Prepper's Sacrifice (7 page)

‘Alright, man. But I gotta ask, you’re not sick or anything, are you?’

‘Nah. I’ve been pretty darn careful. Not many people come back from this thing and with the hospitals full and all, I’m not about to take any chances.’

‘Alrighty. But don’t be offended if we check your temperature before you’re allowed in. We just gotta be as safe as possible.’

‘Not at all. I completely understand. Thank you, man. I really, really appreciate it.’

‘When should I expect you?’

‘I’d say in a half an hour or so if that’s convenient for you. I mean, with no traffic on the road I can be there pretty quickly, and to be honest, I’d rather get there and back before it gets too dark out.’

‘Sounds good. How many cans are you looking at having?’

‘As many as you can spare, buddy’ Tim replied.

Once their phone call was over, Stewart turned to Anne. ‘We got a couple of cans of food to spare?’

‘We sure won’t be starving if we give up a few, will we?’

‘Nope,’ he replied.

Stewart observed the look on his wife’s face. It was one of pride; pride that her husband had lost his tough exterior and was willing to help. Stewart knew that if it weren’t for her, he’d be more inclined to say ‘no’. In fact, if it weren’t for her, Tim wouldn’t have the slightest clue about their stockpile.

‘Wanna help?’ Stewart asked before making his way to the pantry. ‘Oh, and where have you put tampons?'

‘I’ll get the tampons and then I'll come find you.’

Stewart turned to the pantry while Anne practically sprinted upstairs.

Looking at the pantry, Stewart felt proud. He and Anne had managed to build something great, something that prevented them from having to worry about food and supplies in such trying times. A part of him was happy that Tim had phoned; happy that he’d be able to help. However, a greater part of him was scared that he’d somehow contaminate his home by allowing someone from the outside to make his way in. He quickly pushed this thought to the back of his head. On the phone, Tim had sounded healthy and just as energetic as ever. Tim had sounded wise, like he was no longer taking life and all the scary things it had to offer for a joke. Surely having some company, even if it were only for a short time, wouldn’t be such a bad thing. He and Anne hadn’t spoken to anyone in person for a while.

Less than two minutes later, Anne joined Stewart in the pantry. In her right hand sat a pack of tampons.

‘These ought to get Tim’s lady through a month or two,’ she said to Stewart.

‘If you say so. I don’t really know how those things work,’ he replied with a smile.

Anne placed the pack of tampons on the floor before taking a look at the list they had pinned to the wall in the pantry. ‘Okay. So, I’m thinking we should go through the list rather than looking at the shelves. That way, we’ll know just how much of each item we have without having to count them. It’ll make it easier to determine what we can give up without feeling the pressure.’

‘Not a bad idea,’ Stewart agreed. ‘I was thinking, though. What about those oddball items that you bought. Think we should toss two Snickers bars in there?’

‘That’s definitely a nice thought.’

Together, they went through the list, finally deciding on the items they would give to Tim.

‘Three cans of tuna, two cans of corned beef, a can of Spam and a can of beans, sound good?’ Stewart asked.

‘Sounds great. Will you get the Snickers from back there?’ She pointed to a box to his left. ‘I’m gonna go get a bag to put all this in.’

Stewart did as his wife said, plopping the top off the plastic storage box and taking out two Snicker bars. He then turned to the shelf where he got the items he had planned on giving to Tim.  Moments later, Anne returned with a bag in her hand. She tossed the box of tampons in before handing the bag to Stewart to pack the rest of the items. Once he was done, he joined Anne, who was now in the living room, lounged out on the sofa.

‘How long will he be?’ Anne asked.

‘Probably another fifteen minutes or so. I’ve got to remove the ply from the door though so he can get in.’

‘Why don’t you just have him climb in through the quarantine room?’ Anne asked.

‘That’s not a bad idea at all,’ Stewart replied.

Having solved how Tim would enter the room, Stewart took the time to sneak a few minutes of cuddling in with his wife. He could see that the entire time Anne sat there, she had thoughts running through her head.

‘What it is?’ he asked.

‘I was just wondering if we shouldn’t have prepared something for him to eat. I mean, if they’re running low on food, the least we could do is offer them a warm meal while they were here.’

‘He doesn’t want to stay too long though.’ Stewart responded. ‘Says he wants to get back home before it starts to get dark.’

‘Yeah, that makes sense.’

Just as Stewart relaxed, the doorbell rang. ‘That must be him.’ Stewart jumped from the couch.

‘Would assume so,’ Anne replied.

To the front door Stewart went, informing Tim that he’d have to walk to the side of the house in order to get in. It didn’t seem as though Tim could understand what he was saying and thus, Stewart decided to head upstairs rather than to continue yelling through a ply fitted door.

‘Up here, Tim,’ he yelled from the window.

‘Are you serious?’ Tim replied. ‘You must think I’m Spiderman or something. How do expect me to climb up the wall?’

‘I’m gonna put a ladder. Hold up a minute.’

Stewart retrieved the ladder from the side of the room, in the position he placed it when he had set up the quarantine room. Struggling a bit, he managed to get the ladder out the window and open it up long enough for Tim to climb up with ease.

‘Gosh. That’s like a workout,’ Tim said, carefully pulling himself through the window.

‘I dunno.’ Stewart laughed. ‘I haven’t had to use it and hope I’ll never have to. Okay, so, clean your hands up with this, real fast,’ he said, pumping hand sanitizer into Tim’s hand.

‘Man, you really went all out, didn’t you?’

‘You could say so,’ Stewart agreed.

Tim washed his hands with the hand sanitizer before leaning forward and allowing Stewart to take his temperature. Everything checked out and Stewart felt a sense of relief fall over him. They both headed down the stairs where they were greeted by Anne who had the plastic bag in her hand.

‘Oh shoot. We probably, should have taken the ladder in, don’t you think?’  Stewart panicked.

‘I didn’t see anyone outside in the neighborhood,’ Tim said. ‘Plus, I ought to head back right away.’

‘Here you go, Tim,’ Anne tried to hand him the plastic bag.

Instead of taking it in the first instance, Tim wrapped his arms around her and squeezed tightly. ‘It’s so good to see you Anne. You look well.’

Stewart was puzzled as to why Tim was so
happy
to see his wife and the redness that flashed across his face made this evident.

‘Oh buddy, I’m happy to see you too.’ Tim turned to Stewart. 'It’s just that I’ve never pegged you as the hugging kind. But if you’re jealous, I’d be happy to…’

Stewart reached forward and patted Tim on the back. ‘Maybe another day,’ he said.

‘But Stewy, I’ve got to say, I really can’t thank you enough.’

Stewart and Anne both watched as Tim reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of cash.

‘Tim!’ Anne exclaimed as he tried to hand the cash to Stewart.

Stewart froze. ‘What am I supposed to do, take how much I think I deserve?’

‘This is how much you deserve,’ Tim replied, forcing the cash into Stewart’s hand. ‘In fact, you deserve much much more than this. You know how many people are out there starving? How many people who won’t be able to eat tonight because they haven’t got a buddy like you who’s willing to do this for them? I’ll be forever grateful to you, to you both.’

Anne’s eyes welled with tears and she threw her arms around both men and pulled them together for a group hug. ‘We’re all going to be just fine. Before we know it, this thing will blow over and when it does, you’ve got to come back and have dinner with us.’

‘I will,’ Tim promised. ‘Okay guys, as much as I’d love to stay here and be treated awesomely by you both, I’ve got to head back.’

‘I’ll follow you upstairs and get things locked up.’ Stewart said before making his way behind Tim up the stairs.

Anne also joined the men upstairs. ‘Bye Tim. Be safe,’ she said as he disappeared through the window.

Stewart, watched as Tim carefully made is way down the ladder, jumping from the last few steps and landing on his feet. Rather than just shutting out the world at this point, he kept his head out the window, taking in the fresh air and seeing that Tim made it to his car.

‘That was quick, ‘Anne said when Stewart finally pulled himself back inside.

‘Yeah, told you it wouldn’t have made sense to offer him something to eat. He really wanted to get going. It’s good to see that he’s taking everything seriously.'

‘Good but sad,’ Anne added. ‘I mean, to see someone who’s always so optimistic lose their spark really isn’t that heartwarming.'

Stewart nodded. Though Anne wasn’t walking around the house pouting, it surely was different to see her get used to the idea of staying home all day, every day. He knew just how much she enjoyed going to work; how much she enjoyed chit-chatting with her friends and coworkers. Now the only person she had to talk to was Stewart. She could call her friends and have a nice round of conversation on the telephone. In fact, Stewart had encouraged her to do just that. However, after hearing one sad story after the other and having each conversation she had circled with talks of Ebola, Anne had told Stewart that she’d rather cut down on the phone calls. Stewart couldn’t recall the last time Anne had picked up the phone and contacted her friends. One night, he’d even thought about drop calling, Maria, the coworker Anne was the fond of. Maybe if he did that, Maria would call back and Anne would be happy to hear from her. Unfortunately, he knew that his wife was right and that the only thing anyone wanted to talk about these days was Ebola. There was no way around it. The virus was spreading like wildfire.

For a minute, Stewart imagined what things would be like without Anne. He wondered how alone he’d feel if he’d kept to his lonesome all these years; if he’d never married. It wasn’t a thought that was too farfetched. Anne was like a miracle. She’d walked into his life when he least expected it. Though prior to her arrival, he’d pretty much had his eyes closed to women, she pried them open simply by being herself. However, if that one day, so long ago had been erased, he’d probably be scratching at the walls, wishing for someone to save him from himself. Luckily, he didn’t have to do that. Because of Anne, he didn’t feel as though he was in solitary confinement. He felt trapped, they both did, but at least they were trapped together.

In college, he’d always laughed at the thought of being married. He found it to be pretentious, a waste of money. Now, he could clearly see how it made sense. Marriage made him happy. Being able to call Anne his own, forever and for always, made him feel whole.

‘Have I ever told you just how perfect you are?’ he turned to Anne, who was lounged out on the sofa and looked as though she was about to drift away into dreamland.

Anne propped herself up, rubbed her eyes and said to Stewart, who was sitting below her, in front of the sofa, ‘Have I ever told you just how perfect you make me feel?’

She pressed her lips against his and they engaged in a kiss that seemed to go on forever; a kiss that was filled with more passion, more emotion than could be measured.

Chapter 9

Three months later

For the fifth night in a row, Stewart and Anne woke to their doorbell ringing followed by thunderous thumps on their front door, and the occasional undecipherable plea. For the fifth night in a row, they ignored the commotion. No one had tried to break in; ignoring it all seemed to have worked. With 10 out of every 1000 people in Fort Lauderdale infected with the Ebola virus, they thought it wise to pretend they didn’t hear it all; to refrain from seeing what the banging was all about. But the more it happened, the more it made Stewart feel inhumane and the more he had to deal with Anne’s puppy dog eyes- the eyes that told him that he was the only reason she wasn’t answering the cries.

Stewart looked over to his wife who sat upright in the bed. Even in the darkness, he could see her eyes widen with each fist that made contact with the beautiful mahogany of their front door. He hated that look.

‘Maybe we ought to do something.’ He turned to Anne.

Her head whipped around, and she was now facing him. ‘Do something?’

‘Yeah, like help them out. Maybe not tonight, but we could talk about it in the morning and see what we come up with.’

He could hear the joy build in Anne’s voice. ‘I guess that’s a good idea. I mean, if you think it’ll be safe.’

The banging had stopped, like Stewart knew it was bound to. No one ever stayed for too long. He assumed whoever it was went from house to house and seeing that they didn’t answer, it was on to the next one.

He slithered his way under the blanket, pulling it up over the nape of his neck.

‘Stewy,’ came his wife’s voice.

‘Anne,’ he replied.

‘I don’t think I can go back to sleep just yet. It’s always so hard for me to get the banging out of my head. Do you mind if we talk about it now… talk about what we could do to help.’

Stewart sat up in the bed again. ‘Okay. Well, I was thinking, the CDC claims that they’re close to a cure, and as inclined as I am not to believe them, I’m willing to think it has to be true. I mean, I’ve been filling my head with these conspiracy stories and stuff, thinking it’s all a form of population control, but seeing as so many prominent people have died, I’d be stupid to think the CDC wasn’t trying everything in its power to eliminate the virus.’

Even in the darkness, he was sure that he saw Anne’s head bobbling and so to get a better look at her, he flicked on the lamp beside his bed.

Stewart continued, ‘So, we’ve still got our stockpile and with the way we’ve been rationing our food, it could last us for over a year. If by this time, society isn’t back in order, food isn’t what’s going to save us.’

‘That’s grim, Stewy,’ Anne chimed in.

‘No, I’m not trying to sound grim. All I’m saying is that I don’t think it’s gonna take over a year for them to rectify the situation and so, we really do have the supplies to spare.’

‘So we’d just start handing out stuff to whoever comes by. I mean, as nice as that sounds, it’ll do more harm than good. Remember…’

‘Yes… I know, the first rule of prepping, never broadcast your supplies. Plus, I know what you’re thinking. If we give to one, then we’ve got to give to all. We’ll have a whole bunch of people showing up just because the
heard
that our house is the place to go if you want stuff and before you know it, we’re in too deep and have nothing for ourselves.’

‘Exactly. So how would you solve that problem?’

‘It’s actually not as hard as you may think. Not that I’m saying it’ll solve all the problems that come with introducing our stockpile to the public, but it’ll solve a few of them. We’ve got to treat this thing like a business.’

‘That sounds even worse than just hiding away.’

‘It’s really not though. The idea, in a way, stems from when Tim came by. It’s just basically going a bit more extreme than only offering the bartering items, like snickers and such, that you collected.’

‘Oh, that’s brilliant.’ Anne smiled. ‘So it’ll be like opening up our very own grocery store, except it’ll been in our home and well, we won’t be getting cash for it.’

Stewart was happy, but not surprised to see that Anne was all for the idea. ‘Exactly so,’ he agreed. ‘However, we’ll need to do quite a bit of handling in terms of dealing with everyone in the proper way, ensuring that we’re safe at all times. And of course, I’d rather not have anything going on at night.’

‘Makes sense,’ Anne concurred, ‘it’s not like we’ve got that much lighting in the front yard. Plus, bad things always seem to happen and night. Though, thank God, we haven’t had to deal with anything outside of people ringing our doorbell.’

‘The only thing that bothers me a bit is having to deal with people who are sick. I mean, I’d feel bad having to turn them away, but how I see it, it’ll be for everyone’s benefit.’

‘I’m not sure we’d have many sick people coming around though. Based on how traumatizing they make the symptoms sound, it’s unlikely that the sick will be in good enough condition to start roaming around looking for supplies.’

Stewart didn’t quite agree with this. He was a true believer of ‘desperate times call for desperate measures’ and he knew that in the height of sickness even the weakest can muster up the strength to get what they need and this wouldn’t prevent them from showing up at his home. ‘Partially, maybe,’ he said to Anne. ‘What you’ve got to look at is the fact that the initial symptoms won’t be that bad and so it’s likely that we’ll come across a few if we decide to go through with this.’

‘But how do we handle that? Would it make sense to start taking temperatures before anyone’s offered service?’

‘That’s what I was thinking. Perhaps before they’re able to get to through the first fence, I can stand out there and do temperature checks.’

‘I dunno, Stewy. That sounds a little hectic. And who’s to say that while you’re checking temperatures, everyone won’t just rush in?’

‘Tim.’

‘Tim?’ Anne said startled.

‘Yeah, maybe we could get him to help out. I’m assuming that he’s low on supplies. It’s been a while since we heard from him but that’s probably just because he feels bad asking for our help again. We could offer him food in exchange for his assistance. Of course, we’ll want to make sure that he’s healthy to begin with, but once all that is through, I’m sure it could work. That lady that he’s been staying with, she could also pitch in too.’

‘Doesn’t sound bad.  A few extra hands definitely wouldn’t be a bad thing. I just don’t know if he’d be up for it. Having to drive here each day and all. That’s a lot of gas and it’s not like the gas stations are in full operation.’

‘We’ve got both our cars and our tanks are full. So when he’s low on gas, he can take them out. And don’t forget, we’ve also got quite a few bottles of gasoline sitting around in the garage, and spare batteries as well’

‘And when that’s all done?’

‘They could stay here, if they were up for it.’

‘Well, the first step would be to have him say yes. Wouldn’t it?’

‘Absolutely, but unless he’s happened across a container in the recent weeks, I don’t see him saying ‘no’.

‘Give him a call in the morning then.’

‘Definitely,’ Stewart agreed. ‘I’d wanna start as soon as possible. I’m thinking that if we do, we’ll be able to sleep through the nights as less people will have a need to come knocking on our door.’

‘Actually,’ Anne disagreed, ‘More people will have a need to come knocking on our door.’

‘Yes and no. If we put up a sign or something that tells them they won’t be served until morning, maybe we can push the pause button on most of ‘em.’

‘We’ll see,’ Anne said, turning to her husband and kissing him goodnight.

***

Stewart woke early the next morning after finding it hard to enjoy his slumber with the thoughts of a new bartering ring in his near future. Somehow, it felt as though he was embarking on a new business venture; that he was in a way, venturing into self-employment. Of course, he knew that there was a big difference between bartering and taking up mounts of cash to invest in a storefront. However, the similarities were there and the similarities excited him. He retrieved his cell phone from the bedside table, fumbled with it before finally getting a firm grasp and checking the time. It was a little after six. To his right, Anne lay fast asleep. Perhaps she wasn’t as excited as he was, at least not yet. He knew, however, that the moment she placed the first jar of tuna and in the hands of someone in need, she’d be over the moon. He was confident that her spirits would be lifted by being able to see the smiles on everyone’s faces and having those smiles be a result of her actions.

He pondered with the thought of calling Tim but figured that it was way too early. Though he strongly believed that Tim would be overjoyed by his proposal, he reflected on college days and the grinch
Tim could be when woken up too early.  His mind wandered to the past, to one day when he and Tim had decided that a late night study session was the only way they were going to pass the impossibly hard Accounting exam. They’d stayed up until four in the morning for an exam that started at seven. Their professor, a guy in his 70s, hated nothing more than tardiness. At a little after six, Stewart had tried with all his might to get Tim out of bed. He’d tried everything short of dousing him with a bucket of ice water. Needless to say, Tim put up a fight, and Stewart did the only thing he knew would transform Tim from sleeping beauty to springing frog: he called his mom. A stern lady with a voice that could scare Voldemort, Tim was out of bed and in dressed within a minute of hearing his mother yell about how he’d end up flipping burgers or picking gum from underneath tables. Unfortunately, the repercussions of such a move were ones that Stewart didn’t expect. Tim had played the silent card for a good week, something that Stewart hated with a passion. That’s when Stewart realized two things. The first was that Tim didn’t function without enough sleep and the second, that tatter tailing to Tim’s mom was a crime punishable with deadly silence.

Stewart decided against calling Tim but needing something to occupy his time, headed to the pantry. He knew that if they were going to start dishing out supplies, he’d need to get a bit more organized than he already was.

Stewart seated himself in the corner of the pantry, away from the door as to prevent himself from being injured if Anne made a surprise entry. He glanced around the room, trying to determine what items to tackle first. It was an overwhelming task and a part of him felt as though he should go back upstairs and request Anne’s assistance. However, he refrained from doing so, knowing that his wife could use the rest.

‘Stewy!’ Came Anne’s voice, drowned in concern.

‘Here Anne,’ he replied.

His reply wasn’t loud enough and this became evident by Anne’s continuous screams. ‘Stewy, Stewy…Oh… My… God… Stewy!’

Thinking that some serious had happened, Stewart sprung to his feet and sprinted out of the pantry. Immediately, he came across Anne, who was standing at the top of the stairs, her cheeks drenched with tears.

‘What’s the matter, honey?’ he said breathlessly.

‘Where the hell were you?’ she scolded. ‘I thought… oh my god… I thought…’

‘What’s wrong, Anne?’ Stewart asked again.

Stewart watched as Anne tried to calm herself down- replacing her panic with long breaths.

‘What is it?’

‘Oh my gosh, Stewy. Don’t you ever do that again. Do you hear me?’

‘What did I do?’ Stewart was genuinely confused. He was certain that someone had broken into their home or Anne had somehow managed to hurt herself. Never had he heard her voice filled with so much panic except maybe when she’d came home that one day thinking her coworker had Ebola. ‘Do what, Anne? You’ve got me confused.’

‘Just disappear like that.’

‘Remember what we talked about last night?’ A smile stretched across Stewart’s face.

‘Yes, of course. Have you spoken with Tim yet?’

‘No. He’s a bit of a beast early in the morning so I though I ought to wait a bit to ring him.’

‘It’s well after nine now,’ Anne informed her husband.

‘Christ! You must be kidding me. That means I’ve been down here for a good three hours. I was just trying to get some stuff sorted. Figure out what we can afford to barter.’

‘Did you get pretty far?’

‘Well, I was sorting out some rice when you lit a fire under my ass with your screaming.’

Stewart went back upstairs and retrieved his phone from the nightstand. He perched himself on the bed and thought about how to introduce the idea to Tim. He shut out all the negative thoughts that had been trying hard to flood his mind, and dialed Tim’s number. One ring. Two rings and nothing. Before the phone could ring for the third time, Stewart hung up. His mind tried to calculate how many times, on average, a person allows the phone to ring before picking up.

‘Maybe four times,’ he decided and hit the call button his cellphone. One ring. Two rings. Three rings. His heart started to beat faster and faster. Four rings and nothing. Again, Stewart hit the end button. This time, he tossed the phone down on the bed. He thought that maybe it was better not to know. Maybe if he didn’t allow the phone to ring out then he could always say that Tim’s okay and he just didn’t hear his call.