Contagious (11 page)

If emotional energy could be converted to physical matter, Ava was certain that the energy generated in that van would have created a tornado.

They sat there for hours. No water, no food. A few people even wet themselves waiting on someone to come. The emotions went from confused to sad, then worried and finally angry. Ava tried to keep calm, she really did. Her own children, with the exception of Landon, started blaming her. Why did she have to go to the seminar?

But they knew nothing. They were told nothing. No one returned to the van.  It had a horrible odor from anything and everything in there which only made Cassie complain more.

“Why hasn’t my father gotten back to us?”

“I don’t know.” Ava looked at her phone. “Maybe he’s flying.”

“Don’t you know his schedule?” She snapped.

“Actually, I don’t.”

“What good are you?”

“Good enough to get you stuck in a van with twelve other strangers waiting to die.”

Cassie gasped.

“Look,” Ava said. “I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to be here anymore than you do.”

“It’s your fault.”

“How is this my fault?”

Then some man from the packed van, barked. “Will you two stop? We are all sick of hearing you two. Shut up!”

Ava snapped a glare in his direction. “Don’t tell me to shut up. You shut up!”

Calvin groaned. “This is insane and immature.”

Then the doors to the van opened.

Ava felt like the ‘people under the stairs’ because a huge burst of sunlight blasted into the van, causing her immediately blindness.

“You will exit the van and follow us in.” A voice called out. “As you pass us, you will be handed clothing. Each of you will go through a disinfectant room, prior to entering the quarantine zone. You will submit to a blood test and then you will be fed.”

Like a dog having to do tricks to get a treat, Ava and her family had to complete a hellish ritual before even getting a drop of water. They were treated as if they were  criminals or had done something wrong.  She wondered if it could get any worse. Little did she know, it had only just started.

<><><><>

Rayne opened his eyes to a world of hurt … literally. His face felt ten times bigger and a blinding pain radiated across where he was struck. . His nose was numb, but he was afraid if he touched it, it would no longer be that way.

He was on his back. Of that he was certain. Rayne began to assess the situation. Breathing through his nose was impossible, it was sluggish and thick. His hand reached out blindly and he felt carpet. He was on the floor. With a roll of his body, he brought himself to his knees. His hair dangled in his eyes and he tried to ‘flip’ it back.

Mistake.

The pain was horrendous and with a grunt and groan he grabbed his face.

How long was he out? He didn’t know. He looked from left to right at the empty room. Directly before him were a set of closed double doors. He stumbled to a standing position and staggered to the doors. Grabbing the door knobs, he pulled.

Nothing.

He then tried to push. Again nothing.

“I wouldn’t keep trying that.” the younger voice said. “It’s useless. They’re locked tight. I tried.”

Slowly Rayne turned around. His eyes needed to focus, but even through his slightly blurred vision he saw JJ Wylde sitting in the corner of the large room.

“What … what happened?” Rayne asked, walking to him.

“Well …” JJ stood. “You wanted to be a hero. I wanted to get some good pictures of them shooting you, and they assumed I was helping you. Go figure.”

“Did you get pictures?”

“Did you get shot?”

Rayne looked down. “Unless they hit my face, no.”

“Oh, they hit your face all right. It’s screwed up,” JJ said.

“I still don’t understand how you ended up in here.”

“I told you, I followed to get pictures. And when they nailed you. I kinda felt bad and ran over. That’s when they nabbed us both and threw us in here.”

“Where is here?” Rayne asked.

“I guess a smaller ballroom.”

“What about your body guard?”

“Shep?” JJ asked.

“Your bodyguard’s name is Shep?”

“Yeah and I don’t know where he is. When they brought me down here, he stayed back.”

“Some body guard.”

“Tell me about it. Hey, if we survive this thing, I’m gonna hire you.”

“I’ll think about it. I have a good career right now,” Rayne said. “But … is there any water?”

JJ shook his head. “None. I’m dying of thirst.”

“Yeah. How long have I been out?”

“Over an hour.”

“Man.” Rayne tossed his head back and when he did, he felt it.

“You ok?” JJ asked.

“Yeah, I just …” Rayne’s sentence was interrupted with noise. A cross between a gag and his tongue hitting the back of his throat.

“What the hell?” JJ asked. “Are you throwing up?”

“It’s the …” Rayne choked on the word and made the sound again. “clot.”

“What?”

“The c …” Even making the sound gagged Rayne.  He held up one hand, turned his head slightly, pushed and blocked one nostril then began to blow as hard as he could through the other side of his nose.

“Dude, what are you doing?”

It was there. Rayne could feel it. Lodged somewhere between his sinus cavity and his throat. He didn’t want it to slip into his mouth, so Rayne fought to bring that monster of a clot out his small nostril.

It was like giving birth to the product of an injury.

“Please stop.” JJ pleaded. “Quit…. Uh!” He shrieked.

Finally, Rayne could feel the clot slip from his nostril. It dangled for a while, trying to stay inside and then finally, the force of blowing and gravity took over and the clot plopped to the floor. Rayne felt a sense of immediate relief.

“Oh my God” JJ walked over. “Did that come from your head?”

Rayne took a breath. “Yeah, I feel so much better.”

“Dude, you sure that’s not a piece of your brain?”

Both of them paused and stopped to take a closer look. JJ pulled out his phone and took a picture.

Immediately, Rayne felt for his pockets. He wanted to text Ava, to see if she was free. “Where’s my phone?”

“They took it.”

“Why didn’t they take yours?”

“Oh, they did,” JJ said. “The one from my right pocket. This one is my left pocket phone.”

“How many do you have?”

“Enough.” He fiddled with the phone. “No worries, I’ve been posting everything. Seven thousand people have chirped the picture of you unconscious.”

“Great.”

“It can’t hurt your wrestling career.”

“You should be using that phone to get us out of here
,” Rayne said.

“Who am I gonna call, Dude?” JJ asked. “We’re under quarantine. That Semora Love has something that’s deadly and we aren’t getting out until either we’re dead or it runs its course. Until then we’re prisoners.”

At first Rayne started to get angry about that. He wasn’t a prisoner...or was he? Thinking about it and the reasoning behind any incarcerated criminal, their detention made sense. They were in close contact with Semora Love. They had touched her. She was sick. And like it or not, because of that, they were without a doubt a threat to society. Like any threat, they had to be locked up.

Rayne could argue his treatment, but he couldn’t argue his captivity.

<><><><>

Joel looked down to the dot of blood that formed in the bend of his arm. Why didn’t he get a band aid? They took his blood and didn’t even give him so much as a piece of cotton. His eyes lifted
to the television in the small back office.

A teenage girl was on the news. She sobbed uncontrollably
. “I don’t know what I’ll do if he dies. Someone save JJ!”

“And this young woman seems to encompass the sentiments of everyone right now.” the reporter stated. “We were able to obtain the footage JJ uploaded to his chirp account before it was removed. It was disturbing to say the least. Innocent men beaten, being held prisoners. Which leaves this reporter to the question...how bad is this virus if they are going to such extremes?”

Joel squeezed the corners of his eyes. “I’m getting a headache. Where the hell is my Ben Gay?”

He noticed Melissa and Katie backing up.

“What?” he asked.

‘You have the virus.” Melissa said. “A headache is always the first sign. You have the virus.”

“I don’t have the virus.” Joel argued. “Tell them Walter.”

“He might
,” Walter said. “I’d say not, though. More than likely he has a brain tumor with the amount of headaches he gets.”

“Thank you,” Joe said. “I appreciate …”

The office door opened and a man in a bio hazard suit stepped forward. “You folks can come out to the courtyard. I need to speak to the manager.”

“That’s me,” Joe said walking to him. “Can you tell me where my employee Rayne is?”

“He and the pop star are detained and will be released shortly. We asked you to stay put while we initiated things.”

“It’s eleven in the morning. This thing started six hours ago.” Joel argued.  

“We are on minimal staff.”

“Yeah, well we’re on minimal patience
,” Joel said. “You come in here, tuck us away, secure our guests and take over the hotel. Not a word or a peep as to why.”

“I understand. But we’re set up now and hopefully we can work together. My name is Dr. Randall Howard. Any questions you have can be directed to me. We have redirected all outside lines. Simply pick up a phone it will ring to us.”

“And where will you be that I’m calling you?”

“Outside. Walk with me, Mister?”

“Carson. Joel Carson.”

“You’re in charge now.”

Joel laughed. “Of what?”

“The detainees and inside procedure. I need a ‘go to’ person and a person to take control, you’re it.”

“Thanks.” Joel followed him. “I’d like to know what we’re dealing with.”

“How many rooms are in this hotel?”  Randall asked.

“Suites.” Joe corrected. “Two hundred and fifty five. At capacity we hold over a thousand people.”

“Right now thirty-six guests are here in quarantine. There are also twenty-four employees along with two hundred and twenty-two close contact victims and their families. I need you to get them into rooms. Close contact will be on the first floor. We are hopeful, but not optimistic that Semora Love stayed in this hotel. If that is the case, after one week this virus will work its way through. If she left the hotel, we will be bringing
the infected in here. This will be an aid station.”

“Whoa. Whoa. Wait.” Joel held up his hand. “So you are putting those who aren’t sick at risk. You need to take the infected to a hospital.”

“Mr. Carson. Anyone at this hotel, or around a contact victim is at higher risk than someone sitting in General Hospital. If we take the ill there, we expose those who weren’t exposed at all. Understand?”

“No, but do I have a choice?”

“No.”

Joel sighed out. “Aside from rooms, what else?”

“FEMA will be delivering rations today. Water and food. Get a team to distribute. I don’t care how you do it, that’s for you to decide.”

“And exactly what will the CDC or whatever you guys are, what will
you
be doing?”

“I’m going to be honest and I hope you will let the pop star chirp this.”

“You have my word,” Joel said.

“This virus is deadly. It’s bad. Each outbreak is worse than the one before. That is why we’re limited. We are spread thin. We can only hope, that when eighty percent of the people in this hotel right now get sick, and they will, we can only hope that we have the people to care for them. This is the pivotal site. The make it or break it. What will we be doing? We’re trying our damnedest to beat this thing, Mr. Carson, because if we don’t …” Randall said
, “quarantine lifted. White flag goes up. The fight is over.”

<><><><>

“Can I have a pair of shoes?” Ava asked. “Socks? Flip flops? Something?”

She was ignored. It was as if she wasn’t even a person. Just an object going through the motions on some sort of conveyer line.

She was stripped of her pajamas, scrubbed down, walked through some sort of steam, then afterward, she was not only scanned but blood was taken from her.

Ava hadn’t a clue what they did with Cassie, Calvin or Landon.

Her child, her son was ripped from her arms. He screamed her name with his hands held out to her as the military took the children in a different direction.