The System

Scott wiped his brow. He had heard the story of the baby. It was disgusting. Like any parent, his thoughts had gone to his own children and their precious and fragile lives. “There is good too,” he countered, but his voice was weak, quiet. “There is good on this earth.”

“Not enough good,” was Huck’s assured reply.

“Why?” Scott asked, his mouth dry. He swallowed and asked again, “Why are you doing this to me?”

Without a reply, Huck leaned down and grabbed a remote—he pointed it at the flat screen and paused the live feed: the image of Harper froze on the screen with his daughter Lucy a fuzzy blur in the background, still hunched over her phone.

Then Huck turned and walked right up to Scott. He put a hand on his shoulder. Popping the cigar out of his mouth, he cleared his throat and smiled a toothy grin. “The short answer? For them.” He pointed to the screen. “For the people we love. But in time…I’ll discuss it all in time. You will see how my plan came to be, and why it must happen, and then you will understand that there is no other way. Everyone does, in time. Everyone. So come, Scott.” He started walking toward the door. “Let’s go get some di

CHAPTER ONE

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Lucy sat among the growing lupines, their purple buds stretching to the sky and swaying in the cool spring wind. From the grassy and flower-covered hill, Lucy admired the towering Grand Tetons in the distance and the still waters of Jackson Lake. She watched the glassy water ripple toward the shore and always—despite knowing that it wouldn’t happen—expected to see a fish jump or a vacationer kayak past. Some earthly expectations were hard to overcome.

The log cabins of Jackson Lake Mountain Lodge were all empty. There were no dead bodies to move, no smells to overcome, no rotting surprises left to discover around the corner. The virus, unleashed by bioterrorists, claimed the residents of the small Wyoming town before vacation season opened, and so the cabins were the perfect discovery after long days on the road. Each cabin was deceptively rustic on the outside and luxurious on the inside; they offered a welcome respite from travel for Lucy King and Grant Trotter as they made their way from Portland to Brixton, Nebraska.

The duo had landed their hot air balloon in central Oregon. Grant might have known how to fill the balloon and sail it out and over the congested city and suburbs, and he might have known how to follow the wind, but landing was a skill he had yet to master. Lucy had a fist-sized bruise on her leg that was finally fading to a respectable shade of yellow. and her jammed finger no longer ached. She would have teased Grant about his inability to think through the landing part, but he had looked embarrassed and ashamed after they crawled out of the overturned basket.

From there: they slept in an empty house, stole a green Toyota Camry with a full tank of gas, and followed the highway all the way into Idaho before stranding themselves right outside of Boise. It was easy to push away the thoughts of what had happened to the world as they drove down nearly deserted back roads and empty towns.

Grant and Lucy had not seen another living soul since leaving her brother Ethan back in Oregon. Ethan wasn’t alone: he had Darla and her young son Teddy, both of whom he had befriended at the Portland airport amidst the tragedy and chaos of Release Day. While Grant and Lucy had thought of their Oregon contingent often, they knew that Darla, who had worked with industrious diligence to free Lucy from the high school where she had been kept captive, would care for Ethan in their absence.

The hardest part was not knowing. So, they trudged forward, focusing on the goal at hand: Nebraska.

As they moved forward across state lines, in and out of cities, they would occasionally spy a flutter of movement, a shadow dancing across a curtain or something shifting in the corner of their eye, but every search for survivors ended with disappointment. The shadows were from the wind, and the movement just figments of their imaginations. No, the world was quiet; people were gone.

But reminders of their existence were everywhere.

When they got to Boise, they saw that the absence of human life was causing more than just empty cities and abandoned vehicles. Pipes had burst, streets were swamped with sewage and debris and, in many places, fires still smoldered. All around them was evidence of those who perished after the Release—evidence of a former life. Even though it had been only two weeks and two days since the world succumbed to terrorism, it felt like years.

From Boise, they walked, bicycled, hiked, and eventually found two more cars with enough gas to get them across state lines. When they drove into the Yellowstone National Park and stumbled upon the Jackson Lake Mountain Lodge, Lucy and Grant knew they had to rest. Road weary and hungry and struggling with basic hygiene, the empty cabins beckoned them.

What was pla

The shells of people who were once living, breathing, alive, were just part of the landscape of their changed lives and nothing more.

Lucy heard footsteps behind her, and she grabbed a single lupine in front of her and ran her hand over the stock, stripping it of flower petals. She loved the way the stalk felt against her hand, the rough bumps against her skin. Without turning, she picked at the fallen purple petals and cleared her throat. “I left you a note on the counter…I didn’t want to wake you,” she said.

Grant sat down beside her and nudged her in the side with his elbow. “You don’t have to leave me notes. It’s not like you’re ever going very far. I think I can probably figure it out on my own.”

She smiled at him and looked outward toward the lake. “I always leave notes when I’m going out. My momma taught me well.”

Stretching his legs out in front of him and leaning back on his elbows in the grass, Grant looked over at her and examined her profile, the backdrop of Yellowstone behind her. “It’s beautiful here.”

“It is,” she replied.

He reached out without looking and tried to grab a flower, but he missed. His hand brushed against Lucy’s leg and she didn’t flinch away. His closeness no longer affected her like it might have before the Release; they just existed, two parts of a whole—two people on a mission, working together. They enjoyed sitting like this, in silence, one of the most beautiful places in the world enveloping them into a feeling of safety and peace. If they left here, they would lose that. If they left here, they would have to admit that the world had ended. Sometimes it was nice to forget.

“Okay, my turn. I’ve thought of one.”

Lucy smiled. “Male or female?”

“Male.”

“TV or movies,” she asked.

Grant looked above at the clouds and squinted, thinking. “Mostly movies. Some TV. Before he got big.” Grant couldn’t contain a subtle smirk. Lucy caught the intonation and rolled her eyes.