Just Trying To Stay Alive: A Prepper's Tale

by Michaels, Brian

  Another case of government incompetence.

  But as I listened, it was worse than I had first thought.

  “The CDC, in an effort to head off the spread of the flu that usually starts around this time of the year, started giving out free flu shots in California last week. But my sources have informed me that a major error was made when they shipped the vaccine they had prepared out to California.

  This has not been confirmed but my preliminary information is that the CDC sent out vials of the live flu virus that they had been using to experiment on as part of their efforts to develop the vaccine.

  Reports are that the vaccine that was developed would be completely ineffective on anyone that had already been injected with the actual flu virus due to the potency of the virus. The CDC is scrambling to develop a new vaccine to neutralize the effects of their mistake. It is unknown how effective this will be, but they hoped to have the new vaccine out in the field within twenty-four hours. We will continue to follow this story and update you as soon as any new developments are available.”

  I reached over and turned off the TV.

  “It is the same old story,” I thought as I shook my head, “The idea was good, but as usual the government managed to screw it up. The reporter didn’t say anything about South Dakota, but I wouldn’t be surprised to hear about South Dakota on the next broadcast. Thank God Katie didn’t get that damn shot.”

  As I was walking back to the kitchen, I passed Katie’s room and heard her giggling.

  Usually she is talking a mile a minute, occasionally I would hear her laugh, but giggling was something new.

  I stuck my head in through her door and found her glued to her cell phone, giggling.

  “What is going on in here?” I asked jokingly.

  Katie turned to look at me.

  “Dad, you have to see this,” she said and held up her phone. “Look!”

  I walked closer, took the phone and glanced down at the screen.

  “What is this?” I asked. “The picture is kind of small.”

  “Turn the phone like this,” Katie said reaching up and turning the phone sideways.

  The photo on the screen grew until it filled the screen.

  “Is this what I think it is?” I asked.

  “Look at this one,” Katie laughed and swiped the screen and another picture filled the screen.

  “Is this someone’s ass?” I asked, shocked. “Pardon my French, I didn’t expect to see what I just saw.”

  “That’s Jenny’s bottom,” Katie laughed. “The first one was Carrie’s bottom. All the kids are taking pictures of what their bottoms look like after they got the flu shot. Don’t you think it is hilarious?”

  I stared at the picture in front of me.

  One cheek looked normal, but the other side was almost black with ugly looking lines reaching out from a round sore on the center of the cheek that I assumed was where the needle injected the vaccine.

  “Katie, you’re not posting pictures of your bottom on here are you?” I asked.

  “I would never,” she smiled.

  “I think I could be arrested for just looking at this stuff,” I said.

  “Oh Dad, it’s not that bad,” Katie laughed.

  “Just make sure you delete all these pictures before you leave the house,” I said. “And whatever you do, don’t show them to your brother. Are all the kids doing this?”

  “Not everyone,” Katie smiled. “Just the ones with sore butts.”

  “If your mother asks, I never saw those pictures,” I smiled and turned to leave Katie’s room.

  “What’s it worth to you?” she grinned.

  “You don’t want to go there,” I replied.

  “Sorry Dad,” Katie said as the expression on her face turned humble.

  I left Katie’s room, looking serious until I got out in the hallway before letting a big grin escape.

  “Darn kids and their cell phones,” I thought. This wasn’t the worst thing I had seen, Katie had showed me some of the pictures the girls had sent out about a year ago that they had taken in the shower room after gym class one day. After our little talk at that time, I’m sure Katie would never do anything like that, but I couldn’t do anything about what the other kids did. I tried to not make too big a deal about things like this. I didn’t want Katie to try and hide things from me and as far as I knew I had been successful, maybe too successful.

  I stopped in to tell Emma I was leaving for a special meeting I had set up this morning.

  She smiled and wished me luck and I was off with my head still spinning from what had happened so far.

  A half hour later I arrived at Katie’s school. I was led into a conference room where I waited for ten minutes before a tall thin man walked in. He was tanned with blonde highlights in his hair, exactly what I was expecting to see.

  I stood and held out my hand.

  “Mr. Carlson,” I said. “I’m Katie Michael’s father.”

  “So, your ‘Her’ dad,” the man frowned.

  I kept an even expression on my face, from what Katie had said, I was expecting that kind of response from this guy.

  “I wanted to talk to you about the grade you gave Katie on the last test,” I said.

  “She was lucky I didn’t give her an F,” Carlson replied. “She missed the entire point of the question and her answer was completely inappropriate.”

  “I believe that you and I both know that she could have done the math,” I said.

  “I do,” Mr. Carlson replied. “But she let her misguided attitude get in the way and gave me a smartass answer and didn’t even attempt to do the math.”

  “She said she thought it was a trick question,” I said. “If I heard the question correctly, I feel her answer was perfectly correct as she understood it.”

  “Your daughter has a rather dated idea about what is right,” Carlson replied. “In today’s world, the primary line of thought we need to have is that everyone must be included. The purpose of the question was to determine how many council members should come from each group.”

  “You are from California, right?” I asked.

  “That’s correct,” Carlson replied.

  “Do you like the Lakers?” I asked.

  “I love the Lakers,” he replied. “But what does that have to do with Katie’s test results?”

  “How would you feel if you went to the next Laker’s game and instead of seeing the regular players, the team fielded two white surfer dudes from Huntingdon Beach, a gay African American from San Francisco, an illegal alien from Mexico and the cook from down at P.F. Chang’s?”

  “That’s a joke, right?” Carlson laughed.

  “I’m serious, it sounds like the make up of California, everyone is represented,” I said. “Isn’t that what’s important?”

  “I don’t believe any of those guys could play basketball,” Carlson laughed. “They would never win a single game. The team wouldn’t be putting their best players on the court.”

  “Well, that’s my point,” I said. “In the game of life don’t you think having the best people in place is at least as important as it is for a simple thing like a kid’s game of basketball? If the government took that approach more often, maybe they wouldn’t have that mess in California that they’ve created.”

  “California is a very progressive state,” Carlson said. “Something the people around here don’t seem to understand or appreciate.”

  I laughed, “Apparently you didn’t hear the news this morning.”

  “What news?” Carlson asked.

  “They gave flu shots in California last week, like they did here at school,” I replied. “But instead of giving everyone a shot of the vaccine, they gave everyone a shot of the actual live flu virus. They created an epidemic, maybe that wouldn’t have happened if they would have put their best people on the job instead of trying to be so politically correct.”

  “That’s unfortunate,” Carlson said, “But you and I are talking abou
t two entirely different things,” Carlson replied looking annoyed.

  “Not really?” I said.

  “I have a class starting in a few minutes,” Carlson said. “So let’s cut to the chase. Are you asking me to let Katie take the test again?”

  “No,” I replied. “I don’t want her to take the test again, in fact I don’t want her to know that we even talked. Are you familiar with Newton’s third law?”

  “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction,” Carlson said.

  “That’s right,” I replied. “I don’t want my coming here to create the opposite of why I wanted to meet with you. I want Katie to realize that for every decision she makes that there is a price to pay. I don’t want her to think she can get a better grade by running to me, I want her to learn that she has to live with her choices. I want her to think before she makes any decisions and to consider what the consequences will be. Something that our government should do a little more of. You may think the government giving everyone a free flu shot is a good idea, unfortunately they always seem to forget to consider what the consequences could be.”

  “I still don’t understand what you want,” Carlson said.

  “I would just like, since we both know Katie can do the math, that this test score won’t ruin her chances of getting a decent grade at the end of the year. I also don’t want to undermine your authority with the class, that would not do either of us any good. I just want Katie to be evaluated fairly on her ability to do the work. I won’t interfere with your job of teaching her math and you don’t interfere with my job of teaching Katie morals and what is right and wrong,” I smiled.

  “Mr. Michaels, It has been my intention all along to evaluate Katie fairly,” Carlson replied.

  “That’s all I’m asking,” I said.

  Carlson left to go to his next class and I went to work. I’m sure neither one of us changed our opinion of the other, but that wasn’t my goal. All I wanted was for Katie to be treated fairly, not Carlson’s view of fairness, the real definition of fairness.

  I guess I would find out if I had been successful or not in a few months when the school year ended.

  I drove to work and parked in my usual parking spot.

  When I entered the office, Mandy was at her desk holding her head in her hands.

  “I should have stayed home,” Mandy groaned when she saw me come in. Her eyes were red and watery, her nose looked red and sore.

  “You look terrible,” I said. “Why didn’t you go home already?”

  “I would have, but I didn’t want to leave before you got here,” Mandy sniffed. “I didn’t want you to be here all by yourself.”

  “No one else is here?” I asked. “Where is everyone?”

  “Don’t ask me,” Mandy replied then blew her nose.

  “Go home before you make me sick too,” I said. “I’ll call for a temp.”

  Mandy got up and shuffled over to the restroom.

  A few minutes later she came out of the restroom looking like she was ready to pass out.

  I couldn’t let her drive home in that condition, so I called her a cab, gave the guy twenty dollars and told him to take her home and not to leave until she was inside her apartment. In her condition I was worried she would never make it from the cab to her door.

  I then started calling the local temp agencies, half of which didn’t answer their phones, those that did said they didn’t have anyone available to send me.

  I called the main office to report my dilemma hoping they could send me some help, but I discovered that they were in the same boat as I was.

  People had been calling off work all morning and they even had a shortage of linemen to send out to repair a downed line on the southside.

  I was advised to have the office calls transferred to my house in case anything important came up, then to go home for the day.

  I hadn’t been home for more than an hour when I got a call from Logan and Katie’s school.

  It appeared that the kids at school were starting to drop like flies from the flu and the school decided to send everyone home. However most of the bus drivers had called off sick so the school was trying to call the parents or relatives to come pick up the kids.

  Luckily I came home when I did, Emma was working a half day or Logan and Katie would have had to wait until Emma came home.

  I grabbed a cup of coffee then drove to the school to pick up the kids. When I arrived at the school and went inside the building, it looked like the emergency room at the hospital the day I took Logan there after he fell off the roof and broke his arm.

  Don’t ask me what he was doing on the roof, please.

  I went to the office and the secretary paged the kids over the intercom to meet me at the office.

  When the kids arrived, we left the school as quickly as we could, the school was also starting to smell like a hospital.

  I held my suit jacket sleeve over my nose to keep from breathing the air in the hallway for fear I would catch what everyone here seemed to have. I just hoped that Logan and Katie would somehow manage not to get sick too, but by the looks of the kids shuffling through the hallways I didn’t feel very optimistic.

  A lot had changed from early this morning.

  The kids were sending pictures of their bottoms to all their friends a few hours ago, now they were here at school wandering the halls looking pale and like they had no idea where they were.

  It was my guess that if asked, half of these kids wouldn’t be able to even tell you where their butt was.

  The CDC had really screwed up this time, and their screw up was spreading fast.

  It was my guess that this year’s flu season would be the worst in many years,

  I just hoped that too many people wouldn’t suffer unnecessarily because of it.

  Like my Dad had always said, the road to Hell was paved with good intentions.

  As I considered his saying, I felt that it should be included in Webster’s dictionary as part of the definition for the meaning of government.

  Believe it or not, that was the last normal day I can remember.

  Chapter 8

  After I picked up the kids and arrived home, I spent the rest of the day watching TV trying to see what else was being reported about California.

  A lot had happened since I had left for work a few hours ago, now besides the BBC Network, all the major networks were carrying the story.

  They story being reported was mostly the same everywhere.

  The actual virus had been given instead of the vaccine, not only in California but also in South Dakota.

  But now there was more.

  Before the CDC had realized what is was they had done, the actual virus had also been shipped out to fifteen more states.

  The reporters were on location in fifteen states now showing pictures of the lines of patients at the area hospitals and clinics.

  One reporter was reporting from Sioux Falls, the flu was running rampart now in South Dakota too.

  The TV showed a long line of sick looking people on the street outside of Sioux Falls General.

  I watched the news on and off for the rest of the day.

  The next update I heard was that the CDC had thrown together a super vaccine and had shipped it out to the hospitals in all the states by air express, so it could be used to treat the outbreak immediately.

  The CDC reported that the problem would be under control within forty-eight hours, but I knew I shouldn’t expect to leave the house for the rest of the week.

  I knew the problem was bigger than had first been reported when I heard a reporter on the BBC Network interrupt their regular coverage with some new information. As I flipped through the channels for the next hour, none of the other networks made any mention of this new information reported on the BBC, which only made me feel the information they had was more than likely correct.

  The government could muzzle the networks in our country to keep certain information quiet, but they had litt
le influence on what was reported on networks outside our country.

  According to the reporter on the BBC, what had been sent out had been more than just samples of the original flu virus, it had been a modified version of the original virus.

  “My first thought was why would anyone be messing around modifying a flu virus?” I asked myself.

  I didn’t like the answers that came to mind.

  The only reason someone would have modified a flu virus was either because it was an accident, or because it had been intentional.

  If it had been an accident, that meant that the people that created the new virus no longer knew what they were dealing with.

  It could take months to develop a vaccine for the new modified flu virus.

  If it was intentional, Why?

  Why would anyone want to create a modified flu virus unless they had a reason, a purpose they had in mind to use their new creation.

  “What the hell reason would someone have to create an infectious disease?” I wondered.

  Both reasons spelled bad news to me.

  The intentional creation of such a thing meant that the government was playing around with biological weapons.

  Biological weapons had been banned in the eighties, but it was common knowledge that many countries illegally still had them.

  Other Countries that had given up their biological weapons, like the United States, still did research on biological weapons so they would be able to defend themselves by developing antidotes against the weapons that might be illegally used against us.

  It only made sense to be prepared.

  But knowing the government’s safety record, the thought was enough to scare the hell out of me.

  In my mind I was trying to give the government the benefit of the doubt and say that they had been trying to do something good and just ended up screwing things up like they always do, but no matter how I looked at it, the government’s finger prints were all over this.