Normally Sandra would give people a frown and the room would go into silence. But this time she spoke up. "What is this 'outbreak' that you're talking about?"
Immediately Dave swore in his mind. He had to be careful or he'd reveal that he had be reading news sites while at work.
The best defence is offence, so Dave stood up and walked over to Sandra while saying, "On the way to work I heard a few bits of news. I guess it was early and there wasn't much info."
Sandra looked dubiously at Dave as he leaned over her desk.
"Pull up a browser and let's check out the news," suggested Dave.
A tight, disapproving frown appeared for a moment on Sandra's forehead. Checking the news was outside what should be allowed in the office. Moreover, reading the news, in Sandra's eyes, would be considered "fun" and to her all things fun were forbidden. However, Sandra glanced toward's the closed door to Layton's office and brought up a browser. Clearly Sandra had her own questions and her curiosity overwhelmed her usual militant standards.
Sandra opened a web browser and did a quick search for diseases and airport. A lot of results for the morning appeared. Sandra opened the first news article in the results from her search. The opened page showed the headlines which caused Dave to exclaim loudly: "Fucking Christ!" Sandra blinked with disapproval at Dave's exclamation, but the news article had a title that confused her and prevented further moralising.
The news article was reporting how the entire airport was shutdown. Dave looked up and glanced at Sandra as if asking her if what he saw was real. Sandra, her normally tough exterior looking a lot more fragile than normal, looked questioningly at Dave. She had seen what Dave had seen and had been stunned.
"What the hell is going on? Early they just reported a plane with some people who were acting oddly."
"Oddly?"
"They were in the plane. Standing. Their skin was grey with hints of pus and their eyes were bloodshot. It's gone from people standing in a plane to a full quarantine. Someone is really shitting themselves over this. And guess where our CEO is."
Sandra cleared her throat to clear it of disagreeable ideas. "It looks like the entire airport was closed down. This article is advising people to not to panic and stay away from the airport."
It could have been going on for some time but Dave only just noticed. "Do you hear the sirens?"
Sandra looked bewildered. "There's always sirens."
Dave looked closely at her. "We're on the tenth floor and the windows are double glazed. We shouldn't be hearing shit from the street."
Sandra bit her lip. She wasn't used to this. It's tough on a control freak when they start to perceive that they are no longer in control. Unexplainable oddities and mysteries were Sandra's deepest enemies.
Hit by curiosity, Dave said to Sandra but it could have been to no one: "I think I need a coffee. I'll be back in a few minutes."
Normally Sandra would have told Dave that he could have just gotten an instant from the kitchen area. But her pale face showed a loss of conviction. Dave walked unquestioned towards the elevators. Why did he have a nagging sensation that he had to flee the building that he was in?
* * *
After leaving the elevator, Dave wandered through the foyer and out on the street. He paused for a moment under the awning that covered the doors to the building that he just left. Nearby was a man in overalls part way up a ladder trying to clean the large street-level windows with a sponge on a stick.
It was just a normal, mild, sunny day. Being mid-morning most people were inside at their jobs. Even so, there were a number of people on the street, no doubt going about their lives in their own way. There was no sign of anything being wrong. And yet everything felt wrong. Feeling a sense of unease, Dave looked back and forth along the street. There was some traffic, but maybe not as much as you would normally see. Reading about what was happening at the airport had made Dave all jittery.
Sighing in an effort to clear his mind of what he couldn't do anything about, Dave walked to the building adjacent to the one that contained his office. The front of this building had a coffee stall that opened directly onto the street. There was no one queuing there so Dave strolled up and ordered a simple coffee. The woman behind the counter gave Dave a grimace as if annoyed at having to make something undecorated - had Dave asked for a more elaborate set of ingredients then she could have charged more. Dave had learnt how to enjoy cheap coffee when he was at university doing a course on software engineering. Cheap times resulted in cheap tastes.
Dave placed the exact change without a tip on the counter top, which earned him another annoyed expression from the woman behind the counter, and picked up his coffee. He turned to the street and was momentary confused. Nothing was moving. It took him only a few moments to get a coffee, but in that time the street had emptied of cars. Dave reminded himself that this was a one way street that came from the direction of the airport - a thought that only added to his discomfort. There were a few people on the street, and even they seemed confused by the stillness.
As if to break a convention, Dave walked further out onto the sidewalk. All the cars had magically disappeared, leaving the street oddly clear of the usual traffic. People had stopped. There was nothing explicit to point at, but there was a tension that froze all movement and thought. There was a strange buzz or hum that Dave had never noticed before that he could not discern the
