SurviRal by Ken Benton Read Free Book Online

out of work? How will we pay the mortgage?”
    Clint sat down on the couch and put his arm around her. He could tell she was upset.
    “Honey, if that happens we won’t be the only ones. Hell, the banks will probably be closed, too. Remember what happened in 2008 after the mortgage meltdown? Millions of people couldn’t make their house payments. The government stepped in with bailout money and the lenders let everyone stay in their homes for at least a year, even if no payments were being made. They negotiated restructured payment deals, forgiving untold millions in debt in the process, just to keep from having to foreclose on too many properties. I wouldn’t worry about us. I’m a talented and marketable guy, you know.”
    No discernable reaction. Clint hugged her tighter.
    “I’m an engineer, baby.”
    That did the trick. He got a chuckle out of her.
     

 
    Chapter Four
     
     
    In the days that followed, things got worse. Clint tried to avoid the news, but that was becoming impossible. There was simply nothing else going on in society. Try as he might to stay out of its path, it found ways of getting through to him and disrupting his work—be it from Jake, Harold, Jenny, or any radio station he listened to. Even his beloved jazz station.
    The five million ferret flu cases grew to sixteen million seemingly overnight. The death toll skyrocketed into the millions just as fast. A rapidly growing number of Coloradans now claimed to know someone who was sick or already dead from the disease. The situation was even worse in Europe. About the only positive aspect was the fact that the number of infected U.S. states continued to stay at eighteen. All ten Great Plains states were still a safe haven. It was, as Tom had surmised, the remaining glimmer of hope.
    Then the President died.
    With an 80% mortality rate, it shouldn’t have been a shock. But it was. He was the ninth President to die in office, the fifth from natural causes. The country took it hard. Jenny, Clint’s coworkers, the neighbors; everyone Clint talked to was downright glum about it. Even Jake.
    “You know why this is so bad?” Jake said on the phone.
    “Why? Because the government is collapsing?”
    “No. I knew that would happen. It’s because it robs the American people of hope. Think about it, brother. He had the absolute best doctors and medical staff money could buy. Even they couldn’t save him. What hope does that leave the average Schmoe who gets sick? Someone who gets ushered away from society and sealed in a special doom-ward, attended by unrecognizable bodies in hazmat suits who are stretched way too far with an unfathomable work overload. Hearing this news doesn’t figure to help the victims muster additional strength for fighting it.”
    “One in five,” Clint said.
    “What’s that?”
    “You asked what hope the average sick person has. The answer is roughly one in five. Doesn’t seem to matter who your doctor is, what medicine you take, or how many Facebook likes you have.”
    “Righteous observation,” Jake said. “When are you guys packing up and coming down here?”
    “I’m still working, Jake. Too busy. And your internet connection probably won’t be reliable enough for me.”
    “So when Oracle lays you off, then you’ll come?”
    “I didn’t say that.”
    Clint hung up knowing the grim possibility Jake so insensitively suggested was menacingly real. Businesses were closing offices across the country, and Oracle was no exception. Millions of healthy people were losing their jobs amidst the onslaught of vacancies being created by the pandemic. Instead of helping the job market, as one might think, it undermined it completely. Things had gotten too far out of hand. The missing population was made up of customers, too. The fewer customers there were, the less the demand for everything. The American public was in the process of readjusting their priorities. If your profession wasn’t one involved in the production