Emma thought for a second, “Good, since school has been called off for the rest of the week, you can help me wrangle Logan and Katie and I’m sure there are a few other things around the house I need you to do.”
I laughed, “I’m not on vacation, I’m just working from home. I’ll probably be on and off the phone all day.”
“We’ll see,” Emma smiled.
I got up and headed for the kitchen to turn on the coffee.
I decided I had better get my coffee and read the paper while I could.
To most people, the idea of working at home was a like having the day off. However I knew better, to me working from home, especially with everyone home, would be like working a double shift, on Sunday, during the Super Bowl.
I chuckled to myself, “Hey, I get to spend a day with my family in the middle of the week, it will be fun.”
I hit the button on the coffee pot, then I opened the cupboard door and grabbed my favorite mug.
Before I could close the cupboard door, an arm shot past me and grabbed the Micky Mouse mug on the bottom shelf.
“Morning Dad,” Katie said.
“What are you doing up so early?” I asked. “I thought that since you didn’t have school today that you would be sleeping in.”
I couldn’t sleep,” Katie smiled. “Do you think I could go back to the mall today?”
“No, not today,” I replied as I poured the French Vanilla creamer into my cup.
“Why not?” Katie asked.
“In case you forgot, there is a flu epidemic starting out there,” I replied. “I heard that the governor is going to declare a state of emergency that will require all businesses to shut down and for everyone to stay home for the rest of the week. In fact, I’m working from home today.”
“But I’m not sick,” Katie said.
“And I plan on keeping you that way,” I laughed.
“Can I work with you then?” Katie asked. “You won’t have to pay me very much.”
“How much isn’t very much?” I smiled. “Or should I ask how much money you still need to buy those new shoes you’ve been talking about all week?”
“Twenty dollars,” Katie smiled.
“OK, you have a job,” I replied.
“What do I have to do?” she asked.
“Answer the phone,” I replied.
Katie looked around, “Dad, you’re hearing things, the phone’s not ringing.”
I laughed.
“Your job will be to answer the phone,” I laughed. “I’ve had all the phone calls from my office transferred here to our phone. When the phone rings, I want you answer the phone and find out what they want, like my secretary does at work.”
“That sounds easy,” Katie grinned. “I’m good at answering the phone.”
“I know you are, but your job is to find out why they are calling,” I smiled. “It’s not to talk their ears off or text them pictures of someone’s butt.”
Katie grinned and rolled her eyes.
“If it’s a guy calling, am I allowed to talk to him?” Katie laughed sarcastically.
“Definitely not,” I replied.
Well, that solves one of my problems today, keeping Katie out of trouble. I guess I would find out what it would be like to have Katie as my secretary, and who drove me up the wall the most, Katie or Mandy. At this point my money was still on Mandy. Now if I could only find a job for Logan and Emma, I might just enjoy working from home today.
“I thought so,” Logan laughed as he walked out into the kitchen.
“I didn’t expect everyone to be up yet this morning,” I said.
“Star Trek comes on in a few minutes,” Logan replied. “Is there any milk left?”
“Here,” Katie said and handed him the milk carton after she had finished filling up her Micky Mouse mug.
“You were saying something when you walked into the kitchen?” I asked.
“I was just talking to myself,” Logan replied then laughed. “I always thought that Katie never changed her underwear, now I’m positive.”
“What are you mumbling to yourself about over there?” Katie asked.
“It’s either that or she doesn’t know what day of the week it is,” Logan smiled. “It is Wednesday, isn’t it?”
I glanced down as Katie reached back up into the cupboard and as her nightshirt was pulled up over her bottom, I saw the word “Tuesday” appear across her butt.
“If you had anything written on your underwear it would probably say February,” Katie smirked.
“I think maybe it’s time we all go get dressed for the day,” I said.
“What time do I start work?” Katie asked.
“In about an hour,” I replied.
“Good, it will give me some time to talk with Jenny before I start,” Katie smiled, gave Logan the evil eye, grabbed her mug and made her way to her room.
“Logan, maybe you shouldn’t give your sister a hard time today,” I smiled. “Not after what happened last night.”
Logan’s eyes grew large, “Sorry Dad, you’re right.”
“Two problems solved, only one more to go,” I laughed to myself.
I glanced at the clock.
“I still have time to have my coffee and read the paper before the day would begin in earnest,” I thought as I walked over to open the living room door to retrieve my newspaper from the front porch.
As I opened the door to reach out for my paper that was resting neatly on the welcome mat, motion out on the street caught my attention.
If I had any hope that my day was going to be anywhere close to normal, that idea was dashed as I looked out on the street.
There were dozens of people staggering around on the street and in people’s yards, it reminded me of what I had seen last night but now there were ten times as many people.
My first thought was that there can’t be this many drunk people still out on the street.
Last night the idea that the girls I saw staggering through the yard were drunk, made sense at the time, but somehow this morning with so many people out there it no longer seemed to make sense.
I knew there had to be another answer. Just then a girl walked around the corner of my house and looked up at me from the sidewalk.
I felt my heart stop as I saw her face, the girl’s skin color was pale gray, her eyes looked blank and unfocused, but the worst thing was the ugly black veins that ran up her neck and across her face. As I looked at the girl, I could see the veins also ran down her arms and legs.
“Miss, are you OK?” I asked.
Of course she wasn’t OK, but I was stunned and that was the first thing that came out of my mouth.
The girl stopped, turned and looked at me. I wasn’t sure if she could see me or not because her eyes just seemed to roll aimlessly in their sockets, not focusing on anything for more than a second. There wasn’t any form of expression or recognition on her face, she just looked like she was in agony as she dragged her body through my yard.
For a moment I thought she was going to say something, but after a second of unintelligible mumbling with droll running down her chin, she turned back towards the street and started staggering away across my yard.
It was then I saw the ugly sores on the back of her arms.
I knew she shouldn’t be out here like this, but the sight of her was so shocking I wasn’t able to think what I should do.
Then a thought shot through my mind as I remembered where I had seen those dark ugly veins before. I had seen them on the pictures Katie had on her phone of the marks on her friend’s butts where they had been given the flu shot.
“Was this caused by the flu shot screwup?” I asked myself. “Is this what those four girls in the yard last night looked like, only then it was too dark to see them clearly?”
My first instinct was to grab the girl, wrap her in a blanket and take her inside to get her some help.
But as I looked around, there were too many people out here for me to do that, besi
des they could be contagious, and I would be putting my entire family at risk if I took any of these people inside.
I realized the only thing I could reasonably do was to go inside and call for help.
But whatever I did, I knew I had to do something fast, all these people appeared to need help, now.
I turned to go back inside the house as my mind raced, “Why were these people out on the street? Why weren’t they home in bed? Where are their families? Someone had to be looking for them,” But most of all I was thinking, “Do all these people have the flu, a very bad case of the flu? Could I get what they have if I got near them?”
I ran inside and picked up the phone and dialed 911.
The phone rang and rang in my ear. I was almost ready to give up when someone finally answered.
The girl on the other end of the phone sounded exhausted and frustrated when she spoke.
“911, what’s your emergency?”
I started to speak but stopped when I realized that I was listening to a recording, a quickly thrown together recording.
“If you are calling about sick looking people walking through your yard, we are aware of this occurrence. It is happening all around town. We have notified all the ambulance services in town.
At the present time, all the ambulance services have been dispatched and are doing their best to provide assistance to the unfortunate people roaming the streets. We have been informed that what you are seeing are people that have been infected by the flu virus. The people you are seeing are extremely contagious, so please do not approach them. You could become infected by simply being near them.
We have also been informed that these people are completely delirious and do not know what they are doing and besides being contagious they may also be dangerous. You may feel it is cruel not to try and help them, but there is nothing you can do. Please stay inside your home and allow the medical professionals to do their jobs. For any other emergency please contact the police department.
Thank You.”
The phone then went dead.
I quickly dialed the number for the local police department.
When that number finally answered, I was listening to another recorded message.
“A state of emergency has been declared, please remain in your homes. By leaving your homes you could be subjecting yourself to an infectious disease and potential violence. All police and first responders have been stretched to their limits. We are doing our best to contain the problem, if you want to help us, then please just stay in your homes.”
I held on to the phone for a few seconds longer expecting the line to go dead, but I was surprised when a live voice sounded.
“Second Precinct, Sergeant Williams speaking,” the voice said.
“Sergeant Williams, this is Brian Michaels on Rogers Street,” I said. “I have strange looking people all through my yard and out on the street in front of my house. What is happening?”
“Mr. Michaels, we are swamped, that is what is happening,” Williams replied. “Do you have a crime to report?”
“What I see out in front of my house is a crime,” I replied. “I’m worried about those people, they are half dressed, apparently out of their minds and they are going to get seriously injured roaming around like this.”
“We are doing the best we can,” Williams said. “The people you are seeing became ill and went to the clinics and hospitals for help. There were so many of them that the doctors couldn’t keep up with the influx. Before they could be treated they apparently became delirious and started wandering off. There were just so many of them, when the doctors and ambulance personnel began to become infected, it all just began to spiral out of control. The hospitals are in mass chaos. I heard that the governor just declared a state of emergency and called in the National Guard for assistance. Mr. Michaels, if you are not sick and you want to stay that way, just stay in your home. The National Guard should be arriving shortly and we hope to have everyone rounded up by the end of the day. Just stay inside and don’t try to help, I know it sounds inhumane to do this, but if you go outside you will only become part of the problem.
Now Mr. Michaels, I am trying to do my job the best I can, if you don’t have a real crime to report, just stay inside and take care of yourself and your family.”
“Good luck, Sergeant,” was all I could think to say.
“And good luck to you and yours, I think we are all going to need it,” Williams said.
The phone went dead.
I sat down on the couch feeling numb.
“This whole mess is worse than I ever imagined,” I thought.
“Dad, the networks have interrupted Star Trek again,” Logan said interrupting my thoughts. “I think I’m going to go over to Tim’s house and play video games.”
“Not today,” I replied.
Before Logan could protest, I said, “Come here.”
I got up off the couch and walked over to the front window and pulled back the curtain.
Logan followed me to the window and looked outside.
“Holy shit!” Logan said.
I realized what he must have felt and didn’t try to lecture him about his language.
“I think the girls we saw last night was the beginning of what is out there now,” I said quietly.
“What is this?” he asked.
“Apparently the flu virus is a lot worse than anyone imagined it would be,” I replied. “People are getting sick, then they become delirious and just start walking off. I called 911 and the police, they said it is happening so fast that they have been overwhelmed and can’t keep up. The national guard has been called in to help.”
“Can’t we help them,” Logan said. “Look at them, they are falling off the curbs, running into parked cars, they are going to kill themselves.”
“The police said if we even get close to them, we could become infected and end up like that ourselves and they have ordered everyone to stay inside their homes,” I replied. “I hate to say this because what I see out there breaks my heart, but I’m not willing to take the chance that any of us could end up like that.”
“What are we going to do?” Logan asked.
“We are going to stay inside and wait,” I replied. “And pray they can get this under control before anyone ends up dead.”
“It doesn’t feel right not to help them.” Logan added.
“No it doesn’t,” I replied. “But I honestly don’t know what to do. I went out to get the paper and this girl walked up to the porch, when I looked at her my skin began to crawl. Logan, she had blisters all over her and she had black veins running across her face and arms. I wouldn’t have the least idea how to help her. If this is as contagious as they say it is, we can’t get near them. From what I saw, I think most of them are beyond help.”
“You mean they are going to die?” Logan asked.
“I hope not, but yes, I think that is a real possibility,” I replied. “If we see anyone out there that doesn’t look like that, maybe we can do something to get them off the street and away from those other ones, but we have to be very careful. If one of us gets sick, for now, there isn’t anywhere we can expect to get help.”
“This is horrible,” Logan said.
“It could be worse,” I replied. “We could be out there wandering around too.”
Logan just stared out the window.
“Did you say the networks are covering this again?” I asked.
Logan nodded.
I pulled the curtain closed.
“Let’s go see what they are saying,” I said.
We started walking in to the TV room when Emma came out of the bedroom, now dressed for the day.
“Am I interrupting a talk?” Emma asked, then smiled.
“Follow us,” I said.
Emma looked confused but followed us anyways.
As we entered the room the TV was showing the lines outside the hospitals across the country.
The news clip showed people collaps
ing as they waited in line.
The next clip showed people walking aimlessly on the streets in many of the larger cities.
Traffic was jammed up with many people abandoning their cars and running off.
Ambulances stalled in traffic, filled with struggling people, police officers trying unsuccessfully to herd people from the streets onto the sidewalks.
It was scene after scene of what looked to be total chaos.
“Look at the message scrolling across the bottom of the screen,” I said.
The message scrolling across the bottom of the screen was updated figures of the growing death tolls.
All the numbers were in the hundreds and I could see the numbers changing right on screen as they were being continually updated.
“The California death toll is now up to twenty-two hundred,” I said. “When we went to be last night, they were only at one hundred seventy-five.”
“Only one hundred seventy-five, My God, what’s happening?” Emma asked.
“I think what started out as an effort to vaccinate people against the flu has turned into an epidemic,” I replied.
“Mom,” Logan said. “You have to look outside.”
Logan grabbed Emma’s arm and began to lead her into the living room.
A few seconds later I heard Emma gasp.
She came running back into the TV room, “Brian, this can’t be happening.”
“I think this is what Logan and I saw last night outside the house,” I said. “We’re lucky we didn’t try to bring them in the house. I talked to the police, they said everyone needs to stay inside. I got a closeup look when one of them walked by the front porch, she was covered with sores and she had black veins running up her neck and across her face. The police said not to get near them because they are very contagious and we could become infected.”
Just Trying To Stay Alive: A Prepper's Tale Page 8
