**This is a work of adult fiction. It contains adult themes and situations. All characters are over the age of 18. It is also a work of fantasy, requiring some suspension of belief. It's not perfect, enjoy it for what it is. If you like it, great, if not, that's fine too.**
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"You've got to be kidding...", I said to myself as I listened to the news update on talk radio, lazily making my commute into the office, waiting for the caffeine to finally kick in. The news went over the current infection rates, talks of how to curb transmission, and continued threats of a lockdown. I was in disbelief. This is the type of thing you see in movies, not in real life. Coronavirus, COVID-19, the 'Rona....it's all anyone had been talking about for weeks. We had already been making tentative plans in the event that we needed to have people work from home for a time. Luckily, many of our employees, myself included, already had schedules and home set-ups where we would work at home a couple days a week and in the office the other days of the week.
I had been working for an accounting firm just outside of Seattle for several years. Yea, I'm a math nerd. It wasn't a terribly hard job, just pretty busy. We had several longstanding contracts with various businesses in the area which kept us working. The money was decent, I'm by no means rich, but comfortable, and being able to work from home was nice.
I pulled into the parking lot and shut off my car just as another new news update started. You'd never know anything was going on based on the traffic this morning, same as always. I leaned into my car, grabbing my bag and coat - it was still quite cold outside - almost forgetting my coffee thermos, before strolling towards the building. I took a sip as I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket....probably my supervisor, Keith. I was running a bit late, nothing new for me, but Keith always let me slide - he knows I'm a good worker, and also happens to be one of my closest friends. I've kind of got it made here, I'd have to kill someone to get fired. I let the phone continue vibrating and go to voicemail, I'll see him in a minute anyway.
As I walked into our space on the third floor I threw a short wave and nod to Jeanie, our front desk secretary. Still cute as a button, as always. We hook up occasionally, but nothing serious, it's been a while though...maybe I should see if she wants to swing by this weekend.... Jeanie flashes me a nervous smile as I make my way around the corner and into the main office space where everyone is standing is small groups here and there around the forest of cubicles, not much work being done apparently.
As I reach for my keys approaching my office door, Keith pops his head out from his office next to mine, my phone vibrating in my pocket again,
"Yo Jake, conference room in 10 minutes, alright?", his brow in uncharacteristically furrowed, he's usually laid back about any-and-everything.
"Yea, no problem, let me get settled real quick and I'll be there," I called back as I opened my office door.
Keith gave the same announcement to the groups of other employees conversing in hushed tones. People started slowly making their way towards the larger room at one end of the cubicles.
I toss my bag and coat on my chair and quickly retuck my shirt into my pants, better look somewhat professional since we're having a meeting...I'm a manager after all, cue eye roll. At 31, I was lucky enough to have worked my way up to department manager and a nice increase in salary last year. I like the pay, but not so much the actual 'managing.' The office is nice too, with my own fancy name tag on the door.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket as I walked back out of my office and towards the conference room...two missed calls and two voicemails, unknown number. Sorry, don't know ya, I'll check it later.
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Keith cleared his throat as he motioned for me to join him at the front of the room, "Okay everybody, I know we talked about this a little bit last week, but it looks like the Governor is going to be instituting lockdown for a few weeks, probably by the end of this week from the way it sounds. We've already prepared for this luckily, so we are going to stick with those schedules that Jake passed out, skeleton crew rotating here in the office and everyone else work from home," Keith held up a copy of the forms I had made up and given out, which was basically just a weekly rotation of me, Keith, a few other managers, and some of the secretarial staff taking turns to come in a day at a time each week to man the phones while everyone else did their work at home.
"This will go into effect tomorrow, and myself and Jeanie will be starting off the rotation, so be sure to take anything home that you need and/or don't want to be left here. Should hopefully only be a few weeks, but plan for longer just in case," he continued as my phone vibrated for a third time this morning, again with an unknown number as I pulled it out to look at it. Well, it's obviously not Keith or anyone from work since we're all here.
I finished up the meeting, going over some logistics, who to call with certain issues, and reading over a report of what we know so far that Keith had handed to me. We broke from the meeting and I made my way back to my office, finally taking the time to listen to the messages on my phone as I sat down at my desk.
I felt a rush of adrenaline as an ER nurse quickly explained in the messages that I was the listed emergency contact for Jessica Stevens, my sister, who was stable and in the ER after a vehicle accident, followed by a contact number. I quickly closed the voicemail and dialed the number, finally getting ahold of the nurse who gave me the same information and asked if I could come to the hospital, that Jessie had been begging them to call me.
"Jesus, what else is gonna happen today," I sighed to myself and gathered up my things again. I threw my jacket back on as I rounded the corner from my office to Keith's.
"Jake, just get out of here, we got it, we're just gonna wind down and send everyone home early anyway. Give me a call later and let me know how she's doing," Keith quickly replied as I explained the situation, shooing me out the door.
I hurried back out to the parking lot and hopped in my jeep before rumbling off towards the hospital.
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By the time I arrived, Jessie had already been moved upstairs to an inpatient room. The nurse ushered me into her room, and my breath left me at the sight. Although I hadn't seen her in several months, despite us being only an hour away from each other, she looked nothing like the woman I knew and had grown up with. Her shoulder length hair, usually light brown and wavy, was matted and tangled, still darkened with a faint red hue in some spots with blood, probably from a small laceration on her forehead near her hairline. Her face was puffy and swollen, with her hazel eyes peeping out as she looked towards me standing in the doorway. Both arms were bandaged, with her right arm being in a cast from her fingers to her elbow, and the left heavily wrapped in gauze. Her left thigh was also heavily bandaged and left ankle was wrapped with an ace bandage.
I walked quickly to the side of the bed and reached out to grab her hand before the nurse motioned for me to stop with an outstretched hand.
"Be careful, she's in a lot of pain right now. Her left hand has some decent burns along with her left thigh, there's that small cut on her forehead, probably from the airbag, broken right wrist, and a sprained left ankle, along with various bruising in other spots on her body. But, she's going to be okay."
I nodded at the nurse as she receded to the doorway, before turning back to Jessie, "How are you feeling?"
"It hurts, but I'm here..." she replied, her eyes welling up with tears.
"What happened? Where's Eric?" I said as I looked around for signs of my brother-in-law, assuming he had stepped out for coffee or something.
Jessie shifted her eyes towards the window at the other side of the room, "He's not here, it's a long story..."
"He's not...was he in the car with you? Is he okay?"
"Oh, no, no, he wasn't in the car. I have no idea where he is."
I pulled out my phone and started flipping through my contacts, "Well, let me get him up here, I'm not sure why they called me and not him..."
"No!" Her voice croaked, "I don't want him here!"
