Chapter 2

He left me and my luggage at the curb and went to retrieve his car. I had to smile when he pulled up in a pristine 1956 Ford Crown Victoria; straight out of my past, straight out of police service, and straight back up out of the quicksand in the old movie Psycho. I loved it.

Helping me in, he apologized, “I’m sorry for the old piece of junk, but my dad left it to me, and it’s all I have of him. It starts and stops and everything.”

So the boy came home with me and pulled into my three-car garage next to my old house. He parked it perfectly between my old pirate ship—well, it’s just a weird car I use in parades—and my good car, which even I’m afraid to drive sometimes for fear it will get damaged. After gaping from one to the other for a while, he carried my luggage upstairs. He boosted me up also, step by step. He helped me organize some food and fed the cats. I showed him the spare rooms, and he picked one that had a view over the Olympic Peninsula with the Olympic Mountains in the distance.

The next two days, he spent taking care of me, cleaning my house, cooking meals, playing with the cats, showering, and walking around nearly naked. Then we both came down with something, sneezing and wheezing and having headaches. The next morning, we were fine. When he brought the paper in, however, he had a puzzled look on his face, which looked very white.

“Dad,” he said, our little joke amusing both of us. “Look. Isn’t this that woman from the plane?” He showed me the front page. “She’s dead! I have a bad feeling about this. Do you mind if I turn on the television?”

“Go ahead,” I said, taking the paper, sliding my glasses closer to my eyes, and starting to read. She and her whole household had been found dead in her home, quite blue in color, and blood everywhere. Even the dog was dead.

After hunching over the TV for a while, Burk came over and knelt beside me. “Do you mind if I go out? I want to get some groceries.” He looked so troubled, and I just let it go. I handed him my charge card.

After he left, I went into my den and fired up my computer. I had a laptop as well and hooked that up, and got both set up and ready to be used.

I ended up falling asleep at my desk. I didn’t hear the boy come back. I don’t mean boyliterally, by the way. He had told me he was twenty-four, but at my age, that’s still a boy. It was part of our little joke, along the lines of, “Who’s your daddy?” that I mentioned earlier. I’d actually always wanted a son, but I detested small children.

He cooked supper, cleaned up, and joined me in the den. I set him up at the laptop, and we both proceeded to veg out.

Only a few minutes later, Burk said, “Oh, my God! Bruce, look!”

I didn’t have to. I’d seen the same news article: plague had broken out in Seattle. A new form, one that had only ever been seen before in a couple of far-off countries, carried by monkeys, and now, apparently, able to infect humans and dogs. I stared at photos of blue-tinged monkeys and blue-tinged people, all dead.

Our two computers made the news broadcasts in stereo, filling our small room with fear. “This plague, currently called D Six, spreads rapidly through air, body fluids, or bites. Fleas can carry it, as well as rats, dogs, and monkeys. Humans show symptoms as early as two days after infection and are contagious for, well, up until two days after death, apparently. Or longer. We just don’t know yet. The CDC says it’s jumped to major cities in California, Oregon, Hawaii, and Japan, all through air travel. The first victim travelled here with her dog, which was probably the vector of the disease. It’s too soon to guess at the mortality rate, but it’s believed to be similar or worse to the Black Plague from medieval times, possibly between ninety and ninety-eight percent.”

Burk and I exchanged looks of horror.

“Humans who contract the disease usually die within two days of the onset of symptoms, with bloody saliva and bleeding from other body orifices. All the victims turn a bilious shade of blue. If the person does not develop those symptoms, then they will, in all probability, survive.”

“This makes me so want to check all my body orifices, you know?” I muttered, with a feeble attempt at humor.

Burk just raised one eyebrow and shook his head. “I read a book about this sort of thing happening, well, several books. I wonder how much will be the same?” Tears were dripping down his cheeks now. “All my friends, my family, all those people on the plane. When I went shopping, it was like nobody knew anything yet, yadda yadda, business as usual. Except for a few others like me, who were doing the same thing I was: bottled water, camping supplies, water purification tablets, face masks, and toilet paper.2

“I went back and bought a huge supply of cat food. After that’s gone, they’ll be on their own, but there will be lots of rats and mice and…I’m so sorry. Here I am supposed to be taking care of you, and I’m falling apart with the what-ifs and worst-case scenarios. I’m scared, Bruce.”

“So am I, son. Come here.”

We both needed that hug.