Contagious

by Druga, Jacqueline

  Rayne nodded. He towered over both of them.

  “Now,” Joel said. “What were you asking for?”

  JJ kept his eyes on Rayne. “Um, nothing. Cheerios sounds great, sir.”

  “Ha.” Joel reached out with a slap to JJ’s arm. “That’s the spirit.”

  “Joel!” Walter spoke rushed as he raced into the kitchen. “We have a problem.”

  “Another one?” Joel asked. “But JJ and Rayne are here.”

  “This is … this is big,” Walter said. “Please.”

  “Rayne, help him find the Cheerios.” Joel instructed, then left the kitchen and followed Walter. “What’s going on?”

  “Oh, Joel, we’re in trouble.”

  Just about to ask what Walter meant, Joel slid to a stop when he arrived in the lobby. It looked like a spaceman invasion. People in white bio hazard suits moved about the lobby.

  One in particular approached Joel. “Are you the hotel manager?” He spoke through the radio in his suit.

  “I am.” Joel replied. “What … what’s going on?”

  “My name is Daniel Hasbro from the CDC,” he said. “If you and I can speak in private, I need to get information and names from you. This hotel is shut down. Quarantined. No one gets in. No one gets out.”

  <><><><>

  Ava always set her alarm for at least half an hour before she had to wake up. That way she could keep hitting the ‘snooze’ button. But as she silenced the first round of beeps, she jolted awake when she heard not just a knocking, but a steady banging on her front door.

  She hurriedly grabbed her phone and looked. No missed calls.

  The banging was steady and loud and seemed to set off every barking dog in the neighborhood.

  In case of problems, she held her phone and stepped from her bedroom.

  The pounding reverberated through her house.

  Cassie came from her room at the same time as Calvin.

  Cassie asked. “What’s going on?”

  “I haven’t a clue,” Ava headed toward the steps. “I’ll go see.” She prepped her phone to dial 911 in case there as a problem and yelled out, 'I’m coming' as she made it down the stairs.

  It was still semi dark and she turned on the living room light before opening the door.

  Her heart pounded. Something was wrong. She was scared it was the police and perhaps it had to do with Rosie or that maybe Darren had been in an accident.

  All those thoughts raced through her mind just as the door flung open.

  She expected the police or a frantic neighbor.

  Not a sight that made her scream out the breath she held.

  His face was distorted in the bio hazard suit, and three more men were behind him.

  “Ava Mason?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Were you at the Ambassador Suites Hotel yesterday afternoon?”

  “I was.”

  “We need you to come with us.”

  “What? No.” Ava backed up as the man stepped into the house. The man reached for her arm. “Kids!” She cried out. “Call your dad!”

  “There are others here?” the man asked, then signaled the man behind him.

  Like soldiers they stormed into her home.

  Cassie was already half way down the stairs and they grabbed her.

  The other two rushed up the stairs.

  “No!” Ava fought. “The kids weren’t there. Leave them alone.”

  “Ma’am, you need to come with us.” The man took hold of her arm. “Now.”

  “Can I take my purse? Please, I need it.” Ava asked frantically. When the man nodded. She reached for her purse on the coat tree and slipped her phone inside.

  Cassie cried out ‘no’, fighting the person that held her around the waist.

  “Put her down.” Ava demanded

  “Mommy!” Landon’s voice rang out. “Mommy, help!”

  Two more suited men came down the steps. One escorted a reluctant, Calvin, the other carried Landon kicking and screaming.

  It was mayhem. What was going on? Ava’s head spun. She was barely awake, not even dressed; they didn’t allow them time to process what was going on or why they were being taken. They rushed in and grabbed them. Within two minutes, they were dragged from their home.

  All three kids cried and verbally fought.

  Ava was just in shock and clutched her purse as they pushed her toward a van.

  “Clear,” she heard the one man say. “No one else in the house.”

  “Shut it down. Seal it.” Another said.

  The back doors to the white van opened and they nudged Ava inside. She climbed up, tripping when her bare feet caught the metal step. She landed face first on the floor of the van.

  Calvin helped her. “You ok?”

  Ava nodded.

  They pushed Cassie in forcefully, but were a bit gentler with Landon.

  The doors slammed closed and within seconds the van started moving quickly.

  No windows. No way to see. Just a dark tin box. There were two bench seats in the van. The twins sat on one. Ava, still off balance, feeling her way, sat down on the other and lifted Landon onto her lap.

  She wished she could see her family. She could only hear them breathe and sniffle as she wrapped her arms tightly around Landon.

  The child curled into her and cried. “I wanna go home.”

  “I know,” Ava said.

  In a quivering voice, Cassie asked. “What’s going on? Why did they take us?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I’m scared, Ava, I’m really scared,” Cassie said.

  “I know.” Ava reached out her hand in the darkness trying to grab a hold of one of them. She didn’t know who she grabbed, but she connected with a hand and desperately clutched it. “I’m scared too.”

  In the back of that van, as they moved toward an unknown destination, encompassed by darkness, fear and confusion, they held on to each other as best as they could.

  Chapter 6

  Erie, PA

  “Mutated,” Randall showed Amita an image of the virus, “from our coffee shop girl. I’m going to assume our Erie people have the same strain since they caught it from the same source.”

  “So this is definitely faster.”

  “Without a doubt. It appears, at least with this strain, that being asymptomatic doesn’t matter. You’re still contagious.”

  “We don’t even have full numbers in yet. So … coffee shop girl more than likely infected most of the people she served.”

  “We can hope not. Two days will tell.”

  “This is a nightmare. Why are we bothering?”

  “Chase and catch. We’ll find an end. How’s our Cleveland hotel?”

  Amita exhaled. “Well, we landed there two hours ago. The Ambassador is self-contained. Easiest hotel yet to quarantine. It’s like a motel in a hotel. All the rooms face the inside courtyard, so we can see everything. We located seventy-two of our hundred that attended the seminar. Front desk pulled all those who checked out and food and beverage pulled checks from the restaurant. Thankfully, a lot of people don’t use cash.”

  “How are we dividing them?”

  “Dan Hasbro put the order in for bedding. We’re expecting pretty much that eighty percent from that seminar to get infected. The Grand Ballroom is being set up for an aid station, like we did at the other hotel sites. Right now, we’re keeping all those that had immediate contact with her on the first floor.”

  “Does the hotel have room?”

  “Oh, yeah, lucky us. Ready for this?”

  “Go on.”

  “Ninety percent of the rooms were booked even if they weren’t being used. Actually not even a quarter of the rooms had people in them.”

  “How is that possible?” Randall asked.

  “Privacy for the world’s biggest pop star. JJ Wylde is in that hotel.”

  “Oh, boy.”

  “Tell me about it,” Amita said. “Any chance we had of keeping the fear factor dow
n, will blow up when it is discovered JJ Wylde is quarantined.”

  “I have to disagree. It will begin the media hype, but this is gonna blow up,” Randall stated, “when people start falling over ill from New York to here.”

  <><><><>

  Ambassador Suites

  Although it was estimated over a hundred had attended the Semora Love seminar and came close to her, luckily the hotel employees with close contact to her was kept to a minimum.

  Joel was one of them.

  The high risk skeleton crew would work if need be, because Joel wanted to keep any employee brought in for the quarantine, away from any potential infection.

  “Talk to no one.” Joel texted each employee. “Come in, take the west stairwell and head up to the third floor. Do not come down.”

  From what he had seen on the news, Joel expected pandemonium in his hotel. Not a measly six workers.

  Dan, the CDC guy, told him they would have FEMA and military backup, but they were going to start organizing. “Eventually we will move all the seminar people in. Until then, you guys just sit tight.”

  They were told to do nothing and to say nothing. Joel didn’t feel like sitting idly by and waiting. So everything, including the message to the employees was done on the ‘down low’. Each remaining guest in the hotel was called by Joel or Melissa.

  They told each guest the same thing. “Stay in your room, the hotel is under quarantine. Check your hotel station on your television for updates.”

  Bianca wasn’t happy to be woken to the news, and even offered her help to Joel. He simply told her no, he wanted her safe. Stay away.

  All those at high risk, including those already infected would be placed on the first floor. No one was there yet, the first floor was empty except for the employees that had come in close contact with Semora.

  Walter was the exception. Even though he wasn’t near Semora, he told the CDC guy, “If it’s all right with you, I’ll just stay down here and help.”

  Joel wasn’t happy about it, then again, Walter had the ability to be eyes and ears when no one else could.

  They were like prisoners, the few hotel workers, stuck in the small office behind the front desk until the CDC finished their initial rounds and told them what to do if anything.

  Walter whispered to Joel. “There are four white vans outside. I heard some workers say there are people in there that were at the seminar.”

  “How long have the vans been out there?” Joel asked.

  “I know they’ve been there at least two hours. No one has come out. They may be infected.”

  “I think they’re holding them outside. I haven’t seen a single person from that seminar yet.”

  Joel nodded and turned to Melissa. “Do me a favor and disable all locks except the basement. Link only the master keys to basements A and B. Then switch off all master keys but mine and Walter's. Can you do that?”

  “As long as the computers are running.”

  “Do it now. I want no one touching that food down there. Just on the outside chance we get abandoned, we have enough of a stockpile for months.” When he heard a sniffle, he turned to Katie. “Are you sick?”

  “No.” She whimpered. “I'm just scared and sad.”

  “It’ll be alright,” Joel said. “Really, I mean, what do we know about the other quarantines?”

  Rayne replied, looking up from his phone. “Not much. Numbers are low in the quarantine areas. They’re passing it off as a tougher flu. But that’s all that is out.”

  At that second the door to the back office opened. Joel thought at first it was the CDC telling them they could come out, but to his surprise, in walked JJ Wylde.

  “What the hell?” Joel asked. “This is close contact quarantine only.”

  JJ held up his hand. “JJ was in close contact.”

  Joel brought this hand to his head, thought a second, then said “Okay, stop. If you are going to be in this back room with us, drop the persona and no more referring to yourself in the third person.”

  The young man nodded.

  “How the hell did you come in contact with her anyhow?” Joel asked.

  “I was rappelling.”

  “Ex … excuse me. Rappelling?”

  “Yeah, from the fifth floor and when I got to her floor she was coming back from the soda machine.”

  “What the hell is the matter with you? You don’t rappel in a hotel.” Joel exhaled. “Great, now you understand you’re stuck. We’re having a small meeting, so unless you have something to contribute, you have to be quiet.” Joel faced Rayne again. “They’re not giving anything out about this, but they have to be leaving something out. Seriously, they are shutting down hotels and airports over a little bug. It has to be bigger.”

  “Eye On All, says that the virus is out of control in Taiwan and that they have it in India, and neither place can quarantine.”

  Joel rubbed his brow. “Eye On All?”

  “It’s a conspiracy website.” Rayne stated. “You have to put what the CDC says, what the news channels say and the information from the conspiracy sites all together and you can get a good picture.” Joel snapped his finger. “Melissa, post on the in-house TV bulletin board what our guests have to look out for. If they develop any symptoms, tell them to let someone know right away.”

  JJ asked. “How come we don’t have masks? You would think they’d give us face masks.”

  “Well considering we’re gonna be the first ones sick, they’ll probably give them to everyone else,” Joel said. “Symptoms?”

  Katie said. “Semora Love said she felt like she had a hangover. I worked ‘close’ last night. She ordered dinner and was fine.”

  “So she woke up feeling like she had a hangover,” Joel said, “headache and body aches. How did she look?”

  Katie shrugged. “Tired.”

  Rayne added. “She coughed. She coughed a lot. I mean, it grew worse as the seminar went on. And her hands were hot. I just thought she had a magic touch or something.”

  “Fever,” Joel said. “Fever, cough, body aches and headaches.”

  Then JJ stated. “Bleeding eyes.”

  Everyone looked at him.

  Walter asked. “She had bleeding eyes? You saw this?”

  “It looked like they were bleeding or she had bloody tears. It was kinda gross. She said she was having a hard time seeing and was sick. So I helped her to her room.”

  “Why …” Joel said, “would you do that?”

  “I’m not a dick. I just pretend to be.”

  “No. No.” Joel cringed. “Didn’t you think something was wrong?”

  “Yeah, she was sick.”

  “When you saw she had bleeding eyes, what did you do?”

  “I helped her to her room.” JJ answered.

  “No, I mean afterward.”

  “Washed my hands?” He stated as if guessing on a quiz.

  “Oh my God! If I saw someone with bleeding eyes I would tell someone.”

  “I did. I just told you.”

  “Ha!” Rayne exclaimed as he stared at his phone. “I searched, ‘mystery flu, India, bleeding eyes’. And they are saying that bleeding eyes is one of the last stages.”

  “Who is? The CDC?”

  “No, Barrow Bulletin. They are also saying that thousands are close to death. No cure. But CDC and WHO aren’t stating that. Barrow is another conspiracy site.”

  “Doesn’t matter.” Joel waved out his hand. “They are right about the bleeding eyes so they have to be right about the deaths. Why go to all these extremes to quarantine if it wasn’t something huge? Despite what they are telling us, this thing is bad. JJ, I know you do that Chirp thing. How many followers to you have?”

  “I have eighteen million peeps.”

  “Then get on the horn about it.” Joel instructed. “Let them know you’re quarantined and what we’re dealing with.”

  Walter asked. “Is that responsible?”

  Joel nodded. “Yeah, it is. Because right no
w everyone is dismissing this thing as nothing big. They’re going about their day and being exposed. He lets eighteen million people know the truth, then that’s eighteen million that may stay inside …” Joel said, “and stay alive.”

  <><><><>

  Landon had finally fallen back to sleep and had done so on Ava’s lap. They had made several stops to pick up others and the back of the van was packed. It had been hours since they stopped. No one in the van really talked and she recognized a lot of the people in the van from the seminar.

  The people that took them gave them no information.

  Calvin tried the door again. “It's still locked. What the heck?”

  “Why do they have us locked in here?” Cassie asked. “I’m thirsty.”

  “I know. Me, too.” Ava reached out and laid her hand on the back of Cassie’s head. They were all still in their pajamas. In fact most people in the van were in night clothes and only a few of the sixteen even wore shoes.

  Ava saw Calvin fiddling with the phone. “Did you try to call Dad?” she asked.

  “He still didn’t answer. I sent him a text from you,” Calvin replied.

  “What are they saying on the web or news? Anything about this?”

  “Nothing yet.” Calvin handed her back the phone.

  Ava tapped the screen; it was the only source of light in the windowless van. It was hot and stuffy and no one had a clue what was happening.

  Each person that entered the van did the same as the previous. Scared and confused, they asked those already there, “What’s happening. Do we know? Was there some sort of poison at the seminar?”

  Ava decided it was more.

  The space suits that the men wore keeping them safe from the air told her that she and the others had something they didn’t want to catch. If it was something like poison, why did they take other members of the family and people who weren’t at the seminar?

  No. It was contagious.