After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode sixteen – “Duplicity”

The General was talking about duty…

“But what exactly does that mean?” Brent thought.

Duty to what? Duty to whom?

As far as Brent knew most of the ‘whoms’ were dead husks, greasy piles of bones in expensive suits moldering on the floors of Georgetown row houses. 

Brent’s sense of duty was as strong, probably stronger than most men’s. He’d fought and bled for his country. Now he wondered what the General was fighting for.

Dead men?

Ghosts?

Shadows?

Was he fighting for himself? 

Or was he striving for something bigger?

Was he fighting for an idea?

The idea of ‘America’?  

...

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After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode fifteen – “Clues”

…

The old man stood in the shadow of the cabin doorway watching the summer rain drip-drip-drip from the overhanging pine boughs. A dark, wet cloud sat over the island, pregnant with moisture. 

It seemed to grasp and squeeze everything, as if the whole lake was locked tightly in a grey tomb. 

The water of the lake beaded up in a thousand ripples as the rain fell. 

There was no wind.  

The air hung heavy with the wet smell of moss and decomposing pine needles.

It felt oppressive.

He squinted at the sky. Its darkness echoing his own thoughts.  

...

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After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode fourteen – “Island”

…

The Old Man and Bill the dog trailed Stevey down a pine needle carpeted path. There were handmade wooden signs with yellow inlaid arrows and labels nailed to trees at trail intersections. 

There were names like “Tuckaleechee Path; and Sequatchie climb. Some called out local features, like Dinosaur Rock, or Little Falls. 

“What is this place?” The Old Man asked Stevey.  

...

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After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode thirteen – “Tracks”

…

They hiked up a twisting two lane back road with no shoulders. They were a half-day walk south of the campus now. The narrow road scaled a bluff on the west side of the river.

Tangled vegetation leaned in on the uphill side. The land dropped away precipitously on the downhill side behind a rusted metal traffic barrier. 

It felt constricting and dangerous.

Before the apocalypse, traffic alone would have made this a dangerous place for pedestrians. If a vehicle came, the only escape was to dive into the harsh landscape on either side. 

There was no place to hide.

...

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After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode twelve – “Coffee”

...

Coffee.

It wasn’t great coffee.  

But at this point, who complained about coffee?  

It reminded Brent of that horrid, watery instant coffee the British drank on his deployment in the UK. Nescafe polluted so heavily with petrochemical derived creamers and sugar that it was more of a science project than a coffee.  

He relaxed into the cafeteria chair and dreamed about good coffee. 

“Ahhh… But the good stuff…” He reminisced, leaning back in the sun of the window, closing his eyes, and feeling the gentle heat of the sun through the glass on his face.  “Dark espresso pressed in small cups and so strong it made your tongue curl around your teeth.” 

He smiled.

...

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After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode eleven – “Embers”

…

Bill the Dog could sense concern. 

He could smell worry, tinged with the need for action. 

It was time to move.

His right hip ached a bit from the effort of chasing down and disarming the kids. The pain was new to Bill. It started after climbing through that window. Bill was made for action, but windows and hard tile floors were not in his training.

Bill wasn’t a puppy anymore. Like all good dogs, he had little concept of time and no concept of ‘getting old’. His experiences yesterday just made him a better dog for today. 

There was no sense of tomorrow.  

There was only now.

If there was anything that men could learn from dogs, it was to live in the moment. 

Carpe Diem.

...

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After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode ten – “The New State”

…

“I don’t care who you were!” The General began.

“I don’t care what you’ve done!” He continued.

He looked out at the newcomers like an eagle eyeing a field full of rats trying to decide which one to eat first. 

His audience was the assembled remnants of The King’s men which Brent had brought back from the DC. Numbering a dozen, they stood uneasily in their dirty clothes. 

The wounded sat in wheelchairs. 

Some stared at the floor or off into empty space, exhausted and defeated and depleted. 

Others glowered like defiant teenagers.

...

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After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode nine – “the General”

...

“I can do all things through him who gives me strength.”

The General finished his morning prayer, lifted his hands from the well-worn leather-bound bible, and felt the peace of that practice in his soul. 

The bible was a gift from his wife when they first got married. Sometimes they prayed together in the mornings. The practice cemented their partnership. It got them through the hard times. 

And there were plenty of hard times to be gotten through in a soldier’s life. 

...

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After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode eight – “Post-Natal”

...

The mid-afternoon sun slanted through the dining hall windows and illuminated the two boys, Petey and Warren, hunched over large bowls of rice and beans, shoveling food into their mouths like it was some sort of carnival eating contest. 

Paul looked beyond the ‘kids’ at the bullet holes in the glass panels of the front door and immediately began thinking about how to fix them. 

One of those boomers at the zoo probably knew how to fix and re-mortar a window. 

But should he bother? Was it even worth it now? 

...

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After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode seven – “Starve”

...

Their thoughtful walk and conversation was interrupted by the echo of nearby gunshots and muted shouting - sounds that bounced their way through the campus off the walls of the empty dormitories and old classrooms. 

The sounds were out of place and jarring, like derisive curses overheard at an elegant dinner party.

Paul and the Old Man, and Bill the Dog – the three of them - stopped on a dime and locked eyes with each other, instantly, wordlessly communicating the reality of the life-or-death tension that, here in the apocalypse, seemed to perpetually hang in the air at every turn.

...

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