Defending Against Affliction

by Connor Mccoy

With the pledge over, Sarah took the stage once again. “We know this is just a formality. We already agreed weeks ago, but today our council’s going to take its first vote and formally give our town a new name.” The rest of the council members assembled behind the shop. “All right, raise your hands for ‘aye.’”

  Every one of them did so.

  “Congratulations,” Sarah said, “Today, our town is formally called Eagleton, named for our country’s majestic bald eagle. It’ll be a symbol that no matter what our challenges, we’ll always soar high above them.”

  Leaving the library’s small storeroom, Tom wrapped up his leg of the inspection. None of their personal effects were left anywhere. The library now was just a library again, not a makeshift home for thirteen children and their two warrior parents.

  Still, the thought of leaving left him with a heavy heart. This was the first place he had lived since the loss of his first family. Though he would be moving on to a new home with Cheryl and his children, he’d be leaving a place with fond memories.

  He strolled past the reading tables, up the middle of the library. Cheryl was waiting by the front door with Catherine Rossi.

  “Finished?” Tom asked.

  “Yeah,” Cheryl said.

  “Double checked?”

  She looked down. “Triple.”

  Catherine looked at each of them. “Do you need a little longer?”

  “No.” Tom sucked in a breath. “It’s time to cut the cord. The town needs its library back.” He gazed at the bookshelves. “Every kid in town should have a chance to come in here and read these books.”

  Cheryl grazed Catherine’s arm. “Cat, you sure you want to live here? You don’t have to give up your house.”

  Catherine took Cheryl’s hand. “Every morning I wake up and I expect to see Rick, and then I have to remind myself he’s gone. I can’t stay in that house any more. I can’t move on unless I change everything.” She sighed. “Let somebody with a family take it.”

  “But maybe someday you’ll find someone—I mean, it still could happen for you,” Cheryl said.

  Catherine managed a small smile. “Maybe, but God only knows. I need to do something else. Being the town librarian suits me.”

  “Yeah, I think it does,” Cheryl replied. The two then embraced.

  A short moment later, Tom and Cheryl departed the library. Amir was outside along with most of the kids. The few others who weren’t present already had decamped to their new home.

  Tom looked at Amir. “We’re all going to miss this place.” Amir nodded.

  Nearby, Kristin and Jackie started crying. “It’s okay, babies.” Cheryl hugged them. “I know it’s a little hard. But you two are going to have your own room. It’s going to be—” She blinked back her own tears. “—wonderful.”

  Tom eyed the library as if to give the structure a silent thanks. Then, he turned and walked toward his wife and children.

  That night, Tom and Cheryl Criver spent the night under their new roof with all thirteen of their children. In his and Cheryl’s bedroom, Tom lay flat on his back, looking at the ceiling. Cheryl lay next to him on her side, staring at him.

  “Anything the matter?”

  “Just feels strange.”

  “Why? Is it not comfortable enough?”

  “No, it’s too comfy. I feel like I’m going to sink right into the mattress.”

  Cheryl laughed. “Well, you have been sleeping on the office floor for God knows how many months.”

  “I know.” Tom turned and fluffed his pillow. “This is too damned normal.”

  His wife then took his face and turned it to hers. “How about I exhaust you?”

  “Well there’s a good idea.” Tom chuckled. “But do you think we’ll wake the kids?”

  Before Cheryl could answer, a loud voice cut through the closed bedroom door. “Hey! Let me in! I have to pee!” That was Dominick.

  “We have two other bathrooms!” That was Annie. “Go use one of them!”

  “They’re all being used!” Dominick called back.

  “What?” That was Rinaldo’s voice, followed by the pounding of footsteps. “But how?”

  “It’s cause there’s thirteen of us!” Fred’s voice replied.

  “Just go outside like we used to!” Annie called back.

  “I don’t want to!” Dominick shouted.

  “Hey! Shut up, I’m trying to sleep!” Terry called.

  “You shut up!” Dominick snapped.

  “Mom! Dad!” Alice called out. “Make everyone be quiet and go to bed!”

  Tom and Cheryl just looked at each other as the crescendo rose. “And I was worried about them hearing us,” Tom said.

  The interior of the dining room was alive with adults chattering and kids playing. It had been five days since the Criver family had moved into their new home, and the timing seemed right to put on this celebration, for more reasons than one.

  First, it was a great way to see the neighbors. Tom and Cheryl hobnobbed with many couples that lived nearby, including Rodney and Whitney Lyons, Waylon and Shelia Breyer, Larry and Tia White, and Jacob and Sheryl Poitras. Sheryl was affectionately called “Sheryl with an S” by Tom and Cheryl’s children, not that you could mistake Sheryl with her dark curly hair and bigger build with Cheryl’s more athletic and red-hued hair. It also gave Tom and Cheryl’s sizable brood a chance to play with the other neighborhood kids, including the White girls.

  But that wasn’t the main reason Tom wanted to put on this party.

  It had taken a few minutes to gather all of Tom and Cheryl’s kids around the table. “We’re ready!” Tom repeated a few times until everyone quieted down.

  “First of all, I hope everyone’s having a good time. This is an amazing house and I know a lot of you put in a lot of time and sweat to put this place up. It’s worked out great for us. Thank you.”

  That was good for a few claps and shouts of “Yeah!” Tom quickly continued.

  “But we actually have a more special occasion. My lovely and very organized wife has let me know it’s been over a year since we first met all these wonderful kids. That means they’ve all had a birthday since then. Now we finally…” Tom laughed. “…finally got to know all their birthdates. We may have to group them together later on because we’ll be celebrating birthdays almost every day and I’m just getting too old for that.”

  Tom walked toward the head of the table. “So, this is really a birthday party for all thirteen of our kids.” That got a lot of applause. Tom and Cheryl’s kids joined in.

  Tom then reached for a piece of paper on the table. Everyone else had been given one several minutes ago. “That’s also going to make singing ‘Happy Birthday’ a bit of a challenge. That’s why we made this list for everybody.” Tom’s eyes narrowed. “It’s just hard to remember all their names. I know there’s Amir, and Terry, and Charlie, and…” He turned to Kristin. “Who are you again?”

  “I’m Kristin!” The girl laughed.

  “Right!” Tom mock slapped the side of his head. “And then there’s Larry, and Moe, and Curly, and Sleepy, and Dopey…”

  “Dad, those aren’t your kids!” Terry interrupted.

  Cheryl playfully slapped Tom in the stomach. “You are terrible!” Some of the other children laughed.

  “Okay, okay, I’m done. Honest.” Tom raised his paper. “But we are going to get everyone’s name in. Ready?”

  Tom led off with the start of “Happy Birthday.” Everyone followed along with the lyrics. Then, Tom got to the point where he had to insert the kids’ names. He slowed up the singing before he read off, “Happy Birthday dear Amir, Terry, Sam, Alice, Charlie, Fred, Rinaldo, Dominick, Michael, Irvin, Kristin, Annie and Jackie!”

  Tom then let out a huff. Some in the crowd followed. Terry, Rinaldo and Fred then laughed. A few partygoers then cheered and clapped.

  “See, we did it!” Gasping, Tom waved the paper around. “But I think I gave my lungs a hernia.”

  Cheryl quickly ad
ded the last line of the song, followed by, “Blow them out!”

  Each child blew out the candle on their brownie. A round of applause followed. Some of the kids, such as Sam, Dominick and Terry, didn’t wait before they started wolfing down their brownies.

  Cheryl reached up and kissed Tom’s cheek. “You were great.”

  Tom offered her his paper. “Does that mean I don’t need this anymore to remember their names?”

  “Oh, you.” Cheryl slapped him on the rear.

  Chapter Five

  Tom stumbled into the dining room. The morning light was beginning to break outside. This morning Tom was up sooner than usual, and he figured he might as well take a walk to help him get moving.

  His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the front door. It still was early. Who could it be?

  He looked out a nearby window. Waylon was outside the front door, still dressed in a T-shirt and lounge pants. He was rubbing his left foot against his right leg. In addition, his face shook every few seconds.

  Damn, he’s spooked by something, Tom thought. He hurried to the front door and opened it.

  Waylon looked up, his eyes meeting Tom’s. “Hey,” Tom said, “What’s wrong?”

  Tom’s neighbor turned in the direction of his house. “I need…I need you to come look at this right now.”

  After fishing on a pair of shoes, Tom followed Waylon back to his house across the street. “It’s my wife. She’s had a bad, bad night.” The frightened man hurried through his living room, past the kitchen, and down the hall to their bedroom.

  Sheila lay on the bed. Her eyes were half-closed and she was staring at the ceiling. A constant moan escaped her lips. Tom walked in closer. The moans sounded more like hums. Sweat glistened on her skin.

  “She’s been like this for the past few hours. Early last night, she complained she was dizzy. I got her water, but that didn’t help. Then she just got worse.” Waylon stepped past Tom.

  “You haven’t seen the worst part.” He lifted up Sheila’s nightshirt. Tom cringed.

  Sheila’s skin across her stomach and chest below her brassiere was dry and cracked. In some spots the skin bled.

  “She was complaining of a really bad itch, but I didn’t know it was this bad until this morning!” Waylon released Sheila’s shirt. “I don’t know what this is. I don’t know what’s wrong with her!”

  “I wish I knew. I’ve never heard of anything like this.” A rash and a possible sickness? That made Tom think of ailments such as chicken pox, but this looked nothing like that.

  His first instinct was to grab a phone and call a doctor’s office, except he realized the phones didn’t work and there was no clinic nearby that would be open anyway, only the town’s hospital. No, this was a different world, and it played by different rules. Sometimes he needed reminding. Unfortunately, he was being reminded at a time of a neighbor’s crisis.

  “I’ll get Cheryl. We’ll figure this out.”

  Cheryl was already awake by the time Tom made it home. He relayed to her all that happened in Waylon’s home.

  “Did Waylon call in anyone else to look at her?” she asked.

  “Not that I know of.”

  Cheryl then hurried from the dining room table to the den where she had stored her gear. She went for the backpack she had carried since leaving her house about a year ago. She then pulled out a plastic mask.

  “This is a respirator mask. I packed away a few before we left to go rescue Amir from The Coach. Here, take one.”

  Tom complied. “Okay, but what is this for?”

  “To make sure you’re not breathing in contaminated air when we go back there.” Cheryl then stood up and headed back to the kitchen. “Grab some garbage bags and tape. Does her room have any windows?”

  Tom opened the cabinet and pulled out a roll of garbage bags. “Yeah, one.”

  “This will help seal off the room.” Cheryl fished a roll of boxing tape out of another cabinet. “Never mind, I got it.”

  “Wait, what is all this for?”

  Cheryl stopped and turned to her husband. “To isolate her room. Tom, this sounds bad. Maybe she’s only got a bad allergy. But if she’s got something that can spread, it could be bad news for all of us.”

  She opened up a garbage bag and started stuffing in additional bags and her roll of tape. “We’ll get this set up for her. Then we’ll get word to Lauren and everyone else. Maybe she can get some help from the hospital.”

  Cheryl laid out a pair of plastic masks on the table in the den. “Okay troops, this is your quarantine briefing. Now, I’m hoping to God that I’m only…” She then looked at Tom sitting next to her. “Go on, say it.”

  Tom smiled. “Only slightly less than fully paranoid?”

  “Thank you. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Cheryl laughed.

  “Anyway, we got Sheila’s room secured and we got the notice put up. If nobody else comes into contact with her, we have a fighting chance to keep what she’s got from spreading. But assuming Sheila doesn’t have something milder than the flu, and even if it is the flu, we need to bone up on isolation and quarantine. I had to undergo this kind of training because in other countries you never know what you’ll run into. We’ve licked a lot of diseases here because of vaccinations. But in other countries where they don’t have that kind of medicine, you can still run into things like polio.”

  She held up one of her masks. “If I’d have known we were going to put down roots, I’d have grabbed all my isolation gear, even my full body suits.”

  “Wait, you have full body suits?” Tom then waved his hand. “Never mind. Of course you do.”

  Cheryl smirked at him before continuing. “Anyway, I wasn’t able to pack enough masks or even the suits. I’m hoping the NATO soldiers were crazy prepared and had some in their supply tents. So, tomorrow we’re going to have to ransack them for masks or any kind of isolation equipment. But let’s get started with the basics.”

  She held up a sheet of paper with lines printed on it. She must have made this before the EMP shut down electronic printers.

  “First, everybody’s got to regularly clean and sanitize their hands, even more than usual. I’m sorry if it seems rude, but we should cut out shaking hands. We don’t want to pass along pathogens.”

  “Maybe we can greet each other with a thumbs-up.” Tom curled his right hand’s fingers and extended his thumb.

  “I prefer a nice salute.” Cheryl drew up her hand and performed a salute. “So, you get the idea. Also, no hugging acquaintances or friends. Limit contact to your close family.”

  “Thank God. I can’t exactly imagine a hands-off experience with you.”

  “Yeah, I think you’d climb the walls.” Cheryl laughed. “But seriously, you get the idea. So, we have hand sanitizing. We also need to cut out stuff like biting fingernails, sticking your fingers in your mouth, putting your lips on anything that’s not food or water. Also make sure you’re not eating after anyone else. If you’re using a cup or plate, you must be the first user. Anything else should be washed before use.”

  Cheryl moved on to a different sheet of paper. “Now, if someone gets sick or has probably been exposed to the disease, it’s a good idea to stick them in a quarantined spot.” She held up the paper. It depicted a diagram of a quarantined room.

  “I tried to make it simple. Get the most secure room in your house. You know, the one that has the fewest cracks, holes, openings, you name it. It’ll probably end up being someone’s bedroom. They can’t cut off a room that everyone needs like the bathroom. Now, not all quarantine is for a long time. You can go in there and find out you’re fine and then leave. We can leave supplies long enough for three days without needing anybody to go in there.”

  The redhead let out a soft breath. “But if you’re sick, someone’s going to have to tend to you, especially if you can’t even get up. So, I modified the design to allow for people to go in and out. But if you do, you should do all you can to keep yourself f
rom getting infected, like covering your mouth, your hands, and your whole body if you can.”

  Tom didn’t say a word even after Cheryl had stopped. “No more quips?” she asked.

  “It’s just amazing. We’re preparing to fight an enemy and it’s not even human. It’s just microbes. This roller coaster ride of life is just unmatched for what it throws at you.”

  “Feels weird that you can’t punch this foe out, huh?”

  “No kidding.” Tom stood up and paced over to Cheryl, overshadowing her papers and masks. “That actually makes this a little scarier.”

  Cheryl nodded. “I got word to Lauren. We’re going to have to call a big public meeting so we can get this information out to everyone.”

  Tom pinched his nose. He was pleased the school gym had been aired out completely. It still smelled a bit musty, but it was far better than the last time he had visited. For months, the gym was filled with refugees. It still was inhabited up until a week ago when the last residents were moved to stable homes. But until then, the gym was a bastion of human odors. It was amazing that so many people resided here for so long. The occasional bad storms, plus the occupation, no doubt induced people to cling to the gym as if it was a sanctuary against anything the outside world could throw at them.

  Today, it was put to a different use—the meeting place of the town’s council. The members all were seated in folding chairs behind a white folding table. The gym also housed a large meeting of fifty people, including Tom and Cheryl. The whole scene seemed so unusual. Perhaps because it was normal. Except for the battery powered lights they got from the NATO soldiers, the whole scene looked like any kind of school meeting one might have witnessed before the EMP hit.

  Normal, Tom thought. We’re talking about a possible epidemic. Can anything really be normal anymore? He thought back to his conversation with Cheryl in the car. Perhaps he had hit the point where he wouldn’t be comfortable with normalcy anymore. Life would be different. They would be hit with challenges for the rest of their lives. Tom was ready to face those challenges.