Officer Robert Valentine, Wake County Sheriff’s Department
Carefully you move position on the porch roof, just a couple more shingles and it’s finished. Then a couple of jobs on the bedroom and everything’s ready for Andrea’s return from the hospital.
From within the kitchen you can hear the monotone of that new presenter WRAL-TV News has just recruited. His delivery is so bad, he could spoil the second coming, he has a way of firing statistics and such in a way that makes them instantly forgettable; no, WRAL-TV made a bad choice there.
Amidst all the hammering and changing of position making hearing difficult you guess he’s reporting on that flu outbreak that seems to be dominating both the local and National news at the moment. The last advice you had heard was some doctor advising you to take a couple of aspirins and go to bed, but that was this morning and this epidemic, as they were calling it, seemed to change quicker than a Chameleon on heat.
“Hi Bob”
Looking over the fence from your vantage point on the porch roof, you see the familiar, if worried, face of your neighbour Sam Lacey.
“Hi Sam, what’s up?”
“Just heard from Steph that something weird is going on at the hospital. It seems the place has just been taken over by the military authorities, and no ones getting in or out.” Sam pulls his battered Carolina Panthers cap from his head and scratches his hair.
“Must be somit to do with that flu epidemic the news is full of”
For a moment you consider what he is saying, Andrea is in the hospital where Sam’s daughter Steph works as a nurse so if anything weird is going down you need to know. But if anything major was happening your buddies on the force would have told you, given you the heads up, surely.
“Just thought I’d let you know”
He replaces the cap and turns towards his back door, then stops,
“Oh, by the way in case you hadn’t heard the Parkinson’s down at 43 have been quarantined seems they have that flu virus. Probably couldn’t go to the hospital, what with the military taking charge and so on, so they’ve locked themselves in to sweat it out”
With that he continues through his door into the house.
No sooner had Sam departed then the phone rang, damn you thought spitting the roofing nails you had just put between you lips back into the box. With your foot you reached for the top of the stepladder only to hear the answer phone kick in. Someone was leaving a message, it might be important so you begin to slowly climb down from the porch. Then your cell phone begins its tune, you listen as a pre recorded voice tells you.
“In response to the developing situation within the city of Raleigh and its environs, all leave for state security personnel has been cancelled. All personnel have been ordered to report with immediate effect to their nearest office for assignment”
Through the window of your kitchen you can see the TV. You see film of parts of the city in flames as lines of heavily armed police fire tear gas canisters into a slow moving mass of civilians.
You reach through the window and grab a ring of keys from a peg, house keys, garage keys, key to your truck and one to your gun safe where you keep your pistol and a box of spare ammunition.
You have no idea what’s happening but it doesn’t look good and all you can hear is Sam’s voice saying, “something weird is going on at the hospital” the hospital where Andrea is…