The Plague Years (Book 1): Hell is Empty and All the Devils Are Here (6 page)

“Hmmmm …” said Chad.

“And what does that mean?” said Mary. “No secrets now.”

“OK, if he came up via road …”

“He did. He and his wife did a wine tasting tour up through Napa through the Oregon wine country and then over here.”

“He traveled right through the epicenter of the disease then. You mentioned a wound …”

“Yeah, on his side, just above the hip.”

“If it is the same guy they briefed us on, he was bitten by a prostitute.”

“That fits. He was a sleaze.”

“As best we know, this disease is primarily transmitted by fluid exchange like AIDS but recently, there have been some cases where contact appears to be the only vector. That is probably why all the disinfectants.”

“Oh. My. God! Heather! Quick, give me your phone!”

“What? Why? ….”

“Stopping looking like a fish out of water, she took one the trays of shrimp home for her kids! I have to call her!”

“But the police …”

“She left right after the ambulance did to pick up her kids from school before the cops came back all hyper. She snagged one of the trays, I don’t know which one. We do it all the time when the food is going to waste, heck I’ve done it! Now give me the phone!”

Chad wordlessly handed her the phone. She dialed and they waited wordlessly for Heather to answer. She picked up on the third ring, Mary didn’t give her a chance to say anything.”

“Heather, this is Mary, get rid of that tray you got from work, right now!”

In the quiet of the garage, Chad could hear every word Heather said.

“Hi Mary, what’s the matter? Does it have typhoid or something?”

“I can’t say why,” said Mary looking at Chad who nodded. “But don’t you eat the shrimp and don’t let anyone else eat it either.”

“Too late.”

“What….”

“My ex was over trying to make up. Apparently his ‘new love’ has gotten tired of him. We were sitting at the table and I had just brought the tray home from work, I hadn’t even taken my coat off. Well, he started nibbling on the shrimp. He ate four or five, then his cell went off and low and behold it was ‘what’s her slut’ saying all was better and he was all lovey dovey.”

“What did you do?” ask Mary, momentarily forgetting the reason for the call.

“What do you think I did? I threw the shrimp at him. The cocktail sauce got him right in the face too. Then I told him to get out and stay out and was able to kick him a couple times as he went for the door. It was the most fun I’ve had in weeks!”

Mary started to laugh but Chad was gesturing for the phone.

“Heather, this is Chad. That shrimp may be infected with …”

“I poisoned him too! Oh this is getting better and better, I hope he pukes his guts out!”

“Heather, stop and listen. Clean up every surface that shrimp touched with the strongest disinfectant you have. Be really thorough.”

“I already used Lysol and scrubbed. I don’t want anything of him in my life ever again and sprayed the air with Lysol spray too. That cologne he uses makes me gag. This is serious isn’t it? Not just about me?”

“Heather, this is very serious but I can’t talk about why and I have probably broken a couple of laws saying this much. Look, don’t have anything to do with him. Don’t touch him. Don’t let the kids touch him, and for God’s sake don’t have sex with him!”

“Like I’d ever!”

“Heather, we need to stop this discussion. Come over for dinner Sunday afternoon and we will talk more about it, I promise.”

“Are the kids ok and I?” asked Heather suddenly timid.

“You did everything exactly right. I think you’re fine,” said Chad with more certainty than he actually felt.

“Ok, Katy has a soccer game so we won’t able to come until after 3:00, is that alright?” asked Heather.

“Sure, we’ll barbecue.”

Sounds great! See you at three or a bit after.”

“Is this why you gave all that money to Dave?” asked Mary contritely after Heather had hung up.

“It is.”

“Exactly what did Dave buy with it?”

“I dunno. I left it to his judgment. I haven’t been home all that long either and what with feeding kids and getting them to their various events, I had only just sat down. I suppose we could go over and check it out, I was just chatting with Dave …”

Mary pocketed the phone and flowed into his arms.

“You are almost as dumb as you look,” said Mary with a smile. “I have just realized that you are in the process of saving me and the kids, you just put your job and God knows what else on the line to help my best friend, and you think I want to go over to Dave’s and look at a bunch of boxes? They will be there tomorrow.” Said Mary and then she kissed him.

May 7
th
, Sunday, 2:45 pm PDT

Chad leaned back on the rail of the deck and took a pull on his beer. The coals were just about perfect in his brick and stone barbecue. He had built it ten years ago when they had remodeled and he had a bunch of used bricks and other pieces of stone left after they had demolished and replaced the foundation under the old part of the house. His wife had called it Chad’s Folly because he was obsessively focused on using all the left over bits of brick and stone for something other than a rock garden. The finished product had turned out well, looking for all the world like a wood fired Italian pizza oven. It made a decent pizza and, like now, was great for ribs and corn on the cob.

Chad had to work most of the day, not getting home until after 2:00 pm so this

Dinner was mainly Mary’s doing. Not that he complained. When your wife is a catering manager, the food at home tended to be pretty darned good. Chad had spent the day refining his spread estimates and incorporating new data which was now, thankfully, was coming real time. Then there had been a press conference. Chad tended to dodge those things but his boss had insisted because he was the only one who could really explain the models he had worked up.

Most of what he had to say was explaining flow and growth rates which he assumed were for background. The real bombshell occurred when the real infection rates were mentioned by Dr. Riley. General Buckley’s back channel call to his former Academy classmate and current Army Chief of Staff had gotten results. Classifications were adjusted and the decision for a limited release of information had been made late Saturday. This morning, there were several Department of Health officials that had to be briefed and then there was the press.

It was all soft pedaled of course, and the officials said that they were monitoring the situation. The good news was that they had also requested people limit travel, begin basic infection control issues like hand washing, avoiding physical contact with strangers, and using condoms, all these would have an effect. It was not enforced legally but Chad’s group was assured that there would be a special meeting with the Surgeon General and key members of Congress on Monday to start drafting appropriately worded legislation to enforce these rules. Other things were in the works and it had all swirled above Chad’s head. It was out of the bag and that is what mattered.

Dave came across his yard and over to the barbecue. He was carrying a bowl of homemade potato salad which was his contribution to the dinner.

“There’s cold beer in the cooler Dave,” said Chad as he put the rack of marinated pork ribs on the grill. “Help yourself.”

Dave put the bowl down on the picnic table and snagged a beer from the cooler. “You are a mind reader,” he said as he opened his own beer.

“I saw you on TV,” said Dave.

“I know, I thought I was briefing background but they used the footage. Mary was upset. She has always said I should dress better at work, but then, how was I to know they were going to film it? Then the whole thing went viral on You Tube.”

“I gotta admit, the Grateful Dead T-shirt and jeans did make quite a fashion statement,” said Dave with a smile. When he taught, Dave was ‘encouraged’ to wear a tie and slacks. Chad had often gloated over the fact that he could wear most anything to work as long as it was clean.

“It still sounded worse than what we had talked about,” continued Dave.

“Well, I didn’t know everything I know now about the cases around the west. The east coast data is only a few days old too.”

“That guy Dr. Grieb seemed to know his stuff,” said Dave. “Is all that infection control stuff and seven signs of infection readily available?”

“It’s a handout we gave to the media folks,” said Chad. “I think it’s posted on our web site now and various Public Health sites. I also forwarded to my friend, Colonel Antonopoulos. It is apparently the basis for their new protocols.” 

“I think we better sit down and do a little planning” said Dave.

“That’s why we are having the barbecue.”

“Great, I do my best work after two beers when I can use greasy fingers to draw diagrams on Mary’s white table cloth.”

“Yeah, do that and Mary will skin us both for that.”

“Skin you both for what?” asked Mary with Heather and her three kids in tow.

“Nothing Mary, I am just lecturing David on civilized table manners.”

“Good luck with that,” quipped Heather. “Hi Dave, been a while.”

“Hi Heather,” said Dave.

Both Heather and Dave had been to parties and barbecues at the Strickland’s before and were nodding acquaintances. However, the last time they had met, Heather and David were both married to other people. There was a certain energy in the air between the two of them and both Chad and Mary were not unhappy about that.

Heather’s three kids were also there. Katy, who was fourteen, was one of Fiona’s classmates and closest friends. As soon as they were done with the polite talk with the adults, they took off for Fiona’s room to listen to music along with Katy’s little sister, Ginger, who, at eight, thought she was one of the big girls.

Heather’s twelve year old son Jason was also there. He idolized Connor, partially because the high school senior let him hang around and sometimes, like now, would take him up to his room to play video games that Heather wouldn’t let him own.

Heather and Mary opened a bottle of Chardonnay from their employer, and poured a glass each and found places around the picnic table.

“Ok Chad, this has to do with what you were on the news for doesn’t it?” said Heather.

“Yes, it does,” said Chad.

“How bad is it really?” asked Heather.

“What you heard on the tube is the straight stuff.”

“How bad is going to get?”

“We really don’t know. David and I thought it was prudent to make some preparations.”

“Oh God! Not paranoid survivalist fantasies!” said Heather. Then she looked embarrassed because she realized that was exactly why they were here.

“Just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you,” said Dave in an attempt to keep the mood light. “Seriously though,” he continued, “Chad is a pretty smart guy and he is saying he doesn’t know what will happen, that there is not a cure, and the disease can now transmit via contact, however poorly. That means it will get worse before it gets better.”

“But we have had AIDS and God knows how many flu viruses go through this country that we can’t cure and we get along fine. Why do you think this is different?” asked Mary plaintively.

“Well, AIDS has pretty much the same death rate but you have to exchange body fluids to transfer the disease. People can be educated slowly to avoid that. Flu is transferable by contact or even via airborne vectors but even the most deadly flu virus only kills a few percent of those infected. Even then, we have vaccines that can inhibit the spread of the disease. Finally, some of the symptoms of this new disease actually influence the sufferer to spread the disease.”

“How is that?” asked Dave.

“They become paranoid, violent, and combative, often attempting to bite their caregivers. This has proven to be a very high probability method to transmit the disease. There is more than a little evidence to suggest that if their now huge calorie needs are not met, they will result to cannibalism.”

“How horrible!” said Heather under her breath.

“What is distressing is that it is my contention that there is a significant portion of the population that isn’t reporting this and is not seeking treatment. Initially, it was people who don’t want to be noticed, drug users, illegal aliens, petty criminals and the like.” 

“That’s how AIDS snuck in under the radar,” said David.

“That’s part of it for sure,” said Chad. “But now, it is filtering into the mainstream and because there are now multiple populations, it is going to be really hard to contain and control.”

“Why don’t they shut down travel and everything,” said Heather.

“It would strangle the economy and probably result in food shortages,” said Chad. “Consider what we are about to eat for dinner. The tomatoes in the salad came from Mexico, the corn from Iowa, the fruit in the pie we are having for dessert came from Argentina, and the potatoes in Dave’s salad probably came from Idaho. Grocery stores believe in just in time inventory. Most don’t have more than three days’ worth of food on hand. One of the symptoms of this disease is increased appetite. Those stocks will be depleted even faster. There is going to have to be movement of goods at some level and that means someone has to drive the truck, unload the barge, and shift boxes in the rail car. It would just take a few folks moving around to make most quarantine measures ineffective.”