The Pandemic Diaries [Books 1-3]

by Callahan, K. W.

  (1) 12 oz. package shredded mozzarella cheese

  (10) Bun-length wieners

  (14) cheese singles

  8 oz. package sliced ham

  8 oz. package sliced turkey (about 6 oz. left)

  (1) opened 64 oz. orange juice

  (1) opened 64 oz. tropical fruit juice

  (10) Tortillas

  Assorted open condiments, pickles, butter, fresh fruits, preserves, olives, veggies, and a few leftovers.

  Overall I’m fairly pleased with our supply situation, but I’m not going to get overconfident. It looks like a lot of stuff on paper, but when our non-refrigerated items are laid out on the kitchen floor, it doesn’t seem like all that much, especially not knowing how long we’re going to have to make it last. I think we’ll start cooking the frozen meats and using up stuff in the fridge (along with some of the shorter shelf life items) just in case we lose power.

  11:43 a.m.

  Power’s out!

  Dylan’s pissed. It cut right into the video game he was playing. He’s moaning about how he didn’t get to save his game before the console went off (like that’s our biggest concern right now). Oh to be eight years old again! The world could be falling down around us (and apparently is), and a lost video game is his greatest concern.

  I have used this opportunity to go down to our basement storage unit and dig out some of our camping supplies, which I admit, have sat unused since the birth of the kids.

  But I’m glad I held onto the stuff. Some of it could come in handy. We’ve got things like our big camp cooler, the portable cook stove, three 16.4-ounce small-cylinder propane tanks to fuel the stove (hopefully they’re still full), some candles and cigarette lighters (I pulled more such items from cabinets and drawers around the condo), and flashlights with extra batteries. From the collection of flashlights and batteries, I was able to get four working flashlights – one for each of us – just in case the power stays off into the night. We had to keep reminding Violet not to play with hers. She kept clicking it on and off, shining it in people’s eyes, and generally being a four-year-old. To try to get her to save the batteries, we told her that shining the light in people’s faces hurts their eyes. So what does she do? Takes it in her bedroom and flashes it in the eyes of her stuffed animals. Sweet little thing. I finally found a tiny flashlight that runs off a single AAA battery in our junk drawer and gave her that to fiddle with instead.

  We also found a battery-powered camp lantern and a hand-crank radio/flashlight combo that was a present from our cousin one Christmas. We left things like the tent, sleeping bags, and cots downstairs in the storage unit.

  Hopefully we don’t need all this stuff, but it’s nice to have it out and ready…just in case.

  The city-provided water is still running, so I put Kate, Violet, and Dylan to work filling up some additional containers (pots, pans, Dylan’s canteen, and some empty jugs and buckets). While they’re doing that, I’m going to start cooking a beef roast (since our natural gas is still working too) as well as some of the frozen chicken breasts and mixed veggies. If the power doesn’t come back on soon, I don’t want to be left with a defrosted refrigerator full of ruined food.

  5:08 p.m.

  Power’s back on now!

  It wasn’t too bad going without it. We had an early dinner. I gave Dylan the hand-crank radio to play with, and he was able to provide us with some evening dinner music while we enjoyed our roast. He’d have to stop eating every five minutes or so and give the thing a few cranks to keep it powered. It was kind of funny. The sound of the music would start to get softer and softer and then begin to fade out completely. Dylan would rush to get the radio powered back up, cranking frantically, before the signal was lost. It became a sort of game, and by the end of dinner, even Violet was participating in winding the crank.

  As soon as the power came back on, I turned the refrigerator up full blast to get it extra cold, just in case it goes off again. I also began making extra ice and freezing some ice packs for the camp cooler in case we need to conduct a food transfer.

  Kate and Violet are going to make popcorn tonight. I told them to go ahead and make all the bags. We can put the extra in a big holiday tin I cleaned out earlier today. Then we can snack on it whenever we like.

  I put the television on as soon as we got the power back. The news said that there were numerous reports of power outages across the Chicagoland area and that the utility companies were having trouble gathering enough technicians to restore service to all locations. They also said that the number of flu cases was running well into the tens of thousands now just in the Chicago area alone. They explained that specific numbers on the sick or dead were hard to pinpoint. Many hospitals are no longer accepting patients and people aren’t reporting cases of the flu since they can’t make it to health centers or hospitals. Nationwide they said that reported cases were well into the hundreds of thousands and the total number of cases was more likely in the millions and growing fast. I guess the mortality rate for this thing is something like 90 percent and possibly even higher. I tend to wonder if even that number is correct, though, since I haven’t seen interviews with ANYONE who has come down with this thing and managed to survive.

  I’ve told Kate and the kids that we aren’t going outside the condo for ANY reason! Unfortunately, there’s hardly anything good to watch on television. It’s all flu coverage on the news stations and major networks. All the sporting events from baseball and auto racing to golf and tennis have been cancelled. Most of the athletes don’t want to participate, fearing exposure to the flu. Some of them already have it or have died from it. And no one wants to go to events where they’d have to sit shoulder-to-shoulder with other people in a stadium or grandstand. It’s one thing to risk getting the regular flu, but no one wants to risk their life just to see a ballgame, car race or round of golf. And with as contagious as this thing seems to be, the chance of catching it just from being in close proximity to other people seems to be extremely high.

  8:58 p.m.

  The power just went out…again. It only stayed off for about ten minutes before coming back on, but it was just enough to give us the opportunity to test our flashlights and get a taste of what it’s like to live in the dark. I tried to make it an interesting/fun learning experience for the kids, explaining to them that this is how the pioneers used to live ALL the time. I don’t think they really got it. Dylan might have…a little. Having grown up in the country, where the power went off more often than in the city, I’m more accustomed to dealing with such things than Kate and the kids.

  Right about the time Kate and I got all the candles lit and the flashlights handed out, the power came back on. It was actually kind of cozy for a minute, but now I’m really starting to worry about what happens if it goes off and stays off.

  Life without power for a few hours is one thing. Life without power for eight or ten hours or even an day isn’t all that bad when you know the electric company will have services back up and running shortly. But when it goes off and you aren’t sure if it will come back on in a day, two days, three days, a week, or EVER, it stops being a fun rarity and starts to become a real concern. More than that, I’m worried about the water and sewer services. I guess they have backup generators that keep these city services operating during temporary power outages. But how long can they last? What happens if those generators run out of fuel? We have enough food for weeks. But water is something we go through a lot of. We don’t have any nearby ponds or streams. We have enough water to drink for a while, but how will we take showers? How will we brush our teeth? How will we flush the toilets? This could get messy – and stinky – pretty quick.

  P.S. – As soon as it started getting dark tonight, I heard more gunfire. This time I’m sure that’s what it was, and it sounded as though the shots were coming from several different areas around us – not too close, thankfully. Kate and the kids heard it too. I recommended we play a game of Sorry to take our minds off it. It helped. Dylan
won, which made his night. Amazingly, the kids didn’t seem too concerned about the gunfire, but I could tell Kate was. Frankly, I was too.

  Sunday, September 8 th

  8:48 a.m.

  For this morning’s breakfast, we all ate big bowls of cereal with plenty of milk. I don’t want us eating just to eat. And I don’t want to use up too much food and over-consume. But at the same time, I want to try to start using up our perishables in the event we lose power for good. I’m finding that rationing our food and determining what to eat first and in what amounts is a difficult balancing act. I do have to admit, my stomach certainly welcomed the soothing milk to quell the stomach acid coursing through my belly. It was churning away at the lining of my gut while lying in bed listening to the amount of gunfire taking place outside last night. And unlike the last few times I heard it, the shots sounded closer to our condo.

  The shooting started about an hour after it got dark and continued until around two or three in the morning. It increased in intensity before starting to dissipate in the pre-dawn hours. By this morning it was quiet again, although I’ve seen movement in the streets. Not much, but there have been several individuals running past our building, sometimes carrying armfuls or bagfuls of stuff. I’m assuming that these people are looters. And it doesn’t appear as though the police are doing much to stop them from taking what isn’t theirs. I’m not exactly sure where they’re coming from or where they’re going. I’d guess down by the tracks. And I don’t know if its stores they’re taking things from or houses. The positive thinker in me hopes they’re not stealing at all. Maybe they’re just residents fleeing on foot with their belongings. I don’t think so, but I really have no idea.

  What I DO know is that I’m having the entire family take showers this morning. I want everyone fresh and clean in case we lose water pressure. Things could get rather uncomfortable quick around here without water, so I want everyone as prepared as possible.

  3:39 p.m.

  The power went off just before eleven this morning and has been off and on ever since. It cut off once while Dylan was in the shower and he was hooting and hollering…it was actually kind of funny to hear him yelling about the lights having gone out. At least the water kept running and stayed warm for him. With it being a somewhat overcast day (which helps keep things cool without benefit of air conditioning), and with our bathroom only having one small frosted-glass window, he was forced to finish his shower in relative darkness.

  Worse yet, the cable and internet were out for much of the day too. This meant that Kate was worried about work. Nobody is buying anything anyway. And it’s not like she could ship the stuff even if they did, so I’m not sure what the big deal is. More than anything, I think it’s the loss of control that’s bothering her most. Besides her desire to stay home with Dylan when he was born, she left her previous work in accounting largely so that she could take more control over her life. Now that she’s starting to lose that sense of power and control that came with being her own boss, I think it’s kind of a rude awakening. I’m sure that taking the internet away has left a huge void in the lives of many people.

  I haven’t heard much from my own work. I’ve had a couple employees contact me wanting to know what the situation is or telling me they won’t be in to work this week. I’ve tried to contact our regional VP, but I haven’t heard anything back, so I sent out a mass email to our employees letting them know that as soon as I know something, I’d let them know. But at this point, the situation hasn’t changed. We’re still just waiting things out. I’m sure they’re experiencing a certain level of anxiety, just like me. Will there be paychecks waiting for them when they go back? Will there even be jobs or a company?

  I wonder how many of our staff have caught the flu…how many may not have survived? It’s going to be weird when all this is said and done to see who made it and who didn’t. Lots of funerals to attend. It’s going to be extremely sad. I’ve worked with some of those people for nearly a decade. They’re more like family than co-workers.

  It’s all so strange…like living in a movie. It just keeps getting worse and worse and there are no answers from anyone about what’s being done to deal with it.

  Maybe it’s a good thing that Kate and I don’t have close family in the area and that we don’t communicate much with the family we do have. It seems like it would be much harder to deal with something like this if you had parents, siblings, or other close relatives to worry about. We can pretty much hole up in our condo and hopefully ride this thing out on our own.

  We haven’t heard anything directly from Dylan’s school, but the last local news reports we saw said that ALL Chicago area schools will be closed for the foreseeable future. Local officials are urging parents to do their best to work with their kids as they would during summer break to help maintain certain basic learning skills. They advocate taking the chance to be at home to increase the time spent reading with children as well as to play more board games, do math exercises, and conduct similar educational activities.

  So we took the opportunity to do just that. Dylan is reading “The Trumpet of the Swan” (I love that book – I still remember reading it in second grade), and he has a copy of “Charlotte’s Web” to read after that. Kate reads stories and nursery rhymes to Violet from a Mother Goose book. And when I’m not writing in here, I’m getting back into the copy of “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac that I’ve been trying to finish for some time now. It’s actually kind of nice. We all get our own candle to read by in the dull afternoon light. And while it’s a little warm to make such a situation cozy, it’s still a fun…well I guess I shouldn’t say “fun”, but a “nice” opportunity to spend some quiet, quality, family time together.

  It’s amazing just how deathly still it is when the power is off and everyone is reading or playing quietly. There are no fans, no blowers, no air conditioners running, no beeping microwaves, no running dishwashers, no washer/dryer timers going off, no chirping alarm clocks, not even the tiniest static hum of televisions or soft, almost indiscernible purr of computers. These noises have become such a part of our daily lives that we only really notice their absence once they’re gone.

  7:12 a.m.

  When the cable finally came back on, the news wasn’t good. It’s not a pretty picture out there. The national news was comprised mainly of reports of death, dying, looting, and destruction from major cities across the US and around the world. The local news wasn’t much different except that it consisted mostly of live helicopter footage of the looting taking place around the Chicagoland area. According to reports, a lot of people are already running out of food. Since the stores are all closed or empty, people are getting desperate and are now starting to break into homes to take what they can get. This is apparently acting to spread the flu to even MORE people. And those who aren’t getting sick are getting shot at. It’s particularly bad on the south and near-west sides of the city, but the violence seems to be spreading everywhere – FAST!

  They’re telling people to lock their doors and exercise extreme caution when it comes to “suspicious” persons in and around their neighborhoods. Huh! Looks like there’s no lack of those! Suddenly all that politically-correct, be kind to your neighbor bullshit is out the window. They’re also advising people that one course of action (since local law enforcement agencies are currently overwhelmed and understaffed) is to make it look like your home has already been looted by scattering clothing and other non-essential possessions around your front yard (if you have a front yard). The newscaster giving this particular report said that leaving an unattached garage door open could add to the façade that you’ve abandoned your home or it has already been looted. Personally, I’m glad we’re in a condo building rather than a single-family home. We don’t know our neighbors well, but out of our stack of six units (one of which is empty – a foreclosure), three of them are owned by single women, and the fourth is owned by a single mother with a teenage son. Plus, people entering our building have to c
ome through the steel entry gate, across the courtyard, through our entry foyer door, then break through our locked front stairwell door (which I admit is glass-paneled, so it’s not much of a deterrent, but it’s a deterrent nonetheless), walk up two-and-a-half flights of stairs, and get through our inch-and-a-half-thick wood front door with three deadbolt locks. And coming up the back stairs would be even harder since they’d have to go through the steel door that faces the alley, up the stairs, and then through our own steel backdoor with another two deadbolt locks.

  While I’m not naive enough to think that such deterrents would keep out someone who really WANTED to get at us, I’m also realistic enough to know that most robbers and looters are creatures of opportunity and will take the path of least resistance. I’m just thankful that our position offers substantial resistance.

  I AM going to get the guns out, though, once the kids go to sleep.

  6:59 p.m.

  Watching the nightly news is getting intensely depressing. As if the constantly looping footage of the tragedy taking place around us, paired with the catastrophic events nationally and worldwide isn’t bad enough, we now get the nightly mortality reports and celebrity death lists.

  As of tonight, current estimates of those who have succumbed to the Su flu in the United States stand near four million, but even the mainstream media says this is likely a low estimate because so many people have died in their homes and have yet to be discovered. National estimates of those who are currently infected with the flu stands right around 10 to 15 million. Worldwide, they’re saying the numbers of infected are already into the hundreds of millions. And again, those numbers are probably much lower than the true total of infected since they are mostly just educated guesses by the experts. Many of the world’s bigger cities – especially those in lesser developed nations – are turning into gigantic cesspools of death and decay. The streets in these cities are literally filled with dead bodies. People are being infected and dying faster than the computerized models tracking exposure rates can keep up with. It only takes three to four days (sometimes less for the aged or very young) from the time the first flu symptoms are exhibited for the body to be completely overwhelmed. Apparently the virus moves from organ to organ, shutting them down and making it impossible for the host to mount any sort of defense. The ease of transmission and extreme speed with which the flu kills is making it almost impossible for anyone to find a treatment. Everyone the CDC has reportedly tried to test vaccines on dies before the vaccines have had time to fully take effect. Plus, I guess the CDC is now starting to run out of scientists and experts to work on vaccine development since their specialized personnel are dying from the flu too. Many of them were exposed during the early stages of the flu (all of a week or so ago) before they realized just how infectious – and extremely deadly – it was.