The Beginning of the End by Lorana Hoopes (readict txt) 📕

No. Was he okay with no answer as to where they went or who took them? No. Was he physically okay and able to take care of himself? That was debatable. “Define okay.”

She sighed. “I’m sorry about your family, Gabe. We all lost someone in the disappearances, but I need you to come back to work.”

“Why?”

“I’m sure you’ve heard on the news about the NCAV.”

He had though he had paid little attention to it. What did it matter to him anyway?

“Well, we have a patient who tested positive in Washington state and we’re receiving samples to analyze tomorrow. I need my best people on this, and you are one of the best.”

A tiny spark of enthusiasm flickered in Gabe. It felt like it had been so long since something had interested him and studying the new virus was interesting. But was it interesting enough? He took a moment to look around the room. Discarded clothes and trash lay about the room and dirty dishes sat piled on the nearby tables. He hadn’t even gathered the energy to take them to the kitchen. It was clear that something had to change. Perhaps feeling useful again would be it. He could throw himself into his work, and this time there would be no one to disappoint when he missed dinner or came home late.

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll be in tomorrow.”

“Great. And Gabe? Clean up first.”

He wasn’t sure how she knew, but perhaps it was only an educated guess on her part. It certainly wouldn’t have been a leap. “I will.”

6

As Lily walked into the school two weeks later, the energy felt different. All around her, students were talking in hushed whispers, and there was an aura of fear that she’d never encountered before in the building. It floated like an invisible mist affecting everything it touched. She knew it was because of the rumors of a shut down. Though the President had claimed to have closed down the borders to outside travel over a month ago when the virus first hit the news, it evidently hadn’t been quick enough. The mysterious virus that no one seemed to know much about had sneaked its way into the US and infected someone just two hours up the road in Seattle. That case had turned into ten and then quickly into hundreds. Though it appeared to only be infecting Seattle currently, the governor - whom Lily had cared little about until this point - now threatened to shut down schools and businesses across the state to slow the spread.

A part of Lily still believed that the virus wouldn’t make it to Olympia. Seattle was a big city, crowded, with lots of people packed together in small spaces. More people rode transit buses than drove and many worked in cubicles crammed into small offices. It was prime real estate for any contagious disease, evidenced by its higher rate of annual flu cases, but Olympia was smaller, more spread out, protected. Still, she couldn’t get the virus out of her mind.

Over the last week, she had begun researching everything she could about this virus. The media claimed it was highly contagious - some compared it to The Spanish Flu in the early 1900s. Not being a history buff, Lily then had to research The Spanish Flu. What she found had sent tremors of trepidation through her. Medical practices were not nearly as good in 1918, so that created a glimmer of hope, but it still appeared as if closing businesses and schools was one of the few things that slowed the spread back then. Though she knew it was irrational, she didn’t want school to close.

“I heard Seattle is shutting down,” Katie said, falling into step beside Lily. As usual, she passed her a coffee as they continued down the hall.

“Yeah, I heard. I really hope it doesn’t come here.” Lily took a sip of the coffee and waited for the normal feeling of contentment to blanket her, but for once it did not have the usual warming effect.

“Me too.”

“Dude, did you hear Seattle shut down their schools?” Though not speaking directly to them, Isaiah’s excited voice carried across the room as they entered. “I hope we get to shut down.” Isaiah was notorious for doing as little work as possible, so it came as no surprise that he would prefer to be out of school.

“Not me,” Hannah said, organizing the books on her desk into a neat stack. “I’d like to actually get to graduate.”

Isaiah rolled his eyes and waved his hands in a dismissive gesture. “We wouldn’t close that long. Just a couple of weeks for them to clean everything. I could use two weeks of sleeping in and no homework.”

“We’d have to make up the time,” Hannah said as if speaking to a child instead of an eighteen-year-old boy. “I don’t want to lose my summer.”

Isaiah’s face fell as if he hadn’t considered that fact. “Okay, I don’t want to go longer in the summer, but surely they’ll forgive the days, right? Like snow days? Or give us packets to work on? That’s what my friend up north is doing.”

“Packets?” Katie nearly shouted. “That’s not real learning.”

He shrugged. “Better than going longer in the summer. That’s my time off, man.”

If the topic hadn’t been so heavy, Lily might have rolled her eyes at Isaiah. He rarely turned work in as it was, so school time also seemed to be his time off.

The discussions continued as Lily sank into her seat, but they only enforced the sick feeling rumbling around in her stomach. She had thought this pandemic was interesting - as long as it stayed over in China or Europe, far away from her, but now that it was here and messing up her life, she just wanted it to go away.

True to form, Mr. Higgins began class by having the students share any new information they had learned about the virus, but Lily couldn’t get into the conversation. She was thinking