by Sean Kidd
With everyone fully geared up in their biohazard suits, the Globemaster came to life as motors in the mammoth plane’s tail section began to hum, lowering a ramp large enough to drive a tank down.
The ramp descended revealing a green camouflage Humvee parked a few yards behind the plane. A tall figure wearing a yellow, puffy biohazard suit was leaning against the Humvee’s door.
As Bob, Major Besson and the Doctors began down the ramp the man in the yellow suit raised a welcoming hand.
“Hi! I’m Dr. Grace…. Ted! I’m part of Miranda’s DART Team.” He said with an extended hand.
Dr. Grace shook Bob’s hand and swung his arm towards the Humvee motioning for the group to hop in the vehicle, “We’re so glad you’re here. We sure are having a tough time with this thing. We’re pretty much at our wits end. Please tell us you have some good news.” Ted exclaimed.
Bob, who had taken the honor of hopping in the front seat next to the driver, turned to the back, looking at Ted, “Dr. Grace, I might just have the good news you’re looking for loaded in that plane. I’d like to see Dr. Frost first, if possible.”
Ted grabbed the head rest of the driver’s seat and pulled himself forward, “Private, take us to Stanford Health Care Center please!”
A muffled, “Yes, Sir!” came from behind the clear mask of the private’s suit, “We’ll be there in five, Sir!”
As the Humvee pulled into Stanford Health Care Center (SHCC), Bob could see that the parking lot was full of Humvees. To the east was an Apache helicopter sitting on a mobile landing zone, that two days earlier had been a small walking path abutting a pond. The walking path was created for long term patients to be able to stroll the hospital grounds while visiting with family members. Because of recent events, there had been no one on the path in days. Those who were sick, were now dead and those who would have come to visit, were now dying. For this once thriving community, hope was lost.
Ted led the guests to the front main doors of the lobby, where four soldiers were standing with military weapons. Two more were sitting behind an eight-foot folding table that had been set up as a make-shift desk. One of the soldiers sitting at the desk had Sergeant stripes. He looked up at Ted, “Hello Dr. Grace.”
Ted snapped off a salute at the Sergeant, “Hello Sergeant. This is Colonel Aiken, Major Besson, and Doctors Marcil and Simone from McGill University. They’re here to help us with this situation.”
“I’m sorry Dr. Grace, but they’re not on my list. I'm afraid their access is denied.”
“Sergeant, I don’t think you understand who these people are-.” Ted was interrupted by Bob stepping forward, “Sergeant! First of all! You stand at attention when you’re addressing me! Now I don’t give a god damn who is on your list! I am here on direct orders from General Strong! Now you stow your shit and get out of our way, or I’ll have you emptying shit filled latrines in the Philippines for the rest of your career! Understand?” The Sergeant looked back at Dr. Grace and then back at Bob in a state of confusion.
“What are you looking at, son?” Bob was now against the table on his tip toes, forcing the Sergeant back on his heels.
“Sir! Nothing! Sir!” the Sergeant stuttered, his attention turning to the now petrified looking soldier closest to the door, “What are you doing? Open the door for the Colonel and his staff!” Bob stepped back clearing a path in front of the open door. Dr. Grace led the team inside the lobby and down the hall to the main elevators. As they stepped inside the elevator, Bob caught Sophie staring at him.
“Yes, Dr. Simone?”
A smile stretched across Sophie’s face, “Hmm… very impressive Colonel.”
When the elevator doors opened, the sight was almost unbearable. Bodies were wrapped in white sheets and stacked on gurneys just outside the elevator doors. Major Besson lost his composure for the first time and stepped back against the back wall of the elevator clawing at his hood. Sophie grabbed Jean-Luc’s hand through the protective suit. “Jean-Luc close your eyes, take a breath and concentrate on my voice. Have you ever seen the deceased body of an Ebola patient?”
Jean-Luc’s eyes were still forced closed, and his breathing was beginning to steady, “They’re still bleeding from their faces.”
“Jean-Luc, keep listening to my voice. You have to understand, during the last stage of Ebola, the body releases all of its natural anti-coagulants causing the eyes, nose, mouth and ears to bleed. Don’t think of them as people any longer but rather, a shell.”
Jean-Luc slowly opened his eyes and looked at the stacks of bodies and back at Sophie again, “but how can they bleed? They're dead.”
Dr. Marcil stepped into the hallway examining the bodies, “Major Besson, don’t look at it as bleeding, think of it as more of a draining effect. Fluid from a bag.”
Sophie placed her hand on the side of Jean-Luc’s hood and turned his head toward hers. For a moment, they stared at each other through clear plastic, “Jean-Luc, they’ve passed on. We need to focus on the living. There are people in there who need our help. Your help.” Jean-Luc took an exaggerated deep breath and collected himself for a moment, “Okay, Sophie. I'm ready. Let’s go.”
Sophie walked into what must have been the entire floor of the hospital. There were hundreds of patients. Most were on gurneys and cots while some were just lying on the floor, wrapped in sheets. They were all covered in their own vomit and feces. Sophie was sure that if it were not for her suit, the smell of this room would be unbearable.
The first patient Sophie saw was a little blonde girl. Sophie guessed she was about seven years old. “Hi honey. Is there anything I can do for you?” The girl had a single drip of blood that ran from the corner of her mouth, down her face and dried leaving a grotesque trail of death. The girl continued to stare blankly, looking at Sophie without blinking, “Where are your parents, honey?” The girl’s bottom lip quivered as she tried to get out the words. A dry breath uttered a single word, “dead,” as a tear of blood ran down the girl’s cheek.
Sophie felt the pressure building behind her own eyes as she wiped away the girl’s bloody tear. Sophie scanned the room, “How is this possible?” The pressure had released and now her tears were flowing.
Bob shuffled between the gurneys and patients on the floor, making his way to the only other yellow suit in the room who had their back to him. The suit was pulling a white sheet over a gray-haired man's face, “Miranda!” The suit turned, Bob was embraced with a hug.
“Bob, thank god you’re here. There’s nothing more I can do for these people.” Miranda released Bob and he grabbed onto her shoulders, “Miranda, you look exhausted. When was the last time you slept?”
Miranda looked up at the clock on the wall, “I don’t remember. Hell, I don’t even know what day it is anymore. I don’t need rest right now. I need you to tell me you have a plan.”
Bob scanned the room and stopped when he was back on Miranda, “I’ve brought Dr. Marcil and Dr. Simone with me. Miranda, they’ve found a cure! ZMapp! We’ve brought enough for everyone in the city.” Miranda embraced Bob with another hug, “Thank you!” she mouthed.
The elevator doors opened and two soldiers emerged in their protective suits pushing carts, each loaded with two crates of the brown ZMapp boxes.
“Men, over here!” Bob waved.
The soldiers slalomed their carts through the sick, making their way to Bob.
Bob removed the top box off the cart, and set is on the floor. He broke the tape seal and pulled the cardboard flaps open. He reached in and pulled out a clear plastic IV bag. The bag had ZMapp stamped across the top in black lettering. As Bob held up the bag, the setting sunlight coming through the hospital shone over the bag, giving the fluid inside an almost yellowish tint. Bob’s second thought was apple juice, but he knew there was something much more powerful within the bag's plastic shell. Bob glanced up at the five curious suits that had gathered around him, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the future of mankind.” Bob held up the oversized y
ellow juice bag, in the back of his mind, he was secretly thinking…. “I hope.”
CHAPTER 10
October 11th 7:55pm
“Dude, I’ve gotta pause this. I'm starving, and my eyes are starting to burn.” Chevy tossed his controller on the coffee table and leaned back, stretching his arms over his head.
“Mine too buddy! Let’s take a food break. What do we have?” Chevy looked over at me, like I was going to make us some dinner.
“I don’t know. Quit being so lazy and go look yourself.”
Over the next five minutes, Chevy hounded me, goading me into making dinner. Finally, I gave in because of my own hunger, “I’ll take a look in the kitchen.” As I stood up, I remembered my mom had texted me last week, while Chevy and I were out. She said she picked up a few things for us, and they were in the freezer and on the floor of the mud room.
Off from our kitchen, we have a mud room. The old lady who owns our apartment, said she thought having a chest freezer was a great place to keep food, and everyone should have one in their home. Chevy and I barely ever used the mud room, and we used the freezer even less. Occasionally, we would throw in some ice cream or frozen popsicles in the summertime.
When I got to my feet, I gave Chevy a smiling stare. He gave me a quizzical look as those magical words flowed from my lips, “Mom went shopping for us! The loot is in the freezer.” Chevy jumped to his feet, and we raced through the kitchen and froze outside the mud room door. We turned looking at each other and then we both drew our attention to the door handle. I reached out, twisted the handle, and gave the door a light push. As it swung open, I heard angels singing in the background, Ahhhhhhhh! The kitchen light shone through us and cast just enough light in the mud room to reveal four cases of Mountain Dew cans sitting on top of the freezer with a note resting on top,
You were in luck boys. There were some great sales this week!
Enjoy,
Love,
Mom
“Yes!” Chevy and I both sang as I pulled a can from the case, tossing it to him.
“Dude, your mom rocks!” Chevy warbled. The floor was scattered with bags upon bags, each overflowing with glorious food.
Chevy and I emptied one bag at a time, taking inventory of our precious food. As I emptied them, Chevy put everything away on the mud room shelves.
“Would you look at this, Ty? We’ve got soup, stew, bread, chili, beans, cookies, crackers, potatoes, and tons of other stuff. You better tell your mom, I love her when you see her again!” I looked up from the bag I was going through, “Don’t worry I plan on it!”
Once the food was put away, Chevy and I stacked the soda on the floor, so we could check out the inside of the freezer. The door opened to reveal two frozen lasagnas, five pizzas and about two dozen TV dinners “Wow! Dude! We’re set for life!”
Chevy and I threw a frozen pizza in the oven and made fast work of the bag of chocolate-chip cookies. I washed down the cookie in my mouth with a slug of soda and leaned back patting my belly, “Wow! I didn’t realize how hungry I was.”
“Me too!” Chevy agreed, I could barely understand him with his full mouth and cookie crumbs flying from his lips. “Man, you better call your mom and thank her for all this stuff. Call her now and put her on the speaker phone, so I can thank her too.” I picked up my phone off the table and held down the home button waiting for the beep, asked for its assistance, “Call, Mom!”
The phone snapped to life “Calling, Tom!”
“Cancel! Cancel! Cancel!”
“I didn’t say, Tom!” I cursed.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Chevy shaking his head laughing at me.
“Call, Mom!” The phone snapped to life a second time, “Hello Ty, here’s what I found on Columns for you.” Chevy was in a full roar laughing and spitting cookie crumbs everywhere trying to gain his composure. When he finally did he said, “Ty, wouldn’t be easier to just touch your contacts app, then Mom?”
I tossed the phone on the table, “When I pay for something, I expect it to work!” Chevy burst out laughing again, now rocking back and forth in his chair putting his hand over his mouth to prevent any more pieces of cookie from hitting me. He tried to give me a serious look and said, “Doesn’t your mom pay for your phone? Maybe it only works for her.” Then he burst out laughing again, rocking in his chair, and spitting cookies everywhere.
“Oh yeah!” Is all I could come up with? Not one of my finer moments.
After my phone failed me twice, I went through the agony of using the touch screen to hit Contacts, and then Mom, as Chevy had earlier suggested.
After four rings, the phone went to voicemail, “Hi this is Jen. I’m not able to take your call right now. Leave a message and I’ll call you back.” Beep!
“Hey Mom, it’s Chevy and me, give me a call back when you get this. Love you. Bye!”
I ended the call not really thinking anything about it, “She didn’t pick up.” I said to Chevy.” I could see another grin forming on Chevy’s face, “Oh. You were just trying to call your mom? Dude! Check my bed! Ha! Ha!”
I shot Chevy a pissy look, “Come on man! That’s my mom.”
Chevy stood up and opened the oven door, salivating over the pizza, then he turned back at me, “I’m sorry, Ty. Your mom’s not really in my bed.” Chevy turned back towards the steaming pizza, “She snuck out when you went to the store this morning!” Chevy practically dropped to his knees laughing. I have to admit as much as I wanted to kill him, it was pretty funny, and I had to laugh. As Chevy was pulling the pizza out of the oven, I thought to myself that I hadn’t spoken to my mom or dad since she texted me about the food last week. It certainly wasn’t like my dad not to call me back. He always called back the same day, and if he didn’t call, for some reason, he would stop in with his partner while he was out on patrol. Which is also the reason why Chevy and I always tried to keep the living room presentable. I definitely didn’t want an unannounced visitor stumbling across something they shouldn’t be seeing. Chevy and I didn’t have any really bad habits, but a few of our friends liked to hit the Ganga now and then. We were both pretty loose about people smoking in our house, but at the same time it wasn’t something I wanted my dad walking in on. Especially in uniform.
Chevy threw a couple of pieces of pizza on a paper plate and tossed it in front of me. Without thinking, I took a bite of the steaming pizza. The second I closed my mouth around the gooey cheese, it was like someone had exploded napalm in my mouth. I felt the roof of my mouth beginning to sear instantly.
“Ouch! Ouch!” I poured soda into my open mouth trying to put the flames out.
“Careful Ty, it’s hot!” Chevy giggled.
“Really!!! Do you think? I just burned the skin off the roof of my mouth.” I began tonguing the burn, checking to make sure there was still skin on it.
Chevy was holding his piece of pizza, blowing on it, ensuring he would not make the same mistake I had made, “Well of course, it’s hot! It just came out of the oven. Quit being such a baby!”
The pain slowly began to subside, and I started thinking about my dad again. “Maybe I better call my dad back and make sure everything’s okay.” Chevy stopped chewing and asked me, “Why do you think there’s something wrong?”
I picked a piece of pepperoni off my pizza and put it in my mouth, “It’s just strange. Dad always calls me back, and Mom always answers her phone. If for some reason, she can’t answer, she usually calls me back within a minute or two. You know that thing is attached to her head.”
Chevy could see the concern on my face, and began to worry himself, “So just give her a call back!” I picked up my phone and went to recent calls, avoiding the voice command feature completely. My last call had been to my mom, and the one before that had been to dad, almost eight hours earlier. I hit Mom again, and the phone began calling her number. Four rings and voicemail. Chevy could see the concern growing on my face.
Chevy had spent so much time at our house growi
ng up, that he considered my parents as his parents too. Chevy put down the pizza and wiped off his fingers, “Call your dad back!” I didn’t like to call him when he was working because it seemed like he was always in the middle of an arrest or a domestic. He’d always tell me he was on a gun call, so I would think he was tough.
Worry started to take over as I reached for my phone. Ring. Ring. Ring. Hi! This is Sean. Leave me a message. “Hey Dad, it’s Ty. Where are you guys? I left you a message this morning, and you never called me back. Now Mom isn’t picking up her phone. I’m getting a little worried. Call me back please!”
I hung up and set the phone down. I pushed my pizza away, suddenly I’d lost my appetite. I picked my phone back up and held it in my hand, staring at it as if it was going to ring any second. It didn’t. As a matter of fact, it didn’t ring at all. Chevy knew what I was thinking, almost like he was able to read my thoughts, “Ty, don’t worry about it man. You know how your parents are. I bet your dad got the night off, and they headed up to the casino on the reservation, or decided to go to over to Vermont, so he could hit the Steak House and order one of his favorite blooming onions. You know he digs ‘em the most!” Chevy threw up a wanna be gang sign when he said the movie quote, trying to make me laugh.
“Yeah, you’re probably right. It’s not like them not to call back, and the crap on the street today is really making me nervous.”
“Hey!” Chevy snapped, waiting until I made eye contact with him. “You know what’s gonna happen? Your dad is gonna call you up at seven tomorrow morning and wake your ass up! Then you’re going to feel like an idiot because you were up worrying all night.” Chevy brought up a good point. I mean they were in their forties. They weren’t dead. They like to go out and have a good time just like we did. I guess I was just being a nervous Nellie.
By the time we had filled our bellies and put out those evil pangs of hunger, my mind began thinking again. Where were they and were they okay? The same way your mind works when you’ve got that song stuck in your head that just won’t go away. I was looking for an answer for all those agonizing questions that never came. With my mind in the gutter, I completely lost focus of where I was and what I was doing. The couch began to shake and for a brief second, I couldn’t figure out what was happening.
