by Cooper, DJ
They both finished sending all the texts they wanted to send. Matt looked over at Dez and said, “Wow, everyone is sure spread out, I’m not sure that is such a good thing right now.”
Dez agreed, and with a troubled look in her eye, she got up to refresh both their coffees. They sat on the sofa waiting and watching the news. A few minutes before the news conference was to begin, Tawny came in with her young son Dylan. Tawny had her usual “I’m home” demeanor and headed right for the coffee pot. Grabbing a cup, she poured herself some. She made her way over to the sofa and sat down to wait with them for this big news story that Dez was so adamant she needed to watch. She started to ask, “Ok, ok which cities have…”
Before she could finish her sentence, the emergency signal interrupted her, signaling the news conference was about to begin. The room fell silent as all eyes went to the screen to see what the official spin on this would be.
A spokesperson from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta appeared before the camera and approached the podium. The announcer spoke, holding out his hand in the direction of a man sitting off to the side he began,
“Ladies and Gentlemen, Dr. Ralph Sorenson, Incident Manager for the CDC Ebola Response.”
A rather nervous looking and visibly uncomfortable man walked into view. A tiny little man with a comb-over and what looked like glasses from the fifties, took the podium and began to speak.
“Health officials have confirmed cases of Ebola within the U.S. Patients are being treated at undisclosed hospitals in the following cities: New York, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Denver, Sacramento, and Detroit.”
There was a long pause as the weary spokesperson continued,
“Understand, we know how to stop Ebola. It won’t be easy or fast, but we are working together with the U.S. Government and international partners. We are doing it in Africa and can do so here, but citizens must realize it will take time.”
He paused again, waiting for the murmuring to subside and then he continued.
“Ebola is a deadly virus. It is spread through direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of those who are already infected. This is not an airborne virus. I repeat, it is not airborne, you cannot catch it from casual contact. Symptoms can begin anywhere from two to twenty-one days after infection, and include fever, muscle pain, headache, and a sore throat, followed by vomiting, diarrhea, and rash. If anyone in these cities has been experiencing these symptoms, please report to the nearest healthcare facility as soon as possible.”
“The CDC is sending workers to the affected cities to fight Ebola’s spread. While the number of CDC experts may change slightly from day to day, more than fifty CDC personnel are being sent to remain in these six cities continuously. Again, the CDC’s public health experts in West Africa and here in the United States are working closely with the U.S. Government and international partners. As part of this worldwide emergency response to the Ebola outbreak, our primary goal is to contain this disease and keep Americans safe. Thank you for your vigilance and stay safe America.”
He nodded to the announcer, turned and unceremoniously exited the stage.
Everyone was silent a moment. They sat staring at the television as if waiting for something more. After a few moments, Tawny stood up exclaiming, “That’s it? That’s all they have to say? How did it get here? Where did it come from?”
Matt looked at them and thoughtfully spoke, almost with an eerie calm. “Did you see how the guy looked? I felt like he wasn’t allowed to say more. I think something is going on.” Continuing, he noted how the little man had not really given them any information. The hospitals were undisclosed, the numbers of infected nor anything about how it arrived was offered. The real details were all omitted from his statement.
Matt got up to get some more coffee and then looked to Tawny asking, “Are you going to be able to come to our group meeting tonight? I think it is important we make use of all the available time to get ourselves ready for anything at this point.”
She agreed she would attend. “Do you really think it will be an issue? There aren’t any reports in our vicinity.”
Matt walked to the window and looked out. “I think that if they are telling us that something is going on that there is. But, I am not so sure it is Ebola we should be worried about. It just seems to me that every time there is an announcement like this, later we find that we are in a war, or the housing bubble just burst, or maybe even worse. I guess it is just a feeling. I will say though, something is off.”
Dez and Tawny got up and joined him in the kitchen to prepare for their Saturday brunch. It was something that had become a weekly ritual. Tawny began to slice the potatoes, her brow furrowing. Obviously, there was something was troubling her. Dez, noticing this asked, “Hey Tay, penny for your thoughts?”
Tawny looked up from her slicing. The look on her face was worried. It was a look Dez knew all too well in her best friend. Tawny looked at her briefly and said, “Nothing, just thinking is all.”
Dez figured she would just leave it at that for now. Tawny would say so if she had any real concerns, and besides Dez had far too much on her own mind.
Dez and Tawny had come to shortening each other’s name a few years back when they were joking around with Dylan. He always called her “Deziny.” He couldn’t seem to get the T in her name, and ever since he was a baby, it would come out that way. Tawny told him to say Dez, followed by the t sound and then nee. Each time she would say it phonetically he would get it but when putting it all together would come out Deziny. Finally, frustrated with the corrections, he simply called her Dez and it had stuck. While Destiny did not mind the name Dez, she teased Tawny saying she needed a one syllable name, too. She began calling her Tay. Tawny would scowl if anyone other than Dez called her Tay. She hated it.
Saturday brunch was usually a festive meal, sharing the week’s adventures and mishaps. It was canning day, and the girls were excited to finally finish canning up the summer crops and were planning for some fall ones. They’d been talking about it all week; however, today they ate with minimal conversation. The announcement had spoiled their excitement.
The only exception was Dylan who regaled them with his plans for the new trap design he’d invented. He had plans to finally capture the squirrel. He’d been tracking this squirrel for the past two weeks and was sure he’d found a way. They didn’t have the heart to tell him it was likely more than one squirrel. It kept him occupied and made him feel as though he was doing a job. The adults hardly noticed he was speaking. They each had their own thoughts to ponder and were simply nodding at him without really hearing his plan.
Dylan, being a precocious six-year-old, was agitated and furrowed his brow and shook his head. He slammed his fork on the table and yelled out defiantly, “No one is listening to me!”
His outburst brought Matt back into the moment and he looked up at him. At this point Dylan was almost in tears. Matt apologized to him and offered to help him build his trap. He asked him to tell him about it and how he was going to build it.
As he and Matt headed for the door to start on his trap, Dylan continued to regale him with all his plans. He was happily bouncing alongside Matt, explaining all the details of his design. Dez tousled Dylan’s curly hair and commented how lucky they all were to have such an inventive young man around. Tawny smiled at them as they left. They both knew it had been hard on her, the way Dylan’s father had been killed.
Tawny was a pretty woman with curly blonde hair and blue eyes that always made Dez jealous. She hated having honey-brown eyes. Tawny always managed to find the wrong man though, consistently finding a guy who lied about anything from his marital status to his income. Dez believed it was because she could never accept the death of Dylan’s father.
She was heavier than Dez, but more in a shapely way than heavy she did well for herself and did not really want anything more than companionship. Today she looked small as she hunched over the counter and cleaned up the dish
es.
This attitude from her always bothered Dez. She hated it when Tawny would lose confidence, and she often wished for her a kind man, someone who would be good to both Dylan and her. She would tell Matt how glad she was that he helped her with Dylan and treated her like family.
Chapter 2
“The Meeting”
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
— Abraham Lincoln
The day progressed as any normal Saturday. Dez and Tawny worked in the garden and managed to can up fifteen quarts of tomato sauce, while Matt and Dylan worked on the infamous squirrel trap. During the week they each had their own things going on, and they very much enjoyed the Saturday home time each week.
As the sun began to set, Matt and Dylan came walking back up to the house. Dylan burst through the door exclaiming, “It’s ready!”
He was jumping up and down with such excitement it made everyone laugh. Dez winked at Tawny and said, “Children have a way of making even the darkest day bright.”
Matt came in, right behind him feeling rather satisfied with himself. This also was a sign to the girls that there was at least a chance his trap design was workable.
Entering the house, Matt was scuffing his dirty boots across the floor. Dez frowned at him, giving that look she often gave when he was messing up the house with dirty boots. He looked at her with that ‘what?’ look he always got when she scowled at him. He knew he’d better return to the mat to remove his boots or face the wrath. Dez laughed and said, “Clean up for dinner, gentlemen.”
It might have seemed to anyone who didn’t know them like Dez was some kind of tyrant about the messes in the house. She was quite the opposite though, Dez was easy going with a gentle demeanor. Some even said it was her biggest downfall. She was too trusting and accepting of what people said as truth. Her children often scolded her for not standing up for herself. Often, she would stand without wavering in defense of her children or others; but rarely would she do so for herself. A beautiful woman, she found herself fending off suitors with hopes of more than friendship. Others would ask for help with things she could help with. She would help without asking for anything in return and could never understand why she would be taken advantage of. She would give freely and felt as though karma would take care of the rest.
For this reason, Tawny kept a keen eye on Matt and he knew it. Tawny kept her eye on anyone that might seek to take advantage of Dez’s kindness. Like the hawk, Tawny was vigilant in defense of her friend.
Dinner was not as quiet as brunch had been. Each person had time to consider the news and sat around discussing what they wanted to talk about at the group meeting. It was scheduled for a little later in the evening at the group leader’s house. Although Tawny had never gone, she wanted to share some of what she and Dez had been discussing earlier. They were worried about communications and had some thoughts about getting some ideas for creating a system that could be worked out. They needed a means to rotate channels and for security reasons it seemed like it should take some priority. Dez wanted to make sure all the facts about the Ebola virus were available as well. She thought that they should work toward precautionary measures for the virus.
As usual, Matt was interested in security. They were discussing different options when Dylan whined, “I wanna go to the meetin! I’m big now, and I made a trap. I wanna say about my trap.”
Tawny smiled with pride, “Honey, I know you’re big, and I am very proud of your trap, but this meeting is for bigger people.”
He pouted and crossing his arms defiantly said, “I am big.”
With that little fit, Matt, who was always good at getting him to agree to things, got up and drew a line on the door jamb at right about 4 feet high. He looked at Dylan and said, “Buddy, you gotta be this tall.”
While pointing to the line, he looked back to him and continued, “Just like the rides at King’s Island.”
Dylan scrambled over to the doorway and placed his back right up against it to allow Matt to draw the line that would show where his height was. Turning to look at the line he frowned. “I’m never gonna be that big.”
Everyone laughed as Tawny replied, “You will get that big if you eat all your food.”
“Even the peas?” he asked.
“Yes… even the peas.”
For Dylan this was a double whammy, now not only was he not big enough to go, but he had to eat peas too.
He mumbled under his breath, “This sucks!”
This was a comment only Matt had heard. He raised an eyebrow, looked at him and said, “That is quite enough young man.”
The look on Dylan’s face to what Uncle Matt had said, told all it needed to. They all shared a look, not daring to comment on it, but secretly laughing inside.
When they arrived at George’s house, they noticed the meeting was already well attended. Dez laughingly said, “Gee, all it takes is a good disaster to get people to actually show up.”
The comment made Matt and Tawny both laugh. Once inside, they noted a few unfamiliar faces along with some that rarely attended. Matt whispered to Dez, “Listen, I don’t know about some of these people so don’t say anything about our location, supplies or anything else, ok?”
Dez winked, nodding and mouthing to him “opsec,” gave a thumbs up, and she turned and whispered the same to Tawny. Tawny agreed wholeheartedly with them. They should feel out the room and wait until most had retired from the meeting, if they shared anything at all. They wanted to stay and discuss some things with George and Loel afterward but were usually the silent ones in the group. This group was a sort of Militia group, mostly like-minded Preppers but some were just looking for a fight. This was precisely why Matt insisted on keeping some information private.
While George was good at organizing things, he insisted no one could have an opinion that differed from his or he would kick them out. Dez didn’t really like George and she’d told Matt a number of times that she thought George was pig-headed. She thought he was on a power trip and even called him a keyboard commando.
George was an older guy, ‘overweight and sloppy’ as she once described him. Dez told Tawny she thought he couldn’t fight his way out of a paper bag. He didn’t like women in his group. On more than one occasion he’d made that painfully clear. He held very definite ideas as to where women belonged. She only agreed to continue attending because Matt wanted to and he said that there were others in the group that did have good ideas. He’d hoped to ask them to join their little prepping group instead.
Most of the conversation that evening centered on Ebola and the risk of Martial Law being implemented. There was a lot of discussion about the actions this group would take.
Most of the group agreed with George, noting if something like this should happen they would fight to defend their families and their Constitutional rights. Many, however, disagreed with some of the preemptive actions that George and a few others were advocating. They felt it was too extreme.
Dez spoke up saying, “We are to DEFEND the constitution. NOT to go off and outright attack based on just the premise of a threat. We are not a preemptive line here.”
George replied, “I don’t like how you always disagree with me, Missy. This is MY group, and I say what we do!”
Dez’s posture relayed she was not at all happy with the way this was going, and Matt knew she hated being called Missy. She leaned over to Matt and said she wanted to go. “There are no preparations for anything, no communications, not even emergency procedures should Ebola surface in our area. He’s just looking for a reason to start shit, and I for one want nothing to do with it.”
She told him that she felt nothing of value had been discussed tonight and as far as she was concerned it was wasted time. Matt agreed with her insisting, “Let’s just chill for the moment. I don’t want to appear adversarial. We can just wait for the meeting to end and go.”
They didn’t bother to hang around to s
peak with George. As soon as things were conclude they all said their goodbyes and excused themselves as they headed out the door.
Once they’d gotten out the door, Loel came out in a jog after them, “Hey you guys, wait up.”
Dez and Matt turned to see what Loel wanted as Tawny continued to the car, almost stomping. She hadn’t said a single word that night and had come to the same conclusions as Dez.
It was clear none of them were happy with the way the meeting had gone. With exasperation in his voice, Loel asked, “Are you guys going to be up for a while?”
Matt said, “Yea, we are generally up later in the evening, why?”
Loel gave a quick glance over his shoulder and said in a hushed voice, “Myself and a couple of other guys would like to stop by and chat with you about something.”
Dez eyed him and said, “After how George acted I don’t really want to deal with his stupid ass any more this evening.”
Loel waved his hands for her to lower her tone and said quietly, “No, not George…. Would you mind? We just want to talk to you guys about something.”
Matt interjected, reaching out for his friend’s hand saying, “Sure man, no problem, you know you’re always welcome… we’ll get some coffee going. How much longer do you figure you’ll be?”
Loel thought for a moment, “Would 30 to 45 minutes be ok?”
Matt shook his hand and said, “Sure, see you then.”
Upon arriving home, Tawny said she was tired and just wanted to go to bed. Dylan was fast asleep, dangling off her arm and sliding downward like a rag doll. He was wide awake when they picked him up but had promptly passed out once in the car. She hefted him up saying she’d had all she could take of the ‘wanna be a commando group’ for one evening. Dez and Matt said goodnight to her. They apologized for dragging her along and went inside.
Both were curious about what Loel and the guys wanted to chat about. They were speculating on what they wanted, offering thoughts on Ebola or the fact that Matt was sure it was a non-event hiding something else. Matt turned to her, almost pleading. “Dez, you need to just back off of George. I know he is a paranoid power freak and so does everyone else.”