Are there suddenly more sick people? Or, the Superflu on SDMB

Cafe Society
141

Hello…writing from Toronto here…registered on the SDMB just to post to this thread.

I’m holed up in Fort Book (U of T’s Robarts Library) right now. Stuck on floors 9 through 13. God it’s awful. Like it wasn’t frickin’ creepy enough before. Something’s gone wrong with the elevators; they’re not working anymore. (Can’t be the power, because the computers and most of the lights are working.) I’m afraid to try to open the elevator doors. And there’s no other way to get to lower floors yet, because the stairwell is closed up by a locked metal gate at the ninth floor. I met up with two other students, C and L (they seem to be healthy too) and we’ve been trying to break through the lock, or the hinges, or something. Luckily nobody ever uses the stairwells; they’re empty and free of…[gag]…awful…

The university network and the library computers are so damn slow it’s impossible to access any news sites, what with the traffic they’re getting. Thank god you’re all here. It’s such a relief to know there’s still people left. If - when - C and L and I get out, we’re going to get out of Toronto - out of Canada - head to Chicago maybe, to ally ourselves with any Dopers there…but we’ve got to get across the border. I guess Windsor-Detroit is out. Is there anyone who knows if the Bluewater Bridge from Sarnia to Port Huron is still crossable?

…was that the gate breaking down? Got to go…oh, finally, to be out of Fort Book.
If only we can make it out of Toronto.

Tamrin

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My condolences to all of you for your losses. :frowning:

143

Still alive in the Pacific Northwest (for now).

That’s odd you should mention that because I’ve been doing some research about how this “Superflu” might’ve started. It seems as though the first cases were in Philadelphia followed, in succession, by outbreaks in San Francisco, New Orleans, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Kinshasa, Karachi, Bangkok, and Beijing. I also found out about some curious incidents occurring in Philadelphia immediately before the first cases were reported. For example, some extreme animal rights group let loose all the animals in the Philly Zoo and locked up a prominent virologist in one of the cages. The same day this happened, there was a gunfight at the Philadelphia Airport in which an escaped mental patient was shot by police when he tried to shoot a boarding passenger. The passenger? A lab assistant of the same virologist who was locked up at the zoo. Anyway, this lab assistant was on his way to San Francisco which is where the next cases of the flu were reported.

It gets freakier. The man who was shot at the Philly Airport was the same man who mysteriously disappeared from a mental hospital about six years before. I don’t mean he escaped while they weren’t looking, apparently he literally disappeared after being bound and placed in a heavily guarded room. And it that weren’t enough, even though this guy was between 35 to 45 years old, the only records that existed on him were those from when he was in the mental hospital and in the several days leading up to his shooting at the airport. There were no previous residences, no social security card, no driver’s license (he couldn’t drive), no tax records, no employment records, and no school records. Anyway, before he escaped from the hospital, doctors there reported he kept warning about a disease that would break out and kill almost all of the human race in six years time.

I didn’t find much info beyond that. As you might guess, the number of newstories kind of dropped off once the flu hit. Is there a connection? I can’t really say. Considering all the strange stuff that’s happened recently, maybe I’m getting my end-of-the-world stories mixed up.

144

Hi guys.

Who was it who said “What a revoltin’ development this is”? Eve would know. I wonder what happened to her? I didn’t see her name in this thread.

I always told Mr. Rilch that if something like this happened, I wanted to stay put. I said “I don’t want to spend my last hours stuck in traffic on the 5.” And I used to love those movies, like Deep Impact and ID4. God, I remember that I deliberately watched ID4 a few days after 9/11, just to put the whole thing in perspective. What should I watch now? 28 Days Later? Dawn of the Dead? I guess I’ll never get to see the remake. DId I ever tell you guys, my acting teacher was a newscaster in teh original DotD?

Speaking of newscasters…I remember Christine Devine doing a newscast with tears running down her face. I can’t remember everything she saiad, adn Ic oudldn’t hear her too well either, becuase there was a lot of yelling and commotion behind her, but basically, she said it was time to tell the truth. And they showed a lot of footage of people hysterical in the streets, and army trucks blocking the road, and…oh god this was awful…They were emptying out Dumpsters full of people into the LA harbor. Dead people. I remember one guy with a Lakers jersey…I don’t know why I was so fixated on him, but I guess it was better than looking at the big picture, you know?

My parents are in Vegas, did I tell you that? My mom sent me an email at the beginning of all this. My sister was the first to go. Well, she was a waitress; she must have gotten fifty doses of this thing the first day. My mom said that after Cindy died, Jack, my BIL shut himself in the garage with his truck’s engine running.

I never drove Mr. Rilch’s truck before. But it hardly matters now; if I get in an accident, I don’t have to worry about hte insurance. OH, and first, I went into Sav-On, and then Rite-Aid, and took all the Dilantin they had. I don’t know what I’ll do when I run out, but maybe I can wean myself off it. At least I’ll never have to get my blood checked again; I always hated that.

Anway, I got to Vegas, which wasn’t easy, but when I started asking about my parents and described them, someone told me all the old people had been “taken care of”. And I don’t think they meant they were in a retirement home.

I never liked Vegas much to begin with, so I wasn’t going to stay if my parents weren’t there, but I REALLY wanted to get out of there when I saw the kind of people who were hanging around. There was this one guy with burn marks all over his hands and arms, and when I saw his eyes, my stomach just froze up. I got back in the truck and told them I wanted to get some ice, and I just kept going. Lord, I never want to go back there.

So I stopped off in NEw Mexico. Santa Fe, to be precise. I used to live there, and it didn’t take me long to find some weed. Oh, the price was really low. As in, I just took somebody’s stash out of their dorm room. The St. John’s campus was totally empty, except for one guy. I asked if he wanted to come with me, but he said he was going to Taos. The way he described it, it sounded better than those creeps in Vegas or those holy-rollers in Boulder. Maybe I’ll double back after I’m finished in West Virginia.

I’ll check in with you guys along the way. Sorry to hear about all your troubles. I just gotta get Mr. Rilch to WVa. Oh, that’s what the ice is for. I think he’d like to be next to the Star Wars kid, or maybe on the farm. I’ll decide when I get there.

[Cartman]I love you guys[/Cartman]

145

Okay, I feel better now. I met up with two guys and a woman last night…they went nuts for the dog. Charles and Donna are a couple, and Marcus seems very nice. He’s very outgoing and smart and funny, kind of like Chandler on Friends. Plus, he likes Star Trek so he can’t be all bad.

I tried to do a Google search on Lloyd Henreid, but the only thing that came up was a felon out west somewhere, convicted of serial murder in three states. Surely such a man would have starved to death in his cell if he survived, right?

It’s amazing how other people can lift your spirits. Marcus is teaching me to ride a motorcycle. We’re in Mississippi now.

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Can’t you just take a boat? Rowboat, jet-ski, cabin cruiser, tugboat… any one of those should make it.

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For the first time since this all started happening, I checked here out of curiousity, and man am I happy to see that this is one of the few websites still up. It just makes me so happy to see that there are more of you out there, and it really does bring me a sense of hope. We’ve been on the road for about a week now, and with nothing else left back home, we are heading to Boulder. It seems crazy to be doing so, following a dream, but all that is left is that little bit of hope. Getting all of this out feels kind of nice, so please excuse me if I tend to wander a bit.

I just can’t believe that all of this has happened, and in such a short timeframe. It seems like just yesterday that my mom first came down with the flu, and that within a week my entire family was gone.

Just… gone.

Watching this happen to the people I love has proven to be the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to deal with, and to see everyone around my dying was just so immeasurably painful. All I can think about is why did this happen, and why haven’t I gotten sick too?

I’m lucky in a way I guess. In one of those seeming rare bits of mercy afforded to me in the past few weeks, my good friend Brandon also has failed to get sick, so at least for now, I am not alone. I don’t think either of us would still be alive if we didn’t have each other to lean on, and frankly, I don’t want to imagine the situation otherwise. I just buried my parents 2 weeks ago, but already it seems like so long ago. I somehow managed to honor their last wishes, and buried them in the cemetary, right next to my brother, where they wanted.

By the time they died, everything was already in chaos, so there really wasn’t anyone there to stop us from burying my parents there. It was horrible to be in that cemetary though, the sense of loss and hopelessness that I felt was horrible. Freshly dug graves everywhere, all of them shallow. Walking up to my brothers grave to dig my parents’, I saw the man who had just buried his wife not a week before we buried my brother back in 2002. We’d conversed a few times in the past when I would still visit my brother’s grave, and he was there yet again. It was such a tragic sight, you could tell that he was very sick and didn’t have much time left, curled up against his wife’s headstone. I just couldn’t bring myself to talk to him, as he was just lying there, gently touching his wife’s name, while wispering something inaudible to her.

Me and Brandon somehow managed to dig the graves, and now my parent’s rest, my mom off to the left, and my dad off to the right of my brother. It’s what they wanted, and I know that they would be happy.

Before we left the cemetary, I walked up to where my grandfather is buried, and found a fresh grave beside his. It was unmarked, but I can only assume that my grandmother lies there, and I hope she has found peace after having been reunited with my grandfather. We had buried Brandon’s family a few days prior, and not being able to stand being in that place any longer, we left to go back “home,” if you can call it that now.

The overwhelming feeling that I’ve gotten since this all started, is that while the illness was bad, it’s the survivors who are worse. Everyone has become so opportunistic , stealing what they want and need, seemingly losing their sense of humanity along the way.

My old neighborhood is almost unrecognizeable now, overturned and burned out cars, unmarked graves in backyards…

And the smell. Oh god, the smell. You can just smell the bodies that have to be inside some of the houses, which out of fear we have avoided entering. After the lootings started, Me and Brandon decided that the only way to ensure our own survival, assuming the illness doesn’t take us, was to move away from the towns. You could hear the gunshots in the night, and the looters breaking into buildings.

It just wasn’t safe anymore.

Before we left, we thought it best to stop at the local Super Wal-Mart to pick up some supplies for the road, so we loaded up my old Chrysler with what we could, food, clothing, both of our iBooks (and thankfully, both have WiFi cards, hence my posting) and headed out.

Wal-Mart was a sight, let me tell you. The doors were already broken off of their tracks, cars sitting in the parking lot, some empty, some not, there were even bodies lying in the parking lot.

Sad sight indeed.

Inside the store was no better, the grocery section was absolutely ransacked, and most of the canned goods were already gone. The lights were on, which was good, so we wandered around the store, grabbing what we needed. It was almost fun, you know. We each grabbed a buggy and started racing around the store, grabbing a lot of things we needed, and some things we didn’t. For a little while as we wandered the store, goofing off along the way, I almost forgot about the horror that surrounded us.

Getting back to the sporting goods department, We grabbed one of the few knives left, and finding a wal-mart vest lying on the counter, I put it on, and “sold” Brandon a gun, and the ammo to go with it, just in case.

I even hassled him about filling out a gun license and everything.

Well, I hate to cut my story short, but its getting late and we don’t want to stay here after dark.

Who knew that Starbucks and their WiFi hotspots would prove so useful?

Catch you guys later, and keep posting. It is so tremendously helpful to know that we aren’t the only sane ones left.

148

Morning all.
Maybe it was just from reading this thread in the wee hours, but I had this kind of creepy dream last night. Can’t really remember what happened, but it had something to do with Colorado. L had a similar dream.

[time out] :smacks forehead: I’m such an idiot… where is my brain at 2 in the morning? must fix plot inconsistency, must fix plot inconsistency [/time out] Unfortunately, that idea’s been taken, probly sometime when we were locked in the library. Apparently the lake’s filled with drifting boats…most people didn’t make it.

But thanks anyway, we’re going to make our way along the lakeshores to see if there’s any boats left. I think that the Sarnia area might be dangerous anyway…Chemical Valley and all that…so hopefully we get across before we’re that far west. Getting incoherent…oy. Anyway. No computers for a few days now.

Hope everyone’s still doing all right. And staying away from Vegas. Bye for now.

Tamrin

(just wondering…are the mods still alive? What about Cecil?)

149

[off]NDP, I think you’re referencing a different source. This is about Stephen King’s The Stand. Isn’t it?[/off].

Well, I decided to head north on I-75 via motorcycle. Though I’ll have to cross a mountain, at least there are no tunnels to deal with. :crosses himself: There is a road that parallels the highway all the way up to Cincy (SR 25), so I’ll always have two routing options. Here’s hoping the motorcycle can make it to at least Richmond, 'cause that is some hilly territory!

Then again, it’s not like I can’t pick up another one if I have to ditch the first. :rolleyes:

I spent some time in the library - not surprisingly, it was free of bodies. Luckily the local newspaper kept running rather deep into the crisis and didn’t actually stop operations until June 27th, so there is a pretty good record of what happened. Do you remember hearing about how the Army invaded and shut down that town in TX? It was big news on the 6th… but then there’s not a word printed about it after that, not until the 23rd when some rant by an obviously sick columnist mentioned it in his rather fanciful conspiracy theory involving the CIA, aliens, and lizard overlords.

However, there’s one series of pictures I found that did show people in biohazard suits guarding what were obviously locals, loading them into a bus. I have these pictures on my HD (and burned to CD), but can’t upload them to this board.

Then nothing for 6 days, not until news of a summer flu outbreak was being reported with the usual admonishments for the young, sick, and elderly. That was on the 13th. Then on the 15th, the warning from the WHO was released about a global flu epidemic of a “particularly infectious” kind. Dubya gave his press conference on the 17th and then belied his dismissal of the situation by shutting down civilian air traffic on the 19th and declaring martial law on the 20th. In 48 point font, nonetheless.

I think I saw my first sick person on the 13th… somebody in the line behind me at Kroger couldn’t stop sneezing for a minute or so. I remember being glad that I wasn’t behind that guy.

On the 24th the newspaper printed a chart detailing the number of estimated sick and dead people in Knoxville, TN, the US, and the world. The US was hit hardest: over 100,000,000 sick and about 40,000,000 dead, while the world as a total had 500,000,000 sick and 150,000,000 dead. They extrapolated from present trends and said that if the disease was “just” 80% infectious, the US could expect to lose about 200,000,000 people alone and maybe 4.5 billion worldwide. I fear it was far, far worse than that because I sure as hell know that 1 out of every 5 people weren’t left alive in Knoxville… more like 1 out of a hundred or a thousand or something like that. Martial law was breaking down by then - the country is… was… just too big to effectively cover and desertion rates were exceeding 30% for many units.

The reporting and coverage got increasingly spotty after the 24th… by then the rumor was going around that the President had already died and that the line of succession was essentially severed because everybody below him had the flu as well.

150

Ha! Thank you! I did a NYTimes search (their archives are still up and online) pparently a Lloyd Henreid, along with Andrew Freeman, went on a killing spree in a Lincoln Continental in the fairly recent past. I guess Henreid met Freeman in jail, where Henreid was in for attempted rape! I have no idea how he got out of prison… but now that Toby knows this, I bet he’s going to re-evaluate his Vegas plans.

NOTE TO MR. HENREID: We’re onto you.

The good news is that Toby and I are in Chicago. We decided to look around, hoping to find other humans, and lo, we found someone. She’s 72 years old and her name is Isadora Kresky. Afraid to venture out of her apartment, she’d been living on canned goods for weeks now; good thing she was a pack rat. When she heard our vehicle, she ran to the window and called to us. We’ve moved her and her cat into the 'Bago and bringing her with us.

We also found a dog. He’s a little terrier mix, and he looks like what the cat dragged in. We named him Fred and cleaned him up. The cats are none too happy about this, but they’ll get over it.

Things are surely looking up, if that’s possible. Thanks, Straight Dopers.

151

Then you need to come see me in Vegas. I’m a physician. I can help you. But you have to come here. Every other hospital on the planet is staffed entirely by corpses. Our hospital has the labs, medications, and caring doctors and nurses you need. If, God forbid, you need dialysis, we have the facilities for that too.

I think people in Boulder are going to find out very quickly that Rousseau was wrong. Life everywhere outside Las Vegas will be brutal, nasty, and short. I mean, it’s all well and good to live on nuts and berries, but in Boulder there’ll be nothing anybody can do if your kid eats a poisonous mushroom.

Vegas, on the other hand, is an electric Eden. Finally, people with knowledge and skills make the rules. I see Boulder as a place where people are trying very hard to repeat the same mistakes that got us to where we are. But this time, by the light of a dwindling supply of candles.

152

Well, that does it. I was heading to Boulder anyway, but now I’m definitely not even thinking of a trip to Vegas. Sounds like a real “trains running on time”, Triumph of the Will kind of place apparently run by a mass murderer. Boulder’s going to need some kind of organized governemnt and fast if we want to deal with a possible threat from the Vegas contingent. Also, I think it’s really important that we keep it from turning into a theocracy. I know people are seriously traumatized, but that’s all the more reason to try to be extra rational.

I’ve managed to get out of Houston. Out of curiosity, I headed up towards Arnett to see what I would find. Military roadblocks were everywhere, with plenty of crashed civilian cars around too. Obviously, the quarantine here was too little too late. I tried going through government memos I found in all the debris. I think I found some new info, that there was apparently some major exposure here early on, something that the military really jumped on. Some Army guy named Campion crashed his car here and he was already sick and he exposed several people here to the flu. I haven’t found anything explaining why Campion was different from any other sick person, why the military was interested in his specifically. I can’t help wondering if he was a test subject for bio-warfare that got loose somehow. Maybe the Army thought they could contain him.

It’s mega-creepy here. I’m leaving in a minute, heading northwest. Be careful, everybody.

153

Thank God you guys are still here! I’ve been trying for weeks to get here and see if anyone was still around!

Lexington was a madhouse. They cancelled school fairly quickly (which was crazy for them) and I heard stories about a rally on campus that went bad (come to think of it, I did hear what sounded like gunfire.)

I managed to get out, eventually. They had roadblocks on New Circle and Man O’War, but after about 10 days, they weren’t in any condition to stop anything. I “borrowed” a 4x4 truck and started making my way back west toward home. Figured it might not have been as bad in a small town like that.

I was wrong.

I rolled into the county about 2 days later (it used to be a 5 hour trip) and it was awful. Murray looked like a firefight had broken out between the Guard armory and some of the students. Mayfield wasn’t much better. Fortunately for me, the sporting goods store with the heavy weaponry in the basement hadn’t been looted yet, so I grabbed some protection.

I haven’t found anyone else yet, but the population was pretty sparse to begin with. I’m going to try to get to Paducah tomorrow, see if I can’t find some more supplies. Might try to find a motorcycle, since the roads are pretty bad to start with. Then I’m headed for Colorado, of all places. Crazy dreams…

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Dr. Whatever Your Name Is: how do you justify the fact that your leader, Lloyd Henreid, is a rapist/mass murderer? Just curious. Also, I find it hard to believe that Boulder is totally devoid of doctors or medical professionals.

Not everyone wants to live in an “electric Eden.” Some of us are actually relieved that the post-modern urban industrial blight is over.

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I’m late in checking in, you don’t want to know about what i’ve had to go through…

living in an isolated valley area in Vermont has delayed the onslaught of the Superflu, but we weren’t immune, it’s hit us hard, and since the valley tends to concentrate things at the center, it was havoc, i’ve only been living in Vt for a couple of years (grew up in Maine), but my formerly idyllic little village suddenly lost all semblance of society, looters ran rampant, god, i had to gun down at least 4 people trying to loot my apartment, there goes my damage deposit, i guess…
(please, no offense meant, humor is my coping mechanism)

i live 3 hours away from the family home in Maine, phone lines have been down for the longest time, i had to know if anyone from home survived…

i first prepared for the trip by stopping at the local Dodge dealer and taking one of the biggest, meanest Ram 3500 4X4 Crew Cab diesels for an “extended test drive” :wink: nice thing was, the thing still had a plowing package attached to it and a trailer hitch to the back, i figure, if i run low on fuel, i can always siphon off the 18-wheelers abandoned on the side of the road, and the plow would be handy for “clearing” any traffic jams i can’t drive around, i also stopped off at the local Yamaha dealer and picked up a couple of dual-sport bikes, just in case i need a small maneuverable vehicle, right now, they’re riding in the back of the truck

i raided (i really hate stealing, it was hard for me to do this, but i figure society as we know it is essentially gone, so “borrowing” firearms for protection is okay) the local firearms shop, grabbed all the shotshells i could, picked up a few other choice weapons, and packed them into the back of the extended cab

groceries and other nonperishables were stocked up on as well, grabbed a couple of 17" PowerBook G4’s from work (i signed them out, put them on payroll deduction, i didn’t steal them :wink: ), fully loaded with all the toys

just before i left to go home, i remembered my landlord has a full size trailer that my car fits perfectly on, so i loaded it up as well.

yes, i know, 4 vehicles (Diesel Ram, 2 motorcycles, and a Dodge Neon) is overkill for one person, but i’m bound to meet other people in need on the way to Colorado, and at the very least, i could give them protection having them ride in the Neon while it’s being towed by the Ram, it also gives me more cargo carrying capacity

i know i’m focussing on material goods that are unimportant in the grand scheme of things, once again, it’s a coping mechanism, keeping me from going mad with the reality of what’s really happening

i drove home to York, Maine, the back roads were eerily deserted, when i pulled into the house, Hannah, my Sister’s dog (a sweet, freindly mutt) started barking like mad, she didn’t recognize the truck, but as soon as i got out, i’ve never seen her that happy, i opened the doors to the house…

my worst fears confirmed, the stench of death permeated the house, i found my parents in bed, together in the rictus of death, it looks like they passed relatively peacefully, all things considered, at least they went together…i can’t go on about home, it hurts too much, i went down to our barn, why oh why did i do that, all 10 of my sister’s horses, dead, the stench was unbearable…

i had to know, i went into my Sister’s house, once again, the stench of death (will i ever get used to it, i hope i never do), my Sis, her husband and newborn daughter, all gone, why god, why…

i heard a noise from the basement, a whimpering, crying noise, i grabbed my .357, just to be safe, and opened the door to the basement…

“hello?!” i called down the stairs…

“Unca’ Russ?” came the weak reply…

Logan, yes it’s me, come on up, it’s safe

Logan, my 2 year old nephew came running up the stairs and latched onto my legs, other than being somewhat thin, seemed healthy, we went out to the truck, and i gave him full run of the groceries, it’s like he hadn’t eaten in over a week…

i fired up the tractor and began to prepare some graves, Mom and Dad i buried in the apple orchard they loved, Al, Lori, and Jade i buried by our pond, the horses were just too big, so i opened the barn doors in hopes the scavengers could get some use from them

i was faced with the unpleasant duty to tell Logan that Mom, Dad, Grandma and Grampa were dead, not sleeping, he took it quite well, in a maturity beyond his young years (he’s definitely a smart kid, he’s 2 chronologically, but easily 3 or 4, mentally), he left a favorite toy on each grave as a tribute to the family that will never get to see him grow into a man

we both got into the truck, in silence, and left for Colorado (with a quick stop at Kittery Trading Post to stock up), stopping briefly at the Nubble Light to see it one last time, funny, it’s still running, warning nonexistent ships of the dangers of the craggy Maine coastline, automated lighthouses, what a legacy to leave behind

see you all in Boulder, hopefully we can get the ski lifts running, i promised Logan i’d teach him how to ski (trying vainly to keep his mind off the horrors of burying his family, he’s too young for that)

I’ll post from the road if i can find some AirPort hotspots

Still, no dreams, yet…

Russ “MacTech” White

156

Obviously, Hannah’s coming with us, i also think i should pick up another more defensive dog, like a German Shepherd, i’ll stop off at a humane society on the way and save another dog, i’ll also let the other animals free, they don’t deserve to die behind bars, at least they’ll have a fighting chance in the wild…

157

We grow more and more concern for that old lady. She is the oldest living person now and needs to be honored as such. I beg any of you who know where she is to please tell me. I will personally see to her safety.

158

Inevitably, these accusations will come out of the Pit and find their way into a sober discussion. It is unfortunate that these rumors about our president’s past thrive so well without any real evidence.
Mr Henreid is not a threat to you. He’s only offering you another choice, and I think he has made a superb effort of making sure it’s an informed choice.

Boulder is not right for everyone. The misinformation circulating about our community, I think, is a great disservice to the harmony between our people and yours. All of this fear is a relic of the past, and I think it will go away when we learn to understand each other.

I also think it’s very unfortunate that many people in Las Vegas believe that Boulder’s leader is wanting to force her government upon us. Now from what I know about Mother Abagail, I can’t believe this is true of her. I’m hoping you can give us a moment of your time and dispell these rumors, explaining Abagail’s real short and long term goals. We’ve got to win this war against ignorance.

I’m sure it won’t be for long. The last I heard, Boulder has a veterinarian in town who’s done an admirable job of learning to take care of people. I look forward to meeting him.

That’s why I think this is an incredible opportunity. You don’t have to live in a post-modern community anymore. But because we’re here, you still can if you want to.

Coexistence and cooperation between our people is essential. Our first priority should be to understand each other. I’m hoping that you and I can be allies in building this understanding. I can tell you’re a rational person, and I hope you’ll apply this rationalism by visiting Las Vegas. Then perhaps we can talk.
Respect and Peace,

Dr Froteur

159

I’m in Wendover now. Driving through Nevada was really easy. Apparently, people didn’t try to cross the desert in the last hours of their lives. Instead, they went to Wal-Mart.

After my little break down, I pulled myself together and drove without stopping until I hit Wendover. I didn’t see another body–dead or living. The cats are angry with me for keeping them in their little carriers, but they’ll get over it. I was able to find some gas here in town and…wait, I think I heard something…

Holy shit!

The noise I heard was a little boy. He was knocking on my door. :confused: He didn’t speak much…well, he couldn’t really speak much. The most I got out of him was that he was hungry, and thirsty, and his parents were in the casion. The hotel doesn’t have A/C, so it’s brutually hot here, and he looks half-dead from exhaustion and dehydration. I gave him some water and food and put him to bed. Maybe I’ll be able to get his story out of him when he wakes up.

I might be stuck here for a few more days. It’s hot and it stinks, but I don’t want to move until he’s ready. Other than the obvious dehydration and hunger and fear, he looks healthy.

160

I think I heard some people are already in Boulder and have seen to her safety.

As for us, we’re about a day and a half from Boulder. The going is slow since we have to go around the worst accidents. We found a police van and ditched our truck for it. The cats can roam around the back freely without us having to worry about them getting under the pedals.