Greg Krojac - The Schrödinger Enigma

Grant was now faced with a wait of nearly seven hours before his flight to Seattle would leave – a long time to spend in an airport lounge, even if the airport was modern and had good facilities. He could have rented a car and visited Lake Hood or driven south on the Seward Highway along the Turnagin Arm, taking in the beautiful scenery, but that was the kind of thing he liked to do with his family, so he did what he normally did – he took a taxi to downtown Anchorage.

He made his way straight to the 5th Avenue Mall, to begin his rehabilitation to civilisation. He enjoyed the remoteness of Dutch Harbor and the challenge and hard work of the weeks at sea, but it felt good to return to the land of Starbucks, Foot Locker, and the Apple Store. While at the mall, he bought a couple of designer fleeces for the girls (they could never have too many fleeces) and a beautiful pair of elegant gold earrings for Nadine. They had a wedding to go to in two weeks’ time and he thought that they’d go well with whatever dress she decided to buy for the event. He’d have loved to have surprised her with a new dress, but that was something best bought together. It was a dangerous business for a man to buy a dress for a woman, without her being there, so he’d wait until they could shop together back in Seattle. A succulent steak at Sullivan’s Steakhouse finished off the evening well, giving him plenty of time to return to the airport and catch his flight back home.

Alaska Airlines flight AS106 took off on time at 21:50, and had a perfectly smooth journey to Seattle, leaving hundreds more walking dead in its wake.

Flight AS106 landed at Seattle at 02:16 the following morning, just four minutes late. Grant made his way through the baggage claim area and his spirits lifted when he saw his family waiting for him in the arrivals area. They waved, and quickly moved to where the metal barriers opened up, allowing the arriving passengers to funnel through. Grant’s youngest, thirteen year old Carol-Anne, ran forward and launched herself at her father, throwing herself into his arms. She hadn’t seen him for four months, except on Skype, and couldn’t wait any longer for one of his strong hugs. Grant carried her towards Nadine and his other daughter, fifteen year old Melody, placing Carol-Anne gently back on her feet alongside the rest of his family. After a welcome hug and kiss from Melody, it was Nadine’s turn. She wasn’t jealous of her daughters being greeted first – she knew that her real welcome would be far more intimate and passionate. The family would have her husband back for four whole weeks; that’s what was important.

The first breakfast of the first full day after Grant’s return home from Dutch Harbor had become a Schumacher family tradition. The family got up late and headed to the Portage Bay Cafe at Ballard for brunch. Unusually, all four of them decided to eat the same meal of West Coast Benedict on organic house-made, Yukon gold English muffins, with organic, herb roasted potatoes. Carol-Anne would normally have chosen a few items from the children’s menu, but now she had turned thirteen she wanted to show off her new maturity by eating what the rest of the family chose.

Then they made their way to Washington Park Arboretum for a relaxing stroll amongst the trees and shrubs. They’d visited many times before – whenever Grant returned home – but it never lost its charm, and was exactly what Grant needed after spending so long away at sea. Strolling around the 230 acres of woodlands and gardens was the perfect antidote to his working life in Alaska. The recently opened Cascadia Forest, which covered nearly two acres, was very impressive. Despite her adult brunch earlier on, Carole-Anne showed that she was still just a kid by racing the others to the circular rock overlook, the highest elevation point in the Arboretum. She stood at the top, her hands raised proudly, drinking in the moment of her victory, and accepting the applause of an imaginary crowd of spectators. It made Grant and Nadine so happy to see that their youngest daughter was still just a child at heart – children seemed to grow up so quickly nowadays and they wanted those childhood days to last a little longer, even though they knew from their experience with Melody that she would soon turn into a young woman.

Back home, the evening was time to just be a family, chilling out and watching a movie or maybe even binge-watching a TV series on Netflix. A giant pizza was ordered in, and the family settled down, the parents snuggled together on the sofa, and the girls each almost swallowed by their giant bean bags. Grant could never understand the animosity of some people to having pineapple on a pizza – as far as he was concerned, you couldn’t beat a deep pan Hawaiian pizza. It was the pizza of the gods.

The Schumachers knew that their time together was going to whip by faster than they realized, and they were determined to make the most of the next few weeks. That first day was just the start of some wonderful family-time.

On his second full day back in Seattle, Grant woke up with a splitting headache, the like of which he had never suffered before. Normally a very healthy person, he tried to sleep it off but, when it actually intensified after a couple more hours sleep, he could bear it no more.

“Nadine. It’s getting worse.”

His wife rushed to his bedside, really worried. This was completely out of character for her husband. He didn’t normally even succumb to a cold. She put his normal good health down to the extreme conditions that he worked in, believing that he had somehow built up a natural resistance to illnesses. This wasn’t like him. She put her hand to his brow.

“Christ, Grant. You’re burning up. We’ve got to get you some medical attention. This isn’t normal – especially for you.”

Grant didn’t like bothering doctors.

“No. I’ll take a couple of Tylenol. That’ll probably fix it.”

“A couple of pills won’t sort this one out, Grant. I’m taking you to a clinic. And don’t try talking me out of it. I’m in charge.”

Reluctantly, Grant surrendered to his wife’s advice. He was in no condition to drive, so Nadine drove him to UW Harborview.

The staff at the hospital did their best to help Grant but, unable to find any specific root cause, the best that they could offer was a prescription for strong painkillers that would hopefully solve the problem.

Grant survived another six hours, his condition worsening with each passing minute, as the disease secured its grip on his body. After a painful deterioration into agony, during which he lost control of his bodily functions, he finally succumbed to his inevitable fate, nestled in the arms of his loving wife.

Elsewhere, in various towns and cities in the USA, as well as some who actually lived in Dutch Harbor, Grant’s shipmates were also falling ill and succumbing to the Grim Reaper’s welcoming arms. In Anchorage, both the crew of the helicopter that had retrieved the space probe from the sea and the crew of the USAF transport plane that had ferried it to JPL Pasadena were admitted to the J-BER hospital, suffering from the same symptoms, and dying in the same agony.

Sitara felt fine.

Thirty-nine people had died the previous day but suspicions of anything more than a local viral outbreak hadn’t been aroused. It was certainly strange that twenty people had died in the same way, all in the same area, but the other nineteen victims were spread far and wide and there was no reason to consider them to be linked to the outbreak in Dutch Harbor. However, as a precaution, the Mayor of Unalaska had hurriedly convened an extraordinary meeting of the City Council in the morning of the 31st, where, despite some objections from the occupants of City Council seats C and F (who were understandably concerned for the effect that any such precaution might have on the commercial fishing industry), common sense prevailed and Tom Madsen airport was temporarily closed, in accordance with CDC recommendations. Coupled with this was the closure of the port, and vessels were allowed to neither enter nor leave the harbour. The residents were for the most part accepting of the measures, believing that although the closures were officially until further notice, both the airport and seaport would reopen in a matter of days.