Defending Against Affliction

by Connor Mccoy

  Slowly, Nadia looked down. She unbuttoned the two buttons over her abdomen and pushed the shirt open to reveal white wrap-around bandages across her stomach and lower chest. The area to her left side was a bit red.

  “Dammit, this thing should have held,” she said.

  “You’re sick.” Tom’s eyes widened.

  “I said it’s nothing.”

  “The hell it’s nothing! What are you thinking? You’re going to spread that goddamn disease to my children?”

  “I never would do that! I’ve been avoiding your house for the past two days, ever since I found out!”

  “Then why are you hiding it? You still could spread it to someone who’s not immune!”

  “I’m not spreading it! I’ve been staying around my house, never going anywhere, just picking my food and making appearances so no one gets suspicious.”

  “Yeah, well that’s not working out very well. The jig is up.”

  “I can’t do it!” Nadia suddenly erupted. “I don’t want to go in a quarantine room! I don’t want to be sealed up in plastic!” Her breathing quickened. She was even tearing up. “Dammit, I can’t do it!”

  Nadia backed against the house and sobbed. There was something bothering her, worse than just being sick. Tom waited until she spoke again.

  “I can’t take being shut in,” she said as she wiped her face. “It’s the one thing that’s scared the shit out of me since I was in the fifth grade. I look at Cheryl inside that tent and I see my worst nightmare. I’d rather face down twenty NATO soldiers naked than go into a closed-off room.”

  “You’re claustrophobic,” Tom said gently.

  Nadia sniffled. “It’s more like I hate being imprisoned. I can handle a closet, anything with an open door, but if I’m surrounded by walls and I can’t find a doorknob, I just go to pieces.” She coughed. “Yeah, a policewoman who’s scared of being imprisoned. That’s hilarious, isn’t it?”

  “We all got our demons to fight.” Tom leaned against the house, parallel to her. “Getting this damn virus doesn’t mean you have to be in a sealed-off room. You can stay in your house. We’ll just make sure people stay away.”

  “Tom, do you really think the people, the healthy people that is, are going to be okay with that? They’re panicking. They’re going to take this out on anyone who’s sick.”

  “The people are better than that. After all we’ve been through, they’re not going to harm you or anyone.”

  “That’s bullshit. Not after what happened to Kayla. It’s only going to get worse, and if there’s no solution coming, they’re going to impose it themselves.”

  Part of Tom had to admit Nadia was right.

  “Please, don’t tell anybody I’m sick. I’m begging you.”

  Tom clenched his fist. This wasn’t as easy a choice as it seemed. Of course he’d do anything for a friend, and Nadia was even more than that. She had become a good friend to Cheryl, almost like a sister, and the kids regarded her as an aunt. But still…

  “You know, if we start keeping secrets like this, the shit really will hit the fan,” he said. “But you’ve been there for Cheryl and my kids. There’s no way I’d leave you in the lurch.” Tom sighed. “But, you know, if you get any worse, someone’s bound to find out.”

  “I know. Look, when the time comes, I’ll deal with it myself.” Nadia smiled. “Thanks.”

  “Okay, sit up,” Karen said as she offered the cold orange juice bottle. Cooper complied, sitting up long enough to drink from it. “That was great.”

  Karen looked at the now empty bottle. “You really were thirsty.”

  “Amazing that I drink so much, but I don’t have to go to the bathroom very often,” Cooper said.

  “You’re just sweating it all out.” Karen stuck the bottle in a nearby metal container. Of course, with a diseased man drinking from it, the plastic might be disposed of entirely instead of bothering to recycle it. “Damn, it is hot in here. You might be all better and the sweat’s just from us being cooped up in this hot room.”

  Cooper smiled. “If it gets any hotter, I will lose whatever weight I have left.”

  “Yeah, lucky you.” Karen walked back toward him. “I don’t think I could sweat off weight even if it was two hundred degrees.”

  As Karen turned to her side, Cooper took a chance, actually his latest chance, to take a good look at her form. She had been dressed in a pair of black and purple yoga pants for the past few hours, as it helped to absorb her sweat, but in the process, it showed off her curves to amazing effect.

  “Oh, remember to mark down my latest report for Doctor Lauren.” Cooper pointed to the clipboard on the bag below the table. The table had been so cluttered with drinks and medicine bottles that Karen just had dropped the clipboard on top of her supply bag.

  “Right.” Karen leaned over to get it.

  But almost instantly, she felt a squeeze on her hindquarters. She quickly jumped up and turned around. Her patient’s arm was outstretched, and as for the patient’s face, he was more pleased than ever.

  “I must say, the nurse is even hotter than the room,” Cooper said with a big smile.

  Karen laughed. “You…” She raised the clipboard. “I could smack you on the head with this!”

  “I am afraid I am at your mercy,” Cooper said, still smiling.

  Karen then dropped the board onto the floor and leaned over him, her smile growing more seductive. “So, I guess you’re feeling better?”

  “Parts of me are feeling very good now. But it helps to have to have an incredibly attractive woman always around me.”

  Karen glanced at the curtain surrounding Cooper’s bed. Good. It was wrapped around them. She stepped backward and fished both hands under her green shirt. Then she then stripped it off, exposing her sports bra.

  Cooper sat up again.

  Slowly, Karen slid off one strap off her shoulder, then the other. From there, she reached behind her and unzipped the bra at its back. It started sliding off. She then pushed it away, completely uncovering her breasts.

  Cooper’s eyes focused squarely on the one place Karen figured they would. Better yet, Cooper’s breathing slowed as if he had been administered truth serum.

  “You are wonderful, as always,” he said as if in a dream-like state.

  Karen smiled, her cheeks burning. “Thanks. Hey, maybe if this makes you feel better, I’ll just nurse you naked.”

  Cooper chuckled. “You don’t have to do that, but it is very tempting.”

  After a short bit of laughing, Cooper craned his neck. “What is this?” He reached out and pointed to a spot on Karen’s breast, just above her left nipple. It was a small red curved mark on her skin. “A birthmark?”

  Karen looked down. “No. That’s…that’s a place I got hurt. It still hasn’t fully healed.”

  “You hit something?”

  “No, it was…” Karen started stammering. “It was before I met you.” She crossed her arms over her breasts.

  Cooper’s eyes widened. “Oh my God, it wasn’t when you were attacked?” He shook his head. “I am so sorry. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.”

  “It’s okay. It really isn’t something I like to think about. I don’t blame you.”

  “No, it’s just that, when I look at you, I never would have known you had been through something so horrible.”

  “I know. I don’t look it, but it’s still there inside me.” She rubbed each shoulder with an opposite hand.

  “I used to have nightmares about hands touching me. I still can remember what it was like when they touched me.” She exhaled loudly. “They went everywhere on me.”

  Then Karen looked at Cooper, blinking back tears. “You know how I always know when you touch me? You’re strong but very gentle. I think I almost can forget what it felt like when those men raped me. I just want to remember you and no one else.”

  Cooper’s mouth hung slightly open for a moment. “I look at you as the most valuable treasure there is on thi
s Earth. I cannot imagine how anyone could mistreat such a lovely person.”

  “This world’s bringing out the worst in a lot of people.” Karen blinked her eyes a little faster to hold back the tears.

  “But it does bring out the best.” Cooper smiled weakly.

  He extended his arm. Releasing her arms from her chest, Karen took his hand. “I would like you to be the last thing I see on this Earth,” Cooper said.

  “Well, I hope that’s not any time soon.” Karen then kissed his fingers.

  Tom watched Cheryl slurp up the remainder of the potato soup. “It’s great,” she said quietly, “Please tell Irvin I absolutely loved it.”

  “I will,” Tom replied.

  The meal was the only bright spot in this meeting between husband and wife so far. Tom had made it clear to Nadia that he wouldn’t keep secrets from his wife. So, Tom told the story to Cheryl. About an hour later, she still seemed steamed about it.

  “She should get to the hospital.” Cheryl frowned at her dish. “She’ll get good treatment there.”

  “She can be a big, stubborn pain in the ass,” Tom said.

  “I know.” Cheryl set the dish aside. “I know you’re busy with the kids, but could you please try checking on her?”

  “You bet. Obie’s a little freer, and Ricardo’s doing great with the kids. I can have those two watch over them while I go out.”

  “Speaking of Ricardo.” Cheryl stood up. Tom turned around. Ricardo approached.

  “Hey!” Tom walked over to him. “How’s it going?” Ricardo didn’t look cheerful at all. It seemed as though something was bugging him.

  “I am good. I brought the boys over again.” He nodded in the direction of the quarantine tent.

  “Hello, Cheryl.” The redhead waved to him from behind the plastic.

  Ricardo turned back to Tom. “I have something to tell you.”

  “What?”

  The man sunk his hands into his pockets. He seemed guilty, as if he was breaking a trust. “It is hard. They said it was not for you, but…” He trembled. “You should know about this!”

  Tom listened as Ricardo explained it all to him.

  “Okay! Okay!” Lee hurried to the door. “Who the hell is it?”

  “I’m here for the meeting!” answered a male voice that sounded Hispanic.

  “Ricardo?” Lee unlocked the door. “You sound like you’ve hit a couple of beers.” Then the door swung open, revealing it was not Ricardo at all.

  “No, but I might hit you in the face,” said Thomas Criver, leaning into the doorframe, glaring. “What the hell’s going on, Lee?”

  “Tom!” Clearing his throat, Lee backed away. “What a surprise. Care for a drink?”

  Tom advanced into the room, using his large frame to overshadow Lee. “Actually, I’d like an explanation of why I’ve been cut out of the loop.”

  “Ricardo told you?” Jake asked.

  “Actually, I was just in the neighborhood. I like long walks in the evening. It’s good for my heart rate.” Tom turned back to Lee. “So, you hold a secret meeting without clueing me in?”

  “Damn, Ricardo did spill it, didn’t he?” Jake asked.

  “Leave Ricardo out of this, and if you give him shit after tonight, I’ll come back and kick some asses around here,” Tom retorted.

  “Tom!” Lee raised his voice. “This meeting wasn’t for you. Trust me, it’s not personal. It’s a special meeting. Some of us needed to talk.”

  “Who’s ‘us?’ The only ‘us’ I know is everybody. Are you starting a knitting club or something?” Tom asked.

  “It’s a meeting of the healthy,” Jake barked.

  Lee cringed. “Shit,” he muttered.

  Slowly, Tom turned his gaze to Jake. “Those of us who aren’t sick and don’t have sick family members,” Jake said. “And we know your wife’s hit with the disease.”

  “Tom, this town is in deep shit.” Now Lee couldn’t even maintain his composure.

  “We don’t want to leave! Where would we go? We’ve planted gardens, and with tending, we can live here until we drop dead of old age! We have lives here! And now we have to flee just to escape this damned plague!” The man almost seemed like he would tear up.

  “I just welcomed a baby boy two months ago. I can’t take him out into that, that jungle out there, but I can’t have him catch this disease either!”

  “None of us are going,” Jake said, “We’ve decided that.”

  “I respect the hell out of you, Tom. Believe me,” Lee added.

  “Cutting me out of this isn’t respect, Lee,” Tom said.

  “Fine, fine.” Lee turned to Jake and the other men. “Then maybe I can make up for it.”

  After a minute of sitting inside the tiny closet, Tom wished for the quarantine tent again. But it was the only way he’d get close enough to the large meeting outside to hear what was going on. As it turned out, Lee and the other men were going to meet up with a larger throng of town citizens around the fishing shop. However, Lee arranged to have Tom come into the fishing shop and hide in the closet. Since the closet wall bordered the outside, plus the wall wasn’t very thick, it was easy to hear what was being said.

  “Just stick around here until I come get you out. If anybody else knows you’re here, it might get ugly. They want to be the ones to decide this, and they don’t want word to get out, not yet.”

  Lee had told him this shortly before he stepped into the closet. Tom had to admit, it wasn’t a bad idea. He figured he just could have stayed outside and out of sight, but Lee convinced him this would put him much closer to the action.

  Should I have gone along with this? What if they decide to turn on me? Then Tom realized, no, Lee didn’t lie to him. Lee just kept a secret from him. In Tom Criver’s book, lying was far worse.

  He peered out through a knothole in the wood. There was quite a crowd out there. A chill ran down Tom’s spine. If this many people decided to cause trouble, it could be very bad for the sick or those with loved ones who were sick. He listened as the meeting got under way. Many of the voices echoed what Lee had said earlier, that they weren’t leaving town.

  “There’s only one thing to do, and I think we all know what it is. They all have to go. Every one of them.”

  Tom strained to listen in more carefully. “This is the way it’s got to be. If they all leave, there’s no more carriers. Maybe this plague will be gone for good.”

  “But some of those people can’t even stand.”

  “That’s what wheelbarrows are for.” A few people laughed. Tom scowled.

  “That’s not funny. No, they should be given a fighting chance. They’ll go, but we’ll make sure they have all the food they need.”

  “Some of them are on death’s door already.”

  “No. This is who we are. We’re not going to act like savages. But they will have to leave. All of them.”

  A few shouts of “yeah” cut through the air. They multiplied by the second. Tom’s skin ran cold when he realized what they wanted. The mass of people out there wanted all the diseased people of Eagleton exiled, and that meant Cheryl, too!

  Chapter Seventeen

  The closet door opened. “Tom?” Ricardo’s voice cut through the din. The short man stumbled in, clutching a cloth bundle in his arms. Lee was behind him, holding a lit candlestick.

  “Here!” Ricardo handed it to Tom. “It is a disguise. Pretty nice, isn’t it?”

  Tom unfolded it. It was a long brown coat with a mask and a hat inside.

  “Nobody will recognize you!” Ricardo said, seeming quite satisfied with himself.

  “Yeah, you might want to get that on quick,” Lee said. “A lot of people are sticking around. This way, we can get you out of here before someone spots you.”

  Tom slid on the coat. It was big, almost long to touch his shoelaces, and the collar was thick enough to obscure his neck and even his cheeks from certain angles. Then he slipped on the oxygen mask, and put on the hat. With the hat, the
thick collar and the mask, it was almost impossible to make out his face.

  He followed Lee and Ricardo out of the shop, where Jake was waiting. The group just kept walking, now out in the open space in front of the shop, where people were scattered in threes, fours, fives and some even in small crowds. It was unnerving. Half of Tom was terrified of being noticed. The other half wanted to rip off the mask and curse them for doing what they were thinking. But he’d have time for that later. Right now, he had to get out of here in one piece and plan his next move.

  As he got close to the outer ring of spectators, one of them caught his eye. A person near the street curb stumbled down onto his knee. He seemed to have been rushing away with special urgency. The person struggled to get up.

  A pair of men took notice and started toward the person. “Hey!” one of them said.

  At first, Tom wondered if they were going over to help, but something about their body language disturbed him. Tom had observed the body language of lots of people who were looking to make trouble. These two qualified. He broke away from Ricardo and the others and hurried in the direction of the two men. By now the stumbling man had risen to his feet and was running, though hunched over. Something was wrong with him.

  “Hey, Tom! Where the hell are you going?” Lee asked as loudly as he dared.

  Tom didn’t answer. By now he had broken into a run, speeding after the two men who were themselves picking up speed. The stumbling man also was running, but he looked like he was in bad shape. He might even have the disease.

  Shit, if he does have it and he heard all this… Tom dashed even faster. He rounded the corner of a small shop on the other side of the street. The pursued man had reached a grassy driveway when he fell over. The two men stopped and looked over him.

  “Hey! What’s your hurry?” one of them asked.

  The man on the ground coughed. “He asked you a question,” his companion said. “You don’t seem to be doing so hot.”

  The man crawled up to the side of the building. Tom had closed in, and thanks to the moonlight, he could make out the person’s face, what little Tom could see. The person wore a cloth mask and a hood over his head. All Tom could make out were the eyes. One of the men, wearing a glove, suddenly reached out and yanked back the man’s hood. Tom instantly knew that wasn’t a man.