Walter In Denver

A Diversion

Whereupon I attempt to write something coherent using the parameters described here.

They had never met before, but Avi was
certainly happy, although a bit reluctant, to put a face on the
nickname '1o3' used while commenting, with that nonchalance
which had come to characterize him. Although he found it somewhat annoying that '1o3' would not give any other name. Nonchalant in person, too, thought Avi.

But given the events of the last few minutes there were many questions to occupy his mind. Avi barely had time to wonder how this long-time weblog commenter had managed to find him. He could not recall ever writing about exactly where in Montana he was living, and with the internet a thing of the past, there was no way to go back and refresh his memory. Avi had scarcely had any news from the outside world and he was grateful for what news his guest brought. Most everyone had died in the epidemic - perhaps a tenth of the population was spared, his guest surmised.

Avi had purposefully cut himself off from the outside world. He found solace in his solitary life in the Montana back woods, so different from the Miami neighborhood where he grew up. He found a ranch to use as a residence, and gained permission from the owner to live there as a caretaker over the winter. It was more of a summer house, the owners were Californians who spent the short warm season in Montana. They were happy to have someone to watch the place. Avi was happy to have a place to stay. He did not need a paycheck, and was so eager to avoid human contact that he refused to stay in the house and took up residence in the barn. He ventured into the house only to update his blog.

It was on one such occasion that he first heard of the catastrophe. A virus, a new form of some flu or other, was spreading quickly around the world. Avi, like most of the world's populace, did not immediately recognize it for what it was. In fact he was one of the very last to know. Two weeks after he first read the news of the disease, phone service to the ranch was cut off. He had not been online in the interim. The next nearest phone he could think of was in town, about ten miles away. He fired up the old pickup and headed into town, crashing through unplowed snowdrifts as he went, getting stuck, digging out, driving on.

Still, the thought of the disease had not occured to him. He saw no tire tracks in the snow until he approached town. Every building was dark. Nothing moved. Avi parked the truck and got out. Peering through windows and locked doors his curiosity grew. Did everyone leave town for the winter? Even the grocery store was closed, and for the first time Avi felt a twinge of fear. He was not sure if he had supplies to last the winter, and if the pass had not been plowed...

He heard a noise, the sound of a diesel engine. He walked toward the source of the sound, toward the edge of town. As he got closer he saw a bulldozer pushing a mound of earth into a freshly dug pit. Other than the dozer operator there was no one in sight. He approached the man and waved.

Avi saw the man atop the machine startle and jump, and the next thing he saw was a shotgun leveled at his head.

"Don't get any closer!" the man's voice was hoarse and cracking.

At the same time Avi got a glimpse into the pit. Bodies, frozen, some already half buried. Dozens of them were visible. He stared for some moments, until the man on the bulldozer spoke again.

"Where did you come from?" The shotgun had not moved.

Avi stammered out an explanation. The other man sat quietly.

"What happened to these people?" Avi finally asked.

"The flu got 'em. You haven't heard?" The man's voice softened a bit. "I'm the only one left," he added, and lowered the gun. Avi thought he had better not get any closer, anyway. His mind raced, trying to make sense of what he was seeing and hearing. He remembered, now, the flu he had read about online two weeks before - could it have spread so fast, been so deadly?

He turned around and walked back into town, and the man returned to his grim task. That night Avi stayed in town, sleeping in an abandoned house. In the morning he tried to drive over the pass, but it took him several hours to make it only a mile or so, and he realized it was futile. By the time he made it back into town the man with the bulldozer was nowhere to be found. Avi broke into the grocery store, but found the shelves almost bare. He loaded some canned peas into the truck, and a few cases of beer, and headed back to the ranch. There was nothing else to do.

The next few weeks passed as do years. Avi was waiting for spring, but what then? What was left outside the little valley which now trapped him? He took the hunting rifle the homeowners had left in the house and he managed to drop an elk, but he saw precious little game. Of course he had learned to shoot in his years in the service, but he knew little of hunting. He thought he should hang the elk to cure it, that is what you do, right? He hung it from the rafters on one end of the barn and let it bleed, away from where he slept, and cut off pieces of meat as he needed them. He busied himself hunting, cutting firewood, and chopping through the ice of the nearby stream to refill his water supply.

One sunny day as he worked he looked up to see a lone figure trudging through the snow on the road up to the ranch. He wore a plain parka, snow boots, a backpack, and - to Avi's astonishment - a snowboard strapped over the pack. It occured to Avi that he should protect himself in case this fellow should be carrying the flu, but dismissed the thought. If most every one else is dead, why should he care?

As the man came closer Avi called out to him.

"Hello!"

"Hello, Octavio."

Octavio! No one called him that. Most did not even know him except by his nickname.

"I am 1o3." said the stranger, smiling, pronouncing it one- oh - three. It took a few seconds for Avi to recognize the name. The commenter from the blog!

"How....?" He could not say any more. The stranger just smiled.

That evening they shared some elk meat and beer in the barn, along with some fresh bread the stranger had brought with him. Avi's guest showed no interest in going into the house, not even asking why they would sleep in the barn. Avi, in return, tried not to pry, even though he could not imagine how his new friend had found him out there in the woods, carrying fresh bread, no less.

They spoke of the epidemic, and '1o3' confirmed that it was a worldwide event. But he did not care to elaborate. He spoke instead of snowboarding. Would Avi take him to the mountains nearby? Avi was now numb to further surprises, and found himself agreeing to the request.

The next morning they set out, Avi on snowshoes, his guest trodding along in boots, but having no problem keeping up. They found a north facing slope, with some space between the trees, and Avi found a sunny place to sit and watch his friend take run after run. Avi did not know much about snowboarding, but it was obvious to him that the fellow was talented, effortlessly gliding around trees and through glades, even taking some jumps off cliff bands. In early afternoon '1o3' took a break and pulled some sandwiches and wine out of his backpack.

Where did that stuff come from? - Avi wondered to himself.

A few more runs and the pair headed back to the ranch, not wanting to be caught outdoors as temperatures dropped after sunset. They were about halfway back when Avi felt his snowshoe catch a tree root hidden under the snow. His knee popped audibly, and he hit the snow face first. His was not at first conscious of the pain, but he knew he was in trouble. They were still an hour's worth of hiking from the ranch, and if he could not walk....

"Let me help," was all his guest said. He picked up Avi and began to carry him piggy-back.

Avi started to protest, "There's no way you can..." but the pain quickly became to much for speech. The rest of the hike was a blur to him. Back at the barn they opened a few beers and Avi drifted to sleep.

The next morning Avi's guest was up and donning his backpack as Avi first opened his eyes.

"Let's head into town."

"What? I don't think that's a good idea." Avi rolled off his cot and tested his injured knee, and found it not so sore."Well, maybe I'll be OK. You know there's nothing there, right?"

"I would like to see it."

They piled into the truck and Avi took the wheel. The road leading to the highway was covered in over a foot of snow, but the truck plowed through easily. Once they were at the highway, Avi was in for yet another surprise.

The highway was plowed.

When they got to town they found the roads clear of snow, and the lights were on in many buildings. Figures were visible inside the grocery store, and Avi thought he saw a glimpse of someone walking a dog a few blocks away.

"Let me see something." said Avi, embarrassed now. He had told his friend about the empty town and the mass grave. How to explain this? He drove to the pit where he had seen the bodies being buried. The earth was freshly turned with mounds of dirt poking up through the snow, as if someone had uprooted giant potatoes from the ground.

"This was where the people were buried. Must have been just about the whole town!" he exclaimed.

"Yes, I know," said his friend, smiling. "They were."

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Copygodd and Michelle play, too.

Posted by Walter at February 5, 2005 04:15 PM