Genus: Evolving

One hundred twenty-two.

Eighteen months ago, Marian would have been thrilled to see her weight lower than one hundred and fifty but seeing one hundred and twenty-two was scary.

“She’s getting worse?” Tim asked.

“She’s getting worse,” Loni, Tim’s older sister, answered.

“But she was fine the other day.”

Three days ago, to be exact.

The human body acts fast when internal organs begin shutting down. Tim was young when their mother suffered this kind of health decline before, but Loni remembered it like it was yesterday.

Their mother ran out of insulin four days ago. She wasn’t hungry three days ago. She could barely move from exhaustion the next two days. Today, it was obvious she was losing weight quickly. Now, she’s barely able to stay awake. She was going in and out of consciousness and would soon slip into a coma if she continued to go without treatment.

“What do we do?” Tim asked.

“We need to get her insulin.”

Tim picked up an ax, and headed toward the door, “We passed a pharmacy when we got here. I’ll go take a look.”

Loni eyed him. He was strong and fast but also impulsive and inexperienced.

“Would you rather I go?”

“No, mom.”

His emphasis on mom was a clear “back off.”

“Ok, ok,” Loni relented with her hands up in a dramatic display. “Just be careful, you don’t know what kinds of people are around here.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

He shut the door behind him and listened for the door to lock behind him before moving out.

As soon as he stepped out of the shade, the hot sun assaulted his senses like a sand storm. The motel they were using had an empty ice machine, a sewer-dirty pool that stunk to high heaven, and an outdoor thermometer.

107 Degrees. And only 0926.

Sweat was already gathering on his forehead. He needed to move fast.

The town was the smallest town Tim ever visited in his relatively short life. He was used to larger cities, but this town had few of the conveniences he was accustomed to. The town had a motel, gas station, grocery store, pharmacy, and very few homes. But not a single other person. It was safe for them, at least for now.

Tim hurried to the pharmacy and entered through the shattered-out glass door cautiously and quietly. Lots of supplies were gone, pillaged early to looters before the town was abandoned.

He glanced around the bare shelves, hoping to find any meds his backpack could carry. He felt like he won the lottery when he found a few jugs of drain cleaning liquid.

He found some rubbing alcohol – took it. Also some bandages – his now!

He moved on to the medication area, finding those shelves bare as well. He expected as much. Tim couldn’t help but chuckle that condoms and personal lubricant were also empty. He found humor in some people’s priorities in the wake of a disaster.

Tim was focused on finding syringes and insulin. Luckily, those things were out in plain sight. Tim took the last of what the pharmacy had to offer before stepping back outside into the smoldering environment. Before he left, he noticed a magazine on the shelf from one of those science companies; his sister really liked that kind of thing so he took it with him.

Just as he reached the motel, he could hear a large vehicle approaching. The motor was powerful, but slow. He didn’t want to wait around and find out if whoever was coming was friendly. His best course of action was to remain hidden.

He knocked on the door and waited to hear the lock trick.

“Did you find any?” Loni asked as she let him in.

“Jesus, Loni, give me half a second,” Tim groaned as he closed and locked the door behind him.

Loni rolled her eyes at him. It was a familiar gesture at his seventeen year old attitude. But she waited, despite the urgency of the situation.

He said nothing, but he handed over a sterile syringe and insulin. Quickly, Loni prepared the insulin for injection, sterilized a small section of Marian’ skin with an alcohol wipe he took, and gave the injection.

“Now what?” he asked.

“We wait,” Loni answered. “Did you see our company?”

“No. I didn’t wait around.”

“Armored utility vehicle, if I had to guess.”

As if on cue, a voice over a megaphone broke the silence, “Anyone here, we’re from the National Guard. We’re offering medical services and safety to anyone who needs it!”

Loni waited in silence, looking at Tim to be quiet too. The message repeated. Loni peered out the peep hole in the door, seeing soldiers in an armored vehicle. The construction of the vehicle made it impossible to see if there were any wounded being transported.

“What do you think?” Tim whispered.

“You should risk it,” Marian chimed in.

Loni and Tim both turned toward their mother, surprised to see her sitting up.

“Anything they have to offer has to be safer than wandering town to town looking for supplies,” Angus continued. “How long can we really keep this up?”

Tim and Loni both knew their mother was right; finding insulin was becoming more difficult and next time they might not be so lucky.

Loni helped her mother to her feet. Tim helped her walk carefully out of the motel room and out toward the military vehicle. Loni stayed behind and gathered their supplies, taking a quick inventory of what Tim found in the pharmacy. She was pleased how many bottles of drain cleaning liquid he found; she would put those to good use as soon as they were somewhere safer.

The magazine caught her eye. The cover was talking about ground-breaking Prion-based therapy, boasting the research would “revolutionize modern medicine,” and “provide hope for the millions of people living with auto-immune disorders.”

The company was Nex-Gen, but more importantly, it was her father’s research.

A soldier walked through the door, leaning in the doorway to get Loni’s attention, “Ma’am? Your family is loaded up. It’s your turn.”

Loni nodded, putting on her backpack and carrying Tim’s with the magazine in hand. She followed the soldier to the vehicle. As she approached the opened door, she was pleased to see the vehicle was filled with non-military personnel.

“You have the supplies for diabetes, right?” Loni asked the driver who nodded to her in response. Loni was unnerved by facing soldier-people whose faces were covered by, essentially, hazmat gear. As she thought about it longer, they were in an area where radiation may be leaking due to lack of ongoing maintenance of the facilities. It seemed unlikely, but the even remote possibility was enough to unsettle Loni.

Loni stalled at climbing in the vehicle, her mind reeling over the information she saw on her not-so-quick glance of the magazine’s cover.

“What’s the problem?” Angus called to her upon sensing Loni’s hesitation.

“I saw a magazine with the cover talking about NexGen’s research dad was doing.” Loni replied, handing the magazine over to her mother.

“You think your father’s safe out there?”

Marian briefly looked over the cover and handed it back to Loni, “But you need to know if he’s ok…”

“I need to know if he’s ok,” Loni replied. “But I can’t ask you to…”

“Your father wouldn’t want you jeopardizing your safety. But he’d know you were coming for him anyway…”

“Be careful,” Marian started, “Make good decisions.”

“It’s ok with you?” Loni asked in disbelief.

“Go, before I think clearly once my blood sugar is better,” Marian said with a slight smile. It was her first smile in over a month. “We both know your mind is already made up.

“I love you,” Loni said, hugging her mother tightly.

She glanced at her brother, nodding briefly to him, “Sometimes, I love you, too.”

She turned her attention to the military personnel, “Take good care of them.” Again, the response was a nod.

Loni turned away, heading back to the motel room. She could hear the vehicle begin to roll out of town – heading somewhere to the east. She wondered if she would ever see her family again. Losing them was a terrifying and very real thought; disasters tore families apart consistently. She had to keep herself together; there was a possibility she’d find her father and the family could be reunited. The possibility was worth the risk, or at least that was the theory that Angus agreed with. No matter what, she would miss them – even if her brother drove her up a wall.

“You’re going to look for dad, aren’t you?” Tim said from the doorway.

Loni jumped practically out of her skin when Tim talked to her; her guard was completely down while she was getting comfortable back in the motel room, and the sound of that armored tank drowned out any other sounds.

“Shit,” Loni said quickly after being startled. “You scared me, dude.”

“Finally,” Tim said with an oddly proud look on his face. “NexGen’s Prion research was being led by dad in Canada, right?”

Loni handed him the magazine with the article, “Alaska, you ding-dong.”

Tim considered for a moment, “We’ll need to check the gas station for a jerry can. Get us some gas, then find a car.”

“Good plan,” Loni told him sarcastically. Tim ignored her sarcasm and went out of the room to search for the jerry can.

“I’m really glad you’re coming with me…” Loni told him when he was out of ear shot.