Bren's plague

The epidemic came to the attention of the media on December 5, 2015 and by then it was too late. They called it the Bren’s plague. It was not shocking the way the news spread throughout the nation but it was horrifying the way the plague spread. It was said to have been caused by bacterial infected fleas. We were in the heat of summer and so fleas were in abundance everywhere which increased the risks of contracting this plague. The symptoms were fever, headache, vomiting, weakness and swellings in the areas closer to where the bacteria occur. Though it was spread by fleas, it was also contractible through the skin between human beings. Within three days if not treated, the person is dead, within seven days even if treated there is a high risk of death. The mortality rate within two weeks of learning about the plague was shocking, within a month, it was horrifying, within three months it was like a physical ache. The government issued a complete lockdown for everybody.

With the way the disease was spreading, all the medical personnel’s that owned private establishments were told to close them down temporarily and to treat the infected people. Scientists were not left behind; they were to look for a cure. It got to the point that if you valued your life, the moment you hear the word ‘medic............... or scien..........’ you know you have to excuse yourself immediately. To shoe how bad, the government told the doctors and scientists that before they report to work they should leave home with the thought that they were not going to see their family members again.

My father and older brother are medical doctors so it was a bad time for us in the family. It was especially worse for me because I was already engaged to be married on the 15th of December before the epidemic showed up. Did I also forget to mention that my fiancé was a medical doctor? Will and I had always been childhood best friends. He was always around my house because his parents were fighting and he wasn’t willing to sit down with them to watch their episodes. He was always ready to fight my battles for me especially because I had a small stature and people took that to use it to bully me. He sometimes annoyed me doing that but he felt it was his job to do that and so he was not deterred. We attended the same middle school, high school and even college though our majors were different. We noticed the attraction between us in high school but we did not pursue it because it would have ruined our friendship. When we got to college, we started a relationship and it was pretty easy for us because we were best friends that understood each other and very much in love.

You can guess how I felt because it was like my father, older brother and future husband were walking to their death but there was nothing we could do about that. I did not lose hope, at least not completely because I knew that God was with them and wherever they find themselves or whoever they treat, God would still be with them and I also knew that if any of them or all of them came back in a body bag God was going to be with the rest of us even though we will grieve and their deaths will be painful for us. 

The epidemic came to an end around the end of July 2016. The epidemic was around for about eight months and it took with it around 2 million people with it both adults and children. The medical personnel’s and scientists started coming home within the next month, at least those that survived it and they were so few. It was like waiting for the soldiers that survived a war, shedding tears of joy with people whose family members came home, sympthising with those who were sent the dead bodies of theirs all the while trying not to worry about yours being sent in a bodybag to you. We were so happy when my father and older brother came home but our joy reduced ehen we did not see Will. Apparently, Will was separated from my father and my older brother and they thought he was home earlier because the people alive in the group that Will was were already back home.

As I sat on the porch of the house that was supposed to belong to Will and I after our wedding thinking about the horrors of the past months, I saw the silhouette of a man coming with purpose towards me. What made my heart start beating was not the fact that the person was coming straight at me, neither was it the fact that I had no single object that can cause damage because robbers were everywhere now but the fact that I could swear that the person coming to me walked exactly like Will. As he came closer to me, I realized that the person not just walked like Will but that the person was Will. It was until I started running that I realized that I had stood up. I hugged him while looking him around for any obvious damage with him doing the same to me oblivious to the fact that tears were both running down our faces. It wasn’t until Will started repeating I know that I heard myself saying I’ve missed you. We both saw that we were still on the road and we walked to our house together. We talked till there was no light outside, him telling me about his experiences in the camp and the people he met there and how nice and kind they were with me telling him how much I had missed him and how I felt my heart breaking the second time when my dad and my brother came home.

That’s true I did not ask about your brother and father, will said and continued hope you don’t think me self-centered because I already knew when they were home from some of the doctors.

That okay, I figured out that you would know since you did not ask me about them and I know how much you love them, I replied.

When I checked my clock and saw that it was past 2’o clock, I urged will to go to his hotel because he already had a reservation in a close by hotel. He told me good night and that made me almost start crying again because for the past eight months I did not know that I would tell him good night ever again and make plans to meet the next morning because that’s exactly what we did. We said good bye and made plans to go and see the rest of the family in the morning. I slept peacefully for the first time in months with no nightmares of seeing Will’s dead body and woke up with a heart full of gratitude and a big smile that I did not bother containing on my face.