Kathleen J. Forbes M.D.

October 11, 2010

Kathleen watched as the twin prop lifted up into the air from the runway and then continued to climb above the lake. Chris was on his way back to Nevada with another passenger representing Grand Coulee. Their flight plan was going to take them to Lake Tahoe first, where a small community had been established, and then to Las Vegas a few days later. She hoped the others would accept the invitation to join them in Washington.

She turned to the retired Navy Captain, “I hope they come.”

“It’s an open invitation Kathleen,” he replied while he watched the plane disappear beyond the butte. They then both walked back with the others to the electric golf carts and drove the short distance to the town of Grand Coulee where the greatest population of survivors the Northwest lived. The location and isolation of the town from the rest of the state offered them security since most of the roads into the valley were easily guarded. Most importantly they had access to nearly unlimited electric power.

Grand Coulee was able to protect the majority of it’s population from the flu by the very fact it was one of the first communities locked down by Homeland Security because of the important Grand Coulee dam. This did not mean it was untouched, Grand Coulee and the surrounding towns did lose a majority of the original residents. It was the hard and cold decisions of leaders that they did not suffer a greater lost.

WHO: Kathleen Forbes, Ian Forbes, and Chris Wells
WHEN: September 19, 2010
WHERE: Boulder City Municipal Airport, Nevada


The twin-prop Piper Apache airplane taxied toward the end of the runway with both Chris and Kathleen aboard. A few days earlier in casual conversation after the pot-luck dinner at Siena Suites alone with Chris by the pool, Kathleen half-joked if he could fly her away to Montana. Somehow from that point they hatched a plan to do just that, fly north. Unknown to her at the time, Chris planned to find a small plane here in the Las Vegas area, so he and Grace who was alive at that time could find her missing son. It was easier to search from the air than hoping their paths will cross on the ground. In any case, if Grace’s son was still alive he will try to find him.

Kathleen with red puffy eyes wiped away on more tear from her cheek and then blew her nose with a tissue. It was a lot harder to say good-bye than she had expected. It was at the end that she realized how attached she had become to some of those she was leaving behind in Las Vegas. Perhaps she did know in the back of her mind and it is why she had planned her departure in secret with Chris. She made her final decision the night before and had only told them a couple of hours ago that she was leaving.

She never intended to stay in Las Vegas long when she first arrived into the area a couple of months ago. It was only because the area still had electric power from the Hoover Dam that she stayed to have her baby. Now that she had a healthy baby, her days since his birth had been filled with concerns for his future. The Mojave desert was not a good place. The only thing Las Vegas had in its favor was electricity, but once that was gone it would become nothing more than a hot and dry ghost town.

Another reason she had even come this way in the first place after leaving Strawberry, Arizona was because Interstate 15 ran through the city. She could go north to Helena, Montana on the same Interstate highway. The power supply kept her here for months, but now she was willing to give that up to find another community of survivors settled in more fertile lands.

The airplane turned off the taxi way and on to the runway at Boulder City Municipal Airport. “Are you ready back there?” Chris asked through the earphones she wore over her ears. Kathleen quickly checked to make sure Ian was comfortable and secure inside the car seat that she attached to the rear passenger seat next her. She also check the baby sized ear muffs were snug around Ian’s tiny ears to protect his hearing from the noise of the twin prop engines. The muff were specially made for infants which she found along with many of his things at the baby boutique in Vegas. She knew that it was safe to travel by air with a newborn after at least seven days after birth.

“We are good to go, Chris.” Her mood had changed from sadness of leaving the people she cared for to excitement for the new adventure ahead. She smiled at Chris when he turned to look at her from the pilot’s seat up front.

“Here we go, prepare for take off,” he said. She watched him pull on the levers to power up the engines. The airplane quickly increased speed on the runway, it lightly rocked when the landing gear went over the imperfections on the surface. Kathleen could feel gravity pull her against her seat as the plane lifted off the ground. She looked out her window to the where she had said goodbye to those who had come to see them off, and caught a glimpse of their tiny figures below. She waved.

In a short time they were over the Black Canyon and the Colorado River. Chris turned the plane toward Hoover Dam and then northwest. The sight of the dam and it’s power houses made her question the decision to leave for a few second. Life without a reliable source of electricity would be difficult, but there was no turning back now. She will have to pray and hope for the best.

From several thousand feet the twin prop flew above the desert city. When Chris pointed out that they were over Siena Suite’s Extended Stay Hotel, Kathleen could not make out the buildings from all the houses and buildings below. She never studied a map of the city to know the lay out of the roads, but she did see the Silver Bowl, the stadium which was near the Suites.

Chris had gone over the flight plan with her the night before and explained that they were going to generally follow Interstate 15 up to Helena. It was a little over 900 miles to Helena and at their best economical cruising speed the flight should take approximately 6 hours.

(To be Continued)

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Extended Summary

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Character: Kathleen Forbes
Location: Inside her temporary home near Boulder City, Nevada
Summary: Thinking about her situation while keeping busy with drugs

( No time for memories, I have work to do.  )