Torn (40 page)

“Mark.” Colin waved. ‘You’re gonna get a
hair
cut for the conference
,
right.”

“Ponytail,” Mark replied.

Colin shrugged. “Works. Where’s Bret?”

Darius
answered
, “
Calling
the
doctor
to see if she has c
holera.”

Colin nodded. “Shall I feed into this psychotic hypochondriac episode or shall I ease it?”

Darius took a moment to think, tapping his finger on his lip. “Feed it.”

“You got it.” Colin grinned. “What are you guys watching on the screen?”

Mark replied, “A demo I came up with for our conference presentation.”

“Is it
P
ower
P
oint?” Colin asked.

“No,” Mark said. “Flash.”

“Should use
P
ower
P
oint. Everyone uses
P
ower
P
oint.
It’s effective to some people.” Colin smiled an
d
walked away.

Both Darius and Mark stared at the doorway.

“More effective than a
Fl
ash?” Mark asked then fluttered his lips. “Yeah, right.”

Darius waved out his hand. “What does he know? Show me that again before our pizza.” He leaned over Mark’s shoulder and basked one more time in the feeling of doom he received from watching Mark’s demo.

Such a tiny insect invoked so much thought, consuming Martin’s mind. For some reason he just couldn’t separate himself and
the
work at hand from the sick worker and the flea. The placement of the bunks didn’t help.

It made
him
think of s
i
ck people.

He had immediately contacted Sgt. Mann, asking him for pictures of the ill. Although Sgt. Mann didn’t question
  him
, there was a ton
e
in
his voice that stated he didn’t understand why.

After all, Martin wasn’t a doctor. If he himself were a
sergeant
in the field, he’d question in his m
ind why some general wanted to see
pictures of the ill. Especially since thro
ng
s of medical personal were on it.

Bu
t he said he’d comply, and with
in an hour of the
requisition
, Martin received numerous pictures via the phone.

Were the pictures useless? Or was Martin just looking for something
that
wasn’t there
?

He
would download, look at the
each small picture
and wait for the next.

Each small
photo
, blurry, bred nothing.
It
didn’t breed the images his mind was certain would be there.

He’d get a picture, then a text. “More?” the text would read.

Martin
would
respond with, ‘send another.’

Then came picture 14.

Just as Martin was about to label that useless, he stopped.

He pulled the phone c
loser to his eyes; it looked like it
…but he couldn’t be sure.

Beep.

Mann’s text. “
M
ore?”

“One more,” Martine responded. “Same patient closer on the neck.”

Phone closed, Martin tapped his finger impatiently waiting. He saw on the digital screen a message was incoming.

With a musical tone it arrived.

Martin flipped open his phone and smiled.

Perhaps he should
n’t
have been smiling, but the fifteenth picture confirmed what he
believed
.
He
wasn’t insane. T
e
xting Mann that no more pictures were needed at the time, Martin hook
ed
his phone to the computer and downloaded the images.

He
enlarged and zoomed i
n
. The pictures were
n’t
crystal clear nor professional images, but they were good enough.

Image on the screen
,
Martin leaned forward, finger to his temple, thumb to his chin and stared.

Had the medical professionals really missed it or did they know and were only covering up
?

Surely they tested, right?

He
couldn’t
be sure. Nothing on the news said anything about it. Nor d
i
d his reports and by what he witnessed
,
he was correct and it
needed
confirmation
.

Confirmed by an official in the field. The conference was in a few days and the information was valuable.

It made sense. It made perfect sense. Why wouldn’t it be happening out of season?

The ill woman lay on a cot, patient 34576. The picture was close to her neck. The tell
-
tale signs of blackening and swelling were there. Surely they weren’t missed. If someone like Martin saw it,
surely
a doctor did.

He picked up the phone and dialed.

The United States had
WHO and CDC specialist
s
on site. Martin phoned
t
h
em. It took a while to get
hold of the doctor, and Martin was met with ridicule. Laughs that were
n’t
masked or hidden.

But despite it all, Martin convinced the WHO doctor to appease him
,
t
o just double
-
check patient 34576. Because Martin
w
as
certain
that
the epidemic in
Europe
wasn’t
c
holera, but rather
t
he bubonic
p
lague.

The finishing touches of the bunker were being applied, and it was the first time in a long time Bret had entered the building. Chuck had been there more frequent
ly,
but in the la
st two week
s
, progress had escalated
.

All floors were done.

The bunker was designed to hold up to 18 people, but
would
preferab
ly hold 12. Food was brought in along with wood supplies and a
water system.

It would house those staying behind. The invitees, hopefully, would be in the Texas
shelter by the
initial onset of the final
occurrences
.

“Wow,” Bret
spoke upon walking on
to
the main floor. “It’s so
dark
, though.”

Bruce pointed to the windows.
“
From the outside you can’t tell they are blocked. But for insulation purposes, they need to be sealed. It’s remova
b
l
e,
though.
”

Chuck asked. “Even with the sun as a s
ource
of heat
?
”

Bruce
shook
his head. “It’s
gonna
be gray. Plus the glass won’t hold back that cold. It’s
gonna
get cold for a spell.”

“Enough wood?” Chuck asked.

“Hopefully.” Bruce smiled. “We can always start burning things.”

“
Will
the water supplies freeze?” Chuck
questioned
.

“Nope.
The third floor is insulated and the water tanks covered.
The pipes run right next to the heating ducts. We’re good.”

Bret took in the huge loft
-
style main floor. Divider walls
separated
sleeping areas for
four. A bathroom was
built
and the kitchen and
living
area wide open.
It was lit by small hanging lights. And even though the sunlight seemed to be an issue for her, after all
a week or two without sunlight
. . .
Bruce assured her
that should the temperature be
ok
ay
Colin said they could unblock a window for more light.

Doing a clockwise turn she spotted it.
With the v
oices of Chuck and Bruce fading, she made her way to the door
that
she thought was a closet.
Stepping
out
into
it
, she saw that it was a long hall
the width of the building.
Against
the wall
were
hanging
g
lass cases
six
feet tall, three feet wide. They were empty.

“Bruce?” she called out.

A moment later, “Y
eah.”
Bruce
stepped through.

“What are these?” She pointed.

And when Bruce answered her, the summer heat that had consumed the building
disappeared
and a chill went thought her system.

A reality chill.

“Cases for the suits,” he
replied
.

Bret looked at his with question.

“Ar
c
tic suits. Like the
astronauts
would wear.”

She
envisioned
herself in a parka
or cute little snow gear. Ar
c
tic suit?
Envisioning herself in th
at would be envisioning a world
she was not ready to face.

It wasn’t that the air was cool, but it felt it as the warm breeze swept over the layer of sweat on
Virginia’s
brow.

She had taken the lap
top outdoors and was regretting every minute of it.

Her life’s work w
as beating down on her. The sun, its h
eat unbearable. But then again, Virginia wasn’t really worki
ng outside. She was chatting online with her new
found friend from
Singapore
, Lin.

Lin was a sun watcher
,
and they were
relaying
data back and
forth
.
Sharing rather, finding
what
the other wasn’t getting.

Virginia
was quite impressed with Lin’s data from
Singapore
Solar
R
esearch Center.

The sun’s activity was up to the second.

And she thought her equipment was second to none.

Lin had shared with her that his organization believed the sun was going to act up for a period of 60 days.
Unpredictable
as to the extent, but act up,
m
eaning
there would be more
solar flares
,
perhaps even one like the
Paris
flare.

They were watching.

Virginia
asked if they saw it coming. Lin told her looking back, they saw the beginnings of it, but
excused
it as small sun spots.

However
,
Lin
and his people didn’t believe that any
more would occur. They didn’t think a
magnetic
reversal
was coming. In fact, they had a representative heading to the conference to warn about the sun.

The sun was th
e culprit. The culprit would be
have in a few months time, then all would be back to normal.

Virginia
didn’t believe that. But she didn’t push the issue.

They were actually talking on line about children, when Lin suddenly changed his typing tone.

“Can you access the dat
a
now?” Lin asked

“Laptop is older, would take a while.”

“Go to your
other
station,” Lin requested. “I’m sending you data.”

Virginia
a
greed, informing him it would take about fifteen minute
s
. The journey to the lab in the
complex
was long.

She
didn’t even shut
down
the laptop. S
he
carried it
into the upper level
of the building
and inhaled the blast of cooler air.

“
Everything
okay
?” Rob asked her.

“Yeah, yeah,” Virginia nodded. “Kids fine?”

Rob
indicated
to the kids playing video games.

Virginia
chuckled
“I have to run down to the lab.”

“You’re not gonna be there for hours again
are you
? You
lose track of time.”

“I shouldn’t be. But send RJ down if I am.”

She
darted
a kiss to his cheek and went her way.

The fact that
Lin
was
sending her i
nformation and his change of ton
e
told
her more about the urgency than he did.

The data came though and Virginia viewed it.

“OK,” she typed. “What am I looking at
?
It’s normal.”