Viral Misery (Book 1)

by Watson, Thomas A

  “So, we will be losing six million people a day by the end of the week, and by next week it will be up to twenty million a day?”

  Putting his fork down, “Yes, that will be the peak here,” Sutton admitted. “In sixteen days, the numbers will start falling because those left will be isolated or immune.”

  “So, by May twentieth, the population of the United States will be less than thirty million? And a large portion of that will be kids?”

  Nodding, “Yeah,” Sutton mumbled. “This modern world we have was the perfect vector for this virus. Airplanes moved people around and one man got it into the bird population literally, around the globe. Then, a person can jump in a car and be on the opposite coast in two days.”

  “What are the numbers you feel that are isolated?”

  “Ten to twelve million,” Sutton answered. “Those are the ones we can help with a vaccine.”

  She leaned over and patted his cheek. “Go get in the bed, but shower first. I laid out new clothes and leave those in the bathroom, so they can be washed,” she instructed. “Atlanta will be sending the next batch of results in an hour. I’ll put them in the computer.”

  Getting up, Sutton looked down at Sarah, forcing a smile. “Thank you for all of your help,” he said, really liking her but terrified of her. Sarah’s language could make anyone blush when she got mad which it seemed, he and his team could do very easily.

  ***

  Stumbling down her hallway, Wendy moved around a body that was lying on the floor. Wheezing hard, Wendy bent over coughing hard and spewing froth from her mouth. Ignoring the dead body, she clutched the handrail on the wall to keep from falling down. She had tried to continue the checkups on people in their cabins, but had finally had to stop. The cough had started gradually over an hour ago and then intensified fast. In two hours’ time, the coughing had started doubling her over.

  As the coughing fit subsided, Wendy lifted her head and saw a refreshment cart in the hallway ahead and stumbled up to it. Hitting the cart with her waist, Wendy leaned over it and used it like a walker to continue down the hall.

  She stopped at her door and pulled the keycard attached to a bungie on her waist. The crew had given her that to check on people because it opened all the doors on the ship. Slipping the card in, she opened her door and pushed the cart in. She saw Gloria lying down on the bed, hacking hard as she coughed.

  “Gloria, you have to sit up,” Wendy croaked out. Letting the cart go, Wendy moved beside Gloria and touched her skin to feel that it was on fire. Seeing a bottle of Tylenol on the bedside table between the beds, Wendy grabbed it and took two out.

  She pulled Gloria up and propped her against the headboard. “Take these,” Wendy said, putting the pills in Gloria’s mouth. When she lifted a bottle of water to Gloria’s lips, Gloria grabbed it and turned it up. “Slow down some,” Wendy said, taking the bottle away.

  Gloria cracked her weary eyes open. “Nobody answered when the phone rang at home,” Gloria told her in a raspy voice.

  “I told you to wait for me and I would go with you,” Wendy said, handing the bottle back. “The captain told me we will be able to quarantine in Miami. They are going to have us park in the bay.”

  Draining the bottle, Gloria dropped it as she gasped for air, wheezing so loud Wendy could feel the vibrations through the air. “How many died today?” Gloria asked.

  “Don’t know, I had to stop rounds,” Wendy admitted, struggling to keep her eyes open. She saw Gloria tilt to the side to lay down. Reaching out, Wendy stopped her. “You have to keep your chest upright. Your lungs are filling with fluid. Upright, you have a chance to cough it out and use the top part of your lungs.”

  Giving a long moan as Wendy sat her upright, “I just want to lie down, I’m so tired,” Gloria panted and then erupted into a violent coughing fit, spewing frothy sputum over the room until she covered her mouth.

  Stepping back, Wendy tried to think of a way to keep Gloria upright. Wendy knew she had to get some rest as she looked around the room and an odd idea popped in her mind. She stumbled back into the cart as she thought about it. “Yeah, that could work,” she croaked and then started coughing as Gloria stopped.

  When Wendy finished coughing, she leaned hard against the cart, panting for air. When the stars left her vision, she pushed her body up and grabbed the extra sheets off the couch. Moving over to her suitcase, she pulled out the pocketknife she usually always carried, but she’d kept it in the suitcase since she had been on the ship.

  Flipping it open, she cut the sheet in half and twirled the cut sheet until she had two long strands. Tying the two together, she moved over to the balcony door and tied one end to a light fixture. Then she threw the strand over Gloria’s bed and saw it was too short to reach the far wall.

  Grabbing another sheet, she cut it to repeat the process and tied the other end to the clothes rack bolted to the wall. Turning around she saw the sheet hanging over both of their beds. “Gloria, sit up,” Wendy said, picking up the last sheet and cutting it in half.

  After she twirled it into a strand, Wendy looped it under Gloria’s arms as she sat her up. Wrapping it around Gloria’s back, Wendy tied it to the overhead line. When she was done, Gloria was sitting up, or more appropriately, being held upright.

  Moving to the couch, Wendy grabbed the cushions and put them behind Gloria and pulled Gloria’s legs out in a more natural position. “I want to lay down,” Gloria croaked, then started coughing.

  Feeling lightheaded, Wendy toppled back into the cart. Catching herself before she fell, “You can’t lay down. Upright you have a chance to keep your lungs clear by coughing,” Wendy wheezed, feeling the fluid in her lungs trying to suffocate her.

  She reached down and tossed half a dozen bottles of water around Gloria. Then she tossed some on her own bed. With the last of her strength, Wendy wrapped the other half of the sheet under her arms and tied it to the line, then sat down and found the loop held her upright.

  Slumping forward, Wendy coughed as she flapped a hand out to the nightstand, grabbing the bottle of Tylenol. When she stopped coughing, she took two and set the bottle back on the nightstand. “Gloria, wake me if you need me,” Wendy said as Gloria started another foaming mouth coughing fit and ended it by hacking out a mouthful of phlegm.

  “Don’t lay down, Gloria,” Wendy panted, struggling to keep her eyes open. “When you cough it up, you can’t drown.”

  As Gloria continued coughing, Wendy’s head dropped down as her body gave out from all the exertion she had done trying to help others. Hanging from the line, Wendy started coughing hard but didn’t wake up as the visitor tormented her body.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Finding an angel

  May 7

  Finished feeding the animals, Arthur dropped back down on the couch. Still wearing the same clothes since he’d read Wendy’s message, Arthur had a look of defeat on his face as the dogs came over and surrounded him, putting their heads in his lap. “I’m sorry, guys,” Arthur said with no emotion, getting up and walking to the kitchen.

  He filled the dogs’ bowls, then headed back to the couch and the dogs followed him. When he sat down, they again put their heads in his lap. Having no more tears left, Arthur reached down and rubbed the dogs. “Yeah, need to get it together,” Arthur mumbled. “Joseph will be here after this subsides.”

  The dogs moved closer, since this was the first sign of affection Arthur had shown in days. When Don stood up on the couch, putting his maw in Arthur’s face, Arthur couldn’t help but give a small smile. “Yeah, boy, I’m going to get through this,” Arthur said, rubbing his head.

  That set off all the dogs to stand up on the couch in his face. “Okay, I get the point,” Arthur said and the small smile turned into a grin he didn’t feel. Hearing his phone vibrate, Arthur gave a startle since the power had been off, along with the phones, but then heard the ring of the front gate tone.

  He got up and headed to his office and saw his phone mov
ing across the desk as it vibrated. Picking it up, he tapped the screen to see Rudy at the gate. Before he tapped the phone to turn on the speaker, Rudy got out of his truck and moved to the control box and punched the keypad.

  “What the fuck?” Arthur mumbled as the gate opened.

  Rudy turned back and jumped in his truck as the grief Arthur felt turned to rage. He pulled his pistol out and press-checked it, seeing brass in the chamber. Keeping it in his hand, he moved into the living room and looked out the front window to see if Rudy would pull to the front or back.

  Less than a minute later, Arthur saw Rudy’s truck pull to the back and he headed to the back door. “Kit, Kat, sit,” he snapped and the labs sat down as Don and Daisy followed him to the back door. Peeking out the small window, Arthur saw Rudy stop the truck and ease the door open, looking toward the shop.

  Yanking the back door open, Arthur raised his arm and aimed the pistol at Rudy’s chest. “I’m inside!” Arthur shouted and Rudy jumped, dropping his hand to his waist. Seeing Arthur aiming at him, Rudy raised his arms up.

  “Hey, Arthur, it’s just me,” Rudy said sniffling and Arthur noticed Rudy’s nose was a very bright red, almost glowing.

  “I know. I’m only going to ask once, how did you know the code because we never gave it to you?” Arthur demanded, seeing a revolver shoved in the front of Rudy’s pants.

  “I, um, asked Jack last year when you and Wendy were in Dallas,” Rudy said slowly, lowering his arms.

  “Move your arms more and you will die,” Arthur warned and Don and Daisy moved in front of him, growling at Rudy. Rudy’s arms jumped up fully extended over his head. “Jack wouldn’t just give you the code.”

  “I told him I had to bring your lawn mower back and forgot the code,” Rudy admitted and then sneezed, but somehow kept his arms up.

  “You come to ask for forgiveness for stealing from us?”

  “No, I know you have power and food. I came to stay with you,” Rudy told him. Then Rudy noticed Arthur’s unkempt appearance. “I can help out, you know it.”

  “No, get out of here because if I see you again, I’ll kill you,” Arthur barked.

  “No, you won’t,” Rudy grinned. “Arthur, either I stay or you leave, your choice,” Rudy said, lowering his hands slowly. “I don’t want to kill you, so I’ll stay with you, or you can leave, or I will kill you. Those are your choices.”

  BOOM, sounded as Arthur squeezed the trigger and saw Rudy jump as the bullet hit him in the center of his chest. Arthur squeezed the trigger three more times, hitting Rudy almost in the same spot. As Rudy wavered back with the hits, Arthur saw the window in Rudy’s truck shatter as the bullets passed through him.

  Hitting the truck with his back, Rudy looked down at the blood flowing out of his chest. He looked up and noticed his vision was getting fuzzy. “I should’ve just killed you,” Rudy gasped as blood dripped out of his mouth.

  Lowering his pistol, “Yep, you should’ve,” Arthur said and then saw Rudy grabbing for the revolver in his pants. Leveling the pistol again, Arthur squeezed the trigger one more time and Rudy’s head snapped back as a hole was punched in his forehead.

  Arthur kept his aim on the body for several minutes until there was no movement from Rudy. Finally lowering his pistol, Arthur ejected the magazine and pulled a fresh one from his mag holster. Putting the partial magazine in the holster, he shoved the full one into the pistol.

  Holstering his pistol, Arthur shook his head counting up the days in his head. “Fucking asshole, you exposed me when you were here to get the auger.”

  He stepped up to the body and looked at the revolver in Rudy’s pants. “You motherfucker, that’s Jack’s,” Arthur snapped and then spun around and jogged to the house. Don and Daisy followed as Arthur ran to his office and pulled a box of shells from the gun safe. Topping his magazine off, he walked over and grabbed his AR.

  “Dogs,” he said, running for the back door. All the dogs ran after him as he ran outside and jumped on the electric buggy. Spinning tires as he backed up, Arthur shifted into drive and took off down the driveway.

  As he sped down the driveway and saw the gate still open, “Shit-wad couldn’t even close the gate,” Arthur mumbled and breathed in through his nose and realized he could breathe better. “Yeah, you haven’t cried,” he mumbled, reaching the end of the driveway and turned onto the road. “I should be experiencing something.”

  Looking beside him, he saw the dogs running full speed and he slowed down some until they were at a trot. “Maybe I’m immune,” he concluded.

  Reaching Jack’s house, Arthur pulled into the driveway and noticed the front door was open. Climbing out of the buggy, he grabbed the AR and moved to the front door. Jack’s truck and Starlie’s car were both in the driveway so he knew they should be home, but that had been Jack’s prized 1873 Colt Peacemaker that Rudy had.

  Moving to the door, Arthur jerked his head back after catching a whiff of rankness. Easing up to the door, Arthur peeked inside and saw Jack on the floor and Starlie on the couch. Even standing in the door, he could tell they had been dead for a few days.

  “Sorry, Jack and Starlie,” Arthur mumbled, closing the door and started thinking of just leaving and heading nowhere, just away from the land he and Wendy had turned into a home. As the idea started picking up steam in his mind, he looked up the valley and saw the next house as a tiny speck. “Lord, please let Ted, Tammy, and Nicole be all right.”

  Remembering them on the porch when he had taken Wendy to the airport, he jogged back to the buggy and just drove through the yard to reach the road. Fighting a growing apprehension, Arthur kept a steady pace for the dogs to trot along beside him. Ted and Tammy had moved into the old house two years ago and Arthur really liked them. They were a very young couple. Ted had gotten to legal drinking age last year and Tammy still had a year to go.

  Two months ago, Tammy had given birth to their first baby, Nicole, a precious little girl. He and Wendy had visited them in the hospital but when Ted brought them home from the hospital, Wendy and Arthur came down to the house and gave them two hundred dollars for a baby gift and a prepared meal. Arthur had been trying to figure out a way they could talk Joseph into having a kid as he’d held the tiny baby. For the next two days, they had brought prepared meals down for supper and this had been Arthur’s idea. Wendy picked up that he’d only wanted to play with the baby, which was true, but Wendy had held Nicole as much as he had.

  Pulling into the yard, he saw their vehicles under the carport and remembered coming down and helping Ted put a new roof on, the month after they had moved in. “Please be all right, guys,” Arthur mumbled, getting out and grabbing his AR.

  Looping the single point sling over his head, Arthur walked across the yard to the front door. “Ted, Tammy, it’s Arthur!” he shouted and heard a soft cry inside the house. “Shit,” he sighed, feeling bad for waking the baby.

  He stopped at the door and waited for it to open as the baby continued to cry. Then, Arthur noticed the cry sounded weak. Grabbing the door, he opened it and was hit with rankness once again. Looking inside, he saw Tammy slumped over on the couch but didn’t see Ted.

  “Tammy,” Arthur called out and she didn’t move. Knowing if he walked in and Tammy was sick or the baby, he was for sure exposed. “Sorry, Wendy. I could never live with myself for turning away from a baby,” he said, walking inside.

  He stopped at the couch and saw frothy phlegm on Tammy’s mouth. Her breasts were exposed and a milk pump was in her hands. Reaching over, Arthur felt her neck but with his gloves on, couldn’t tell anything. Pulling his hand back and pulling off the glove, he felt Tammy’s neck again and felt she was cool but not ice cold and no pulse.

  Moving over to the bassinet, Arthur looked down at the baby crying weakly. “Hey, Nicole,” he said softly and immediately saw the diaper was full. Looking around, he found the diapers and wipes. Taking his other glove off, he opened the diaper up.

  “Wow, you’re awful little to
be putting out a pile of shit like that,” Arthur told the weakly crying baby. Tossing the full diaper on the floor, he wiped Nicole off and saw her skin was very red. “You’ve been laying in that awhile, huh?” he said, trying to be gentle. He was a nurse and knew it was a very bad diaper rash.

  When he put on the diaper, he picked Nicole up and let his AR hang at his side. “I hope your mom took Wendy’s advice,” he said, looking around.

  After they had visited them that third day, after bringing down an evening meal and had returned home, Tammy called Wendy crying because she wasn’t making enough milk to fill Nicole up. Wendy left the house and picked up some formula and brought it to Tammy, telling her to supplement until she made the milk.

  Looking around the house, Arthur sighed with relief when he saw a can of powdered formula on the kitchen counter. Grabbing a bottle from the dishrack, he saw bottled water in the corner and moved the still weak, crying Nicole to his left arm as he made a bottle. When he opened the formula, he saw it was almost empty.

  “Shit,” he snapped and Nicole stopped crying and he looked down at her to see her looking up at him. “Sorry,” he said, dumping the measuring spoon of formula in the bottle and Nicole started crying again. Grabbing a bottle of water, he poured in four ounces.

  “Almost,” he said, putting the nipple on and shaking the bottle hard. When the nipple touched Nicole’s lips, she started sucking hard and fast. Stepping back into the living room, he moved over and tried to move Tammy and felt that her body was stiff.

  “That’s at least eight hours and judging by that diaper, I’m betting you haven’t eaten for ten,” Arthur said, moving down the hall. He found Ted on the bed, sprawled out and gray. Grabbing Ted’s leg, he found it wasn’t stiff which told him that Ted had been dead for well over a day, but Arthur was thinking closer to two days.

  “I should’ve been checking up on them,” Arthur sighed, feeling guilty and then looked down and saw that Nicole was almost done eating. “We have to let that digest, princess.”