“I feel a little underappreciated here,” Alexander said after putting down his luggage. “Where’s my slobbery greeting at?”
“Sorry,” Craig said as he momentarily came up for air, “I don’t think my wife would understand…”
Julie made her way from her SUV to her husband in a more civilized manner. She embraced him, wrapping both arms tightly around his neck. Alexander kissed his wife and wrapped his arms snuggly around her waist.
Amanda lovingly pushed Craig away. “Save some of that for later!”
All four picked up various bags and luggage and moved towards the SUV. Craig motioned for them to leave the bags at the back of the vehicle and nodded for them to enter the SUV. Craig loaded the luggage in the back storage area. Julie slid into the driver’s seat while Alexander grabbed the front passenger seat. Amanda had entered the back driver’s side seat and Craig joined them as soon as the final piece of luggage was loaded. Julie pulled out of the unloading zone and they drove out of the airport onto the freeway heading east towards the production facility.
“The company was nice enough to rent vehicles for us and also some very nice apartments close to where we are working,” Julie said.
“Bah!” Craig replied. “They got us close enough to the facility so that we would have no excuse not to be able to make it in to the office…no matter the weather.”
Julie exited the freeway after about fifteen miles and turned on the main road running parallel to the production facility. As they passed by the entrance, Amanda quickly noticed the amount of military presence guarding the site.
“Wow! It looks like a warzone in there,” Amanda said. “What’s going on? Why is the military there?”
“They were put in place by the IPPC,” Julie said as she drove by slowly. “It was for our protection because of North Korea’s posturing along the DMZ demanding the vaccine we produce to be delivered to them.”
“Yeah, the US government has units at both facilities,” Alexander chimed in. “During the flight, I read about the increased protection in today’s paper. If I remember the article correctly, it mentioned something about trying to deter civil unrest and protestors or something like that….”
“I think it’s all a conspiracy anyway,” Craig said as he reached down to hold his wife’s hand. “I think they put all of those soldiers in place to keep us from leaving that damn building! We had to be frisked just to leave the premises to come pick you two up from the airport...”
“Don’t listen to him,” Julie said, “you know how he gets.”
Julie turned right at the third traffic light and entered the Fountain Crest Apartment complex. She pulled the SUV into the covered parking area outside of building seventeen next to Craig’s rented family sedan. Craig and Alexander unloaded the heavier luggage while Amanda and Julie grabbed the lighter stuff. They piled up the luggage in the small breezeway that separated the two apartments. Julie stayed in apartment #1701 while Craig was actually in building eighteen, apartment #1801.
“OK,” Julie began, “it’s a bit after four now. Why don’t you two come over here around seven to discuss dinner plans…I figure that will give us plenty of time to…ummm…’catch up’ with our significant others.”
“One step ahead of you, Julie…” Craig had already hastily distributed the luggage to the appropriate apartments and was standing inside the doorway to his apartment sans shoes and socks and already beginning to unbuckle his belt.
“Good Lord, Craig,” Julie said. “You’re like a dog in heat.” The two women quickly hugged each other. Amanda waved at Alexander and everyone entered their respective apartments.
Amanda entered apartment #1801 closing and locking the door behind her. She knew the game was on. Was she the prey or the hunter? She looked around the living room and Craig was nowhere to be found. She checked the kitchen and bathroom – nothing. She was playfully stalling. She already knew where her husband would be…the bedroom. The only question on her mind was whether or not he had started without her. She slowly opened the bedroom door and there was Craig, all naked and hairy, lying on the bed.
“Seems like you started without me,” Amanda said, feigning a look of sadness as she began to undress. She slowly removed her shoes, one at a time making Craig wait. She pulled her sweater off and tossed it over Craig’s face. He shoved it to the floor. She unbuckled her belt and unbuttoned her pants, sensually sliding the jeans to the floor and kicking them to the side of the room.
Craig could wait no longer. He jumped from the bed, grabbing his wife forcefully by the hips and pressed her against the wall. He gently removed her undershirt and bra, exposing her medium-sized breasts. He grabbed the sides of her panties and ripped them off.
“Hey! Those are expensive,” she playfully scolded him.
“Don’t worry,” Craig said between passionate kisses, “I’m good for it.”
Craig picked up his wife and carried her over to the bed, laying her down gently. He briefly stared at the beautiful, naked woman in his bed. How did he get so lucky? He loved her so much, but often wondered what she saw in him.
“Are you just going to stand there, dork?” Amanda joked.
Craig made a diving motion and hopped into bed with his wife. The two made passionate love for the next hour. They lay in bed for an additional hour wrapped in each other’s arms. Craig playfully ran his fingers through her hair, massaging her scalp. Soon they both fell asleep.
March 26, 2013: Tuesday, 7:22 PM – Fountain Crest Apartments Apartment #1801…
Amanda nudged Craig in the side again. She never understood why he was such a sound sleeper. Alarm clocks were practically useless. She had actually witnessed him sleep through fire and police sirens, not to mention a freak accident where a powerful thunderstorm actually knocked a tree over into the side of their first apartment. She nudged him again.
“What?” Craig asked.
“We overslept. Julie has been knocking on the door for about two minutes now. They called on your cell phone – that’s what woke me up. Get up…I’ll go and tell them we need a few minutes to get ready for dinner.”
“You do that, Mandy,” Craig rolled back over on his side and began to snore.
Amanda got out of bed, slid on her sweater and jeans and went to the door. She looked through the peephole - safety first. Just as she thought, Julie was standing at the door. Amanda brushed back her hair trying to be a bit more presentable; she opened the door and smiled at her friend.
“Hey Mandy.”
“Hey. Sorry about making you guys wait. We overslept.”
“No worries. Alex and I figured that we could all just stay in this evening. We ordered some Chinese food. Why don’t you and Craig get showered and come on over. We’ve got plenty of hot food on the way.”
“Oh that sounds wonderful. We’ll be over in like thirty minutes.”
Craig and Amanda arrived at Julie’s apartment twenty minutes later in perfect timing with the Chinese delivery guy. Julie opened the door to greet her friends and stepped back inside to get her purse to pay for the food. Craig insisted that he pay for half. After a few moments of negotiations, Julie paid for this round of food while Craig agreed that tomorrow’s dinner would be his treat.
“Well now that’s taken care of,” Alex began, “what should we do now?”
“How about we watch a scary movie?” Julie suggested.
“No!” Amanda said sternly. “I don’t like scary movies.”
As the friends enjoyed dinner together, they finally decided on a romantic comedy for the evening’s festivities. As the movie ended, Julie turned the channel to the local news station. The main topic of discussion revolved around new outbreaks of H1N1 in various portions of the United States and Britain.
“Looks like more work for us,” Craig said as he got off the couch to get another soda from the refrigerator.
“It’s job security, right?” Alexander joked.
“It just seems like we never get ahead of the flu, no
matter how hard we work.” Julie sounded tired and irritated.
“…this just in to our news desks,” the anchorman said.
“Turn it up,” Mandy requested.
The anchorman held his white earpiece in with one finger, listening to the info being relayed to him from the control room; he then spoke to the audience. “We have confirmed reports from the police in Stockholm, Sweden that the car of Deputy Director Pamela Bristow of the IPPC has been found at the bottom of a deep ravine a few miles from the IPPC main campus. Apparently she lost control of her car and crashed over the side of the bridge. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends.”
Julie turned off the TV.
“That’s sad,” Mandy said. “Did you guys know her?”
“Not really,” Julie answered.
The friends parted ways for the evening; it was getting late. Craig and Julie both knew that they had plenty of work waiting for them in the morning. The whole week they were required to put in extra effort to meet production demands. Alex and Mandy spent time exploring Rochester and spending money on gifts. Julie and Craig spent time with their loved ones when they could, but the work week often kept them into the late evening hours. Luckily, Alexander and Mandy had planned to spend at least two, maybe three weeks in Rochester (if Alexander’s schedule allowed) – surely, given the extra time, Julie and Craig’s workload would have to ease up some.
For the last week of March, operations at both facilities continued to work around-the-clock in order to meet the almost insatiable demand for the H1N1 flu vaccine. The military presence warded off most unauthorized guests. Small pockets of overly vocal protestors stood on the fringes of each of the properties demanding free vaccines to be given out to those countries in need, even if those countries were not part of the initial twenty four charter member nations that founded the IPPC. The production facilities could barely meet the demands they were contracted for – let alone trying to meet the needs of non-member nations.
IPPC officials met almost daily in special sessions of the United Nations. The hot topic was the aggressive position taken up by North Korea. The communist nation had moved ever closer to fulfilling its promise of invading South Korea should it not receive any medication for its citizens. As the end of March approached, many countries began to take sides. Most notably, China and the former Soviet Union continued to lobby for the North Koreans while the United States, Britain and Japan vehemently defended the sovereignty of South Korea.
After two days of intense deliberations, the North Korean delegation left the UN assembly under protest of favoritism to the South Koreans by the West. A final act of defiance as the North Korean delegation left the building was a lingering warning that the soon-to-be debacle was of the West’s own doing. The North assured that the forthcoming massacre could have been averted had the selfish Westerners only shared some of their medicines with those countries in dire need.
March 31, 2013: Sunday, 12:00 AM – North Korea, approximately two miles outside of the Demilitarized Zone on the south western edge of the country …
“It is unfortunate but not unexpected,” Commander Cheong began as he addressed all of the divisions under his control by means of shortwave, encrypted field communications. “The South has once again lorded over us its richness aided by the Westerners. They have a potent vaccine that could have prevented many deaths among our families, yet they refuse to aid us.”
Over the past two weeks, the North Korean military had amassed approximately forty thousand troops along various portions of the DMZ. Fifty thousand troops were on standby in the capital city of Pyongyang awaiting deployment orders. The troops, currently spread along the length of the DMZ, were broken down into four divisions, each under the leadership of much respected lieutenant commanders, all reporting to Commander Cheong.
“There has been no word out of Pyongyang since my last communications with them three days ago. Our orders are standing orders and we must act. The UN special sessions have failed to convince the Westerners of our need for immediate medical assistance.” The commander paused briefly. “We must preserve our way of life. Our peaceful negotiations with the UN have failed. We must now take what we need by force. With heavy hearts then, we must move forward...”
Before Commander Cheong could give the order to attack, he was interrupted by a high-priority communication from the military headquarters in Pyongyang. The Commander entered the communications truck and instructed all of the other personnel to exit the vehicle. He put the earphones on his head and pressed the talk button.
“Commander, hold the attack! You are to leave the DMZ and return to the capital city at once.
“I don’t understand.”
“The South has redirected its forces back to their capital, away from the DMZ,” General Pak said.
“They retreat already?”
“Our spies have informed us that they fire upon their own people! We’ve been trying to contact you for two days now…but have been unsuccessful until now.”
“That makes no sense, General” Commander Cheong stated. “Why would they turn their guns on their own people?”
“Our reports indicate that Seoul has been without communication for over a week now. They have been embroiled in riots, looting and mass hysteria.”
“What caused this?”
“Commander this conversation is wasting time; you are ordered to fall back now. Reliable sources have indicated to us that South’s infected citizens have died off very rapidly. Apparently the vaccine from the West did not cure them.”
“Then what better opportunity to attack now that they are unfocused?”
“Commander, is anyone else listening to this communication?”
“No, sir – this is a scrambled and secured channel.”
“Do not interrupt me. Just listen to what I am saying. Their dead have reportedly come back to life. They attack their own people; reports of hordes of contagious citizens attacking and feeding off one another.”
“I don’t understand, General.” Commander Cheong had served under General Pak for more than thirty years. In all of that time, he never once remembered the General to be prone to fits of fantasy. He respected his senior officer, but this story…it seemed too strange to be true.
“We’ve wasted enough time, Cheong,” the General stated. “Leave ten thousand men there to guard the DMZ. You and the rest of the troops and equipment must return to Pyongyang immediately.”
Commander Cheong relayed the new orders to his divisions. The remaining forces along the DMZ were consolidated to guard the area just north of Seoul, South Korea. The troops would be the first line of defense should any of the infected try to invade the North. Of course, Commander Cheong didn’t fully relay all info to his soldiers. They did not need to know the true threat looming on the horizon. Like good soldiers, they did what they were told to do and did not question direct orders. Commander Cheong took the rest of his force and began the trip back to Pyongyang.
Chapter 14
April 1, 2013: Monday, 8:14 AM – Rochester, New York – Secondary production facility…
Unconfirmed reports began to circulate about H1N1 infected people dying and subsequently returning to life after just a few hours. Most of these reports indicated that the previously deceased person would somehow reawaken in a fit of rage punctuated by attacks on their friends, neighbors or anyone within close proximity. These stories were originally only carried by a few shady tabloid magazines. Similar stories simultaneously inundated the internet on urban legend web pages. Since the majority of these reports appeared on April’s Fools Day, the stories went largely unread by the general public.
“Read this one, Julie – it’s crazy!” Craig said as he forwarded yet another email message to his friend. “It says to forward this message to ten of your friends in order to stop the ‘undead’ from rising in your neighborhood. Since I don’t have ten friends…you may very well get a few more sent your way!”
Julie pres
sed the delete key as soon as she received the email. She had no desire to waste any of her precious time reading stupid chain emails of any kind. She leaned sideways and looked around her monitor at Craig, making eye contact with him. She had known this man for years, but sometimes, especially on days like this, she felt like Craig was a ten-year old boy trapped in a man’s body. “Don’t send me any more of those. Why do you read that crap? More importantly, why do you try and make me read it?”
“Oh, come on – it’s not that bad. Plus I needed a break. I figured you needed one too!”
“A break? We’ve only been in the office for a little over an hour.” Julie returned to entering data values in her spreadsheet. “If you would focus on getting some work done, maybe we would get out of here at a decent hour and be able to spend more time with Alex and Mandy.”
Craig bowed his head in pseudo shame. “Yes, mother...”
Julie playfully tossed a notebook at her friend’s desk, knocking over a small stack of papers and spilling his cup of pens and pencils. “Hey!” Craig yelled. “Don’t mess up my desk!”
Both laughed as they continued to trudge through some of their daily assignments. Julie had made reservations at a local Indian restaurant for 7:30 that evening. Mandy and Alex would be waiting at the restaurant, so Julie constantly urged Craig to keep focused throughout the day in order for them to be able to leave the office no later than 6:00 PM. They didn’t want to keep their loved ones waiting any longer than necessary.
Z1N1: The Zombie Pandemic: 2012 Was Just the Beginning Page 13