Quaranteam - Flyover Country

Dramatis Personae

Team A. Palmer

Aaron Palmer -

31, brown hair and beard, average height but muscular and strong, former Navy Seabee

Niamh Gutierrez -

29, Irish-Cuban with strawberry-blonde hair, investment banker recruited to Operation Breadbasket from Kansas City, MO

Samantha Birch -

34, brunette with a voluptuous figure, Hopewell native and long-time friend of Mike & Jenny Palmer, lawyer practicing in Omaha, NE

Diana "Princess" Sasaki -

32, muscular half-Japanese former Marine who knew Aaron when he was in the Navy

* * * * *

Team M. Palmer

Mike Palmer -

34, brown hair and beard starting to go gray, tall but trending towards a potbelly, farmer who never left town

Jenny Palmer -

34, petite blonde, high school sweetheart and later wife of Mike, nurse at the local clinic

Alyssa Matthews -

23, long brown hair, short but lithe and athletic, recruited to Operation Breadbasket from a tourist dude ranch in Texas

August 2, 2020

The sound of Aaron's off-key humming and the enticing scent of heavily spiced tomatoes simmering away slowly drew the slumbering members of the household out of bed. Niamh and Sam both already knew that Aaron was an excellent cook. He'd made a particular effort since they arrived to learn about and prepare some of their favorite foods. Mike's Team, on the other hand, was surprised to see him wearing an apron and deftly managing several heavy pans on the stove. Alyssa was especially pleased to see him, as she'd been handling the breakfast cooking largely on her own.

With a final clatter of pans, Aaron switched off the burners and turned to greet his audience. "Good morning, party people," he said before taking a long sip of his piping hot black coffee and smiling. "We've got shakshuka with fresh veggies from the garden, along with some toasty bread and a whole bunch of toppings you can add to personalize it. I'm partial to a little crumbled feta and some olives, personally, but feel free to go nuts."

"What garden?" muttered a perplexed Jenny.

Mike stared dumbfounded at his brother. "What the hell is 'shake-a-shook-a' and how the heck do you know how to make whatever that is?"

"It's basically tomatoes and peppers gently simmered with onions, garlic, and a whole bunch of tasty spices mixed in. Crack a couple eggs on top and you've got a delicious and nutritious breakfast. Learned about it from a Lebanese sailor I served with in Rota."

"I'm still confused about when you learned to cook," said Mike, giving the pans a dubious glare.

"Not all of us have had a Jenny to take care of them since leaving home. Some of us have had to fend for ourselves," he said with a hint of bite. He started dishing up hearty portions for everyone, directing them towards the array of bowls filled with toppings that he'd prepared. Handing Diana her bowl and a steaming mug of coffee with a kiss, he took a moment to admire her taut backside as she walked to the table. He saw that she still had a small hitch in her stride as she walked, though he didn't think anything of it.

Jenny noted the same thing, however, and was far more concerned. "Diana, are you still having pain or weakness in your ankle?"

"No. I feel great. Good as new, really. Why do you ask?"

"You're still moving with a bit of a limp, even though your ankle is fully healed." She turned to glare at Aaron. "Don't act like you didn't see it. I saw you fixated on her butt as she walked to the table. You should have said something about it."

"Is it a problem?" asked Diana, heading off the budding confrontation.

"It will be if you don't fix it. Untreated antalgic gaits can cause all sorts of musculoskeletal problems for you. Muscle tightness, joint pain, you name it. I'll put together some PT exercises for you to help retrain your body to walk normally."

Diana was taken aback by Jenny's aggressive involvement in her recovery. Deciding to take it as a positive first step towards a stable group dynamic, she grabbed Jenny and pulled her into a close embrace, squeezing her tightly. "Thanks, Doc," she grunted.

Flustered by the unexpected physical contact, and Diana's strength, she managed to mumble out a response. "It's fine. No big deal. Just doing my job."

"It is a big deal," Diana insisted. "And I know just how I'm going to make it up to you." Jenny's trepidation was apparent on her face. "I'm going to help you adjust to this crazy new world we're living in now. Adapting and overcoming is what Marines do best."

"I'm doing just fine," Jenny retorted shortly. "I don't need any help."

"You're not doing fine. I've spent most of my time here unconscious and even I can easily see that you're struggling. Which is totally normal. I get it. We all want our Prince Charming and our Happily Ever After, whatever that looks like. But things aren't going to get any easier for you any time soon. You need help adjusting, and I'm going to be the one to give you that help."

Dubious, Jenny slowly nodded in acknowledgment. "Fine. It's not like I want to be like this. It's just hard. How do you think you can possibly help?"

"You're uncomfortable with this whole situation and you're taking it out on Alyssa. It's easier to blame everything on the stranger in your house than it is to face the realities of the apocalyptic situation we're all grappling with."

"And what's your brilliant solution, Sigmund?" she snapped.

"I prefer Siggie, actually," she answered, unphased by Jenny's sarcasm. "My solution is to get you to shift Alyssa from 'stranger' to 'family.' I mean, you wouldn't be so pissed about your sister having a close relationship with Mike, would you? Maybe you would. I don't actually know if you have any sisters. Anyway, if we can help you get your relationship with Alyssa right, you hopefully won't be so freaked out when Mike's next partners arrive."

"I have two sisters. And I guess you might be right about how I would react. They both love him and that's never been a problem for me. Though they've never had sex with him." She glared at her husband who wisely remained silent, raising his hands and vehemently shaking his head. "Do I even want to know how you're hoping to pull off this miraculous feat?" she asked after a pause.

"Two words: Girls' Night." Silence reigned as everyone simply sat and stared at Diana. "What? Why is everyone staring at me?"

Aaron giggled at her incredulous response. "I don't know about anyone else, Princess, but I'm just surprised to see you so excited about something so... girly...as a girls' night."

She gave him an exaggerated glower. "Is there something wrong with me liking girly things?"

"Nothing wrong with it. It was just surprising. And cute. I like it." He placated her with a quick kiss.

She blushed faintly, turning back to Jenny with a predatory grin painted across her face. "Tonight. Drinks, snacks, and girl talk. The guys can fuck off somewhere and make themselves scarce. We'll all get to know each other a bit better. We'll get you over the hump, come hell or high water."

Jenny wasn't comforted by the steely determination filling Diana's voice.

* * * * *

Sam gently placed a tray loaded with bottles of beer and glasses of wine on the coffee table in the middle of the basement lounge. Each woman grabbed their preferred beverage and settled back into the comfy seats arrayed around the room. Loud snacking crunches were the only thing that disturbed the awkward silence.

Seeing nobody else eager to kick things off, Diana firmly nodded once and broke the ice. "My name is Diana, and I'm an addict...for Aaron's dick."

Her off the wall opener shattered the tension, reducing everyone to uncontrollable giggles. "Hi Diana," chimed her fellow Aaron-addicts once they managed to catch their breath again.

"Now that we've gotten that out of the way..." She proceeded to tell the group about her parents, a Japanese linguist at the Defense Language Institute and a paralegal, her life growing up in Monterey, and her time in the Corps (omitting the more gruesome details and focusing instead on some of the funny and interesting things that she had seen).

Seeing Jenny start to relax, Niamh and Sam built on Diana's momentum. Niamh talked about growing up as an only child in a home with two high-achieving immigrant parents. Her stories about her

daideo's

attempts to get her

abuelo

drunk enough to admit that whiskey was better than rum had them all gasping for breath. Sam piled on, sharing comical stories about her time in law school and the perils of online dating in a big city.

As Aaron's Teammates wound down, attention naturally shifted to Alyssa, who shifted anxiously in her seat, fiddling with her half-full glass of white wine.

"My story's not quite so lighthearted and fun as you guys, I guess." She looked down at her hands before knocking back the rest of her drink, immediately grabbing the bottle to refill it. Taking a deep breath, she continued. "I grew up on a good-sized ranch outside Russell, a tiny little town in Eastern Montana. Daddy was the foreman on the Flying V and mama works at the post office."

Sam spotted the "was" and placed a comforting hand on Alyssa's knee. "When did your dad pass away?"

"When I was 14. We were leaving my sister Emily's graduation and he just keeled over. Heart attack at 47. No warning signs. No nothing. Just walking along, joking and laughing as usual, and then boom...dead."

The slow trickle of tears flowing down Alyssa's cheeks broke Jenny's reserve, and she reached over and gave her a brief hug. Alyssa smiled slightly as Jenny returned to her chair, comforted by the heartfelt response. Maybe Jenny wasn't such a coldhearted witch after all.

"Anyway;" she cleared her throat and tried to start again. "Anyway, after Daddy died, Mr. Vikstrom let us stay in the little foreman's house on the property. He said that the new guy wanted to stay in town and not out on the ranch, but I'm pretty sure he was just looking out for the family of one of his oldest friends. Mama's still living in that little house, actually."

She leaned back in her chair, sipping at her wine absentmindedly. "Things were rough for a while after that. After Daddy died, Emily decided that she wanted to be a nurse and not a vet anymore. She went away for nursing school and never looked back. I had to help mama with raising Brian, who quickly turned into quite the little hellraiser. Well, as much as you can raise hell in such a small town, I guess."

"What do you mean by that?" Niamh asked.

"Dumb stuff, mostly. Drinking. Fighting. Stealing a tractor and making donuts in the middle of the football field. Releasing chickens into the gym during a pep rally. You know, normal stuff. One time he and his buddies bought a bunch of marking dye and painted giant hot pink penises on the side of a rancher's prize Charolais herd."

The tension was broken by raucous laughter, exacerbated by Sam choking on her beer and spitting it all over herself.

"Where's Brian now?" asked Diana once they had regained control over themselves. "Still causing trouble in your hometown?"

Alyssa slugged back another large gulp of her wine. "Not anymore. His grades weren't good enough to get a scholarship, so he joined the Army right after high school. Was almost finished with his first tour in Iraq when his convoy was hit by an IED. He didn't...he never..." She couldn't finish her sentence, again losing control of her tears.

Diana surged off the couch and grabbed Alyssa, smothering her with warmth and comfort. She knew all too well what Alyssa was feeling, having lost several close friends during her military career. The other women piled on, trying to offer their own support as Alyssa struggled to regain her equilibrium.

Eventually, everyone backed off, refilling their drinks and returning to their seats. Sam finally asked the question that nobody was quite confident enough to. "And your sister? How's she doing?

"She's great," giggled Alyssa, pleased to finally not have a depressing answer to a question about her family. "Emily's based out of Atlanta. During nursing school, she joined the Public Health Service to help pay for college. After she did her mandatory service, she got an Epidemic Investigation Service fellowship with the CDC. I can't tell if she's still with the Public Health Service or in the CDC, but she does something with all that kind of thing." Her face brightened as she described her sister's trajectory, shaking off the gloom of her personal history. "She's the reason I got into this whole program in the first place, actually."

"Ah, so she's the one I should blame," snarked Jenny.

"Pretty much. She's the reason you got little old me and not some grouchy old hag or bimbo cheerleader type out to steal your man," Alyssa joked. "I'll be sure to pass on your appreciation." She stuck her tongue out at Jenny, who snorted and giggled at her good humor.

"I suppose that's fair," she conceded. "How did she get you into this program?"

"That calls for a bit more backstory. After college, I didn't want to just go back home and work on one of the ranches. I wanted to explore a little. Do some traveling, meet new people, see what else might be out there for me. A friend from San Antonio told me that there were plenty of jobs in her area, so I decided to head down there after graduation. Took my time, roaming around the country. Visiting friends and seeing the sights. Worked odd jobs to make a bit of cash along the way. Spent a month as a bartender in South Dakota, another picking fruit in California. After six months or so on the road, I was tired of wandering and showering at truck stops so I drove straight through to San Antonio. Pretty quickly got a job at Echo Valley Ranch, this beautiful little dude ranch about an hour outside the city."

She smiled thinking about it. "It was great. Didn't pay that much, but it came with room and board. They had a bunch of little cabins for the hands. I still got to work outdoors and around a ranch, but not so isolated as it would have been back in Montana. The tourists were mostly friendly and excited about the experience. Especially the kids. It's really something to see them light up when they manage to mount a horse or rope a fence post for the first time."

"That sounds perfect," said Sam.

"It was," agreed Alyssa. "At first. Everything was great for the first few months, but then the lockdowns started. Nobody could travel or gather, so tourist traffic fell way off. Not all the way, of course. It was Texas, after all, and you're always gonna have people ignoring what the government tells them."

"That's not just a Texas thing," said Jenny. "People around here didn't want to shut down and isolate either. Didn't matter what we said at the hospital; they weren't interested. Heck, the only reason we've had a halfway decent lockdown was Father Dominic. After two weeks of people ignoring the restrictions, he organized the Granny Brigade to put pressure on their friends, relatives, and neighbors. There's nothing quite like a 90-year-old woman using a megaphone to yell at the idiots down the street having a pool party in the middle of a pandemic."

The group giggled at the visual before Jenny continued, a frown stealing across her face. "It's been better here, but not perfect. We've still lost several people over the past couple of months. Thought it was COVID at the time, but I guess now we know better." She trailed off, her frown deepening.

"That sounds about right," said Alyssa. "Like I said, people kept coming to the ranch for a while, but things were still slowed way down by April. The owners were great about it, though. They didn't fire anybody or anything. They let us all stay in our cabins and just help out around the place as much as we could. There's always something to do around a ranch, after all."

She took another sip of her wine. "You know what happens when a bunch of young folks have time to kill, privacy, and cash? They party. A lot. It started slow, with beers and guitars around the campfire. After a couple months with less and less to do, things escalated. We ended up partying until dawn more often than not by the end."

"Sounds like fun," said Diana.

"Sounds exhausting," disagreed Sam.

"Anyway," continued Alyssa, "I'd been getting calls from Emily every week or so. We'd talk about little things, just touching base mostly. But she'd always make sure to mention the lockdowns, ask about my health, that kind of thing. I never really thought much about it at the time, figured it was just typical big sister stuff. I guess, looking back, she must have known things were worse than everyone thought."

She leaned back in her chair, stretching silently, before continuing. "Everything changed sometime around the start of July. People were more tired, more stressed, more...bad. Emily must have been able to tell things were getting worse on our phone calls. One morning, she called me up at the crack of dawn and asked me if I was ready to get out of there."

"That's all she said?" asked an incredulous Jenny. "She asked, 'do you wanna bail?' and you just jumped on board?"

"Of course not," snapped Alyssa. "She told me that things were gonna get a lot worse before they ever got better, that things on the ranch, hell, things all over Texas, weren't safe. People still weren't taking this seriously and that people were gonna die because of it. A lot of people. Maybe even most people."

"Jesus Christ," muttered Diana. "She didn't sugarcoat that one, now did she?"

Alyssa shook her head. "Once all that settled in a bit, she told me she'd gotten me a lifeline. A chance to go somewhere safe. Somewhere I could be around people who weren't treating this like a joke or a plot. She even told me she'd found a way to make sure that I wouldn't end up in the middle of some big city somewhere."

"Operation Breadbasket," said Niamh. "Makes sense. I assume farming and ranching are pretty much the same, so you'd fit right in around here."

Alyssa and Jenny gawped at her while Sam snorted out a laugh.

"Sure," Alyssa finally managed. "After Emily told me about the program, I got that Oracle link and spent the next hour filling it out. I had to look up...half of the things on that list though. We didn't have people trying to hump clowns back in Montana."

"We definitely had that in California," quipped Diana. "I can't wait to see Aaron in a Bozo costume."

"Y'all just keep that on your side of the house, and we won't have any trouble," joked Alyssa. "The day after that was all done, I got an email with my choices. Once I picked Mike, I got a call from some Air Force lady who said to be at Kelly Field at 8 the next morning. There were probably 30 or 40 women gathered there, everyone wearing masks and spaced out around an empty hangar. It was a pretty slick operation. Plane landed, everyone was hustled on board and spread throughout the cabin, and then we were back in the air. Couldn't have been more than 15, 20 minutes on the ground."

Diana whistled softly before leaning back in her seat with a smirk. "At least the Chair Force finally managed to get something right. All it took was an apocalyptic pandemic to get them operating efficiently."

"Once we landed in Kansas, they ran us all through the same routine as you guys. An info dump, a quick jab, and a Humvee ride from Wichita out here to Hopewell." The other women nodded in confirmation, reflecting momentarily on their own experiences processing through the Air Force's vaccine station.

The group knocked back the last of their drinks before splitting up to hunt down more drinks, refill the snack bowls, and pee.

Stepping out of the bathroom and spotting Diana loading a case of beer into the fridge to chill, Jenny went over and started passing her cans. "Thank you," she finally managed. "This whole thing has actually been, shockingly enough, pretty helpful."