by Tony Thomas
‘Welcome to Sydney, where the time is 6.10 a.m. Please remain seated as we taxi to the gate. If you can reach your mobile phone, you may now take it out of flight mode.’
From the window, Sydney airport looked just like any other airport he had ever seen. Jeff dug through the seat pocket and found his cell phone. He turned it on, expecting half a dozen emails and maybe a text or two. To his surprise, the mail counter quickly started to build. Something must have been happening in the office. As he watched, the mail counter continued to climb. His phone kept beeping as texts started to come in, as he noticed this, he also noticed the wave of beeps coming from all over the plane. He heard someone yelling ‘Oh my God!’ from the back of the plane. He looked around, and almost everyone had their heads down looking through messages.
Just as Jeff started to look at text messages, the intercom came to life.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, if I could have your attention please. Please listen as I read the following announcement:
‘The Australian Government welcomes all travellers to Sydney. Australia has declared a nationwide State of Emergency including a curfew and quarantine.
‘There has been an outbreak of a contagious disease which is affecting many countries. This disease causes the infected to exhibit extremely violent behaviour. It also appears that this disease can be transmitted easily, although the transmission mechanism is unknown at this time.
‘Due to the risk of infection, all inbound aircraft are to be placed in an immediate quarantine. All arrivals will be parked away from the gates until a total of six hours have passed since the flight was boarded. If no passengers or crew exhibit symptoms by the end of this period, the aircraft will then be permitted to approach an arrivals gate and you will be able to debark.
‘All arrivals will then be subjected to a brief medical examination before normal customs and immigration procedures. All passengers will then be transported to emergency quarantine shelters.
‘If you have an onward connection, the flight has been cancelled. There are no domestic flights operational today.
‘The curfew has been declared to minimise risk of transmission of the disease. Only essential services are permitted to be outdoors.
‘These measures have been taken to protect all people in Australia, both citizens and visitors. Your cooperation in following these instructions will help ensure your safety.
‘That’s the end of the announcement, folks. As you know, we boarded thirteen hours and forty-five minutes ago—so we get to go straight to the gate. If you haven’t completed your arrival card, now would be a good time to do it. Please remain seated, with your seatbelts on, while the aircraft taxies.’
The whole cabin erupted into chatter. ‘Bloody hell’, Pete, the fellow on the aisle seat, said, ‘glad we didn’t come from New Zealand!’
‘Why’s that?’ Jeff asked, without really thinking about it.
‘It’s only a three-hour flight, mate,’ he answered. ‘They’d have to sit on the plane for another three hours.’
Jeff nodded, ‘Oh, of course. Uh, are you from Sydney?’
‘Yeah, down near Cronulla. Keen to find out if they’re going to let locals go home. Seems crazy to hold people when they’ve got homes to go to.’
Jeff’s phone beeped as another message came in. ‘Excuse me,’ he said.
Pete nodded acknowledgement and Jeff started to read his text messages. Despite the dozens of emails, he had only eight text messages; all of them were from his 16-year-old son Jim. Not surprisingly, he hadn’t heard a word from his ex-wife Maria. It would take more than the end of the world to open the communication channels between them. Jeff was just glad she hadn’t poisoned his relationship with Jim.
Jim’s texts started to roll in.
Have a great trip. See you when you get home
Jim smiled as he scrolled to the next message.
Mom is acting real weird. Locked myself in my room
That was not so good, he paged down.
Mom has gone out. I am locking up the house
Jeff frowned; he nervously paged down to the next message.
Watching the news. People have gone nuts
He flicked forward
Mrs Davis just attacked someone on the street
Mrs Davis was a seventy-something-year-old grandmother who had babysat Jim. She was one of the gentlest, sweetest people Jeff had ever met. He paged to the next message.
This is really scary dad. I have closed the curtains so no-one can see in. Going to hide out upstairs
Jeff paged forward
Message me when you land dad. I am really scared
And then
Have you landed yet dad? Pls message me
‘Goddamit,’ Jeff muttered as he quickly messaged Jim.
Just landed. All OK here. RU OK?
‘Are you all right?’ Pete asked. ‘You’ve gone real pale.’
‘It’s my son,’ Jeff replied. ‘Something strange is happening at home, his mother’s disappeared and he’s in the house by himself.’
‘Bugger. You got any neighbours you can call for him?’ Pete suggested.
‘The only one I would have called has gone mad and is attacking people on the street. She’s in her seventies.’
‘You fair dinkum?’ Pete asked. ‘Seventies and attacking people?’
Jeff guessed what ‘fair dinkum’ must mean. ‘That’s what he told me. If that’s what’s happening I don’t know who I can call.’
His phone beeped. ‘Thank God!’ he thought as he opened the text
Im OK dad. Glad you are ok.
Jeff immediately dialled Jim’s mobile. He got a busy signal. Frustrated, he reasoned that that had to be good news, right? Looking around, he noticed that almost everyone on the plane seemed to be trying to use their phone—maybe the network was overloaded.
Jeff decided texting might be more effective and rapidly thumbed
Tried to call. Problem with phone connections. Are you safe?
‘Is your phone working?’ Jeff asked Pete, as he anxiously waited for a reply.
Pete said, ‘Sorry, mate, my phone’s in my bag. I didn’t think I would need it this soon.’
Jeff was just about to answer when his phone beeped. Thank God that messaging was working so well, he thought.
Jim’s message was
Think Im safe now. Have locked doors and windows like news said. Tried to call you but message said no lines. Some friends meeting at school. Not sure if
Obviously too long for one text. That was something to remember if they couldn’t get a call through, although it was a long time since he’d seen a message split. Jeff waited anxiously for the second part of the message. After what seemed like eternity but was probably closer to four or five seconds, the rest of the message came through:
I should go. Cant see anyone on street now. Mom still not back
Jeff thought about this for a few moments. In almost any situation, there was going to be safety in numbers. Hadn’t he heard something on that once? It was on one of those podcasts he listened to that talked about myths. They said that more people didn’t always result in more safety. He tried to recall exactly what was said.
It had started with discussion of the Kitty Genovese murder. The story was that she had been murdered in front of a group of bystanders and no one had offered any help. The original newspaper reports had said there were dozens of witnesses, and none had called for help, or gone to her aid. This had started investigation into the ‘Bystander Effect’. Apparently, the larger the group, the more likely it was that people would ignore someone in need of help.
Like most stories in the media, the Genovese murder had been exaggerated a fair bit. There were different accounts but it sounded like she was not in a crowd but rather walking through a parking lot by herself. It was late at night and people in the nearby apartments had not heard her cries. It was actually more of an example of why it was better to be in a group.
He quickly thumbed
Safety in numbers. Wait til 2mrw. No point taking risk now
As he pressed send, he noticed they had pulled up at the gate. He sent another message:
Plane at gate. Will get back in touch soon.
As he pressed send, he offered a silent prayer asking for God to look after his only son.
05:50 AEST: Sydney
Rita tried Gen’s home number a couple of times but it kept coming up busy. She then tried Dan’s mobile. There was no point calling Gen’s, she always had crappy reception at home. Dan answered with the first ring. ‘Hello, Rita—are you alright?’
Rita took a breath. ‘Not really, Dan. Brick decided we should go bush—down to his cousin’s place in Rocky Hall.’
‘I think that’s a really bad idea, Rita,’ Dan said. If people are going crazy, how safe do you think you’ll be on the road?’
‘Well, Dan’, Rita said, getting a bit annoyed, ‘a heck of a lot safer than being at home. We got attacked when we pulled out of the driveway.’
‘You’re kidding,’ Dan said.
‘No I’m not,’ Rita replied. ‘Two people launched themselves at Brick, he just made it to the car. I don’t know what’s going on, but I do know I am going to feel a whole lot safer away from the city.’
‘Okay, okay,’ Dan said, trying to calm Rita down. ‘How about you come to our place? You know it’s built like a fortress, we’ve got brick fences and security cameras and all. You’d be safe here.’
She lowered the phone. ‘Brick, Dan invited us to stay with them. Are you interested?’
Brick snorted, ‘No.’ He paused for a second and then shook his head, ‘Like we talked about earlier. It’s not going to be safe here. I think we need to get as far away from any city as we can.’
Rita put the phone back to her ear, ‘Did you hear that,’ she said.
‘Yeah, I did,’ Dan said. ‘I think Brick is nuts. How can you be safe driving for eight hours?’
‘Six and a half,’ Rita blurted. ‘It’s our call. Can you put Gen on please?’
Dan shook his head. As he passed the phone to Gen, he said, ‘Brick is taking Rita and the kids out bush. See if you can talk her out of it.’
Gen put the phone to her ear and said, ‘Rita, are you sure about this?’
‘Dead sure,’ Rita replied. ‘We just got attacked in our own driveway. A couple of people we see walking every day went crazy and attacked us. It’s not safe here. We’re getting out.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Gen asked, ‘When did you get attacked?’
Rita took a breath, realising she had not explained the story to Gen. ‘When we were leaving the house, some people ran and tried to attack us. Brick punched out the man, he fell back into the woman, and Brick managed to get in the car before they got up.’
‘When did this happen?’
‘Not five minutes ago. We drove away and they chased us. I thought I should let you know.’
‘Thanks, Rita. Is everyone okay? Did anyone get hurt?’
Rita was calming down. ‘No, we’re all okay. But we are definitely going down to Rob and Sue’s place.’
‘Okay, Rita,’ Gen said. ‘I know you think you’re doing what’s best. Please try and keep in touch.’
Dan tapped her on the arm. ‘Tell her to text—it’s more likely to get through than a phone call if lines are busy.’
Gen started, ‘Dan says. . .’
‘I heard,’ Rita interrupted. ‘Sounds like a good idea. You guys take care. Don’t let any strangers in the house and stay safe.’
‘You too,’ Gen said. ‘Go as far as you can before you stop for fuel or whatever. I mean it—call or text me and let me know what’s going on.’
‘Bye sis,’ Rita said.
Gen said, ‘No Rita, I’ll see you later.’ Her eyes clouded over as she pressed the end button and passed Dan his phone.
04:00 SST (06:00 AEST): Singapore
Mick, Lara, and Chris sat, stunned, watching TV news. Lincoln was pacing nervously as they watched, barely restraining himself, before blurting ‘We can’t just sit here and wait, we have to do something, and we need to plan our next step.’
‘Really?’ Lara said, ‘We can’t get a flight or food, what are our choices? Watch TV here or go back to our rooms and meet up after we get some sleep?’
‘I’m not sure splitting up is such a great idea,’ said Chris. ‘Maybe we should all camp out in one room. How about here? This is a suite; my room is a lot smaller than this one.’
‘This is three times the size of my room,’ Mick said.
‘Mine too,’ chipped in Lara.
‘Okay, okay, I got lucky with my check-in,’ Lincoln said. ‘How about everyone go get their stuff and come back here?’
‘I don’t want to go by myself,’ Lara said. ‘I know that there’s security in the hotel, but I’m a little freaked out after watching the news.’
‘No worries,’ said Mick. ‘How about Linc stays here. Chris, Lara, and me can go get our stuff together and come back as quick as we can.’
Lincoln said, ‘I’ve got two keys. How about I give Mick one—he goes with Chris and they get their stuff and I go with Lara? Should be quicker.’
‘I don’t like it,’ Chris said. ‘“Safety in numbers” and all that. Let’s start with whoever’s on the furthest floor and work our way back.’
‘You are such a wuss!’ Mick said.
‘No, he’s got a point,’ said Lincoln. ‘Let’s work together and move fast. We’ll be quicker in each room. Who’s on what floor?’
Chris got in first. ‘I’m on thirty.’
Then Lara, ‘I’m on twenty-two.’
‘Who did you guys fuck?’ said Mick. ‘I’m on eighteen and I was impressed with that!’
‘I guess you’re first then,’ said Lincoln. ‘Let’s go.’
Just as they were about to leave, Lincoln handed Mick the second key. ‘Just in case we get separated,’ he said.
‘Why Mick and not me?’ Chris said.
‘Do you want to wrestle him for it?’ Lincoln smiled.
‘Fair cop,’ said Chris. ‘Let’s go.’
Lincoln looked out the peep hole before going into the hall. He couldn’t see anyone, but then again the peep hole was only good for seeing who was right in front of the door. He slowly opened it and leaned out, looking up and down the hall.
‘Can’t see anyone.’
‘It’s four in the morning—what did you expect?’ Mick said, pushing past him and walking towards the lift well. Chris, Lincoln, and Lara walked after him, feeling a little silly for worrying.
As they got to the lift well, Mick pressed the down button and turned to smile at his friends. ‘Great team building exercise!’ he joked. The lift chimed and opened. Lincoln had half expected someone to rush out, but it was empty.
They crowded into the lift. Mick pressed the ‘18’ button twice before he remembered he needed to swipe his room key. The others looked on impatiently as he struggled to drag the key out of his pocket and swipe it before he pressed for his floor. As the lift descended, Lincoln said, ‘I know it’s paranoid but I wish we had something to defend ourselves with.’
‘Like what?’ Mick said. ‘This is Singapore, there’s no guns here, and you’re hard pressed to find any sporting equipment other than soccer balls and golf clubs.’
‘They play cricket, a bat would do nicely,’ said Chris.
The lift chimed as they reached the eighteenth floor. They all turned to the doors as they slid open, again expecting the worse but seeing nothing.
‘Come on,’ said Mick, leading the way. He strode off, turning left out of the lift well, waving the direction with his room key. Chris, Lincoln, and Lara followed as he walked confidently down the hall.
Mick keyed his door, and they all went into his room. ‘Sorry about the mess,’ he said.
‘No worries,’ Lincoln said, a little appalled that anyone could throw his clothes around a room the way Mick had in just three days, particularly
since he was due to head to the airport for a flight in just a few hours. ‘How can we help?’
‘How about you guys do the mini-bar? I’ll do my bag.’
Lara grabbed the laundry bag from the wardrobe, opened the fridge, and started unloading it into the bag. ‘You’ve got more beers than I had,’ she said.
‘Supplementary supply,’ Mick quipped, as he walked the room, throwing clothes into his bag. ‘I hate paying mini-bar prices so I always go and buy a couple of dozen extras when I land.’
To Lincoln’s surprise, it took less than five minutes to pack up Mick’s room.
‘All good,’ Mick said. ‘Let’s rock and roll.’
Feeling a lot less paranoid than they had earlier, Chris opened the door, had a quick look left, and right before saying ‘All clear, let’s go.’ They all moved quickly towards the lift well, feeling more confident than they had on the way to Mick’s room. The lift came without anyone coming into sight. Gratefully, Lara swiped her security card and pressed the ‘22’ button.
The group had a collective sigh of relief when the lift doors opened to an empty lobby on the twenty-second floor. Lara led the way to her room, quickly keying the door and rushing in to her room. It took no time for Lara to get ready—she had already pre-packed almost everything for the early flight, only her toiletries in the bathroom needed to be collected.
This time Lincoln unloaded the mini-bar. ‘Someone has a bit of a chocolate craving I see,’ he teased.
‘I guess so,’ Lara said—weakness exposed. ‘Should I take my pillows and quilt?’
‘I wish I’d thought of that,’ said Mick.
‘Sounds like a good idea to me,’ Lincoln said. ‘I guess we might be camping out together tonight at least.’
After quickly folding the pillow into the quilt, Lara said, ‘Okay, I’m ready.’
‘One stop to go,’ Mick said. ‘No sweat.’ He headed for the door, ignoring the peep hole and opening it before looking up and down the corridor. ‘No one in sight, c’mon.’