The Beginning of the End Read online

  The demon paled. “From what I understand, no cure has ever been created so quickly. They might be fearful of it.”

  “Then we must convince them not to be afraid or find ways to force them to accept it. Go, tell the others to spread the word that not only should lockdowns continue, but masks should be worn. Lay the seeds for a cure. It’s time the world began to learn the name Daman Caturix.”

  “This can’t be happening,” Brian growled from his desk.

  Raven stopped her workout and glanced over at Jason who was scrawling boxing combos on the portable white board they kept at the front of the gym. She’d come in a little early to work out, so it was just the three of them in the room at the moment, but Brian’s anger radiated out in waves and seemed to fill the entire space. Even before she asked, Raven knew what he held in his hand. “What is it, Brian?”

  “A cease-and-desist order. Evidently, the governor, in ‘an effort to flatten the curve’,” he said in a mocking voice, “is forcing all non-essential businesses to shut down for two weeks.”

  Jason’s eyes caught hers as they approached Brian’s desk. They’d both felt this was coming, but actually having it happen was another matter.

  “Is that legal? Can he even do that?” Anger colored Brian’s voice and sent a chill down Raven’s spine. She had never seen him this angry, not even when he’d had to replace the front of the building. “Doesn’t the constitution grant life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? How is forcing me to close my business not stealing my liberty and pursuit of happiness?”

  Raven shook her head. “I don’t know, but you’re right about the constitution. Evidently, he’s claiming some emergency powers that enable him to make some of these rules - closing schools, businesses. I don’t know how it can be legal, but I can ask around.”

  Brian threw down the letter and dropped his head in his hands. Raven knew he wasn’t mad at them but at the situation. She hadn’t been a member of the gym long, but she’d grown close to both Brian and Jason since joining and she’d heard Brian’s story.

  This gym was his baby. A former police officer, he’d always had a passion for kickboxing and karate. When he’d saved up enough money that he could afford equipment, he’d retired from the force and opened the gym. It had started in his garage at first, but soon, he’d garnered enough clients that he’d been able to rent an old warehouse. It was large and dusty half the time, but it was like his second home. Even his wife had joined in, teaching classes in the afternoons.

  “This is ridiculous,” he said, glancing up from the paper. “How can liquor and pot shops be deemed essential but gyms not? Don’t they understand how important exercise is to health?”

  Raven shook her head again, but deep down, she thought she knew the answer - it was because liquor and pot shops paid a hefty fee to the government while gyms and other small businesses didn’t. Shutting liquor stores and pot shops down would drain the government’s money quickly, but shutting down smaller businesses like Brian’s, even for a short time, would put people out of work. Since the working people paid taxes and the taxes funded government, Raven still didn’t understand how they could keep them closed for long. What would the government do without all their tax dollars?

  Jason ran a hand across his chin. “It’s only two weeks, right? Can we make it the two weeks?”

  Brian sighed and scratched at the side of his face before meeting Jason’s eyes. “If it’s only two weeks, yes, but if it goes longer than that,” he shook his head, “I don’t know how I can keep paying you.”

  Raven felt like an awkward third wheel in the conversation, but she also knew she couldn’t stay silent. “Don’t worry, Brian. We’ll figure something out.” She had no idea what, but she wasn’t going to let the state destroy the two people she had grown closest to in the last few months. There had to be something they could do.

  8

  Though Raven’s job was generally solitary, she, like nearly everyone else in the state, had received word that for the foreseeable future, she would be performing her duties from her own living room instead of the office. While Raven didn’t miss the annoying noise of her coworkers, she was beginning to feel a little stir-crazy. There was almost nothing to do now as it appeared nearly everything in the state was shutting down. Everything except grocery stores, gas stations, pot shops, liquor stores, and abortion clinics which were all somehow deemed essential. Some people were able to work from home, like herself, but many others like Jason were now unemployed and unsure where their next check was coming from. With a sigh, Raven grabbed her jacket and headed outside for a quick walk. At least walking outside was still allowed, and maybe the fresh air would clear her mind.

  She’d lived in her neighborhood for years, but she couldn’t remember the last time she’d walked the streets during the day. Everything felt quiet and odd. With nearly everything shut down, shouldn’t more people be outside?

  Raven turned down the side street that led to a small park. Goosebumps had erupted on her arms, and she suddenly just wanted to see other people. Surely, some of the older kids who were out of school would be in the field or even playing on the equipment, but the park was empty.

  However, someone had been there recently. Near the entrance was a sign staked in the ground. Raven moved closer to read it. Park closed due to NCAV spread. Closed? How did one even close a park? Then her eyes landed on the yellow caution tape surrounding the play structure.

  Not only had the governor shut down schools, but he’d shut down playgrounds as well? True, there were fewer kids now than six months ago due to the disappearances - and those children would already need therapy in the future - but now they weren’t even able to play outside and try to find some semblance of normality again? What did the future hold for them?

  Though no one was around her, Raven felt a tremor of fear snake its way up her spine, and she turned back toward her house. Suddenly, being stir-crazy in her house seemed more appealing than being outside.

  Anger boiled inside Lily as she watched the governor give his latest press conference. It seemed he was only capable of doling out bad news. Not only had he extended the lockdowns for another month, but he’d also just shut down schools for the rest of the year.

  “Can you believe him?” Lily asked Katie as she muted the TV. She had no desire to hear the news anchors pontificate about how caring the governor was being, especially since he’d just destroyed her hope for a normal end of the school year.

  She supposed deep down she had assumed that would be the case, but she’d been hoping the temporary lockdown would be just that - temporary - and they would get to go back. Online school was not nearly as fun as being in class. It was odd. Lily could remember complaining everyday about having to get up and go to school, but now she wanted nothing more than to have that freedom.

  Katie sighed and pushed herself up from the couch. “I hate how he applies the same standard for the whole state as he does for those with the higher case count. The last time I checked, we only had five cases in our whole county.”

  Lily stood and followed her into the kitchen. “Right? Like why can’t we finish school?”

  Katie chuckled as she opened the cabinet and grabbed a bag of popcorn. “You just want to go back because you’re hoping The Spring Fling will be rescheduled.”

  She wasn’t wrong about that. Bryce had barely even returned Lily’s text messages since the shutdown, and she was eager to see him again. Plus, she really wanted to dance with him. Heat crawled up her neck and flamed across her cheeks as she imagined his arms wrapped around her. “Okay, true. I want to go to the dance first and foremost, but you can’t tell me you are enjoying this distance learning thing.”

  Katie shrugged and turned on the microwave. “I don’t know. It’s not that bad. I feel like they’re giving us less work than if we were in school which gives me more time to research what I want, but I do miss being able to go out. You know I haven’t gotten to get a coffee in weeks.”

 
“I haven’t done anything in weeks,” Lily said, folding her arms across her chest. “Do you think we’ll ever get to go back to normal?”

  Katie shook her head. Clearly it was a question she had no answer for either. “Who knows, but speaking of normal, have you been to the grocery store recently?”

  Grocery stores, gas stations, liquor stores, and pot shops were about the only places the governor had deemed as essential to stay open, and Lily and Katie were only old enough to enter two of the four. Every other business had been ordered to shutter its doors until further notice. Even doctor’s offices had canceled appointments and were only seeing emergency cases.

  Katie had switched subjects so abruptly that Lily blinked at her for a few moments before answering. “Not in a few days. Why?”

  “People are starting to wear masks in the grocery store. Not the workers or anything, but shoppers. Haven’t the doctors been saying not to wear masks?”

  Lily shrugged as the popcorn began popping in the microwave behind Katie. “People are paranoid. I guess whatever makes them feel better.” When the virus had first hit, she’d watched the news daily, hoping for some good news that they had it under control and life could continue as normal. Unfortunately, that hadn’t happened, and now it was generally a repeat of the same things: wash your hands, stay home, stay away from people. She was tired of hearing it.

  “I’m not wearing any mask,” she continued. Lily couldn’t stand things around her neck or her face. Turtleneck sweaters never even touched her body because she felt like they were choking her. Having something blocking her ability to breathe in clean air sounded like torture.

  “What if he passes a mask mandate?” Katie leveled a serious gaze at Lily. “They have in China and many of the other countries.”

  “Yeah, but they have way more cases than we do. We only have five, right?”

  The popping stopped, and Katie opened the microwave. “Five can become fifty pretty quickly.”

  Lily scoffed. “Even fifty would be small here. Our county has over two hundred and fifty thousand people.”

  Katie opened the bag and poured the popcorn into a bowl. Steam and a sweet salty smell filled the air. “I don’t know. I just have a bad feeling about all of this.”

  Though Katie had bad feelings about a lot of things, Lily couldn’t dismiss this one so easily. She too had a feeling that things were going to get much worse before they got better.

  “You up for that movie?” Katie asked.

  Lily nodded, but she wondered if she’d be able to concentrate with everything circling in her head.

  Candace Markham glanced up at Dr. Aikens. “I’m sorry, we’re supposed to do what?”

  “Label the patient as an NCAV fatality if they die and test positive for the virus.” He repeated the statement as if he couldn’t believe she hadn’t understood the first time, but she couldn’t believe what he was asking them to do.

  “I’m sorry, but I need to get this straight. If someone comes in with a gunshot wound-”

  “You test them for NCAV,” he said, interrupting her. “We test everyone that comes in.”

  “Okay, so we test this person, and for argument’s sake, let’s assume they have the virus, but it’s the gunshot wound that kills them, we’re still supposed to list it as an NCAV fatality?”

  “Yes. Look,” he heaved an enormous sigh, “the hospital receives twice as much money for a death labeled an NCAV death as it does for a routine death, so…” He spread his hands as if that should satisfy her.

  Candace glanced around at the other doctors at the table. A few stared back at her, but most had their faces glued to the table as if they’d rather be anywhere else right now. “So, we’re going to lie to the government and the people? For money?”

  “The hospital needs the money,” he said. “The government is offering it. We’re simply playing by their rules.”

  “But doesn’t anyone care why the government is offering more money for this? What’s the point of inflating the death numbers?” But suddenly she knew. The lockdowns. Across the US, governors had declared that all non-essential businesses and schools shut down for two weeks to “slow the spread.” The point had been to keep the hospitals from being overrun with patients as those in Italy had been, and Candace had been all for that, but this? This made it feel as if there was an ulterior motive. As if maybe two weeks wasn’t the plan at all, but then she should have guessed that when the governor extended the lockdown another two weeks and closed the schools for the rest of the year.

  People were already scared of this virus because no one seemed to know much about it. Hand sanitizer and cleaning products were flying off the shelves faster than stores could re-shelve them, which made sense, but so were toilet paper and canned goods. It was like people were expecting to be locked down in their homes for months instead of weeks, and inflating the death numbers would only cause more fear and panic.

  However, Candace could see that perhaps it would also create complacency. People who normally wouldn’t stay home because they valued their freedom might if they thought the virus was worse than it actually was. And from what Candace had personally seen, that was the case. Yes, they had lost patients, but most of them had been elderly and suffering from poor immune systems before they were exposed to the virus. She had yet to see anyone under the age of fifty succumb to the virus personally, and across the country the deaths for those under the age of twenty were microscopic. So, why exactly were schools closed?

  “This is wrong,” she muttered under her breath, but she stopped herself from saying more. Though it tore at the empathetic, truthful part of her, a small part of her thought that perhaps she could learn more by staying on the inside, by being close to the action. If she made a ruckus now, they would just fire her. Better to stay quiet and see if there really was something nefarious going on or if perhaps the government, in its infinite wisdom, had truly thought they were going to help hospitals facing the crisis instead of encouraging false numbers.

  “It’s what we’ve been required to do,” the supervisor continued, “and we will follow orders. Is that understood?” He glanced around the room, but he stared longest at Candace.

  “Understood,” she mumbled along with the rest of the doctors in the room. She would play along and follow orders. For now.

  “Now, let’s discuss protective equipment. There’s been some new guidelines on those as well, and we are working as hard as we can to get enough of the correct equipment for everyone. Dr. Goodman, the head of infectious diseases, had been telling people not to wear masks in order to save them for front line workers, but now he is recommending masks for everybody which means that even though he says N95 masks should be saved for those of us dealing with the disease closely, people will buy them up. We’ve all seen the empty shelves-”

  As he continued, Candace nodded as if she was listening, but her mind was already wandering. What did all of this have to do with the tribulation?

  9

  “Due to Dr. Goodman’s new statement that masks help reduce the spread of NCAV, I am requiring that all businesses in the state of Washington require masks to enter.”

  Raven rolled her eyes and shook her head as she watched Governor Smythe give his most recent press conference. The media, including the sainted Dr. Goodman, had spent the last few months telling everyone not to wear masks, and now all of a sudden, they were required? What had changed? Because it surely wasn’t the science behind it.

  “I know this is an inconvenience for people as are the business closures, but hopefully this will allow us to open more of those businesses soon. In a limited capacity, of course.”

  Governor Smythe continued to drone on for a few more minutes, opining about how concerned he was for everyone’s health. Raven was just about to turn the television off when a banner flashed across the screen that breaking news was coming up. She decided to wait and see what the breaking news might be.

  As soon as Governor Smythe disappeared from the sc
reen, the regular news anchor appeared. “It’s been quite a trying time for our state over the last few months. Total cases are now in the thousands with deaths in the hundreds, but we do have some good news to report. A foreign businessman by the name of Daman Caturix has stepped into the limelight, promising to back the productions of masks and research for a vaccine, so that we can all get back to normal. Let’s listen to what he has to say.”

  The screen switched to a pale man with dark hair, dark eyes, and bony features that sent a chill racing down Raven’s spine. Even his close-lipped smile evoked a sense of revulsion in her stomach, but when he began to speak, she knew she was looking at pure evil.

  “You have probably never heard of me. My name is Daman Caturix, and until recently, I have lived a quiet life. However, I have been watching the devastation that this virus is creating, and I can no longer remain silent. I know that I am more fortunate than some, and I want to use that fortune to help as many people as I can. Among other businesses, I own a manufacturing plant and I have asked them to begin making masks and sending them out to any company who requests them. In addition, I have begun speaking with the largest medical research labs and will be donating whatever capital they need to create a cure for this virus as soon as possible. Though we are asked to distance right now, we can work together to achieve this new normal.”

  New normal? Raven wanted nothing to do with any kind of new normal. She rather liked the old normal, and something about this man sent every hair on her body standing at attention. It was time to see exactly who Daman Caturix was.

  “Seriously? Masks are now required?” Lily turned off the television and tossed the remote to the side in disgust. She was so tired of this already. With no need to get up for school and little to do outside of her house, the days had soon lost their meaning. She couldn’t even remember the last time she’d changed out of her pajamas into real clothes. Oh, she still showered daily, but instead of throwing on jeans and a top, she simply grabbed another pair of pajamas, and why not? It wasn’t like anyone was going to see her.