The Journal (Book 5): Fault Line

by Deborah D. Moore

  “Viruses don’t live long without a host,” Christine said. “Although a few years back some scientists dug up a grave from the 1918 Spanish Flu outbreak in the Yukon or Alaska or someplace really cold, and the virus was still alive. Heat kills the bug, but cold only makes it go into stasis.”

  Trevor ran hot water in the sink until it was steaming, and then closed the trap. He added some soap, some bleach, and then the bills.

  “You’re laundering money,” Christine joked.

  Trevor laughed too. “I know it seems silly, but I’d rather we were safe. Seriously, what if he did put something on the bills to make us sick? We would never know. Actually, it’s rather ingenious: twenty dollar bills are the most common and are passed around daily. By the time it was discovered, the germ or whatever was on it, would have dissipated and hundreds of people would be infected with no proof of how.”

  ***

  Herbert was angry again. His scheme didn’t go as planned. Those two weren’t sick at all. He had to do something himself. He pulled out his wallet again and put three twenties on the table, doused them each with the new virus, and slipped them into a plastic bag. He would make sure they got into waiting hands.

  ***

  “That was a wonderful sandwich,” Dr. Hebert told the waitress at the café. “May I have a bit more coffee and the bill please?” It really was a good sandwich, salami and Swiss on rye, his favorite, and he almost regretted what he was about to do. Almost. He glanced at the bill and with a gloved hand, placed one of the tainted twenties on top. “Keep the change,” he said on his way out the door, smiling.

  His next stop was the thrift shop where he bought a pair of warm gloves and a knit cap, telling the elderly clerk the change could go into the donation box. He didn’t want change from any of them once they touched the contaminated bill. After leaving that shop, Hebert spotted the T’N’M convenience store on Main street, and headed in that direction.

  ***

  The buzzer let Trevor know the front door had been opened and he set down the newspaper he had been reading while he sat behind the register. The customer had already turned down the first aisle so all Trevor could see was their back, though something about the way he walked was vaguely familiar.

  Marcus Hebert picked up a few items at random: a bag of potato chips, a chilled bottle of juice, and a bag of peanut snacks, mentally calculating that the purchase would be close to twenty dollars.

  Trevor let his face go neutral, hiding the shock of seeing Dr. Creepy in his store, especially so soon after that weird phone call to Christine.

  “Good afternoon, Dr. Hebert,” Trevor said without a trace of emotion.

  Hebert’s head snapped up at the sound of his name. He had been so preoccupied with his mission he’d failed to see the young man behind the counter.

  Oh! he thought. This is perfect! He would get those two after all!

  “Well good afternoon, Trevor! I didn’t know you worked here! How are you?”

  “I’m well, thank you. Is this all for you?” He remained professional, ringing the purchases up. Hebert nodded with a grin that sent chills up Trevor’s spine.

  Hebert reached in his left pocket, pulled out the remaining twenty, and set it down, sliding it toward Trevor, who only got a brief glimpse of the flesh colored glove.

  Trevor got change from the register, and handed it to the doctor, never touching the bill. When Hebert noticed the bill still on the counter, he looked up and saw Trevor smiling at him.

  “Is there something wrong, Trevor?”

  “You tell me, doctor.”

  Hebert straightened his back, took his purchases, and left without a word.

  He can’t possibly know, he thought, walking briskly back to his car.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  The first casualty of the new outbreak of flu was Mae Singleton, the waitress and part owner of the café. The second was her eight-year-old asthmatic son. They had both checked into the hospital the morning after Mae was passed the tainted bill. The virus was new and strong and attacked her lungs with a vengeance, inducing a cytokine storm in her immune system that killed her in less than twenty-four hours. Mae was near comatose for much of time and was saved the agony of knowing her only child had died hours earlier.

  The virus spread quickly. The two bills infected the recipients, and they in turn infected everyone they came in contact with; a spark that became a wildfire.

  ***

  “I’m telling you, Marty, that Dr. Hebert from the CDC is spreading this virus on purpose!” Trevor insisted. Trevor and Christine had already related, in detail, their encounters with the man.

  “Trevor, I believe you. Honestly. Without any of the bills, though, I can’t prove anything!” Marty paced, obviously frustrated.

  “Can’t we just tell his superiors what we know and let them decide what to do?” Christine suggested, glancing at Trevor.

  “I suppose, but again, it would be our word against his.”

  ***

  “Why didn’t you tell Marty that we still had the bill he paid at the store with?” Christine asked.

  “I don’t know,” Trevor answered, his head in his hands. “I know we froze it to preserve the virus as evidence, but what if all it does is make us a target? What if it isn’t just Hebert behind this? It could be the whole CDC, or at the least a branch of it. I’m not willing to risk our lives.”

  “And I guess we really don’t know if the bill is actually infected,” Christine said, sitting beside him.

  “There may be a way to find out,” Trevor said with a grin.

  ***

  Trevor pulled into the parking lot at the new CDC office in his red Mustang. He intentionally picked a spot up close to get the attention of the person at the reception desk.

  “I’ve got more of these surveys for Dr. Hebert,” he said smoothly. “Is he in?” Trevor already knew he wasn’t since he’d watched the doctor leave ten minutes earlier.

  “Uh, no, he isn’t. Is that your car?” the young man asked in awe.

  “Yeah, a beauty, isn’t it?” Trevor smiled at how easy this was going to be. “Would you mind keeping an eye on it while I drop these sheets off? I’ll only be a minute.”

  “Uh, yeah, go ahead.” The young man walked over to the window for a better view.

  Trevor quickly moved down the hall to the office with Hebert’s name on it and silently stepped inside. He set the blank surveys on the desk and since he already had surgical gloves on underneath his winter ones it was a simple matter of taking the plastic bag from his pocket and removing the ten dollar bill, which he placed on the office chair behind the desk. He stuffed the baggie in his pocket and stepped back into the hall.

  Seeing the young man still ogling his car, Trevor breathed a sigh of relief. “Hey, thanks!” he said walking out the front door.

  ***

  “Tell me again what it is you did,” Christine prompted.

  “I took a ten and rubbed it with the twenty he tried to pass me. If there is indeed a virus planted on the twenty, we should know soon. I set the ten at the edge of the cushion on Hebert’s chair, like it might have fallen out of his pocket or dropped somehow. Since he’s been using twenties for his dirty work, a ten shouldn’t alarm him. I’m hoping he’ll just put it back in his own wallet, catching the virus himself. If he doesn’t come down sick, then we were wrong and no harm done. However, if he does get sick, then we’ve stopped him from hurting anyone else.”

  ***

  “Trevor, Christine, Doc Adams asked me to check in with you,” Chief Marty said when Trevor answered the door.

  “What’s up, Marty?” Trevor and Christine had been talking earlier about Dr. Creepy, and noted it had been over a week since the plant of the ten dollar bill. They had both been extremely cautious when working the store, and had avoided anyone sick.

  “Doc has been busier than a one armed paper hanger with this new virus going around. It’s a really bad one. Since you had the last one, he thought you m
ight be vulnerable to it, but he hasn’t had a chance to stop by,” Marty replied. “You both look well, so I might conclude you haven’t caught this new flu.”

  “No, we’re doing all the things that Doc suggested before, plus wearing gloves all the time at the store and masks whenever someone comes in,” explained Christine. “What does that Dr. Hebert have to say about this latest outbreak?”

  “That’s another thing I wanted you to know, since you two have been suspicious of him,” Marty stated. “I stopped to see him yesterday on behalf of Doc Adams, to see if there was any help he could give in treating this virus. The CDC has left.”

  “What do you mean ‘left’?” Trevor questioned.

  “That’s it, just left! The place is closed up tight and vacant. No one there at all. When I told Doc that, he made a few phone calls. Now, this is the interesting part. By all accounts, Hebert came down sick, really sick. He was evacuated during the middle of the night a week ago. The employees were told to pack everything up and to sanitize the place, and then they were evacuated. No one knows where any of them are now, or at least they’re not telling.”

  “I don’t know what to say, Marty.” Trevor and Christine exchanged a knowing look. “How bad is this new virus? Does Doc Adams have a handle on how it’s transmitted, the incubation time, or anything else?”

  “He says it’s like any other virus: it’s both airborne and contact. Plus, this one seems to have mutated quickly, oddly to a less hazardous form. He thinks it should die out on its own in another week or two. That being said, these first two weeks have been devastating. Fifty percent of our population caught it, and ninety percent of those have died.” Marty shuddered.

  “That’s horrible, Marty!” Christine whispered, aghast. “I guess we’ve been lucky.”

  “Marty… we’ve also been following Marion’s advice,” Trevor said, surprising Christine. “She gave us a couple of bottles of vitamins and supplements the last time I was sick, and I stocked some through the store.”

  “She’s a smart woman,” Marty chuckled. “She has my daily pills waiting for me in the morning, and nags me until I take them. I’ll tell her you’ve been following her lead on this. Who knows? Maybe her advice has kept us all healthy.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  “It sure is cold out for March!” Trevor commented when Christine poured their morning tea.

  “I didn’t know if that was normal or not since I moved here last May when it was warm,” she replied. “And March was cool in Ft. Wayne.”

  “I’ve been here most of my life, and this is cold,” he shivered. “By the way, how are our supplies in the basement? Do you need me to bring anything home tonight?”

  “I was hesitant to mention anything. Truthfully, I keep hoping that things will get back to normal and I can do my usual grocery shopping.”

  “Babe, let’s not keep things like this from each other, okay?” Christine nodded glumly. “So, what do we need?”

  “Coffee, macaroni, bathroom tissue, soups, anything heat and eat, and I’ve had a real craving for pork and beans.” He gave her a sharp, scared look. “Oh, and tampons.”

  He closed his eyes in relief. “Don’t scare me like that.” When she gave him a quizzical look he added, “You said craving…” and she burst out laughing.

  ***

  When Christine let Holly out during the early afternoon, she noticed that dark clouds had moved in from the northwest and the temperature had dropped another five degrees. When she let the dog back in, there were a few drops of rain in the air. She turned the TV on for some weather reports.

  “…band of moisture moving in from the west,” Matt Zika was saying, pointing to the map behind him. “Add that with the cold front coming down from Canada and it could bring some cold rain, even some freezing conditions, though that would be unusual for this time of year.”

  Christine glanced out at the darkening sky.

  “Come on, girl, let’s go see Trevor,” she said, and the canine wagged her tail at the mention of Trevor’s name. She grabbed the keys to the SUV and backed the four-wheeled drive vehicle out of the garage, glad she had also worn her warm jacket.

  Rain splattered on the windshield with a soft ping, easily swiped away with the windshield wipers.

  ***

  “This is a pleasant surprise,” Trevor said, giving Christine a quick kiss and Holly an ear scratch. The dog then went to her blanket behind the counter. “Did you forget something for your list?”

  “No, but when the rain started and the temperature dropped more I thought you should have the SUV in case it gets worse.”

  “Don’t trust your Cruiser?” he joked.

  “No, I don’t. The weatherman said it’s possible to get freezing rain and PT isn’t four wheel drive like the SUV.”

  “Hey, don’t get upset. I appreciate that you want to trade cars so I’ll be safer, however, now I’ll worry about you until you get back home.” He hugged her. “Since you’re here, you can pick out the groceries you want.”

  They filled two boxes with items and set them in the back of the PT Cruiser, along with a bag of dog food.

  “It’s raining harder, Trevor. Why don’t you close up early and come home?”

  “I may do that in a little while. There are people that depend on me being open though. If it gets much worse I’ll close up, okay?”

  ***

  Christine drove home cautiously. The streets were slippery in spots and she maneuvered carefully around a couple of accidents. By the time she got to the driveway, her hands were cramping from holding the steering wheel so tight. As she drove up to the garage door, the car slid sideways. She coasted back down to the street and tried again. Once more the car slid at the same spot. She parked the car at the bottom of the driveway, let Holly out, and the two walked carefully up toward the opened garage. When she approached the area where the car slid, Christine slipped and fell, landing on her arm. Holly whined when Christine cried out in pain. On her knees and balancing with one hand, she made it to the safety of the dry garage. It was raining hard now.

  “Okay, Holly, you get inside, I’ll see what I can do here,” she said to the dog. The dog sat on the top step into the house and refused to go in. Christine tucked her left hand into the opening of her jacket to support her injured arm and looked around the garage until she found a bag of rock salt. Taking a handful, she tossed it onto the quickly growing sheet of ice. And then another and another.

  “This will take forever!” she complained. She found an empty soup can in the trash and filled it with salt, sprinkling it as she slowly made her way toward her car. After three refills, she used the last under the front tires, hoping it would give her enough traction to move the car.

  Once inside, Christine lowered the garage door and let Holly into the house, leaving the door open. With one arm, she awkwardly dragged one of the heavy boxes up the two steps and into the kitchen. After the second box was safely inside, she went back and opened the overhead door on the empty side of the garage. Using the last of the rock salt, she treated the area of the driveway that appeared to have the heaviest coating of ice. Exhausted, and in a great deal of pain, she went inside and closed the door, leaving the overhead door open for Trevor.

  ***

  “Trevor? Are you still here?” Chief Marty called out.

  “Yeah, Marty, I was just getting some extra groceries before closing up.”

  “I hope you didn’t drive that Mustang today. It’s a real mess out there,” Marty warned.

  “No, I left it back at the parking garage, so I drove the Cruiser. However, Christine came by and left me the SUV. I thought it unnecessary at the time, but now…” Trevor looked out at the freezing rain.

  “It’s still going to be a rough drive even with the four wheel drive, so you be careful,” Marty said. “Since you’re still open, can I get a few things to take home to Marion? We may all be in for a few days.”

  “Of course, let me get a box for you.”

&
nbsp; While Marty loaded the box with food, Trevor lowered and locked the security gates. He emptied the register into the pouch, and started turning off lights, just as the lights flickered.

  “Looks like we might lose power too,” Marty said, noticing the fluctuation. “This is already the worst ice storm I’ve seen here. How much do I owe you?”

  “I’ll just put it on your tab, my friend. I need to get home and so do you.”

  After scraping the ice off the windshield and letting the rear defroster work on the back, Trevor carefully pulled out of the side street, and felt the on-demand four wheel drive kick in as soon as he made contact with the slippery street.

  ***

  The lights flickered in the house and then went out. Holly found Christine in the bathroom looking for aspirin, and leaned against her so she knew the dog was there. A pat on the head reassured both of them. With the house in total darkness, Christine headed for the bedroom where she knew there was a flashlight, Holly by her side. When she tried to turn into the room, Holly nudged her a bit further. She realized she had almost walked into the door jamb, and gave the dog another pat.

  “You’re such a good girl,” Christine said to the dog and with the flashlight firmly in her right hand and still cradling her left, made her way back to the dark kitchen and the door that led to the basement. She descended the stairs slowly, not being able to hold on to the railing. “I sure hope Trevor put those lanterns back on the shelf. Maybe next time I should do it so I know where they are.” She found talking aloud to the dog comforting.