Plague: Death was only the beginning! (3 page)

“The Black Death killed over a quarter of the world’s population during just one visit.”

-Thoughts from the Author

Chapter 5

Infected: 537 – Dead: 209

Jim Thompson, Deputy Emergency Services Manager for Paterson, New Jersey, reviewed the latest information that was being transmitted over the secure government net from New York City. The headings read:

“The spread of the disease has reached alarming proportions as the plague bacilli are reproducing at a frightening speed throughout the dense rat pollution of the city. Public Health Officials are viewing the spread as currently uncontrollable due to the lack of city resources to combat the rats in their warrens. Poison bait and traps were proving inadequate as local rats began leaving their tunnels and fleeing their home turf to escape the death filling their tunnels. The projected infection and death rates are expected to rise as more people fall ill. Caution all EMS staff to not talk to the press as this crisis builds. This directive was issued by the Governor’s office and affirmed by the Mayor to control panic. News agencies have been instructed to only contact their local Public Health Service offices and the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta for updates.”

Seeing this, Jim entered a short draft message into his personal email account on his iPhone but did not send it. Those who had the password to this normally unused account could read the message, make changes, or even delete it without an electronic record of the message being made to the local servers. This bit of intelligence had been uncovered during the war on terror as Taliban fighter groups learned how to avoid American cyber-warfare techniques by only saving draft messages on a system server. Because it was only stored and not sent, the message didn’t really exist as such, and was much harder to discover. Jim’s group had all used this type of subterfuge to pass messages and information during drills and false alarms in the past. They found the method to be very effective and easy to use as each person was notified by the account email system that a draft message was being held by the system.

Tom in Missouri quickly noted the update and read the message. He added a single symbol to the next line underneath the ending. This let everyone know that he had read it, and they posted their own symbols upon reading it.

Using another account on a totally different OS system, Tom passed on his comments of his checklist status, retreat updates, and his preparations for possible relocations readiness. He also updated his radio schedule to reflect the updated readiness status for communications for the foreseeable future. After checking all of his radios were on receive, he settled in for a long night of monitoring all the amateur radio bands as other stations around the world checked in as the band conditions improved with the fall of darkness. Around 11:30
PM
, his wife Sally drove up to the house and got herself a warm drink before coming into the radio room for a chat. She worked as the assistant manager of the local Casey’s store. She often worked the late shift from 4:00
PM
to store closing at 11:00
PM
and was often late getting home at night. Not a great job, but it paid a few bills and allowed Sally to meet and greet over 150 people a day. This allowed Tom to get all the area news about everything under the sun. This could range from their friends’ latest difficulties to the local government efforts to restrict home schooling. Ninety-nine percent of the time, this was all garbage in-garbage out as he filtered the information to find interesting tidbits. Tom had spent over twenty years in Air Force Intelligence services in the United States, as well as several stints overseas in the Mideast, Europe, and Central America. Now, he just kept his skill sets current by local and regional news spots, Internet searches, and secure contact with old friends across the planet-wide digital datanets. Once you were Intel, you were always working new inputs and sources. It was like an itch that had to always be scratched. His logbooks and copious computer notes were filled with gigabits of stored facts and figures about population densities, global temperature, Near Earth Asteroids, current wars and conflicts, as well as tons of information of possible adverse conditions that could trigger a worldwide apocalypse. A virulent disease was always listed in the top ten of events that could trigger a serious disaster with heavy loss of life. Most known past occurrences of the Bubonic Plague were recorded to have killed over two hundred million people! Project this against population growth at that time and bring that figure forward, and you get a projected death rate of over 1.9 BILLION people today! (Citing reference- The Coming Plague I believe). This number is on the same level or even higher than the death toll of a worldwide Thermonuclear War. So, to say that Tom and Sally were worried would be an understatement!

Reaching for another binder, Tom opened it and tabbed to the first page listed under “Pandemic.” He entered a time and date on the page and began listing the opening facts as best as he knew them. This would be his official record. He also opened a new page on his computer in a pre-formatted Word document and began entering the same information as well as everything that he had done by that point in time. This would be his “unofficial” but much more complete record of events as they happened. Here he could put all of his facts and figures as well as any comments and observations that he might make of the coming period of time. Located centrally on his secured Wi-Fi system that covered the entire valley complexes, this let all of the other members of his group check in from out of state and see what was happening at their own secure complex. Information that might not have been released to the news services may have already been posted by Tom on the complex SecureNet.

“A worldwide Pandemic could reduce the world’s population to a mere handful.”

-Thoughts from the Author

Chapter 6

Infected: 589 – Dead: 287

The U.S. Army had built large tent structures just off the emergency rooms of all the hospitals that encompassed the vast metro area of New York City. One large tent was for treating the living and four more for the storage of the dead. Available hospital bed spaces had quickly been filled within the city in a matter of two days as the plague overran all efforts to contain it. Already, the Holland, Hudson, and Lincoln tunnels had been restricted to ambulance crews and morgue trucks going out and supply trucks coming in. Hazmat crews in full isolation gear would offload the dead bodies in the chilled environment of the morgue tents, be sprayed down with a heavy concentration of bleach, both inside and out, and returned to service. The crews and companies hauling the still living complained, only to be told that they could always take over the morgue trucks if they felt that strongly about it. The crews shut up and drove after that. Nothing was being done about those that arrested during transport, and the crews were told to drive to a morgue tent instead of the hospital tents. Effort could not be wasted on the dead or dying. Only those fighting to live were given a chance at survival, as small as it was.

As the disease grew, the doctors and nurses took only a few moments with each patient and gauged the level of infection to see whether their limited antibiotics could, or even should, be used to try to save them. Currently only about one in seven were seen as worth the efforts to even try to save. The CDC and USARIID experts repeatedly told the local doctors that the current strain of plague they were dealing with had become almost completely antibiotic resistant. Nothing in the works was currently proving effective, and harsh rumors were coming back that the current strain was also airborne.

By 8:05
AM
, Friday morning in New York City, the Mayor announced, by both radio and television, that the Bubonic plague was loose in the city and for everyone to stay in their houses. A twenty-four-hour curfew was now in effect and anyone found outside after 10:00
AM
EST today would be arrested. Anyone resisting arrest was to be shot on sight, as reports were coming into the Mayor’s office that food riots and looting were taking place across the city of Manhattan. The New York State governor had released National Guard troops with live ammunition. The U.S. Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard also had orders to turn back or sink any vessels trying to leave Manhattan by water. This was to try to halt the spread of infection to the larger metro area. All ferryboats had been stopped at the terminals, and there would be no further ferry transportation until further notice. All rent payments, utility bills, and other service charges would be placed on moratorium until the crisis had been passed. Food service trucks would take an inventory of all dwellers within the apartment building, and three days’ worth of food and water would be released to each person, in person! All bodies were to be left outside the building, enclosed in a clean sheet for pick up by morgue crews twice daily. No cleaning of bodies or religious rights were to be performed at any time, as this was a known factor in the transmission of disease.

The Mayor stated that the city had survived the fall of the twin towers, the war on terror, and the 2014 Ebola outbreak. The city was stronger than anything the world could throw at it, and this disease would fall to their will soon. This was New York!

“Death can cover the land like a shroud. And smother the living in moments.”

-Thoughts from the Author

Chapter 7

Infected: 655 – Dead:  350

Alex Tribeca pulled his truck under the shelter of his carport and shutdown the engine. His wife, Susan, looked up and smiled at him as one of the family dogs jumped for joy beside them. She wasn’t the brightest dog in the kennel, but surely the happiest one. Maggie was a Border collie-black Lab cross they had rescued from the local shelter, and she ruled the home with an iron paw. The next one to run up was Lucy, a Basenji-yellow Lab cross that stole everyone’s heart by her sheer devotion to Alex. Alex laughed as they got out of the truck and the dogs smiled and “woofed” about them while helping trip the two humans every chance they could.

“All right you two! Enough! Mom and I need to unload the truck and we don’t need your help!” Alex said to the dogs. “Why don’t you go play in the backyard while we work? Go on now!”

As if understanding, they ran out the back and grabbed a stuffed toy to play tug-of-war with. Jennifer laughed at their games a moment before going back to the truck to help unload. After seeing Jim and Tom’s updates on the SecureNet, they made a quick trip into the local Sam’s Club to stock up on fifty-pound bags of white rice, popcorn kernels to be ground into cornmeal, flour, salt, sugar, and dozens of canned goods flats to add to their already large stockpile. Their son, Tommy, was carrying the rest of their purchases in the back of his van and would be rolling up any time now. Alex had taken their covered twenty-four-foot trailer and parked next the driveway, pointed out, so that they could unload on a dolly and roll it right back into the back of the trailer. Tommy had already loaded the other enclosed trailer with their ATVs, reloading equipment and generators, as well as a myriad of other goods the typical prepper would never leave home without.

While the retreat already contained all of these supplies and more, they always grabbed extra when they felt the need. Food has a special value all on its own. And it was better to have too much than starve by penny pinching. With these new supplies, their family could ride out any storm for another year or more. The conditions in New York were shaping up like a pressure cooker, and they could explode and overrun the containment at any time. And because they were receiving updates hourly, the situation could change in a matter of hours, not days.

Finally, well after dark, they finished loading their trailers and secured them with heavy locks. Their checklists complete, except for their personal items that would be thrown in in the morning, they sat in the living room and watched the news from New York.

“We take you now to the Center for Disease Control headquarters in New Jersey,” the news announcer stated as the picture changed to an office setting. Suddenly, a man appeared and walked up to the microphone.

“I would like to read you a prepared statement from the CDC. Today, we heard a number of confirmed reports that this outbreak had surfaced in a number of countries besides the United States. Germany, Spain, Italy, and Great Britain have also been seeing infected and climbing death rates over the last week. This information had been withheld so as not to frighten the public. But, they can no longer do so.

“The President has sent medical teams and supplies to assist our friends across the world during this time of need. And it is hoped that this current outbreak will start to decline soon.

“The situation in New York is contained, and the death rate is starting to level off. This is always a good sign that we have seen the worst of it and that our efforts to control the spread are showing positive results. So, we ask the public to stay indoors and off the streets. The condition of martial law is still in effect and you will be arrested at any time you are found outside your homes.” The speaker refused any questions and quickly left the room. Alex looked at his wife and son and said, “They have lost control.”

They all bowed their heads and prayed for their safety, the friends and family spread across the world, and the citizens of New York City on this day of sadness.