Inoculation Zero: Welcome to the Age of War by S. Ison

Author:S. Ison [Ison, S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-04-14T22:00:00+00:00

Bridgman, Michigan

Mike and Jada sat in the darkened house. They’d spent the last two days lying low. After killing the man by the fire barrel, they’d walked two hours away. Mike didn’t think the gang would look that far. They would, however, be on high alert.

He and Jada had found a vacant home with little damage. It had been looted of all food, but the beds were still in good shape; they even had sheets. The house was dusty and hadn’t been occupied for months, so it was unlikely they’d be disturbed.

It was early evening and they were eating another homemade granola bar each. They were getting low on water, and Jada had suggested they drink from the toilet tanks. Mike had looked at her, and begun to get a sense of what she’d done to survive.

“Jenna was a pediatric nurse. She loved working with the babies,” Jada said softly. She nibbled slowly, savoring the food.

“What did you do?” he asked, taking a tentative drink of the tank water. It was flat, but didn’t taste bad. Better than drinking out of the bowl, he decided. He could smell Jada from across the room. They were sitting in the living room by the window. She smelled sour and dank, a long time from fresh.

He’d gotten a good look at her when daylight came the previous day. Her hair was matted to her head, greasy, and he suspected it hadn’t been washed since the power went missing. Her top priority had been survival, not hygiene.

He was again struck by how fortunate he, Stephen, and Alisa had been to get out and away before the shit hit the fan. They’d had the resources and ability to feed and bath themselves. It had been a laborious task heating water, but at least they’d had soap and shampoo. They’d used them sparingly, but they’d had them all the same.

“I was a chef, believe it or not.” She laughed at the irony.

Mike joined her in laughter. It was funny, but it wasn’t.

“How about you?” she asked, drinking from a dusty glass she’d found in the kitchen cupboard.

For some reason, Mike felt ashamed of his life before. It had been a wasted life, a useless life.

“Not a whole lot, I’m sorry to say. I was like most people; doing as little as possible.” He shrugged, embarrassed. He fidgeted nervously with his jacket sleeve.

“Yet you survived, and from the looks of it, you did pretty good. I’d say that is something. Jenna and I did okay the first weeks after we lost power, but it was so hard to find anything to eat. All the stores had been ransacked. Then we went dumpster diving, which was horrible,” Jada said, making a face.

“But then it got worse. We ended up going back to dumpsters to eat greasy paper from discarded fast food, and we ate the bugs in the dumpsters. It was all there was,” she said, a violent shiver wracking her thin frame.

“Jesus Christ,” was all Mike could say.

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