Burning Mold

by Jefferson Nunn

  Every city they’d ever visited had a grocery store, and Nikki’s meals were cheaper and tastier than those they would be able get at most restaurants. Chad would stop at a restaurant for dinner only the night before the morning flight.

  Chad helped to clean up all the dishes and put the kids into the bath. After the bath, he then offered to read them a story.

  “What are we reading tonight, kids?”

  Alex asked, “Let’s do Hop on Pop!”

  Erwin shouted, “Put Me in The Zoo!”

  “Okay, we can read both of them,” Chad said.

  Chad read both books and then turned off the lights, settling down onto the other queen bed with Nikki. Chad turned on the phone to check for messages and noticed that the Wi-Fi was out. Inside the room they didn’t get much cell reception.

  “Honey…No Internet?” groaned Nikki.

  “Okay. I’ll go ask up front.”

  Chad went out of the room and walked to the front office. The lights were all off at the front. Chad knocked on the door, and no one answered. After a few minutes, he went back to the room and checked the phone, which still showed no data and only one bar.

  “There’s no one up front. We’ll have to check again tomorrow,” Chad said.

  With that, Chad showered, then snuggled into bed with his wife, quickly falling asleep.

  The next day, they had muffins for breakfast in the room, then loaded everything up into the car. Chad looked around but didn’t see another soul at this time. They got into the car and started driving. The GPS said that it would be about a three-hour drive to Albuquerque.

  A few minutes in, Alex shouted, “Erwin’s hitting me again!”

  “Hey, kids, no fighting. Let’s play a game. How about I Spy?” Chad said.

  They played a variety of road trip games as Chad drove. He didn’t see any other cars on the freeway, so he sped up, but just a little.

  Nikki’s cell-phone notification chimed an hour later. She glanced down, checking her messages. Nikki tapped Chad’s shoulder. “Chad, I think you should read this.”

  “What is it?”

  She shoved her phone into Chad’s face.

  “Okay, hold on. I’ll pull over….”

  He stopped on the freeway shoulder and took her phone.

  CINDY, JACQUELINE, CYNTHIA, ELIZABETH GROUP CHAT

  CINDY: Are you guys okay? All FOUR of us here are all sick with something.

  ELIZABETH: We’ve been sick since yesterday. Paul went to the ER and they sent him home. He has the worst of it.

  JACQUELINE: Same with my Robert. He was even throwing up blood, and they sent him home. I haven’t been able to eat since yesterday.

  CYNTHIA: What do we do? We have to do something!!! I took my kids to the doctor and they said not to worry, but I am worried! I’ve never seen them this sick.

  He frowned at this chat. It sounded awful, but he thought it was probably some stomach bug. He handed the phone back to Nikki.

  “It’s probably the stomach flu or something. I’m sure that they will be fine. If the doctors say that they will be fine, they will be fine,” he said.

  He turned back on the freeway and drove. They passed by a few small towns on the way. He saw a few other cars along the way and felt it was probably a good idea to get back to civilization. Chad always enjoyed looking at some of the vintage stores and shops along the way. He would have enjoyed stopping at an antique store they had passed that had advertised some items from the 1950’s, but there was no time to stop.

  They passed the Continental Divide and were making good time. Nikki continued texting her friends as the kids sang songs and continued playing road trip games. As they approached the Indian reservation near the Interstate 40 freeway, they noticed some army troop transport helicopters flying in formation overhead.

  “Pee!” said Erwin.

  “All right…we’ll stop at the next gas station.”

  They pulled over to a gas station, and the kids hopped out and ran inside the store. Chad followed closely behind and picked out a few snacks for the afternoon. He went up to the attendant, who was engrossed in his cell phone. Chad coughed lightly to gain the attendant’s attention.

  “Crazy, isn’t it?” the attendant said.

  Chad read the name on his badge, Al. “The school shooting. Yes, it is,” Chad replied.

  Al had a strange look but said nothing else as he scanned the few items. Chad paid with his credit card, and the kids were already on the way back to the car. Chad thanked the attendant, then walked back to the car. Nikki’s face was troubled as Chad got back into the car.

  “It seems everyone has this illness and the doctors are not doing anything,” she said.

  Chad’s eyes widened, feeling concerned and indicating he wanted to know more.

  “Everyone is complaining about stomach pains, vomiting and diarrhea,” Nikki explained before taking a breath and continuing. “They have all either gone to the doctor or been to the ER, but no one can find anything. The doctors are saying just to stay in bed, rest, and to stay hydrated.”

  Chad frowned and got his phone and turned it on. He found that he had about eighty messages waiting for him between the various inboxes.

  BOBBY

  Are you ok? About half the company is out sick. Where are you?

  LARRY

  I’m sick as a dog. Can you take over my project? I’ll pay double.

  HUBERT

  Dude, I need your help. Call me.

  Chad jumped over to the News app and checked the headlines. Most of the headlines mentioned only various political dramas and some entertainment gossip. There was nothing about the outbreak on the News app, which struck both Nikki and Chad as odd.

  Chad asked his wife to take over driving for a bit so he could do more digging on whatever was causing the seemingly related events, and she agreed.

  Chad called his boss, Bobby.

  “Bobby, how are you doing?”

  “I’m all right, but a lot of folks are hit with this virus or whatever it is. We can’t meet our quota for this week. There is no way,” Bobby said, before veering off and asking about the trip.

  Chad discussed a few trip highlights before switching the conversation back to the mysterious illnesses. As Bobby continued his discussion of his original topic, Chad replied, “Yeah, I’ve been reading a few messages from my friends. Some kind of a stomach bug?”

  “Seems that way. When are you headed back?” Bobby said, hiding his envy of Chad. It was difficult controlling the company and being responsible for so many projects. It was often so much easier for Bobby to dive deeply into work and forget about the rest of his life. His personal life seemed barren compared to others’ lives, especially after a horrible relationship he had been involved in when he was just starting his career.

  Bobby considered himself a workaholic, and most of the time it served him well. But it was times like those, when he listened to his workers enjoying time with their family, that he sometimes regretted many of the choices he had made. Then he’d reflect back on how the love of his life basically knifed him in the back, and he’d be right back into the thick of things, raising quotas and jiggering systems and flow charts.

  “Monday. We’re about an hour outside of Albuquerque right now, where we’ll catch the return flight tomorrow morning.”

  “Any way that you can make it back today?” Bobby asked.

  Chad paused. “I can’t think of how we can do it. The flights are already totally booked. Even if I drove the whole way, we wouldn’t make it back until Monday, anyway.”

  “How about virtually?” Bobby asked.

  Chad sighed, glancing at his wife and pondering helping Bobby out. The trip was already a success. If they’d just started, Chad would object, but it had been a refreshing trip. He’d made good on his promise to Nikki and the boys to leave work at work for this trip. Still, it was his vacation, and he didn’t like the idea.

  He’d thought early on in his career about setting clea
r boundaries at work, but he’d done well enough without them. And he got the sense Bobby would take it personally, so he just let Bobby continue to do what he did and only pushed back when it interfered too much.

  Chad made up his mind to help out when Bobby explained, “We gotta make the quota, otherwise we will be late for the presentation.”

  Chad gently gripped Nikki’s shoulder, then stroked it, holding his hand in place midway down her arm. “Honey, Bobby needs me to fix up a couple of things. Can you drop me off at the hotel and take the boys to the Balloon Museum alone? I can meet you later.”

  Nikki glared at him, but she also had an expression that he understood. “Okay…I’ll give you a call when we get to the hotel in just over an hour,” Chad said.

  Bobby's voice rose half an octave, “With you on it, we’ll hit the quota no problem and we’ll finally have Hadaran in the bag,” he said.

  Chad hung up and called Larry. He filled Larry in on the details about following short on the quota, then discussed his trip momentarily before Larry volunteered his current situation.

  “Oh, man, I feel like Mike Tyson just punched me in the gut,” Larry said.

  Chad sympathized, “Sounds bad. What did the doc say?”

  “My blood work is fine. They think it is some kinda bug.”

  “I hear ya. Okay, what do you need done?”

  “I got most of the numbers done but I didn’t finish the final set of analysis needed to integrate this into Hadaran by Tuesday. I can’t even focus on the screen. Can you knock it out for me?”

  “Yeah, I can help. That’s easy enough,” Chad replied, making a mental note and jotting something down in shorthand on a post-it note.

  Chad said his goodbyes, then called Hubert. He got Hubert’s voicemail and left a message. After hanging up, he could tell that Nikki’s patience was wearing thin.

  Nikki really did want to be a supportive wife, and she was most of the time. But she did get annoyed with Bobby calling the way Bobby always called and asked her hubby to jump in and save the day. She usually kept it to herself since it was on weekdays. But she was also conflicted. She knew Bobby almost as well as Chad. She knew his history and felt sorry for him. Her pushback was insurance in case Bobby one day became too demanding. She would let both of them know it. But for now, a gentle prodding was all he needed.

  “Well, it’s an emergency,” Chad explained, “so I have to help Bobby and Larry.”

  “Honey, but it’s our vacation,” she said, only half-serious. Chad felt guilty, but he could hear in her voice that she understood.

  As they approached Albuquerque, the signs of modern civilization appeared all around them in the form of billboards, high speed Internet and convenience stores everywhere. The billboards portrayed happy people showcasing some food or product designed to give happiness. Chad felt it was ironic since he believed true happiness couldn’t be found that way.

  GPS guided them to an exit near their hotel. Chad mentally prepared himself to tackle the work challenges that lay ahead. With half the company out, it would be a stretch to get the production goals done prior to Monday, but he still believed they could achieve it.

  They pulled to the front of the hotel, and this time they were staying in a posh, four-star hotel. Chad had decided to use some of their last points on a rewards program to splurge on an upgrade for their last night. It was worth it.

  They were all amazed at the luxurious appearance of this hotel and valet service. It was absolutely no problem to check in early, and they got to the room with all the amenities of a home away from home. Their room had a proper kitchen, a mini bar, a fruit basket waiting for them and even chocolates on the beds, which the kids promptly ate.

  Nikki said that she would go on ahead to the Balloon Museum and Chad said that he would meet up in the afternoon to go to the Old Town tour.

  He fired up the laptop, logged onto the WiFi, and then started chipping away at work. Chad quickly maneuvered short-cuts to rush a few things. His hard work allowed him to meet the quota.

  Once finished, Chad toggled the news between school shooting highlights and some random political escapade in Paris where an American diplomat was caught in bed with the wife of the President of France.

  Chad was surprised at how quickly the afternoon came around, so he downloaded to his phone the analysis that Larry had wanted done and then went downstairs to get a rideshare. On the way over, he read through the various reports. They gave him an idea on how to write up the analysis for Larry.

  Chad was looking forward to the tour of the Old Town. He really wanted to see the San Felipe de Neri church. It had been built in 1793, and it featured a lot of history from early America. He met up again with Nikki and the kids and gave all of them a big hug and kisses.

  “Eww,” complained Erwin as Chad tried to kiss him.

  He laughed, and they took lots of pictures around the Old Town. Nikki immediately disappeared into one of the shops, and Chad took the kids for some ice cream. The adobe style instantly grew on him and everything felt a lot homier than many of the other tourist traps around.

  Chad spied his wife looking at some knick-knacks that the merchants had displayed on the ground and he smiled. He knew that she would buy something from here, and it would be something to display back at home as an enjoyable memento of their trip. Alex talked non-stop about the balloon experience and at how many hot air balloons there were. Erwin was content eating his ice cream. The blissful afternoon continued with light-hearted banter, perusing various topics, and playing simple games.

  As they toured a few more places and the day wore on, they decided to stop at one of the restaurants for dinner. They all knew they were heading back home the next day, so they made the best of the trip while it lasted.

  They enjoyed the dinner immensely. It was a lively and delightful Southwestern fusion – something different for a change. They found that eating out only occasionally made the experience that much more enjoyable.

  Nikki and Chad and the kids enjoyed the different style of food preparation and truly relished it for the memorable experience. They would be talking about that night for some time to come. They returned to the hotel fully satisfied and ready to take shower and sleep. Nikki and Chad snuggled for a bit and slept soundly.

  The next day everyone awoke refreshed and ate some muffins that were left from the previous morning. While the kids were excited to go about the day, Chad felt a little sad knowing that this was just a travel day and the end of vacation. Still, they had the next trip planned for winter break and that would be another fun time for all of them.

  They were together as a family, and Chad felt great knowing that this trip would motivate everyone to do well in the upcoming months. Erwin and Alex both looked positively energized and recharged from the trip. Nikki looked happy as well. They got to the car and took it back to the rental place and made it over to the airport with plenty of time to spare.

  The plane ride back to Dallas was uneventful, but it struck Chad and Nikki as odd that there were many empty seats on the plane. Chad recalled that the flights were fully booked at the time that they had gotten their reservations. Chad’s family had the last four seats on the plane. The kids always enjoyed travel day because they got to play a bit more on their iPads.

  They landed and got to the baggage claims while waiting for the bags. Chad looked around, and there were definitely fewer people at the airport. Since this was the last vacation day, he was fully prepared for the frenzy of traffic and passengers on the way home.

  On the way home, Nikki was texting her friends quite a bit.

  “Honey, Paul seems to be doing better now, but Cyndy said that they will probably all stay home tomorrow, since the stomach bug is going around. Good thing that we were on the trip, so none of us got sick.”

  “Yeah, good thing,” Chad said and smiled. Still, he couldn’t shake the odd feeling he had as he looked around at the barren freeway. It gave him the impression of an early Saturday morning.r />
  They returned home and unpacked. Chad helped to get the laundry going while Nikki prepared dinner. They all settled back into their familiar nighttime routine and ended with a great bedtime story.

  Chapter 2

  Analysis Paralysis

  August 20, 2025

  Washington, DC

  At the CDC, Jean prepared for another typical day. She always expected something to happen eventually. She’d read up on the outbreak of 2020 and had done her homework on the prior outbreaks decades earlier, but since then, there’d been a few more, but nothing they couldn’t handle and all small in comparison.

  At that point in time, the economy had weathered a mild depression and three more recessions. The economy always slithered back out, but each time, it did so with less resilience than the last. The economy had stalled out at half a percent of the GDP. This made government positions more desirable than in times past.

  Jean was an athletic and attractive woman who took her job seriously. But that was a problem for some people in her department. Most government workers she knew fell into three camps. The first were those who were there solely for the paycheck and could care less about their effectiveness. This was by far the largest of the two.

  The second group were those workers who had political ambitions. These were the people who were temporarily assigned to her department or those who climbed ladders waiting for the opportune appointment or the right political wind to blow to launch their election campaign.

  Jean fell into a third much smaller group that wasn’t really a category, because she knew only two other people besides herself that formed it. Julian, her illustrious compatriot at the CDC and Cheryl. Cheryl retired last year and was living somewhere in Alaska away from all this chaos.

  The two of them were both academics who loved science. And all three of them were committed to their jobs. When push came to shove, Jean always felt they would be the three that held their office together in a crisis, and their office would end up being the central hub for where things actually got done.