YPP-234: The New Plague by Jacqueline Druga

Author:Jacqueline Druga [Druga, Jacqueline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-04-23T22:00:00+00:00

EIGHTEEN – FALLING

JFK QZ – New York

It just seemed to happen faster by the hour. When Ossie’s granddaughter fell ill, she seemed to be the tipping domino, one by one, from bloody vomit to phlegm filled coughs and swollen necks. People dropped from the illness.

Ellis was still not sick, he expected to be. Perhaps he would be the last wave of the mighty to fall.

When he was fifteen years old he broke his arm when he fell off his bike on a trail. His parents, of course, took him to the emergency room. It just so happened that day there was a major accident involving a bus and several cars. Ellis remembered the emergency room that day. The mayhem, the groaning, crying, screaming and fighting.

It was so loud. He was glad his father ended up leaving. Not because of the noise, but because they had those people from the accident to treat.

In the hangar it was very reminiscent of that day. The noise level was unbelievable. There were some so sick, like Rosalie, they didn’t move. Others were angry and fighting.

He didn’t blame them. He was angry as well. No one told anyone what was going on, and as each hour passed, less and less workers came in.

It came to a point that Ellis couldn’t take it anymore. Instead of fighting and getting angry, he just wanted to run.

The cries of pain from people who were losing loved ones and the moaning of the sick. The screaming of the belligerent and fighting was over the top.

He hated leaving Ossie, but he couldn’t handle it. When he looked at her cradling her youngest granddaughter while Rosalie leaned against her, it was far too much. When he saw them, all Ellis could think of was Bebe and his children.

He thanked God they were safe, and whatever was making everyone drop like flies was confined to this hangar.

Or was it?

He didn’t know because he hadn’t a clue what was going on. There was no internet, no phone.

Finally, Ellis broke.

He couldn’t watch the pain on Ossie’s face any longer or stand the smell of the sick, and Ellis became like every other able bodied person, he raced toward the door. The mob of thirty or so people crammed there like a mosh pit, yelling and pushing.

Soldiers in gas masks and rubber style suits pushed their way in, using their rifles to move people back.

“You can’t go anywhere!” yelled one of them. “None of us can. Stay back.”

Bang. Bang, Bang.

Gunshots rang out. Ellis didn’t see anyone fall, but he heard the screams, and then a group of men rushed for the door, moving the soldiers back and forth as if they were beach balls.

They made it out.

The door was still open, and Ellis, like them, fled towards it.

At that point he didn’t worry about being shot. He didn’t think of anything but going home.

It felt good to be out of there. Ellis actually paused to breath in the fresh, cool air that didn’t smell of sour copper.

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