“Okay, fine, then hold it,” I told her and shut the door. The next two hours were spent getting dressed and filling the bathtubs with water. The weather had been getting progressively worse, and Daphne continued to be stubborn. I heard the garage door open and Jake slogged through the laundry room looking like a drowned rat.
“I have a feeling we’ll be stuck here for a while. It’s getting pretty bad out there,” he reported while he dried his hair with a dish towel. We puttered around the house for a bit, making sure everything was secure and the generator was good to go. After lunch, we hunkered down on the sofa and played the remote war. I won of course.
From its charging station in the bedroom, my phone began playing the Super Mario Brothers theme song. I sprang from the sofa intent on answering it before it went to voicemail. Leaping across the bed with hands outstretched, I grabbed the phone off the nightstand and hit the connect button.
“Hello,” I exclaimed, out of breath.
“This is an automated message from Jackson State College. Classes and all school activities have been suspended until further notice due to extreme weather conditions. To repeat this message, press one. Otherwise, disconnect.”
I hung up the phone and did a little happy dance. There was a nasty exam scheduled for that afternoon and I was pumped to get out of it, even if it was for just a few extra days. As I did a little twirl, I caught sight of Jake smiling at me in the doorway. His eyes twinkled and he jumped in and joined my dance party.
“I don’t know why we’re dancing, but I like it.” I doubled over laughing as he went old-school and pulled out his best running man.
“Snow day!” I said, following it up with a high five. Maybe rain day was more appropriate, but where’s the fun in that?
The rain pelting the windows sounded like someone was throwing pebbles at the corrugated metal. Jake and I went back to the living room and knelt on the loveseat with our arms on the back as I pulled the cord to raise the blinds. The rain was coming down sideways in thick sheets. Lightning lit the gray sky and was followed by a thunderous boom. It was moments like this that I fully appreciated adding surge protection through the electric company. If any of our electronics or appliances kicked the bucket during a storm, they were responsible for replacing them.
The electricity flickered, but it didn’t fail. Overhead, the sound of a helicopter flying low could be heard above the storm. The beast came into view as it traveled directly over the house. It was so low, the windows rattled in their frames. Jake and I gave each other looks of surprise and craned our necks to look up again. It was gone, but three more followed in its wake, flying just as low and fast.
“Where the heck are they rushing off to?” he asked, as if I would know the answer.
Shrugging my shoulders, I mumbled a phonetic sound close enough to an I dunno and jogged to the front windows in time to see them fade to nothing in the storm.
We spent the afternoon cuddled on the sofa watching DVDs. The unusually-heavy air traffic continued in spurts. At one point we were jarred out of TV Land by the sound of an explosion. Running to the front door, we huddled under the porch searching for the cause. Off in the distance, we could make out a plume of black smoke rising into the sky. Unlike inside, we could hear more than the rain and helicopters. Muffled pops could be heard from various directions. I closed my eyes and tried to make out individual sounds above the rain.
“Is someone yelling?” I asked.
“It sounds like it, but I think there’s more than one person.”
Our efforts to remain dry under the small covered area were futile, and we squished back into the house with wet socks.
“Let’s see if the news is on. I want to watch the weather and see how things are looking,” I said. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and it will peter out or skip us altogether.” With Jake on one side and Daphne on the other, I tuned into the local news station.
Chapter 05
Buried Treasure
“In the midst of what is surely the worst storm Floridians have seen all year, we are getting reports of extreme violence throughout the community. Law enforcement officials recommend all nonessential personnel remain in their homes until what they are calling ‘civil disobedience’ has been contained. We have received news that St. Vincent’s Hospital has been overrun with crazed citizens. Reports state that there has been an outbreak of what medical professionals have determined is a form of the rabies virus. Highly contagious through transmission of saliva and blood, this pathogen has a one hundred percent infection rate and is believed to have originated from a female patient at St. Vincent’s Hospital. The hospital has been placed under quarantine, and we have been asked to direct anyone exhibiting symptoms of the infection to St. Mary’s Hospital on Metro Parkway in Fort Myers.
“We have received reports of similar activity from hospitals along the east coast, reaching as far north as Delaware.
“Early warning signs include fever, lethargy, and respiratory distress following contact with an infected individual. Those in the late stages of infection exhibit tonic-clonic seizures and a catatonic state, followed by severe violent episodes after waking. Folks, I realize this is going to sound crazy, but I have been instructed to tell you that these infected individuals are biting, and subsequently eating, victims. This is not a hoax. Once bitten, victims will become ill, and the infection will consume them within a matter of hours. If you come into contact with someone infected, make all attempts to isolate yourself and contact the authorities.”