Escape the Virus Page 2

  He'd have to think for himself. Find his own way. Think things through himself. Not rely on anyone else.

  2

  Jamie

  “So he just walked past you and didn't say anything?” said Mia.

  “I think he mumbled something, but no, he didn't really say anything.”

  “And you didn't say anything either?”

  “I just didn't know what to say.”

  Jamie was back in her apartment, talking with her roommate of two years, Mia.

  Jamie had been sent home from work earlier, along with all the other employees.

  The whole city was on lockdown. Some type of new emergency quarantine status that the mayor had made up. Cities across the country had done the same.

  Mia hadn't gone to work at all today, although no matter what Jamie asked, Mia didn't seem capable of offering up a simple easy-to-understand answer. But that's just the way Mia was. She wasn't exactly “practically” minded, which sometimes annoyed Jamie to no end.

  Jamie was anxious to change the subject away from Matt. In fact, she wished that she hadn't even mentioned their brief little “non-encounter” at the office today. After all, there were bigger things to worry about.

  “Anything else on the news?” she asked.

  Mia, who had been staring at her cell phone during the entire conversation, shook her head. “Nope,” she said. “Just more of the same. They've found about thirty of the passengers... got them to the hospitals... quarantined and everything...”

  “And the other... how many are there?”

  “Uh, 323, I think. It wasn't quite a full flight.”

  “Yeah. The other 323. What about them? They didn't find them?”'

  “Nope. Not yet. They're still out there. It's all everyone online is talking about.”

  “Wait, are you on actual news sites, or are you just looking at social media?”

  “Uh, social media… But it's just as good.”

  “You can't get all your news from social media. Come on, Mia, that's crazy.”

  “What's the difference? Look, here are a bunch of quotes from CBS. So you know it's real.”

  “I'm going to pull it up myself.

  Jamie was already tired of staring at her phone, but she took it out again, and pulled up a couple of different news sites.

  “I just don't get why they haven't contacted the other... what is it... 323? How hard could it be?”

  “You know how it is,” said Mia. “Nothing ever goes as planned... Things are always harder than they seem to be on paper. Like take you and Matt, for instance. On paper, you and Matt made such a great pair. And then what happened? You only lasted three dates. And you still won't even tell me what happened.”

  Jamie rolled her eyes. “Can we drop it?” she said. “There's a national emergency going on. We're on lockdown with the rest of the city, and all you can think about is me and my three dates with my coworker.”

  “Whatever,” muttered Mia.

  There was a knock on the door.

  Jamie and Mia exchanged a look.

  “I'll get it,” said Jamie, getting up.

  She and Mia lived in a fairly large apartment building in a decent section of downtown Albuquerque. Like many people who lived in large apartment buildings, she didn't know any of her neighbors. She might have recognized a couple of people, but she didn't know any names.

  Jamie paused before the answering the door, realizing that she didn't know who was on the other side.

  She looked around, searching for something that she could defend herself with, if it was needed. She needed some sort of weapon, but she didn't see anything that would remotely do the job.

  She settled on a small lamp that Mia had purchased online, unpacked, and then left on the floor. Jamie figured it was better than nothing. She took it in her right hand, and, opening the door with her left just a crack, managed to keep the lamp out of sight.

  There was no peephole on the door. But it had never been a problem before. After all, people didn't typically come to the door. Packages were delivered to the mailboxes on the first floor.

  “Hello?” said Jamie.

  A man stared back at her. About fifty years old. Gray hair, and a big gray beard.

  He wore a slightly rumpled suit, and had an expensive-looking watch on. He looked like a lawyer who had been putting in too many all-nighters recently.

  He was breathing quickly, and there was some sweat beading up on his forehead.

  “Hey,” he said, speaking in a quick, harried way. “Come on. Let's go. We've got to get out of here. They're evacuating the building.”

  “They're what?”

  “What's going on out there?” called out Mia from the other room.

  “They're evacuating the building. I don't know why.”

  “But what about the emergency curfew? It's city-wide. We're supposed to stay inside no matter what.”

  “Yeah, because of the virus, I know. But these guys want us out of here. I think it's a gas leak or something.”

  Jamie was eyeing the man, who was glancing around nervously, eyes dancing up and down the hall. It looked like he was afraid of something. He looked like he had something to hide.

  She suddenly caught a whiff of his breath. It stank like he'd been drinking heavily.

  She clutched the lamp tighter, and brought it a little closer to herself, meanwhile closing the door about another inch. “Where did you say you lived?” she said. “I don't remember seeing you before.”

  “Right over there,” he said, pointing vaguely down the hall. “I recognize you. Come on. Let's go. We've got to go.”

  He reached forward, as if to grab her, but he pulled his arm back at the last moment.

  “Where's everybody else?” said Jamie, her suspicions growing by the second.

  Could it be that this drunk man was using the quarantine lockdown as an opportunity to do something unsavory?

  What should she do?

  She had half a mind to shut the door in his face.

  But what if he was right? What if there really was a gas leak. She didn't smell anything, but that didn't mean there couldn't be a big one in the basement, making the building extremely dangerous to inhabit.

  There had been, after all, a gas leak about six months ago. She'd had to evacuate with everyone else while the city gas company investigated. In the end, they'd said it had been close to exploding.

  “Mia? Would you come here?”

  Calling Mia wasn't much use, but she didn't know what else to do.

  Suddenly, the fire alarm sounded. It was the whole-building alarm.

  About ten seconds later, the sprinklers in the hall started spraying water, rotating jerkily.

  Someone appeared at the far end of the hall. He yelled something unintelligible, and then raced down the stairs.

  “Come on!” the guy at the doorway was more urgent than ever.

  It seemed like he might be telling the truth after all.

  “Mia! Come on. We've got to go. Grab your phone.”

  “What is it?” said Mia, appearing at her side in what seemed like an instant.

  “Come on. You have your keys?”

  “Yeah.”

  Jamie grabbed Mia's hand, pulled her through the doorway, and closed the door hard behind them.

  Jamie's hair was already getting wet as she pushed past the drunk man and pulled Mia along with her down the hallway.

  “What did that guy want? What's going on?”

  “They're evacuating the building. Gas leak.”

  “But we're supposed to...”

  Jamie already knew what Mia was going to say. But as she often did, she felt like she had to play the big sister role to Mia, and get her to safety.

  In the few minutes that it took to get to the main entrance, Jamie and Mia were both soaking wet.

  The main entrance hall was crowded with people. The fire alarm had drawn them all out of their apartments.

  Jamie kept a tight hold of Mia's hand
and started pushing through the crowd of people.

  “Excuse me, excuse me,” she kept saying, but everyone ignored her, and she had to actually push people aside.

  Why were they going so slow?

  Didn't they understand how serious a gas leak was?

  She still didn't like the idea of that sweating man in the suit, and she kept glancing over her shoulder, trying to see if he had followed them.

  “Here we go,” Jamie muttered, as she pushed her way through to the outside.

  Mia was right behind her.

  It was a day in early spring, and, as sometimes happened, it had started off sunny but had turned gray and somewhat dark.

  It wasn't even late afternoon yet, but it looked as if the day were almost over. Ominous dark rain clouds hung in the sky, having rolled in from the mountains nearby. Of course, a lot of the time they'd roll off just as readily, leaving a sunny day once again in their wake.

  In the semi-darkness, blue and red lights flashed and sirens wailed.

  Two large firetrucks were parked in front of the building, as well as a few police cars.

  A policeman was standing on the sidewalk, megaphone in hand. “Move away from the building. Move away from the building, please,” he was saying over and over again, static hissing through his monotone words.

  The policeman wore what looked like a cheap poncho, as well as a white surgical mask over his face. Despite the clouds, he wore large sunglasses, making almost the entirety of his face hidden.

  Somehow, the whole scene sent a chill through Jamie. Her heart was thumping away in her chest, and it felt like there was a lump in her throat.

  “What's going on?” said Mia. Normally somewhat divorced from reality, it was apparent from her tone of voice that she was frightened by the scene that was unfolding. “Are they wearing those masks because of the virus?”

  “Must be.”

  “It looks creepy.”

  Jamie and Mia moved off to the side, towards the sidewalk. It seemed as if every time Jamie turned her head, she saw another cop. They were swarming the place, and they were all wearing surgical masks and cheap-looking raincoats.

  People were still streaming out of the apartment building's main entrance.

  Despite all the commotion, all the sirens and the crowd, the rest of the street was desolate. Not a car drove by and not a person could be seen walking. There were other apartment buildings within sight, but apparently everyone was remaining inside.

  “You think this was really a gas leak?” said Mia.

  Jamie didn't answer. She was too busy scanning the area, trying to understand the situation. She always liked to be informed, to understand her position.

  Nearby, two cops were talking. “Do they really think these masks are going to do anything? I heard the virus particles are so small it doesn't matter. It'll go through everything except the serious filters... you know, the really fine ones...”

  “And what about these ponchos?” muttered the other cop. “What the hell are these supposed to do? I doubt it'd work on a drizzle, let alone the deadliest virus ever to grace humanity... If only the department had bought some decent gear last year when they had the chance... these things look like they came from the hardware store.”

  “I think they actually did. We're screwed,” said the other cop. “Let's just admit it.”

  “Nah, we've seen worse. Come on, this is just another big to-do about nothing...”

  Jamie's eyes had been following the cops as they talked. One of them now looked over at her, catching her eye, and she quickly looked away down at her feet, avoiding his gaze.

  “Hey, Jamie,” hissed Mia. “Look at that.” She pointed off to the other side of the street.

  Two large vans had just pulled up. They looked like Mercedes Sprinter vans, based on how tall they were. Jamie knew the model, since some of her friends had been thinking about buying them to convert into small RV dwellings.

  There were no markings on the vans, but something about them seemed official. Maybe it was the way they were parked.

  Then the doors of both opened in unison. Two people stepped out of each van.

  But they barely looked like people.

  They were suited up in the sort of gear that Jamie had only seen in the movies. The suits looked like a cross between a surgeon's outfit and a scuba diver's gear. Their faces weren't visible. Thick goggles obscured their eyes.

  No doubt those were the types of suits that the chatting cops would have liked to have.

  Jamie knew what it was. It was some type of team that dealt with contagious viruses. Each city of a decent size probably had at least one clandestine unit like this.

  “I don't like the looks of this,” muttered Mia, as they watched the four heavily suited individuals make their way slowly towards the apartment building. They wore tanks on their backs, and towed little wagons behind them. At the curb, they had to stop and pick up the wagons. The wagons were loaded down with strange-looking gear. Lots of tubing and a few tanks that weren't labeled.

  “This looks serious,” said Jamie. “Why are they going into our building?”

  “I don't know. Maybe there was... I don't know... could there be a contaminated person in there?”

  “And they decided to cover it all up by saying there's a gas leak?” said Jamie. “I don't know, but crazier things have happened in the name of trying to keep everyone from panicking. They must be doing everything they can to keep the city from turning into chaos.”

  Jamie and Mia watched as the four suited individuals made their way through the front doors of the apartment building. It seemed that all the residents had made their way out. The crowd parted, giving the contamination unit a very wide berth.

  The crowd was starting to grow somewhat restless. With the arrival of the two Sprinter vans, it seemed that the possibility of a gas leak was less and less likely to the majority of the apartment residents.

  Everyone was muttering quietly. There were hushed conversations, with people glancing around them to see if they'd been overheard. The overall feeling was one of anxiety, fear, and deep suspicion.

  “There's nothing on the news about it,” said Mia, her face glued once again to her phone. “But there's a discussion on Twitter about this building. There's a hashtag for it.”

  “Really? What are people saying?

  Before Mia could answer, a commotion erupted from the crowd. People started pointing, off towards the street.

  Jamie turned to look to see three school buses driving up. The first one pulled up to the curb and stopped.

  The school buses were empty. Jamie could see into the first one. The driver looked like a cop, wearing the same cheap mask that the other cops wore.

  “Are they taking us somewhere?” said Mia, her voice full of fear.

  “All right, everyone,” the cop on the megaphone was saying. “If you would make your way to the nearest bus. We're taking you to a shelter.”

  “A shelter?” said Mia.

  The cop then kept repeating the same phrase, and people started jostling into position, lining up for the three school buses that had now pulled up to the curbs.

  There was nothing provided in the way of explanation as to why they had to leave their building, or what type of shelter they were headed to.

  But the answer seemed somewhat obvious: their building had been exposed to the virus.

  Jamie and Mia found themselves not yet formed into a line, standing a little off to the side.

  Jamie could tell that Mia was just as scared as she was.

  “What should we do?” said Jamie. It was one of the few times she ever remembered asking Mia for advice. Normally she was the practical one, the one who always knew what to do, the one that Mia came to.

  “No idea,” muttered Mia, her eyes moving back and forth between the lines boarding the buses and her phone. “People online are saying that they're taking us to an old school…”

  “But how would they know?”

  “I
guess they wouldn't.”

  “That's the problem with that online stuff... no one really knows anything.”

  “Well, should we go?”

  “I don't know. They're either taking us somewhere where we'll be safe... or...”

  “Or...?”

  “... Or we're contaminated, and they're trying to keep us away from everyone else...”

  “Come on, ladies,” said a cop, walking up, his hand on a thick black nightstick. “Form up. Get in line and get on the bus. It's simple. No need to make this more difficult than it has to be.”

  Jamie and Mia exchanged a terrified look. It seemed that they had no choice. They were getting on that bus whether they wanted to or not.

  Suddenly, in her peripheral vision, Jamie spotted the sweaty man in a suit who'd come to her door. He looked even sweatier and more disheveled than he had earlier, and his eyes were wide and fixed right on Jamie.

  3

  Matt

  Matt and Damian were sitting in traffic. They were in Matt's car, and Matt was driving. Damian, who didn't live more than a couple minutes from Matt's apartment, had begged him for a ride home, saying that his mother was supposed to pick him up, but given the circumstances, she wasn't going to be able to.

  Matt, despite his best instincts, had relented and agreed to give Damian the ride.

  Like the rest of the office, and like the rest of Albuquerque, Matt had gotten off early from work.

  Truth be told, he'd been ready to head out on his own anyway. The news of the virus, and the implications of his calculations, had told him that he needed to do something. Either get away out of the city, or hunker down in his home and not go out.

  He hadn't decided, but it turned out that he wasn't the only one who was extremely concerned.

  The mayor had issued some type of emergency decree. Matt wasn't sure if everyone was required to stay home or merely strongly encouraged to do so, but the way things were looking now, it didn't seem like he would ever get back to his apartment.

  His commute home was normally about twenty minutes in mild traffic. On rare occasions, there was an accident and he sat in traffic. But normally it wasn't any trouble.