Haliday moved toward the front of the room and everyone focused on him. He looked around, saw the infectious control officer and asked her how long the rooms and patient equipment could last without being cleaned. She responded by saying that in some of the isolation rooms, it would have adverse effects within a day. Within two days, about a fourth of the hospital would have undesirable consequences, and by the end of the week it would be a pure hell hole filled with far too many infectious diseases to even start naming them right now. This did not even include waste handling, lack of water for toilets and sinks, and linen exchanges that would not happen.
He looked over at the housekeeping director and asked him how long before the trash cans were full, the outside dumpsters overflowing and the rodent control would lapse. “Two days. That’s all,” he said. Haliday said, “You could add that to the infectious disease issues and realize things would be getting far worse much faster than anyone could expect.”
The food services department piped in and said the spoiling of fresh food would start within days, the freezer would stay cold a few days and the fridge maybe two. Haliday informed him the food would be gone in a matter of 2-3 days tops anyway with this many people looking to eat and more people surely to show up thinking a hospital is a safe haven. There wouldn’t be any food deliveries each day like they normally had.
Haliday looked around once more and told them these were basic issues that people took for granted. “Look around,” he said. “Look how dependent we are on technology. IV pumps no longer working, pain med pumps not giving people morphine and other drugs, no blood pressure monitors, no pulse ox meters, no telemetry, no nothing.” Haliday continued, “What you now have is a lot of people who need to leave before a lot of people start a slow painful death.”
It wouldn’t be a good place to be and he started heading for the door and said, “I surely won’t be here more than the time it takes me to get my personal stuff out of my truck and leave myself. That brings up another point, good luck starting your cars and making it home.” Some of the people commuted 30 to 50 miles one way. He paused only briefly to look around at the folks who still didn’t get it, although a couple of them had excused themselves for one reason or another, most likely on their way out the door as well.
In the meantime, during this little meeting, all hell was breaking loose around the facility. The surgical center and outpatient procedures center were trying desperately to wrap things up and stabilize patients. Unfortunately for one, there was no hope. As soon as the equipment stopped, there was no suction for clearing the surgical sites, there were no blood pressure monitors to alert anyone of low blood pressure and old fashioned cuffs were a thing of the past due to mercury content. Most of the OR equipment was electronically controlled, so it had failed. It was a fast crash and thankfully the patient had not woken up from the anesthetic.
Up on one of the long-term care floors, they had six people on ventilators. The nurses and patient care associates were all trying to manually vent these patients, but were tiring very quickly. Screams for more staff to come and help fell on deaf ears. There were simply too many patients to care for in a situation like this. The staff was tiring out very quickly.
Too many patients needed care and too little staff was in the facility. Someone needed to triage now and make a determination of who would live and who they would have to let go. The grand idea of saving everyone was just that, a grand idea. If they knew what the next few days would be like, they would walk away now. It was a noble idea to try and wait things out, to help the patients, but it was a risk they shouldn’t take.
Some of the staff already started leaving. A few years back, they had had a massive power outage in the state and even with the emergency generators running and limited power, they left in droves to go home and take care of themselves. Roughly 30 percent had left then and almost the same amount refused to come into work.
Housekeeping, food service, maintenance, and other support staff. They were underpaid and would not care about working to keep the place running. Knowing it was a permanent problem they would care even less. These workers would impact how quickly the facility would fail.
Haliday stopped just before exiting the building as another guy was shaking a snack machine. He looked at Haliday and asked him if he knew how to get a refund. Haliday pulled out his knife, which had a window punch on the end, and pressed it against the glass. The glass shattered. Haliday reached in and grabbed a few candy bars, and told the guy to help himself.
Haliday walked out to his car and passed by a few others doing the same. The only difference was he was going out to get his pack and gear and they were sitting there trying to start their cars. He heard an engine start and looked in the direction of the noise where he saw an old Ford F100. As odd as it was to see a running vehicle; it didn’t surprise him.
As it slowly crawled through the parking lot passing a few cars dead in the aisles, the driver stopped just as Haliday put his pack on and loaded his rifle, readying himself for his walk home. The driver was an older guy in his late 60’s and he looked at Haliday and asked him where he was heading. Haliday said, “East.” Shockingly the driver told him he was heading that way and offered him a ride.
Haliday was not too sure about the proposal, but eyeing the passenger seat he saw a smaller bag and an empty pistol case for a pistol which he noted was strapped on the old guy’s thigh. Good company to be in. Haliday started to refuse and the old guy said, “Hey, I’m looking for a little security until I get out of this crack hood and you seem to be one of the only ones who knows what’s going on, so I’m taking a chance.”
“I saw a gal in uniform get in her car, change, then pull a bike out of the trunk with a pack and she took off before I could call to her. I’m thinking by your squared away looks you two were friends,” he said. Haliday smiled and nodded, then told the old guy he could stay with him about 20 miles due east and that was it. The old guy said that was fine with him. There was a different setting altogether in that direction.
The two pulled out onto the road, dodging cars here and there and drove a bit in silence as they passed by people standing in the road and on the sidewalks. There were actually a couple other cars running, older, but it was evident they were just old, not selected or prepped like this old Ford was. They talked a bit about just a little of this and that, no real subject and neither brought up the EMP or the future. After about 30 minutes, Haliday said he was ready to bail and the old guy stopped the truck in a clear area of the road as no one was nearby.
Haliday shook his hand, told him thank you and wished him the best of luck. The old guy said, “You’re quite welcome and I pray you keep safe.”
Haliday said, “Well sir, right now we all need to pray.” People started heading their way and Haliday told him he better get going and waved goodbye as he started off to the shoulder of the road and toward an access road. He heard the drum of the old Ford’s engine dwindle away. He laughed out loud, even spoke out loud, “Yep, we all need to pray.”
Chapter 2
He stepped down off the shoulder of the road, took a few more steps to cross over the ditch and the ground under his feet felt spongy. When he looked closer, he could see the soil was wet and since there had not been any rain in the past few days, he didn’t know why. He squatted down a bit to pick up a leaf, which was halfway in the muck, and grabbed it by the dry stem and took a quick sniff.