End Days Super Boxset (77 page)

Almost a week had passed since Greg's revitalized interest in a potential Ebola epidemic. Most of his on-line supply orders had arrived, and he began to ready his house for outbreak prevention. He spent the weekend getting the place in order, while foregoing any other plans, like bringing Captain to the dog park. His weekend was going to be devoted to prepping.

“You're a real exciting guy,” Greg said to himself as he stood among the recently arrived boxes of shipments in the living room. He had spent the better of the week after work mapping out a realistic and sustainable plan for hunkering-down.

He had his list, which could have applied to numerous prepper scenarios but was modified to address preventative contagion measures. He had plenty of food, water, first-aid supplies, and face masks. Close-quarters confinement would be tricky, especially with owning a dog. The key was to keep the house sealed off and contained, but Captain would obviously need to go out from time to time. For that, Greg devised a schedule for taking Captain out back himself, by leash, and bringing him back in. Any such measures would involve wearing protective gear himself and washing Captain whenever they came back inside. It was going to be a tedious process, but he didn't see any other way.

There was also the question of other guests, and keeping them protected. Greg didn't have anyone immediately in mind, but he couldn't help but think of Veronica. No matter, the isolation would be tasking regardless of who was or wasn't there. Books, board games, cards, movies, and his mini-gym could keep his mind and body active, and of course there was always Captain to keep him company.

The home would have to be secure from intruders, so he examined all points of entry—each window and door—and analyzed where to set trip wire and traps, and where to seal off and block windows or doors. The blueprint of his house gave just the information he needed, and Greg marked the areas accordingly.

If an epidemic occurred, he was looking at weeks or months of hunkering down. He had six months’ worth of food and potable water. Issues that concerned him were the loss of power or tap and faucet water. Though he had plenty of batteries and flashlights, isolation without power and utilities would be challenging to say the least. Hygiene and waste management would also be an issue. He had purchased a portable toilet waste system with a mobile washer, and would tackle other issues eventually. The first thing he wanted to do was to prepare a plan. He wrote a list:

Hunker Down Prep:

Step One

• No traveling:
  

Avoid urban areas and crowded plac
es. Air travel is off limits. Try not to travel more than 20 miles outside home.

Step Two

Inventory medical supplies:

• Re-fit closet to act as “sick room” for supplies. N95 mask a must, along with N100 masks. Up-to-date comprehensive first-aid kit with bandages, pain killers, and antibiotics. Make space for disposable gloves, disinfectants, nitrile gloves, rubber gloves, protective goggles, disposable clothing.
  

Step Three

Inventory basics:

• Rotate food and stock pantry with canned and pickled goods and dried and freeze-dried items. Inventory MREs in garage. Ensure plenty of bottled water and water reserve jugs in garage. Inventory disposable eating utensils, heavy-duty garbage bags, toilet paper, soap, pet supplies, pet food, hygiene items, and all other necessities. Check on coffee, powdered drink mix, and essential oils. Conduct weapons maintenance, inventory ammo.
  

Step Four

Physical fitness plan:

• Keep immune system strong. Inventory daily vitamins and exercise equipment. Weight-lift and do cardio up at least three times a week. Look into price of a used treadmill.
  

Step Five

Physical isolation plan:

• Schedule for Captain back yard trips and fresh air. Duct-tape along window sills, plastic sheets over windows. Set trip wire, mini-alarms and mini-sentry traps in key areas. Fans, air freshener, and candles for house. Limit outside exposure as much as possible and always use common sense.
  

Step Six

Deep clean:

• Clean and scrub house from top to bottom. Keep trash to a minimum, conserve supplies, and ensure Captain is clean and up-to-date on shots and medications. Once house is cleaned and organized, move to next phase.
  

The second phase, for Greg, consisted of prepping his house. He had plans for where to set the tripwire sentry traps outside his home. He didn't want to actually set the traps that weekend and have them prematurely go off. He simply wanted to check his inventory and ensure that he had the right equipment on hand: sentry piece, charges, and trip wire. It was a long weekend of planning, inventory, cleaning, and trying to keep Captain entertained, but Greg managed to make it. Before he knew it, it was Monday morning and he was back at work, ready to start another week.

His first customer that morning was a talkative man who owned a nice two-story home in a gated community ten miles south of Reno. It was a full installation and would probably be an all-day job.
Typical Monday
, he thought. Greg worked best when left alone to do the job he needed to do. Wayne, however, followed him around the house and talked to him endlessly. Greg remained polite and tried to tune him out.

“So the kids are in middle school now, and Barbara and I say to ourselves that they're not little children anymore. They're growing before our very eyes.”

“Yep,” Greg said, laying wire across Wayne's tiled floor in the living room.

“And we think the time is right for an alarm system. You can never be too careful, that's what I always say.”

“I agree completely,” Greg said. He excused himself from the room and went back out to his van to get a ladder. It felt nice to get away from Wayne's incessant chatter for a couple of moments anyway. It was a sunny day, and the sky was a bright blue with not a cloud in sight.

A line of mountains were in the horizon, and he always found the view comforting. He stood outside his van and took a moment to think about where he was at in life. There were so many memories he had effectively suppressed over the years, not because of shame, but by necessity. He couldn't help but think of her, the woman from his past who had meant everything to him. The woman he had had to abandon.

He had been on assignment in France when he met her. Her name was Miriam, and he found himself thinking of her, even though it wasn't right. There was no reason to dredge up the past, not if he was going to move on with a normal job and normal life among normal people. Greg shook his head and pulled his ladder out of the van, carrying it inside Wayne's aqua-colored two-story house. By the time he walked in, Wayne was in the kitchen, pouring a glass of iced tea.

“Thought you could use a glass,” he said, hearing Greg enter the kitchen. He turned around. “You do like tea, don't you?”

“Sure, thank you,” Greg said, setting the ladder down.

Wayne walked up and handed him a glass. “It's unsweet, but we've got packets of sugar.”

“Unsweet is fine.”

Greg always thought it nice whenever customers offered him drinks, but he also knew that by taking the drink Wayne would only be more encouraged to talk his ear off. It wasn't that he didn't like conversation; it was just that in being attentive to Wayne, he couldn't fully concentrate on the huge task before him.

The man asked too many questions, and Greg figured that he would get the hint, but no amount of distracted head nods and short, one-word responses would keep him quiet. It wasn't until Wayne changed the subject from his home life, his vacation, his job at a plastics plant, that he got Greg's attention.

“That Ebola is some scary stuff, right?” Wayne said.

Greg paused. “You said it. Just crazy all around.”

“I sure hope that it doesn't spread here. That would really screw things up.”

“Indeed,” George said, drilling a hole in the wall.

“Take my wife, for example. She's a bad enough germaphobe. I don't know how she would take it. We'd never leave the house.” Wayne laughed, seemingly to himself, as Greg continued working.

“And she'd be right,” Greg said. He couldn't help himself.

“But what's that gonna do? I mean, we'll have to leave eventually. Let's say we had two years’ worth of food, water, and everything else. What difference does it make if we were isolated for two months or two years?”

“You'd probably have less of a chance of getting a disease.”

Wayne paused. “Sounds like you're some kind of expert in the matter.”

Greg looked at him, confused at his tone.

“I'm just kidding,” Wayne said, smiling.

“Whether it's excessive or not, you should start taking measures to make your house outbreak resistant,” Greg said.

“You mean Ebola-proof my house?” Wayne laughed again. “Do you offer that in your installment package?”

“Can't say that I do, but it's just my personal opinion.” Greg walked across the tile living room floor to his tool box in the kitchen and placed his power drill inside. Wayne followed him, standing a few feet away.

“What do you think about them taking care of that soldier here? I think it's crazy. I feel bad for the guy, of course, but they should stay in Africa for treatment.”

“Operation United Assistance went a long way in getting rid of Ebola in those countries, but they should have taken more precautions when sending soldiers back home.”

“You said it. How many of our guys do they still have over there?” Wayne asked.

Greg thought to himself. “Last I heard there were fifteen hundred.”

Wayne rubbed his forehead “Wow. Out of that number, how many do you think may have the disease?”

“It's hard to say. Maybe a few. Maybe none. It just depends on what kind of precautions the military took.”

“Obviously they're not doing enough.”

“Or maybe there's something about the disease we don't know yet,” Greg said, picking up his tool box and carrying it with him toward the stairs.

“What are you talking about?” Wayne asked, following him.

“I've got to get up in your attic now,” Greg said. “Do you have an entrance up here?”

Wayne walked up the stairs ahead of Greg and showed him to the attic entry ladder.

As expected, the installation took the better part of the entire day. Greg decided to drive straight home from Wayne's but not before making a stop to meet Veronica for coffee first. She had agreed to the idea a few days before, when he had swung by, looking for more books, or at least pretending to look for more books.

It would be nice to talk to someone that day who, unlike Wayne, didn't ask a million questions. But customers were customers, and sometimes they just liked to hear themselves talk. Greg hoped that Wayne would heed his concerns and do something to “Ebola-proof” his house. This hope intensified when he heard the news bulletin on the radio.

“Local K95 news reports new developments in the Carson City Ebola story. The soldier's immediate family members, who have been in government-mandated quarantine at their home, have now been admitted to the special quarantine ward of the Carson Tahoe hospital today after showing symptoms of the dreaded Ebola virus. So far, they are receiving treatment and are expected to be discharged once they recover. But that's not all. Other patients are reported to be in the same ward and being treated for Ebola, even though they have no connection or relationship to Sergeant Timothy Shields.”

Greg took a left at the next corner. He leaned forward and turned up the volume.

“Hospital staff are noticeably on edge over the potential of an outbreak and have been closely monitored and routinely tested for signs of infection. So far, only two nurses have been admitted to the ward for further testing, after showing high fevers. The CDC has not released an official comment, but the director, Dr. Ted Robbins, tweeted earlier that his thoughts and prayers are with the Shields family, with hopes for their speedy recovery.”

Greg turned down the radio and focused his attention on the road. He was downtown and not far from the coffeehouse where he planned to meet Veronica. He would have preferred going home to take a shower first; in fact, he should have but didn't want to keep her waiting. It was just coffee, anyway. They weren't going on a date. It was a harmless meet-up between two people.

Even with a prospective coffee-meet ahead, Greg couldn't take his mind off Ebola and prepping. There was still work to be done, even after devoting his weekend to the job. Things were getting more troubling on the news, confirming some of Greg's worst fears. He had read about the mutation process of certain diseases and their ability to adapt to different environments. While he believed the chances of an airborne Ebola strand unlikely, the increasing number of new patients was a troubling sign.

He slowed as the traffic light ahead turned yellow, and then he came to a halt. His eyes moved to the car stereo as the news report continued. Suddenly, a loud crash occurred in front of him. A white Toyota Camry on the other side of the intersection had sped through a red light, causing a blue pick-up truck to smash into the Camry’s passenger side.

Upon impact, the Camry rolled over onto its roof with a resounding crash. Greg’s head jerked up, just in time to see a gray Buick, traveling behind the truck, smash into the back of it. The driver couldn't stop in time to avoid the rear-end collision. In a matter of seconds, windows shattered, airbags deployed, and plastic and glass flew all over the road.