Decimation Series (Book 1): Contagion Page 3

  “And finally, to my fellow Americans: we will survive, we will persevere, and we will triumph. We will not be beaten, not in battles abroad and certainly not here at home. Our way of life will continue; and while today, tonight and tomorrow we will grieve, you can rest easy with full confidence in your government and your leaders. God bless us all, and God bless the United States of America.”

  We all sat in stunned silence. A terrorist attack. Tens of thousands already dead. Billions of lives in jeopardy, including our friends and family, our children.

  There wasn’t room; I couldn’t digest it, I couldn’t take it in. It was like trying to swallow when you had something stuck in your throat. I felt like I needed to throw up.

  Suddenly, the televisions around the room simultaneously flickered to life. Their dull, flat screens all showed the same image, that of a tall man with a trim, grey moustache, wearing a green beret on his shaved head. His green military fatigues matched those of the men around the room with us.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, I will ask you to stay seated and give me your undivided attention for the next few minutes. You’re all going to want to hear this to clearly understand the situation we’re in. My name is Captain Harrison of the Canadian Armed Forces. My company has been placed in charge of this airport during this time of crisis. I’m going to give you a little more information on your immediate circumstances and will explain what’s going to happen next.”

  “As you will have just heard from the President of the United States, we are in the middle of a crisis of unprecedented scope here in North America, and it is believed that this is the work of one or more terrorist groups or networks.

  “Current intelligence suggests that the pathogen causing this outbreak is a man-made biological weapon, and that it is binary in nature. What this means is that, as best we currently understand, it was released in two waves. The first contaminating agent was released in an aerosol form starting in major population centres across the country sometime in the last five to six days. Medium-sized centres were targeted in the two days that followed. We don’t believe that small centres or rural centres have been targeted, however, from what we currently understand, some of those centres will also have been contaminated due to winds and natural weather patterns spreading the agent. This agent by itself is non-reactive and harmless. We believe that this agent was used to target a population for the second agent to work on.

  “The second agent was released approximately seventy-two hours ago, also by aerosol release, in major centres across the eastern seaboard. We believe there was intended to be a coordinated release along the west coast at the same time, but for reason or reasons unknown, this release appears to have failed. This second agent is a biological pathogen which, again, on its own appears to be harmless, but when it combines with an organism already carrying the initial agent, what we get is a pathogen of previously-unseen efficacy. Infection initially presents with symptoms of a common cold: coughing, sneezing, and a runny nose. These symptoms persist over a period of a day or two, worsening slightly, following which the body begins producing mucus in the lungs and nasal passages faster than can be expelled, and the victim ultimately loses consciousness and enters a comatose state. I’m sorry to say that none of the reports we’ve received to date show anyone recovering from this state.

  “We have been told that this second release was also aerosol in nature, but it wasn’t as widespread as the initial release. That’s good news, because it is giving us slightly more time to react to this outbreak than we would have had otherwise, but the bad news is this second release is also highly contagious. What this means is even though people contacted by the initial agent’s release who weren’t exposed to the second release haven’t yet become ill, they still are at very high risk if encountering someone who is presenting these symptoms.

  “Despite these terrible things that are happening around us outside and across the country, you people should consider yourselves fortunate that you are in a somewhat unique position: you all have been abroad for at least the last seven days. This means that the likelihood of you being exposed to the initial activating agent, which again we believe was released five or six days ago, is minimal. You therefore are likely to be unaffected by the second pathogen which we believe triggers the onset of symptoms. Those from your flights who were abroad for a period of less than a week have been taken to a separate holding area, as they were possibly exposed to the initial agent and we want to protect them from exposure to the second infectious agent which may still be circulating.

  “As you heard in the President’s speech, the CDC and FEMA are working hand-in-hand on this, and our own Health Canada and military resources will be coordinating efforts with them.

  “For your own safety, we are establishing a temporary quarantine here at the airport to house those of you who are unexposed. Over the coming days, our hopes are that a solution will be found and that the much-needed care will get to those in need.

  “Lastly, at present our telecommunications infrastructure and power grid are working at a significantly reduced capacity. We have been told to expect that, over the next several hours, this will be reduced further as service delivery becomes an as-needed emergency basis only. This will result in loss of cell phone and Internet access. Meanwhile, I know all of you have friends and family members that you will be worried about. We will be sitting down with each of you and will do what we can to establish alternative lines of communication with your families so you can check on them, and so you can let them know you’re okay.

  “I thank you for your attention and your cooperation during this difficult time. Together we will make it through this.”

  With that, the screens went dark.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Day 1

  Following Captain Harrison’s speech, a woman in fatigues was allowed into our seating area past the checkpoint. This person, unlike everyone else we had seen to that point, hadn’t been wearing a mask or respirator. She introduced herself as Dr. Lam, she explained she was a Lieutenant with the Armed Forces and was coordinating the quarantine efforts with her commanding officer Captain Harrison.

  With the doctor accompanying us answering whatever questions she could, our guards escorted us out of the holding area. Down the hallway we found our checked luggage had been collected, so after a few minutes of chaos as everyone found their own bags, then we continued along to another large area identical to the room we had just left. This room had been hastily but efficiently cleared of the usual row seating and was set up as a barracks with army cots arrayed in a grid. A few of the passengers protested that they couldn’t be expected to sleep in conditions like this, but Dr. Lam seemed to be very deft at calming them down and gaining their cooperation.

  Stephanie and I found two cots in a corner, affording us at least some small amount of privacy, and claimed them by putting our bags underneath. I sat down heavily, the folding cot creaking under my weight. I checked my phone; true to Captain Harrison’s word, it was now showing “no signal”. The lights were still on at least, so I took the opportunity to plug my phone into the wall jack near my cot.

  I looked at the room around us. One wall was dominated by huge tinted glass panels from the floor up to the ceiling some thirty-odd feet above us, affording a sweeping view of the runways and taxiing areas. Nothing out there was moving that I could see.

  The interior walls were plastered with bright lime-green posters all with the same eerie, handwritten message: “REPORT ANY COLD OR FLU SYMPTOMS IMMEDIATELY” bracketed by the universal biohazard symbol. Looking at those posters gave me a cold chill.

  As everyone was getting settled, Dr. Lam announced that in a short while we would be allowed access to the food court where they were establishing a cafeteria. She told us that over the next hour or two, she and her assistant would make their way to each of us individually to conduct a quick health inspection, get our personal information and any requests we had for communications with those elsewhere
, and to answer any questions we might have that hadn’t already been answered.

  I lay back on my cot and closed my eyes. The heavy reality of the situation was starting to sink in.

  “Do you really think the kids are okay?” asked Stephanie in a quiet voice.

  Without opening my eyes, I told her what I knew she needed to hear. “I think so,” I replied. It’s also what I needed to hear.

  “Regina is a small flat spot in the middle of a bigger flat spot,” I told her. “There aren’t any large American cities nearby and we’re a couple hours north of the border, so there’s no reason to think the terrorists would have targeted any place nearby, or that any of this sickness would have spread or blown that far north. We just have to wait this out until they let us go, then we’ll find our way back home to them.”

  “You’re not actually buying this load of crap they’re trying to spoon-feed us, are you?” asked a man sitting hunched over a cot behind me, chewing on his fingernails. I sat up and turned to look at him.

  “What do you mean?”

  He was around my age, likely early forties, but quite slim. His movements were quick and furtive, his eyes darting around the room never resting on any one spot for more than a second.

  “C’mon, seriously?” He was shaking his head in frustration, obviously agitated. “You think this ‘terrorist attack’ crap is for real? Wake up buddy. It’s a spin, it’s a line, a cover-up!”

  I was in such a fog from what we had been through it took me a minute to realize what he was saying.

  “A cover-up? A cover-up for what?”

  “For the real story, buddy, for what’s really happening out there!” This guy was starting to get really worked up.

  “Open your eyes, friend,” he stated intently, leaning forward closer to me, his eyes locked onto mine. “Whatever is going outside, you can be sure we’re not getting the whole story. And I can guarantee it’s not any goddamn terrorist attack.”

  “Okay, so if it’s not a terrorist attack, then what is it?” I asked. From the corner of my eye I saw Stephanie shake her head. ‘Don’t encourage him,’ I could read in her body language.

  “Aliens.” He stared at me, obviously awaiting a reaction.

  I blinked at him, trying to process what he had just said. “What?” I asked, still not getting it. My mind went straight to illegal aliens, still thinking about the terrorist attack.

  “Aliens, man! Some extra-terrestrial germ the government has been keeping in a jar somewhere since 1947 when the UFO crashed in New Mexico!”

  Great, I was dealing with a nut.

  I tried to disengage but his train was really rolling now.

  “For the last seventy-years they’ve been working on stuff like this in their labs in Roswell, buddy. They’ve been reverse-engineering Grey tech and feeding it to us bit by bit as ‘advanced consumer electronics.’ Where do you think the smartphone came from, man? It’s right out of Star Trek, man, open your eyes! They’ve made trillions of it all, creating the 1-percenters, the New World Order, and it’s all about control!”

  I was looking around for someone to come and help me with this fruitcake, but I didn’t see any solders in the room. Other passengers sitting around us were starting to stand and move away, but I was quite literally backed into a corner.

  He stood from his cot and took a step towards me, his eyes bright. I stood and tried to step back, but I had nowhere to go.

  Always the more assertive one, Stephanie stepped in and put her hands against his chest, trying to get him to step back. Before she could open her mouth, he gave her a hard shove sending her sprawling backwards.

  Now I’ve always kept a tight lid on my temper. Really tight. Growing up I was always the big kid in class, and my parents always told me to be careful because I was bigger than the other kids and could hurt them. In some ways I guess that reserve I have makes me come across as somewhat cool. Maybe that’s what was missing in my marriage: the fire, the temper, the passion. Maybe that’s what drove the wedge between me and Stephanie and made her find that passion somewhere else.

  Seeing my wife falling to the ground, something in me snapped just a little bit. Everything we had gone through, everything I had felt in the last week, all the fear for our family and friends, it came out, all at once.

  With a snarl of rage, I twisted and threw myself forward and grabbed him by his shirt. My forward momentum carried us both over and I landed on top of him.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Apparently it hadn’t taken them long to set up a temporary stockade. I sat on a cot identical to the ones Stephanie and I had chosen, only now I sat alone. I was in a room that I assume was, in the normal course of a day, used by customs agents to grill suspected drug dealers, only now the desk and chairs had been removed and had been replaced by a single cot and a stool. I had been in here for around thirty to forty minutes was my guess. In that time the lights had flickered a few times and cut off completely for a few minutes, but eventually had come back on.

  I had been brought in here by two large soldiers. I hadn’t resisted; after jumping Mr. Conspiracy-theory and dragging him to the ground, I had regained control of my temper and had let go of him. He, however, had been primed and ready to go ten-rounds. While I had been raised with the “be careful don’t hurt anyone” philosophy, it turns out he had likely been raised with the “if someone else starts it you make sure you finish it” philosophy.

  For a crazy little dude he was quite a scrapper; while I was on top of him, he had thrown a few elbows up catching me across the lips, followed by a couple shots to the nose.

  I had been so busy trying to climb off him and apologize for jumping him that I didn’t even think to defend myself, but thankfully Jamie and Alex, who had grabbed a couple cots near us, were quick to react and pull us apart. My new buddy was still kicking and cursing when the army guys showed up almost like magic and, before I knew it, I was in the pokey. I assumed conspiracy-guy was nearby sitting in a similar room, since they dragged him out too. He did not go willingly and wound up with a set of zip-tie plastic cuffs holding his hands together behind his back.

  I was lucky he couldn’t get much force behind the blows, so I didn’t sustain too much damage. At least my teeth weren’t loose, and my nose was sore but not broken. If a split lip and a bloody nose was the worst of my punishment, then I figured I was getting off easy.

  The door to my room opened and Dr. Lam entered with a light smile on her face. It was the first smile I had seen since we had landed. I got the feeling if she had entered the private practice instead of the military, she would have had a booming business.

  “Still big and green?” she asked smiling.

  It took me a second to make the connection. Returning her smile wryly, I replied, “Hulk no smash no more.”

  Her smile broadened, and then, as if remembering the circumstances, disappeared. She introduced herself to me.

  “And you’re Mr. Kevin Hayes,” she said, reading from notes on her clipboard, I guess re-introducing me to myself. Yes, Hulk was gone, and mild-mannered Bruce Banner was back at the wheel.

  “I just came from visiting your angry new friend next door, so I don’t think I really need to ask what started the confrontation.” She pulled the stool up in front of me and sat down. Putting on a fresh pair of latex gloves, she gave my face a brief inspection, confirming my nose wasn’t broken.

  “I figured since you’re in a time-out and may have needed some medical attention, I’d take the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone and have our meeting and do the check-up at the same time.”

  After making sure none of my teeth were loose and that my lip didn’t need stitches, she took my blood pressure and temperature, checked my throat, nasal passage and ears. Chest tapping or whatever they call it, followed up by that creepy uncomfortable deep breathing while she listened with a stethoscope, and I got a clean bill of health.

  She pulled out her clipboard and made a few notes. “So, you’re travellin
g with your wife, Stephanie Hayes, correct?”

  I didn’t feel the need to burden the good doctor with my marital issues, so I said yes to that and the next few questions confirming my address, occupation and family information.

  “Okay, so as of right now, you know as much as I do about what’s happening outside these walls, so I don’t know if I can answer any questions you might have, but if you’ve got them, let’s hear ‘em.”

  The only thing I cared about was getting in touch with my children and told her so. She nodded, I’m sure expecting my response.

  “Communications right now are fairly spotty, but I can tell you that as, of the last report, the Prairie region was showing a comparably low level of infection. If it helps, I would say the safe money is on your family being just fine.” I felt the relief flood through me. I nodded my thanks, my eyes tearing up.

  “Emergency stations are being set up even in areas that have so far been only slightly affected, and they’re establishing a roll call of sorts where people can check-in safe. What I can do is to put a request in with our communications officers to see if they can get on the radio when it’s free and liaise with the emergency operations in Regina and see if they have a twenty on your family. Resources are limited, as I’m sure you understand, so I can’t guarantee anything, but I’ll track you down and let you know as soon as I know anything. Meanwhile, let’s get you back to your wife, as long as I can trust you to keep the peace?”

  I promised to do exactly that and thanked her again for her help. “What about the guy I jumped?” I asked. “Is he back with everyone else? I’d like to apologize to him for my behaviour.”

  “Honestly,” she replied, “Mr. Williams doesn’t appear to be too interested in playing well with others. I’m afraid he’s going to need some time to get settled down. I don’t think I’m out of line saying I have a feeling he’s a little bit less than balanced on a good day and what’s happening outside likely knocked him a bit off-kilter; we may need to keep him isolated for the time being.”