H7N9 Penitence

by Mark Campbell

  Maurice’s milky eyes stared vacantly at the sky above as his mouth hung open. Worms and ants crawled out of his mouth. His decrepit body was frail and skeletal. His flesh seemed to move as maggots burrowed underneath his rotting brown skin.

  Teddy crouched down and dry-heaved repeatedly. Long strands of saliva dribbled from his mouth.

  “What’s wrong? Get up!” Henderson barked.

  “I-I know him,” Teddy said, voice shaking.

  “Who?”

  “One of the men in the wheelbarrow… His name is Maurice…” Teddy said as he pointed a trembling hand towards the wheelbarrow.

  “So? I lost people too. We all did. Get up and keep walking.”

  “I just need a minute, boss… Please.”

  The guard hauling the bodies pushed the wheelbarrow away towards the rec yard, wheezing.

  “Inmate, it wasn’t a request! I don’t care about some dead inmate and I sure as fuck don’t care about your hurt feelings!” Henderson yelled.

  Teddy angrily wiped the strands of saliva from his mouth, stood back up, and spun towards the guard with closed fists. His hands shook.

  Startled, Henderson readied the baton and stepped back.

  Two red laser dots appeared on Teddy’s chest.

  Teddy stopped and looked down at the dots. He slowly looked up at the snipers on the roof.

  Both snipers had their weapons pointed at him.

  “Careful now,” Henderson warned as his courage returned.

  Frustrated, Teddy spat on the ground and turned back around. He walked towards Bravo with his fists still balled and shaking.

  The red dots remained centered on Teddy’s back as he walked.

  Henderson followed behind him, baton still tightly gripped in his hand.

  Teddy stopped as he neared Bravo’s open sally port doors.

  “So is anyone even running the unit or are you assholes letting nature take its course like you did with my friend?” he asked.

  “We’re still taking care of you, so don’t worry,” Henderson sneered.

  “Taking care of me? Judging by the looks of it you can’t take care of yourselves.”

  Henderson rolled his eyes and prodded him hard in the back.

  “Oh for Christ’s sake, just shut the fuck up and get inside the unit!”

  Teddy grunted as the baton jabbed him between his shoulder blades. He took one last breath of fresh air and stepped inside.

  It looked like a riot had taken place. Plastic chairs were broken in the middle of the unit and loose trash was strewn freely about. The televisions were shattered and the laundry room was flooded. Every cell was locked. Multiple inmates banged against their cell doors, howling and shouting for the guard, but their cries fell on deaf ears. Large red biohazard bins sat in the middle of the unit along with cardboard boxes full of toilet paper rolls.

  Teddy looked around, gagging on the stench.

  “Well, look who came back!” a familiar voice shouted over the noise of the banging inmates.

  Teddy turned towards the officer’s station and saw Johannes walk out of the office with an N-95 mask covering his oily face.

  “You got him from here?” Henderson asked loudly as he holstered his baton.

  Johannes waved a bony hand in the air and nodded.

  “Yeah, I got him!” Johannes shouted. He looked around at the cells with an aggravated expression. “If you want your dinner tray, shut the fuck up!”

  The inmates stopped banging and shouting; the sudden silence was unnerving.

  Johannes looked at Henderson and smiled proudly as he held his hands out towards the cells.

  “See?” Johannes beamed. “It’s easy to tame a savage beast when you keep it hungry.”

  Henderson looked around and nodded. He pulled a crinkled pack of grape-flavored cigars out of his front shirt pocket. He pulled his mask aside and lit his cigar as he walked out of the unit, coughing loudly.

  As Henderson left, Johannes stared at Teddy with disgust.

  “I’m surprised you’re still around,” Teddy said.

  Johannes scoffed.

  “You’re like a turd that just won’t flush, Sanders. I don’t know why fate has been so kind to you, but I guarantee that you won’t be so lucky once all of this settles down.”

  Johannes kept his distance from Teddy and crossed his arms over his chest.

  “You and that bald prick seem pretty confident that everything will blow over. Given what I’ve seen outside, I’m not so sure,” Teddy said with a frown.

  “Spare me the bullshit and get your ass up the stairs,” Johannes said as he pointed towards the iron staircase. “I got twenty-one more hours to do and I sure as hell won’t spend them listening to you.”

  Teddy walked towards the stairs and tried not to take a deep breath; the unit reeked with the stench of death. As he ascended the steps, he stopped and erupted into a coughing fit. He reached up and rubbed his throat. His sore throat started to concern him and the thought that it was something less than benign suddenly crossed his mind.

  Johannes laughed from the bottom of the staircase.

  “Well now, boy… It sounds to me like your luck has finally started to run out!”

  Teddy ignored the comment and continued up the stairs. He glanced down at the dried blood that was still on the floor from his previous encounter with Darrel and came to a stop in front of his old cell.

  He pulled on the door handle, but it was locked.

  “Step back, Sanders,” Johannes said as he strode towards the cell. “I didn’t stay healthy this long by getting close to sick fuckers like you.”

  Teddy stepped away and stared at him.

  “So that’s the plan? You’re just going to lock us all up until we waste away and die inside our cells?” Teddy asked. He gestured towards the other cells. “Are these just a bunch of tombs now?”

  “No, we’re under a national lockdown, smartass,” Johannes said. “As soon as everything goes back to normal, you’re going back to SHU and then I’m making sure you get shipped out west. That’s the plan.”

  He unlocked the cell and held the door open, but Teddy didn’t move.

  “Back to normal? That’s bullshit and you know it,” Teddy said. “If things are this bad in here, I can only imagine how things look outside.” He paused and shook his head. “There’s a goddamn mass grave outside! If things are on the verge of calming down, why is the military in here helping you? If things are returning to normal, then why is a unit counselor running a housing unit instead of a regular officer? What about the room full of dead staff members? In what reality is any of this considered normal?”

  “Just get inside the cell, Sanders.”

  Teddy stood his ground. Anger was coursing through his veins and his muscles were starting to tense.

  “What if I told you to go fuck yourself? What if I said that I’m not dying on your terms? I doubt you have the manpower to make me do much of anything anymore. By the time those soldiers come in here to help you, you’d be dead by my hands. So tell me, asshole, what will you do when I say no?”

  Teddy balled his fists.

  Johannes grinned.

  “In that case, I’d be forced to insist,” Johannes said. He raised the front of his uniform shirt and revealed the butt of a pistol that was stuck down the front of his pants. “With no front lobby officer and nobody left to man the metal detector, you’d be amazed at what staff can bring in these days. Most people bring in stupid shit lately, but I brought a little insurance policy.”

  Teddy stared down at the gun.

  “You’re pathetic, Jo-Jo… Why do you even bother coming into this little fiefdom? Is your life that miserable where you don’t have anybody at home to worry about? No friends… No family… So you come in here to boss around a bunch of dying people just because you can?”

  Johannes’ face reddened. He brought out his pistol and pointed it at Teddy’s chest, hand trembling.

  “Get in the goddamn cell before I shoot
you and throw you inside.”

  Teddy glanced up at the cameras.

  “Don’t bother,” Johannes said without looking away. “Nobody is left to watch the monitors. Now get in the cell. I’m not going to ask you again, Sanders.”

  Teddy shook his head, turned, and walked into the dark cell rubbing his sore throat.

  Johannes slammed the cell door shut, locked it, and tucked the gun away.

  “Since you want to be a smartass, Sanders, you can forget about eating for the rest of my shift,” Johannes said through the cell’s narrow window.

  Teddy turned and stared at him through the glass.

  “I wouldn’t expect anything less from someone like you,” Teddy said. “That just leaves more food for you to shovel down your gullet, right boss?”

  To Teddy’s surprise, Johannes laughed.

  “You talk a lot of shit, don’t you?” he asked. “Don’t worry about that little cough. I think the flu is the least of your concerns right now. Don’t you know by now that I always have the last laugh? You can’t beat me. Old Jo-Jo always wins. I can’t say it’s been a pleasure knowing you, convict.”

  Johannes hiked his pants up over his wiry frame and walked away.

  Teddy stared out of the window confused by his comments.

  “Hello again, cellie,” a familiar voice said weakly from behind him.

  Teddy’s heart skipped a beat.

  “Welcome home,” Andy said.

  CHAPTER 4

  Teddy turned towards the voice and flicked on the light switch.

  He spotted a frail-looking man wrapped in sweat-soaked blankets lying on the top bunk.

  Andy stared down at him with dull eyes, squinting. He raised a hand to shield his face from the light. His face was pale and the lymph nodes on his neck were blackened and swollen. Stubble covered his chin and thin fuzzy hair covered his once bald head.

  Teddy balled his fists and stepped back against the cell door, ready.

  Andy laughed, but stopped as a violent coughing fit stole his breath. He wheezed as he struggled to speak again.

  “Relax,” Andy finally managed to say. “I’m not going to do anything. I can’t get out of the bed so I’m not even going to try to fight.” He paused. “How in the hell did you weasel your way out of there? I know you weren’t stupid enough to come out willingly.”

  Teddy relaxed some, but stayed near the door.

  “They ran out of hacks and closed it down,” Teddy said as he sat down on the toilet and stared up at him. “I see that you took the upper bunk after all.”

  “Yeah, but don’t feel victorious,” Andy muttered. “I climbed up here to be closer to the air vent when my fever struck. Now I’m too damn weak and sore to crawl back down... ain’t that some bullshit?”

  “How’s the arm?” Teddy asked.

  “It was a lot better before you stabbed it. I was supposed to go to an outside hospital to get it fixed, but nobody had room. The piece of shit prison nurses, before medical shut down and sent us all back limping and bleeding, said I needed stitches.” He coughed and spurted blood on his thin pillow. He wheezed and rolled over onto his side, smiling deliriously. “I guess that’s the least of my worries now, right?”

  “I’m sorry that it came down to that, but I didn’t have a choice,” Teddy said. “Darrel used you. He–”

  “Save it,” Andy interrupted. “You had a choice, but you just so happened to make the wrong one.”

  Teddy fell silent and sat on the ground with his back pressed against the door.

  Andy lay on the bed, wheezing.

  Silence lingered between the two as the hours passed.

  Teddy’s bouts of coughing starting coming more frequently as the evening waned on. They were gentle inconveniences at first, but eventually they became violent fits that robbed him of his breath. His throat was raw and his chest felt congested.

  “How long has it been since you started coughing?” Andy finally asked.

  Teddy stood up and took a drink from the sink’s tap. He stepped away from the sink and wiped his mouth with his forearm. He sauntered towards the lower bunk to sit down. His entire body felt heavy, tired.

  “This morning,” he said in a raspy voice. “I woke up with a sore throat.”

  Andy chuckled and gagged on his own mucus. He cleared his throat and let out a wheezy sigh.

  “Yeah, that’s how it starts, brother,” Andy said. “You got about a day or two before you end up bedridden like me.”

  Teddy flopped down on the bed, coughing yet again. He rolled onto his side and closed his eyes.

  “I feel like shit. I’m going to sleep.”

  “Teddy.”

  “Yeah?”

  “If I bounce back from this, our business isn’t finished. Just because I’m too sick to lift a finger doesn’t mean the slate is wiped clean between us. You’ve done enough time in the system to understand that, right?”

  “I know,” Teddy answered. “I know your type better than you all know yourselves.”

  “You know that a lot of the white boys did recover, right?”

  Teddy didn’t respond.

  “Ah, of course you wouldn’t know… You’ve been in SHU.” He paused. “Logan is still alive. The word is that he never even got sick. He’s looking for you, brother. He’s been waiting for the chance to catch you.”

  Teddy remained silent.

  Andy chuckled and coughed quietly as he rolled over onto his side.

  Logan was the head shot caller for the Aryan Brotherhood. He was a brawling brute with an ego to match. Considering the state of affairs, Teddy had considerable doubts that he was still alive or if he still had a crew of men left to run.

  Teddy wasn’t surprised by the small-minded convict mentality that Andy had. Hell, he once had it himself. He remembered something that Maurice told him that day in the dining hall: “Sometimes the old con blinders start to fit a little too comfortably, don’t they?”

  He couldn’t care less about the convict code, the brotherhood, or the prison justice system. For the first time in a long time, Teddy was thinking of what lay outside the walls of USP Tucson and it absolutely terrified him.

  CHAPTER 5

  As daylight waned, Teddy’s condition deteriorated rapidly.

  Andy’s violent eruptions eventually faded into submission; Teddy wasn’t so lucky.

  Teddy’s head ached and his chest felt full of mucus. Each raspy breath was labored. Sweat soaked through his SHU jumpsuit and drenched his sheets. Every joint in his body was swollen and stiff. His tongue was swollen and his throat was closing.

  He had been sick many times before in his life, but nothing had ever struck him so hard and so fast.

  All he wanted to do was curl up and go to sleep, but even that proved to be an impossible task. Every once in a while, his consciousness would start to fade but he always roused himself back awake with a chain of rattling coughs.

  He tried ignoring the fiery pain in his throat for several hours as he tossed and turned on his bunk, coughing and gasping as the setting sun threw an orange hue through the cell’s narrow window. The smell was horrendous and reeked of defecation; it was so pungent that he could smell it despite his congestion.

  True to his word, Johannes didn’t serve a dinner tray or even bother to peek inside the cell when he made his sporadic half-assed version of security rounds.

  Teddy wasn’t hungry, but thirst consumed him.

  Despite his dizziness, he forced himself to sit up and open his eyes.

  Andy’s arm hung down from the upper bunk.

  Teddy rubbed his feverish face with both hands and waited a few moments for his head to stop swimming. He slowly lowered his hands and stared at Andy’s arm which was blocking his path.

  “Hey, move, I’m getting up,” Teddy said in a raspy voice.

  The arm didn’t move.

  Teddy reached up and tapped it.

  Andy’s flesh was cold.

  A fly crawled down Andy’s forearm and
then - quickly flew away.

  Teddy pushed the arm aside and carefully stood up.

  He lost his balance immediately.

  Teddy stumbled forward and caught himself on the lockers. He coughed violently and leaned against them to keep himself from falling to the ground.

  His vision was blurry, hazy.

  He glanced over at the top bunk and saw Andy staring down at him.

  Andy’s milky eyes stared blankly at him and his mouth was hung open. His neck was grotesquely swollen and covered with the same tell-tale purplish blotches that Teddy had witnessed earlier. His khaki pants were soiled with urine and dried feces. Flies circled the body and crawled over his exposed skin.

  Teddy stared at the horrific image, but all he could think about was water. He turned his attention to the stainless-steel sink and toilet combination that seemed miles away.

  The reflection staring back at him from the tarnished mirror that hung over the sink didn’t even look like him. His neck was deformed and purple, his face was bright red, and his nose was encrusted with snot. His eyes were bloodshot and his eyelids were swollen and black.

  He took a step towards the sink, knees nearly buckling as he kept his hands pressed against the wall for support.

  After taking one or two steps forward, Teddy collapsed against the floor, coughing so violently that it stole his breath. He curled up on the floor and grasped his swollen throat, desperately sucking in air.

  It took him about five minutes to catch his breath and gather the strength to stand back up.

  Once he arrived at the sink, he turned on the tap and allowed the cool water to run across his face.

  Teddy closed his eyes and drank greedily. His legs shook and his chest burned as he held his position for several minutes, drinking until his belly started to feel bloated.

  Then his strength gave out.

  Teddy turned off the tap and slid down the wall until he hit the floor. He sat with his legs sprawled out in front of him. Water soaked the front of his jumpsuit.

  He reached up and rubbed his throat.

  It still hurt, but the burning had subsided.

  With his coughing temporarily subdued, Teddy’s exhaustion caught up with him.