"Hello Todd Ansley, what's your story man?"
Man....hell, he is just a kid, Jared said to himself staring into the fireplace as he stretched out on the couch for the night, idly watching the flames. A kid who should be......was supposed to be in the care of some adult. Jared was no idiot. He knew how rough it was out there, and that many kids under the age of 21 were alone out on their own, just not too many this far out of the city. Not too many people left the cities. There was safety in the cities. Unlike many of the old movies depicting mass destruction and post-apocalyptic conditions, they got it all wrong. There was no Armageddon. Midnight December 31st Y2k1 some jealous third world country leveled the field by launching EMP bombs at all the major super powers, effectively knocking out and frying anything with electric circuits decimating the counties computers and a near mortal blow to the inter net.
Cities were the safe haven and the rural areas open and vulnerable to looters and lack of resources, like defense and emergency help. Nomadic groups of human predators roamed the less populated areas of the states, like the bandits of old westerns. Making it very dangerous for lone travelers.
Many travel if need be, in groups. Air travel has been limited to Military and government. Some small private planes are around. You'd have to sell a small child to fly these days. Most cities were back up and running to some degree as early as the first year. The entrant was up and limping by Y2k2. The US was under Marshall law for nearly 8 years, there as still some restrictions still standing now. There are curfews in all the cities and larger towns, border patrols at most state lines, rationed food in some states, travel restrictions and nobody in or out of the country.
You can travel to Canada with the proper papers but no one to Mexico. This time Mexico shut it's borders down against the U. S.
Jared was just 14 then and could clearly remember the night it all happened. The ball dropped and lights went out. Never coming back on. There was mass panic. Just like the old movie title "Planes, trains and automobiles", many, many people died in horrible crashes, derailments and accidents. His world came to a dead halt. There were riots in the streets for what seemed like years. Jared's family survived all right. He, his brother and his dad built this cabin back in 1998 in preparation for the millennium. His family didn't believe that the world's computers would stop running on the stroke of midnight 2000, but planned for the worst anyway. Cabin was built for keeping them save and well stocked with MRE's and canned goods.
They were tied to the oil fields around the country and had deep pockets. In a country cut off from the world his family and some others thrived on the demand and worked with the government to keep the country running. Jared's older brother now ran the company.
Jared's parents died in Y2k3. Lots of people died then, people were inoculated for flu with tainted batches of the serum. Jared was placed in the care of his brother, by his brother. At that time there were not too many agencies running to watch out for people, still very few today. A year later the legal system, financial, and the strongest---the technical system---came back with a vengeance The lawmakers felt that with the riots and lack of any and everything, it was best to keep citizens under 18 in the care of their families or a guardian of some sort by imposing curfews and further restrictions. If there was no family, minors were placed in the care of institutionalized schools. Similar to military academies but more along the line of boot camps. This was met with great up roar from that age group and many rebelled. The rebellion was short lived, minors were forced back home or into custody of the state. Small pockets of youths hid deep in the inner cities and rural areas. Lost in the myriad of the homeless that then ranked in the hundreds of thousands. Now major inroad have been made, fewer riots, factories back in business, crime is lessening in the cities, life is hard but people are making due.
Brian, his older brother, saw to it that he grew up right with what education there was to be had. Jared still had some dealings with the family company but primarily ran his own business. A research firm located in Denver. He and his team helped find people and information about people. It was a fairly lucrative operation. Even the military sought him out from time to time. Jared drifted off wondering what Todd was doing way up here in the mountains, alone.
Something woke Jared, he looked around the room, all was still, the fire had died down to embers that crackled and sizzled quietly. He waited a moment then laid his head back down and closed his eyes. A soft noise from the bedroom had him wide awake. Softly he walked to the door of the bedroom and peeked in the room.
Todd woke up to heaven. Soft fluffy heaven. He was warm so.....warm? Opening his eyes he found himself in a strange bed. A big bed, buried deep in thick bedding. He nearly cried out when he tried to sit up, his shoulder was killing him. In fact his whole body was killing him. Years of hiding and dodging people trained him to learn when to be quiet. Being in a strange bed and injured was just such a time.
He sat up carefully, he felt awful. His head felt like it was full of wet cotton, he couldn't breathe out his nose, his chest was tight and he had to fight hard the cough that was building. No matter how bad he felt he had to get out of here. Sliding out of the warm bed was hard. It was the most comfortable he had been in forever. He was in sweats that had an inseam that ran for a mile. Where were his clothes? He looked all over in the room trying to be as quiet as possible, fighting down the panic he was beginning to feel. He recognized this room. He was in the cabin he broke into last night. He really had to get out of here. It was morning and soon someone would wake up and he planned on being long gone. His clothes were definitely not in here. So he began to rummage in the dresser for something he could substitute. All the moving around was killing his shoulder, not to mention the fact that his head pounded each time he bent over. He felt sick. Clasping his arm to steady his shoulder, though it did little to ease the pain that threatened to bring him to tears, he kept digging in the drawers.
Jared leaned against the wall and watched the brat move around trying to find his clothes. He enjoyed the show. The kid would pull up the sweats only to have them slide down his trim waist and give him a tempting peek at a cute little backside. Huh, he missed that last night. Nestled in the spine curve of the kid's lower back was a tattoo. He was a little distracted last night. Walking around in baggy sweats with a severe case of bed head the little runt was adorable. It amused him to watch Todd move about, gave him a nice view of his sweet young body.
"Whoa..Down, boy," he reprimanded himself. The kid just might not appreciate the bent of his mind and even if he did, he was a minor.
Todd's attempt to find his clothes stopped being amusing, as soon as he grabbed his arm and visibly paled.
"You won't find what you're looking for." A deep voice startled Todd into a coughing fit that really caused his shoulder to throb in sharp pain. The human tank leaned in the doorway, arms and legs crossed.
Jared covered the distance between them in a few long legged strides. He came over to him and guided him back to the bed. That cough sounded bad. Todd's skin was hot to the touch. Too hot.
"How do you feel Todd?
Brown eyes snapped on to Jared's green. Big and wide. Jared fished out the kid's ID's from his shirt pocket and held them up. Todd was coughing too hard to say anything. What could he say? They had his pretty mug on each one. Panic raced down Todd's spine. He could be in some serious trouble here. He broke into the tank's home, nearly ran him off the road and now he's been found with false ID's. He really felt ill now. A big, broad hand covered his forehead.
"Kid, you're hot. How do you feel?"
"Like
_s_h_i_t_. Todd
groaned as his body let him know it had some urgent demands. "Dude..I
need to go." The tank just shook his head. "You're not going anywhere
but back into that bed." "No! I mean I really gotta go...go pee,
take a piss, wizz, shake the dew off the lilly. Ya know." "Oh.. Just like a little kid, Todd was steered into the bathroom
and was supervised throughout his routine. Even grumbled at when he
would have walked out without washing his hands. He was then taken
back to the bed. If he didn't feel so sore and sick he probably would
have been really embarrassed, but he just didn't care right now. Jared
stared into the big brown eyes. They seemed too large in the pale
face and had a lackluster appearance. "How long you been fighting
a cold, Todd." "I dunno, "Hmm,
and last night didn't help." Jared thought that is was more than
a cold. Todd could have the flu or bronchitis. But for now he needed
to get that arm in a sling. Last night he had fashioned one out of
an old shirt and a belt from a robe. "Here let's get this on you.
It should help support your shoulder." He helped Todd get the thing
adjusted comfortably and then laid him back in the bed with a warning
to stay put while he made something for them to eat. A while later
he came back with a tray of fluffy eggs and some toast and hot coffee.
He had been gone maybe a half hour and the change in the boy was shocking.
He's breathing was congested and his cheeks had reddened, his body
radiated heat, lots of heat, His hair around his face was damp. Whatever
it was the kid had it was bad. Jared knew that the best thing was
to get the kid to the doctor, but the bridge was washed out and there
was no phone service up here. So that was out. He riffled in the bathroom
cabinet. There was not much other than Bactine and band aids. Digging
deeper he found a small floral pouch. It looked like a woman's cosmetic
bag. Jan's no doubt, his sister in-law. They all spent a weekend up
here this past spring, it was great except that his little nephew
got sick so they had to cut it short and...Jamie was sick...Jared
ripped open the little bag and "Bingo!". There was some diaper cream,
Vaseline, a thermometer and a box of the antibiotics they gave him.
He rinsed and shook the thermometer down but as he did so his elation
at the find was smashed. It was a baby thermometer, as in rectal and
along with that "good" news, was that the antibiotics were in tiny
bullet shaped suppositories. Oh, this gets better and better. He
tore up that bathroom hoping to find at least an adult thermometer,
but all he came up with was some packages of aspirin. Aspirin alone
was not going to cut it. It would help with the fever and the aches
but that was it. So there was no getting around the need for the antibiotics.
He checked the date, six months. Well they were probably still okay,
the worst that could happen was Todd would just have to endure the
process for nothing. As long as he was not allergic. And if he was
going to administer the suppositories he might as well us the thermometer. Looking
at the form curled up on the bed and then the items in his hands.
He blew out a big breath. This was not going to be fun. He removed
his flannel shirt, squaring his broad shoulders he went back to Todd
and braced for battle. Todd felt weird, uncomfortable. Opening his
eyes he found himself face down on the bed and over very muscular
legs. "Kid, you allergic to anything, like penicillin or aspirin?
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