Prepper's Sacrifice Read Free

pressing her head against Stewart’s chest.
    Deep down, Stewart knew that with the way things were going, great nights would, soon enough, be hard to come by.

Chapter 2
     
    Stewart focused on the lips of the news reporter as she slowly read each word from the teleprompter.
    ‘The usually fatal Ebola virus disease has Florida in a state of panic now that two new residents have tested positive for the virus. This makes the third case in the Sunshine State, and residents are wondering what’s being done to prevent an outbreak. The World Health Organization has refused to comment on the new cases and is withholding the names of the victims. How they got infected, who they came into contact with and also the condition of these residents remains confidential.
                  ‘We’re all doing the best we can to keep things under control and to come up with a cure,’ said Dr. Henry Drogan of the Florida Medical Institute, a scientist who has been very vocal about his belief that Ebola isn’t as serious as it’s being made out to be.
    'However, with a significantly high fatality rate, there’s no denying that the people have a legitimate cause for concern. With limited information on the cases in Florida, residents want to know how much more is being kept from them.
    Have there really only been three cases?
    Is there a possibility that a mutation could cause the virus to become airborne?
    Are we really safe?
    Is there a cure that we’re not being told about?
    These questions and more are being raised time and time again. Though we’re prompted to remain calm, there’s no way to completely forget the potential threat that Ebola poses to us. It made its way here, to the United States, and now we’re all in harm’s way.’
    As if Stewart wasn’t already in a state of panic with the first case in Florida, now there were more and no one felt like talking about where it came from. If this guy had traveled on a plane, then surely there were hundreds of people in danger, hundreds of people who didn’t know that they'd had contact with an infected man or woman. Did they have no quarantine measures in place? Were they housing these Ebola patients in the same hospital as regular patients? Stewart was furious, but this fury would get him nowhere. He’d seen masses of people protesting on the streets, but he wasn’t one to stand out in the scorching sun with a poster that nobody useful would read. Plus, being squished between protestors and failing to get answers would anger him even more. Though he found it great that so many people were willing to take a stand, no part of him believed it would work. No matter how loud the people screamed, no matter how moving their words were, no one was answering their questions. He wasn’t going to portray himself as a clown, pleading for answers when no one cared. Instead, he’d stay prepared. He’d ensure that he and his wife had everything that they needed to be safe and stay safe.
    Just as he was about to barge into the shower to rant to his wife, his phone rang.
    ‘Hey buddy, how’s it going?’ Tim’s ever-jovial voice chimed in.
    ‘Ah, Tim. I’m okay. Yeah, I’m okay. How about yourself?’
    ‘As good as good could be.’
    ‘So what did I do to deserve this phone call? Tell me the lady of the day cooks you breakfast and you’re not looking to have my wife whip up a meal for you, because…’
    Tim laughed. ‘As good as that dinner was, no, that’s not why I’m calling. The paper landed in my hotel room and I thought about it.’
    ‘See, I wasn’t lying when I told you that it’s coming.’
     
    ‘I knew you would say that. I just wanted to say good job on predicting that there’s more to everything than they’re letting us believe.’
    Stewart wasn’t sure if Tim was starting to take things seriously or if he’d called merely for the comic relief of it all.
    ‘I wouldn’t say it’s something to congratulate me about. Trust me, I was hoping I’d