H7N9 Penitence

by Mark Campbell

  “Grab him,” the blue-suit ordered.

  One of the FEMA officers stepped inside the cage with his rifle pointed at the man.

  As the officer approached, the terrified-looking man held up his hands.

  “It aint me!” the man insisted. “The one you’re looking for must be somewhere else!” He pointed over at the man standing next to him. “My name is James and this is my brother Darius. We’re not sick!”

  The FEMA officer snatched James’ hand and held out his wrist.

  The blue-suit stepped inside the cage and quickly scanned James’ wristband.

  In a matter of seconds the screen flashed red.

  “That’s him,” the blue-suit said as he stepped out of the cage. “4189, you need to come with us.”

  “Naw, man, I’m not even sick! I didn’t get no fever! That test fucked up, that’s all! Retake it!” James protested as he tried to pull his hand free. He started coughing as he struggled.

  The FEMA officer yanked James forward and started dragging him out of the cage.

  “Let go of my brother!” Darius shouted as he lunged towards the FEMA officer.

  The other FEMA officer stepped in and slammed the butt of his rifle against the side of Darius’ face.

  Blood shot out of Darius’ mouth and his head jerked to the side. He stumbled backwards–

  The FEMA officer shoved Darius in the chest.

  Darius fell to the ground and curled into a fetal position as the FEMA officer kicked him repeatedly in the stomach.

  The Hispanic man and the young girl both ran to the corner of the cage and took cover next to the portable toilet stall.

  “Stop! You’re killing him!” James shouted with tears in his eyes as he struggled to pull his arm free from the officer who was holding him. “Stop it, you motherfuckers! Please! I’ll go with you! Just stop hurting my brother!”

  The FEMA officer gave Darius one last swift kick in the ribs and then stepped back.

  Darius kept lying on his side on the ground as he wrapped his arms around his abdomen. Blood flowed out of his mouth and nose and dripped onto the pavement.

  “Darius!” James cried out tearfully. “Bro! Are you okay? Say something!”

  Darius lay motionless and didn’t respond.

  The FEMA officer holding James started to lead him outside the cage.

  “No, wait!” James begged as he tried to pull himself free. “Let me go check on my brother!”

  “If you cooperate, he’ll be fine,” the blue-suit warned.

  James opened his mouth to speak, but fell silent and stopped resisting. He lowered his head – deep violent sobs wracked his frame.

  The FEMA officer escorted James out of the cage with one of the young man’s hands held behind his back while the other officer followed behind them with his rifle ready.

  As soon as they stepped out, the blue-suit closed the gate and locked the padlock.

  Teddy watched the group escort the man away.

  “Where are they taking him?” Teddy asked.

  The biker gave a ‘tsk’ and shook his head.

  “Where do you think?” the biker asked sarcastically. “They’re locking his ass up inside with the other sick folks.”

  “It sucks to get this far just to get sent back,” Gina said as she sat on the mat next to Teddy’s.

  “Screw him,” the biker said. “I didn’t make it this far just to get sick. Lock him up.” He gestured towards Darius. “Hell, lock his brother up too. I bet he’s sick if they were traveling together.”

  Teddy looked over at the cage and watched as the young blonde and the Hispanic man tried to help Darius sit up.

  “That’s not fair,” Gina protested as she turned and glared at the biker. “He deserves a chance. We all do.”

  “Lady, what is fair anymore?” the biker asked as he crossed his arms over his chest. “All I know is that I’m alive and I intend to keep it that way.”

  “How do we know you’re not sick?” the old man asked from the other side of the cage. He held his wife closer and gave the man a wrinkly scowl.

  “Why do you mind your own goddamn business, pops?” the biker replied, spitting on the ground.

  “As soon as you mind your own,” the old man snapped back. “That boy over there just got his brother taken away and you’re ready to throw him to the wolves.” He paused and stared at the biker. “Learn some compassion!”

  “Whatever, pops,” the biker said, rolling his eyes. “If they come back and say my test came back dirty, I’ll glad walk out of here with my head held up and not sniveling like a little bitch.”

  The biker grumbled to himself and flopped down on one of the mats. He turned his back towards the group and pulled the foil cover over himself.

  Teddy sat in silence, thinking.

  It would be risky, but it was probably the only way he’d get to them.

  Teddy coughed, but the others ignored it.

  A train whistle blew in the distance.

  ICE officers wearing tactical gear emerged from the direction of the train station and started scattering out amongst the cages. They carried clipboards with them and scanners.

  “What’s going on?” Gina asked as she craned her neck to watch where the ICE officers were going.

  “They’re loading another train up,” the old man replied, smacking his dry lips. “They’re taking away the people who passed their little test.”

  Teddy started coughing again, louder.

  Gina glanced at Teddy and gave him a disapproving look but then turned towards the old man again.

  “Do you think they’ll come take me?” she asked. “I’m not sick.”

  “The results don’t come back until two days, so you’ll be stuck a while since you just arrived not too long ago,” the old man answered back. He gave her a toothless grin. “I guess you’ll have to make do with our miserable company a little while longer.”

  Teddy hunched over, closed his eyes, and let out a chain of coughs into the crook of his arm.

  The old man lost his grin and stared at Teddy.

  “Are you okay, son?” the old man asked.

  Teddy didn’t reply and continued coughing even louder.

  Gina looked at Teddy with dread, got off of her mat, and stepped away.

  “Hey, are you sick or something?” Gina asked.

  “No,” Teddy hoarsely responded as he waved a hand at her dismissively. “I’m fine.”

  Teddy started his coughing fit again, wheezing and gagging as he did so.

  The Asian businessman and the elderly couple looked on in horror.

  Gina backed further away from Teddy and stood next to the businessman in the corner.

  The biker threw off his foil blanket and turned to face Teddy.

  “Knock that shit off,” the biker said. “You’re spooking folks!”

  Teddy got on his hands and knees and spat up strands of saliva. He closed his eyes and coughed violently.

  “This motherfucker’s sick!” the biker exclaimed as he quickly stood.

  Teddy got on his knees and looked at the biker, earnestly shaking his head. He made a poor attempt to stifle his forced coughs.

  “He is!” Gina confirmed. She pointed at him and backed further away. “He was with a little boy and a woman! Both of them got taken at the fever checkpoint! I saw them! He must have it too!”

  “His face is so red! I just know he has a fever!” the elderly woman said as she accusingly pointed at Teddy’s face.

  “You need to go!” the businessman shouted at Teddy, trembling.

  “Leave!” the old man plead. “Just go and leave us alone!”

  The elderly woman started crying and buried her face against the old man’s chest.

  The group created as much distance as they could from Teddy and pressed their backs against the chain-link.

  Teddy stood up and grasped his throat as he continued to cough and gag. He looked around at the others. His face was red and his eyes were turning bloodshot.


  “I’m not sick,” Teddy said in-between coughs as he struggled to catch his breath. “Come on! Just look the other way!”

  People inside nearby cages started to watch the unfolding spectacle.

  The biker balled his fists, narrowed his eyes, and stormed towards Teddy.

  “You let them bring you in here even though you’re sick?!” the biker asked, outraged. He snatched Teddy by the collar with one hand and shook him. “Were you trying to get us all sick?! You selfish bastard… I should kill you where you stand!”

  The biker drew back a fist–

  Teddy coughed all over the biker’s arm and covered his leather vest with wet droplets.

  The biker’s eyes grew wide. He let go of Teddy’s collar and jumped back as he hurriedly wiped his arm with his hand.

  “I’m sorry,” Teddy said weakly. “I didn’t mean too…”

  Two ICE officers approached a cage located nearby with their scanner and clipboard ready.

  “Finally, a goddamn cop when you need one!” the biker exclaimed with relief.

  The biker rushed towards the end of the cage and started slapping the chain-link with his open palms.

  “Hey!” the biker shouted towards the ICE officers as he shook and rattled the chain-link. “Get over here!”

  Teddy bent down and continued to cough.

  The ICE officers put down their clipboard and turned their attention towards the biker.

  “Quit beating on the fence!” one of the ICE officers ordered.

  “Fuck that!” the biker replied. “You need to get over here right now! Someone’s sick!”

  The ICE officers exchanged an uneasy glance and approached the cage.

  “What’s going on?” one of the ICE officers asked as he peered inside.

  Teddy kept coughing on his hands and knees.

  “He’s sick, that’s what is going on!” the biker replied as he pointed at Teddy.

  The ICE officers stood in front of the cage and looked down at Teddy as he continued to cough.

  “Is that true?” one of the ICE officers asked Teddy.

  Teddy simply shook his head and continued to cough.

  “Stand up and answer me,” the ICE officer demanded. “Are you sick?”

  “Of course he is!” Gina said hysterically. “Just look at him!”

  The ICE officers ignored her and watched as Teddy slowly forced himself up on his feet.

  “I’m not sick,” Teddy said weakly. He stumbled to the side and coughed into his hands. “I just have some allergies, that’s all.”

  “He’s lying!” Gina insisted. “His kid and wife were sick! I was inside when I watched them get taken away!”

  “Is that true, sir?” the ICE officer asked. “Were you traveling with someone who was ill?”

  “No,” Teddy wheezed.

  “Bullshit!” the biker shouted.

  “Just walk away,” Teddy told the officers. “All I want is do is go home. I’m not sick.”

  One of the ICE officers un-holstered his pistol, unlocked the padlock, and opened the door. He kept his pistol pointed inside the cage.

  “Scan him,” the ICE officer said to his companion. “I’ll cover you.”

  The other ICE officer stepped inside with his scanner ready. He crouched over, lowered his riot helmet’s plastic visor, and approached Teddy.

  “Hold out your arm,” he ordered.

  Teddy held out the arm with the wristband.

  The ICE officer scanned the wristband’s barcode and then stared at the screen, waiting.

  “His test results aren’t in the system yet so we don’t have any active isolation orders,” he announced as he put the scanner away.

  Teddy hunched over and let out a chain of coughs.

  Everyone inside the cage, including the ICE officer who scanned him, stepped back.

  “He looks sick to me,” the ICE officer standing at the gate said with a shrug. “Take him.”

  The ICE officer inside the cage snatched Teddy by the back of his neck and led him outside.

  “Where are you taking me?” Teddy asked as he stumbled along.

  “Shut up,” the ICE officer holding the pistol replied. He slammed the gate shut and locked the padlock. He followed the escorting officer and kept his pistol pointed at Teddy’s back.

  Teddy kept his head hunched down as he was led through the maze of cages back towards the stadium.

  He stopped his coughing rouse; he didn’t need to pretend anymore.

  He was going exactly where he wanted to go, but he prayed that it wasn’t too late to save them.

  CHAPTER 28

  “Where is this one coming from?” the man wearing the blue-suit asked through his enclosed rubber suit’s speaker. He flipped through a stack of scribbled papers attached to a metal clipboard. “I don’t see any new detention orders.”

  The blue-suit stood guard in front of a pair of red double-doors flanked by two heavily-armored FEMA officers wearing full-face respirators and rubber gloves. The doors were stenciled with ‘SECTION B – ROW A THRU D’ and had a sticker that read ‘Symptomatic Ward’ slapped across the top. Halogen lamps created a half-circle around the doors and brightly illuminated the area while boarded-up concession stands lined the wall along both sides.

  Teddy stood in front of the blue-suit with his head down while the ICE officer who escorted him kept his hand on his collar to keep him from moving.

  The other ICE officer stood off to the side with his pistol pointed at Teddy.

  “He’s from cage twenty-four,” the ICE officer holding the pistol said. “He was coughing up a lung and freaking out the others inside.”

  The blue-suit sighed.

  “I can’t keep locking people up just because of a cough,” the blue-suit said in exasperation. “You people need to start having more patience and wait for the results.”

  “You people?” the ICE officer asked with indignation. “If it wasn’t for us, the animals would take over the zoo.” He paused and holstered his pistol. “What do you want us to do? Take him back?”

  “No, its fine,” the blue-suit grumbled. “Just pass the word along to your buddies.” He stepped forward, scanned Teddy’s wristband, and then typed something on the device’s tiny screen. “There. I’ve reassigned him. You can take him down.”

  The blue-suit opened the double-doors and held back the plastic flap draped from inside the doorframe.

  Dense white fog rolled out of the doors and filled the atrium. It hung low and had a strong chemical smell.

  Both of the ICE officers looked at each other uncomfortably.

  “Uh, I can’t go in there,” the ICE officer holding Teddy said. “I don’t have the right type of respirator.”

  The ICE officer let go of Teddy’s collar and stepped back.

  “The N-95 mask you’re wearing under your helmet’s visor is sufficient enough,” the blue-suit said.

  “Easy for you to say since you’re the one wearing the space suit,” the other ICE officer sarcastically replied.

  “Fine,” the blue-suit grumbled irritably. “I’ll take him.”

  The blue-suit grabbed Teddy by his elbow and led him through the doors.

  As soon as they entered, the doors shut behind them.

  “I’m so sick of this shit,” the blue-suit grumbled as he escorted Teddy down the steps along the aisle between a section of seats.

  Teddy slowed and started gagging as an overpowering nauseating stench of feces and death filled his lungs.

  He stopped and stumbled, dry-heaving.

  “Come on!” the blue-suit ordered, jerking Teddy’s arm.

  Teddy nearly fell down the steps, but the man caught him.

  The blue-suit continued to lead Teddy down the steps, moving faster.

  Teddy looked around through the hazy chemical fog in disbelief.

  All of the stadium’s seats were covered with plastic tarps and the basketball court in the middle looked like it had been converted into a massive fiel
d hospital. Countless cages full of ramshackle gurneys and crammed with people were neatly lined in rows and each gurney had its own IV poll. Green surgical dividers separated the cages. A Red Cross banner was draped from the darkened scoreboard and FEMA banners hung across the jumbotron screens that were suspended over the middle of the stadium. Everything was brightly illuminated by blinding halogen floodlights that circled the entire basketball court. A few of the white-suits carried assault rifles and patrolled the edge of the court.

  The sound of people crying and screaming for help was nearly deafening.

  CDC white-suits walked the court with foggers on their back. As they walked between the cages they sprayed the floor with disinfectant and filled the air with fog from their machines.

  As soon as Teddy was brought near the court, a few of the white-suits stopped what they were doing and looked up at him.

  “Where do you want this one?” the blue-suit asked one of the white-suits who was standing near the edge of the court.

  “It doesn’t matter,” the white-suit said. “We stopped trying to separate them based on stages.” He pointed at the last row of cages. “Just put him in one of those.”

  “Let’s go,” the blue-suit said to Teddy. “The sooner I–”

  Teddy tore his arm free of the man’s grasp and took off running towards the cages.

  “Hey!” the blue-suit cried out. “Stop!”

  Teddy ignored him, turned a corner, and started running down the first row of cages.

  The people inside the cages looked like decrepit ghouls barely hanging onto life. They sat slouched on the floor in puddles of their own urine or lay sprawled out across the tattered gurneys. All of the IV sacks were dry. Red buckets that served as restrooms were overflowing with brown sludge and created large puddles on the floor.

  Teddy scanned the cages in horror as he ran.

  People stared back at him with sunken faces and dead eyes. Flies crawled over their skin and their soiled clothes clung to their bodies. Dried vomit caked their mouth and was matted into their stringy hair.

  Many inside the cages were dead and were sprawled on the floor stiff on their backs or slumped on top of their gurneys.

  The newer arrivals sat huddled in the corner of the cages, far away from the victims in the final stages. They coughed violently, were soaked with sweat, and most of their faces already started to have death’s pallid complexion.