THE PANDEMIC DIARIES
THE COMPLETE THREE-BOOK SERIES
BOOKS BY K.W. CALLAHAN
THE SYSTEMIC SERIES: DOWNFALL
THE SYSTEMIC SERIES: QUEST
THE SYSTEMIC SERIES: DESCENT
THE SYSTEMIC SERIES: FORSAKEN
THE SYSTEMIC SERIES: ASCENSION
AFTERMATH: PART I
AFTERMATH: PART II
AFTERMATH: PART III
THE M.O.D. FILES: THE CASE OF THE GUEST WHO STAYED OVER
THE M.O.D. FILES: THE CASE OF THE LINEN PRESSED GUEST
PALOS HEIGHTS
PANDEMIC DIARY: SHELTER IN PLACE
PANDEMIC DIARY: FLEE ON FOOT
PANDEMIC DIARY: PANDEMIC PIONEERS
K.W. CALLAHAN
PANDEMIC DIARY: SHELTER IN PLACE
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual person living or dead, businesses, or events is entirely coincidental.
Text and image copyright © 2016 KW Callahan
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Callahan, K.W.
Pandemic Diary: Shelter in Place / K.W. Callahan
ISBN: 1-523-88893-8
PANDEMIC DIARY: SHELTER IN PLACE
Friday, August 30 th
6:18 pm
I’ve never kept a journal before, but after today, I decided this might be a good time to start. I wanted a way to document what I’ve seen happening lately. I don’t really want to talk to Kate about it. I don’t want to scare her. But I need some sort of outlet to get this stuff off my chest. I mean, today at work is a perfect example. People were going ape shit over nothing. They’re all whacked out about this flu thing that’s supposedly going around. Sure, I don’t exactly want to get sick either, but hell, I got my flu shot. And while I know that’s no guarantee I won’t pick up a new strain, it’s not like I’m in the demographics for dying from the flu. That’s what happens to old folks and babies, right? They’re the ones most commonly killed by the flu…at least that’s what I’ve heard. Still, people are going a little bit nuts.
Anyway, back to my wild day at work. So I get there at about quarter of seven, just like usual. I get my coffee, check my voicemail, read emails, run the daily assignment sheets, get them handed out right on time at eight, do the morning meeting, and everything is going smooth. Just a normal Friday. After the morning meeting, I head back to my desk, flip on the television in my office, and start to respond to a few of my email messages. The news was on, and a reporter downtown was interviewing people about this flu that’s going around – the “Su” flu they’re calling it since they say it originated in the Gansu province of China.
So the news guy is talking to a middle-aged black woman about whether she was taking any extra preparations to avoid the flu this year. There’s a crowd of people around her and suddenly one of them starts coughing. It wasn’t any big deal, just some dude coughing, like he’s got something stuck in his throat. But this big guy next to him starts yelling and then shoves the coughing guy away. He’s going nuts because he thinks the coughing guy might have the flu and is spreading it around. The guy he shoves doesn’t care too much for being pushed, and he pushes the bigger dude right back. Anyway, it all breaks down. The two guys start fighting right there on the street on live television. Then a couple more people get involved trying to break up the first two and it becomes an all-out free-for-all. It was pretty awesome, but I’ll admit, at the same time it was kind of scary. It shows just how far people will go if they feel threatened.
Amazingly, that wasn’t the craziest part of the day. After lunch, Jessica, one of my favorite sales people from a local supplier, stopped by the office. She usually pops in every other week or so just to check in, kill a few minutes chatting and take our regular order. It’s not necessary, just a nice customer service tactic in what seems to be an increasingly impersonal business world…but I digress.
So Jessica rolls into my office just after lunch time. We chat for a few minutes, and she tells me she’s picked up a late-summer cold – likely from one of her kids who started school last week. We’re just shooting the breeze, talking about our kids, our plans for the weekend, stuff like that. Then, while I’m giving her our supply order, two of our building’s security guards come into the office; they don’t even knock, they just barge right in. Being a small manufacturing facility that operates out of one half of the building, there’s not a large security force around. It’s usually just a couple guys who monitor the parking lot and do a roaming patrol of the building and exterior grounds. So it was a surprise for them to come into my office. Weirder yet, they were wearing white masks (like doctors in surgery wear) and latex gloves.
I asked them what was up, but they just ignored me. Instead, they headed straight for Jessica. She was in the middle of blowing her nose when they grabbed her kind of roughly and hauled her out of the office. I didn’t have a clue as to what was going on. I thought maybe she’d done something wrong; you know, run over somebody in the parking lot or stole something. My mind was running wild with what might have elicited such a response from the guards. I tried to get them to stop, but they just kept kind of pushing and pulling Jessica along between them. They totally ignored me. In fact, I took a pretty good elbow to the midsection when I got in the way at one point when they were hauling her outside.
I felt bad for her. She didn’t appear to know what the hell was going on either and was completely freaking out. She started yelling about lawsuits and everything else. I couldn’t blame her, it was nuts!
Seeing Jessica coughing and blowing her nose, I guess somebody from our office had called security. Thinking she had the flu or Su flu or whatever, they reported her to security. In turn, security – having been watching all the news coverage of this new flu strain – was hyper-sensitive to anyone they thought might have it. So they must have called the authorities. In turn, the police must have sent a response team to the building, which according to the nightly news, I guess is the new norm for handling this kind of thing.
So they ended up hauling off poor Jessica. I followed her outside where there were two police cars and a mobile unit from the CDC waiting. I haven’t heard from her since. I called her a couple times on her cell, texted her, emailed her, and even called her office. They haven’t heard from her either.
It’s wild. Almost like a movie. I asked around after Jessica was taken away, but nobody owned up to calling security. I have a feeling it was my assistant, Jerry. I noticed him on the phone a few minutes after Jessica arrived, but he denied it.
By the end of the day, two employees who had exhibited cold or flu-like symptoms had been sent home, two more had been hauled off by the CDC, and five more were refusing to come to work next Tuesday after the long weekend. Out of the 15 employees in our office, only six were willing to return to work after Labor Day, and most of them only agreed to do so on the condition that this flu thing settles down over the weekend. With a potential walkout on my hands, I gave Suzanne (our regional VP) a call. She said to call it an early weekend and shut the office down for the rest of the day. About 30 minutes ago, I got a text from her telling me that we are keeping the office closed until further notice due to the spreading flu virus.
Well, that’s enough for now – my hand hurts. I’m not used to writing this much anymore. Reminds me of grade school. Plus, it sounds like Violet and Dylan are fighting and Kate’s having a tough time wrangling the little beasts to sit down for dinner.
Guess it’s time for Superdad to save the day (yeah…right!).
10:48 p.m.
Yes, I’m still awake, writing in near darkness. I can’t sleep. Kate’s here in bed beside me, out like a light…as usual. That girl could sleep through nuclear Armageddon.
I’ve been flipping back and forth watching the non-stop television coverage of this Su flu stuff on all the news networks. It’s kind of cool but kind of frightening at the same time. With work and all, I haven’t paid much attention to it lately, but I guess this new flu strain is more serious than everybody thought, or at least more serious than I thought.
Sure, I’ve been seeing the headlines in the newspapers and “alerts” on the news. But to be honest, I just figured it was the usual attention grabbers to gain readership or get more viewers while distracting us all from how terribly the politicians are doing their jobs. Now it looks like some people have actually died from this flu strain, and not just old people, people my age, and Kate’s age – healthy, reasonably young people.
It seems as though people are starting to get nervous about all this. The current flu vaccine doesn’t seem to be working and they have no backups or alternatives to combat the spread of this strain. The symptoms sound pretty terrible. I guess the virus ends up shutting down vital organs, and it happens pretty quickly.
I’m worried about work too. I don’t want the office closed for too long. If we’re down for more than a week, it’s going to kill our numbers for the quarter and that could mean missing the mark for our annual bonuses. That would suck big time. No vacation to Florida for the holidays if that happens. The kids would be SUPER disappointed.
Okay, time to try to get some sleep. I doubt things will change much between now and when Violet comes sneaking into our bed at the ass-crack of dawn.
P.S. – A note for tomorrow: Make sure to go with Kate to the store in the morning. Load up on some extra water, canned goods, cereal, milk, etc. I don’t want to sound like a nut, but after watching all these news reports, I’m starting to get nervous.
Saturday, August 31st
7:32 a.m.
Well, I was wrong. Things HAVE actually gotten worse since last night.
According to the local news, Chicago area hospitals continue to see an influx of flu-related patients. City emergency services are being stretched to the limit by calls from people who think they might be sick but are afraid to go to the hospital. They think that if they don’t already have the flu, by going to the hospital, they might catch it there. Then there are the people who would like to go to the hospital but are afraid to because to get there, they’d have to take public transportation, which city officials are saying is a Petri dish for flu breeding. I guess this thing is EXTREMELY contagious so people are being advised to stay home unless it’s absolutely necessary to leave.
If you’re dying from the flu, though, isn’t it kind of necessary to leave?
Meanwhile, I get the weekend shopping duties. Yea me! The whole family was supposed to go together, but with all this flu talk, I decided it would be safer for me to go alone. I want to stock up on some extra stuff anyway…just in case.
11:48 a.m.
Well that whole experience was INSANELY ridiculous. It took me almost four hours to get to the grocery store (only a mile away), get some of what we needed, and get home. The streets were jammed. The parking lots were packed. The store was filled to capacity. I guess I’m not the only one with some concerns about this flu thing. Thank God we don’t live closer to downtown. I can only imagine what a mess it is there.
I was only able to get about half of what was on my list. Kate and the kids are currently working on putting the stuff away. Sweet Violet digs stuff out of the bags, hands them to Dylan, who in turn gives them to Kate. It’s the cutest little assembly line.
While they finish up, I’m going to take the opportunity to walk over to Devries’, a locally-owned grocery store just a couple blocks from our condo. Because they’re a neighborhood market, they tend to have higher prices and a smaller selection of products, thus the reason we don’t typically shop there. It also means that they aren’t usually as busy as the big chain stores. Hopefully, I can find the rest of what’s on my list there.
1:13 p.m.
Back from Devries’. It was pretty crowded but not as bad as the big grocery store. Cost me an arm and a leg, but I got corned beef, powdered milk, and some stuff that the other store was out of. The shelves at Devries’ were already looking pretty bare. I’m glad I was able to get out fairly early and load up when I could. Now we can settle in and enjoy the rest of the long weekend.
9:03 p.m.
Just a few thoughts while Kate gets Dylan tucked in and before we watch the movie we picked up from the library the other day.
First, this flu thing might really be something serious. I’d like to go to Riverside tomorrow for the picnic we’d planned, but I’m not sure it’s the best idea. I think that maybe we should just stick around the house this weekend. I don’t want to be a reclusive shut-in or anything, but I also don’t want to risk anyone getting sick.
Uh oh, Kate’s back now, movie in hand. She’s giving me the evil eye. We don’t get much alone time anymore. I’d better stop writing before she falls asleep on the couch and we have to postpone movie night…again. It’d be the third time this month.
Sunday, September 1 st
4:38 p.m.
We just got back from Riverside a little bit ago. I know I said we were debating whether or not to go, but I’m so glad we gave it a whirl.
It was a hot, yet lovely day. It was only around 80 degrees, but the humidity made it feel more like 90. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and a soft breeze at least helped to circulate the moist air.
We parked near the library and took a brief walk around Fredrick Law Olmstead’s incredibly well-planned community. We love to absorb the classic beauty of the village’s massive Victorian homes. After that, we walked down to the park that borders the Des Plaines River. There, Dylan and I threw the football for a bit while Kate and Violet picked flowers, chased butterflies, and inspected various beetles and other bugs. Then we regrouped and spent a few minutes throwing rocks into the river. I used the opportunity to teach Dylan how to skip some of the flatter rocks we found along the river bank over the water’s surface. He got a couple successful skips in before we continued walking along the path that follows the river to nearby Lyons, where the big dam used to be. But we didn’t want to walk too far since Violet was hungry and complaining that her feet hurt.
So we made our way back to the car, unloaded our picnic basket, and ate lunch in the park between the library and the historic train station. From our spot, we were able to watch the Metra trains shoot back and forth between downtown and the western suburbs as well as a couple freight trains or “freighters” as Violet calls them, rumble past.
Kate had packed ham sandwiches for us, and we gorged on potato chips, chocolate chip cookies, some potato salad, juice boxes for the kids, and bottled waters for me and Kate.
All in all, it was a wonderful day. Better yet, no one was really around, so we had very little contact with the public, thus, no worries regarding the flu.
** Mental note: Violet loved playing at the park. Doing something in Riverside might be a good idea for her 5th birthday coming up next month.
Monday, September 2 nd
(Labor Day)
9:13 a.m.
Well that wasn’t fun. I just finished breaking the bad news to the kids that we won’t be attending the Labor Day baseball game between the Cubs and Sox. Dylan took it the hardest. The tickets were his 8th birthday present several months ago. Now both kids are in their rooms crying.
For as nice as yesterday was, today is starting off pretty shitty. Heck, I’m disappointed myself. I’d been looking forward to the game for months, and I hate playing the bad guy and disappointing the kids. But after watching the news this morning, there was no way I was going to take my family downtown on the train to sit among a human stew of bacteria at the ballpark. If anyone wants to get sick, that would
be the way to do it in my opinion.
Apparently, things aren’t getting any better out there with this flu thing. In fact, it looks like they’re getting worse. A lot of events are being cancelled for tomorrow, numerous businesses are saying they’ll be closed, and Kate and I are wondering whether Dylan will have school.
There have been more deaths from the flu and the hospitals are still jammed. I don’t like the way this thing is headed. There still hasn’t been any report of available vaccines, and it looks like Chicago isn’t the only big city having problems with this particular flu strain. In fact, just about every major city is reporting widespread outbreaks and massive influxes of patients at their hospitals…and dozens of deaths so far. News reports are currently estimating flu-related deaths are already topping 1000 nationwide – kind of freaky stuff if you ask me. Worse yet, it seems that once you get the virus, it only takes a couple days for it to kill you. It spreads from organ to organ, shutting them down, leaving the host’s body unable to mount any sort of defense against the disease. Sounds pretty terrible. I think the scariest part is that from the reports I’ve heard, no one is getting better after coming down with the virus.
The Pandemic Diaries [Books 1-3] Page 1