Frontier Justice - 01 Read Online Free PDF Page B

answered Mason. “Connect a hose to the spigot at the bottom of the tank, and put the other end of the hose into a bucket. Then flip the relief valve at the top of the tank and open the spigot. Some water heaters are a little different, so you may have to play around with it. Just get you and your son some clean water to drink.”
    “Okay, yes. I can do that. Thank you. Oh, thank you.”
    “Do you have food?” asked Jack.
    “We’re scavenging from neighbors’ houses. It’s awful. People I’ve known and loved for years are lying dead in their beds or on the floor.”
    “Kate, you’re keeping your son alive,” said Mason. “That’s what’s important right now. Do whatever you need to. Take what you need from those who have passed. They’d want you to do that. Grab food, blankets, fuel, and whatever else you need. When your water heater runs out, drain your neighbors’. You should be able to survive for months by scavenging from those around you.”
    “I will. But I have to be careful.”
    “Why? Are you worried about catching the virus?”
    “No, it’s like Jack said—my son and I must be immune or we’d have caught it from my husband.”
    “What then?”
    “The convicts.”
    “Convicts? What convicts?”
    Jack came on again.
    “Marshal, when things got really bad, the president issued an executive order to release prisoners from penal institutions that could no longer be manned.”
    “Why in the hell would she do that?”
    “It was either that or let them die of dehydration and starvation in unattended jail cells. Tough call for anyone.”
    “She released everyone?”
    “No, of course not. The presidential directive only authorized the release of non-violent offenders. Murderers, rapists, and the like were to be consolidated to a few federal prisons in order to make them easier to manage.”
    “That doesn’t sound so bad.”
    “It might not have been if it had worked as planned. Unfortunately, by the time the order was issued, the prisons were terribly understaffed. With the massive releases and transfers, the plan just fell apart. With over two million people incarcerated, it became impossible to control the situation. Some prisons were emptied; others were overrun by the inmates. A few were just abandoned, leaving prisoners trapped inside.”
    “Do you have any idea how many convicts were released or escaped?”
    “There’s no way to know, but from what’s being reported over the airways, they’re everywhere.”
    Mason rubbed his temples.
    “This just keeps getting better and better.”

    Mason spent a good part of the day talking with Jack and Kate. When they finally signed off, everyone agreed to reconnect in two days to share anything new that may have been discovered. While there was still much that he didn’t know, Mason had learned that the origin of the virus was still a mystery. Early cases had shown up all over the world, from Russia and China, to areas across Europe and the Americas. No one yet could explain how it had spread to every corner of the globe so quickly. Given the indiscriminate infection, it was not believed to be a terrorist attack but, rather, Mother Nature flexing her muscle.
    It had been reported that Superpox-99 was a modified strain of smallpox that caused similar blistering, respiratory distress, arthritis, and blindness. If left untreated, death was all but certain. Hospitals had been overwhelmed within a few days, and most had to be protected by the National Guard. The emergency medical system eventually failed, as many caregivers became sick or abandoned their posts to tend to their own families.
    When the nation’s power grid failed, electricity, water, and other utilities were all subsequently lost. Television, radio, and emergency broadcasts fell silent a couple of days later as batteries and generator fuel were depleted. The loss of water and power led to mass exoduses from major cities. Highways became so gridlocked that people took to hiking out