Cedar Lake View Arnold Eigger

Chapter One - Sanctuary trip

What John heard on the news this morning came out as a shock and totally froze his spine for a second. He dropped his coffee on the floor and looked at Emma and the kids. The words "Black death on our doorsteps" resonated in his head and echoed in fear. It had already wiped out large parts of Africa, India and the Middle East. The first case reported in New Jersey yesterday made it sound like America would not be spared anymore.

It was the beginning of a panic and people were starting to freak out and behaved like lunatics. Some jumped in their car and drove away in fury while others boarded their houses down and locked themselves in. John picked up the phone and called his brother Terry who was an eminent doctor in virology at Massachusetts General Hospital of Boston.

"Hello Terry, this is John. I've heard the news this morning, is it true what they say? Is it really gonna be the end of the world?

"Yes John, I am afraid this is the truth and it's gonna hit us hard. Take Emma and the kids and move to your cottage in Cedar Lake right away. Out in the forest, it's the only chance you got." He said.

"Holy Jesus, are you sure? What about you Terry, what are you gonna do?" John asked.

"I'll stay here in the hospital and help for as long as I can. After, if there is nothing else to be done, I'll move up to meet you guys. A lot of people are going to need to be treated, I can't leave, I can't abandon them..."

Suddenly the home line went dead as the power went out. Ten seconds later he received a text message on his cell phone. It was Terry. He quickly read it: DO NOT WASTE ANY TIME. LEAVE BUFFALO NOW, I AM SERIOUS. I'LL KEEP IN TOUCH. I LOVE YOU GUYS.

He understood at that moment that it was time to go. He grabbed Michael and Stacy and told them that it was time for a fishing party at the cottage. He asked Emma to pack two suitcases and he went down to the basement to gather his guns. Half an hour later they were in the car heading towards Cedar Lake View, their survival destination.

The traffic was terribly heavy and the announcement made clearly things worse. Going out of Buffalo should not take more than half an hour and especially on a Wednesday morning. This time it took them more than an hour and John was surprised that they did not come across longer lines of traffic jam built up on critical junction points. They were lucky that the traffic was dead slow but still moving. Therefore, he decided to take the interstate 390 east to Syracuse and merge on the 81 north to make it to Watertown as fast as possible. Once they got there they would take secondary roads to stop and fill up their gas tank. They would also shop for basic groceries and buy more ammunition for his guns. For now his Dodge Grand Caravan had half of its gas tank filled up and they could drive more than three hundred miles. Luckily John had more than four hundred dollars in cash in his wallet and it would be handy to pay with it, in case the communication network used by credit cards was already out of order.

The trip was supposedly a three and a half hour run if everything was going according to plans. John was well aware that the quicker they would leave civilization the safer it would be for his family. His brain was racing as he was driving and he was anticipating any obstacles that could possibly slow them down. Syracuse was the main question he was worried about. He knew that the population was a factor of risk and the highway was skirting many residential urban areas that could be potentially dangerous if the situation was already out of hand around there. He tried to consider a detour to bypass Syracuse by the north. It would mean a longer way but it would represent a much safer bet. He asked Emma to look for a detailed road map of New York State in the glove compartment as he could not trust the GPS updates anymore. She took a pile of maps and went through them until she found the desired one. She unfolded it and started to look precisely for an alternative route that they could use to avoid the overpopulated area of Syracuse.