“Mommy!” Damian said in the sweetest little boy voice. Tiffany was going to pull away from the hug. Victoria held her tight.
Mrs. Gilbert, one of the older women, hobbled over toward the reunited family. She was a large woman, larger even than when Tiffany had her as a student years ago. She was not Damian’s teacher. Victoria scanned the gym for his teacher or any other adult. Gilbert, the lone adult.
“Thank god you’re here.” The woman spoke in a tortured version of her voice. “Please, if you are parked in the drop-off loop we need to keep it moving.”
Victoria nodded, unable to unlock her eyes from the teacher. Her eyes had no white. They were just red and pupil.
“I ate something bad. Water, maybe.”
Victoria nodded again and turned to leave. She picked Damian up and wondered if she coughed on her son. She knew it was in her mind, but imagined germs crawling all over him. She was going to get them both in the shower.
“Mrs. Gilbert is sick,” Damian whispered.
“No, Shit Einstein.” His older sister replied.
Normally, Victoria would have corrected her language, but she just wanted them in the van.
“Neither of you drank the tap water did you?”
Tiffany reached into her bag and showed her the almost empty Arrowhead Mills water bottle. She took a lot of shit from her sister for packing two spring water bottles in their backpack every day. Valerie was always sending her links online about the floating plastic heap in the ocean the size of Texas. She had always felt a little guilt about putting those bottles in her kids backpacks but not today.
Victoria pushed her son’s nose into her shoulder. “Cover your face,” she told Tiffany as they ran to the van.
***
She expected to see a line of shopping carts still coming down the sidewalk towards the sport’s arena like last time. The parking lot was over taken by military vehicles. Two helicopters she didn’t know the names of were parked on the far end. One was just coming on causing the low hanging smoke to blow around. Humvees and green military trucks were packed across the lot so deep she couldn’t see across. Even over her iPod she could hear the helicopter taking off but not see it. She thought about turning away, but saw a clear path to one of the doors.
She needed a break from her gas mask and bike. She wanted to go down to Ocean Beach and look for Lindsay, to make sure she was OK, but it was a half hour ride on a nice day. She thought she would just take a rest on her hammock in the shelter and go out later. Austin rode her bike as close as she could to the steps that lead into the fifty year old sports arena.
One solider stood at the top of the steps in a gas mask and held a rifle. He hit a button that allowed him to speak through his high-tech gas mask. The voice sounded robotic.
“This shelter is closed.”
Austin put her bike on her shoulder and walked up the steps unfazed. As she got closer to the soldier, she could see sweat on his brow. Wet circles radiated from his pits soaking his uniform. He was scared. He couldn’t possibly be scared of her. Austin pulled out her ear buds.
“I already have a bed.”
The soldier shook his head.
“Hey, man this is not like Nazi Germany. I have a—”
She heard it then. Gun fire, screams, more gun fire. The cycle repeating over and over inside the walls of the shelter. The soldier lifted his mask. He was a similar age as she was. Couldn’t have been more than 18 or 19 years old. He looked straight into Austin’s eyes.
“Just go!”
“But I have stuff in—”
She felt stupid saying it when it sounded like open warfare inside. As if a thunderstorm was trapped inside the arena. He was right, get away. Austin ran down the stairs and pedaled as hard as she could to escape.
***
The gas gauge hovered around half a tank. Andrew wished he could will the gas to burn quicker. He wanted any excuse to land. They were up over the haze crossing the county toward the small fires in the canyons. Carly used the old school radio to talk to someone back at the station downtown. They said Freddie the traffic pilot for channel 8 caught some fresh brush fires that ran alongside interstate five.
Andrew lowered them progressively, as what he understood was La Mesa, the eastern suburb. The smoke had erased it. There was nothing to see, as if the sky had fallen almost to the ground. Carly was typing something on her iPad and only had headphones on one ear.
“Pointless being up here. We can’t see shit.”
She didn’t respond at first, had to swing the mic down to her mouth. “We will see more when we get west.”
She kept working and Andrew leaned over to the side. The only thing he could see was a faint red glow of a thousand brake lights in the parking lot that had been the eight freeway. He had to trust that Kristen had gotten Adam to safety. This was a part of being Weekend Dad he had to get used to. It was just now, hours later, that he realized his best friend ran into his ex-wife at a cancer clinic. He needed to talk to Jake as soon as he landed. He knew Kristen wouldn’t talk to him.
They were getting closer to the coast, so Andrew nudged the control stick and sent them across the valley northwest that would put them in line with the northern most canyons on fire. The smoke was lighter on this side of Mission Valley. Andrew could feel the ocean breeze push them slightly, so he understood what was breaking up the smoke.
“Slow down, slow down.”
Carly lifted her iPad and was filming. Andrew tipped them so Carly could get a better view of the Ralph’s grocery store parking lot. He laughed at first. A group of people, probably two dozen, ran across the parking lot.
“Nice day to be out for a run.”
She ignored the joke. They were not dressed in typical runner’s gear and who was out training for a marathon during state of emergency pollution? He could even see a heavy set man who was running with the pack like he was Carl Lewis. As they hovered, the woman in the lead looked up towards them. She kept running but waved her arms.
“Are they. . .”
He never said chasing her. The woman in the lead tripped. The crowd collapsed on her like ants on an abandoned candy bar. The crowd covered the woman. She was gone.
“What the fuck just happened?”
Andrew held them in place but a slow moving cloud of smoke blocked their view of the scene. Carly looked at him. They had silent moment of shared disbelief. Andrew pushed them north.
“Better get Kendra on the horn and tell her what we saw.”
“Can you tell me what we just saw?”
He couldn’t, not really.
***
Downtown felt like a ghost town. He could only see a few feet in front of his hood. It was worse downtown where the big skyscrapers blocked the wind. He had his lights on but still could barely see. He followed his GPS more than his eyes. He was getting closer to the turn that would take him into the underground garage at the NBC building.
He was not a religious person, but the fear that filled Jake as he drove into the unknown of the smoke caused him to mutter prayers.
“Please, God, please get me there.”
The GPS told him to turn left. He cringed, trusting it as they left the thick smoke and he almost hit the gate blocking the lot. The smoke had leaked into the garage, but not nearly as bad as the air outside. Jake rolled down his window long enough to scan his parking pass and the arm gate lifted. Jake pulled in and drove quickly down to the second level where his reserved parking space waited.
He was in the elevator as quickly he could grab his bag. He was about to cover his mouth. What was the point of protecting his lungs at this point? The doctor had told him that there was a shot, but Jake had a hard time believing it. Alone in the elevator, he allowed himself a moment of self-pity. He couldn’t focus on that. He opened his phone to look at texts. People depended on him, his family depended on him.
He had a text from Victoria. He opened it. Heading home! With a selfie of her in the van with Tiff and Damian. The lit
tle man smiled, his daughter was on her phone. His wife looked frazzled. Anyone else might not see it. He did. How could he tell her the news? He thought of a million reasons to delay, “I know the city is on fire, but guess what? I’m dying just like your parents.” He wanted so badly not to tell her, but the other part of him knew he needed to just rip off the Band-Aid.
The elevator opened to the newsroom. It was in full chaos. Story ideas, details and various aspects of reporting the news were being shouted across the room. Sally dropped her papers when she saw Jake walking in. She met him at the cubicles.
“Jake what are you doing here? We are not doing sports today.”
“Right?” Jake laughed. “I’ll gladly leave, but Kendra chewed my ass.”
Sally kept walking and Jake went to his desk. Everyone had a private office in their department upstairs and Sports shared a U-shaped set of cubicles in the newsroom for the hours around a broadcast. They were just next to the Weather cubicles. Jake slowed down to see Julia squeezed into a form fitting dress. She was the weekend weather lady, beautiful by any measure and constantly fighting to prove she actually understood the science of her job. She went back to college to study meteorology. She was just the gorgeous weather girl to most of the audience. She could have shortened her skirts and read the teleprompter but choose the fight to be taken seriously.
Jake hung over her cubicle and saw that she was holding her trash can.
“What are you looking at, Rivers?”
“A very sick-looking woman who eats almost nothing but veggies and fresh organic high price shit.”
“I’m sick sure, but not because I eat kale. Half the office is. . .”
She looked up at him. Even under the layer of thick foundation make-up, he could see dark circles forming under her bloodshot eyes.
“Wow, you look like shit.”
“Thank you.” She looked back at her desk. A video she had loaded had stalled. “What the fuck?”
Jake looked over her shoulder and saw the video was buffering. Then he heard cursing all around.
“We lost the network!” An intern said, as he ran by. Jake walked through the storm of people towards the walls of TV that monitored the local major records and served as a control room for them. The whole team gathered. All the signals were gone except their local ones.
Kendra pushed her way to the front. She looked at it. The red light showing that they were on air faded. Mitchell, the engineer, was sweating through shirts that were already two sizes too small. He punched the control board.
“We lost almost everything digital.” Mitchell sounded defeated.
Sally stepped forward. “ECMP?”
Mitchell laughed despite his stress. He pointed to the lights and the computers. “We still have power. Just a guess. . .”
“What is it?”
“Everything is a web of fiber optics. The fire took out a few strands and we are just falling down, no web to hold us.”
Kendra leaned down. “Get us back on the air. Analog if you have too.”
A hush came over the news room. They were dead, off the air. Jake lifted up his phone. He typed a text.
Cable out at home?
He hit send but in seconds it said message failed. He saw most of the newsroom doing the same. The office Wi-Fi was gone. The feeling that came over him was not that different than when he first saw the smoke rolling in from the fire. The connection he had to the world through his phone was extreme. As a reporter, it was like a Swiss Army device he used a hundred ways a thousand times a day. He felt oddly naked without it.
A scream of pain. Jake turned to see Julia running for the bathroom. He felt compelled to follow her and help her. Sally was the closest woman.
“Hey, Sal, can you help Jules. She just ran in the. . .”
Jake got a good look at her. Sally was covered in sweat, her skin growing pale and her eyes were red in one corner that looked like a pinhead sized version of the eye on Jupiter.
He slipped the phone into his pocket and walked towards Kendra to get an assignment. He would say something if he had to. The bathroom stayed in the corner of his eye.
Kendra looked ready to snap. “Work people! Get us back on the air! The people are without information.”
“Ms. Ryan?” Jake was a little nervous. The sports staff didn’t talk to her often. “I have an idea.”
“For what?”
“How about 690?” He could tell from her look that she didn’t understand. “To save money and boost the signal to LA they bypass the FCC rules.”
“The tower is in Mexico,” she whispered.
“The base signal is analog because they don’t trust the TJ carriers.”
Kendra looked at Mitchell working the boards. “How long before you can get us up analog?”
“A couple hours.”
Kendra pointed to Jake. “Will Goldberg play ball?”
Jake laughed. “To be the center of attention? You bet.”
Kendra waved them off to work. “The sports leader just became the emergency network.”
Chapter Ten
Martin sat shaking in his office. He couldn’t calm himself. He cracked open the water bottle and gave it a sniff. No smell, but he hesitated before taking a big gulp. There was a knock at the door.
“Come in.”
Shane Lewis stepped in his office and pulled the paper mask off his face before shutting the door.
“She is resting in a conference room on the tenth floor with a few of your staff who are showing symptoms.”
Martin shook his head. “No, no she was dying.”
Lewis sighed. “She is very sick, her heart rate has slowed, but she is alive. It is a part of the process.”
“What process? Am I contaminated?”
Lewis shook his head.
“How can you be so sure?”
He smiled, he actually smiled at him. “We would know. The contagion is fast moving, and a wrecking ball.”
Martin sat up in his chair. “We deserve to know. Is this the prion?”
“You better hope not.”
“You said part of the process. You know what is happening don’t you?”
“It is my job to know.”
“Prions right? What is causing the cancer clusters?”
Lewis was surprised by the question. He raised an eyebrow, looked out the window into the haze and back at Martin.
“Is now the time to ask?”
“When this all blows over I’ll still have a very sick community, and they will be looking to my boss for answers.”
“Could be many things. Bad luck, genetics.”
“Bullshit. There are new cases all over this city.”
“The national numbers are rising. You’re not so special here.”
“We are above the national average according to the article in our paper today. In the last month the numbers have spiked. I think this is all connected.”
Lewis shrugged.
Martin was wasting his time. The fire was growing. Even with the order there was much to do. He nervously thumbed at his iPad to get the updated fire map. He got a “cannot load” signal. He put his finger up and switched over to a new internet tab. He typed in Google, but it didn’t come up. Martin jumped up and stopped at the door.
“At least tell me this. Is there a way to treat our infected staff?”
“Not yet, I’m afraid. If I had it, I would be down there treating them, I promise you.”
Martin pointed out of the room. Lewis waved him on. Martin headed out into the office. They only had a skeleton crew despite the crisis. Some of the staff went to get their kids, and the rest were getting ill. Stephen and the Mayor stood by the door to the big office with their coats off, veneer of confidence long gone. “Where is Aaron? I got no signal?”
“Tech support is not going to help.” Lisa, the mayor’s chief of communications, hung out of her door. Stephen ran his fingers across his neck.
“The whole region. The fire just crossed to major
fiber optic cable ports. Satellite signals are hit or miss. NBC and CBS are working to get back on air and we have one radio station left.”
“One radio station?”
“690 sports. They’re transmitting analog,” Lisa added. “Like tin cans on strings to Mexico, but they’re on.”
“We’re cut off.” The mayor shrugged.
Lisa pointed at Martin. “You gotta figure out a way to talk to 690, and NBC. We have no maps, so talk to NBC and see if sky7 is in the air. They may be our only eyes.”
***
After Victoria unlocked the door, Tiffany and Damian ran into the house. She quickly shut the front door. The kids were both up the stairs quickly. Victoria looked at her phone hoping for a text from Jake. She had not gotten one since he arrived at the station downtown. All it said was HERE. She clicked on the phone.
No bars, no service. She looked for the Wi-Fi signal and it was not there. She walked to the modem which was next to the cable box and Blu-ray player under the living room TV. When it was working there was a constantly blinking green light. Now the box had one red light.
This had happened once before and all she had to do was switch it off and back on. She unplugged it, counted to ten and plugged it back in. She went back to the kitchen. She started at the trash where she had thrown away the rotten chicken earlier. It was in her head, but she felt a slight itch where she had touched it earlier.
Damian sat on the beanbag he kept in the spot between the kitchen and living room. Jake hated him being in that spot, but she told him that she thought it was cute. He struggled with the iPad. He had cartoons he loved watching on Netflix. It seemed like he watched them every free moment.
“Moooom.”
“No signal?”
Victoria looked at the boy confused. She walked back into the living room. The modem was lit up red. She went back to it and repeated the process. This time she was going to wait.
“I want to watch toons,” Damian said innocently.
Victoria waited the ten seconds and plugged it back in. Immediately the red light popped up again. She hit it. She pulled out her phone, went to settings and opened up a window to look for signals. The same fifteen networks popped up, but none of them had bars or signal. She looked up at her little man now standing dismayed in front of her with his iPad.
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