Jakarta Pandemic, The (20 page)

“Shortages of food and medical supplies have caused considerable disruption throughout the nation, as most Americans hurried to the stores over the weekend to stock up on groceries and essentials. Most had to wait hours to buy groceries, or were turned away altogether.

“But first, a closer look at the crisis developing in China. Department of Defense officials acknowledged today that an additional carrier battle group, comprised of ships from Hawaii and Southern California, will join naval forces already deployed to the South China Sea. A battle group centered on the nuclear aircraft carrier George Washington, based out of Japan, is already on station in the area. And rumors of another carrier being recalled from the Arabian Gulf for service off the coast of China, have not been confirmed by the Pentagon. Jennifer Moskowitz reports from United Nations headquarters in Manhattan.”

The screen changed to a live broadcast of a blonde woman with medium-length hair, wearing a rather non-descript black ensemble, standing in front of a spectacularly illuminated United Nations Secretariat building. Several member nation flags waved in a light breeze, bathed in spotlights.

“Kerrie, I’m standing in front of the United Nations Secretariat building, where the mood today can only be described as tense and desperate. Chinese delegates continued to deflect questions regarding the status of WHO teams within their borders, stating only that these teams are consumed by the task of containing and mitigating the pandemic within Chinese borders and have no intention of abandoning their heroic efforts on behalf of the Chinese people. Tempers flared as delegates from at least a dozen nations accused the Chinese of holding the teams hostage. Delegates from Germany and Australia went so far as to blame China once again for exacerbating the pandemic situation, a reference to China’s mishandling of the 2008 avian flu pandemic.”

“Jennifer, was there any mention of sanctions against China, or the use of force to expedite the release of the WHO teams?”

“There was no discussion or suggestion of sanctions today by the assembly; however, it is no secret to any of the members that several nations have assembled outside of the U.N. to discuss options in response to China’s actions. Chinese delegates repeatedly lobbied the assembly to formally denounce the growing coalition outside of the U.N. They are particularly alarmed by the deployment of an additional U.S. carrier battle group to the region, calling this an aggressive and warlike action.”

“Thank you Jennifer.”

The screen next to Kerrie showed a Google Earth map of Indonesia, which began to slowly pan closer to the city of Jakarta on the northwestern tip of Java Island.

“Reporters and a limited number of aid workers landed during daylight hours at Jakarta’s International Airport to assess the worsening situation on Java Island. Flights are unable to land during nighttime hours, due to a complete blackout on Java Island. Initial reports from Indonesian health officials puts the official death toll at nearly 85,000, with over a million cases estimated on Java Island alone.

The screen cut to a commercial, and Alex started to fast-forward past them.

“I’m sure the Mullahs will blame the West for this somehow. Unfortunately for them, they’ll be preaching to empty mosques. This pandemic is going to clear their bleachers.”

“Honey, that’s not cool. It’ll clear the bleachers everywhere.”

“I know, but facts are facts. Modernized societies with modern health care systems will suffer a much lower casualty rate than any of those shitholes,” Alex said.

“It’s still sad,” Kate said.

“And they’ll still find a way to blame it all on us somehow. I’m just glad there won’t be as many of them left to hear their nonsense.”

“That’s enough. I don’t want to hear that kind of talk anymore. Are the kids up in the attic?” Kate asked.

“Ryan was up there on the Xbox. They’ll love the new games. I got a bunch we can all play, and a couple for Ryan and me.”

“Let me guess, Call of Duty Future Warrior and Insurgency Three?”

“You peeked,” he said flatly.

“The other games look fun, I guess, but I’d have to be really bored.”

“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” Alex said and stopped fast-forwarding.

Chapter Sixteen

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Alex walked up the stairs to the attic, coughing several times on his way up, still feeling the effects of the pepper spray. He reached the top of the stairs and saw Kate walking on the treadmill. Her pace was slow, but he could see that the treadmill was set to the highest incline possible. Kate was wearing maroon running shorts and a black cutoff running top, which to him resembled a bra. She was sweating and breathing heavily, as she struggled to keep her pace on the incline. She shot him an annoyed glance and didn’t say a word. Alex knew she didn’t like to talk during her workouts. He walked over to her and checked the time on the treadmill.
Four minutes left.
He decided to do a set of pull-ups. As he turned around, he heard the treadmill start to grind, as the incline was automatically lowered for her warm down.

He walked over to the freestanding pull-up bar and began a declining set, starting with twelve pull-ups. Halfway through the set, Kate interrupted.

“Hey, did you see that Portland’s considering school closures next week?” she said, out of breath.

Alex finished a few more pull-ups and hopped down to the floor. “No. Did they say anything about any of the other towns?”

“Falmouth closed today. They made the decision last night at an emergency school board meeting. They have six confirmed cases at the high school and a few more at the other schools in town. School officials made the decision because they suspect that there might be a dozen or more unconfirmed cases present at the school. I guess one of the original cases identified last week was a guy from Falmouth, who travels back and forth from New York every week for business. He has a son and a daughter at Falmouth high school. Had a son and daughter. He died early in the week,” Kate said.

“Was all this on the news?” Alex asked.

“Yeah, they just ran the story this morning,” she responded, pressing a few more buttons to slow the treadmill even further.

“What about Scarborough?” he pressed.

“Nothing. Just Portland and Falmouth. The governor’s office is looking into statewide school closures, but they will probably wait for the feds to make the recommendation. It has something to do with emergency funding, but it sounds like it has more to do with politics.”

“It always does,” he said and hopped up on the bar for a set of ten pull-ups.

“I still can’t believe you haven’t heard from Ted,” she remarked, stepping off the treadmill and onto a mat to stretch.

Alex finished, hopped down, and raised his arms above his head for a stretch. “I just hope I didn’t kill the guy. I did hear from HR. They left a voicemail on my cell phone letting me know that I am checked out, and should expect a final package shortly. God knows what’s in that package. Probably a non-disclosure agreement for me to sign, or something equally as asinine.”

“Nothing like a formal apology for the home invasion and pepper spray attack?” she asked incredulously.

“Not a mention. I really don’t care, either. I’m just glad to be done with them,” he said, hopping back up on the pull-up bar.

“I’ll be done soon, too, if I don’t come up with something better than diarrhea to keep me out of the office. I’ve cancelled several appointments already, and Jim left me a message yesterday asking when I could reschedule them. I’ll need to call him today. Monday at the latest.”

Alex finished several pull-ups and dropped back down to the floor. He started to cough again, which forced him to bow toward the ground. “Damn it! I can’t get rid of this,” he said, exasperated.

“Maybe you need to take it easy,” Kate said, wiping her face with a white towel.

“Probably. Anyway, you just need to buy a little more time at work. The way things are looking, you won’t have to hide much longer. They’re starting to shut down the schools, and other steps will be taken by the state and the feds within the upcoming week. I’d just keep stalling them. Tell Jim you still have a fever, but you might be able to meet with clients. Trust me, they won’t want to see you any time soon. Speaking of calls, I still need to call my parents.” He paused. “I haven’t heard anything from them about bringing my brother’s kids out.”

Kate turned her head toward Alex and gave him a perplexed look. “What do you mean?”

“What do you mean, what do I mean?” he replied, buying himself a few more seconds.

“I don’t remember you mentioning anything about your parents bringing Ethan and Kevin out,” she said sternly.

“Well, I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen. I was talking to Daniel a few nights ago, and getting nowhere with him, as usual. My parents are stuck there babysitting and raising his kids, that’s why they won’t leave. They can’t. My brother won’t let them go ‘without some advance notice.’ Unbelievable if you ask me. ‘Karla can’t come home at three in the afternoon to babysit.’ And of course, God forbid they actually have to dig into their own pockets to pay for babysitting. I thought that if my parents brought Kevin and Ethan, then there would be no babysitting issue for Daniel.”

Kate waited patiently for his tirade to end. “First of all, Karla would never go for it, and neither would your brother. Second, your parents will never make the trip. For the same reason you just ranted about and many more. Same story with my parents. But that’s not why I’m a little pissed…”

“Can I get a drink of water before we get into this?”

I just need a few more seconds.

“You look like you’ll live. So, I’m a little pissed because we’ve talked about all of this before. Your brother and my sister are off the list and have been off the list for quite a while. Things would not work out with them here for any duration of time. Pandemic, long weekend, short weekend, Super Bowl party. It doesn’t matter. It never worked before, and I can’t figure out why you continue to press the issue with them,” she said.

“I felt safe making the offer because they’ll never make the trip. I just feel that I have to at least make the offer.”
That’s a weak excuse.

“I know. I have the same guilt with Claire, but her husband can be an intolerable ass and so can she.”

“They’re not that bad. Not as bad as Daniel and Karla.”

“I think they’re worse. They try to take control of everything, and if you’re not on the same page, well, I don’t need to describe the scene any further. Bottom line? We can’t have them here in a quarantine situation. Plus, they think it’s all a joke anyway,” she said, shaking her head.

“If they were on board with the whole idea from the beginning, I might have reconsidered and invited them, but they weren’t, so I have never mentioned it to them. I don’t know why you would even consider it for Daniel and Karla. They openly mock all of this,” she said, waving her hands around.

“You’re right, sorry,” he apologized.

“I can’t count the number of times you’ve lectured me about how important it will be to stick to our plan. ‘In a quarantine situation, there is no room for error. We have to stick to the plan. No variations.’”

“All right, you don’t have to mock me. I’m sorry. They’re not coming out anyway, so we don’t have to worry.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about. I’m worried that you didn’t think about the dangerous situation you might have created. If your brother took you up on the offer and sent the kids out with your parents, then what happens when your brother and Karla finally come to their senses about the pandemic all around them? Where do you think they’ll be headed? Here to join their kids. How would we deal with that? Tell them it’s too late, sorry? Head on back to Colorado, here’s some TerraFlu, we’ll take care of the kids? Not likely they’d leave. Do we let them in and try to quarantine them for ten days in the mudroom area and hope they’re not harboring the flu? Would they leave if they showed symptoms? If they won’t leave without their kids, do we send the kids out onto the streets with their parents and some supplies?”

She continued to look softly into his eyes. Alex had a hard time meeting them.

“You’re right. It could lead to a disastrous confrontation. I really never thought of it this way,” he said and leaned over to kiss her forehead.

“Do you think we should just forget about trying to convince our parents to come out here?” he asked. “I don’t feel like giving up on them, but you’re right. At a certain point…” his voice trailed off.

“I don’t know. I hate to give up on them, too. I’m still trying to get my brother out here. He’s only a few hours away, but I’m certain that he’ll head to Princeton when things get bad. He’s really tight with them. He always heads down there when they have something going on. If my parents won’t come to him, he’ll go to them. He still drags the family to Princeton for every holiday. They haven’t celebrated Christmas or Thanksgiving in Concord since they moved in.”

“He’s a momma’s boy. First child is always a momma’s boy,” he teased.

“You’re not,” Kate said. “I wouldn’t have married you if you were.”

He tightened his hug for a moment and kissed her neck. “They should all be going up to New Hampshire. Your parents included. They could easily ride out the storm up north. It kills me to think that your brother would abandon the perfect mountain hideout for New Jersey.”

“My parents have the same problem as yours. They’re stuck. I guarantee my sister will head up there when the flu racks the Baltimore area. She’s probably on the way already with the kids. They’ll all flock to Princeton. Trust me.”

“Well, at least the mountain camp will be empty. If the situation gets out of control here, we could always pack up as much stuff as possible and head up into the White Mountains. Does Robbie keep the place stocked in the winter?” he asked her.