Pandemia

by Nick Lancaster

  A doctor was called for Abigail when the hotel reported one of their guests was disoriented and didn't seem able to remember how she got to the hotel. The doctor had received one of the CDC briefings and immediately drew blood for study in Atlanta.

  Moriarty's team and a special security detail had arrived the next morning. Twelve marines escorted the vial to Atlanta, four hundred Marines stayed just outside the town. Due to the lack of hospital facilities in Carlin it was determined that Abigail should be quarantined in the nearby town of Elko. It was also determined that as this was a possible ECD infection that had appeared spontaneously, the town must be locked down.

  The additional four hundred Marines were ordered to secure the town. Dressed in full CBRN suits to protect against the virus, the Marines secured the roads in and out of Carlin. The I-80 off ramps were closed and Predator drones and foot patrols were deployed to ensure no residents fled across country.

  When Atlanta confirmed that ECD was present in the blood sample Moriarty knew it was already too late to help the community of Carlin. Two thousand people were forced to stay in that town as the virus spread. Moriarty ordered her Marines to make daily food and water deliveries to the civilians and report back to her.

  As the days turned into weeks the numbers of people waiting outside Carlin City Hall each day for the rations became smaller. Her Marines reported seeing civilians shuffling along the streets, sitting in the middle of the road, talking in a strange language of mixed up English. It took eight weeks for the last resident to die.

  The cleanup crew efficiently worked to remove and burn the corpses. The whole event took place without a single report in the media.

  Now Moriarty had a new problem to deal with, multiple reported cases of suspected ECD in New York City. They’d had nothing to indicate the virus had spread further East than Carlin, though she knew it was probably just a matter of time.

  She picked up the phone on her desk and dialed the operations room. “This is Moriarty. I need three teams in New York City. We’ve got samples to bring in. Make sure the locals have secured those patients and make damn sure the media isn’t reporting any of this. The last thing we need is a media circus causing panic. Did anyone take care of the phone lines?”

  “Yes Ma’am. As soon as the first report came in the order was given to shut down all cellular and landline calls in and out of New York City.”

  “Good.” Moriarty ended the call.

  While CDC protocol called for the hospital or clinic to secure any patient suspected of being infected until the blood work was completed, it would take only one infected patient wandering out into the public to quickly escalate the situation into another Carlin or LA.

  Moriarty turned back to look out the window and tried to remember a time when all this would have seemed impossible.

  Chapter Six

  Mike had hit the early afternoon slump. That period of the day when the adrenaline of the morning and the first jolt of coffee had worn off and the body and mind became sluggish, craving a nap on a nice sofa or a comfortable bed with a cool pillow. Mike was at work and unfortunately napping was not an option, more coffee was however.

  He was about to leave his cube for a shot of caffeine when his phone rang.

  “This is Mike.”

  “Hey babe, I was thinking about what the President said last night, about the troops being recalled. You don’t think there’s more going on that we’re being told do you?” Mike had been married to Liz long enough that he could detect the concern in her voice. He thought for a moment before replying.

  “Honestly I don’t know. This morning I read a report that some professor at U of M said there was more going on than we are being told, but come on, this is the government we’re talking about, they can’t keep stuff secret, I mean Jesus, how many congressmen and senators have been caught with their pants down, literally?” He tried to lighten the mood with humor.

  “I guess. It’s just recalling all those troops? Remember how much convincing we took to send them there in the first place? The missing WMDs and Osama Bin Laden? Now we just call everyone home?”

  “Well, Bin Laden’s dead, Saddam’s dead, even Gadhafi isn’t a problem anymore. Aside from Iran there’s no reason to keep all those soldiers there, and shit, Israel has got Iran covered, you can bet on that.”

  “I don’t know Mike, it just seems so big. I’m beginning to feel glad we’ve got all that stuff in the basement, maybe you were right all along. I bet you never thought you’d hear me say that!” He could tell her mood had lifted.

  “Right, there you go, it is all a conspiracy, but I planned it all so you wouldn’t be mad at me for buying all my stuff.” Mike laughed a little at the thought.

  “Ok, sorry to bug you, I’ll see you later. Oh, by the way, Nadine is fine. I spoke to her on the computer. Love you.”

  “That’s good to know. I love you too baby.” Mike disconnected the call.

  Something in the tone of Liz’s voice when he’d first answered the phone had got him thinking. What if there was more to this? What if this professor was right? Mike pulled up the email from that morning and scanned it for the name of the professor. Miller, that was it. Maybe he could reach out to this guy, ask some questions himself? It was worth a shot.

  Mike connected to the U of M web site, the blue and gold quickly appeared on screen. He looked for a link to the faculty, clicked it and then clicked a link for a directory of staff.

  He soon found Professor Edward Miller listed along with an email address. He clicked the link and drafted a mail to the professor. It was brief and to the point. Mike explained he’d read the story and wanted to know more. He hit send and the message was gone, transported through the technological tunnels that linked his computer to the global network of the internet.

  “Coffee.” Mike stood, stretched and realized how good it felt to do that after sitting for a few hours. He headed to the kitchen to get some of the black sludge that passed for coffee.

  As Mike entered the kitchen area he noticed the TV was on and as usual was showing CNN, the default news channel of his organization. The volume was down but there was a static subtitle on the screen, beneath the words ‘Breaking News’. The subtitle read “ECD reported in France”.

  He poured some coffee and then headed back to his cube, then fired up the CNN web site. Sure enough there it was, the same breaking news story about France. He clicked on the headline and read the report.

  “The ECD virus has been detected in France it was announced today. The virus, which is responsible for an estimated five million deaths in the United States and a suspected five hundred million deaths in China had until now not been detected in Europe. Today’s report from Paris is the first confirmed case in France. World Health Organization officials called a hastily arranged press conference today where they made the following statement.

  Today the World Health Organization has determined that the ECD virus has been detected in Paris, France. The patient held in isolation had not recently travelled outside of France, it is therefore the conclusion of the WHO that there is at least one, mostly likely now more than one, infected people in Paris whose locations are unknown. It is vital that the public notify the authorities of any suspected infections as quickly as possible. If you believe you are infected you should contact the authorities immediately.”

  “Shit” Mike whispered. So far the government had told Americans that the virus was contained. If someone in France could get infected, someone across an ocean, then anyone could get infected. There had to be infected people that were unaccounted for, maybe carriers that didn’t get sick themselves. He suddenly didn’t feel so safe being a couple thousand miles from LA.

  Mike knew he had to be ready for whatever was coming next, but how? How would he protect Liz and himself from an invisible virus? They couldn’t just stay home and lock the doors, they both had jobs, they needed an income and food. Besides, there was nothing to indicate they were in any danger.

>   He went back to the CNN homepage to see if there were any more stories. There was an article from the CDC on how to protect yourself, but it was the usual ‘store duct tape, cough into your elbow, wash your hands’ stuff he’d seen a dozen times before. There wasn’t much else. He tried the CDC site next, but again there was nothing of great benefit.

  Mike checked the clock and realized it was close to five. He decided to get out early and shut down his computer and headed to his car.

  Over dinner that night he and Liz discussed the news.

  “So I was thinking Liz, if the virus is in France, then how do we know where else it is?”

  “What do you mean? You think there could be people outside of LA who are infected? We’d know right? It would be on the news.”

  “I don’t know if it would. I mean, think about it, right now the government has told us there’s this really serious virus, it’s killed millions, but it’s all nicely contained in one corner of the country and none of us have anything to worry about. We believe it because we want to believe the government and we want to be safe, we want to believe we’re safe. What if we’re not? What if this is all some BS they’re telling us to keep everyone calm?”

  “What for? What do they have to gain?” Liz asked.

  “Well, I guess it’s control, if you tell someone they’re going to die and it doesn’t matter what they do, if you remove any consequences for their actions, well shit, who knows what some people would do?”

  Liz thought about this for a moment. “Ok, so say there are others out there who are infected, what can we do about it? Are we going to walk around with latex gloves and those face masks that doctors wear? Would that even help? How practical is that anyway?”

  “I don’t know Liz, that’s the problem. I don’t know what we should do. Part of me, the prepared part, tells me we should head for the hills, but the rational part, it tells me we have a mortgage and car payments.”

  “Yeah, there goes reality again. Damn!” Liz laughed

  “I know, in the movies, in the zombie apocalypse, no one is concerned about missing a payment on their Jeep. So much easier!” Mike laughed with her.

  Chapter Seven

  Colonel Moriarty was in her office and participating in a video conference meeting with members of the CDC, the Surgeon General, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the President of the United States of America. It was Moriarty’s turn to present.

  “It is now a little over six weeks since the first ECD case in Paris. Since then the virus has generally followed a direction that was predicted by computer models. It has appeared in urban centers and then radiated outwards, similar to ripples on water.

  Occasionally we have been surprised by a sudden outbreak much further ahead of the anticipated progression, but generally the virus is spreading as modeled. The largest challenge for Europe has been the differences in their health care systems. ECD shows no regard for geographical boundaries and in countries with less advanced medical systems it has been able to advance much faster than those with more rigid protocols.”

  Another female voice spoke and Moriarty’s computer screen changed to show the face of the Surgeon General. “Colonel Moriarty, how far has the virus spread as of today?”

  “All European countries are infected, even the United Kingdom despite its natural border. France has suffered the most with an estimated forty five million dead. The very infrastructure of the country has collapsed and those that are still alive are fending for themselves. More serious than the virus is the impact it has had on critical systems. France’s primary power source is nuclear and those power plants are now mostly unmanned. The UN has authorized a task force to enter these plants and shut them down in an orderly fashion to prevent them going into meltdown.”

  Moriarty continued. “I can project, based on our models, that the population of continental Europe will effectively be destroyed within five weeks. An optimistic percentage of the number of survivors would be less than one percent, assuming there are some people with a natural immunity along with some survivors who have simply managed to stay out of the way.

  Quite simply ECD is an invisible invader for which we have no defense. Unless an inoculation or a cure is developed we will see the human race reduced globally to approximately seventy million people within three months at the maximum. We have lost the ability to successfully quarantine the people who are left. Nearly every continent in the world has reported a significant ECD detection rate. It is now just a matter of time. Iceland stands alone in being so far ECD free. They’ve shut down all international travel.”

  “One percent? My God. What of the United States?” The question came from Admiral Macey of the Navy.

  Moriarty spoke. “So far we have been successful in controlling the reporting of the true spread of ECD in the US. Outside of this room the perception is that ECD is still contained within the Los Angeles area. However, the true spread of ECD is much more serious.

  We have had outbreaks in every state, including Hawaii. Most of these have numbered under one hundred infected, some have escalated to several thousand. These have all been contained and dealt with but more cases are being reported daily. I recommend now that our military forces are back in the United States that we immediately declare a national state of emergency to control the spread of ECD.

  We cannot control the information any longer, there are too many outbreaks. The best case scenario is that we manage to slow down ECD, control it’s spread long enough that we can prepare for continuity of government and be ready for what comes after all this.

  Normal protective measures appear ineffective, first responders using fitted N95 respirators have only a slightly smaller chance of infection than those who are unprotected. It is clear that even now we still do not fully understand how this virus is spreading. My estimate of a one percent survival rate equally applies to the United States, meaning a surviving population of around three million people.”

  There was silence from everyone in the conference. Then one voice spoke, the President of the United States. The President was largely respected and a liked politician. He had won the election just two years earlier and during that time had won over critics on both sides of the aisle.

  “Colonel Moriarty. What you are suggesting is something that no President has done in the history of this country. The public will panic, there will be rioting, if a man knows there is no consequence for his actions, if he knows there is no hope, what is there to prevent that man from committing heinous and immoral actions?

  Neighbors will turn on neighbors, our entire country will I fear, turn overnight into a wild and lawless place. We know that police officers abandoned their posts during Katrina and what you suggest we tell the American people is a thousand fold more serious.”

  Moriarty considered the President's words.

  “Mr President. I don’t suggest for one moment you should announce the imminent demise of the human race, but you must prepare the American people for what is coming. The alternative is we continue to hide the truth and they will soon see for themselves just how serious their situation is.

  Without leadership I believe the situation will be much worse. They, we, need our President to address the nation, even if we cannot do anything to help our fellow citizens, we owe them the truth about how far ECD has spread. Right now you have the power to delay the virus, even if it gives us a few more weeks, it’s time we otherwise wouldn’t have, time to prepare for what happens afterwards.”

  A long silence followed, the automatic pick up on the video conference started to rotate through the various members in the conference, each was pictured staring into their monitor, some held their heads as if the weight of the problem they faced were too much.

  “Colonel, I believe you are right. The American people deserve the truth, delivered in a way that gives them some hope. I will address the nation tomorrow.”

  The video conference ended.

  Chapter Eight

  Mike and Liz were
in bed. It was a slow Saturday morning and they had no reason to be anywhere other than they were. Then Liz’s cell phone rang, the caller ID said it was Nadine.

  “Nadine! Hi, how are you?” Liz was pleased to hear from her sister.

  “Hey Sis, did you see the news yet?” Nadine sounded panicked.

  “No? Why? Mike turn on the TV.”

  Mike reached for the remote and flicked on the TV to CNN, then turned up the volume.

  “…and we’ll bring further news when we have it. For those of you just joining us this Saturday morning, the White House has announced there will be a special address from the President of the United States at 10am Eastern. No details have been given about the address, of course CNN will be providing full coverage of the event right here…”

  “What do you think it’s for?” Nadine asked.