The Beginning of the End Read online

  Candace had a plethora of questions racing through her mind, but none that Dr. Aikens could answer. No, she needed to call Raven and Pastor Ben and get their take on this. As much as she didn’t want to admit, she had a very bad feeling that this might be the beginning of the tribulation Raven had spoken of.

  As soon as they were dismissed, Candace excused herself to an on-call room and dialed Raven’s number. She didn’t even bother with pleasantries when the other woman answered. “Is this it? Do you think this is the beginning?”

  Raven sighed on the other end. “I’m assuming you mean the virus.”

  “Of course I mean the virus,” Candace snapped. “I just left a briefing where we were told to gear up and get ready for it. I just want your opinion. Do you think this is it?”

  “I don’t know, but it could be. I’ll start looking, Candace, and we’ll talk more on Sunday, but promise me one thing.”

  “What’s that?” Candace asked although she was fairly certain she knew what Raven would ask.

  “Be careful.”

  That seemed to be the theme of the day around her. “I will,” Candace promised before hanging up the phone, but if the virus was the beginning of the tribulation, could she ever really be careful enough?

  “What we know now is that the NCAV has appeared in countries outside of China. Cases have appeared in London, Italy, and Germany, but the President and his team continue to state there is no reason for worry here in the United States. Though he was originally vilified for the action, it appears the President closed the borders to travel from China last month and remains confident that action will keep the virus from breaching our borders.”

  Raven felt a claw-like sensation squeeze her heart, and her fingers began to play with the cross around her neck. She’d told Candace she wasn’t sure this was the beginning of the end, but the more coverage she watched of it, the more she became convinced that it would have a role to play.

  She jumped to her feet. Kat’s letter. She needed to read it again. Though she hadn’t really understood what the letter meant at the time, she had taken it and the Bible and journal with her nearly everywhere she went and had studied it with every free moment. The Sunday after the rapture, she’d met Pastor Ben, who while having been left behind, at least seemed to have more knowledge of the word than she did. They’d begun studying Kat’s words together, along with a few other people who had joined their small group.

  That first day, it had just been herself, the pastor, and one other man by the name of Nathan, but they’d all agreed there had to be more like them out there. Raven had set up a website for the church advertising that the message of hope and truth was available every Sunday. Attendance had gradually increased to a group of about fifty now, and Pastor Ben said the other churches were also seeing a surge. Evidently, other people were beginning to search for the truth as well.

  Raven scanned the letter again before grabbing her phone and dialing Pastor Ben.

  “Are you watching the news?” she asked when he answered.

  “I am.”

  “What can we do? Candace called me and told me they just had a safety briefing about it.”

  “I’m not sure. Right now, I guess we watch and wait, but I will admit that I’m scared for what this might mean for our church, especially since we have just started rebuilding. It appears they are already locking businesses down in China.”

  “They couldn’t lock down things here, could they?” Raven couldn’t imagine how that would work. The US was too big and the states were too different.

  “I don’t know, Raven. I just don’t know. There is one thing we can do though. We can pray.”

  They ended the call and Raven stared at the news screen. They had already suffered so much with the loss of so many lives. Could they handle an unknown virus? And if not, what did that mean?

  5

  Candace had just finished her lunch when her pager went off. After glancing down at it, she threw her trash away and headed down to the ER.

  “What’s going on?” she asked the nurse on duty as she entered the area.

  “We think we might have a case of NCAV.” The woman’s eyes were large and filled with fear. “They’ve put him in isolation and Julie is gathering up your gear.”

  “Right.” Conflicting emotions flooded Candace. Common sense told her that she was prepared for this, that she had trained for this, but fear dominated that thought. Fear of the unknown. There was still so little they knew about this virus and what she had seen on the media made it out to be the worst killing machine in modern history.

  No, she couldn’t let fear control her. She knew how to keep herself safe or as safe as she could, and she’d found Jesus again. Even if it was her time, it just meant she would see Phil again that much sooner.

  With a swift nod at the nurse, Candace continued to the isolation area. Sure enough, Julie was waiting outside, already geared up, with more gear for Candace on a table beside her. Most of her face was covered with a mask, but fear radiated around her like a palpable mist.

  “What do we have?” Candace asked as she began the process of suiting up with Julie. Not only did she need the information, but her hope was that the conversation would ease both their minds.

  “Forty-year-old man complained of cough and fever. Tested at 101.3. Confirmed that he had been out of the country in the last two weeks. I’ve already tasked one of the other nurses with trying to find out who all he came in contact with during that time. He lives alone and said he came in when it grew hard for him to breathe. I’ve taken a swab and sent it to the lab for analysis. Unfortunately, I guess this means I’m under quarantine until my test comes back.”

  Candace could hear the sadness in Julie’s voice. She knew Julie had children at home. They were younger, and while her husband would be there, Candace couldn’t imagine how hard it must be to know she couldn’t go home to her kids.

  Candace placed a gloved hand on Julie’s arm. “Hey, it will be okay. We’ll rush your test and you’ll be home in no time. I’ll handle everything else for him so that once you’re cleared, you can go home, okay?”

  Julie sucked in a deep breath and nodded. Candace did the same. Then she turned to the isolation door and entered the room into territory unknown.

  Gabe flicked through the channels on the television mindlessly. It was how he had spent the majority of the last few months. With Melinda and the kids gone, he no longer knew what to do with himself. Having taken little time off over the years, he’d had quite the bank of sick days built up and had decided to cash them in. He knew he would be unable to focus on work, but he hadn’t expected he’d be unable to focus on anything else as well.

  When his phone vibrated beside him, he glanced at the screen and sighed. His boss. Though he did not want to talk to her, he couldn’t afford to lose this job, and she probably wanted to know when he would be coming back. He didn’t really have an answer, but he swiped the screen to take the call anyway.

  “Hello?”

  “Gabe?” Surprise colored her voice even through the phone, and he could almost picture her pinched forehead and arched brows. “Are you okay?”

  What a question. Was he okay with the love of his life and his children gone? No. Was he okay with no answer as to where they went or who took them? No. Was he physically okay and able to take care of himself? That was debatable. “Define okay.”

  She sighed. “I’m sorry about your family, Gabe. We all lost someone in the disappearances, but I need you to come back to work.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m sure you’ve heard on the news about the NCAV.”

  He had though he had paid little attention to it. What did it matter to him anyway?

  “Well, we have a patient who tested positive in Washington state and we’re receiving samples to analyze tomorrow. I need my best people on this, and you are one of the best.”

  A tiny spark of enthusiasm flickered in Gabe. It felt like it had been so long since something had in
terested him and studying the new virus was interesting. But was it interesting enough? He took a moment to look around the room. Discarded clothes and trash lay about the room and dirty dishes sat piled on the nearby tables. He hadn’t even gathered the energy to take them to the kitchen. It was clear that something had to change. Perhaps feeling useful again would be it. He could throw himself into his work, and this time there would be no one to disappoint when he missed dinner or came home late.

  “Okay,” he said. “I’ll be in tomorrow.”

  “Great. And Gabe? Clean up first.”

  He wasn’t sure how she knew, but perhaps it was only an educated guess on her part. It certainly wouldn’t have been a leap. “I will.”

  6

  As Lily walked into the school two weeks later, the energy felt different. All around her, students were talking in hushed whispers, and there was an aura of fear that she’d never encountered before in the building. It floated like an invisible mist affecting everything it touched. She knew it was because of the rumors of a shut down. Though the President had claimed to have closed down the borders to outside travel over a month ago when the virus first hit the news, it evidently hadn’t been quick enough. The mysterious virus that no one seemed to know much about had sneaked its way into the US and infected someone just two hours up the road in Seattle. That case had turned into ten and then quickly into hundreds. Though it appeared to only be infecting Seattle currently, the governor - whom Lily had cared little about until this point - now threatened to shut down schools and businesses across the state to slow the spread.

  A part of Lily still believed that the virus wouldn’t make it to Olympia. Seattle was a big city, crowded, with lots of people packed together in small spaces. More people rode transit buses than drove and many worked in cubicles crammed into small offices. It was prime real estate for any contagious disease, evidenced by its higher rate of annual flu cases, but Olympia was smaller, more spread out, protected. Still, she couldn’t get the virus out of her mind.

  Over the last week, she had begun researching everything she could about this virus. The media claimed it was highly contagious - some compared it to The Spanish Flu in the early 1900s. Not being a history buff, Lily then had to research The Spanish Flu. What she found had sent tremors of trepidation through her. Medical practices were not nearly as good in 1918, so that created a glimmer of hope, but it still appeared as if closing businesses and schools was one of the few things that slowed the spread back then. Though she knew it was irrational, she didn’t want school to close.

  “I heard Seattle is shutting down,” Katie said, falling into step beside Lily. As usual, she passed her a coffee as they continued down the hall.

  “Yeah, I heard. I really hope it doesn’t come here.” Lily took a sip of the coffee and waited for the normal feeling of contentment to blanket her, but for once it did not have the usual warming effect.

  “Me too.”

  “Dude, did you hear Seattle shut down their schools?” Though not speaking directly to them, Isaiah’s excited voice carried across the room as they entered. “I hope we get to shut down.” Isaiah was notorious for doing as little work as possible, so it came as no surprise that he would prefer to be out of school.

  “Not me,” Hannah said, organizing the books on her desk into a neat stack. “I’d like to actually get to graduate.”

  Isaiah rolled his eyes and waved his hands in a dismissive gesture. “We wouldn’t close that long. Just a couple of weeks for them to clean everything. I could use two weeks of sleeping in and no homework.”

  “We’d have to make up the time,” Hannah said as if speaking to a child instead of an eighteen-year-old boy. “I don’t want to lose my summer.”

  Isaiah’s face fell as if he hadn’t considered that fact. “Okay, I don’t want to go longer in the summer, but surely they’ll forgive the days, right? Like snow days? Or give us packets to work on? That’s what my friend up north is doing.”

  “Packets?” Katie nearly shouted. “That’s not real learning.”

  He shrugged. “Better than going longer in the summer. That’s my time off, man.”

  If the topic hadn’t been so heavy, Lily might have rolled her eyes at Isaiah. He rarely turned work in as it was, so school time also seemed to be his time off.

  The discussions continued as Lily sank into her seat, but they only enforced the sick feeling rumbling around in her stomach. She had thought this pandemic was interesting - as long as it stayed over in China or Europe, far away from her, but now that it was here and messing up her life, she just wanted it to go away.

  True to form, Mr. Higgins began class by having the students share any new information they had learned about the virus, but Lily couldn’t get into the conversation. She was thinking about everything that would change in her life if they got shut down. Would they close her gym? It had been forced to close for a few days months ago when all the people had disappeared because a car had smashed through the front entrance, but Brian had reopened as quickly as possible. Hitting the bag or mitts with a partner had been her sanity when everything else seemed crazy in the world. Now, she hated to miss class for any reason, and she couldn’t imagine having to miss for two weeks. Especially if everything else closed as well. What would she do?

  As first period ended and she gathered up her belongings, she couldn’t help but feel that they were working on borrowed time. She moved in a daze to the next class, feeling like she was one of those banal characters in a horror movie just waiting for something to jump out and scare her.

  The next class was English, which she normally loved. Mrs. Fox was her favorite teacher. Not only did she make learning more fun with her random accents and crazy stories, but she always told the students information straight. They all knew that though other teachers would hedge around the answers, Mrs. Fox would tell them what she could, and Lily loved that she treated the students more like equals, at least when possible.

  Sliding into her desk, she pulled out her copy of Frankenstein. They had just begun reading the novel, and she was enjoying the book. Mostly. Parts were definitely boring, but it was interesting to see how well Mary Shelley wrote for someone of her age. Somewhere, back in the deep recesses of her mind, Lily often wondered if she had what it took to be a writer. She’d dabbled in creating stories as a child and she used to read a ton, but somewhere along the way, writing had fallen to the side.

  Before Mrs. Fox could even begin class, the loudspeaker crackled, and Lily’s stomach knotted. Somehow, she knew what was coming next.

  “Sorry for the interruption, students.” The principal’s voice sounded calm, but it did nothing to alleviate the bunching in her stomach. “Due to the governor’s mandate, we will be closing the school for the next two weeks. Please be sure to grab what you might need for that time frame before you leave today. Your teachers will have more information.”

  Silence descended on the room as all eyes turned toward Mrs. Fox. Her smile appeared pinched and forced as she gazed out at the room. “Okay, you guys all know how to access Google Classroom.” They’d spent the last few days getting familiarized with the system just in case, but Lily had hoped it would remain a “just in case” scenario.

  “I’ll be putting assignments up there starting on Wednesday. The staff will be taking a few days to gather and decide on the best path going forward, but then we’ll hit the ground running. Reading Frankenstein long distance isn’t the way I had planned to do it, but we can make it work. So, be sure to take your book and your packets home.”

  Everyone around Lily began gathering up their supplies, but she shuffled to the front of the room where the teacher stood, a smile still pasted on her face. “Mrs. Fox, do you think we’ll be back in two weeks?”

  When her lips mashed together and her eyes darted from one side to the other, Lily could tell that she was trying to decide how much to say. Finally, she sighed, and Lily knew she was going to get the truth. At least the truth as Mrs. Fox knew it. “
I hope so, Lily, but I kind of doubt it. If this virus is spreading the way they say it is, I can’t imagine that we’ll be back in school in just two weeks.”

  Though it was not what she wanted to hear, Lily knew she was right. Every discussion in Mr. Higgins’ class supported those words, but she didn’t want to hear them. “I don’t want to end the year this way.”

  Mrs. Fox placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “No one does, Lily, but we just have to have a little faith that everything will be okay.”

  Faith wasn’t something Lily had employed for a while. Her family had once attended church, but when her parents’ careers took off, Sundays became a day of resting from the long week and nothing else. Then, after the disappearances, most churches closed. Perhaps it was time to find faith again. Holding back the tears pricking her eyes, Lily nodded. She returned to her desk, gathered up her things, and shoved them in her backpack. Then, she joined the throng of students flowing out of the room and toward their lockers to grab any other last-minute items.

  By noon, Lily was home. Alone. With nothing to do. Her father was an attorney and didn’t normally arrive home until after six most nights. Her mother worked at an insurance office and was generally out until five, and her siblings were both older and out of the house already. With time to kill, she opened her laptop and began poring over articles again. How long could this shutdown last? Not forever, right?

  Raven’s breath caught as she watched the news conference. Across the US, states were shutting down schools and businesses in an effort to “flatten the curve.” At least, that’s what they claimed. The idea made no sense to Raven. Unless everything shut down, which wasn’t possible as people would still need food and gas and other necessities like that, then those people who had to continue working would still spread the disease and when the economy opened up again, the cases would simply increase once more. It felt like a Band-Aid instead of a solution, and Raven wondered where the common sense had gone.