Read Online The Last Christmas by Jacqueline Druga - Free Book Online

1.
T he Last Christmas: Dying

     
    Her eyes said she was hungry, but my wife, Melissa , would never complain. She wouldn’t tell me she didn’t have enough to eat. She and I were always the last to eat. The kids were first. I know they were hungry too.
    I felt guilt y taking the last spoonful of the potted meat. But that was the only thing I had consumed all day. We were at the end. The last can. It toppled from my hand, clanking to the floor in my helpless defeat.
    I was failing my family.
    We wouldn’t make it much longer.
    Days, weeks, I knew this . Melissa knew this. The kids, well, they were kids. They knew what they were told. And at four- and six years old, we told them very little.
    We were fortunate, in a sense, for a lot of things. The location of our home was perfect; at the onset, we had an ample supply of food and a source to get more nearby. We had a fireplace in the basement family room to keep us warm; and most importantly, we had each other.
    When hundreds of millions lost their families, I managed to keep mine.
    We were together.
    But how much longer would that be the case? I had to do something, and even if I did, would it make a difference?
    The local source for supplies had been wiped clean, by us and other people who hid for their safety. To get more, I’d have to venture farther out.
    Because we stayed in the cellar with the fireplace for warmth, I hardly could tell if it was day or night. I looked at my watch, it was evening. I’d venture out the next day. But the time wasn’t what got to me. It was the date.
    December 23 rd .
    The next day was Christmas Eve , and that fueled my determination even more.
    I had to do it. Melissa an d I always made Christmas special, and this year would not be an exception.
    I get out there, get something. My gut told me we weren’t going to be around much longer, not through the winter. So I was going to make it the best Christmas yet.
    Because I truly believed, that as a family, it would be our last Christmas together … ever.
     
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    Daddy, is Santa bringing me that toy?
    Daddy, how will Santa find us?
    Kids didn’t know. Mine certainly didn’t.
    Carly had just turned four when it all started, and Jeff was six. Their biggest worry was why they couldn’t go to school.
    As I said, we were fortunate. We lived on a little stretch of road just beyond the city and right before the next town. A dead area, no pun intended. We actually were far away enough from the mayhem when it started that it was a neighbor who told me not to go anywhere, to hunker down and stay put.
    At first that was the thought on all of our minds.
    I guess in actuality it was longer than four months ago , closer to a year. In fact it was just after Christmas when we first heard about it.
    The Venice Flu started in, well, Venice. It pretty much locked down the city. An ordinary flu turned bad. It wasn’t like the flu cases in the movies, where people just dropped dead. People were sick for a while, days and weeks passed before they succumbed. Raging fever, cold symptoms. That was stage one. Early on, everyone made it through stage one. Well, almost everyone, a small, very small percentage, like the ordinary flu, passed away.
    Then just as Venice thought it was finished, a second wave of the flu hit. Those who had it the first time had immunity. And you know, because it was a hard flu, but not deadly, people didn’t fear it. They should have.
    It mutated. Suddenly, after stage one, the victims felt better for a few days. A misleading remission. Then the cold symptoms grew out of control and the raging fever cause d internal bleeding. By the time stage two of the flu had been discovered, stage one had spread across Italy.
    Stage three began, the inability of the body to retain any hydration. Basically, they bled out and dried out before death.
    The entire process took no less than a week. Imagine hundreds of millions of people suffering with not enough hands to care for them.
    It was a