Under Marshal Law

14 Years Ago

“Come over here, Lena,” Kol Bishop said to his youngest daughter, his voice thick and filled with pure awe at the incredible moment of historical importance about to be witnessed. His hands kept fidgeting with anything and everything around him. He would twist the edge of a blanket for several minutes and then move on to folding a random piece of paper close to him until it resembled, slightly, some kind of weird aircraft, and then finally stopping at tapping his fingers on his thighs repeatedly.

Seven-year-old Lena picked herself up from the floor. All around her were coloring books filled with butterflies, fairies, and princesses as well as a pile of crayons, each one a different, bright color. She smiled at her father, held up her arms excitedly and ran over to him. Kol sat on their gray sofa, his eyes shiny as tears of joy filled them. When Lena got within range, he snatched her up in a quick burst of motion that sent Lena into a simultaneous fit of laughter and screaming. He laughed with her and after they were done, he returned his attention to the large TV mounted to their living room wall, right above a fireplace with a carved mantle made from a dark walnut wood. The screen showed a special, unprecedented news broadcast. One that played on nearly every single channel.

“Sit,” Kol said, patting the cushion next to him. When his daughter no longer squirmed around to find the best, most comfortable position and settled down, he gestured toward the TV. She turned huge, blue eyes at it as she fiddled with one of her blonde pigtails and sucked on her thumb. Kol calmly took her thumb out of her mouth without a word, as if he’d done the same thing hundreds of times before, and smiled down at her.

“This is something you’ll learn about in school someday,” Kol told her softly. “A moment people will remember forever.” She looked up at him with eyes full of curiosity, mouth slightly agape. He laughed again at her confused expression and gave her a monster hug. She giggled loudly.

“Why?” she asked, after the hug stopped and he looked back at the TV. She watched the boring show but didn’t really grasp what the people on it were saying. It was a bunch of grown ups in what Lena called dressy clothes on a stage, shaking hands with a bunch of other grown ups in dressy clothes.

“These people changed the world,” he explained, trying to use words she would understand. “Meaning they are doing really good things and it will help lots of people.”

The sound of dishes clinking together and of water being shut off a second later drifted toward the two. Kol turned his head toward the kitchen. Their house had an open floor plan and he could see his wife standing there with a pair of earbuds in as she rinsed off dishes and then put them in the waiting trays of the dishwasher.

“Come over here, babes!” Kol yelled to his wife, trying to be heard over whatever podcast or Japanese jazz music she might be listening to. “You’re gonna miss it! Bring Carolynn, Danni, and Morgan too! They should see this! It’s a once in a lifetime event!”

“Just a minute,” his wife, Bekah, shouted back. “I’m almost done. Also, Morgan is doing her homework and Carolynn and Danni went to Sanya’s.”

“They’re getting ready to sign the Accords!” Kol replied.

“What’s that?” Lena asked, still very much confused as she looked longingly at her abandoned coloring book. It was still open, displaying her half-colored butterfly. Her gaze returned to her daddy. He looked happy. Very, very happy. She decided, in her five-year-old wisdom, to color later and stayed on the couch with him instead.

“They’re the good thing I told you about, sweetheart,” Kol whispered to her, his eyes now switching back and forth between the TV and the door to the kitchen.

Bekah finished up with the dishes and rushed into the living room, drying her hands on a maroon towel with a tiny, orange-embroidered phoenix on it. She sat down on the couch next to her husband and daughter with the towel clutched in her hands and her legs tucked underneath her butt. She turned her attention to the screen.

“I still can’t believe this is actually happening,” she whispered. Her eyes immediately became glued to the screen too. They went a bit wide, her own awe and amazement filling them.

“I know. I can’t either!” Kol replied, enthusiasm spilling from his voice as his smile widened even further. Excitement thrummed through him. It felt like it wanted to burst out of every part of his body. Unconsciously, he rubbed both hands together in a furious, back and forth motion. The gesture had been a habit he’d picked up from his own father, a man he hated thinking about. So he refused to. Instead, he let every part of his mind and soul absorb the enormous, one-of-a-kind moment in history he felt lucky enough to be alive to witness. “It’s so…incredible,” he breathed.

Broadcasted across every channel, streaming on every social media outlet, and even playing on multiple services like Netflix and Prime, was the signing of The Accords of New Peace. Kol watched world leaders shake hands. Countries that used to threaten each other now smiled for cameras. After the massive death and destruction during the last great war, it became apparent that if nothing was done, humanity would destroy themselves. And so, the Accords were proposed and signed, ushering in an unprecedented age of peace.

“This is the start of a new world,” Kol said in a whisper. He embraced his wife and daughter, closing his eyes for a moment, savoring this feeling. “This is history being made.”

//\//\//\//\//\//\//\//\//\//\//

Kol stood at the counter in his kitchen, drinking a steaming cup of coffee. Columbian with some peppermint mocha creamer in it. He inhaled the smell a bit wistfully. He had no idea when he might be able to get more coffee in the future. All the stores were on lock down and rationing had begun just last week. That included his favorite coffee spot, Pennylane, too. He’d taken all his girls there nearly every Saturday for years. It had been something he looked forward to. Now, it hurt to think back on. Now it only served to remind him of everything he took for granted and all the things he lost thanks to the fucking virus. Despite that, he considered himself, and his family, lucky. The town where they lived, the only home they’d ever really known, was still considered safe.

For the most part.

The virus had taken root in the big, metropolitan areas first. New York City. Miami. Los Angeles. Houston. The closest city to them that just got overrun was Nashville, Tennessee. Many believed it wouldn’t be long before Cincinnati fell.

It terrified him how fast the virus spread and how it kept getting closer and closer to him and his family. He’d even approached Bekah about taking the girls and leaving for Canada. Analysts and other top officials thought the cold might slow the virus. It seemed to thrive more in warmer climates. So far, data did seem to back them up but he’d also heard rumors that Montreal, some surrounding cities around the area, and even as far north as Quebec City had several thousand cases pop up. He wasn’t sure what to believe but he did know himself. He knew he had to have something to hope for, however slim that hope might be.

“Good morning,” Bekah said, coming up behind him. She looked exhausted, as if she hadn’t been sleeping well.

He knew he looked the same.

“Morning.” He forced himself to smile. He didn’t feel like smiling but it reassured his wife. At least, he hoped it did. “The girls awake yet?”

“I’m trying to let them sleep in as much as possible. It’s been hard getting them to bed. With all the military vehicles, helicopters, and noise, they have trouble,” she answered, her body slumping slightly and her eyes shifting to the floor.

He could feel the well of sadness coming off her and wanted nothing more than to comfort her. But he couldn’t. She’d know he was lying the minute any words like “We’re going to be okay,” or “Everything will be fine,” came out of his mouth.

Kol’s own shoulders slumped, suddenly feeling very heavy. Hot, familiar anger roiled through him yet again. An anger brought on by his own impotence. His inability to make things better. He felt his hands clench into tight fists, his knuckles flaring a bright white as he did. He wanted to punch something. Repeatedly. But what good would that do? Other than maybe breaking his own fingers.

His mind decided to recall horrible footage at that moment. Footage of what people with the virus had turned into. It hadn’t been pretty to watch the first time, let alone the memory of it. In fact, it was absolutely horrific, one of the worst things he ever saw, and it tainted his dreams almost every night. The virus, labeled the Mutation Sickness by the CDC, turned anyone infected into…creatures. Things right out of the worst, most terrifying, nightmare. Living, breathing horrors. The news, when that had still been a thing, named them Mutates. Seeing videos of people, men, women, and even children, being overtaken by the virus and changed made his stomach churn with nausea. Old. Young. Healthy. Sick. Skinny. Fit. Overweight. White. Black. Asian. European. Hispanic. It didn’t matter. The virus spared no one as far as Kol had been able to tell. The fact that all of it, the deaths, the Mutates, that sickening footage of multiple people…changing, was all real and not some Hollywood, acid-trip-induced blockbuster made their current situation worse. Sometimes, especially really early in the morning as he started coming out of yet another restless, near-sleepless night, he even thought all of it had been a crazy dream. For the briefest of seconds, right before his eyes would open, he thought this time, maybe, everything would be back to normal. That it would, indeed, have all just been a crazy, fever-dream or something like that.

Each morning, he woke up disappointed and crushed that monsters, a global plague, and pretty much the end of the world were now their reality.

“Morning,” Carolynn, their oldest, said as she came into the kitchen to join them. “Got any coffee for me?”

Kol pulled down a cup and poured her a modest amount of the stuff. She took it, poured some peppermint mocha creamer into it, and inhaled the sweet aroma much the same way her father just had.

“Sleep well?” Bekah asked her.

Carolynn shrugged her shoulders. “Well enough. All the military crap vrooming around was hard to deal with. I would finally start drifting off and then Humvees, a helicopter, or something else would come through and bam, I’m awake again. Makes me wish I still had TikTok to doom scroll through.”

“Things will settle down. Eventually, right?” Bekah looked at Kol. Her eyebrows raised and her eyes got big and round as she did, telling him without telling him to just agree with her to provide at least a little bit of hope to their child.

Before Kol could, a ridiculously loud knock suddenly interrupted their conversation as someone pounded on their front door. They were all taken by surprise and jumped, standing there looking at one another startled. It boomed through the house again a minute or two later after no one answered the door.

“I’ll check it out,” Kol said, taking a deep breath. He looked at his wife and daughter. “You two, stay here. Grab knives.” He stared intently at them. “You know…just in case.”

Kol walked cautiously toward their front door. Upstairs, he could faintly hear his other three daughters starting to wake up. Lena whimpered a little. She sounded about ready to fire up a long and very loud fit fueled by all the noise and a lack of good, non-fear-ridden sleep. Despite being well past her toddler years, she still had the occasional outburst. Out of all his children, he worried about her the most. He hated to admit it to himself, but if things went even further south, he didn’t think she would be able to survive. The brutality of what their world had become may end up being too much for her.

He got to the door and looked through the peephole. Panic surged through his body and he felt his heart bash against his chest. Cold spread through his fingers. Blood pulsed and pounded in his ears and it suddenly got hard to breathe. He forced himself to calm down and then opened his front door. Standing on his porch were two women in full military gear with M16s strapped to their vests waiting impatiently. Kol felt the coldness spread from his fingers all the way up to the back of his neck. Soldiers didn’t go door to door with good news.

“Hello?” Kol asked.

“Hello, sir. I’m Staff Sergeant Ivy Lan and this is Senior Airman Kim Higgins. We have been ordered to help evacuate this area and transport all civilians to a mandatory site for testing. You will have three hours to pack some clothes and supplies.”

“What? Why?” Kol asked, noticing that Higgins would not make eye contact with him. “What’s happened? We thought we were still safe here.”

“Is everything okay?” Bekah asked, coming to stand next to Kol in the doorway.

“Sir, ma’am.” Lan’s eyes darted back and forth between Kol and Bekah. They looked so tired. Bags formed underneath them, giving her a haggard and exhausted appearance. “To be brutally honest, it’s not. Now, time is really of the essence. Everything will be explained at the screening site. Understand that it is imperative you and your family prepare to leave your house right now,” Lan commanded, her voice stern despite her exhaustion. “A transport will be here at exactly 1300 hours.” The soldier’s sternness softened a bit, and her eyes turned pleading, as if begging the two civilians not to make a huge fuss and delay things further. “Please, I implore you, be ready by then.”

Lan and Higgins rushed away after that. They didn’t stick around for a Q and A session. Kol watched them, his heart still beating so fast it hurt while that chill spread across his scalp in a tingly wave. The two soldiers headed in the direction of Devon Imari’s house, his next door neighbor. It looked as if the soldiers were giving everyone the same troubling command. A practical army of them were scattered all throughout his street. He stood there and saw the looks on each of his neighbors’ faces as they received the news.

They all came to the same conclusion he did.

The virus had reached them.

They were all in danger.