Phobia: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller Read online

  “Dad?”

  “Yeah, hold on a second.”

  Frank stared out at the calm waters of the St. Lawrence River.

  From where he was sitting he had a clear view of Wolfe Island and the Thousand Islands. His tiny property was located just west of Grindstone Island, the fourth largest of the Thousand Islands. Above, wispy white clouds moved ever so slightly in the clear blue sky.

  “I know you are liable to take this the wrong way, perhaps you’ll notch it up to my disorder but it’s nothing to do with that. Have you received any texts from your mother?”

  “I’ve seen them come in but I haven’t read any.”

  “Ella, whatever issues you are working through with your mother right now, you should at least answer her texts. It’s just common courtesy.”

  She huffed on the other end of the line. Frank had to remember that she was nineteen now and more than capable of figuring it out. Even now he struggled with the idea of letting her go and being her own person. In his mind, he still saw his little girl.

  “I know you didn’t text me to give me a lecture, so what’s up?” Ella asked.

  “Your mother thinks this could be the big one.”

  She groaned. “Goodness sakes. Not again.”

  “I’m serious, Ella.”

  “Like you were the time when my friend Sarah got chickenpox? Or the time my school sent home a letter informing parents to keep their kids home if they were ill?”

  “I knew you would take this the wrong way.”

  “How else am I meant to take it, Dad?”

  “Just do me a favor, read the texts from your mother, then call me back.”

  He hung up wishing he could have left this to Kate. Even though Ella and Kate had been at odds with one another over the past few years since she had decided to leave Frank, he knew that deep down she trusted her mother. She wasn’t a woman prone to cry wolf unless she really knew it was serious. That’s what troubled Frank. There had been countless times that Kate had soothed his worried mind about flu reports. She was the cool, calm and collected one in their marriage. His true north, some might say, and the one that had kept him together for years. After she left, he came apart at the seams. It was like finding a hole in a boat and slowly watching water pour in knowing that it was only a matter of time before he would be treading water and taking his last breath.

  The phone rang again.

  “Okay, so I read her texts, I checked the local news and I don’t see any reports here in the city. I tried to get in contact with mom but she’s not answering calls or texts.”

  “She’s probably nose deep in the thick of it. Anyway, how long will it take you to pack a bag and head up this way?”

  She burst out laughing. “You can’t be serious, Dad.”

  His hand stung from the cut on his hand. “Ella, did you not just read your mother’s texts?”

  “Yes, but I can’t just up and leave right now. I have an exam tomorrow.”

  “Just tell the teachers you need to leave because of a family emergency and I’m sure they will let you do it another time.”

  She chuckled. “You don’t know how it works here, Dad. A friend of mine recently was ill.”

  “How recently?”

  “Oh, for god’s sake, Dad, calm down. It was a month ago.”

  “That’s not recent.”

  “Figure of speech.”

  “Anyway, she took off one day, and she said it was like trying to catch up with a week’s worth of work. I can’t do it. I’m already falling behind and struggling to stay on top of the workload.”

  “Are things okay?” he asked. “Cause I mean you can always talk to me, if you’re struggling. I know I’m your old man and all and I have my own issues but I still know a thing or two about life.”

  She laughed. “You crack me up. Look, the best I can do is keep an eye on the news and if things look bad, I’ll head out.”

  “By then it might be too late.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You know what it means. If they think that virus has made its way into the city, they will instigate a cordon sanitaire and quarantine Manhattan.”

  “You are blowing this out of proportion.”

  “They could do it.”

  “Well, best of luck. Have you ever tried to get a cab in this city? People get real pissed off over that, now try to hold them behind a fence and there would be a war.”

  “Even more reason you should be up here. Look, do your father and mother a favor and head up this way. If there are no issues, you can go back in a couple of days, after the weekend.”

  He could hear her grumbling to herself on the other end.

  “Fine.”

  “You’ll do it?”

  “Don’t be so surprised, Dad.”

  “Okay, great. For a second I thought I would have to come down and get you.”

  “Really? I’m nineteen, I’m living my own life.” She paused. “Please tell me you still don’t have that baby seat in the back of your truck?”

  There was silence on the line.

  “Oh man.”

  “Ella, it’s hard to throw away.”

  “God, Dad, I’m a grown woman. Besides, I couldn’t fit in it even if I wanted to.”

  Both of them broke into laughter.

  “So, I’ll see you in six or seven hours.”

  “Something like that.”

  “You want to synchronize watches?”

  “Dad! This is not one of your military ops. Goodbye.”

  Once she hung up, he breathed a sigh of relief. In his mind, they were ahead of the game. The media had begun to trickle out information but panic hadn’t set in and there was still plenty of time for Ella to get out of Queens.

  THREE

  He has really lost the plot. Ella tossed her phone on her bed and glanced over at her roommate Theresa who was nose-deep in thick law books. A wiry girl with thin glasses perched on the end of her razor-sharp nose, she mumbled to herself and scribbled furiously on a piece of paper. There was no chance in hell that Ella could pull out now. The reality was, college was a disaster. It wasn’t that the work was hard; it was that they piled it on. The academy was like a train that wouldn’t stop. From six in the morning until eleven at night she was constantly on the go. If she wasn’t in a lecture, she was studying for a test. The problem was if you didn’t understand, you were made to feel like an idiot.

  Slowly but surely she was slipping and some of the other recruits were noticing it. She had been thinking of becoming a cop for as long as she could remember. The idea of going out there and making a difference had been the driving force behind all the volunteer work she had done prior to entering the academy. Now that she could taste it, she wasn’t sure she wanted it. She saw a whole different side to the career that at one time seemed like the only thing she could see herself doing. The justice system was messed up. And the way they spoke to the recruits made it clear that the public didn’t like them. They lived in a new age with cell phones and while that was helpful for the public to bring attention to crooked cops, it also meant they were forever under the watchful eye of those who didn’t understand what was being taught at the academy. The public would see the use of force as being too much, but they were taught to assess a situation. An officer had to determine the use of power: communication, a baton, pepper spray, a stun gun and only in really dire situations — a handgun. Even then they might be called upon to justify their use of force in court.

  “Did I hear you correctly? Are you going to leave college to go visit your father?”

  “No, he wants me to. Actually both of my parents do but I can’t do that.”

  Theresa snorted. “I was just about to say… you would be out of your mind. We have a test tomorrow, and then they are taking us through firearms and tactical training.”

  If someone fell behind they had to come back at the end of the day, usually after dinner for an hour or two. That wouldn’t have been too bad, if there wasn’t a t
on of work to go over in preparation for tests that they did on a daily basis. Essentially, they were cramming a two-year course into twenty-six weeks. It was intensive and they didn’t let up on the pedal for one second. Everyone was under the gun to stay on top, and if you couldn’t, there was the door.

  Ella went over to her desk and pulled out a folder of paperwork that was thicker than an encyclopedia volume. She grimaced at the sight of all the questions she had to answer. One thing she had come to learn was police officers were nothing more than glorified pen pushers. They had a piece of paper for everything. Sure, the movies and books made their lives look slick but the reality was far different. In the words of one of her teachers, police work was hours of boredom and moments of sheer terror.

  She went back over to her phone and brought up the texts from her mother. Her father’s paranoia about the world coming to an end was to be expected. She had spent the better part of her life thinking that the apocalypse was on her doorstep but her mother was entirely different. She was rational and didn’t lose her cool easily. That’s what worried her.

  “You heard anything about a flu going around?” Ella asked.

  Theresa shook her head.

  They were told that the academy was the worst place to be if you wanted to avoid the flu. Posted outside the nurse’s office was a wall of photos of past recruits who had been sick over the years. Why it was hung there was anyone’s guess. It was not like anyone wanted to see red-nosed, droopy-eyed recruits with snot dripping down their face. So far she had been at the academy all of two weeks and she hadn’t seen anyone sick but they had told them that when one person got an illness, it spread fast. They even went as far as to make recruits squirt sanitizer on their hands before heading into the eating area. When her father heard that he sounded like an excited schoolkid. Up until that point he had been against the idea of her heading off to New York to become a cop. It wasn’t the danger of being shot, or having to deal with terrorist attacks that bothered him, it was exposure to large crowds of people. Yet she knew it wasn’t just that. It meant he would have to leave the house to visit her and trying to get him to step outside was a challenge.

  Apparently, according to her mother, when she first met him his OCD wasn’t as bad as it was today. Over the course of their marriage it had gradually got worse as he became more relaxed around her and less fearful of losing her. That’s what made it difficult when her mother decided to leave. She knew it would destroy him, and it had. Up until that point he was regularly leaving the home, he wasn’t taking as many anxiety pills and he certainly wasn’t cleaning his hands as often. Having her mother there helped him. She was sure of that.

  As for having guests, well that was out of the question. She had once brought her boyfriend back for dinner and he sneezed while at the table. Well, anyone would have thought that he had just dropped a nuclear bomb as her father didn’t just leave the table and retreat into a room. No, instead he returned wearing a disposable coverall, looking like something out of the movie E.T. and then proceeded to escort him out of the house. That guy never returned and that was the end of their relationship.

  As much as she wanted to resent him for that, she couldn’t. He was her father and she knew he was trying to get better. That was the whole reason why he was seeing a psychologist.

  It was her mother that frustrated her, and yet even her she couldn’t blame. Living with her father would have broken down even the strongest woman, and her mother was stronger than anyone she had ever met.

  She glanced back down at the texts that told her to contact her father, then in another one it told her to avoid crowds, hospitals and subway systems. Don’t touch anything, she had typed in another. Get yourself to the cottage A.S.A.P.

  Ella went over to the TV and flicked it on.

  “Oh come on, Ella, I can’t study with that on.”

  “Shh, I just need to see what’s going on.”

  “Great. I sometimes think you are going to end up like your father.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “He’s a freak. You said it yourself.”

  She couldn’t exactly get angry, as that was exactly what she’d said. It wasn’t that she was trying to be rude but her father could wear anyone down. She continued flipping through the channels until she made it to the news. Ella slumped back on her bed and turned it up. That only seemed to piss off her roommate, who got up with an armful of books and stormed out of the room, slamming the door hard behind her. She could hear her cursing all the way up the corridor.

  Ella waited for close to ten minutes before anything appeared on the screen. Then a report began:

  “Atlanta is on edge this afternoon. A battle is underway after it was confirmed that a third American has died from what they are calling the Agora virus. This time it’s a nurse by the name of Stephanie Wilcox. From what we know so far, the apartment building where she lived is off-limits right now as teams from the CDC are clearing it out and placing in quarantine those who may have come in contact with the victim. The entire neighborhood is now on alert and worried. The president has been notified and is assuring the American public that extensive measures are being taken to fight this disease.

  “We have with us today Director Trish Kenwood from the CDC and we are about to go to Nick Wayland outside the hospital in Atlanta. Good afternoon, Nick, what can you tell us so far?”

  “Jesse, good afternoon. Hospital officials have told us that when Stephanie was treating those exhibiting signs of the Agora virus, she was wearing a gown, gloves, a mask and a shield and yet she still ended up infected with Agora. They are still trying to determine how that is possible as from what we know, the virus can only be transferred through fluids like saliva, semen, sweat, blood or mucus. No one is exactly sure how she contracted it but everyone wants answers this afternoon including the neighbors who received information today from the CDC in their mailbox.”

  Ella concentrated on what she was seeing as the news began displaying images of the apartment block. People were standing outside as a truck with CDC symbols on the side pulled up. A team in yellow biohazard suits began rolling in large bins to collect and decontaminate personal items belonging to Stephanie. Police had cordoned off the apartment block and were trying to answer questions.

  “This quiet little neighborhood is on high alert as neighbors begin to learn more about the risks of living in what the CDC calls a danger zone. It appears that everyone received a phone call to alert them to the fact that a health care worker had tested positive for the Agora virus. What they didn’t tell them is that she is now dead.”

  The news kept cutting back and forth between interviews with neighbors, images of those who were infected and then a spokesman for Piedmont Atlanta Hospital: “… all I can tell you right now is that our staff have taken the proper precautions and followed CDC guidelines to treat patients.”

  It went back to Nick: “They say that they have done everything in their power to ensure the safety of the nurses and doctors. Some are saying that in the past three days a mistake was made and now the president is requiring the CDC to investigate how the breach happened as health officials believe that Stephanie may not have been the only nurse infected.”

  After showing various images from the hospital, Nick’s report reverted back to the newsroom where a video was streamed of Director Trish Kenwood from the CDC giving a statement on the breach: “…it is very unfortunate but it’s our firm belief that in the additional days ahead of us we will be seeing more cases of the Agora virus.”

  “So Nick, how many people are currently being watched in relation to the one they are calling patient zero?”

  “It appears it’s around two hundred people that were exposed to patient zero before he was isolated. What we know is that the nurse only came into contact with him after he was infected and had been hospitalized. But the concern is that she has started her own ring of exposure, extending to at least eight people believed to be close friends, a spouse and
a neighbor. This also includes pets who are being monitored to determine the transition threat that might be posed by animals. The race is on to find anyone who may have been infected.”

  “And what can you tell us about the symptoms?”

  “It appears that those infected will initially show signs of a fever, sniffles, sore throat and stomach pain. Right now the police are canvassing the neighborhood with health officials as fear of the virus spreads throughout the country, and several reports have come in from cities on the East and West Coast.”

  The news then cut to a video stream of a flight based in New York that had been quarantined after several patients had complained of flu-like symptoms, fortunately it appeared that it was a false alarm.

  Ella breathed a sigh of relief. If there had been any mention of the virus having made its way to New York, her father would lose his shit. As it stood she notched up her father’s behavior to him being his usual paranoid self, and she figured her mother was just looking to take precautions in case it spread. She wasn’t stupid but she would have been a fool to not think that her father might have pestered her mother to send the texts. No mention of the virus in her neck of the woods was good news. She flicked off the TV and went back to studying. Right now the only thing on her mind was making sure she got on top of the workload and prepared for the next test.

  FOUR

  Something was amiss. Sal studied Frank as he finished making coffee. He had been back and forth to the washroom multiple times in the short span that he’d been there. It was far more often than he usually did. He’d been working with Frank for over a year and though he occasionally had an off day, he had made huge progress with the OCD. His process of using exposure and prevention treatment focused on helping Frank resist the urge to go through the ritual of cleaning, and thinking that everything was contaminated.

  It was fairly simple how it worked.