Sympatico Syndrome (Book 1): Infection (A Pandemic Survival Novel) (4 page)

“They tried that. Did you see on the news how the sailors on the base on Aislado were confined to quarters? It didn’t work. Not only didn’t it work, but the virus has spread to all corners of the globe by now. What they should have done was close the airports at the very first sign of infection, and even then, that might not have helped. How do you screen for a disease that has few symptoms until the victim drops dead?”

Sean finally had something to offer. “Anyone who seems extremely chatty could be quarantined if that’s the only sign.”

Cole shook his head. “Too many false positives. Lots of people are chatty—especially when they’re nervous.”

“Okay, Cole, so you’ve given us an overview,” Jenna waved at the diagram, which Cole had stopped working on, “but what kind of mortality rate are we looking at? Ten percent? Twenty?”

“I don’t know for certain, but from what I learned, it’s closer to ninety-eight.”

“
Percent?
” Even Sean knew that was bad. Worse, it was awful.

Cole gave him a grim nod.

“Shouldn’t you be doing something about it? Calling to see if you can help manage the crisis? Hell, Cole, I know you’re not in the reserves anymore, but this is an emergency!”

Pain and guilt flashed in Cole’s eyes. “I wanted to help. I told Elly that as soon as I saw that my family was safe, I’d call and do whatever they needed. She said it was too late, and basically, to save our own skin. That my job was to survive.” A muscle jumped in Cole’s jaw.

It was the pain and guilt that convinced Sean. One reason Cole had retired was he had felt useless as he’d watched so many people die in West Africa. One night, the two of them had gone out for drinks. It was the Saturday after Hunter had left for college and Cole had seemed a bit lost. They’d ended up getting hammered, and it was only then that Sean had learned the scope of what Cole had seen. He’d spoken of whole families wiped out by Ebola. He’d been haunted by the sight of children orphaned and then left to fend for themselves out of fear that they harbored the disease. Some villages deep in the forest had lost half of their population.

The free flow of alcohol that evening had weakened the barriers Cole erected to deal with his emotions. He’d blinked back tears as he’d confessed his feeling of helplessness in the face of such suffering. Not used to seeing his stoic brother so emotional, despite the several shots he’d downed, Sean knew he’d never forget the stricken expression in his brother’s eyes. Cole wore the same look now, and it sent a bolt of pure fear straight through Sean.

“What do we need to do?”

Jenna gave Sean a look of surprise, and opened her mouth as if to question him, but as her eyes searched his face, she blanched and closed her mouth. With a deep breath, she nodded.

“Yes, Cole. Tell us what your plan is?” Jenna got another pad of paper from the drawer along with another pen. She sat down at the table, pen poised.

Sean slid onto a chair, his thoughts not nearly as organized as Jenna’s. Fear for his family was foremost in his mind. Piper and Trent were only teenagers. He had to do whatever he could to keep them safe.

Cole looked at both of them for a moment as if judging whether they truly believed him, and then he began outlining his plan for using the island Uncle John had left him. Sean had remembered wondering what in the world Cole was going to do with an island in a lake in the middle of the Northwoods. Sure, it would be good for the occasional fishing trip, but maintaining it for an occasional fishing trip seemed like a huge expense. It would be cheaper to just take a fishing trip once or twice a year.

Sean had even felt guilty that he’d received the beautiful house in town and wondered why Uncle John hadn’t given Cole the ‘good’ property—especially since Cole’s new career was flipping houses. He would have loved fixing up Uncle John’s house and selling it for a profit. It wasn’t in bad shape, but could use some updating.

From Sean’s fuzzy recollection of the island and the resort, he thought it might work, short term. The cabins had been pretty barebones even to a young kid. He couldn’t imagine what they looked like now, over thirty years later. Were they even still standing?

He voiced his fears to Cole. “What if we get there and no buildings are habitable?”

Cole nodded. “I know. I was worried about that too so I dug out the information I received on the property. There’s at least a main house that should be fine. Uncle John stayed there as recently as three months before he died, according to the electric bills, so it couldn’t be that bad. As to the rest of the buildings, they’re listed in the will they’re still standing, but your guess is as good as mine as to what shape they’re in. I guess we should include some building supplies to bring with us.”

“I can take some lumber in my work truck. Jenna, you’ll have to follow me in your car. We need to bring as much as we can.”

Cole agreed. “Do you think Piper can drive my car? I’m going to get a rental truck to get as much as we can to the island. I’m heading out to get more supplies when I leave here. I don’t think we’ll be able to transport it all in our own vehicles.”

“Just how much do you think we’ll need?”

“I asked Elly how long we should plan for, and she wasn’t sure. Anywhere from a month to six months.” Cole leveled a look at Sean, his expression bleak. “I think we should be prepared to be on our own even longer.”

“Jesus.” Sean swiped a hand down his face as he tried to envision the world as Cole was predicting it. “I hope you’re wrong, Cole.”

“Me too.” Cole took a deep breath. “But if I am wrong, and believe me, I hope I am, if you guys join Hunter and me on the island, you may end up losing your job.” He looked at Jenna, then at Sean, “Or your business. While I would never intentionally mislead you, with such high stakes, you have to know that I can’t see the future. I’m going by my colleague’s advice and supplementing it with what I’ve learned from listening to the news. Even though there isn’t nearly as much as there should be, I suspect what we’re hearing on the news is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s so much going on beneath the surface that either the media hasn’t learned what’s really going on yet, or they have, and they’re making their own escape plans and not letting the general public in on it yet.”

“
N
ow that we
have a basic plan, I need to call Hunter back. I have him sitting tight in his dorm. I told him to pack, but who knows if he really did.” Cole pulled out his cell phone and got up from the kitchen table. Sean and Jenna exchanged a look, and he knew they were thinking about their own kids and how to break the news to them.

“Hey, it’s me.” Cole dragged in a deep breath. “Remember when I said I had news to discuss with you?”

“Is it about that disease? Sympa—sym something?”

“Yes, Sympatico Syndrome. Remember Elly Jackson? From my Ebola mission?”

“Yeah. The one you had the hots for?”

“
The hots
…?” Cole shook his head. Now wasn’t the time. “Anyway, she called me to give me some inside information. The situation is grave. The news isn’t giving the whole truth, or maybe they don’t know it, but Elly is confident this is going to be devastating and wants us to take precautions. That’s why I said you were a genius. I didn’t know where to go to isolate ourselves, but you gave me the idea of using the island. It’s far enough out in the lake from what I recall that the only way to get to it is by boat.”

“What about school? What if it turns out to be nothing? I have finals coming up, and I can’t afford to miss them.”

“Forget school. If Elly’s wrong, we’ll figure out where to go from there. Your safety and health are more important.” Cole couldn’t believe he was basically advising his son to drop out of school.

“Okay, but what should I do now? I packed like you told me. Am I flying home?” There was a hint of fear in Hunter’s voice, as though he was trying to mask it.

“No. It’s too dangerous. There’s no way to know if the other passengers are contagious. You’ll have to drive.”

“Drive? Alone? Won’t that take me days to get there?”

“Two days if you only stop to sleep and go to the bathroom.”

“Okay.” There was a pause, then Hunter asked, “Dad, what if I catch it?”

“Listen to me, Hunter. This is scary, but you’ll be okay. I’m sure I’m just over-thinking this. It was my job to predict worse case scenarios, remember?” Cole spoke in his calmest voice and glanced at Sean and Jenna. They looked as worried as he felt.

“But, here’s what I want you to do. Go to the nearest ATM and use the credit card I gave you for emergencies. Get a cash advance. Whatever the limit is. Then get yourself some supplies. Water, hand sanitizer, masks, gloves. Food you can eat in the car. That kind of thing. Be low-key. Don’t act panicked. If you can, go to a few different drug stores for those items, buying gloves at one store and masks at another. Try a hardware store for masks. They carry respiratory masks that filter out pretty much everything. Forget about those flimsy paper masks.” He paused. “Are you still there, Hunter?”

“Yeah, just writing it all down.” He sounded scared but calm.

“Good. Don’t freak out. I’m probably way over thinking this and next week we’ll laugh over this.”

Hunter chuckled. “I sure hope so.”

“Hey, while you’re at it, get some camping gear. Heavy duty stuff. Use the card. If there really is an epidemic, the safest place you can be is out in the country, some rural location away from other people. Do you have those portable battery chargers? I gave you one for Christmas.”

“Yeah. Have it right here. I’ll charge it up.”

“Good. Get a couple more at least, to keep your phone charged. Hell, get a solar charger if you can find one.”

“You know all of this is gonna cost a fortune, right? You’re not going to get pissed off when the bill comes, are you?”

“No. It’s okay. I’ll deal with the bills later. Besides, we can always use the camping gear out on the island. There are woods set away from the lake and it would be fun to camp there.” He tried to make it sound like that was the real reason he wanted the camping gear, but his mind was whirling. What if there was a panic before Hunter reached home? What if the trip became dangerous? He wanted his son to have some kind of protection and food in case of an unforeseen event.

“Is this all I should get?”

“Food. Get food. Stuff that doesn’t spoil. Beef jerky, granola bars, water purification tablets. They’ll have those at the same place you get the camping gear. Those packs of tuna. That kind of thing. Powdered milk. And a camp stove.”

“You know you’re kind of freaking me out. All of this for a two-day drive?”

“Like I said, I’m over-thinking. I want you to be prepared for anything, and we can always use the supplies on the island.” Cole heard a faint beep on Hunter’s end.

“Word must be getting out, Dad.”

“Why, are others leaving too?”

“No, but this is the third ‘End of the World’ party I’ve been invited to.”

Cole groaned. “Well, for god’s sake, don’t go.”

“No, I won’t, but it figures I finally don’t have to study, and I still can’t accept the invitations.” He chuckled, and Cole heard his valiant attempt to act like he wasn’t scared. Cole blinked hard and turned his back to Sean and Jenna. “Okay. Well, I’m going to head out and get some supplies too. If you have any trouble, call me. I’ll text you directions on how to get to Uncle John’s island.”

“Okay, Dad. I’ll see you soon.”

C
ole left
Sean’s house and headed to a gun shop. He wanted a shotgun and another hunting rifle, plus as much ammunition for them that he could get. It had taken longer than he expected because the shop had been busy.

As Cole listened in on some of the conversations, and it sounded like most of the people there had the same idea he did—to bug out until the crisis was over. While he was glad people were taking precautions, it made him anxious that he could get enough food to last them for six months or longer. What if everyone was thinking the same way?

He called his brother when he finished getting the guns. “Hey, Sean, it seems like the word is leaking out somehow or people are reading between the lines. The gun shop was packed. I think we need to leave tomorrow. I’m heading to the store now to get as much food as I can, but I think it would be a good idea if either you or Jenna made a trip to the store. Probably Jenna. She’ll know what we need.”

“Yeah, she left for the warehouse store on the west side of town. We’re packing stuff here.”

“How did the kids take it?”

Sean sighed. “Trent is a little scared, but he thinks it’s kind of cool too. Like we’re going on a camping vacation. Piper was quieter, but she’s pretty scared. She’s up in her room packing clothes right now.”

Cole stopped at a light as he waited to turn into the Walmart parking lot. He pinched the bridge of his nose.
Poor kids
. He didn’t have any words of comfort so he told Sean to pack up as much as they could today, focusing on clothes, non-perishable food, kitchen items like pots, pans, and utensils—anything they had that didn’t require electricity. He didn’t know if the island had any right now. Even if the island was fully powered, if the infrastructure broke down, which it could if enough people died, the grids might go down. His first priority was to get several generators. He was hoping he’d be able to get fuel for them, but that was a problem for later.

“I’m at Walmart now. I’ll call you later.”

Cole sat in the parking lot, gauging the people going in and out of the store. After leaving the gun shop and driving across town, he’d listened to the news on the radio. The death toll had risen to over eight-hundred already, but it was confined, so far, to four cities—and it was confirmed that at least some of the initial victims had flown in from San Diego in the last few days. Unfortunately, one of the cities was Chicago.

Even though Cole was closer to Milwaukee, he knew that ninety miles separating the two cities were pretty much negligible. He debated wearing one of his painter’s masks into the Walmart. He still wore the clothes he’d intended to wear to paint a house he was working on, but Elly’s call had canceled those plans. He kept this pair specifically for painting in and few splotches of green paint decorated the old jeans. He reached into the back seat and found the box of masks, and slipped one on, but let it dangle around his neck for now. He could pull this off without causing too much of a stir.

As Cole walked towards the door of the store, he lifted the mask from his neck and started to settle it over his nose and mouth. This was Walmart, after all, and there were internet memes about the crazies who shopped there. Wearing a mask shouldn’t even raise an eyebrow. But then he thought about it. They might take him for a robber, so he left the mask dangling again and used one of the anti-microbial wipes near the front door of the store to thoroughly wipe down his shopping cart.

While swabbing the handle, he created mental lists of what they’d need for an extended stay on the island. He prayed it wouldn’t be more than a month or two, and even more, he prayed that he was wrong. If he were mistaken, Sean and Jenna would be out of jobs. His brother’s business would likely be ruined, and Jenna would be fired from the hospital. Granted, as a nurse, she’d probably be able to find another job, but her references would be shot. He’d do whatever he could to build Sean’s business back up, but it would be tough. The weight of the responsibility threatened to crush his resolve.

What if Elly was wrong? What if
his
hunches were garbage? Hunter was in college, and he’d probably fail since he’d miss the last three weeks, including finals. Cole pushed that from his mind. So, it was a wasted semester. They could deal with that and Hunter could make it up eventually.

As he pushed the cart through the store, he found that the crowd he’d expected wasn’t there. Sure, there were other people, but fewer than on an average day at this time. Maybe people’s first instincts were to just hunker down at home for a few days? If that was the case, he was grateful for it because it meant less chance of coming into contact with someone who might be harboring the virus. He found himself in the food area of the store and loaded flour and sugar, salt, spices, bags of cornmeal, quinoa, rice, and dried lentils to the cart. He added four large boxes of baking soda, baking powder, cornstarch, and vanilla, cleaned off the shelf of bags walnuts, peanuts, and pecans. He put gallons of cooking oil on the bottom of the cart, hoping they wouldn’t fall off as he pushed the cart to another aisle.

He was glad for his great credit because he didn’t have to worry about cost too much. He had a feeling the bills would never arrive. If they did, it would be a cause for celebration.

The food cart was brimming once he added cans of fruits, vegetables, and as much tuna and salmon as he could find. He parked it in an empty aisle near the underwear and socks, hoping it would remain untouched until he finished getting other supplies. Leaving the cart, he took his second one and headed towards the camping section.

He tallied the projected cost and gave a low whistle. He’d barely even begun and was already hundreds of dollars down.

What would people who didn’t have cash on hand do? Or if they had crappy credit? Then he realized that most wouldn’t be able to stock up on anything because once everyone realized what was happening, riots would break out and looting would run rampant.
Shit.
He stopped dead in the middle of the aisle as the gravity of the situation slammed into him, nearly buckling his knees. He gripped the blue handle of the cart, his knuckles blanching.

Fluffy towels in every color of the rainbow lay stacked on tables on one side of the aisle, and fragrant candles were displayed on endcaps on the other side. Cole swallowed hard and fought to make his legs work again. The soft clink of glass candle holders drew his gaze to an employee with a cart full of more candles. The young man arranged them on shelves as if it mattered. The scent of pine, vanilla, and some sweet flowery aroma warred with the taste of bile in the back of Cole’s throat.

Had today been the last normal day of his life? Of
everyone’s
lives? Every customer and employee he passed became a future casualty. He mourned them even as they chatted and laughed while they shopped or worked.

He shook his head.
Focus
. Cole pried his hands from the handle, gave them a shake, flexing his fingers, then re-gripped the handle, pushing his fear into the recesses of his mind, locking it away until safety and survival were secured. He didn’t have time to give in to fear now. Not if he wanted to save his family. As he passed the shelf of candles, he piled candles of all colors and scents into the cart. The guy stocking them raised an eyebrow at Cole. He ignored him and added several boxes of tapers on top of the jar candles.

In the camping supply area, he selected tarps, most of the mosquito repellent on the shelf, and water purification tablets in case he couldn’t get the well working if the power went out. At least they’d be surrounded by plenty of water in the lake. He added four of the best axes on the shelf. If they had to spend the winter there, they’d need plenty of wood. An assortment of utility knives went into the cart, ropes, stakes, netting, and then he came to the tents. The island had cabins, but he didn’t know what kind of shape they were in. He might not get a chance to acquire a good tent, so he bought two. One for him and Hunter, and one for Sean’s family.

After grabbing six lanterns, five flashlights, including a couple of crank varieties, extra bulbs, and batteries, he got kerosene for the lamps, Googled the supplies needed for a solar oven, then bought enough for three. His cart full, he found an empty cart in an aisle, and not seeing anyone around who seemed to be using it, claimed it for his own, dragging the full cart behind him as he filled the third cart.

Cole already had cast iron pans, but didn’t know if Sean did, so he got several frying pans and a big Dutch oven. He went to the fishing aisle and added poles, lures, nets, and weights. He added a couple of filleting knives, and other items he thought might come in handy.

With the cart rapidly filling, he knew he’d have to check out soon, but he spied the inflatable rafts and realized how handy those could be. He could even tow some of the supplies out to the island in the rafts if he had to. He bought two, and an electric pump to inflate it. Thinking about a power issue, he found a hand pump too, and several patch kits, adding that to the mix. That made him think about duct tape, and soon, he had a dozen rolls, along with various tubes of glue and caulk.