began walking briskly down the hall.
“So how long do you think it will take before this thing runs its course?” I asked, following closely behind. He slowed so that I came nearly level with him.
“The bubonic plague took years to peter out, and we have many times the population now. We’ve also got the means to get from one place to anywhere else on the planet in less than a day. The incubation period of The Red Plague may be up to thirty days. Can you imagine how far this could have gotten in thirty days just by random encounters? Imagine that somebody has been planting it in order to speed up that process, and it could easily be everywhere by now. It’s probably going to test the immunities of each and every one of us. Well, with the possible exception of us. Assuming it isn’t already here, we are so isolated that we might be able to avoid it altogether.”
“Yes, that’s wonderful,” I said sarcastically as he turned a corner and walked away from me.
I found neither Commander Blaine nor Jeff at the EOC nor at their respective offices, so I decided to go down to the terminal and wait for Continental to arrive with answers. I rounded the corner to the waiting area and found what seemed like half the island waiting there. Some people talked quietly, but most just sat in the grandstand and waited. Except for the large crowd, everything seemed normal. The ground crew busily finished their preparations by moving luggage carts, testing the generator, and repositioning the stair truck. The ubiquitous trades tugged on palm fronds, and waves breaking on the reef sent a fine, briny mist across the area. A small child of a couple I knew in passing darted from the grandstand toward the perimeter road only to be snatched up by his brother in mid stride.
I looked at my watch and it read 11:15 am, arrival time. I stood in the shade of a lone palm tree and leaned against its trunk to wait.
I monitored my watch as it advanced through 11:30 and 11:45, and the crowd grew increasingly restless. At noon I sat down and leaned back against the tree. At 12:10, a breathless young guy announced to the crowd that his friend in the control tower told him that Continental wasn’t even on radar yet and they hadn’t been able to raise them on radio. The crowd began to trickle away.
At 12:30 a man began to sob loudly. By that time, the crowd had halved. I leaned back against the palm and closed my eyes. Continental never came.
6
5 A.M., WEDNESDAY MAY 30 TH , BASE HOUSING, KWAJALEIN
I had not spoken to Kate in three days, I didn’t know if they were all right, and I had no way to find out. A plague was sweeping the planet. Our country may have been attacked. We couldn’t communicate with the outside world, I couldn’t leave, and I had no idea what to do.
I tossed and turned for hours as my subconscious worked noisily on the problem. In that fog between sleep and wakefulness, where the mind attempts to access the stream, wisps of thought float by like leaves in a breeze. It moves rapidly from one to another, constantly evaluating, landing on some, but bypassing most, like a honey bee across a field of flowers. Most of the time, we can sleep through the effort, but great problems, apparently, require our presence.
Suddenly, my mind landed on a promising thought and summoned me. I just stared at it at first, like a person you know but can’t quite recognize. Finally, consciousness stepped forward and lunged at the answer and took hold of it before it could slip by. Once in my grasp it felt heavy, but I recognized it as obvious—I don’t know what took me so long to think of it.
I snapped fully awake and sat up. I had to see Jeff.
. . .
I peddled furiously down the well-lit streets, and, not surprisingly given the time of morning, found them empty. A heavy, moisture-laden, head wind whipped down the street, probably in advance of some rain. It resisted my
“So how long do you think it will take before this thing runs its course?” I asked, following closely behind. He slowed so that I came nearly level with him.
“The bubonic plague took years to peter out, and we have many times the population now. We’ve also got the means to get from one place to anywhere else on the planet in less than a day. The incubation period of The Red Plague may be up to thirty days. Can you imagine how far this could have gotten in thirty days just by random encounters? Imagine that somebody has been planting it in order to speed up that process, and it could easily be everywhere by now. It’s probably going to test the immunities of each and every one of us. Well, with the possible exception of us. Assuming it isn’t already here, we are so isolated that we might be able to avoid it altogether.”
“Yes, that’s wonderful,” I said sarcastically as he turned a corner and walked away from me.
I found neither Commander Blaine nor Jeff at the EOC nor at their respective offices, so I decided to go down to the terminal and wait for Continental to arrive with answers. I rounded the corner to the waiting area and found what seemed like half the island waiting there. Some people talked quietly, but most just sat in the grandstand and waited. Except for the large crowd, everything seemed normal. The ground crew busily finished their preparations by moving luggage carts, testing the generator, and repositioning the stair truck. The ubiquitous trades tugged on palm fronds, and waves breaking on the reef sent a fine, briny mist across the area. A small child of a couple I knew in passing darted from the grandstand toward the perimeter road only to be snatched up by his brother in mid stride.
I looked at my watch and it read 11:15 am, arrival time. I stood in the shade of a lone palm tree and leaned against its trunk to wait.
I monitored my watch as it advanced through 11:30 and 11:45, and the crowd grew increasingly restless. At noon I sat down and leaned back against the tree. At 12:10, a breathless young guy announced to the crowd that his friend in the control tower told him that Continental wasn’t even on radar yet and they hadn’t been able to raise them on radio. The crowd began to trickle away.
At 12:30 a man began to sob loudly. By that time, the crowd had halved. I leaned back against the palm and closed my eyes. Continental never came.
6
5 A.M., WEDNESDAY MAY 30 TH , BASE HOUSING, KWAJALEIN
I had not spoken to Kate in three days, I didn’t know if they were all right, and I had no way to find out. A plague was sweeping the planet. Our country may have been attacked. We couldn’t communicate with the outside world, I couldn’t leave, and I had no idea what to do.
I tossed and turned for hours as my subconscious worked noisily on the problem. In that fog between sleep and wakefulness, where the mind attempts to access the stream, wisps of thought float by like leaves in a breeze. It moves rapidly from one to another, constantly evaluating, landing on some, but bypassing most, like a honey bee across a field of flowers. Most of the time, we can sleep through the effort, but great problems, apparently, require our presence.
Suddenly, my mind landed on a promising thought and summoned me. I just stared at it at first, like a person you know but can’t quite recognize. Finally, consciousness stepped forward and lunged at the answer and took hold of it before it could slip by. Once in my grasp it felt heavy, but I recognized it as obvious—I don’t know what took me so long to think of it.
I snapped fully awake and sat up. I had to see Jeff.
. . .
I peddled furiously down the well-lit streets, and, not surprisingly given the time of morning, found them empty. A heavy, moisture-laden, head wind whipped down the street, probably in advance of some rain. It resisted my
Similar Books
