IN THE END: A Quarantine Romance

by Anders, Tarrah

  He pulls back and covertly wipes a tear away, looks down at the screen.

  “Last chance to pull out of this?” he looks at her.

  “Daddy, just call him, will ya?” She puts her arms on her hips and says.

  A moment later, I am standing opposite of Suzanne with the iPad covering my face.

  I felt a presence come up behind me and a hand grazes my lower back and turn my head to see Levi coming up to stand behind me.

  “Do you, darling Suzanne take Connor to be your faithfully wed husband, from close and afar?”

  I look around the iPad and see Suzanne nodding vigorously with tears in her eyes as she bites her lower lip.

  “And do you, Connor, take my darling Suzanne to be your wife, to have and to hold from close and afar?”

  “Yes, forever and always, yes!” the man on the screen says happily.

  “By the internet, and as Suzanne’s father, I now pronounce you husband and wife.”

  “Wait, how do I kiss the bride?” Connor asks.

  “Like this, Con. Kiss the camera.” Suzanne says.

  The area breaks out in whistles and clapping, and I hand the iPad to Suzanne, so she can talk privately with her new husband. I turn and see Levi, standing less than five feet away from me.

  “So, what happens now during a virtual wedding?” he asks, his arms crossed over his chest.

  “Well, I think the married couple may go to a private area and maybe participate in some virtual sexy times,” I joke quickly and quietly so her father wouldn’t hear.

  “Whose iPad is that?” He asks.

  “No clue, but it should be sanitized now,” I reply.

  Levi looks around at our surroundings, noticing that we were almost alone, aside from a few of the guys. He steps closer to me, dips his head and whispers; “I could go for some sexy times.”

  “You say that as if we didn’t already this morning,” I playfully shove him.

  “While that may be true, I’m extremely turned on by romantic gestures and you alone.”

  He isn’t the only one.

  20

  Levi

  “James! I need you over here!” The Colonel shouts from the command center. My head shoots up and I move swiftly across the short distance from where I am transcribing my notes to him.

  “Yes, sir?”

  “Doc needs you to help him with a new intake.”

  “A new intake.” I say quietly knowing exactly what that means, I nod slowly, then make my way to him.

  This is the twentieth person that has come up with the virus in the two-ish weeks that we’ve been here. We have received word that another trial of a vaccine should get to us tomorrow in hope that it will be better than the first. We’ve received one trial and so far, it’s only made the five people on it worse. But thankfully, we haven’t had any fatalities.

  In the isolation area, the doc is rushing around with a grim look on his face until he sees me.

  “Ah, there you are,” he says.

  “You asked for me, sir?”

  “I wouldn’t need to train you, and we need to be quick about this. I don’t want to cause any alarm, but we have more people infected.” he says quietly.

  “Whatever you need sir, I am here.” I tell him.

  “Gown up.” He instructs.

  I do as asked and once I gather additional PPE’s, I walk through into the isolation area.

  The isolation space has expanded, and I notice that there is more than one new intake. I look over to the doc.

  “How many total?”

  “We have five more right now, as you can see all of our beds are now taken. The folks who were in the other quarantine space have been sent off to the closest hospital this morning. So that would be nineteen spaces freed up. The four across the room will be going into the quarantine as soon as we’re finished.”

  “Does this mean that we’ve got it too?” I ask.

  “Son, I’m not sure what it all means. The virus is airborne and until we get a vaccine that works, it’s looking like we’ve all got it.”

  We run through the motions for each patient and get each hooked onto a line of liquids and then move the others he previously mentioned into the adjoining room.

  Since I’ve never been in the actual quarantine space, I take extra precaution as I wear a protective face shield on top of my heavy-duty mask, double up on gloves, and wear a gown over my clothing. Upon finishing up, I stand naked in the decontamination area and scrub my body hard. I clean myself, I don’t miss an area of skin. Once finished, I put on new clothes and stand outside the area waiting for the doc to reappear.

  When he does, I step forward to catch his attention.

  “Are we able to contain this?” I ask him.

  “While I would love to say yes, I’m not positive. The virus affects some, but not others, which is why I think we don’t have a larger number of infected in here.”

  “What do we know about the virus?” I ask.

  “It act’s on its own. Think of it as a random number situation. We have one through ten and every other person is selected. The others, for some reason have not produced the same results of how they react to the virus.”

  “So, the both of us?” I prompt.

  “We could already have it and our bodies are showing it much differently than those who are in the other room.” He says.

  While that’s not exactly the words that I want to hear, I know that I need to go speak to Colonel and excuse myself as politely as possible. I find the Colonel and wait for him to get off the phone. Once he looks up at me, I sit down, so we’re eye level.

  “Sir, with all due respect, we need to update the people in here and let them know what the doc just told me.”

  “And what’s that James, that we’re all going to die, it’s just a matter of time?” He says dryly as if he’s been answering the same questions over and over again.

  “I think that everyone has a right to know what is happening.” I tell him.

  “James, stay in your lane. We want to keep the crowd under control,” he says sternly.

  “We need to keep the crowd informed.” I say standing my ground.

  “We need to keep control.” He stares me down and I keep my eyes glued on his, not backing down. “You are dismissed, come back here after the dinner hour and when you’ve realized your role here.”

  “Again, all due respect, my role is to protect the people here.”

  “James, your role is to obey my orders. Now, I don’t want to see you again until after the dinner hour.” He stands up, looks down on me and points for me to go.

  I leave and walk back to where the doctor is. He’s typing furiously on his laptop as I approach. He stops and scoots away as he sweeps a leg over his knee.

  “I just tried to get the Colonel to make an update and he refused. Do you have the authority?” I ask him.

  “I want to say that I do, but I’m just another solider in here, son. I report to him as well,” he shakes his head.

  “Well, fuck.” I say.

  I walk over to the crowd, debating on whether or not I should make my own announcement, defy the Colonel’s orders or should I keep my trap shut like I’m being asked to do.

  That’s the question.

  What does one do in this situation.

  21

  Kendall

  It’s day–I’ve lost count–of the quarantine, and each day blends into the next and I suddenly feel like crap. My head is pounding, my breathing is shallow, and I feel like all my joints are on fire.

  Is this what it feels like to be sick?

  All I know is that I fell asleep in Levi’s arms and when I wake up, he’s gone. I should be used to waking up without him since he’s an early-riser.

  We have continued to keep our relationship under the radar. We meet in the spots where the store cameras cannot get a line of sight and have stolen kisses in the dark corners.

  I slowly make my walk over to the restrooms and give myself a Fren
ch bath, fix my hair into a pony tail and brush my teeth. Upon coming out, Janelle is walking towards me with a concerned expression and stops right in front of me.

  “You need to come with me,” she grabs me by the elbow and pulls me to the other side of the store with me asking the entire way what’s happening, but she says nothing. We stop suddenly, in what I recognize as one of the dark areas of the store.

  She points to a figure sitting off from the crowd and I notice it’s Levi’s body right away. I run to him, but Janelle stays in her place. Levi lifts his head and strangles to get his voice. He holds his hand up and mouths for me to stop.

  But I won’t, and I can’t.

  I kneel beside him, place my hand on his arm and pull it back immediately.

  “You’re burning up.” I place my hand on his forehead and I feel a drop in my stomach and tears form in my eyes.

  Shaking my head, “no, no, no.”

  “You’re going to be infected,” he whispers.

  “I already am,” I tell him.

  “No,” his head hangs in his hands.

  I turn to Janelle. “I need you to go get the doctor. Don’t raise any suspicions, act normal. But I need you to hurry,” I tell her.

  She nods and retreats instantly.

  “I’m not going to leave your side. We’ll get through this together.”

  “We can’t be so sure,” he says.

  “We have to remain optimistic. Levi?” I pull his head up and make him look at me. “We can overcome this, we are strong, we will see the other side.” I assure him, even though I have no idea whether or not it’s the truth.

  Moments later, I hear footsteps behind me. Janelle doesn’t come near, but the doctor approaches us wearing protective gear and handing us both a mask.

  “We will walk along the walls, in order to keep crowd reactions low and to get Levi to isolation.” The doctor says pulling Levi up.

  “I’m going with him,” I say.

  “Ma’am, you likely haven’t contracted anything in the mere minutes that you have been here, there’s no need.”

  “I have it too.” I say simply.

  The doctor says nothing and nods.

  I look back at Janelle who looks terrified and mouth a thank you as we walk along the perimeter to the side door that attaches automatically to the isolation and quarantine areas. The space is cold, and I see a few empty beds which is promising, but also a few people that I’ve recognized from the first day. I look around the room and notice there’s another door, it’s a secure door that has red around the frame, which I can only imagine is the other quarantine.

  “How many people are in there?” I angle my head to that closed door and ask the Doctor as he directs me to an empty bed beside Levi.

  “We have two patients in there,” he replies robotically as he removes the gloves he was wearing previously and puts on new ones. He moves quickly as he switches between taking notes, completing practical tests like checking temperature and his blood pressure.

  I look over to Levi and he’s calm, but sweaty. He looks over to me and reaches out his hand, I take it.

  “Tell me again,” he asks.

  Not knowing exactly what he is talking about, I flip through my memory and say the last thing, that sounded pretty confident and smile before speaking.

  I squeeze his hand, “we can overcome this, we are strong, and we will see the other side.”

  Levi closes his eyes and nods before opening them up again.

  “Doc, I want the both of us on the trial immediately.” The doctor looks at Levi and then myself, nods and moves to the other side of the room. He picks up two syringes from the mobile cabinet and two small clear bottles with liquid before returning to us.

  “We don’t know if this will work, but this will hopefully lessen the symptoms.” He says, looking between us and then resting on our joining hands.

  “Does Colonel know about this, James?” He asks pointing at our connecting point.

  “I don’t care one way or another if he does. I don’t want to hide it anymore.”

  He closes his eyes and the doctor looks to me.

  “Well, you better get settled in. Go to the restroom, before you won’t be able to anymore. I’ll get Mr. James set up and then it’s your turn. I will need to disclose this information to the Colonel, so just to warn you, he may not be happy.”

  I’m pretty sure that the Colonel, Levi’s boss will be pissed off, as Levi has been on the clock ever since stepping foot inside this location. But you can’t blame the instant attraction, especially during a time like this, when you’re closed off from the world and you just want some good old-fashioned romance to take your mind off of the disaster happening all around us.

  Granted, it’s romance during a quarantine, but it’s real.

  22

  Levi

  This is the worst.

  My body is burning up, I feel like I have ants crawling all over my skin. I feel like someone is sitting on my chest and that I could throw up at any minute. I’m showing worse signs than Kendall is, thankfully. Which may or may not be good.

  But looking at her, I’m pissed off that I was so careless with my actions of moving between the isolation area and being around Kendall. I should have created a bigger distance, but I was so preoccupied with being with her that I was absent-minded. Or being that the doc said basically we all have this virus living inside of us, and it was just waiting to emerge.

  The Colonel didn’t take to my contracting the virus very happily. When one of his top Sergeant’s goes down, especially the one who wanted to break the silence of what was really happening, I go straight into quarantine, and not just alone.

  He didn’t catch wind that the woman that came into isolation with me, was someone that was a little more of an acquaintance, and that our infected numbers are increased.

  As I turn my head to look at her, to see her hands clenching to the sheets of the bed she’s laying on—I hate this moment.

  The second trial of a hopeful vaccine came this morning and the doctor immediately began us on the treatment. I want to feel instant relief, but I know that’s not how this works. I want to let everyone else in the store know what is happening, and not just let them see that person by person is no longer with them in the space.

  No, they need to know something.

  I turn my head again to look at one of the volunteer nurses who stays in this space, and she’s mixing something up.

  “Can I– can I get some water?” I croak out.

  She hurries and grabs a small bottled water from the mini-fridge along the wall, then pours it into a cup with a straw so I can drink from it. I lay back down and stare at the ceiling.

  I hear Kendall moaning and I look over at her. I reach out for her hand and squeeze. The only acknowledgement of her knowing that I am here, is that she squeezes my hand in return.

  * * *

  I’m not sure how long we’ve been here. Not sure whether or not it’s been a day or if it’s been five days. I’ve gone through the back and forth of feeling like I’m crawling out of my skin and that I’m on my death bed. There hasn’t been much talking, because I feel like I’m swallowing glass.

  “Sergeant First Class James!” The Colonel’s voice echoes through my walkie-talkie. I can’t muster up the energy to reach for it, nor do I particularly feel like it, if I could.

  He needs to understand that I’m no longer working.

  “James!” he repeats into the walkie.

  The nurse comes to the bedside, grabs my walkie and speaks into the receiver.

  “Sir, he cannot speak at the moment,” she says into the device with her eyes on me. “He’s in incredible pain.”

  “Very well, what is his status?” he asks, his tone lowers with a small hint of concern.

  “It’s too soon to tell whether or not the new vaccine is taking effect, he hasn’t gotten any worse and that’s what we’re holding onto,” she replies.

  “Where’s the doctor?”
He asks.

  “He’s been restricted from entering into the quarantine, he would be in the isolation area.”

  Quarantine? We’re in the quarantine?

  23

  Kendall

  I don’t know where I am, but my body is killing me. I feel like there is someone squeezing me into a corset repeatedly ever minute or so. I can’t catch my breath and I just want to cry. My body moves from frozen to heated over with the tips of my fingers feeling like they’ve been stuck to ice for days. My eyes feel so swollen, and I can barely open them. When I do, the lights are low, with a hint of red and there’s a light beeping that continues throughout the room at different intervals. I feel like I’m dying within my body and that I’m screaming and screaming for someone to help me. But I don’t think my mouth is opening or that I’m moving at all.

  Am I moving?

  I see a nurse tending to someone off to the side out of the corner of my eye and with the switch that was placed in my hand upon my symptoms worsening, I push it.

  A moment later, the nurse has come to my beside and she leans over me.

  “Ah, there you are. You’ve been basically passed out since you got in here. Let’s see, what do we have here?” She looks at some machine that I can’t see and nods her head with a small smile.

  “Your vitals look a lot better than they did earlier today,” she says.

  Whatever else she starts to say gets lost in the darkness as my eyes close again.

  * * *

  I hear loud beeping and a commotion beside me, I force my swollen eyes open and turn my head. It’s painful, feels like I’m breaking bones just to look somewhere other than the ceiling. And it’s even more painful when I see that the commotion is surrounding Levi.

  I open my mouth to say something, but no sound comes out. Maybe a squeak, but I’m not sure. No one pays me any attention. I can’t move my body to see what’s happening and I’m not entirely sure I would be able to see anything since there look to be multiple people moving around his bed.