Sutton looked at their young general and couldn’t help but grin. Sarah was barely five-foot-five and very slender, with long black hair that she always wore pulled back. Small black-rimmed glasses sat perched on her pert nose, giving her a bookworm appearance. After the first day with Sutton, she had stopped wearing the business suit and had donned jeans and a pullover shirt with tennis shoes.
“I set up your desktop in your quarters,” Sarah said, grabbing a napkin and then reached over to wipe Sutton’s mouth. “We have a meeting tomorrow at nine a.m.”
Sutton gave a long sigh, slumping down in his chair. “Those meetings interrupt my work,” he mumbled.
“I know. That’s why I cancelled your appearance at the last two, but you have results the President can understand,” she said, pushing a bottle of water closer to his plate and hoping Sutton would take a hint.
The vision of Sarah holding him down and pouring the water down his throat filled Sutton’s mind and he snatched it up. “You can interpret the results that well?” he asked, then drank half the bottle.
Shaking her head, “No, but I understand your dictation. Give me a little while and I will understand the nuts and bolts better,” she told him.
“I believe that,” Sutton chuckled, setting the bottle down.
“May I ask you a question?” Sarah asked in a low voice.
“Sarah, you are part of this team now, so you can ask whatever you want,” Sutton laughed. “I’ve never seen Skannish listen to anyone, including me.”
Leaning back, the smile fell off her face, “How accurate do you think Dr. Skannish’s death rates are?” she asked.
All cheer left Sutton’s body and he looked down at his plate. “Accurate, but on the low side,” Sutton said in a low voice.
“So, we will be losing six million people a day by the end of the week, and by next week it will be up to twenty million a day?”
Putting his fork down, “Yes, that will be the peak here,” Sutton admitted. “In sixteen days, the numbers will start falling because those left will be isolated or immune.”
“So, by May twentieth, the population of the United States will be less than thirty million? And a large portion of that will be kids?”
Nodding, “Yeah,” Sutton mumbled. “This modern world we have was the perfect vector for this virus. Airplanes moved people around and one man got it into the bird population literally, around the globe. Then, a person can jump in a car and be on the opposite coast in two days.”
“What are the numbers you feel that are isolated?”
“Ten to twelve million,” Sutton answered. “Those are the ones we can help with a vaccine.”
She leaned over and patted his cheek. “Go get in the bed, but shower first. I laid out new clothes and leave those in the bathroom, so they can be washed,” she instructed. “Atlanta will be sending the next batch of results in an hour. I’ll put them in the computer.”
Getting up, Sutton looked down at Sarah, forcing a smile. “Thank you for all of your help,” he said, really liking her but terrified of her. Sarah’s language could make anyone blush when she got mad which it seemed, he and his team could do very easily.
***
Stumbling down her hallway, Wendy moved around a body that was lying on the floor. Wheezing hard, Wendy bent over coughing hard and spewing froth from her mouth. Ignoring the dead body, she clutched the handrail on the wall to keep from falling down. She had tried to continue the checkups on people in their cabins, but had finally had to stop. The cough had started gradually over an hour ago and then intensified fast. In two hours’ time, the coughing had started doubling her over.
As the coughing fit subsided, Wendy lifted her head and saw a refreshment cart in the hallway ahead and stumbled up to it. Hitting the cart with her waist, Wendy leaned over it and used it like a walker to continue down the hall.
She stopped at her door and pulled the keycard attached to a bungie on her waist. The crew had given her that to check on people because it opened all the doors on the ship. Slipping the card in, she opened her door and pushed the cart in. She saw Gloria lying down on the bed, hacking hard as she coughed.
“Gloria, you have to sit up,” Wendy croaked out. Letting the cart go, Wendy moved beside Gloria and touched her skin to feel that it was on fire. Seeing a bottle of Tylenol on the bedside table between the beds, Wendy grabbed it and took two out.
She pulled Gloria up and propped her against the headboard. “Take these,” Wendy said, putting the pills in Gloria’s mouth. When she lifted a bottle of water to Gloria’s lips, Gloria grabbed it and turned it up. “Slow down some,” Wendy said, taking the bottle away.
Gloria cracked her weary eyes open. “Nobody answered when the phone rang at home,” Gloria told her in a raspy voice.
“I told you to wait for me and I would go with you,” Wendy said, handing the bottle back. “The captain told me we will be able to quarantine in Miami. They are going to have us park in the bay.”
Draining the bottle, Gloria dropped it as she gasped for air, wheezing so loud Wendy could feel the vibrations through the air. “How many died today?” Gloria asked.
“Don’t know, I had to stop rounds,” Wendy admitted, struggling to keep her eyes open. She saw Gloria tilt to the side to lay down. Reaching out, Wendy stopped her. “You have to keep your chest upright. Your lungs are filling with fluid. Upright, you have a chance to cough it out and use the
