THE ALEX FLETCHER BOXSET: Books 1-5

by Steven Konkoly

  Alex took a few steps back toward Dr. Wright’s desk.

  “If I were you, I’d make a few trips to the store and stock up on necessities. A well-placed source told me the CDC is close to making an announcement about the classification of the mystery flu. Remember the talk I gave at your regional sales meeting down in Stamford?”

  “Fantastic talk. Scariest thing I ever heard.”

  “Think about the worst case scenario I laid out,” said Dr. Wright. “And use that as a starting point.”

  “That bad?” said Alex.

  “Worse. Way worse,” stated Dr. Wright.

  Chapter 3

  Alex walked out of Hannigan’s with his second shopping cart full of groceries. That afternoon, he made two separate trips into the store, the first one to buy nonperishable items, which nearly overflowed from the cart, and the second to buy refrigerator items. In order to avoid questions during his second trip, he managed to stand in a checkout line far away from the lane he used during his first trip.

  The crowd inside the store was typical for a Friday afternoon, which, despite the looming threat, didn’t surprise him. The general public would wait too long, and one electrifying news report would send everyone into the stores at once—effectively crippling the food supply system. Most of the grocery stores, just like the big retail stores, had become so efficient that they carried little additional stock on hand to meet the slightest increase in demand.

  Leaving the parking lot, he decided to call family and friends to urge them to hit the stores—while they still had the option.

  ***

  Alex turned his company car onto their subdivision on Durham Road loop, glancing at Ryan through the rear-view mirror. The subdivision contained thirty-four houses, evenly spaced on half-acre lots around a loop. Since Durham Road and the streets surrounding it had been built on converted farmland, trees throughout the neighborhood were smaller than the substantial colonial houses. Compared to most of the older, established neighborhoods nearby, the trees on Durham Road still looked like saplings.

  Todd Perry stood up from adjusting a sprinkler head in his front yard and waved. Todd was a good guy—a little hot tempered, but four kids could tamper with the calmest parent’s underlying personality.

  Alex glanced as he passed a well-maintained gray colonial with dark blue doors and a three-car garage. Thick evergreen bushes crowded the sides of the walkway leading to the front door, standing guard over wide, raised beds filled with yellow and orange fall flowers. He waved at Julia Rhodes, who was examining her mail on the mudroom porch.

  The Walkers’ house, a yellow contemporary colonial with green doors, showed no signs of activity. They usually started to spill home at around 5:30. First, Ed would arrive with at least two of their children. Then at about six, Samantha would pull in with whichever kid had a late practice. The rhythms of the neighborhood were familiar and comforting to Alex.

  “Make sure you have all of your junk,” he said to Ryan, while pulling into their garage.

  “Got it,” Ryan replied and opened his door.

  Alex carefully slid behind his wife’s Toyota 4Runner, trying not to dirty his suit.

  She never pulls in far enough, he mentally complained.

  Hanging up his jacket and kicking off his shoes, the aroma of dinner being prepared greeted him.

  “Hey, honey, smells great!”

  “Yeah, I thought a stir-fry was in order for tonight,” said Kate.

  Kissing his wife Kate and holding her for a minute in their kitchen momentarily eased Alex’s worries.

  “Are you making rice for the stir fry?” he asked.

  “Already made.”

  In the mudroom, Ryan kicked off a shoe that loudly banged against the closet door.

  “Take it easy on the house in there,” he yelled.

  “Sorry, Dad,” Ryan said and flashed by them on his way upstairs.

  “Hey, no hug for your mom?” Kate said.

  “Sorry, Mom,” Ryan said and returned to the kitchen to begrudgingly hug Kate.

  “Dinner will be ready in a few minutes. Tell Emily to wash her hands and start making her way downstairs. You too. Love you,” she said.

  “Love you too, Mom. I’ll be right down,” he replied and scooted up the stairs.

  “Anything good happen?” he asked, nodding at the TV.

  “The UN declared an emergency session. They’re considering a travel and commerce ban against China. Chinese officials plan to release more information about whatever is going on over there.”

  “When?”

  “Some time tomorrow.”

  “Why don’t you change and grab the kids on your way back down. I’m pretty much done here.”

  “You got it,” he said and headed up the stairs.

  Alex closed the bedroom door behind him as he pulled off his tie. He turned on the flat-screen TV, which took a few seconds to display a picture.

  “CDC officials have confirmed the flu strain as an H16 variant. Little is known about the new strain at this point, and many serious questions remain unanswered. So far, neither the CDC nor WHO has responded to demands for information. CNF news correspondent David Gervasey reports from ISPAC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. David?”

  “Denise, roughly fifteen minutes ago, we were fortunate to get a brief interview with one of their senior spokespersons, Dr. Allison Devreaux.”

  The screen changed to the previously recorded interview with Dr. Devreaux.

  “Dr. Devreaux, what can you tell us about the virus that we don’t already know?”

  “The virus has been classified as a new subtype H16,” she answered in a French accent. “The strain is classified as H16N1.

  “This subtype has never been seen before in humans or animals, so it is truly a novel strain. Right now, our own scientists are trying to match its genetic characteristics with previously seen subtype strains. In this way, we can make some rough predictions regarding its behavior.

  “We know that the virus is highly contagious, and its acquisition by a host leads to typical flu-like symptoms, including high fever, marked weakness and pulmonary distress. In essence, it behaves like a highly pathogenic disease. We know this from our investigation of an ever-increasing number of cluster outbreaks throughout the far Pacific Rim, and we are extremely confident that the strain found by ISPAC investigative teams outside of China is the same as the strain causing the outbreak inside of China.”

  “When do you anticipate further information to be available from your field teams?”

  “We receive constant reports and engage in discussions with these teams around the clock. When new information is verified, we will post this information on our website. You can also subscribe to our Pandemic News Alert service and receive automatic email updates as new information is posted. We are striving to pass all relevant information on to the public so that they can make the most informed decisions to prepare for a potential pandemic virus.”

  “Does this look like a pandemic on scale with the 2008 avian flu?”

  “Based on its efficient capacity for human to human transmission, I feel confident projecting that this virus will rapidly reach all corners of the globe. Let us hope that this virus in not as deadly as the avian flu. Thank you, David.”

  The screen cut back to a live broadcast from ISPAC headquarters in Atlanta. David Gervasey stood in front of the modern, ten-story glass and steel structure.

  “You heard it here first, Denise. We’re going to remain in place to get the latest information as it becomes available.”

  “Thank you, David. As you can see, live ISPAC website information is located at the bottom of our screen, and we will be broadcasting any new ISPAC website updates as they are posted. Stay with us, we’ll be back in a moment.”

  Alex stared at the screen for a few more seconds, before changing into jeans and a long-sleeve fleece pullover. Stopping at the top of the stairs, he glanced at his office door and decided to check the Internet for updates.r />
  He typed “Hong Kong International Airport” into Google. The search engine’s first link was the airport’s official website. He scanned the page and clicked on “flight information,” then “departures.” The screen filled with the day’s scheduled departing flights.

  By noon on any given day, over a hundred flights departed Hong Kong for every major city in world, and by midnight that same day, flights originating from Hong Kong landed in major hubs on every continent. From there, these passengers embarked on journeys to every conceivable corner of the planet. Within sixteen to eighteen hours of leaving Hong Kong, an infected passenger could be sharing a pint of Guinness with friends in a Dublin Pub, sipping tea with family in the suburbs of Damascus, or meeting a friend for Italian food in Boston’s North End.

  And this thing has been brewing in China for more than three days.

  A cold sense of dread filled Alex as he scrolled through the countless flights leaving Hong Kong and other cities in China. Just as quickly, fear gave way to an iron clad sense of determination to protect his family, in the face of the looming disaster.

  ***

  The Fletchers ate dinner sitting at a large rectangular pine table located between the kitchen and family room. Alex served a hearty butternut squash soup to everyone, while Kate started the evening interrogation.

  “So, anything huge going on in class for anyone? Emily?” Kate said.

  Emily replied, “Not much, we’re still learning some Spanish. I have homework again.”

  “Yeah, you’re going to have a lot more than the one spelling test you had last year. Try homework like every night, and more tests. I have like two hours a night now,” Ryan complained.

  “Well, I think we’re going to have about the same as you. I heard from Lauren that her friend in Mr. Leahy’s class already has over an hour of work to do every night,” Emily said.

  “I doubt it. I never had that much work in third grade. Third grade is like kindergarten compared to middle school.”

  “Okay, crazies, Ryan wins the award for most oppressed by homework. Anything other than that going on this week?” Alex said.

  “We talked about pandemics in science. How the flu spreads, how scientists classify strains of flu, past pandemics. It was pretty cool. Pretty scary, too. Dad, do you think we could have another pandemic? Ms. Ullman said that major pandemics usually don’t happen so close together, and that’s why the swine flu pandemic never really took off.”

  “Historically speaking, your teacher would be right. However, there are a lot of experts out there that think it can happen at any time if the conditions are right. So to answer your question, I don’t think anyone can really predict these things,” Alex said.

  He looked at Kate and rubbed his chin. Kate picked up on his cue.

  “You guys really don’t have to worry about it. You know that, right? We’ve made some preparations at the house over the past few years that will get us through any major crisis. Pandemic, major storm, whatever it might be.”

  Both kids nodded their heads. They appeared to have anticipated this talk.

  “You mean all of that stuff locked up in the basement?” Emily asked.

  “Yeah, that’s part of it. We have plenty of food, water and supplies stored down there. We also have our own power supply: the sun. And we can keep the house warm with the wood-burning stove,” Kate answered.

  “Can’t we heat the house with the furnace if we have solar power?” Ryan asked.

  Alex laughed. “This kid’s too smart. Yes, we could, but the furnace eats up a lot of power. During the summer, when the sun is strongest, we could get away with it. But who needs to use the furnace in the summer, right? Other than to heat up water, that is. Winter is a different story because the sun is so much weaker. Even on a beautiful day, the batteries will charge more slowly than a crappy day in the summer. We’d really have to watch the charge level.”

  “What I want you two to understand is that we are prepared for anything really scary and that you don’t have to worry about it,” said Kate.

  “How will we know if it is happening?” Emily asked.

  In a calm tone, Alex said, “Your mom and I know what to look for.”

  “Right, and if something like that happens, we need to be ready to stay in our house for a very long time, without coming into contact with anyone, even friends and family. Unless they prepared like us,” Kate said.

  “Like before? I hated that. Please don’t take us out of school for no reason again,” Ryan said.

  “We didn’t take you out for no reason. Swine flu had the potential to be worse than the avian flu, and the avian flu killed close to fifty thousand people in the U.S.. We weren’t ready for it at all, and it really scared us,” Alex said.

  “But nothing happened, and it was embarrassing. Plus, it took me forever to catch up! Remember some of the teachers didn’t want to let me make up some of my tests?”

  “That won’t happen again,” Kate assured him.

  “What does a pandemic do to you?” Emily asked.

  “Sweetie, the pandemic flu makes you really, really sick. Worse than you’ve ever been before. That’s why people get a flu shot every year.”

  “To keep from getting the pandemic flu?”

  “No, you get the shot for the regular flu, which can make you pretty sick, too. The pandemic flu is worse though,” Kate said.

  “Don’t worry about it, sweetie. No one in this family will get sick, I promise. Just finish your dinner and start your homework. Then we can have some dessert,” Alex said, glancing furtively at Kate.

  Chapter 4

  Kate and Alex sat together on a dark brown leather sectional couch in the great room. The flat-screen TV showed FBC news anchor Kerrie Connor framed next to Dr. David Ocampo, Director of the ISPAC’s Live Trend Analysis Division. Information displayed at the bottom of the split screen indicated that Dr. Ocampo was broadcasting live from ISPAC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.

  “Rewind to the part about the WHO underestimating the flu’s potential,” said Alex.

  Kate scrolled back to the segment.

  “That’s it. Right there,” Alex said.

  “…During the avian flu pandemic, hospital-based care remained available to a majority of sick patients, at least in most modernized and developing countries. This drastically improved outcomes and contributed decisively to the low overall case fatality rate. Although the situation in many developing nations approached—and in some cases crossed—the tipping point, most modernized nations’ systems were never truly challenged by the 2008 pandemic. This outcome would be different in the face of a deadlier and more infectious virus. The tipping point for inpatient healthcare availability, in both modernized and developing nations, would be reached quickly, and the result would be catastrophic.”

  “Even for the United States?”

  “Everywhere. In any given area, we calculate that all available inpatient services such as hospital beds, ventilators, and medical staff would be occupied within two to three weeks of a pandemic reaching that area. In the U.S. alone, based on 1918 pandemic flu patterns, every existing hospital bed would be occupied within a few weeks. Once inpatient capacity is filled, patients would be given a set of home-based care instructions and turned away.”

  “Turned away? Where would they be sent?”

  “Home.”

  “Turn it off. I can’t watch anymore. This is really freaking me out.”

  “I know, me too. Sorry to make you re-watch,” Alex said shutting the television and snuggling close to Kate.

  “I just can’t believe the predictions that this thing could fill every hospital bed in the country within a couple of weeks. Being sent home to care for oneself doesn’t really sound like a winning option,” she said.

  “No that’s why we have to make sure to not get the flu. The best way to ensure our safety is to quarantine ourselves until this blows over.”

  “I agree, but when do we start?” she said pulling the
blanket over them.

  “I don’t know. Let’s just keep watching the reports and be flexible. We’ll know when it is time.”

  “Gotcha,” said Kate with a loud yawn.

  “I should check out our stockpile. I haven’t been down there in a long time, and it couldn’t hurt to see what we have on hand. I’ll be up in a few minutes. Why don’t you head to bed?”

  “I think I will, I’m beat. Love you,” said Kate as she tiredly lifted herself off the couch.

  Alex descended the unfinished stairs, which emptied into a large, well-lit, unfinished area encompassing two-thirds of the total available basement space. The area was filled with lawn furniture, several bicycles, two kayaks, assorted luggage, and a working refrigerator. Stacks of fifty-gallon plastic storage bins that held everything from summer clothing to painting supplies clung to the front wall of the basement, next to the stairway. Everything without a place in the upper floors of the house ended up stored in one of the bins, often never to be seen again.

  He headed toward a door near the back of the basement, just beyond the spare refrigerator, removing a key chain from his pocket on the way. After unlocking the deadbolt and doorknob, he opened the heavy, reinforced door and reached into the pitch-black room to flip the light switch along the wall. Three overhead light bulbs, spaced evenly from front to back, exposed “the bunker.”

  Unlike the basement area behind him, the bunker was immaculate and well organized. Floor to ceiling storage shelves stood flush against most of the outer concrete walls. In the back corner of the house, directly across from the door, stood two 275-gallon fuel oil tanks for the furnace.

  A generator configured to store the electricity generated by their south facing rooftop solar panels, dominated the middle of the room. The full bank of green LED lights indicated that the system was fully charged and operational, free of any detected faults.

  He glanced over his shoulder at a five-foot–tall, doubled locked black metal gun locker. The locks were opened by the same key, which hung on a small nail, hidden nearby in the basement rafters. The numerous weapons inside were clean, oiled, and ready for action. The locker also held a considerable supply of ammunition.