Dead Quarantine (4 page)

He had not seen these yellow school buses
since elementary school. The city drivers now rode these new ones
with low floors so disabled kids could easily get on them. Well,
whatever, he was just glad they were still alive and well.

A car stopped behind them and honked. His
mother jumped in her seat and then drove on, but before she did,
she carefully looked both ways to make sure no other maniacs were
driving on the road. As they continued to their destination, he
heard the sound of helicopters in the air. He turned in his seat.
Far away, he saw one. A black spot hung in the air among the clouds
like a drop of paint forgotten by an artist on a lush painting. Odd
occurrences kept adding up. Maybe something was going on, like the
flu scare. Governments liked their emergencies. The politicians got
their time in front of the camera and got to feel all self
important. He was too young to be bothered by politics; maybe next
year in college he would give it some thought. Whatever it was—flu
or not—it would pass like every other crisis. He had his own crisis
to contend with: his afternoon history test.

CHAPTER FOUR

His
mother drove through the high school's main gate and stopped behind
the same kind of yellow buses that almost rammed them. Two stood
parked in front of the steps leading up to the school building’s
main entrance.

“What a coincidence,” she said.

Ralph also noticed the buses, but he didn't
think much about it. Yes, two similar buses almost drove them to
their deaths, but luckily that hadn’t happen, and these couldn't
possibly be the same ones, because those drove off in a direction
away from the high school.

At last, the moment of no return had
arrived. The showdown with his exam of doom seemed inevitable. He
watched his mother stare at the yellow buses; a frown appeared on
her face. Maybe he could try one last ditch effort to bail out. On
their way to school, after his mother had turned the radio off, he
had tried and failed to convince her that the quarantine idea was
not a bad one and that they should seclude themselves at home. She
didn't want to hear it. Instead, he got a lecture about how
important his grades were and if he ever wanted to get accepted by
a half-decent college he needed to give his best effort.

“Could the buses have something to do with
what we heard on the radio?”

She turned her head and locked eyes with
him. No smile there this time. He had gone too far with bugging her
about this.

“Fine,” he said. Ralph grabbed his bag and
got out.

“I'll pick you up; your father can't make it
in time.”

Ralph had been looking forward to spending
some time with his dad. Two weeks alone in a house with only
females was nice—he loved spending time with Ginny and his
mother—but with his father, he could relate things he never dared
to tell his mom or sis. It didn't matter. He planned not to stay at
school for long. He'd find a way out, a way to not take that
test.

“Okay, Mom, see you later.” He slammed the
car door shut.

“No kiss?” his mom said.

He shook his head. He was not a kid anymore;
he was almost a grown man now. She knew this, but still she never
failed to ask for a kiss. He smiled at her instead

She laughed, shaking her head while she
started the car. Her laughter quickly turned into a barrage of
coughs as she drove away. His smile vanished. To be honest, he
wanted to kiss her. One last time, cherishing the feeling as he had
when he was a little boy, but he felt ashamed to do so in front of
his friends. What friends? He faced the school entrance. Most were
acquaintances, classmates. He really only had one friend, Tom. Or
fat Tommy, as the jackasses at school liked to call him. Tom might
be a little weird, but he was the only person other than his
immediate family that he trusted. Then, you had the many
classmates, from which he liked Lilly and Sarah most, but he
couldn't really call them friends. He did like them, especially
Sarah, but it was Lilly he talked with the most. Sarah was with
Jake; she didn't really look or talk to other guys.

The twin green school doors swung open.
Startled, Ralph backed down. Men in hazmat suits came barging out,
escorting high school students to the bus. Tom came walking down
after them. When he noticed Ralph, he came running down the steps,
almost bumping into Ralph before he stopped. Breathing heavily from
the exertion, the smell of Cheetos blasted Ralph's face, telling
him all he needed to know about what his friend had for
breakfast.

“You see that?” Tom said between
breaths.

“Yeah, today has been weird.”

“No kidding. They are talking about
quarantining the world. Pure madness.”

“Yeah, I heard about that on the radio.”

They walked up the stairs, making room at
the door for another group of men escorting teenagers out. Some of
the teens where coughing, others looked sickly pale. None looked
scared. Ralph didn't know if he would stay that calm if men in
hazmat suits were escorting him onto a bus. They seemed damn
docile, as if nothing was wrong.

“I believe they are quarantining people
already,” Tom said.

“On the radio, they said they had to plan
first.”

Tom swung one heavy arm sideways, index
finger loosely pointing at the men escorting teenagers to the
yellow bus. “Does it seem like they are planning?”

No, it didn't. Ralph believed that Tom was
right about the quarantine already being enacted. They must be
dropping them at their homes to ensure they stayed with their
families. Ralph imagined door after door marked with a big X and a
contamination warning.

“Looks like they took half the school
already.”

“Nah, only the ones who came to school sick,
like the nerds they are, stupid geeks. Most just stayed home and
called in sick.”

Ralph bit his tongue so as not to point out
that Tom was deemed a nerd and loved to study, but he managed to
keep it to himself. Today, he didn't want to bicker with Tom about
the obvious fact that neither of them were thought of as cool at
this school, or ever would be accepted into the folds of the
popular kids. For starters, both had never had a girlfriend. More
than once these assholes alluded to them being gay, because they
were inseparable. Not that there was anything wrong with being gay,
but it was the same thing as if they insisted a gay guy was
straight. The gay guy wouldn't feel good about that. No, they were
friends, good friends, and it was no wonder neither could get
girlfriends with crazy stories like that going around.

“Why do you look like you smelled shit? Is
it something I said?” Tom asked.

Ralph shook his head and patted his friend's
shoulder. He swiped his hand against his jeans to get rid of the
sticky wetness on it. Tom really should do something about his
sweating; he seemed to sweat all over the place, everywhere on his
body, yearlong.

“Nah, just thinking about some
unpleasantness.”

“Anyone ever tell you that you talk like an
old man?”

Use fancy words and they think you’re old.
Like he could help he loved to read. He shrugged it off.

“Let’s just go to class.”

They went upstairs to the back of the
building for their calculus class. The classroom was near empty;
only ten pairs of eyes looked up at them when they entered the
room.

“You are late!” Miss Kate Larson said,
standing at the whiteboard.

At twenty five, she didn't look much older
than most of her students. You could easily mistake her for a
student if not for the fact that she dressed formally. She wore
plain business dress everyday. Today, it was a dark dress that fit
her body snugly, which was really distracting to the male
population, because she sure was a looker. Miss Larson's face
flushed. He must have been staring for too long.

“Go sit at your desk,” she said.

It didn't help she had those glasses on that
made her look sterner; it only added to the image of the sex-upped
teacher punishing her student in a very delightful manner. Smiling,
he went and sat down at his desk. Tom took his usual seat next to
him. Ralph loved Tom and liked his company, but he would much
rather have a girl like Sarah sit next to him—just something he
missed in his life.

He looked around. Not one sick kid, although
they all looked kind of tired. And scared? He thought about it
further. Shouldn't he be scared after seeing what he had? He
guessed not. It was clear it was an epidemic, so what if it were
worse than normal? All they had to do was stay at home for a while
and wait it out. But what if, like in this class, half the people
were ill and the other half waited to become ill? What was the
point of a quarantine if each family had one sick member? It
negated the idea. It was an uncomfortable thought. He shifted in
his seat.

Miss Larson paced in front of the class,
wringing her hands. A vain popped at the side of her head. She
stopped pacing and turned, facing the class.

“I know you are worried with all your
classmates home sick, but despite that, lessons will continue.”

He didn't expect less from her. He didn't
mind really; calculus was one subject he was semi-decent in and the
teacher was not all that bad to look at.

“If you feel you are catching, go to the
infirmary to be checked. The nice men from the World Health
Organization will escort you home.”

From WHO? He thought they were military,
National Guard, not some private organization. It must be
sanctioned by the government for them to operate this freely inside
the U.S. Ralph turned to Tom.

“Are you feeling ill?”

“Nah, I'm fine, though both my parents and
sisters are not. I came by myself. What about you?”

“I'm fine too. My mom and Ginny got it. My
dad is out of town.”

Miss Larson raised her voice. Ralph could
feel the sting of her eyes, so he kept himself from looking up.

“The principal has requested I ask you this.
Who is not feeling well? Raise your hand and speak up.”

Tom raised his hand. Kids sitting near him
veered away, as if that would prevent them from catching.

“Okay, Tom, you can go to the nurse.”

“Oh no, miss, I'm not ill. I want to ask a
question.”

“What is it?” she sounded slightly
annoyed.

“We have a history test this afternoon, is
it still on? And what about those staying home, will they get a do
over?”

Really? Asking about a test? Who cared?
Suddenly, it occurred to him that he did want to know. What if the
teacher was ill? His problem would be solved.

“Mr. Turner is present at school; you don't
have to worry about missing the test. Those ill at home will of
course get a chance to take it another day. This pandemic is out of
our control; can't blame them for it.”

Balls, the teacher was not ill and the test
was still on. However, kids that were ill got taken home and could
take the test later. Everybody would be quarantined. He would have
ample time to prepare for the test, and this time around, he really
would. He wouldn’t allow himself to be distracted by a computer
game. All be it, it was the newest Black Ops game or the next
Halo.

Ralph raised a hand. The teacher
frowned.

“Another question?”

Ralph faked a fit of coughs. The kids in the
room scrambled away from him. Tommy looked at him with a grin; he
obviously deduced what he was doing.

“Go to the school nurse immediately.”

So easy. Ralph stood up. Tom gave him a
thumbs up. “Call me when you get home.”

Ralph nodded, slung his bag over his
shoulder, and left the classroom, giving the teacher standing at
the whiteboard a last approving glance.

CHAPTER FIVE

Mrs.
Evergreen was the high school nurse. To him she was everything a
school nurse should not be; she was integral to the community only
in that she had been working for so long in the school district
that she had become a fossil, consoling to the sick as Hitler would
to a Jew, and the health education she gave was from a time when
Ralph's parents were still in diapers. From this old nurse, you
could only count on no support at all. Normally visiting the school
nurse would fill him with dread, institutionalized dread from
having and experiencing the same nurse since he was twelve. Not
even now, with him almost being an adult, did it overcome years of
this. But today was different. He hoped this uncaring institution
of nursery would easily slap the sick sticker on him and send him
packing to quarantine camp at home.

He joined a long line that extended from the
nurse's door. A girl with red hair stood before him. He had seen
her walking around before, a new girl, one of the prettier girls.
She usually stuck to her own classmates, so he never got a chance
to speak with her—as if he ever would get a chance.
She was coughing when he arrived and she looked at him.
S
he wasn't so pretty now with the red-rimmed nose and eyes,
and her hair wild and unkempt. She looked ill and seemed in no way
to care about how she looked or about any pretenses. Her eyes went
from his head down and back up.

“What are you doing here?” she said,
sounding nasally.

“I caught the bug.” He certainly had now,
standing so close to her.

“You don't look like it.”

“Well I carry it better than others.”

She sniffled. Her eyes narrowed. Ralph
fished his handkerchief out of his pocket and offered it to her.
She actually smiled when she took it, and he had to admit it made
her look pretty. She turned away and snorted. He watched in
disgust. How could so much nastiness come out of someone? She had
the flu bad.

The line moved forward. She held the
handkerchief awkwardly in her hands. She turned back to him. “I
guess you don't want this back?”

He shook his head. “No, keep it.”