Death of the Republic

by Ken Ward

  “It's not a threat,” Trevor said. “Just letting you know the reality of the situation. It doesn't have to be that way. You can come with us right now.”

  “What are you gonna do to me?”

  “We just want to have you removed from the passenger cabin, again, as a precaution.”

  “And put me where, down with the luggage?”

  “Sir, please don't make this any harder than it already is. Now, I've asked you politely to come with us, as have my co-workers here.”

  “I'm not moving.”

  “So, that's it, huh?” Trevor said.

  “Yeah,” I said, “that's it.”

  Without warning I felt a firm hand grasp my arm. Maura scrunched herself into her seat. Two attendants as well as Trevor grabbed me and were trying to pull me from my seat. I heard a lady scream from a few rows up. Audible gasps could be heard as I gripped the arm rests on either side of me and tensed up all of my muscles to resist being pulled from the row.

  “Come on, sir!” Trevor said loudly. “Quit making this so difficult.”

  “Let go of me!” I hollered.

  Another attendant attempted to grab me and their hand slipped and they had my shirt instead. They yanked hard and my shirt ripped slightly. “Let go!”

  Adrenaline or not, I was feeling so fatigued and strung out from the illness that I lost my strength pretty fast. I'd resisted for as long as I could, but Trevor and the group of flight attendants succeeded in pulling me from my seat and a few seconds later they had me out in the aisle. A cheer rose up from the passengers. People actually clapped. I was surrounded by people from the flight crew and I was facing the back of the plane. They tried to move me toward the back and I leaned backward and pressed my heels into the carpet. Suddenly my feet came up off the floor and the crew carried me from the cabin into a back room that resembled a prep kitchen. They carried me to the corner of this area where there was a red seat bolted to the wall. I was plunked down onto this seat. I sat there breathing heavily, coughing every other breath. The flight crew were out of breath as well, including Trevor.

  “Now,” Trevor said, catching his breath, “are you going to give us anymore trouble? Are we going to have to restrain you?”

  “Restrain me?”

  “We won't hesitate to put you in restraints if you decide not to comply,” Trevor said. “This is a serious situation.”

  “Comply with what?”

  “We want you to sit here for the time being.”

  “What's the difference between sitting here and sitting in my seat that I'd bought and paid for?”

  “Are you going to cooperate or not?”

  “Fine.”

  “Good,” Trevor said, “now, put your seat belt on.”

  I reached for the black straps that hung on either side of the seat and buckled up.

  “You are to remain seated right here for the remainder of this flight,” Trevor said, “unless you are informed otherwise by me or another member of this crew, you understand that?”

  I nodded.

  “We're going to have someone monitoring you at all times. Please do not make any attempts to return to the passenger cabin area. We don't want to escalate things anymore than you do.”

  “But what if I have to go to the bathroom? I am pretty sick here.”

  “That's fine, but you won't be going without being accompanied by members of the crew. You got that?”

  Again, I nodded.

  “Okay, good.” Trevor walked to the doorway that led back to the passenger cabin. He and the flight attendants assembled there spoke in hushed tones so that I couldn't hear. The room was mostly metal. An aluminum counter top ran along a wall to my left, broken up by the doorway. There were two microwave ovens above the counter. A series of cabinets lined the wall both above and below the counter top. There was also a small aluminum sink and a stainless steel refrigerator. Two other red seats similar to mine jutted from the wall halfway across the room. The plane's engine echoed much more loudly in this area. I couldn't hear a word of what Trevor and his colleagues were saying. They'd finished speaking and Trevor left. Two attendants left with him, and two others stood near the doorway. One had her arms folded and she leaned against the doorway facing me. The other leaned on the other side of the doorway facing away from me. I hated knowing that pretty much everyone on board the flight hated my guts including those two attendants who must've drawn the short straw to watch over me. In that moment, I felt like I'd been given a taste of what it was like to be a prisoner, or to be accused of something you didn't do. It was an awful feeling.

  CHAPTER 11

  About ten minutes had passed since I'd been placed in the back of the airplane. The two flight attendants guarding me chatted amongst themselves, well out of earshot from me. I'd been counting the corrugated metal rivets on the floor around me, but I needed something else to occupy my mind.

  “Hey,” I said. Both attendants looked over at me. “Can I use my phone?”

  One of them waved their arm as if to say, yes. I pulled out my phone and went to my text messenger.

  You: hey, you're never going to believe what's happening on this flight

  Kathy: oh my god matthew i was just about to text you are u ok?

  You: i feel like ass but other than that i'm fine

  Kathy: u r all over the news

  You: what do you mean?

  Kathy: ppl are saying you have this deadly virus theres video of you

  You: video of me? doing what?

  Kathy: its you being taken out of your seat. Matthew y did u fight it

  You: they were being jerks, there's no proof i have this disease

  Kathy: you didn't have to fight tho

  You: they put me in the back of the plane

  Kathy: im so scared

  You: scared? why?

  Kathy: the news is saying you have this thing matthew you could die

  You: i'm not going to die, i have the flu

  Kathy: they r saying it looks a lot like the flu at first oh my god

  You: kathy pls calm down where is this video anyway?

  Kathy: here …

  She pasted a link that I tapped on my screen. There I was. A YouTube video. The title was “Man With Deadly Virus Getting Dragged From Seat – MUST WATCH!” It already had 5600 views. All of a sudden I'd become world famous. Or maybe infamous would be a better way of putting it. The video was shaky and shot from about three rows ahead of where I'd been sitting. I looked terrible, I noticed that right away. Then again, I'd always hated any picture of myself, and would avoid being shot on video like the plague – hmm, maybe not the best analogy to use given the situation – but you catch my drift. I hated how I looked even at the best of times. I admit watching the video of me fighting being taken from my seat by the flight crew did make me look like a massive asshole. Still, I felt I was in the right.

  You: Hey, just watched it...yikes

  Kathy: yeh i rly dont know why u fought that way

  You: are you disappointed in me?

  Kathy: kinda

  That stung a bit, to hear that from Kathy. I didn't want to feel so ashamed. I didn't want to pile that negativity on top of how awful I already felt physically and emotionally. I'd decided to end our text conversation for the moment.

  You: i'm gonna go, i'll text you later

  Kathy: why?

  You: i'm tired, gonna sleep

  Yes, that was a lie, but I didn't know how else to tell her that I couldn't handle her disappointment in me, and I didn't want our conversation to escalate into a fight. The whole world at that moment seemed against me, I didn't need my girlfriend to be against me too.

  Kathy: you can sleep at a time like this after evrything thats happened?

  You: yep, anyway, i'll text you later

  Kathy: k fine

  You: love you xoxox

  Kathy: love you

  The two flight attendants had moved slightly, now they were both leaning against the edge of the counter on ei
ther side of the doorway to the cabin. I really didn't know what they expected to accomplish by having me sit in that back room. From the doorway to the row where I'd been sitting was all of about twenty feet I'd guessed. And where I was sitting was about fifteen feet from the doorway. So you do the math, given the extreme virulence of this IGNA-3 disease, was that extra bit of separation going to do anything? Maybe it was a mental thing. They felt like at least they were doing something so maybe in their own minds they were helping to prevent the spread of the virus.

  I tapped on my phone's screen and went to Twitter. In hindsight I realize I'd had nothing but toxicity from that website, but I couldn't help myself, I wanted to engage with the world somehow. As soon as I went there, I could see on the side of my feed my flight number was among the trending topics. I clicked on it and there were a series of alarming posts. I couldn't believe my eyes.

  @cherryred76fulleeezz: i wonder who this guy iz? hes ruining lives

  @juramandotyfelivvo: can anyone get this passenger's identity? you can tell his seat number i think from the video

  @roominaroblue1990: anyone have this person's name yet? they're the worst, deserve what's coming to em

  @atari4evrrrbulask: row 21 i think, seat b, someone identify him, see if he has a linkedin page we could get him fired from his job

  @carrieb200=-==333: hes frum boston rite? street address?

  Genuine fear ran through me at that moment. Basically, the entire Twitter-verse had taken it upon themselves to figure out who I was and exact some kind of revenge for what they'd perceived as me potentially endangering the lives of everyone on board the flight. I had heard of this kind of mob forming on social media before and I knew it's devastating potential. I just never thought I'd ever be in a position to be on the receiving end. Horrified, I immediately closed Twitter and put my phone away. I sneezed into my hands, not caring about spreading germs anymore. I rubbed my nose and tilted my head back and looked at the dull gray ceiling. My world was coming apart. Maybe actually having IGNA-3 wouldn't be such a bad thing.

  CHAPTER 12

  48. That's how many rivets I had counted in the floor around me. I didn't just do it once though, I recounted four times just to see if the number changed. The two flight attendants guarding me had moved away from the doorway and stood on the opposite end of the room from me. One of them had their back turned to me, leaning her left elbow on the counter while facing the other attendant. I couldn't really see the other attendant's face either as it was partially blocked by the other person and half of it was covered by a mask.

  A short man appeared in the doorway wearing a RepublicAir uniform. He was out of breath. “They're asking for masks,” he said to the two attendants.

  “We don't have them,” said one of the other attendants.

  “Some of them are pulling down the emergency masks.”

  “Well, that isn't happening,” said one of the ladies, “you have to stop them.”

  “I've tried.”

  A loud bellowing voice exploded from the cabin and echoed in the back room.

  “What is going on?” One of the attendants said. The three of them turned and looked out through the doorway to the cabin.

  “Oh my god,” one of them said.

  All three attendants ran from the room. Sitting there with my seat belt buckled, I had no intention of being any more uncooperative than the flight crew already perceived me to be. Considering they weren't letting me sit in my actual seat, I had nowhere else to go really. But I admit, their reaction caused alarm in me and I wanted to know what was happening. So, I pulled the metal lever on my seat belt buckle and the mechanism came loose. I stood up from my seat and walked slowly toward the doorway, expecting an attendant to return at any second and to lose their mind when they saw me out of my seat. One foot carefully in front of the other, ready to burst back to my seat as soon as I heard anyone returning, I crept forward. I reached the end of the counter to my left and poked my head around the edge of the doorway to the cabin. I couldn't believe my eyes. The entire back half of the plane was almost empty. All but two passengers had left their seats and moved toward the front of the aircraft. In my mind I'd begun to wonder whether such a thing happening could throw the balance off of the plane and cause it to tip and nosedive. I shook off the notion because well, I'm not a physicist and I highly doubt that's how flight works.

  I stared up the aisle and through an archway in a dividing wall about halfway up the plane's cabin I could see a horde of people gathered in a mob with scattered members of the flight crew fighting to gain control of the situation. Even over the engines I could hear some yelling and screaming. It appeared some people were pushing at others. There definitely seemed to be some physical skirmishes happening. I shouldn't have been surprised. Human beings always have the worst reactions to everything. The people on my flight were in a panic. It felt strange to be the cause. I was always someone who went out of my way to not draw attention to myself, and here I was the world's number one pariah. Life is strange. I noticed the face of one of the flight crew, it appeared to be looking in my direction. My stomach dropped and I made a bee-line back to the seat in the back corner of the room. I sat down and buckled up and pulled out my phone to make it appear as though I'd been preoccupied doing my own thing, as though oblivious to all that was happening in the cabin. Sure enough, a flight attendant came through the doorway into the room. She looked at me and I looked at her.

  “Everything okay in here?” She said.

  “Yep,” I said. “Doesn't sound like it's okay out there.”

  “No,” she said. But she didn't elaborate. Instead she went to one of the cabinets and grabbed something, but she kept it hidden from me. I had no idea what she'd come back to retrieve, but once she had it, she left briskly. My imagination went wild. What if it was a gun? Could you imagine if they started shooting people? What if they punctured a hole in the cabin's wall? That would create a suction vacuum that would suck out half the people, the seats, the luggage, maybe everything. I pictured myself in free fall, hurtling toward the ground at breakneck speed. What a terrible way to go. Then I had another terrible thought. What if the Captain made an executive decision to off me in order to regain control of the crowd? What if people were screaming for my blood even though no one wanted to come close enough to me to actually carry out the act? Nah, if that flight attendant was going to shoot me, she'd have done it right then and there, right? I'd had thoughts of getting out of my seat again, but I'm glad I thought better of it because the same attendant returned to the back room, this time with another of the flight crew with her. She returned to the same cabinet as before and I could see she had an inhaler in her hand.

  “So, she's okay?” The attendant said, placing the inhaler back into the cabinet.

  “Yeah, she's fine,” the other attendant said, “she just got a bit winded dealing with that guy.”

  “This is nuts.”

  “I know.”

  In that moment both attendants turned and looked at me with disdain. I felt lower than dirt. What could I do? I'd come down with the flu while in an airport, so sue me. Wait, I thought to myself. Don't even think about lawsuits. It may just come to that. I could see it now, every other passenger on the flight filing suit against me for reckless endangerment and for mental anguish. I'd be poor for the rest of my life trying to pay off the damages. Kathy would leave me because I'd be a broke mess, probably become an alcoholic and unable to hold down a job. I'd be living in a cardboard box somewhere and tell stories to the other unfortunate souls around me about the time the entire planet thought I was a dangerous disease carrier not worthy of humanity's empathy. Just another sob story to add to everyone else's I guess as we gather around a barrel of fire, warming our hands and dreaming of how things used to be.

  I snapped back to reality as one of the attendants left. The other one stayed behind and leaned with her back against the counter top. She held her phone in front of her and did her best to ignore my presence. I r
emoved my phone from my pocket and opened my text messenger.

  You: ppl on this flight are going crazy and its my fault

  Kathy: what's happening now? CNN is covering your flight btw

  You: really?

  Kathy: yeah, they have a map showing where you are, u r just about over north carolina by the looks of it

  You: great

  You: do they have my name yet

  Kathy: no, i dont want them to have it

  You: i know

  Kathy: im scared, what if you actually have that thing?

  You: i dont think i do

  Kathy: yeh but you have no way of knowing

  You: i guess...but i really think its the flu

  You: no one's said anything to you at your work yet?

  Kathy: im not telling anyone its you

  You: of course

  Kathy: anyway, gotta get back to work

  You: k

  You: are you annoyed at me?

  Kathy: wut? why you think that?

  You: i dont know...i hate that the world hates me

  Kathy: babe im not annoyed, you cant help any of this

  You: i know...but tell that to the flight crew...or the other passengers

  Kathy: ppl r Aholes u know that

  You: yeah

  Kathy: gotta go, i love you

  You: love you too xoxox

  Kathy: xoxo

  As was typical with me, I took the feelings of those around me, or how I'd perceived others around me to feel about me and projected them onto those I considered my closest friends and family. And Kathy was no different. If I ever had a feeling someone was annoyed at me or I'd made someone unhappy, I'd assume Kathy felt the same way even if it was a situation that didn't involve her. I had no idea why I did that, but I did know it annoyed Kathy to no end, which only exacerbated any given situation because I'd take her annoyance as being part of whatever given problem I'd perceived someone else had with me. Pretty ridiculous when I spell it out and actually think about it. But this was my twisted, useless brain. I smiled a little as I re-read Kathy's words and realized that I was loved and that after all this commotion dies down life would return to normal once again. The warmth however, didn't last all that long as my phone buzzed in my lap. I unlocked my phone and a text message from Kathy appeared. My jaw dropped and my heart leapt into my throat.