Jakarta Pandemic, The (29 page)

Kate eased up on the attack, and Alex jumped off the couch and ran behind it.

“I told you not to mess with me,” Kate said, raising her eyebrows.

“I get the message. Kids, don’t mess with your mother, or she’ll tickle you.”

The phone interrupted them. Kate reached back onto the coffee table and picked up the phone, checking the caller ID.

“It’s your partner in crime, Ed,” she said and handed the phone across the back of the couch.

Alex answered the phone just as Ryan turned on the TV. “Hello. Hold on. Hey, can you guys turn that down?! Sorry about that, Ed. What’s up?”

“Hey, I just got back from Eric’s. I got a good feeling from Eric and Stephanie about the food and the kids. I don’t feel as stressed about it. I’ll tell you what, though, the Bishops’ house is a zoo. Everyone was over there. The Greens’ kids, the Bartletts’, the Perry’s. He said they’ve been swapping houses back and forth all week, so the ladies could get a break.”

“Jesus. They
really
don’t get it.”

“No, they really don’t. Plus, one of Jamie’s kids doesn’t look so good. Katherine. She wasn’t coughing, but she had a nasty sniffle, and she felt warm. I put my hand on the top of her head, and her head was cooking. I told the girls that they had to take the pills and keep the pills out of sight. I also told Stephanie that Katherine had a fever. She said they’d keep a close eye on it.”

“Ed, you’ve done your duty to Durham Road and mankind. You’re a good man.”

“Thanks. I feel another one of your lengthy lectures coming on, and I really need to get out of these clothes. I’m soaked. I’ll catch you later.”

“Am I really that bad?” Alex asked.

“No, just bad timing. Later,” Ed said and hung up.

He sat back down on the couch as the kids dispersed.

“Hey, how many sets of anti-virals do we have left now? I’m starting to lose track,” Kate said.

“Twelve for us, plus three I kept for Charlie, if they need them. Minus two for the girls. Thirteen total.”

“Minus three for Charlie? That leaves ten for us. You’re already dipping into our core supply,” Kate lightly chastised.

“Yeah, I know, but I had to do something for those kids. Ten is fine for us. The plan for twelve gives us three courses of therapy each, way more than we’d need. Ten is more than adequate.”

“I’m sure it is, but that’s not the problem. You know what the problem is, right?” she said, looking into his eyes.

“Yeah, I need to listen a little more to my own lectures,” he said.

“A lot more. This isn’t going to be the last shitty situation on the block. Far from it…”

“I know,” Alex said, stepping on the first stair.

“I think from now on, we need to both be in on any decisions like that. You can be a hard ass most of the time, but when you give in, you really give in.”

“I know. I have a few soft spots,” Alex agreed.

She kissed him and walked toward the kitchen. “That’s one of the reasons I fell in love with you. You’re a tough guy with a soft side.”

“Not that tough…”

“Tough enough,” Kate said. “Hey, I’m thinking about pasta with a red sauce for lunch…and dinner, and probably lunch again tomorrow. I’ll make a nice bean dish, too.”

“Works for me,” he said, continuing up the stairs.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Monday, November 18, 2013

“Good morning, this is Matt Reynolds. Julia Williams is filling in for Diane this morning. Our top stories this morning focus on the Jakarta flu worldwide and at home. Simply put, the worldwide figures are staggering, with Asia in the middle of an uncontained, and apparently uncontrollable pandemic disaster, and Europe, South America, and Africa following a similar pattern. Here in the U.S., the situation is deteriorating quickly, with labor absenteeism rates skyrocketing, and the total number of Jakarta flu cases multiplying daily.

“According to CDC figures, the total number of confirmed cases of the Jakarta flu rose from around 90,000 last week to nearly 215,000 today, with a large majority of these cases centered near major metropolitan areas. Worse hit cities so far are New York City, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, and Miami, accounting for over 125,000 of the total number of cases, with New York City alone reporting over 30,000 cases.

“This number only represents the cases confirmed by health officials through testing. As anyone on the street will attest, symptoms of the flu seem everywhere, and even CDC officials admit that the actual number of cases waiting to be confirmed could be three to four times the officially reported numbers.

“Hospitals and medical facilities in the heaviest hit metro areas are operating at near full capacity. DHS officials estimate that the nation’s hospitals will likely reach or exceed surge capacity by the middle of the week and have taken steps to deploy all remaining Federal Medical Stations to the hardest hit areas.

“Three of these stations have already been established in New York City, and one is operational in Los Angeles. Furthermore, DHS officials have assured state governments that all remaining Strategic National Stockpile assets have been slated for the soonest possible delivery to individual states.

“On Saturday, in a hastily assembled pandemic summit at the Department of Energy headquarters in Washington, officials from Department of Transportation, Energy, Labor, and Agriculture met with private sector food and energy leaders to develop and implement short-term solutions to the growing food and energy crisis. High absenteeism rates have plagued both fuel and food deliveries nationwide, nearly crippling the nation’s food distribution and supply system.

“Coupled with weeks of unusually high demand, industry officials state that the system has been stretched to its limit. Several states have already taken steps to activate all of their National Guard units, though their roles in the pandemic response effort have not been announced. Department of Defense officials refuse to comment on the possibility of using active duty military personnel to augment reserve and National Guard roles.

On Sunday, Energy officials at the pandemic summit voiced strong concerns over the continued operation of the nation’s electricity grid in the face of an unreliable coal supply to the nation’s network of coal-powered power plants. Department of Energy officials and energy leaders have already implemented a plan to divert coal reserves to power plants feeding the grid’s weak points.

“DOE officials are close to announcing the launch of a nationwide effort to conserve electricity. D.C. insiders predict that this announcement will be part of a presidential broadcast tentatively scheduled for later this week. The presidential address is rumored to include several broad sweeping measures designed to minimize the pandemic’s impact on the population and critical infrastructure. Let’s go to Maria Castelli for our international update.”

“Let’s not,” Alex said, muting the television.

“Not interested in the rest of the world?”

“I don’t know. It’s the same thing. The numbers are rising. Death rate’s increasing. I’m a lot more concerned about what’s happening right here in the U.S., New England in particular. This machine makes some damn good coffee.”

“Yeah, it’s awesome,” Kate said, taking another sip, “though I kinda feel like an ass sitting around making cappuccinos while the world crumbles around us.”

He stifled a laugh. “I don’t know. We can’t wrap every single thing we do around that kind of a framework. You could spend the entire day questioning everything. This is just how it is for us. No different than any other day of the year when we run water in the sink while millions of people worldwide struggle for water. You’ll drive yourself crazy. This is no different,” he said, not really satisfied with his own rationalization.

“I guess, I just keep thinking about all of the food and supplies we have downstairs, and I wonder if we’re making the right decision. If we shouldn’t make a hardcore assessment of how much we’ll really need to survive through the winter and come up with a plan to spread it around the neighborhood. I’m just wondering what it’s going to be like around here when the first wave of the flu passes, and everything starts to return to normal.”

“What do you mean?” Alex asked.

“Well, I guess I’m looking at how we’re going to fit in around here, if we choose to turn our backs on the neighborhood. I think if we make a better effort…”

“No matter what we do, this neighborhood will be a vastly different place in the spring. We have a lot of stuff in the basement, but nowhere near enough to make a lasting impact on the neighborhood. We have over thirty families here, and our stockpile can probably feed four, maybe five families comfortably for the duration of the first and second wave. If we open the stockpile to the neighborhood, it’ll be like opening Pandora’s box. The consequences of trying to shut it down, once opened, will be worse for us than never opening it in the first place. Plus, I’ve already promised Ed that we’d take care of his family, and I plan to stock up the McDaniel house when Jamie is released from the hospital.”

“How many of these promises do you have out there that I don’t know about?”

“That’s it. While we were at Jamie’s, Ed packed up a bunch of food in a suitcase for the girls, and I suggested that he pack up more food for the Bartletts, to compensate them for feeding the girls for most of the week. He didn’t want to stretch their food supply too thin, so I told him not to worry about it, and that I’d take care of it. I see it as a way to ensure the girls are treated fairly until Jamie gets back and can take care of them,” he said.

“You didn’t say that in front of Todd or Eric, did you?”

“I don’t think so…maybe. Things were pretty crazy in that garage. I might have,” he said tentatively.

Why is she railing on me like this?

“I really hope you didn’t,” Kate said, “because if you did, then Todd’s going to be all over us when things get really bad over at his house. So, basically, we’re supporting the Walkers and the McDaniels unofficially, and the Thorntons, too?”

“No, not the Walkers. I just told him that if his kids got the flu from school, I would hook him up with some anti-virals. I think we would have heard from him by now. He’ll be the least of our problems. He’s set for food, and he seems to get it about the quarantine idea,” Alex argued.

“Right, but if anyone in his family gets sick, you know where his first stop will be? And we’re down to thirteen courses of anti-virals,” Kate griped.

“If we do this right, and don’t get involved, we won’t need to use any of the anti-virals. Why are we arguing about this?”

“Because, once again, you’re out there making deals that conflict with our original plan, Alex.”

He set his coffee mug down on the island and took a deep breath, knowing Kate was right. His level of involvement within the neighborhood was slowly escalating, and may have already fostered enough negative sentiment toward them to jeopardize their safety. He turned in the chair and faced Kate, grabbing her hands.

“You’re right. There’s been a bit of a double standard…”

“A bit?” she interrupted.

“Hey, I’m trying to apologize here.”

She eyed him suspiciously. “Go on.”

“Anyway, I’m sorry that I’ve been making decisions without you. You’re right. I need to limit my involvement to matters directly affecting this house and quit aggravating our neighbors. So, what I propose is that we honor any promises already made, but I…we won’t promise anything else. I wish we could help more people, but we can’t without jeopardizing our own situation. Aside from that, we should still maintain enough contact with our friends to make sure we know what’s going on around the neighborhood. We don’t want to get blindsided.”

“Apology accepted. I was really getting worried. I know that it’s hard to stick with a plan once you’re faced with the complexities and realities of real world adversity. You’ve been through some tough spots and probably know this better than anyone. We really need you to pull this off for us,” Kate said compassionately.

He knew that she was talking about his time in Iraq. Unlike many combat veterans, Alex had shared details of his combat tour with his wife. Though he had excluded many of the grotesque details from his stories, Kate probably had a better understanding of his combat experience than most other veterans would allow. She definitely appreciated the fact that a combat plan rarely stood unchallenged, and that a successful leader would tweak the plan accordingly, staying on course and never forgetting the objective. Unfortunately, he had been subtly working against both the plan and the objective by creating challenges and hostility where it may not have existed otherwise.

“I understand what you’re saying. I need to focus more on getting us through this safely, and not get distracted by the stuff that doesn’t really matter,” he said.

“That’s easier said than done. There’s a reason you’re the one we’re relying on to keep us on track. If I thought I could do a better job, I would have already taken charge, but I know I can’t. We’d already have a line forming at our bulkhead door if I was the one out there in the neighborhood,” Kate said.

“True.”

“So, right now, we’ll keep you in charge of managing all external aspects of our survival plan…”

“Wait a minute, who’s we?” he asked jokingly.

“You didn’t think you were in charge of the whole operation, did you? I, of course, am still in charge of everything. That has never changed. You just got a minor field promotion, which can be revoked,” she said, easing out of her seat.

“Oh, really? I didn’t realize that I was still moving up the ranks around here. And what exactly is your rank in this organization?”

“Supreme Commander. That’s the highest rank attainable, and it’s a lifetime position. I’ve held it for fourteen years. Actually, fifteen. I appointed myself when we got engaged.” She hopped off the chair.