together with the fact that TV had stopped reporting the mounting death counts, was enough to confirm that the “end” was coming soon. They jointly decided there was little more they could do. They would not open the office the next day or until further notice. They would devote their quality time remaining to their own families, in their own homes. They would keep in touch with one another frequently by phone.
When Margaret got into her car to return to her parents’ home in Dishforth, she was anticipating major problems getting past the police roadblocks. However, she was able to bypass two unmanned barriers. She decided the police officers must have also decided to change their personal priorities and had gone home to look after their own families. She arrived at her parents’ home without any trouble.
Her mother and father welcomed her warmly. They were relieved to hear she intended to stay with them for the next few days and not return to Ripon. Dishforth was now a community in despair and panic. There had been two SDC deaths overnight: the village police officer and his six-year-old son. No one knew how they caught the infection, but the common theory was that the policeman had been infected while he was manning a roadblock on the nearby highway.
Margaret patiently explained that it was inevitable SDC would reach Dishforth eventually. She also explained there was nothing she or anyone else could do to prevent them from catching and dying from the contagion. There was a long silence. Margaret’s mother started crying softly and soon her father did too. Finally, Margaret succumbed to their emotion of despair and started weeping herself. Margaret’s announcement was not a real shock to them. However, the blow of her confirmation of their fears was hard to take. After a few minutes of weeping and hugging, they recovered their self-control and resolved to stay calm and quietly enjoy what time was left to them together.
Margaret and her mother enjoyed preparing a good dinner with some of their family’s favorite foods. The three of them consumed two bottles of good French wine with their leisurely evening meal. They noticed, but did not comment on, the runny noses they all had developed during the evening. An early night was in order and the effects of the wine ensured they all fell asleep quickly.
On Tuesday morning, Margaret woke up late. It showed after nine on the alarm clock beside her bed when she slowly stirred into consciousness. She quickly remembered the reasons for waking up in her parents’ spare bedroom. It was with some relief she heard her parents talking quietly and normally in the kitchen. They had all survived the night. Their infection was in too early a stage to have had a fatal effect during their night’s sleep.
She immediately called her partners, who confirmed SDC had reached Ripon. There had been six reported deaths so far, including the Monday arrivals from Leeds who had visited their office.
When she went to the kitchen to get some breakfast, her mother calmly told her that according to their neighbor, six people had been found dead in their beds in Dishforth that morning. Margaret felt a little guilty about not offering her medical services, but she knew there was nothing she could do to help.
She spent the day and the evening pleasantly with her parents, reminiscing about the happy times they’d had together. The cold like symptoms were even more apparent for all of them. They knew and openly discussed that this most likely was their last day together, at least on this Earth. They went to bed early again, this time with the help of a sleeping pill from Margaret’s medicine bag.
Despite taking a sleeping pill herself, Margaret woke at four. The house was eerily quiet. She softly called to her mother, who had always been a light sleeper, without getting any response. She crept into her parents’ bedroom. She confirmed they both were unnaturally cold and had probably been dead for several hours. After gently kissing them goodbye, she wearily crept back to her own bed and cried herself to sleep. She fully expected never to wake up again.
Much to her surprise, she did wake up, at about ten the next morning. In her misery over the loss of her mother and father, she realized she was destined to live at least one more day. She felt very much alone.
France: The Survivors
Henri Plouchard was a fifty-year-old baker in the historic city of Avignon in the south of France when the SDC catastrophe swept around the world. The youngest son of a farmer from a nearby village, he had lived in Avignon for more than thirty years. He was married to his childhood sweetheart, Josephine. They lived in a three-bedroom apartment above their small bakery with their two teenage sons, Jacques and Pierre. Henri’s routine had been very much the same every day of the week but Sunday for the fifteen years that he had owned and operated the bakery.
When he climbed out of bed at his usual time—five in the morning—on Tuesday, July 14, 2015, he had no idea that his life was about to change forever. The flight from New York carrying a middle-aged couple from Glens Falls was at that time flying high over the Atlantic, still two hours from landing at Charles De Gaulle Airport near Paris. George and Jean Grayson were at the start of their long-planned vacation in the Provence region. Avignon was their first destination.
Jean had made a last-minute stop on Monday at the Glens Falls public library to find just one more travel guide that would help them prepare for their holiday. She had been served by Elaine Henderson.
Without her knowledge, she had taken more away from her library visit than just the book she had chosen. The SDC virus was now on its way to Avignon.
After arriving in Paris, the Graysons caught the next high-speed TGV train from the airport directly to Avignon. Less than four hours later, just after lunchtime, they arrived at their destination and took a taxi to their hotel. They were very tired from their long journey but they decided to try to avoid sleeping until the evening. This would allow them to get a good overnight sleep and get adjusted quickly to the six-hour time change. They were both beginning to suffer from the coldlike symptoms of the infection that Jean had unwittingly picked up at the Glens Falls library just twenty-four hours earlier.
They wandered out of their hotel and began a casual exploration of the streets of the old city nearby. After less than an hour of walking, they were feeling a little hungry. When they passed the storefront of Henri Plouchard’s bakery, they immediately were tempted by the assortment of fresh bread and pastries on display in the window. Henri himself served them the rolls and pastries they requested in their halting French and by pointing at the items they wanted. As usual, Henri was very friendly and helpful to American tourists when they visited his store. They were a major part of his business during the busy tourist season.
Henri did not realize that as he took payment from the Graysons, he also received traces of the infectious and deadly SDC virus that had so recently started its path around the world. By the end of the day on Tuesday, he was infected himself, and he quickly spread the infection to his family, friends, customers, and many of the other citizens of Avignon with whom he came into contact in the next two days.
Henri and Josephine were spared the worry about the news of the spreading infection, because they were among the very first people to be infected. By Wednesday night, all the Plouchard family was suffering from the cold symptoms. The infection was not sufficiently advanced to have any fatal results while they slept that night. The same was not true for the Graysons. They both died while asleep in their Avignon hotel room. Their unexplained deaths were not discovered until Thursday afternoon, when the hotel cleaning staff finally used their passkey to gain entry to their room.
The Plouchard family never knew about the deaths of the Graysons. Despite the mild cold symptoms that all the family members were suffering from, they went about their normal business on Thursday. The boys went to school, and Henri and Josephine worked their usual long day in the bakery. That evening, they all had dinner together and watched television. By 10 p.m., they were all in bed, anticipating an early
