Solutions: A Man's Dilemma by James Gerard (no david read aloud TXT) 📕

“Carolyn?  Carolyn Baxter?”

The woman spoke up in a tone of sadness, “Who are you?”

“My name is Stephen.  I was asked to come and talk to you about the situation.”

“As I told these gentlemen, I am not leaving my home period.  If I die then I die.  But I am not leaving my home.”

“Yes ma’am, I understand your feelings and actually empathize with you, but it would be….”

“No,” Carolyn shouted.  “I have heard enough.  I am not leaving.  I want all of you out of my house now.”

The captain took a step towards the woman, but Stephen waved him off.

“Would it be all right if I talked with Carolyn alone?” asked Stephen.

The captain stared momentarily at him then walked outside.

“Have they told you Carolyn that you are not only the last living person in this town but you are the last living person in this state?”

“I don’t care.  My husband bought me this home.  We raised our children here.  I am not leaving.”

Stephen could hear the sniffling and see the tears roll silently down her face.  At that moment he could agree with Carolyn’s position but she needed to leave.  He knelt before her and gently rubbed the top of one of her hands with his.  “Do you believe in God Carolyn?”

He saw Carolyn nod as a stream of tears rolled off her cheeks and splashed onto his hand.

“You know He feels your pain don’t you?”

Carolyn nodded yes.

“You know He loves you very much don’t you?”

Carolyn bowed her head and sobbed louder.

“You know He is crying with you right now don’t you?”

Carolyn doubled up before him as the sobbing intensified.

“God knows exactly what you are going through.  He is here with you now.  What we are asking you to do is out of love, just like Jesus showed us when He left Heaven to come here to Earth.  Jesus left his home because of love, his love for us; for you Carolyn.”

“But….”

“I know Carolyn.  It all seems so unfair doesn’t it?  It’s like you just don’t matter.  It’s like no one understands that all you want is to stay in your home.  But the power plant will be shut off in a matter of minutes.  You will have no electricity, water, nothing but just plain emptiness.  And although our Lord will be right here with you, there will be no more food or water to survive on.  You will be totally alone.  You will die a miserable death.  Do you think our Lord wants that to happen to you?  Or do you think that maybe, just maybe He wants you to leave and be with other believers so you can find love and happiness again?  What do you think Carolyn?”

Carolyn continued to sob, but after a few minutes the flow of tears stopped.

“They’re telling me all I can take is some clothes.  They won’t let me take anything else.”

“What else do you want to take with you?”

“I want to take my family pictures and a few items to remember my children and husband by.”

“All she can take are clothes,” the captain said as he walked back in.  “No personal items whatsoever.”

“But….”

“No personal items!”

Stephen jumped to his feet, marched over to the captain, and planted his face into his.

“Now look here you….”

“Don’t….”

“I will because I have complete authority concerning this matter.  If you get in my way I will make sure the rest of your pathetic life will be spent regretting you ever challenged my authority.  Do you understand?” screamed Stephen.

“Yes sir.”

“Very good.  Now get back outside until I tell you when to come back in.  Do you understand?”

“Yes sir.”

Stephen turned to Carolyn.  He noticed the calmness about her.  The eyes were dry and she sat up straight apparently looking to him for further help.

“Do you have a really big, big bag Carolyn?”

“I do.”

“Good.  I want you to get it and stuff as much stuff you want into it.  Do you understand?”

“Thank you,” cried Carolyn as tears once again flowed from her eyes.

As Carolyn packed Stephen looked over the papers that had been sitting in the envelope.  He looked at her appointed designation, Las Vegas, and wondered why.  In all his past encounters with those such as Carolyn, he noticed the various designations each one was assigned to.  All those he encountered were destined for desert cities, even though cities in Southern California and select mountain cities were also designated as survival cities.

Within the contents of another paper was the listing of surviving relatives. Her daughter Deborah and granddaughter Cathy were the only family survivors.  The others, her husband and other children and all extended family members had died from the flu virus.  The contents did not reveal, however, her daughter’s and granddaughter’s location.

Curious, Stephen decided to make an inquiry with the agency he had been assigned, the U.S. National Crisis Center.

“Yes.  Code name Retriever, I.D. number two-eight-one-six-two dash eight, dash zero, dash X dot six-one-nine-one.”

Stephen fanned the papers in his hands to direct the air to the face while he waited for a response.

“Hold on.  Carolyn!  Come here for a moment.”

Carolyn came running from up the basement stairs.

“What’s wrong?”

“Everything’s fine.  Tell me Deborah’s and Cathy’s full names and birthdates.”

Stephen scribbled the information on the back of a sheet of paper and gave the information to the person on the other side of the phone and instructed the person not to hang up.

“I need their present location.”

Carolyn began to sob as in disbelief.  She came close to Stephen and tried to ask what was going on, but Stephen just waved the question off.

“Los Angeles?  Are you sure?  Give me the location number.”

Stephen turned to Carolyn.  “Your daughter Deborah and granddaughter Cathy are alive.  Did you know that?”

Carolyn buckled at the knees and dropped to the ground.

“Captain,” Stephen called.

“Yes sir.”

“I am changing her destination to Los Angeles, location code one-one-zero-one.”

“I cannot….”

“Yes you can.  How are you taking her?”

“We’re using a long strip of road just a few miles from here as a makeshift runway.  The plane is waiting.”

“Finish packing Carolyn.”

Stephen turned his attention back to the person on hold and gave instructions as to her new designation.

Carolyn dragged a giant suitcase up the stairs.  Upon hearing the news that she would be reunited with her remaining family she jumped up and down shouting words of thanks to the Lord.

Stephen just smiled.  He actually felt good for a change.

Carolyn was escorted out of the house by the captain and rushed to the rendezvous point.

Stephen plopped down into a sofa and listened to the music still humming from the stereo’s speakers.  But it did not last long as the electricity was cut off.

The town, the county, the state was now void of any human life except for himself and any other humans necessary to carry out the emergency plan.

Relaxation swept over his body as he lay in the quiet house.  He knew soon the phone would ring and he would be flying off to his next assignment, to the next reluctant evacuee.  But for the moment, while the time lasted he let his thoughts slip away from the call of duty and pretended that he was back in the past that was filled with both hope and despair in everyday existence.

Stephen waited patiently for the next assignment.  From information fed to him via his superiors, he had been told evacuations of all survivors sweeping the entire east coast from northeast states to southeast states had been accomplished.  The same confirmation was also fed to him concerning the clearing of survivors of all southern states and mid-west states.  Currently, he was well aware that his next assignment would take him to northwest states or southwest states, excluding California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming.  There, in official transmissions, would be the final evacuation of all remaining survivors not yet affected by the spread of the virus.

Caught up in the swirl of the chaos, Stephen found it difficult to stop and truly analyze what was happening.  He remembered when the pandemic was reported that scientists admitted to being absolutely baffled by not only the spread of the virus, but how the virus sprang up and attacked all continents at the same time.

One day he was reporting to work as usual, and within a matter of hours a transfer to virus plagued areas to utilize his gift of persuasion and cleverness to calm down those trapped in the panic was enacted. His job description was to assure those reluctant to leave that the call for an evacuation was in the best interest of the world as a whole.

Stephen already knew that evacuees would lack reason.  By experience alone he was well schooled by the fact that in horrific situations victims turned inward to cut themselves off from outside influences as a matter of emotional survival.  To tell them to think of others under such circumstances was paramount to telling them that their feelings did not matter, that their personal fears were not important and that their very lives were now just a hindrance in the fight to contain the flu.  But running contrary to this, his duty was to take those caught up in such an emotional survival mode and convince them that the survival of the whole was more important that the survival of just one individual.  He had to convince them that just one unsuspecting individual could spread the virus and wipeout all other survivors.

All through his career in law enforcement, starting in the military as an MP and working as a beat cop in local law enforcement to a homicide detective and through his last position, Stephen had always had the heart to exercise compassion towards both victims and assailants.  Whether it was the act of investigating, taking a statement, arresting, interrogating, or a testimony, the focus was on the individual first and society second.

He discovered that in the approach to criminal acts, the individual always came first in focus because of the variations of truth that resulted from the different versions of what was witnessed, of physical markings on bodies that contradicted the physical assault described in words.  What was seen and heard by one person was different from what another saw and heard.  This victim claims an attack in this fashion or by this means yet the assailant makes the claim that all that was done was this.  If every detail had been so cut and dry, collaborated, agreed to by all involved, then he could look beyond the individual and in favor of society.

The pandemic provided this path for Stephen.  There was one truth to it and therefore there was no room for various versions.  Yes, in the beginning he had heard all the rumors of its inception.  The conspiracy theorists claimed a purposeful act of government.  The ufologists claimed the onset of an alien invasion.  Environmentalist claimed the Earth was retaliating for all the damage mankind had done to it.  The theologians claimed measures brought on by religious wars.  Outright believers, however, believed the power of God was simply at hand.  Himself, he certainly believed what was occurring was by the Lord’s will but not directly.  He saw it as a test of faith for the world to consider: for He had allowed the powers and principalities to try to influence the hearts of men.

But whatever