A man, tattered clothes and backpack hung off his frame, an assortment of campaign and construction gear hung off the man… hammers, nail guns, he held a sharpened bloodstained shovel in his hands.
Holding the man's hand was a small boy, possibly five or six. The two of them seemed haggard, eyes hardened by their reality. James, the boy looked up at the man. "Dad… are those the people?"
"Yeah… I guess they are…" he replied, his voice rough but firm. Duke gave his son's hand a little tug and they started walking down the street again. They stuck to the shaded buildings, walking silently along the path, not trying to hide but escape the sun's merciless heat.
A block ahead of them was a checkpoint, a red flag flitting above it in the breeze. Duke had heard of these people a while ago, but now… he was desperate.
His son was sick, he was no doctor and no doctor had been able to help his son so far. Maybe, possibly these god forsaken commies had the medicine his boy needed.
James kept walking with labored breaths, his little chest heaving with the effort. Duke looked back at that red flag fluttering above the wooden shack. A symbol of how far the world had fallen. But none of that mattered to him anymore. He couldn't lose his son too.
Duke could feel the heat radiating from the small boy. It had been nearly a week and the fever still refused to break. No remedies, nor anything Duke had found while scavenging had helped. He feared James was running out of time, that these… The Soviets were his last hope.
"Stop!" One guard shouted. Slowly advancing towards them, rifle at the ready. Duke had heard so many stories about the soviets, from whispers around fires to drunken tales at battered bar counters.
Dozens of tales raced through his mind… but he let it go. The shovel clattered to the ground. "My son… please…"
Duke croaked desperately as the soldier neared. The soldier cast a glance between the two of them. "Sick?"
Duke nodded slowly. The soldier spoke with a heavy accent, like he was learning English. He shouted something back towards the checkpoint, there were several more soldiers visible now.
The soldier lead them closer to the checkpoint. "Coming… translator…"
A Hispanic man jogged over, coming to a stop next to Duke and his son. "Eh, was the problem boss?"
"My son, he needs help, he's sick." Duke replied.
"Oh man… that sucks… I'll see what we can get, but you gotta go through the process, they do this medical screening, if it's bad he'll get sent to the hospital." The man then turned to the soldiers and chatted away for a minute.
"Ey boss, come with me, I take you and you boy to processing, get you started so your boy gets some help okay?"
Duke followed the man to a truck, he helped James climb into the back seat. Then got in behind the driver. The soldier nodded to him in the rear mirror as the translator sat in the passenger seat. "Ey, it'll be okay, just trust the… the process?"
They drove for nearly half an hour before the truck came to a stop outside a gate, some sort of walled camp? "Ey man, it's your stop. Manuel Dominguez… a… fob?"
"Thank you." Duke replied as he and his son got out of the car and started walking to the gate. There were a couple guards and a few civilians loitering near the open gate. A soldier walked over to them. Nodding as he did, his rifle slung over his shoulder.
"Welcome to fob Dominquez, are you two new here?" Duke nodded to the soldiers' questions.
"Alright, I'll talk you through processing while we head over then. Sounds good?" The soldier asked.
Duke knelt next to James and took the boy's hand. "Daddy's gonna get you help okay?"
James nodded, his eyes hazy. "I'm hot…"
"I know, kiddo." Duke whispered as he picked his kid up, letting him lean on his back while he carried him.
Duke followed the soldier through the gate, surprised that it was a massive hydraulic gate, obviously built after the apocalypse as the wall it was attached to ran down the middle of a road. The thing was wide enough to block off the whole street it ran across… several large armored vehicles were parked next to the wall, some of the hatches were open, one of them even had its engine being worked on.
They walked down the streets, soldiers and people in plain clothes were everywhere, almost everyone carried a weapon of some sort. Sorta made Duke's blood rush. He wished he hadn't left his shovel behind, maybe they would have let him keep it?
They followed the soldier to what looked like a high school, following him to the gym and several buildings that had been recently attached to it. He walked in through the door.
It almost looked like a doctors office, but there was an armed guard in a police uniform standing near the registration counter. "Hey, got another 2, man and a boy."
"Right, thanks for bringing them in, we'll take it from here…" a nurse said a stood up. He grabbed a clipboard and led the two of them to a room.
"Alright… I'll leave this up to you, but we do a full body search for any injuries. They're looking for any bite marks or infections. Refusal to comply will have your promptly escorted off site and basement from reentry."
"Go ahead." Duke said quietly. He was led to a small room little bigger than a closet where his inspection took place. A doctor briefly looked him over, writing a few notes on a clipboard before leaving the room. Letting him know to get dressed when he closed the door.
He was handed a ticket by a clerk. "Sir…"
The clerk looked at a clipboard. "Duke?… your son was taken to the hospital, you'll be free to join him there once you complete the seminar. That ticket there will let the nurses know you are his guardian."
"Seminar? How long is it going to take?" Duke asked. A cold sweat rolling down his back. What were these commies going to do with his boy?
"Should only take ten to fifteen minutes… normally after that we'd recommend going through a job board and securing work, but we can waive everything after the seminar since you have a young child being taken to the emergency room."
"Emergency room? What's wrong with my son?" Duke demanded.
"Sir, I don't know. You can see him after you attend the seminar." The clerk replied, gesturing towards some double doors. Duke reluctantly headed inside, shoving the ticket into his pocket. He found himself in a mostly empty room, several benches were arrayed facing a stage with a large tv mounted to the wall.
"Alright, everyone please take a seat, I'll play a quick video after that I'll be on stage to answer questions and you'll be free to visit the job fair and department of housing." A man standing near the side of the stage said as he tapped at the laptop in front of him.
Duke sat as the tv flickered and a bland office appeared with a Soviet flag hung on the wall. A man stood behind a small podium, dressed casually in office attire. "Hello, and welcome to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, specifically the Soviet Republic of Southern California. In this video seminar I will go over your entry into the republic, what steps you should take to become a citizen if you so wish as well as the laws and rights everyone in the republic enjoys."
Several people shuffled and murmured quietly as the video continued to play. "I'll cover the rights and protections every citizen and non citizen enjoys, firstly, these basic protections are in the Soviet citizens handbook, available at the entrance of the seminar hall. These protected rights include, but are not limited to, free speech, the right to bear arms, protection from unlawful search and seizure…"
Duke zoned out, not paying particular attention to the video. His son, how was he doing? As the video came to a close he shot to his feet and headed to the exit as a soldier walked in. "Duke Newman?"
"That's me." Duke replied, the soldier turned to him.
"I'm to take you to the hospital, do you have everything you came with?" The soldier asked. Duke nodded and then the soldier led him outside to a small Jeep. They got in and drove. Duke nervously tapped his fingers on the dash but they quickly arrived.
"Show the guardian slip to the front desk, they'll take you to your kid." Duke thanked the soldier as he walked into the surprisingly clean clinic. He walked up to the desk, slip already in hand.
"I'm here to see my son." Duke said to the nurse, holding out the ticket. The nurse took it, her lips pursing. She grabbed a visitor tag and handed it to him before she stood and led him down a few halls. She left him outside a small room.
"He's getting an MRI scan done, he'll be back soon." She said as she left, leaving him behind to wait. Duke paced the room, absolutely worried. Was his son okay? What were the doctors going to find? A few minutes passed, though they felt like hours when the door opened.
"Mr, Newmen?" A doctor in military uniform walked in with a clipboard under his arm.
"I have good news, some bad, and some perplexing." The doctor said.
"Your son isn't dying, he's been stabilized." He said with a deadpan.
Duke sighed, a heavy weight slipping from his shoulders. The doctor continued. "Now for the bad, he's in guarintine, you'll need to wear a full body suit to enter his room."
Duke nearly exploded with anger when the doctor held up a hand. "Mr Newmen, I know that's not what you wanted to hear, but your son is infected with the virus. It is currently dormant, the first strain we've seen like this, the precautions are to protect everyone in this hospital."
"He… James… he's not infected… he wasn't bitten." Duke protested, his world spinning
"We know Mr Newman. We've informed our research team, they're marine biologists, working over on Santa Catalina, they've been studying how the virus affects marine life and with you son now our first known case of a human being infected…" the doctor trailed off.
"Mr Newman, we will do what we can. The biologists should be over here in a few hours and we'll be able to create a more informed treatment and study care for your son."