“It’s coming, Lee. I just know it is. All those dreams I keep having, it’s a warning. The military trucks, the grates on big box stores, it’s all a warning. And if I’m wrong, if I’m being a fool, I will not say a word when you make fun of me for the rest of our lives, but I don’t think I’m wrong. Not this time.”
There had been other times. When the twin towers were destroyed, Tara bought a few prepper supplies, which still moldered on her basement shelf, along with the inherited supply from her mom. But ever since, fear simmered in her heart and Tara thought of it now as the fear that had groomed her for this. Was this anxiety really just preparing her for Ebola, for the end of the world?
“Tara, I hate to go too far with this, I mean, my God, people will think we’re crazy!”
“I know it’s probably too soon, Lee, but please can we at least cover the downstairs? I’ll help you take it down if nothing more happens, I promise!” Lee sighed and his shoulders slumped. Tara knew he’d given in. Part of him believes it too.
“I’m not a crazy-woman, Lee. I really feel like this is it!”
Almost afraid to leave the windows with someone making noise over at the parsonage, Tara finally followed Lee to the attic. They dug in the huge pile of junk near the chimney and came up with several old oak headboards and a couple tabletops. Tara helped carry them down to the upstairs landing, one by one, mentally ticking off which item would close off which window or door.
“I’m not as worried about the second floor, not yet anyway.” Tara slid a table down the short flight of stairs to the foyer with Lee pulling the other end. “Do you have enough nails?”
Lee nodded. “Got a lot of screws too if need be.” He had always built projects over the years, and lucky for them both, they were total packrats. They very rarely threw anything away. Tara liked to think of this as a sort of insurance, harking back to their early days of being very poor. After they started making more money, pure laziness kept her from having a huge yard sale and clearing it all out.
“I’d like to leave a little slit, so light comes in and we can see.” They began in the kitchen, Tara holding up the wood and Lee nailing it into place. For the most strategic window in the pantry, Lee used two smaller pieces of wood from the basement. This left an inch wide gap between the slats. Enough to see and enough to stick a gun barrel through, she thought grimly. She stared out at the rose bush in the backyard, the rose hips now prominent on the stems. I seem to recall you can make tea out of those…
She vaguely remembered a book she’d picked up at a yard sale out of curiosity. It was something about backyard foraging, and that’s where the rose hip memory came from. God help us modern women. We don’t know how to do anything.
As Lee worked on pounding the last nails, Tara ran upstairs to the bookcase. She found the book and brought it down where she could look at it later. Just then, her cell phone rang. It was Mary. Tara blurted out what she’d talked Lee into doing, hoping for some sort of validation.
“I begged Lee to board up all our ground floor windows and doors. He’s working on that at the moment, but he’s almost done. He thought I was crazy before, but now, he’s ready to commit me,” Tara told her sheepishly.
“Ask him if he’ll help me do mine. I only have four.” Tara was relieved to hear Mary was on the same page as her about the window boarding. Tara told her to meet them out back in another hour, and volunteered her husband for Mary’s windows too. Lee just rolled his eyes at her, good natured to the end.
They finished with the downstairs and Tara felt silly, but safe. It was a chilly fall night for early October and they grabbed their jackets. Tara had a red one on at first, until Lee pointed out how visible it was. She changed into all black.
They closed the door behind them and met Mary coming down their drive. “Let’s go see what this military thing is all about,” said the older woman.
Lee held Tara’s hand as they walked quietly through the oddly unlighted neighborhood, which Lee noticed first. They took the dark country road at the edge of town, which led to the gravel pit about a mile from their house. They could hear sounds coming from there, long before they arrived within sight of it.
A grassy area along the blacktopped road ended in a bulldozed pile of dirt from the excavation site below. They approached the lip of the now overgrown gravel pit where the abandoned Kmart sat on the far side, seven hundred yards away. The three of them ducked down the last few feet, creeping closer until they could see. Then they crouched there in the grass, staring at the phenomenon rising in the distance. It looked for all the world like a huge field hospital.
~
The virus waited on surfaces everywhere now: on doorknobs and handles of doors to the most populated stores, on hard plastic armrests in doctor’s offices, on airport chairs, on smooth molded tabletops in food courts. Fast food workers—required by law to wear disposable gloves but not always complying— touched each hamburger bun, leaving virus particles as they assembled sandwiches. Cashiers at the largest chain stores took in money and passed the virus back out in bills and change. The Zaire strain of Ebola survived up to seven weeks on glass. It survived dried on surfaces, or in liquid like vomitus and mucus. It survived in temperatures as low as 39 degrees Fahrenheit. It rode along on fingers, which then rubbed eyes, wiped noses, or bit at a hangnail. Then it nestled into the soft, warm, membranes of nostrils, gums, lungs, and eyes and multiplied for an average of eight to ten days. Headache, muscle aches, sore throat and fever then began, and the virus cycle continued, shedding from the skin and body fluids of the host. Every handshake at every gathering and party, at every workstation and each workplace, it waited and took hold, silently, aggressively, completely.
The hosts went about their daily routines, shedding virus particles thoroughly everywhere they went. A tiny little fever was no biggie. No one could afford to stay home sick because of that. Therefore, Ebola was efficiently distributed to all, regardless of race, color, creed, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, or marital status. It was a true, equal-opportunity killer.
~
“What in God’s name?” hissed Mary between clenched teeth, and Tara shushed her with a gentle touch on the arm.
“Wow,” breathed Lee. Tara just stared in horror at the scene.
Below them spread out around the old Kmart building were tents, at least ten of them, and large ones too. The original Kmart parking lot lights were on, as well as five or six tall lighting trees, which rose above generators thrumming with power. Military trucks were parked all around the building, and men in camouflage uniforms walked back and forth, carrying building materials. From the looks of it, some stood guard, both at the front and rear of the building.
“What are they doing? Do you think they’re expecting to fill this place with patients?”
Lee shook his head while both she and Mary stared at him. “I think it’s already filled.”
Tara scanned the scene down across the pit, fastening her eyes onto what looked like a fleet of smaller ambulance type vehicles and white vans. Just then, headlights approached around the side of the old store and they watched as one of the smaller vehicles stopped near the rear entrance. A team of hazmat-suited workers exited the building and approached it. The rear hatch was opened, and two plastic encased stretcher type objects were lifted out. You couldn’t really see what was in them. They were completely enclosed in white plastic interspersed with clear panels. The suited people, who disappeared with their burdens into the building, carried these two large objects on each end.
“There’s someone contagious in each of those pods,” Lee told them.
“Oh, my God, Lee, this is really happening, isn’t it? It’s really going on, right now, right down there!”
Mary encircled Tara’s shoulder with one arm. “I think it is, Tara.”
“I can’t quite see for all these bushes,” Lee said. He rose to his knees then stood.
“Lee, stay down! They’ve gone to all this trouble to keep thi
s under wraps, what do you think they’d do if they saw you spying?” Tara pulled at his pants leg and Mary joined in. “She’s right, Lee, let’s get out of here.”
“Okay, just a minute.” He took two steps, climbing up on the soft dirt at the lip of the gravel pit. The sudden noise of an approaching vehicle on the country road behind them caused Tara to cry out to Lee to get down. As the van’s headlights swept around the bend, Lee was briefly silhouetted in its lights. He made a quick move to jump back, and the dirt beneath his feet gave way. Instantly, he was gone, tumbling forward into the pit.
Tara barely stopped herself from screaming. She heard Lee’s grunt of pain and the sound of him hitting the rocks hard.
“Oh no,” Mary cried softly. They stayed crouched in the grass until the white van went by and disappeared down the road. They hadn’t seen him. Then Tara scrambled to the edge and looked over. Mary joined her.
Lee was groaning softly, pulling himself back up. He hadn’t fallen far.
“I fell on my leg. It bent up behind me!”
Tara saw his grimace of pain and sprang into action. “Mary, help me. We’ve got to get him back up here.” The two women gingerly planted their feet in the soft soil on the other side of the pile of dirt, as Lee crawled to them. Grasping his hands, they pulled for all they were worth. Lee’s two-hundred-pound-plus frame inched slowly toward them. Tara’s fear for him rose up, nearly choking her, but she was more afraid they would be discovered spying on the medical facility.
“Mary, come on, pull, just a foot more.” The women struggled and grunted, and Lee pushed with his good leg until he finally heaved his chest across the top of the dirt pile.
“My God, we’ve got to get you out of here!” Tara was in a panic, staring at the vehicles now leaving the parking lot below. “They could come up here any minute!” She knelt beside Lee to survey the damage. Mary was already running her hand down his right leg to ascertain where the injury was. Lee winced as she felt along the outside of his knee.
“I heard it crack, Mary. And I feel sick at my stomach, just like I did when I broke my arm years ago.”
“I think you’re right, Lee. I believe it’s broken. It’s a common break when you fall with your leg bent under you—it’s the outer bone, the smaller one called the fibula”
Tara wiped Lee’s face with her shirt. He had broken out in a cold sweat. “I think I might be sick,” he said. Tara glanced around, and saw there were dense bushes just a short distance away from them along the road.
“Lee, we’ve got to get you out of sight. Mary, grab his arm. Let’s drag him over there behind those bushes, so no one can see us.”
Lee groaned, but was able to help them push off a little. It was obvious he was in severe pain. They pulled him behind a clump of brush, and Tara knelt there. “Lee, what should we do? How can we get you home? We need to call the ambulance, get you to the ER.”
“No way!” he erupted. “I’m not going to the ER. Go in for a broken leg, you come out with Ebola! Mary, how much do you know about breaks? Can you rig me up with something?”
The older woman nodded. “If it is broken, these are painful breaks, Lee, but they heal fairly well because it’s the non-weight-bearing bone there on the outside of the leg. In fact, I may even have an air cast at home that will fit you. But you’re going to be in a lot of pain for a while, and will have to keep the leg iced and propped up.”
Tara stared back and forth between them. “Are you kidding me? Are you sure that will work?” She stared at her husband. Do you really want to do that? Do you believe the hospital isn’t safe?” Tara still somehow wanted Lee to quiet her fears.
Mary agreed with Lee. “If it’s not broken, the treatment is about the same. The recovery time is just longer with a break. He’ll know which it is soon enough anyway. I don’t think it’s safe at the hospital anymore either, Tara. God knows what they’re not telling us. From what my daughter is saying, there are cases there they are hiding from us.”
That was good enough for Tara.
“Okay, I’m going to run home and get my SUV. I can leave the lights off so they don’t see us. Mary, can you stay with him?” But Lee didn’t want her to, and told Tara they’d be safer as a pair. She reluctantly agreed.
“Don’t you move, Lee. Don’t do anything to draw attention to yourself.” Lee looked at her as if to say DUH! It broke the tension and they all laughed a little. Tara bent down to him. “I love you. I’m so sorry this happened, but we’ll be right back and get you home.” Lee nodded, obviously in pain.
Tara grabbed Mary’s arm as they hurried away down the road. “Do you have any pain pills, Mary? I’ve got some old ones from my last dental appointment.”
“I do. We can treat him at home and get him good as new. Don’t you worry. We’ll know soon enough if it really is broken. It will swell up and he’ll have trouble walking on it at all.”
The women moved fast down the long country road to the edge of town, then as quietly as they could through the dark neighborhood, until they reached the backyard of Tara’s house.
“Doesn’t it seem awfully dark around us lately? And have you noticed the traffic out front has slowed to a handful of cars?”
Mary nodded, eyes huge. “I have. I don’t take it as a good sign. And I’m afraid to go back out to the store to see what’s going on.”
Tara’s SUV was parked in her little pull in space behind their garage and she dug out her keys and started it up. Mary climbed in the passenger side. The mile long stretch of road on the way back seemed so much shorter when you were driving.
“What do you say to taking a little trip tomorrow, Tara, sort of a reconnaissance mission?” The thought of it scared Tara, but she felt braver with the idea of Mary’s company.
“That’s a great idea. I’ve been afraid to venture out too, but we need to see for ourselves,” Tara told her.
Tara shut off her headlights as soon as she got to the far edge of town. They inched slowly along on the secluded road, watching all sides for any danger. But a field of corn on their right and the fenced in lake section of the gravel pit on their left didn’t leave a lot of room for hidden threats. She pulled the car off to the side in the grass, very near the bushes. She left it running while she and Mary jumped out.
“We’re back,” she whispered softly,” and Lee appeared very relieved.
The women helped him up, one on each side, grabbing his underarms. Lee hopped one-legged to the car, supported by the women. He had to stop a couple times, groaning, and Tara knew it must hurt badly, because Lee just wasn’t the type to complain over pain.
They settled him into the passenger seat and Mary crawled in the back. Again, with no headlights, Tara moved slowly down the country road, turning them on as soon as they reentered the street at the edge of town. Just at the edge of the cornfield, Mary pointed. “Look!” Then glowing eyes of a white tailed deer stared back at them frozen in the headlights. It turned and bounded away, tail flashing as it ran. Deer were very plentiful in their rural area, but Tara’s family were not hunters, and the thought of killing them had always turned her stomach. Now her usual appreciation of their beauty turned in a different direction. Another possible food source…
Tara pulled into the back alley and on into her driveway behind the garage. Carefully, the women helped Lee out and up onto the back porch. Mary supported him while she unlocked the boarded over door, which Mary commented upon as they ushered Lee inside. “You did a good job on the door, Lee.” Tara closed it behind them in relief.
“Thank God, we made it home!” They installed Lee on the couch, and Tara ran to get practically all the pillows in the house to prop his leg up high enough. Then she went in search of her old pain pills and gave Lee two of them. Next, she brought a blanket and Lee pulled off his jeans under it so Mary could see his leg. She gave Tara a knowing look as soon as she saw the swelling and bruising down his leg and behind his knee, making his skin tight and shiny.
“Have you got enough pi
lls for tonight?” Mary asked. “I’ll bring more over tomorrow.” Tara did and she and Lee both thanked her. She walked Mary to the front door to let her out.
“I can’t believe this just happened.”
Mary just shook her head. “I know, “she said. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Call me if anything goes wrong or if you need me.”
Tara nodded, and hugged her. “Thank you so much, Mary, for everything.” Mary pulled back a little, as though maybe they shouldn’t get that close, but Tara didn’t care at the moment.
“Ebola be damned” she answered Mary’s reticence.
Mary smiled and nodded, crossing the wide street to her little bungalow on the corner. Tara watched to make sure she got in safely, and Mary turned and waved. Tara closed and locked the door, leaning against it for a minute to think. How am I going to manage without Lee?
Chapter 5
Tara turned and stared at Mary’s closed door for a moment. She heard Lee stirring and rejoined him in the living room. His long, lanky frame barely fit on the sofa. She fluffed his pillows, gathered ice packs and more bedding, and then turned on the TV to distract him, her mind elsewhere. “How are you feeling, honey?” His face looked pale and he grimaced in pain occasionally.
“It hurts like hell,” he answered stoically. “I can’t believe I was so clumsy.”
Tara squeezed in, sitting down beside him but careful not to jar his leg. She leaned over to give him a hug, then smoothed his hair back and kissed his head.
“We’ve all had those klutzy moments. Mary says the swelling will go down within a few days. Then the real healing will begin. You’ll be back to normal soon, I hope.”
“Me too,” he grinned at her, “I’m not a very good patient.”
“You’re MY patient, so you’d better be good! I don’t know if I’ve ever had this much control over you. I think I like it!” They laughed together companionably.
“Do you want to try to go upstairs to bed tonight or would you rather stay here? If so, I’m going to bring the air mattress down and sleep here on the floor next to you.”
Red Death: A Post Apocalyptic Thriller Page 4