The Pandemic Diaries [Books 1-3]

by Callahan, K. W.

  The only good news to come out of all this is that Washington D.C. is effectively shut down (I’m kidding…sort of). Congress and the Senate have taken leaves of absence (of course). According to reports, the President is supposedly still running the country (I hope they’re using the word “running” loosely) from somewhere within the isolated confines of a secure bunker with a hyper-sensitive air filtration system. I guess this news is supposed to ease our worried minds. Sounds like the President will be presiding solely over himself pretty soon if he doesn’t come up with something quick, although what that “something” is, I’m not exactly sure. He certainly isn’t helping anyone around here as far as I can see. Still haven’t seen hide nor hair of the National Guard. I’ll bet they’re all tied up – what few of them they could probably muster – down on the south side of the city. That portion of Chicago was a war zone BEFORE the flu, so I can only imagine what it’s like now.

  It seems like the new reality television programming is the non-stop news coverage of the flu. Instead of the hottest new celebrity gossip or the Hollywood hit-list of who’s dating who being plastered all over the TV these days, it’s which movie stars, television actors, entertainers, singers, musicians, or sports figures have caught the Su flu or died. The nightly news is a veritable who’s-who of the dead and dying rich and famous. The news networks have a constantly running banner of not-so-long-ago, larger-than-life figures who have met their demise at the hand of the flu. It’s weird to see eulogies or dates of passing for these figures, people who once played so prominently into our lives through the sports they played, the songs they sang, or the movies or shows they starred in. The heroes of the world are passing faster than we can keep up with…although at this point, I think most people have bigger fish to fry…like just trying to stay alive themselves.

  10:16 p.m.

  Just got done cleaning the guns. I hope to God I don’t have to use them. Using the six-shot, hand-loaded .38 revolver doesn’t bother me as much as the thought of using Dad’s old duck-hunting gun. The thing is huge, heavy, and old. I don’t think it’s been fired in at least 20 years. I only remember shooting it once way back when Dad took me on one of his hunting trips. I was maybe only 11 or 12-years-old at the time. It just about knocked me on my ass (left a big bruise on my shoulder), and I refused to shoot it again after that. I’ve only got eight shells for it. I’m afraid that if I use the thing, it could blow up and do more damage to me than any intruders. I’ve got a box with 28 rounds for the .38. I’m more comfortable shooting that…still, it’s been at least 10 years since I last took it to the range.

  While I practiced loading both guns, I didn’t keep them loaded because I know Kate would have a fit if I left loaded weapons around the kids. Personally, I don’t think it’s a good idea either, but I’m keeping them nearby and the ammo easily accessible in my top dresser drawer. I want to be able to get to the guns and load them quickly if necessary – I just hope it’s not.

  P.S. – I just heard some yelling in the alley behind our building. It was followed by several gunshots. It looks like someone is lying near one side of the alleyway nearest our condo building. It’s hard to tell since it’s dark, but the dark form doesn’t appear to be moving. I feel bad. I want to go down and check on the person, but they could be infected or it could just be a trap to lure someone out there so that they can be robbed or worse. I tried calling the police, but all I got was a busy signal. I’m pretty sure the person is dead. I watched for at least five minutes and whoever it is didn’t move once. I tried calling softly to the person from our kitchen window, but I didn’t get a response. But I didn’t want to be too loud and draw attention to our unit in the process. I’m not sure exactly what to do.

  Uh oh, gotta go. Looks like the noise woke up Dylan.

  10:56 p.m.

  Just got Dylan back to bed. He had heard the gunshots and seen the body down in the alley from his bedroom window. Thankfully, he missed the part where the person was actually shot. Somebody came along about 20 minutes ago and looked at the body. Then they took what looked like a gun off it and left. It’s still laying down there. I’m positive now that the person is dead. Great. Now we’ve got a dead body behind our condo building. In a sick sort of way, it could be a good thing. Maybe it will act as a sort of deterrent to others. Maybe they’ll think we’re a bunch of badasses holed up in here shooting people who try to enter the building. Wonder if they will remove it? Who is ‘they’? Seems like local government and law enforcement have broken down. I don’t want to leave a rotting body out there, but I don’t want to mess with it either. It could be infected or something. Jesus, I never thought I’d be facing these sorts of problems. “What do we do with the dead body outside our back yard?” “Is that body infected with a deadly virus?” “Can the virus be transmitted from the dead or just from the living?” “How much food can we consume each day?” “Will the power be on tomorrow?” “Which gun should I use for the defense of my home and family?”

  I haven’t heard much activity from our neighbors lately. I wonder what THEY think about all this? Are they still here? Are any of them sick? What if the flu can be spread through the vents or between floors or walls? Shit…more fun questions.

  Monday, September 9 th

  6:43 a.m.

  The power went out this morning at 5:57. It came back on at 6:08, and then it went off again a couple minutes later. It’s been off ever since.

  With no electricity, I decided to make breakfast for the family. I guess “make” is a strong word. I got everyone bowls of cereal and then made a lightening-quick grab for the milk to keep as little cold air from escaping from the fridge as possible. We’ve now finished off one complete gallon and have just started our second. It’s warm out this morning; humid too. It’s stuffy inside the condo with the air conditioning off. The kids are already getting grumpy. Looks like a fun day ahead.

  8:15 a.m.

  The kids are complaining. They want to go outside. I feel bad for them. They’ve been pent up in here for too long. We all have. To keep the kids from picking at each other any more than they already have this morning, Kate sent Violet to take a bath. Vy loves baths. She puddles around in the tub, playing with a vast array of toys. She typically takes some of her toy cookware – pots, pans, plates, cups, and plastic foods – into the tub with her and spends time filling her pots with water, cooking meals, and feeding her rubber duckies, plastic penguins, and other tub toys. She can easily spend an hour or more in there, which is good when we’re looking for ways to keep the kids entertained and kill some time during what have become some extremely long days.

  Dylan is playing a game on his tablet (while the batteries last).

  On a more serious note, I’ve heard coughing coming from an adjoining condo recently. It’s extremely disconcerting. I heard it late last night, but I can’t tell if it’s coming from the unit beside or below us. I heard it a little bit more this morning at around seven, and then nothing. It’s been quiet ever since.

  I decided that I should make a run downstairs to take the garbage out (it’s really starting to stink). Then I want to seal us in our condo. I don’t know what’s going on with our neighbors or just how contagious this virus is. I mean, obviously I already know it’s highly contagious, but I’m not sure if it can spread from other units to ours through the air…like through the vents…and I don’t want to take any chances. I’m sure I sound kind of nutty writing that, but when it comes to life and death, and especially the safety of my family, there’s no room for error in my mind. Plus, with the electricity still off and not much else to do, sealing up the doors will give me a nice afternoon project…and Dylan can help me, which will keep him and his sister from fighting like caged animals.

  9:47 a.m.

  I loaded the .38 handgun. It was a strange feeling to load a weapon understanding that there was a distinct possibility I might actually have to use it. It was a feeling I’ve never experienced before. I’d say it’s comprised mostly of fe
ar (probably 80 percent) of being shot at. The other 20 percent is dread at the idea of having to use the weapon against another person. I know that if someone confronts me, I’ll have to make a conscious decision, an almost instantaneous one: fire or hesitate. Firing means I might seriously injure or even kill someone. And taking a human life (no matter what the reason or situation) is not really something I want weighing on my conscience for the rest of my life. But hesitating could mean the loss of my own life – something I DEFINITELY don’t want.

  More than anything, I guess I’m just thankful to have the gun. I can’t imagine being in this type of situation with only the doors to our condo building standing between us and what’s going on outside.

  With my gun in hand, I made a quick trip down the rear stairwell, out to the alley, and around the corner of the building to where the trash and recycle bins are. The body in the alley was still there. I didn’t mess with it. I had Kate come downstairs with me and stay by the stairwell door so I didn’t have to fumble with keys to get quickly and quietly back inside. While we were downstairs, we took a detour to our storage unit in the building’s basement just off the exit door to the alley. There, I retrieved a roll of duct tape I had stashed. The brief excursion reminded me that I need to clean out our storage locker. It’s getting too full of crap. It’s filled to within three feet of the ceiling with boxes of books, toys, ornaments, bags of old clothes, and other junk that needs to be sorted through and either repacked or donated to charity. At least I’ve kept it neatly stacked and organized. But I’ll leave that project for another day.

  Anyway, on the top of my priority list is getting started on sealing us into our condo. I see no reason for us to have to go back outside in the next few days unless somehow things start getting back to normal…which from all current indications, doesn’t appear to be happening.

  Well, time for me and Dylan to get to work. I think he’s actually looking forward to this project to give him something to do other than just sit around.

  12:35 p.m.

  Our condo sealing job didn’t take as long as I thought. We took garbage bags and opened them up, duck taping them over and around the edges of our front and rear doors. Dylan and I did similar work in our utility closet, using some expanding foam insulator to fill smaller cracks around the duct work that runs up from the condos below and through our unit before exiting at the roof. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do since we moved in several years ago simply for better insulation against heat, cold, and sound. I’d just never gotten around to it. I let Dylan be my “foam man”, a task he enjoyed immensely, spraying the yellow sealant down into and around cracks and then watching as it expanded and hardened. Then we sealed the door to the utility closet (just in case we missed any cracks) with taped-up plastic lining around its edges similar to how we’d done the condo’s entry doors.

  Finally, just to be on the extreme safe side, I found a can of disinfecting spray and gave it to Dylan. He went around the condo spraying everything down. Of course by this point, Violet was done with her bath and wanted to help spray. This started a whole new bout of arguing and fighting between the kids. It ended with Dylan chasing Violet around the condo trying to spray “her stinky butt” as he put it. But overall, we were able to kill a couple hours with the work and get ourselves sealed securely inside our hovel.

  With that project done, I then took a couple minutes to remove the glass panel from the small bathroom window above the tub and replaced it with the summer screen to at least give us a little ventilation and fresh air. The problem is, now we can hear the distant sound of gunfire more easily – even during the day – which is disconcerting to all of us. Also, I noticed multiple spots on the horizon where black smoke was billowing into the sky. Looks like fires are burning out of control in some spots. I can see them the best out the back and side windows facing south and west. The opposite side of our condo building blocks my north-facing view, and the trees out in front by the street obscure anything toward the east. I would assume things probably look just as bad or worse closer to downtown.

  I wish the power would come back on so that we could see the news reports on all this. I’m both curious and at the same time fearful to know.

  2:26 p.m.

  Well, I got my wish. The power came back on for all of about 10 minutes just after two o’clock. I flipped the television on, but we weren’t getting a signal on the cable box. I tried our phones and the internet too… nothing. I even gave the radio a shot – nothing there either. Scary. All I can say is DAMN scary.

  6:39 p.m.

  I spent most of the afternoon cooking after the power went off again. I made burgers and cooked most of the remaining meat we had in the freezer. I just don’t want the stuff going bad if the power stays off. We’ve continued to make extra ice since I began worrying about the possibility of a long-term power outage, and we loaded up the camp cooler we have. We put as much of the lunch meats, hot dogs, eggs, butter, and similar perishables as we could inside it. Then we iced it all down since the fridge is starting to get warm. But even the ice in the cooler is already starting to melt. I told Kate and the kids to go ahead and eat as much as they want of this sort of stuff since it won’t last long the way things are going. Without power, and the way the summer temperatures are still lingering in the low to mid-80s during the day and only dropping into the upper-60s at night, once the ice in the cooler is completely melted, I’d give the meat a day or two at best before it starts to go bad. Thankfully, I bought some extra salt at the store the other day that I can use to salt the meat to help preserve it if necessary. I just hope it works. I really have no idea what I’m doing, but I saw it done on one of those Discovery Channel shows…Alaska something or other. I’m just glad I loaded up on some of this longer-lasting food when I had the chance. I hate to think what other people are doing for food right about now. Probably why there are so many places on fire. I’ll bet people are starting to fight over the scraps.

  P.S. – Oh, and by the way, we haven’t heard anymore coughing coming from our neighbor’s unit, although we did hear someone walking up the stairs below us this afternoon. It sounded like they opened and then closed a door either on the first or second floor. We didn’t unseal our own door to find out who it was. I’m not taking any unnecessary chances just yet. I have to admit that I’m feeling rather anti-social and actually a tad bit guilty having not checked on the well-being of our neighbors. Still, it’s not worth my family coming down with this hellish flu to find out how they’re doing. I’ll give it a few more days. If people are staying home like they’re supposed to be, by then, we should know who has this thing and who doesn’t.

  9:13 p.m.

  It looks weird outside tonight. I’m taking Dylan up to the rooftop with me to investigate. We had to wait for Violet to fall asleep since I know she’d want to tag along with her big brother if she knew we were going, and I definitely don’t want her trying to climb up to the roof.

  Dylan’s so excited. It’s almost as though he thinks this whole thing is some sort of game or Indiana Jones adventure. He went and put on his camouflage pants and T-shirt for the “mission” as he’s now calling it. I’m not nearly as excited about it, but I’m glad he is. At least one of us is looking forward to this. I’m just curious to know what’s going on out there.

  We have to temporarily unseal ourselves from the condo sarcophagus we’ve created, which I’m not looking forward to; but if we do it carefully enough, we ought to be able to keep the majority of the tape and plastic around the doors intact. If we have to do a little repair work tomorrow, so be it. It’s not as though our schedules are so hectic that we won’t have the time.

  9:47 p.m.

  I had to come back for Kate. I wanted her to see what Dylan and I were seeing. I held a flashlight as Kate and Dylan climbed the steel-rung ladder leading up to the opening to our building’s darkened rooftop. We aren’t supposed to go up there, but what’s the association going to do, fine us? From this vantage poi
nt, we could get a great view of what was creating the light we’d been noticing in the nighttime sky.

  What we saw both amazed and frightened us. I guess those fires that we noticed on the horizon earlier in the day have spread all across the city. They were especially prevalent around the near-west and southern portions of the city from what we could tell from our position atop the roof. The flames from these fires were giving the nighttime sky over the city a strange, kind of eerily orange glow. You can actually SMELL smoke in the air, although it doesn’t look like there are many fires burning in our immediate vicinity…which I take as a good sign. It looks like the nearest fires to us are possibly in Brookfield or maybe Countryside, but I can’t be certain since it’s hard enough to judge distance during the day, let alone when it’s dark out.