The Jakarta Pandemic

by Steven Konkoly

“Works for me,” he said, continuing up the stairs.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Monday, November 18, 2013

  “Good morning, this is Matt Reynolds. Julia Williams is filling in for Diane this morning. Our top stories this morning focus on the Jakarta flu worldwide and at home. Simply put, the worldwide figures are staggering, with Asia in the middle of an uncontained, and apparently uncontrollable pandemic disaster, and Europe, South America, and Africa following a similar pattern. Here in the U.S., the situation is deteriorating quickly, with labor absenteeism rates skyrocketing, and the total number of Jakarta flu cases multiplying daily.

  “According to CDC figures, the total number of confirmed cases of the Jakarta flu rose from around 90,000 last week to nearly 215,000 today, with a large majority of these cases centered near major metropolitan areas. Worse hit cities so far are New York City, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, and Miami, accounting for over 125,000 of the total number of cases, with New York City alone reporting over 30,000 cases.

  “This number only represents the cases confirmed by health officials through testing. As anyone on the street will attest, symptoms of the flu seem everywhere, and even CDC officials admit that the actual number of cases waiting to be confirmed could be three to four times the officially reported numbers.

  “Hospitals and medical facilities in the heaviest hit metro areas are operating at near full capacity. DHS officials estimate that the nation’s hospitals will likely reach or exceed surge capacity by the middle of the week and have taken steps to deploy all remaining Federal Medical Stations to the hardest hit areas.

  “Three of these stations have already been established in New York City, and one is operational in Los Angeles. Furthermore, DHS officials have assured state governments that all remaining Strategic National Stockpile assets have been slated for the soonest possible delivery to individual states.

  “On Saturday, in a hastily assembled pandemic summit at the Department of Energy headquarters in Washington, officials from Department of Transportation, Energy, Labor, and Agriculture met with private sector food and energy leaders to develop and implement short-term solutions to the growing food and energy crisis. High absenteeism rates have plagued both fuel and food deliveries nationwide, nearly crippling the nation’s food distribution and supply system.

  “Coupled with weeks of unusually high demand, industry officials state that the system has been stretched to its limit. Several states have already taken steps to activate all of their National Guard units, though their roles in the pandemic response effort have not been announced. Department of Defense officials refuse to comment on the possibility of using active duty military personnel to augment reserve and National Guard roles.

  On Sunday, Energy officials at the pandemic summit voiced strong concerns over the continued operation of the nation’s electricity grid in the face of an unreliable coal supply to the nation’s network of coal-powered power plants. Department of Energy officials and energy leaders have already implemented a plan to divert coal reserves to power plants feeding the grid’s weak points.

  “DOE officials are close to announcing the launch of a nationwide effort to conserve electricity. D.C. insiders predict that this announcement will be part of a presidential broadcast tentatively scheduled for later this week. The presidential address is rumored to include several broad sweeping measures designed to minimize the pandemic’s impact on the population and critical infrastructure. Let’s go to Maria Castelli for our international update.”

  “Let’s not,” Alex said, muting the television.

  “Not interested in the rest of the world?”

  “I don’t know. It’s the same thing. The numbers are rising. Death rate’s increasing. I’m a lot more concerned about what’s happening right here in the U.S., New England in particular. This machine makes some damn good coffee.”

  “Yeah, it’s awesome,” Kate said, taking another sip, “though I kinda feel like an ass sitting around making cappuccinos while the world crumbles around us.”

  He stifled a laugh. “I don’t know. We can’t wrap every single thing we do around that kind of a framework. You could spend the entire day questioning everything. This is just how it is for us. No different than any other day of the year when we run water in the sink while millions of people worldwide struggle for water. You’ll drive yourself crazy. This is no different,” he said, not really satisfied with his own rationalization.

  “I guess, I just keep thinking about all of the food and supplies we have downstairs, and I wonder if we’re making the right decision. If we shouldn’t make a hardcore assessment of how much we’ll really need to survive through the winter and come up with a plan to spread it around the neighborhood. I’m just wondering what it’s going to be like around here when the first wave of the flu passes, and everything starts to return to normal.”

  “What do you mean?” Alex asked.

  “Well, I guess I’m looking at how we’re going to fit in around here, if we choose to turn our backs on the neighborhood. I think if we make a better effort…”

  “No matter what we do, this neighborhood will be a vastly different place in the spring. We have a lot of stuff in the basement, but nowhere near enough to make a lasting impact on the neighborhood. We have over thirty families here, and our stockpile can probably feed four, maybe five families comfortably for the duration of the first and second wave. If we open the stockpile to the neighborhood, it’ll be like opening Pandora’s box. The consequences of trying to shut it down, once opened, will be worse for us than never opening it in the first place. Plus, I’ve already promised Ed that we’d take care of his family, and I plan to stock up the McDaniel house when Jamie is released from the hospital.”

  “How many of these promises do you have out there that I don’t know about?”

  “That’s it. While we were at Jamie’s, Ed packed up a bunch of food in a suitcase for the girls, and I suggested that he pack up more food for the Bartletts, to compensate them for feeding the girls for most of the week. He didn’t want to stretch their food supply too thin, so I told him not to worry about it, and that I’d take care of it. I see it as a way to ensure the girls are treated fairly until Jamie gets back and can take care of them,” he said.

  “You didn’t say that in front of Todd or Eric, did you?”

  “I don’t think so…maybe. Things were pretty crazy in that garage. I might have,” he said tentatively.

  Why is she railing on me like this?

  “I really hope you didn’t,” Kate said, “because if you did, then Todd’s going to be all over us when things get really bad over at his house. So, basically, we’re supporting the Walkers and the McDaniels unofficially, and the Thorntons, too?”

  “No, not the Walkers. I just told him that if his kids got the flu from school, I would hook him up with some anti-virals. I think we would have heard from him by now. He’ll be the least of our problems. He’s set for food, and he seems to get it about the quarantine idea,” Alex argued.

  “Right, but if anyone in his family gets sick, you know where his first stop will be? And we’re down to thirteen courses of anti-virals,” Kate griped.

  “If we do this right, and don’t get involved, we won’t need to use any of the anti-virals. Why are we arguing about this?”

  “Because, once again, you’re out there making deals that conflict with our original plan, Alex.”

  He set his coffee mug down on the island and took a deep breath, knowing Kate was right. His level of involvement within the neighborhood was slowly escalating, and may have already fostered enough negative sentiment toward them to jeopardize their safety. He turned in the chair and faced Kate, grabbing her hands.

  “You’re right. There’s been a bit of a double standard…”

  “A bit?” she interrupted.

  “Hey, I’m trying to apologize here.”

  She eyed him suspiciously. “Go on.”


  “Anyway, I’m sorry that I’ve been making decisions without you. You’re right. I need to limit my involvement to matters directly affecting this house and quit aggravating our neighbors. So, what I propose is that we honor any promises already made, but I…we won’t promise anything else. I wish we could help more people, but we can’t without jeopardizing our own situation. Aside from that, we should still maintain enough contact with our friends to make sure we know what’s going on around the neighborhood. We don’t want to get blindsided.”

  “Apology accepted. I was really getting worried. I know that it’s hard to stick with a plan once you’re faced with the complexities and realities of real world adversity. You’ve been through some tough spots and probably know this better than anyone. We really need you to pull this off for us,” Kate said compassionately.

  He knew that she was talking about his time in Iraq. Unlike many combat veterans, Alex had shared details of his combat tour with his wife. Though he had excluded many of the grotesque details from his stories, Kate probably had a better understanding of his combat experience than most other veterans would allow. She definitely appreciated the fact that a combat plan rarely stood unchallenged, and that a successful leader would tweak the plan accordingly, staying on course and never forgetting the objective. Unfortunately, he had been subtly working against both the plan and the objective by creating challenges and hostility where it may not have existed otherwise.

  “I understand what you’re saying. I need to focus more on getting us through this safely, and not get distracted by the stuff that doesn’t really matter,” he said.

  “That’s easier said than done. There’s a reason you’re the one we’re relying on to keep us on track. If I thought I could do a better job, I would have already taken charge, but I know I can’t. We’d already have a line forming at our bulkhead door if I was the one out there in the neighborhood,” Kate said.

  “True.”

  “So, right now, we’ll keep you in charge of managing all external aspects of our survival plan…”

  “Wait a minute, who’s we?” he asked jokingly.

  “You didn’t think you were in charge of the whole operation, did you? I, of course, am still in charge of everything. That has never changed. You just got a minor field promotion, which can be revoked,” she said, easing out of her seat.

  “Oh, really? I didn’t realize that I was still moving up the ranks around here. And what exactly is your rank in this organization?”

  “Supreme Commander. That’s the highest rank attainable, and it’s a lifetime position. I’ve held it for fourteen years. Actually, fifteen. I appointed myself when we got engaged.” She hopped off the chair.

  Alex got up swiftly and moved around the island toward Kate, who was laughing and circling the island. “Every now and then, the troops need to rise up and teach their leaders a lesson,” he said, closing in on her.

  “Are you rising right now?”

  “I could be,” he responded and made a move to grab her.

  Kate dodged the attempt and ran toward the stairs. She ran up the stairs quickly, with Alex in hot pursuit, playfully remaining a few steps behind her. She rounded the top of the stairs and turned around to face him as she walked backward into the master bedroom. He followed her in and locked the door.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Friday, November 22, 2013

  Alex sat at the great room computer desk, scanning the headlines from dozens of online newspapers. Since Wednesday, the situation nationwide had deteriorated significantly, as he had expected.

  From the desk, he could see out of two sets of windows into the neighborhood. The skies overhead were completely clear, with some low scattered clouds on the western horizon. The temperature the past few days had been in the fifties, and the days had been sunny and clear, representing a welcome shift from the seemingly endless series of storms racking southern Maine over the past week. The change in weather had brought life back to the neighborhood, which he and his family mostly observed as spectators.

  He saw Derek Sheppard in his backyard playing with his kids. From the corner window facing the street, Alex could see half of the Sheppards’ enormous wooden play set, and over the past thirty minutes, he had spotted all three of Derek’s kids and their dog, running around the play set. The only Sheppard he hadn’t seen today—or over the past week—was Ellen, and he hadn’t spoken with Derek since the neighborhood meeting.

  The break in the weather also brought a few visitors, which they kept at a comfortable distance. Nancy and Paul Cooper stopped by Thursday morning to say hello while out for a walk with Max. Both of them had taken extended, unpaid leave from work, starting at the beginning of the week.

  Charlie Thornton brought them some freshly cut venison steaks later that same day, compliments of the normally off-limits conservation land behind the Hewitt Park sports fields. Charlie said that the area was full of deer, and that he’d be willing to take Alex out there on his next foray. Alex invited him around back to the deck and produced a few chilled beers. Charlie looked thrilled by the invitation, and they sat there for about an hour talking about the neighborhood and the pandemic in general.

  He found himself impressed by Charlie’s level of knowledge, most of it gained over the past few weeks. As they parted, he considered explaining to Charlie that they didn’t eat meat, but decided that it was better for him to accept Charlie’s gift than to risk insulting him. Kate almost passed out at the sight of the venison steaks on her kitchen island, and he suggested that they wrap and store the steaks in the basement freezer, for an emergency. Kate told him that it would take one hell of an emergency for her to eat deer meat.

  He grabbed the neighborhood status board from the side of the computer table and turned toward the couch where Kate was sitting, reading a book and sipping coffee. Her accounting firm had closed indefinitely on Wednesday, and Kate hadn’t skipped a beat adjusting to a life of full-time leisure. Over the past two days, Alex mostly found her reading, napping upstairs, or taking long walks with Emily or Ryan. Despite the milder weather, Alex remained indoors, feeling that this was a better strategy for him, given the high profile he had been developing among his more hostile neighbors.

  He unfolded the worn, smudged poster board and laid it on the coffee table. He had begun to highlight the names of confirmed or suspected sick neighbors with a yellow marker, and several yellow lines crossed the diagram, signifying known interactions with potentially infected neighbors. A red marker was used to indicate death. Currently, only one name was highlighted red: Matt McDaniel. He examined the diagram of the neighborhood and added a line connecting the Thompsons’ house to the McCarthys’, the apparent babysitting hub on their side of the Durham Road loop.

  **

  While sitting at the computer, Alex detected some movement down the street to the right. He didn’t have a good view from the southeast corner of the house, so he grabbed his binoculars and ran upstairs to the master bedroom, nearly knocking Kate over as she emerged from the bathroom. With the binoculars, he saw James Thompson push a stroller, with another small child in tow, right up to the McCarthys’ house, and then return by himself. A few minutes later, both he and his wife, Mary, left in their Toyota Sienna. Alex assumed that their third child was in the van with them. Judging from the stroller, he figured it had to be either Emily or Madison, since their baby had to be in the stroller.

  The Thompsons’ departure made sense, given the information that had been shared with him yesterday by Ed. Sarah Quinn continued to collect, verify, and pass along information to the neighborhood regarding suspected or confirmed illnesses. Her latest download to Ed hadn’t surprised Alex.

  According to Sarah, Mary Thompson had been fighting flu-like symptoms for a few days, and based on what he had just seen, one of their children was likely sick also. They were probably on their way to see a doctor. He highlighted Mary’s name in yellow and randomly selected Emily, age three, for the other highlight. He found it i
nteresting that Mary and James would take their children to the McCarthys’, despite persistent rumors that Jennifer McCarthy and at least one of her children was also sick with flu-like symptoms.

  Sarah Quinn knew this because four days before, Jennifer had asked her for two of the anti-viral treatment courses that Sarah held for the neighborhood. Jennifer refused to give Sarah any details, but insisted that they needed the anti-virals immediately. According to Sarah, she didn’t sound good over the phone, and Michael McCarthy picked up the drugs from Sarah just minutes after the phone call. She should have asked for five, one for each member of the family, but Alex was certain that neither Michael nor Jennifer had invested any time into researching effective pandemic anti-viral treatment strategies. Then again, it was unlikely that Sarah would have given her five courses of treatment without more information. This transaction had left eleven courses of treatment for the neighborhood, which didn’t last long, according to Sarah.

  Owing to her close friendship with Nicki Bartlett, she also knew that Nicki and two of her children were sick with high fevers, muscle aches, and worsening coughs. Nicki and her kids had been sick since the weekend, and Sarah gave them three courses of anti-viral therapy, bringing the remaining total to eight.

  Nicki’s husband, Jack, an endocrinologist, insisted that they could be adequately treated at home, under his care. Apparently, he had access to medical supplies from the diabetes center, though Alex couldn’t imagine that the center had any antibiotics left in their drug sample closet, which would be critical for treating flu-induced pneumonia. Few companies made antibiotics any more, and the only antibiotic Alex had managed to sparingly find in drug closets over the past few years was Levaquin.

  Logically, since the Bartletts’ had been hit with the flu, he wasn’t surprised to learn that both the Bishops’ and the Greens’ had been hit as well. Sarah had delivered four courses of antiviral therapy to the Bishops on Tuesday after Stephanie called to tell Sarah that her entire family had developed flu symptoms simultaneously on Monday morning.