PART 1: The Outbreak
Chapter 1
The sun just barely peeked over the horizon which brought a belated dawn to the mountainous region of Pisgah. A lone red Toyota hatchback crept through a valley only to slow further from a cruising pace, yielding to town traffic up ahead. The natural surroundings abruptly interrupted by the town of Pisgah which, despite its small size, rendered a glimpse of civilization in an otherwise unspoiled region.
The family of Aaron and Brandy Vermeer were jammed into the hatchback feeling encumbered by necessities accompanied by random knickknacks. Aaron, bearded and gracefully bald white man in his thirties was offered a job in the nearby hospital and didn’t want to pass up the prospect of making decent money for his family. He raised a thick, black eyebrow and peered his deep blue eyes a moment at his wife, Brandy. She was a young petite blonde in her late twenties. She liked to wear her hair down and always crossed her arms with a listless scowl on her face. She wasn’t happy with the move, and she made her case by being silent through the whole four hour ride, save for when she wished to speak to the children.
Aaron pulled the car into the outskirts of town, only to be brought to a complete stop by a traffic jam on the main boulevard. This was not at all desirable to him, because he couldn’t help but be nervous about Brandy’s impatience stirring when she was already deeply unhappy. Car horns honked, and various individuals began sending passengers out to see what was going on. “I guess all of these people commute to and from work.” Aaron said, trying to make conversation. Brandy didn’t bite. He nodded to some semi-trucks ahead, “They seem to be local breadwinners. I guess a lot of folks ship from out of town and just came back.” Disinterested, Brandy maintained her blank stare forward.
Despite Brandy’s lack of interest, Aaron spoke for the sake of would be listeners- maybe the kids were interested. “A few factories and processing plants have been operating for a long time just around the valley, all the way up north to Brahms.” He elicited no response.
With all the silence in the car, and all the noise on the boulevard, Aaron began fidgeting with his smartphone. He unlocked the screensaver of Mel and Chris and pulled up the home page to his new employ, thinking over checking for email updates or bulletin posts:
Pikes Peak Regional Hospital- we are a new regional hospital and research center that has the dual focus of providing quality general practice, specialized clinical practices and groundbreaking gain of function research. We also have an impressive new helivac station dedicated to search and rescue throughout a vast region of the Appalachian Mountains.
Aaron clicked the history tab on the website’s homepage.
Brahms and Pisgah were once a part of the Wiltse Mining Industry which flourished during the 1850s. The industry itself had begun in Brahms’ and Ashfield’s suburban districts, and then expanded thereafter all the way from Charleston to Point Pleasant. Later, the mines ran dry of resources and labor unions spread like wildfire and broke down the old Wiltse industry until everything was reduced to ghost towns. The only remaining residents were originally retirees or factory workers. Almost a decade later the area had begun to see repopulation and settlement due to the boom in millennial development growth and cheaper real estate. Pikes Peak Regional plays a role in this repopulation, as we hope to oversee breakthroughs in research while also providing quality care for the county’s citizens.
Aaron pocketed his phone and surveyed the town. “I missed my opportunity to check out the town… the sun was down by the time I finished unpacking the Uhaul.” Brandy didn’t respond. But he could tell she was further agitated by his words. “I wonder if it’s still like I remember it…” Brandy turned to look him in the eye, sighed, and rolled her big hazel eyes. He could tell it was just a matter of time before they were going to have an argument. He didn’t like this prospect, and he looked at their son and daughter in the rearview mirror. They were sleeping in the backseat- Mel just five years of age, was coiled with her blanket hanging from the seatbelt as far as possible from Chris, their ten-year-old son. Chris resembled his mother, while Mel resembled her father, but with her mother’s blonde hair. The car was cleanly divided by gender; Mel was behind her mother, and Chris his father. Aaron gave a laugh under his breath at the juxtaposition.
***
Aaron and Brandy were nodding off by noon time. Chris’ voice began filling the car, waking the dazed parents from their untimely sleep. “Dad I need to pee.” Mel was tugging on her platinum blond hair, sobbing and whining. Aaron knew this was a sign Mel was upset with Chris. He didn’t want to move from his spot to let Chris pee because of the long line in case it progressed slowly through the boulevard, but he also knew this could be a chance for him to get clues to what was going on. In very little time, Brandy lost her temper and shouted at Aaron, “Take Chris to the bathroom!” Aaron’s facial expression slowly went from pensive to one of submission. “Okay. Please take the wheel. Call me if you move.” Brandy nodded and waved him to go ahead. Chris was whining in lieu of his temperamental mother.
The father and son exited the car and immediately had a better vantage point to view the town. The quaintness of the region could not be overstated. There was a certain “old town” feel, where many different local businesses lined the streets in quaint wooden buildings. Diners and gas stations had a look like they were built in the 1800s and refurbished in the 1950s. The residential areas formed the backdrop of colonial revival houses alongside what locals call “farmitecture” houses. Their parks accented the mountains and ponds which surrounded the valley town. The only thing out of place was the overtly industrial paper mill factory at the southwest end of town.
Aaron escorted Chris to the gas station to relieve himself. The local gas station was conveniently not far from their spot in the traffic jam. Lines formed out of the gas station’s front door. The women wrapped around the corner of the building, while the men were just barely outside of the door. With a groan, Aaron nudged Chris in front of him behind the last person in line.
The last man in the queue stood in front of Aaron. He looked like the stereotypical truck driver. Around his late forties with a large gut, wearing a weathered t-shirt that read “Roadside Rebel” and a trucker’s hat, he seemed to not care much about his appearance, nor his physical health. I already feel bad for the poor surgeon that’ll have to attempt a bypass on you. Aaron thought. The trucker peered around to see who was inching behind him, and he took notice to Chris down below. He gave a smug smile to the boy and then spoke to Aaron, “Cute kid. Mine’s back home. Are you from around here?” Aaron, was caught off guard, but responded in a civilized manner, “Thanks. No, no, we’re not from around here, we’re from Ashfield. But we are moving here now actually.” Aaron lied, and he was now feeling a bit guilty for his judging thoughts.
“Oh, yeah? I make deliveries there all the time. What job did you land here in the mountains?” The trucker asked. “I’m a lab technician. I used to work at Saint Jerome’s, have you been?” Aaron asked, more conversant now. The trucker nodded. “Yeah, I had to stop by one time when I had some chest pain. Turned out to be heartburn… …so will you be in the same line of work?” Aaron nodded proudly. “I will be working at Pikes Peak Regional- starting next week.”
“Well, it looks like you’ll be busy then. I heard over the CB there are a hell of a lot of evacs down there.”
Unwilling to explain to the trucker that lab techs don’t deal with patients directly, Aaron kept the conversation going, “Do you know what’s happening down there? If it was a simple traffic incident, it should have been cleared up by now.”
“Well my friend Red said on the CB, there’s some sorta incident, like some kind of crisis.” The trucker gave a worried shrug then turned to follow the bathroom line into the doorway. The queue only inched a little bit every few minutes, leaving Aaron and Chris the only ones outside the door still. Aaron sighed and peered into the distance.
The main boulevard gradually inclined for a while into the downtown district. Aaron could barely make out the ambulance lights glinting onto the street signs. His view was obstructed by all the cars in the traffic jam. He could not ascertain from that distance what was going on, but just then he saw EMTs carting a gurney with a white cloth draped over a body. Aaron was shaken. He looked down at Chris who was staring at something in the convenience store. Putting his hands on Chris’s shoulders he made sure to keep him facing forward. He knew his boy probably wouldn’t understand that the draped linen meant the person was dead, but he just didn’t want to expose him to that sight. “Dad, this pee is making me do the pee pee dance.” Aaron smiled down at Chris, “Dance if you have to.” He then gave another look to the scene of the incident just before following the queue into the store. The gurney, as well as the body, were no longer in sight.
The trucker was still there but as Aaron and the boy were inching forward, Aaron noticed the trucker was focusing on an argument at the front of the store. Behind the front counter was an employee, a blond young man and his manager, Krishan (as was indicated by his nametag). The young white man was an obese twenty-something-year-old wearing a backward ball cap, that made him look more youthful than he should. Aaron could tell by his mannerisms that he was rather immature and insecure, which meant he could only be pushed around by others. The manager was upset the youth didn’t clean the toilet. The young man quietly shrunk closer and closer toward the door as Krishan shouted obscenities.
By the time the youth reached the door, Aaron could interpret Krishan’s thick accented English, “You need to listen! I ask you three times today, clean the bathroom and you don’t clean it up! Look at all these people!”
“Krishan, I told you, I had to help the old lady outside—“
“I don’t care about lady outside! There’re bigger problem inside! This comes out of your pay! Did you clock in?”
The youth creaked the front door a little and then muttered under his breath, “You’re the bigger problem.”
“What?!” Krishan approached closer.
“I said the bathroom is nasty! Someone puked all over the place!”
“That was probably you! Go home, I call night shift to clean it up. This your last warning!”
Krishan marched to the swing door to hand the young man his apron. Aaron could see a small toy poodle behind the counter in the staff room. “Wash this apron. It’s dirty.” Aaron could read the name “Eddie” on the nametag.
While Krishan reentered the counter the toy poodle broke free of the staff room and ran towards Eddie. Aaron looked on as the dog, presumably Krishan’s, chomped at Eddie.
“Stupid dog!” Eddie yelled. And with that he was out the door, nearly slamming the door on the dog’s head- seemingly on purpose. Behind the door Aaron could hear Eddie shouting, “I’ll kill that stupid dog!” Eddie sobbed and disappeared into town.
Aaron and Chris finally got into the bathroom, following after the trucker. As Aaron helped Chris with the urinal he took notice of the toilet in the handicapped stall. The toilet was indeed clogged and the floor was partially covered with indescribable filth. Aaron’s eyes wandered to where graffiti infested the wall. On it was a particularly sinister slogan repeatedly etched in Sharpe, “We’re all the same once we’re dead.” The graffiti was accompanied by a small revolver-like gun drawing. Shithouse poetry… or shithouse psychopathy more like, Aaron thought. With a feel of unease he looked back to Chris who was trying to reach the faucet to wash his hands.
More people were approaching the bathrooms. Aaron could hear the horns getting progressively louder outside now. He hurried Chris out of the gas station and noticed the traffic jam had moved slightly. The sun had already begun to dip closer to the mountain tops, bringing the day to a premature end. Aaron sighed in near disbelief at the time wasted. But he also knew there was a serious problem waiting for him and his family up ahead. People grew more restless in their vehicles, desperate to get home and turn in for the night. Some people pulled to the side and abandoned their cars. A man slammed his pickup door in the gas station parking lot with hands raised, “What the hell could be taking these morons?!”
Aaron retrieved his smartphone and located a bank of text messages with Brandy’s name on it. He opened it and simply typed, We’re done, where are you? He waited a moment and felt the vibration of her response, Billboard with the pink rabbit. He looked up and instantly spotted the cartoon rabbit apparently named Robbie, since it was wearing a jumpsuit and bowtie with a nametag. The billboard sign read, “Lakeside Amusement Park, 40 miles”. He then located his Toyota instantly and headed that way. Aaron hesitated a moment to notice he could see his breath when he headed toward the car. He furrowed his eyebrow and then looked down to Chris, “Make sure you put on your jacket when we get into the car, okay?” Just then Brandy had got out of the car with Chris’s jacket and put it on for him. Without saying a word to Aaron she helped Chris into the car and then sat in the passenger side.
Aaron plopped in with a frown. He adjusted his rear-view mirror and looked to Mel, who was sleeping and snuggled into a jacket, a blanket and a beanie cap. Autumn was coming in fast, which was strange since it was still August, and Aaron knew this sinister turn of events would simply exacerbate the obligatory sense of discomfort. He looked to Brandy and noticed she was still staring out her window with the look every married man comes to loath, the face of the “silent treatment”.
The line began to move more rapidly. Eventually Aaron caught up to the barricaded part of town where the entire incident transpired. He looked back at the kids who were sound asleep. Brandy could see something in the distance. Aaron peered over her shoulder to catch a glimpse. The entire block was swarming with emergency response vehicles, police, medics and firefighters. Reporters were on the corner in front of cameras urgently speaking into microphones. One of them, a female, gestured behind her and a linen-covered gurney emerged from a flight of stairs with a human body beneath it. The gurney was being hauled into what looked to be an improvised vehicle since it wasn’t an ambulance. Soon, the severity of the situation became even clearer when police vehicles were being used to haul presumed bodies away.
Aaron looked to Brandy and she turned to face him. Her eyes spoke for her, What the hell is happening? Why did you bring us here? What about the kids? Aaron nodded slightly and looked to the kids- still sleeping- he then turned forward to notice that a cop was waving him on. He crept through the barricade and then proceeded to a police-designated parking area. “Where are you headed?” The cop asked, “We’re going to Cripple Creek Street. Our house is up near the county road.” The cop looked into the car and noted the young children in the backseat. The look of pity was written on his eyes. “You’re going to have to take this detour. Follow this road to the right and just watch out for the signs. You’ll see a detour sign for Cripple Creek.” The cop pointed to his left towards a narrow road that seemed to almost go back the way the Vermeer family came. “You guys are lucky you don’t live in this area.” The cop’s unsolicited comment coupled with his slightly more unsolicited expressions shook Aaron a bit. But he just nodded and did as he was told.
Aaron and Brandy could clearly see the detour signs. Judging by the brazenness of the cars speeding ahead, it looked like all the traffic patrol was tasked out too, or they just didn’t care what other people were doing. This kind of thing only happens for one of two reasons, Aaron thought, terrorism or a CDC situation. He looked to Brandy, “Look, let’s not say anything about this to the kids… or your mother. At least for now.” Brandy nodded.
Both remained silent, heading for their new house.
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