by Alex Burns
Tristan: Yeah, I saw it online. People dying. That’s a bit scary!
Me: Tell me about it. Mum’s convinced the world’s about to end.
Tristan: Sounds about right. You sure you’re fine?
Me: 100%. Even went for a run this morning!
Tristan: Well done :-)
Me: Lucy’s sick though. I dunno if it’s this red flu thing, or just a normal cold though. Fingers crossed just a normal cold. A bunch of people went home sick from work on Friday too.
Tristan: Shitty. Hope they’re okay.
Me: Me too. Mum wants me to stay home tomorrow. I dunno. I have a tonne of things to do at work. Been a bit slack lately TBH!
Tristan: Maybe you should. You never know.
Tristan: Should stay home I mean.
Me: Hmmm. I’ll think about it. Is tempting.
Tristan: Don’t want you sick for my homecoming :-)
Me: I’m so excited! These last few days have draaaaaaged. It’s sooooo close!
Tristan: Can’t wait to have you in my arms again.
Me: I can’t wait to be there. Let’s not travel alone EVER AGAIN! This month has honestly been so much harder than I thought it would be!
Tristan: I thought you were excited about living by yourself :-p
Me: I was. And it was great… for like the first few days… But then I started missing you for some dumb reason.
Tristan: I miss the cat.
Me: More than me?
Tristan: Naturally. Cat comes first.
Me: Always. Haha. She’s been my total shadow since you left. Can’t go anywhere without her following me - not even to the loo!
Tristan: No one else to inflict her love on.
Me: Nope.
Tristan: I’m glad you’re all good, and you’d better stay that way, missy! I have to go - Mom and Dad had planned some elaborate family goodbye dinner.
Me: Nice! Say hi to them for me!
Tristan: Will do. Mom’s been upping the Canadian sales pitch the past couple of days. She really wants us to move back.
Me: Hah. We need to get rich so we can so summers over there every year.
Tristan: The dream… just follow the summer around the world :)
Me: None of this miserable grey wet winter rubbish. So sick of it!
Tristan: We should do a long weekend up to Noosa to see your friend soon.
Me: Good idea. I’ll look at tickets.
Tristan: Okay. I’m getting yelled at. I’ll talk to you later!
Me: Have fun :) Love you!
Tristan: Love you too, future wife! Xxx
A goofy grin spread over my face. We’d been engaged for over six months already, and together for almost seven years but I still felt a giddy rush when he said things like that. Tristan actually wanted to marry me, Alice Elizabeth Buchanan, he actually wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. Logically, I’d known that before. The man had left all of his friends and family to migrate half way around the world to be with me, so it wasn’t like I had any reason to doubt… but still… There was a small part of me that was still the insecure young woman who’d had her heart stomped on a few too many times. The ring had changed something in me. Centred me, calmed me. It had quashed the last of those little unfounded doubts buried deep down. Before he’d gotten down on one knee, I’d told my friends and family repeatedly that we weren’t in a hurry, and it wouldn’t change anything anyway. We were already basically married in the eyes of the law in both Canada and Australia, and in each others eyes, but for whatever reason, that little bit of jewellery did change things for me. Just a little bit.
My grin faded and all thoughts of weddings and engagements fled when I opened up the newspaper website. The death toll had been twelve when they’d printed the paper that morning. Now it was up to fifty-six, with six of those in Sydney. The rest were in Melbourne. All relatively young people still. I shook my head, trying to comprehend it. Those were real people, people who had most likely felt fine a few days ago with no idea that they’d be dead by the end of the weekend. I sent off text messages to my brother and sister, asking if they were all right.
Lucy still hadn’t replied to my earlier text. That wasn’t entirely unusual for her, she was pretty terrible at actually looking at her phone when she was home. I checked the time. It was only ten-thirty. She might not even be up yet, I told myself. I’d give her another hour before calling.
The phone buzzed and I grabbed it.
Tom: Hey Al. Yeah, I’m still fin. So is Yi-Ling. Work is crazy busy though. I just got off a twenty hour shift. Going home to sleep while I can. Take care. Keep in touch.
I found myself doing a Mum and wishing he’d just stay home and not go to work. It worried me, him being around all those sick people. What if he got it? What if he died? My little brother, so full of promise, wasn’t allowed to die. Sarah must have been thinking the same thing, because when she replied she said: Chris and I are both feeling fine. Charlotte’s got a tummy bug, but that’s not one of the symptoms of this scary red flu that’s going around, so I’m not overly concerned yet. Yet! Hate seeing my baby sick though. Worried about Tom. He’s on the front lines.
I tapped out a reply.
Me: Yeah, me too. I’m surprised Mum hasn’t kidnapped him yet.
Sarah: Haha. Yeah. Won’t be long. Don’t suggest it to her. Wait, maybe do… this thing is scaring me!
Me: Me too. Stay safe. Be careful whose air you breath xox.
Sarah: Yes Mum :-P
An hour later and there was still no reply from Lucy. Worst case scenarios started flashing through my mind. I called her, mentally begging her to pick up. Visions of her dying in the hospital, connected to all sorts of tubes filled my over-active imagination.
No answer.
I tried again five minutes later, and again ten minutes after that.
It was probably nothing, I told myself sternly. She could be in the shower, or still asleep, or out walking the dog, or… anything really.
After another half hour of worrying, I decided to pop over to ease my mind. Lucy and her husband Alan lived about a twenty minute walk away from me. I looked out the window. Dark clouds had rolled in. The beautiful morning had disappeared into a gloomy, grey day. I took the car.
Chapter Four
I knocked on the front door. The heavy thud of paws raced up to the door and barking started up on the other side. I stood there for a moment, but couldn’t hear anything other than Maggie barking. My foot tapped impatiently. I knocked again. Maggie’s barking grew deeper and more insistent. Both of their cars were sitting in the driveway, so I knew they were home. If they’d walked anywhere they would have taken Maggie.
I’d just decided to go and get the spare key from under the secret brick when I heard Alan shushing Maggie. I breathed a sigh of relief when he opened the door. Alan grabbed hold of Maggie’s collar so the huge Bernese Mountain dog couldn’t barrel past him. She wagged her tail happily when she realised the stranger at the door was me.
My relief didn’t last long. I took a proper look at Alan. He looked terrible. His normally neat hair was all mussed up, dark shadows surrounded his eyes, and I wasn’t sure if I was imagining it or not, but his eyes looked a little bloodshot. He blinked blearily at me.
“Alice. Hi. What are you doing here?”
“I… I wanted to check on Lucy. She said she wasn’t feeling well the other day and I haven’t heard from her since.”
“Come in,” Alan said, standing back to let me in. Maggie pressed forward, sniffing excitedly at me. She could probably smell the cat on my clothes.
“Hey there, Magster.” I gave her a cautious pat on the head, trying to avoid her ever present slobber.
“Lucy’s in the lounge.”
I nodded and made my way through the kitchen to the living room at the back of the house. I tried not to judge the messy kitchen. It looked like they hadn’t done any dishes for a week and were living on take out.
“Lucy?” I called before entering
the room. The TV was on. They were watching old reruns of The Office. Lucy was bundled up under some blankets, surrounded by tissues.
“Oh, hey, Alice,” she croaked. “What’s up?”
I cringed. She looked every inch as bad as Alan did, if not worse.
“I just wanted to make sure you’re all right. You didn’t answer your phone…”
Lucy flashed me a guilty look. “Sorry. I did hear it ring, but I had literally zero energy to get up and fetch it.”
“Geez, you’re really crook aren’t you?” I looked her over more closely. She was wan, with dark circles under her bloodshot eyes. I gulped.
“Please tell me your eyes are bloodshot from smoking weed and you haven’t got that red flu.”
Lucy let out a short bark of a laugh. “If only. I feel like shit. Alan’s caught it too.” Something flashed in her eyes. “You shouldn’t be here, Alice. Alan shouldn’t have let you in. You don’t want to catch this. It is most unpleasant.”
I frowned at her, worried. The news headlines kept flashing through my mind. I didn’t want to ask if they knew about all the deaths. Alan stumbled into the room, Maggie at his heels. He all but fell onto the couch next to Lucy. Maggie came over to me where I was still hovering by the door for another pat and scratch behind the ears.
“I’ll make sure I wash my hands,” I muttered after a moment. “Can I get you guys anything? Do something to help?”
“No, we’re fine.” Lucy looked at me and Maggie for a moment. “Actually, could you take Mags for a walk? We haven’t had the energy to take her further than the backyard since Friday. The poor mutt’s getting cabin fever.”
“Yeah, sure. Do you want anything from the shops? Food? Medicine? More tissues?”
Lucy glanced at Alan, eyebrow raised. He nodded slowly. “Actually, yeah, there are are few things we need…”
“Okay. I’ll take this monster for a walk and you guys write a list for me. I’ll go fetch it for you when I get back.”
“Sounds like a plan, Stan,” Lucy said with a faint smile.
I grabbed Maggie’s lead and poop bags from the hallway table. The dog followed me through the house happily enough, though she threw her humans a look, obviously wondering why we were leaving without them. She sat stubbornly in the doorway for a few moments, looking back towards the lounge room. The dog was so big and heavy, I couldn’t really do anything other than say, “Come on, Maggie.” Evidently the lure of the outdoors was strong and she came with me without any more complaints.
I stared up at the sky with trepidation from the front verandah. The clouds were dark and sightly menacing.
“What do you reckon, Maggie? Should we risk it?”
Maggie wagged her tail.
We got lucky and the rain held off. Half an hour later, we were back. Maggie charged happily inside and almost tipped over her water bucket in her enthusiasm. Lucy smiled gratefully at me and then handed me a list on a fluro post-it note.
I drove around to the nearby supermarket. I blinked in surprise. I’d never seen the carpark that empty during business hours before. It was normally teeming with cars and people. I parked right up near the doors, and started to wonder if the place was even open, but as I sat in my idling car the automatic doors opened and a man came out with a trolley full of groceries.
I walked in. The shelves evidently hadn’t been restocked overnight like they usually were. Either that or they’d been super busy that morning, but I somehow doubted it judging by the carpark. Stock was running low in some of the aisles, but I managed to get everything on Lucy’s list even if it wasn’t the brand she usually got, and grabbed a few things for myself as well, wondering how long this strangeness was going to last. If it was anything like the normal flu, it could be weeks before people got better and things went back to normal. I shuddered at the thought. The fact that things would never go back to normal didn’t even cross my mind.
I tried not to touch anything when I dropped the groceries off at Lucy and Alan’s. Lucy said their plan for the rest of the day was just to keep on watching the next season of The Office. Nothing else. I grabbed her phone from their bedroom and plonked it on her lap.
“Make sure you answer next time,” I said sternly. “You worried me.”
“Sorry, Alice. I’ll be good, I promise.” She tried to give me puppy dog eyes, but the effect was a bit lost considering they were bloodshot.
“Let me know if you guys need anything. Seriously. Any time. I’m just down the road, don’t forget.”
“Maybe bring a mask next time,” Lucy said with a grimace.
“Huh?”
“You seriously don’t want to catch this thing, Al. It’s fucking horrendous. I ache all over.”
I grimaced. “Right. I’ll consider it.”
Lucy nodded. Alan had dozed off. In a daze I walked back out to my car and drove the short distance home.
I took off all my clothes and put them in the washing machine and set it to the hottest setting. I scrubbed my hands until they were almost raw. I didn’t know if it would do any good.
I sank down into the couch and stared at the TV. It was a good five minutes before I realised it wasn’t even on. The cat came over and peered at me. Whatever she saw, she didn’t like. She darted away when I reached out for her. I sighed. I desperately wanted a hug. Tristan was too far away, and all I had was the damn cat and she didn’t want to hug me. Times like that I wanted a dog. Dogs never refused a hug, the little sycophants.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket.
Me: So… on a scale of one to ten how bad are bloodshot eyes?
Tom called me almost straight away.
“Alice? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said.
“Are your eyes bloodshot?” He sounded panicky which did not reassure me in the slightest.
“No, it’s not me,” I said with a sinking heart.
“Who is it? It’s not Tristan is it?”
I held my hand to my chest, willing my heartbeat to go back to normal.
“No. Not Tristan. He’s not back yet. It’s Lucy and Alan.”
“Ah. Shit.”
“Tom, you’re scaring me.” I wasn’t having much luck with my heart. It was just getting worse.
“Sorry, Al. It’s just… that’s not… not good. Where are they? Are they at a hospital?”
“No,” I said quietly. “They’re at home. I just came back from there.”
“You were in contact with them?” Alarm again.
“Yes. No. Kind of. I didn’t touch them, or anything really. And I washed my hands and changed my clothes as soon as I got home.”
Tom let out a deep sigh. “You might be fine.” He didn’t sounds entirely convinced. “We’re still not sure what the contamination rate its.”
“What about them though? Are they going to be okay? Should they go to hospital?” I asked in a very small voice.
My little brother paused. “They’ll probably be more comfortable at home, to be honest…”
“But will they be okay?”
There was that brief silence again. “I hope so. I honestly don’t know, Alice. I’m sorry I can’t be more positive, but…”
“How bad is it?”
“Bad. The numbers you’re seeing in the media? It’s not even half of it. It’s fucking nuts. We’re completely overwhelmed. We’re about to set up a makeshift hospital at the footy field. Antivirals aren’t having the effect they should, and… I dunno, Alice. I’m starting to think Mum might actually be right this time.”
“Don’t be absurd.”
“Al, seriously. This thing is worse than anything I’ve ever read about in modern medical literature.”
“But… not everyone’s dying, right? We’ll get through it. I mean, yeah it’s a bit fucked up and scary now, but in a couple of weeks or months everything will go back to normal. Civilisation isn’t about to end or anything,” I said with a scoff.
Tom didn’t say anything for a minute. “You’re probabl
y right. I really hope you’re right.”
“Have you talked to Dad?” I asked. “I don’t even know where he is at the moment.”
“No,” Tom said. “I sent him a message and tried to call him this morning but I couldn’t get through. Last I heard they were heading to the Kimberley. I don’t think it’s spread there yet.”
“I hope not. He’s probably out of range,” I said. Dad and his wife, Gillian, were on a year long roadtrip around Australia to celebrate their respective retirements. He usually checked in every week or two. He’d last updated his Facebook page about a week ago with a picture of him and Gillian enjoying a beer in the middle of the desert. They’d looked carefree and relaxed.
“Yeah, probably,” Tom said. “Sorry, I have to go. Monitor yourself okay? Drink plenty of water and… I don’t even know.” He sighed in frustration. “We don’t know much, that’s the terrifying thing. We don’t even know exactly what type of virus it is yet.”
“I thought it was just a bad strain of flu?”
“Not quite. They think it’s related, but… anyway. Sorry. I really do have to go. Love you, sis.”
“Love you too. Be careful, little brother.”
He hung up.
Chapter Five
Monday morning opened with a thunderstorm. I lay in bed with the cat curled into my knees and listened to the rumbling thunder, wondering what to do. Mum and Tristan had both told me to stay home. Lucy and Alan’s condition scared me, as had Tom’s phone call. I was worried sick about them all. I stretched out under the blankets. One more day until Tristan was back. I missed him badly, but I wasn’t sure I wanted him to come home to this mess. I was desperate for one of his big, warm hugs.
Thunder crashed again, and rain started pounding the roof. I decided not to go to work. Apart from the whole not wanting to get sick thing, walking to the train station in that storm was not particularly appealing. I grabbed my phone from the bedside table.
Me: Hey love. How long til your flight?
