Renewal and growth

Chapter 2

In a room with a dozen or so individuals a man with a grey head of hair in a tidy cared for outfit walked in causing the seated individuals to stand. The old man waved his hand putting the room at ease quired, “I think after the past seven months, we are all happy we never got into those pods.” Some laughed while others looked uneasy. Roger was one that didn’t chuckle at the comment, his eyes locked on the gentleman that walked in. The gentleman said, “All of your efforts have been commendable in the face in such a catastrophe. The council and command still have no clue why the system failed so miserably. Two years ago, we were conspiracy theorists now were hero’s for saving who ever we could.” Roger spoke up, “Sir does this mean were wrapping up recovery operations? The past few weeks have seen the ratio of survivors to dead invert.” The commander looked at Roger and said, “That’s exactly what is going to happen Captain Mattsone. Our resources are stretched beyond the breaking point.” Roger closed his tired eyes and pinched the upper bridge of his nose processing his new directive and acknowledge the news with a sigh, “Yes General Plattsburg.”

The general cracked a smile trying to boost Roger’s spirit, “The commitment you and the other commanders have made is nothing short of astounding. The past five months have seen all the forces of the free citizens militia worked to the bone to try to save 85% of the world’s population. We were never going to save them all. Just take pride in the one’s we saved.” The general then shifted to address the room, “Now the problem we face not just as a military force but as people. We don’t have the infrastructure to assist all the survivors. We will need volunteers to take some people in and help them recover.” A rolling snicker of murmur rolled through the room as to what to do.

Avery’s eyes started to flutter open. The light was still too strong, so she moved her hand to shield for eyes, but light streamed in between her near skeletal fingers. Her right arm was slightly restrained as she tried to get up noticing an IV line plugged into her emaciated arm. After a few minutes of weakly trying to remove the strap, she was successful and methodically got out of bed. With her right hand clenching the rollable IV stand she made her way to the mirror on the wall. Once she got to the mirror she was mortified. Just before the network failure she was 135lbs of lean muscle of a talented college athlete; now she was no heavier than 95lbs at 5’7”. Her eyes looked sunken in as her cheeks were hollow. Her slight amber complexion was replaced with an almost milk white appearance. Her elegant flowing blonde hair was long and unkept dangling all the way to the bottom of her shoulder blades riddled with split ends that looked to go from her shoulder blade to the base of her neck. Her B cup breasts looked as if they were entirely flat as her muscular thighs were spindly shadows of their former selves.

If she had the energy she would have wailed, but all she could do was a faint weeping. As she buried her face in her left hand trying to wipe away the few tears, she could muster a knock emanating from the door of her room. She tried to say, “Come in.” But all she muttered was a jumbled mess. Roger poked his head in the room and looked for Avery on her bed, but she was out of view behind the throw of the door. He turned and saw her, and she nodded her response. Roger quickly entered the room and closed the door behind him. He came with a white board in hand and said, “I brought you this.” Avery gave a weak smile and took the board with her free hand. She made her way back to her bed so she could write out with her elegant handwriting something and then showed it to Roger, “Thank you.” Roger grinned a little bit and said, “Your welcome. I wanted to see how you were doing Ms. Johston. You seemed a little worse for wear out of most of the people we saved.”

Avery started writing again on the white board and showed Roger, “What happened with the Network, and how many people did you help save?” Roger replied, “We still don’t know. I lost track after the first 2 months; there were too many to count.” Avery then wrote on her board, “Did you save a Jenna Murph?” Roger replied, “Not to my knowledge but easily over 1,500,000 people were saved. I can look into that.” He pulled out a note pad and took the name of her friend down. Roger looked up from his notepad and asked, “This may be a big question, but resources are strained everywhere everyone has been asked to help any way they can. I asked around if anyone knew you from before the launch of the Network and no one in the area had any connection with you. I was wondering would you like to stay with me until you get back to a healthy athletic cute green eyed blonde you were before everything went haywire?” Avery paused for a moment as she pondered what to write on the white board. After a few minutes she held the whiteboard in a way Roger couldn’t see the response and then showed him the response: Sounds like a plan, how could I say no to someone so cute and kind. Roger blushed as he smiled with his green eyes locking in hers as he said, “I’m not that cute. Great, the medical staff will release you once your vitals stabilize and you reach 100lbs. In the meantime, I or someone can pick up a few personal effects from your place.” He flipped his notepad to a blank page and said, “If you would write down a few things you would like I will have them set up in my guest room for when you’re released.”

Avery at first gave a ‘yeah right’ glance in response to Roger’s reply. Then she took the note pad and wrote down a dozen and a half items. Roger took the pad back and said, “Well Ms. Johston you should get some rest.” She scribbled quickly on the board as Roger stood up and tapped it lightly to get his attention. He turned before leaving to read what she wrote: Thank you again for saving me, and please call me Avery. Roger said with a pleasant smile just before leaving, “Your welcome Avery. See you in a few weeks.”