FBR chapter 4, scene 5, end of the chapter 4

Foreign Body Reaction, Alan McNeill
Chapter 4 Scene 5.

Mark and Ben were parked back in the under the trees, invisible from above, with a thick second growth fir canopy above them, and slightly uphill from the intersection. They were early by a few minutes for the two hour mandate Ben had given Jacob. He was confident that Jacob would come, but not so sure about Emily.

“We took a chance going through town,” said Ben, trying to be diplomatic. They sat watching the late afternoon sunlight cut cones of light through the trees, illuminating the soft fir needle debris that covered the old logging track. The trees were uniform as Ben looked out through the forest. They would be ready for harvest in about ten years. Ben shook his head to himself, it was very hard to merge what he thought would happen with the flu, and the bucolic scene before him.

“We had to go through Selma to get up here,” said Mark.

“I shouldn't have gone into the cafe, it was stupid, not your fault, but it is difficult to remember that people want me dead.”

“Hell Ben, no one's looking for you with this mess going on. It was important for Darlene to meet you. She needed to see you and decide if she can trust you.”

Ben bristled a bit, “Trust me? Why the fuck does she need to trust me? I didn't ask her one fucking thing, not even to know who she was. You two sprung that on me yourselves!”

Mark slouched against the drivers door. His gimme hat was pulled low on his forehead. He was relaxed.

“Where are we going from here?”

“Where? I don't know about you, Darlene, Jacob or his wife Emily, but I'm going to turn ninety degrees away from civilization, and wait for a vaccine, that's where I'm going.”

Mark nodded laconically, and gazed out at the dusty crossroads in front of them. “Just speaking for yourself, huh? You have been preparing. . .”

“There is no preparation for this,” interrupted Ben. “This strain of bird flu is no longer bird flu, it is person to person now, get it? The 1918 and 1919 flu that killed about fifty million people, this one is much worse, this one has killed more than sixty percent of the people who get it, and in Thailand it is reported to have killed ninety percent of those who got it. No one is prepared for this.”

Mark let Ben run down. The both stared out the window. Ben shifted in his seat.

They watched the dust. Mark rolled down the window a bit to hear approaching vehicles. He hadn't had time yet, or the opportunity to tell Ben about the gangs that Darlene had mentioned. Bad people were taking advantage of a law being stretched very thin. Almost every lawman, state, sheriff, or Fed was trying to control the spread of the disease. Every crisis is an opportunity for those people who live on the illegal fringe.

“Darlene is our connection to people everywhere we might go. She has friends and cells in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and California. Darlene knows things that would send many people to jail and worse. She has risked a lot to funnel the hard information about federal logging sales out to all the green groups. The timber industry has had people looking for that leak for a long time. She's not stupid, she understands what this flu is going to do.”

“Well good for her, I for one don't have a fucking clue as to the what this flu will really do.”

“She thinks you do, she thinks you know, and so do I. I've asked her to meet us here at dusk, after you're done with Jacob.”

Ben jerked upright. “Why?”

“Why Jacob and Emily? What are you going to ask him Ben?”

“He's been a friend to me when I was down, I can't let him stay in Grants Pass and deal with what is coming in the next few weeks.”

“Same with Darlene, partner. I only known you for a few months, Ben, but I know that when you don't know, it isn't from lack of information. You think you don't know what to do. I think you do.”

“Mark, I'm not kidding, everything I could read in that short time at the tower, everything indicates a very fast spread. The virus has combined with another human virus, the people studying it new it had to happen. There were over five hundred people who got the bird flu, handling birds, etc. And that virus was deadly to people as well as chickens, but through a little twist, it infects deep in the longs – that is how it is passed from bird to bird, but people didn't get it because the virus couldn't reach the same place in humans. But all these viruses have a trick that viruses do.

When the virus infects a person who already has another flu virus, both genetic codes get mixed up inside infected cells and sometimes they recombine. It is called reassortant combination. That is what happened in 1918 and it is what has happened now. The deadly parts of the bird flu have combined with the easy human to human transmission of a regular cold. It is a new virus.

“But don't the labs have a vaccine for the bird flu already. Thought I read that. Won't we just get inoculated.”

“When it merges with the new virus the old vaccine doesn't work. You have to make a new vaccine starting now. I'm sure the Feds have made that a priority. But it will take a while.”

“How long?” asked Mark.

“Too long. Six months minimum is what I read.”

“Sheeet!”

Ben continued looking off into the distance, trying to make sense of all the information he had read on the net. “Stopping I-5 will not stop the spread of the virus. Did you see the trucks going around down to the coast route, to 101. Blocking Five will do something alright, it will collapse what is left of our economy.”

Ben thought about that for a moment. Why weren't the goons from Homeland security blocking the secondary roads? He had to be careful to accept the idea that it was a decision not to close them. In times of stress and calamity, many things got done and many didn't and during the confusion it was easy to think that someone was orchestrating the choices. Why would the Feds what to collapse the West Coast trade and energy flow from Mexico and Canada? Why would they want the bird flu to spread? He shook his head, the tendrils of that thought didn't do him any good right now.

“Ben, I don't know what is going to happen and I don't have a clue as to your plan. But I'm with you, I'm betting you do have a plan, and no, I'm not fucking Darlene.”

Ben's reply was interrupted by the sound of gravel crunching slowly under tires. Slowly Jacob's vehicle rolled into the intersection and stopped. Jacob got out and shielded his eyes from the bright sun, looking around. Mark's truck was invisible in the shadows uphill under the trees.

Mark said nothing but quietly opened his door and slipped into the trees. Ben watched him go, waited a moment, got out started down the trail to give Jacob and Emily a choice.

end chapter 4