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

Though Katie had bad feelings about a lot of things, Lily couldn’t dismiss this one so easily. She too had a feeling that things were going to get much worse before they got better.

“You up for that movie?” Katie asked.

Lily nodded, but she wondered if she’d be able to concentrate with everything circling in her head.

Candace Markham glanced up at Dr. Aikens. “I’m sorry, we’re supposed to do what?”

“Label the patient as an NCAV fatality if they die and test positive for the virus.” He repeated the statement as if he couldn’t believe she hadn’t understood the first time, but she couldn’t believe what he was asking them to do.

“I’m sorry, but I need to get this straight. If someone comes in with a gunshot wound-”

“You test them for NCAV,” he said, interrupting her. “We test everyone that comes in.”

“Okay, so we test this person, and for argument’s sake, let’s assume they have the virus, but it’s the gunshot wound that kills them, we’re still supposed to list it as an NCAV fatality?”

“Yes. Look,” he heaved an enormous sigh, “the hospital receives twice as much money for a death labeled an NCAV death as it does for a routine death, so…” He spread his hands as if that should satisfy her.

Candace glanced around at the other doctors at the table. A few stared back at her, but most had their faces glued to the table as if they’d rather be anywhere else right now. “So, we’re going to lie to the government and the people? For money?”

“The hospital needs the money,” he said. “The government is offering it. We’re simply playing by their rules.”

“But doesn’t anyone care why the government is offering more money for this? What’s the point of inflating the death numbers?” But suddenly she knew. The lockdowns. Across the US, governors had declared that all non-essential businesses and schools shut down for two weeks to “slow the spread.” The point had been to keep the hospitals from being overrun with patients as those in Italy had been, and Candace had been all for that, but this? This made it feel as if there was an ulterior motive. As if maybe two weeks wasn’t the plan at all, but then she should have guessed that when the governor extended the lockdown another two weeks and closed the schools for the rest of the year.

People were already scared of this virus because no one seemed to know much about it. Hand sanitizer and cleaning products were flying off the shelves faster than stores could re-shelve them, which made sense, but so were toilet paper and canned goods. It was like people were expecting to be locked down in their homes for months instead of weeks, and inflating the death numbers would only cause more fear and panic.

However, Candace could see that perhaps it would also create complacency. People who normally wouldn’t stay home because they valued their freedom might if they thought the virus was worse than it actually was. And from what Candace had personally seen, that was the case. Yes, they had lost patients, but most of them had been elderly and suffering from poor immune systems before they were exposed to the virus. She had yet to see anyone under the age of fifty succumb to the virus personally, and across the country the deaths for those under the age of twenty were microscopic. So, why exactly were schools closed?

“This is wrong,” she muttered under her breath, but she stopped herself from saying more. Though it tore at the empathetic, truthful part of her, a small part of her thought that perhaps she could learn more by staying on the inside, by being close to the action. If she made a ruckus now, they would just fire her. Better to stay quiet and see if there really was something nefarious going on or if perhaps the government, in its infinite wisdom, had truly thought they were going to help hospitals facing the crisis instead of encouraging false numbers.

“It’s what we’ve been required to do,” the supervisor continued, “and we will follow orders. Is that understood?” He glanced around the room, but he stared longest at Candace.

“Understood,” she mumbled along with the rest of the doctors in the room. She would play along and follow orders. For now.

“Now, let’s discuss protective equipment. There’s been some new guidelines on those as well, and we are working as hard as we can to get enough of the correct equipment for everyone. Dr. Goodman, the head of infectious diseases, had been telling people not to wear masks in order to save them for front line workers, but now he is recommending masks for everybody which means that even though he says N95 masks should be saved for those of us dealing with the disease closely, people will buy them up. We’ve all seen the empty shelves-”

As he continued, Candace nodded as if she was listening, but her mind was already wandering. What did all of this have to do with the tribulation?

9

“Due to Dr. Goodman’s new statement that masks help reduce the spread of NCAV, I am requiring that all businesses in the state of Washington require masks to enter.”

Raven rolled her eyes and shook her head as she watched Governor Smythe give his most recent press conference. The media, including the sainted Dr. Goodman, had spent the last few months telling everyone not to wear masks, and now all of a sudden, they were required? What had changed? Because it surely wasn’t the science behind it.

“I know this is an inconvenience for people as are the business closures, but hopefully this will allow us to open more of those businesses soon. In a limited capacity, of course.”

Governor Smythe continued to drone on for a few more minutes, opining about how concerned he was for everyone’s health. Raven was just about to turn the television off when a banner flashed across the screen