Containment by Kirkland Kyle

Author:Kirkland, Kyle [Kirkland, Kyle]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2013-11-21T05:00:00+00:00

Medburg, Pennsylvania / 12:00 p.m.

For the thousandth time Loretta heard the WKH announcer say, "All Medburg public and parochial schools are closed tomorrow and until further notice...."

Slapping together the slices of bread, Loretta finished making the sandwich and placed it in the waiting palm of her youngest daughter.

"Thank you, Mommy."

"Enjoy it in good health," said Loretta, watching Yvonne skip happily away.

Nothing bothers kids. Kids, thought Loretta, are much more resilient than adults. As long as you're not worried, or you don't show them that you're worried, they're fine.

WKH made no mention of any riots, though Cayles, her ex-husband, had called several times with the firm conviction that the containment zone had become no-man's land, full of minefields, rattling machine guns, and hand grenades tossed as casually as cigarette butts. "First I heard of it," Loretta had said. She'd gone to the window and looked out on a peaceful street. "All quiet on the western front," she told him.

But there were rumors. Fighting in the street. That rumor, at least in one relatively mild case, was true enough, Loretta knew. Other rumors were more sinister. Armed robberies and rapes. Beatings. Home invasions by hazard-suited fiends who performed involuntary operations, with or without benefit of anesthesia. Medical personnel insisting on "organ donations." Whole blocks wiped out by the disease.

Nobody in the zone knew for sure what was happening outside of their own little block. Their world had shrunk to a short row of houses or an apartment complex. Travel was discouraged and most people were in hibernation mode, staying in contact with their friends via telephone or Internet and listening or watching the news.

And waiting. What was the government doing to solve the problem? "We're working on it" went only so far to allay fears of those caught in the vise grip of an epidemic. A "potential" epidemic, that is, so said government officials, such as that grotesquely-mustached director of something or another that Loretta had never heard of before.

Loretta glanced up, toward the second floor of their modest row home. Thank God there's no school tomorrow, she thought, so the kids won't be going out.

* * *

Upstairs, Gary was in his bedroom listening to music, headset speakers blasting out rock songs. Alicia, picking absently at the scratch on her arm, sat in the same room. Having evicted their little brother, and with Yvonne eating in the kitchen, the two oldest siblings had the room to themselves.

"We've got to do something," said Alicia. "I'm frigging bored to death."

Gary took off his headset. "What?"

"I'm going stir crazy in here."

"Shouldn't be too much longer. Bo said they're going to lift the blockade in a few days."

"How does one of your friends know something like that?"

Gary shrugged. "His father used to work at a hospital or something."

Alicia rolled her eyes.

"I'll bet he's right," said Gary.

"You know what I heard?" Alicia's voice dropped into a conspiratorial whisper. "Vickie told me that the government is going let us all get sick and die, because they can't fix the disease and they're afraid to let us out and infect everybody else.

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