The Ebola Wall by Joe Nobody, E. T. Ivester, D. Allen Read Free Book Online

informed the junior officer. “I know a short-cut through the park.”
    “Just as a reminder, sir, we’re supposed to attend the board’s celebration this morning. You didn’t hear it from me, but I think they are planning on giving you an award.”
    “You don’t say?” Taylor responded, mocking surprise.
    “You earned it, sir. I haven’t seen our people so upbeat since the Q began. Folks are walking around like they have a purpose in life.”
    “I noticed that,” the colonel nodded. “I tried to tell our friends on the board that would be the case. Leadership entails keeping morale at high levels, son. Don’t let anyone ever tell you differently.”
    Taylor exited the Jeep, again nodding his thanks to the driver. “See you later, Major.” He then began the long walk back to his rack, contemplating what they wanted to accomplish next.
    Essentially the ruling council of Houston, the board consisted of various individuals who assumed the leadership vacuum created when the old city and county governments had collapsed.
    The board’s membership was a mixed lot. Among their ranks served both a minister and a priest, the latter having beenthe Archdiocese of the Houston/Galveston Catholic community. A nother was a self-described “old school Baptist preacher,” who in reality was the leader of one of the city’s famous mega-churches. His pre-Ebola flock had numbered in the tens of thousands. In addition, there was a ranking police commander, a senior officer of the local National Guard Units, three business executives, a hospital president, and of course, Colonel Taylor.
    Taylor always felt like he was the outlier of the ruling body.
    Every other member had been in a position of power or prestige before the collapse. The colonel had been nothing more than a manager of a small, private security team that guarded warehouses in an industrial complex.
    He’d been forced to come out of retirement because of Jenny, his wife of 31 years. Diagnosed with stage three breast cancer, Mrs. Taylor’s medical bills were on the verge of depleting the couple’s retirement funds, his VA insurance clearly not up to the task.
    At the advice of another retired Marine, Jack had applied for an open spot, basically a supervisor of a 16-man strong department of night watchmen. Many of the guards were younger jarheads who had left the Corps and been unable to find better paying work.
    Compared to his responsibility while actively serving, managing the small operation at the Northside Industrial Complex was light duty. There were two streets of huge warehouses and a couple of small manufacturing facilities, all surrounded by a chair-link, barbed wire-topped fence. They patrolled, checked locks, and manned the guard booth at the entrance. It was a low-key job with little stress, yet provided enough supplemental income to give the Taylor household a chance to see Jenny’s treatment through.
    There was another advantage to the job – location. Northside was right down the street from the non-profit hospital complex where the uninsured and underinsured like his wife were being treated. The retired Marine liked being close to his mate, the proximity seeming to comfort her as well.
    When Ebola had come to the shores of the United States, the colonel hadn’t been concerned. He’d been around the world enough to recognize media-induced hype, and besides, Jenny was struggling with her medications. He was aware, but not focused on the situation, most of his free time spent at his wife’s bedside.
    The first reported cases to hit Houston did little to elevate his concerns. Watching his wife’s body reject her cocktail of medications consumed the colonel’s thoughts and energy. Even when the occasional news report did alarm him, he pushed it back. Jenny needed calm – she had enough to worry about.
    When news broke of the virus’s mutation into a more deadly strain, he found himself comforting both a declining spouse and a nervous bunch of