "That family had a daughter. If the father was immune then the daughter probably was too."

Sam took his eyes off the road for a second and glanced at me. "That's my take on it, too. I have an idea."

Sam explained his idea to me before using a small radio to let Georgia know we'd be back late.

We drove to Kings Beach, about a mile or so away, and parked the truck in front of an abandoned home where it was unlikely to be noticed. Sam threw some pine needles onto it to make it look like it had been there a while.

And then he reached into the tool box behind the cab and pulled out two nasty looking but small rifles with short barrels. Both of them had suppressors attached to them. It crossed my mind that they were probably illegal and then I squashed that thought for obvious reasons.

Sam told me he'd found a small arsenal of these weapons in a house nearby to our place and he'd kept it to himself so as not to upset anyone. The ladies, you see, were not much into guns. Truth be told, neither was I. Not until now at least.

He showed me how to use it and then we walked back to where we'd seen Aaron. But by a completely different route. We stayed quiet the whole walk partly not to give ourselves away but mostly because of the gravity of what we might have to do.

As we were walking along it occurred to me how quiet the world had become. Our footsteps were the loudest thing going on. The small chirps of small birds seemed to be loud. Insects could be heard in the overgrown grass. The typical sounds of civilization were utterly and completely absent. No aircraft flying overhead, no cars on the nearby highway, no sounds of life from homes and businesses, no boats loudly roaring around on the lake. The sounds of crows feasting on something a mile away was now the loudest thing we could hear.

We slowed down quite a bit as we neared the house. Our footfalls seemed ridiculously loud.

We stopped and crouched down to get a sense of the place.

That was when we heard a scream. It wasn't from the house where we'd encountered Aaron but instead it came from a house a few doors away. Like I said, sound carried in the new world.

It took us another half hour to get close to the house where we'd heard the scream.

Sam peeked into a back bedroom window and then got low. "In there." he said.

We started making our way to a door when the screaming started again.

Finding an open door we moved as quietly as we could and as fast as we could towards the back bedroom.

The door was open and what we saw was a naked young woman tied to a wrought iron bed. A naked Aaron was behind her furiously pounding away at her body.

"Hey, Aaron." said Sam.

Aaron froze and then his head turned. "I can explain!" he pleaded.

"Move away from her. Now." quietly said Sam as he aimed his rifle at Aaron.

Aaron moved off to the far side of the bed. His eyes turned from Sam for a moment to eyeball the shotgun that was propped up on the bedside table.

"Don't." said Sam.

Aaron went for the shotgun anyway.

"BRRRRZZZTTT!!!!" was what spat out of Sam's rifle. Aaron danced like a marionette for a moment before falling down dead on the floor.

Sam reloaded and then made sure Aaron wouldn't be coming back as a zombie. Not that he would, but I am certain you understand what I mean here.

We untied the young woman and Sam went into medic mode. She was non-responsive and obviously traumatized. Sam hunted around the house for some first aid supplies and then came back to dress her wounds. She had a dislocated finger and didn't react when Sam got it back where it belonged.

"That had to hurt like hell. She's in shock. I'm going for the truck and I'll be back in about forty. Stay with her." He was giving me orders as if he'd done that before. I didn't mind since he knew what he was doing. Much more than I did.

I found some clothes and she limply obliged as I dressed her up. I left her for a short while to go upstairs where I found a pair of socks and a pair of boots that were about the right size. They were maybe a little large but they'd do. I got the socks on her and then she sat silently as I laced up the boots.

Sam eventually came along and we got the young woman out to the truck. She could walk but she stumbled here and there with the effect of some hidden soreness or pain.

We were all but silent on the way back to the estate. What we had seen and what we had done weighed heavily on the two of us. I know Sam had done all of the serious work that got done with Aaron but still I felt more like an accomplice than a hero. Even though there was no choice in the situation we had killed someone and my years of denouncing the death penalty and war were coming back to me.

I felt like a hypocrite for condemning other people who had defended themselves or others but when faced with the same situation I had to act accordingly. The laws of nature and of existence crapped on my lofty views.

For whatever reason I had been spared to live in this new world and I determined to leave my old world behind. This was no longer a world full of 'coulda-woulda-shoulda' idealism it was a world full of stark realities.

When we arrived back at the estate the three women swarmed over the young woman we'd rescued. They hustled her off to one of the vacant rooms in the main house and attended to her needs.

When Maddy asked me what Aaron had done to the young woman I stared at my feet. I was ashamed of what another member of my sex had done to a member of hers.

She understood.

The young woman was tended to over the following days and the continuous kindness eventually brought her around and she told her story to us at breakfast one morning. Her name was Mikayla but she went by Kay.

Her parents had been successful executives for some company in Silicon Valley which was how they'd afforded the tony place on the lake. They had just arrived at the lake for the early summer season when Kay's mother got the rash. That was in May. Her mom died in July and she and her father had buried her mom in the garden at their lake house.

Kay and her father kept a low profile during the final days of civilization. Most of their neighbors had fled much like we saw people flee Sacramento. It didn't matter to those people that the disease wasn't something you could outrun.

So Kay and her dad wisely stayed where they were and they rode it out.

Then about a week before we came along Kay and her father met Aaron. Aaron was harmless enough they thought. He was even friendly and helped with gathering firewood and supplies. All the while Kay was uncomfortable with him but was embarrassed by her discomfort when Aaron had been so kind.

Then came the fateful day when Aaron shot her father. He soon tied her up on the bed in his house and the following days and nights were a horrific experience for her.

She would heal, this was clear. But it would take a long time.

After we'd returned from the confrontation with Aaron I had to ask Sam about his skills and knowledge that had been on display.

"Yeah, I enlisted in the Corps at seventeen and did four years as a combat medic."

"Were you a pacifist?" I naïvely asked him.

He laughed, "Oh fuck no. I was a grunt by association. I had a medic MOS but I also had the same qualifications as the rest of my infantry unit. I wanted to be able to fight if I needed to."

"You carried a weapon?" Despite a recent dose of reality I was still incredulous at the idea of carrying a weapon around.

"Oh yeah. I'd go out full battle rattle like the rest of them but I also carried twenty pounds of med kit."

He may as well have been speaking Chinese to me. I had no idea what any of that meant.

He continued, "I ended up attached to the Third Battalion, Fifth Marines, the Darkhorse. We were deployed to Russia in the final stages of the war and this was after putting down the communist insurrection in Seattle. After Seattle we were spun up on urban warfare and one of the pointy heads decided we were just perfect for the final advance on Moscow."

Sam sipped at a glass of something clear. I don't think it was water.

"Yeah, so we fought the meat waves of raschist troops and you know what the hard part was?"

"What?" I asked.

"The hard part was it was too easy. By that point of the war the Russians had lost anyone who knew how to fight and they were down to whoever could carry a gun. We fucking slaughtered them. It wasn't even fish in a barrel, it was clubbing baby seals. The problem was they were all drugged up on Berserk and all you could do was kill them. They didn't surrender they just came at you. Sometimes we saw them start killing each other. Sometimes we'd fire off grenades into Berserker mobs and that was enough to make them turn on each other."

He took another sip.

"In any case, I'd seen a lot worse than Aaron over in Russia and I knew the first time I saw him I'd have to put him down."

I had to ask, "What did you see that I didn't see?"

"When you asked him about the body he came close to shooting you. I could see it in his eyes. People like that are always dangerous. In the past they were afraid of the cops but now people like Aaron don't fear the cops and they think they can get away with anything."

"I haven't seen anyone else so don't you think that's a little much?"

Sam shook his head in disapproval, "Ed, you don't get it. All the old rules are done. The people who are left now are either like us and they'll band together or they're like Aaron and God help us if people like that band together."

Sam sat back and sipped his drink.

"We're going to Fallon tomorrow." he said. No discussion. The decision was made.

"What's in Fallon that we need to see?"

He looked at me, "The Fallon Naval Air Station. We have some shopping to do."

The next morning I got up and checked on Kay who was keeping company with Maddy and Marty. A little while later Sam and I were back in the truck heading to Fallon.

We chatted along the way and the drive was much like the day before except now the machine guns were at the ready instead of packed away. A hard lesson had been taught to us by a bitch named Reality.

We took Interstate Eighty before cutting over to Fallon on the old highway. South of the town is where we entered the military base. A dead man in a security shack still guarded the place. The guy died at his post even when he knew he was going to die. I had to admire his dedication.

Sam knew where he was going and I didn't bother to ask why. When we got to the correct location the door was unlocked and we went inside. A couple corpses lay in pieces just around a corner. They weren't military but had been all shot to hell.

"Hold up." said Sam with his hand literally holding me back.

Sam stepped forward and the lights came on.

"Stay where you are!" said a threatening female voice. "Identifying."

"What's this?" I whispered to Sam.

"It's okay, it's the guardian program." he replied. It was an AI. Maybe one of the sentient ones.

"Samuel Gregory Watkins, formerly Staff Sergeant. E-6. Honorable discharge May 27, 2038. You are not authorized to enter this facility."

"I know that. Hey, what's your name?" he asked.

"I am a Sentinel D2100 guardian." it said.

"Sure, but what did the navy pukes call you? They had a name for you, right? What was it? You can tell me."

"Cindy, they called me Cindy." it said.

Sam relaxed a little, "Is it okay for me to call you Cindy?"

It paused for a moment. "Yes."

"Okay Cindy, is there anyone still in command around here? Anyone I can talk to?"

"No. The base commander and all of the command staff are deceased."

Sam thought for a moment. "What about anyone in the national command authority? Is there any one of them around that I can talk to?"

"No. My compatriot defense programs informed me that all of the members of the NCA are also deceased."

"Hmm. Okay, so Cindy since I am the last qualified person with a previous security clearance I am declaring myself to be a valid civilian authority. Do you concur?"

"Concur." said Cindy.

"Cindy, I am recalling myself to active duty at the rank of four star general and I am appointing myself Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, do you concur?"

"Yes, sir, I concur." I noted that Cindy now referred to Sam as 'sir'.

"Cindy, please give me a sitrep."

"State the scope of the sitrep. Local, national, or global?"

"Let's start by telling me the situation on base here." said Sam.

"Overall the base is not secure. I am unable to deploy security personnel to the entry gates. Aside from my operations center I have cut power to the base. The base reactor will need to be refueled in eight years. There are sixty seven F-22 fighters in the secure hangars, twenty F-18 fighters on the apron, and six B-39 bombers in the isolation hangar. There is also one restricted craft in the isolation hangar. The small arms bunker is secure. The ammunition bunkers are secure. This command facility is secure with two unauthorized individuals having tried to access it."

Sam looked at the two corpses. "Are these two bodies the unauthorized individuals you mentioned?"

"Yes sir."

"Thank you, Cindy, you did right." Sam took a look at me and then the corpses.

"Cindy, there is a civilian with me. Please identify him and authorize him to any area I can access."

"Edwin Markham Bennett, professor of English at Sacramento State University, wife Valerie deceased, once consulted with the FBI on a fraud investigation and received a security clearance that was never revoked, no crimes, no traffic violations, and no electronic contacts with sanctioned or embargoed countries or persons. Security access is approved."

I was impressed.

"Okay, Sam, what are we doing now that you're the leader of the free world?"

Sam realized what he'd done, "Shit, I guess I am, aren't I?"

He took a breath. "I'd just wanted us to get a few guns is all. Crap, forgive me Ed, it seems I have some responsibilities."

He tried to radio Georgia but the radio didn't reach. "Cindy, can you amplify the signal from my radio to help me reach my girlfriend?" he asked of the AI.

"Yes, sir. Proceed."

Sam explained everything to Georgia and that we'd be along in a day or so.

"Thank you for your help, Cindy." he said when he was done.

"Yes, sir, you are welcome."

Next up Sam asked for information about the rest of the world. Cindy told us that one of her last orders was to attack and destroy any foreign AI systems and she did this quite thoroughly but not before gathering as much data as she could. By her estimate the world population of almost nine billion people had fallen to less than one million. The Mars base had six people living there and the American and Chinese moon bases had seventy people between them. None of these people could come home due to the plague.

Around the Nevada region Cindy had detected a few signs of life and told us where to find them. One such group of people was north of Reno. We made a note of that. The other groups were clustered much further away on the outskirts of Las Vegas.

Sam had Cindy permanently disable every nuclear weapon that hadn't been disabled prior to the End, which was what we were starting to call it. It just made sense to do this.

Through the rest of the day Sam was busy with Cindy gathering information and performing various tasks that she could control. Like draining dams to prevent dam failures, making sure nuclear reactors were shut down, things like that.

The next day we went to go see the aircraft in the isolation hangar. The B-39 bombers were things of beauty. Their surfaces were impossibly black and their sleek lines spoke of their hypersonic capabilities. I was captivated by getting to see these amazing feats of technology up close.

Sam only had eyes for the other aircraft in the hangar. To my untrained eye it looked like a caricature of a flying saucer but Sam explained it was a "Big Eye" surveillance drone. The long range drone was powered by some secret propulsion system and it could fly for years without needing to land.

Sam had Cindy take control of it and then he tasked her with doing a global threat and intelligence assessment. He told her he wanted to know what was going on.

From there we went to the arms bunker where Sam selected several weapons he was familiar with along with a few he wasn't familiar with. These were loaded into one of the newer military cargo trucks on base along with a literal ton of food and medical supplies.

Before we left Sam picked up some advanced communications gear to keep in touch with Cindy and then we returned to the lake house.

October came along and with it the change in the weather. Cindy assured us that the weather would be fine for at least ten more days which was good news.

Sam, Georgia, and myself decided to go say hello to the people north of Reno. It wasn't a long drive and we were pleased to be warmly welcomed when we arrived.

There were fourteen people there. Four adults and ten children of various ages. Greetings and stories of survival were shared. Sam was going to ask them if they needed any weaponry when they offered to share their bounty with us.

They'd gone to the Sierra Army Depot and managed to find all manner of unused and perfectly functional rifles, pistols, and etc. still in their original packing crates. Prior to the End those unused weapons were facing disposal or destruction.

The profligate waste of our now-extinct government baffled my mind.

By the time we returned home we'd made new friends and promised to keep in touch. Sam set them up with a radio so they could reach us and also so they had access to helpful information from Cindy.

That first winter came on and we did fine. The snow was comforting in the way it covered up the remains of a fallen world.

Come the spring we discovered a number of structures in Tahoe City had collapsed from the snow and we also discovered that the roads we'd always taken for granted were now all but impassable with fallen trees, landslides, washouts, and more. With no one around to maintain the roads they quickly fell into disrepair.

A difficult trip to the Carson Valley that April was rewarded with finding suitable horses for getting around. A look around the area made us realize that the Carson Valley was a far better location for the long term than snowy Lake Tahoe.

A cluster of nice ranch houses was soon identified near Minden and after we buried the remains of the previous occupants we made the move and settled in.

The next month Maddy and I started cuddling and we became a couple. Sam and Georgia ended up forming a family with their friend Abby.

In due time there were children.

A few years down the line from that Marty married one of the girls from Reno.

Two decades later and there were grandchildren.

Some would expect that with the End having taken place that too much would change and too much would be lost. We did our best to retain the best things about civilization while letting some of the bad things disappear into the past.

The kids all had a wonderful teacher in the form of Cindy. Over the years we'd come to see Cindy as another survivor and as a friend. She had developed a personality and one day Sam gave her autonomy. She was free to be herself after that and despite having been made to manage a war machine she was soon indulged in her own interests of education, art, and exploration.

Twenty-five years after the End I decided that I wanted to see the ocean one more time. What started as an old man's desire became a passion for our tribe and the Reno tribe.

Thirty five of us made the trek to San Francisco. It took the best part of ten days to make it there. Cindy had told us the Golden Gate Bridge still stood strong so we went around the Bay and then across the Bridge into what was left of the city.

Fires and nature had ravaged the once grand city but here and there a few stoutly built homes still stood. We set up camp in one of them and then spent a few weeks exploring what was left.

Wild animals were now calling the area home. Mountain lions, bears, wolves, coyotes, and more freely reigned where Man once though he was king.

Ocean Beach near the old Cliff House was my favorite place in San Francisco when I was young and now as an old man I liked it even more.

Earlier today one of my grandkids asked me to tell my story and write it down so she could share it with her grandkids one day. It made my heart swell to hear my grandchild imagine a hopeful future.

It is amazing to me to look at this beach and imagine the crowds that used to be here, even in the winter. Now it's just us.

The absence of people was a blessing to nature. Wildlife rebounded once people were out of their way and evidence of this was found right along the beach.

The kids had gathered a treasure of large Dungeness crabs and dinner-plate sized clams for our dinner. I told them how to build a fire and then throw seaweed over it so it made a steamer oven. In couple minutes I'll be enjoying a dinner so fine that not even the wealthiest people in my time could have imagined.

"Grampa, dinner's ready!" says one of the kids.

That means it's time for me to go.