Chương 11: Chapter 11 : Getting Sick
"It hasn't stopped raining," came the voice from Tom's house. It was Grandma Tom speaking. Ike wondered if it was already morning.
Ike had spent another sleepless night, losing track of the date, day of the week, and time.
"Ike, come play cards!" called Tom.
Their only source of entertainment these days was either chess or cards, but Ike wasn't in the mood. What was the point of playing poker? It felt dull.
Ike considered going back to sleep, but he felt strangely energized, perhaps due to his disrupted sleep schedule. He had to get up to use the toilet and, upon opening the bedroom door, noticed that Yingli looked concerned as she stood in Anna's room. Ike realized that Anna had been having feverish nightmares the previous night, and Yingli had been taking care of her.
"Are you feeling achy?" Ike asked.
He touched Anna's forehead, which felt warm, and checked their medicine cabinet, finding no antiviral or fever-reducing medication.
"No, just a cough and runny nose," Anna replied weakly, her face flushed.
Ike breathed a sigh of relief. "It's not so bad. If it's just a viral cold, we can manage."
"But I feel really sick," Anna whimpered, her face still red.
"I think it's just shock and the cold. You'll be okay," reassured Yingli, who had been tending to Anna throughout the night. "Well, I'll go out and buy some medicine in a few days," Ike decided.
Even though he had bought a lot of medicines earlier, he had overlooked some important ones. He needed to make a list of the necessary medications.
Fortunately, Anna's illness turned out to be a simple fever, and within a couple of days, it had passed. Nevertheless, Ike couldn't shake off his concern.
He recalled the news from Europe about a blackout last year, which had resulted in numerous illnesses and deaths from colds and diarrhea. While colds and flu could resolve on their own, the flu was caused by a virus, making it more serious.
This fear kept Ike from letting Anna and Yingli accompany him outside. With the continuous rain and the possibility of encountering malicious individuals or disturbing incidents, he couldn't take the risk, as he had already experienced a decomposing body appearing unexpectedly.
It was October 3, 2032, and the heavy rain continued relentlessly. It marked the 11th day of the blackout, with no end in sight.
The rain showed no signs of abating. Ike had planned to go out on the ninth day, but then the police had appeared on the streets to maintain order, forcing him to stay at home due to an impending super typhoon and heavy rain in the next two days.
Anna had recovered from her cold, and the urgency for medicine and gas had lessened, so Ike refrained from going out. The police presence had helped calm the rumors in the neighborhood.
Patrolling police officers informed them that most of the government's police force had been redirected to flood relief work, as many houses downstream were submerged, and numerous people had lost their lives in the floods. The police were stretched thin and urged all civilians to stay home to avoid causing disruptions.
However, Ike was unaware of the specific extent of the solar storm's impact, as he was not a police officer but a temporary civilian mobilized to assist. Even he remained ignorant of the situation outside. Still, they had access to radios among their leadership, and while the situation was chaotic, it hadn't spiraled into complete chaos. The government hadn't abandoned them, and many people were working behind the scenes. This reassured Ike and his neighbors, and social order held, at least for the time being.
However, the water and power cuts had persisted for nearly half a month, catching many unprepared families off guard. They were facing a grim reality:
No gas, no means to cook.
Without candles, no source of light.
No food, empty stomachs. But most crucially, no cash meant no food.
Some people failed to grasp the significance of these challenges. To put it simply, imagine being stuck at home without water, electricity, or gas. Did you have enough food to last you half a month?
Without gas, cooking was impossible. Some fortunate individuals might have portable gas stoves or solid fuel, alcohol lamps, but for how long would they last?
The absence of electricity rendered rice cookers, induction cookers, and electric kettles useless, meaning no hot food or beverages. Perhaps some were lucky, like Anna's family, which had purchased a flower tea set, along with a box and a half of tea wax. This counted as good fortune, as they could light a lamp and enjoy hot tea.
People had taken their refrigerators for granted, assuming that someone would restock them when empty. But now, even if you were a millionaire, you couldn't access a single cent from your bank account.
Aunt Linda had recently shared how many people were struggling to find food, resorting to bartering various items, but they couldn't obtain cash.
Not necessarily poor, but short of money!
Ike had advised Linda to close her convenience store temporarily, warning of potential dangers during the blackout. However, Linda was adamant, so Ike had to persuade Tom to store some food in their house to ease his concerns.
The discomfort of not having hot water and missing hot meals weighed heavily on everyone. Few could endure ten days without hot food. Even those who didn't have hot water could manage with hot meals. But without both, eating dry biscuits or bread left their stomachs parched, their mouths sour, and their bodies feeling as though they had been soaked in cold water and then dried out.
Ike hadn't experienced this firsthand. He was fortunate to have gas and candles in his home, but he had heard from neighbors that their gas had run out and they hadn't managed to replace it. There wasn't much cash on hand either, so he decided to visit Negan's to purchase a couple of hot cups for ten bucks.
The blackout had given rise to a series of unexpected issues. Minor problems that had previously gone unnoticed had now become significant concerns. What people once considered important might no longer hold the same value. In the end, survival took precedence over everything else.
"What's the date today? What day of the week? What time is it now?" On this street, few people could accurately answer these questions. No family had a mechanical watch, and almost everyone's mobile phones, alarm clocks, and watches had become useless relics. Life had become timeless, with sleepiness blurring the lines between day and night, and the constant rain obscuring any sense of time.
Was it noon or night? In this perpetual darkness, it hardly mattered. Another issue that had arisen was women's hygiene. Washing their hair had become a challenge due to the need to conserve gas and hot water. Anna contemplated cutting her beautiful long hair into a shorter style to make things easier.
Changing underwear had also become a tricky affair. While it was recommended to change daily, the damp weather caused clothes to become unwearable in just three days. Mold would form, and the clothes would develop a foul odor. Serious gynecological issues could arise from these unsanitary conditions.
"Can't you use sanitary napkins?" the naive Ike had once asked Anna. "It's uncomfortable," Anna replied.
"Why?" Ike's curiosity got the better of him.
Anna shot him a dirty look. "Never mind," Ike conceded, realizing he had asked an inappropriate question.
Additionally, girls needed to maintain daily hygiene for their buttocks and genitals. Ike had overlooked this aspect and only knew that Anna used candles to heat two pots of water daily, with the remaining candle flame reserved for making tea.
There were rumors from neighbors about a resident across the street whose child had fallen ill with a cold and diarrhea. They had tried to obtain medicine to no avail, couldn't find a doctor, and had finally taken the child to the hospital. However, the hospital was reportedly overwhelmed with the dead, leaving no one to tend to the sick child. While the authenticity of the story remained uncertain, people who had heard it claimed that the hospital was filled with corpses, creating a horrifying scene.
While some exaggeration might be at play, the fact that the hospital had a significant number of deaths couldn't be dismissed entirely.
Yet another embarrassing problem was that toilets no longer flushed. It wasn't Ike's family that first noticed this issue; it was the Regus family across the street, who lived on the first floor. They awoke one night to a foul odor and discovered a toilet full of excrement. Real poop spray.
The power outage and flooding had caused a sewage system failure. The sewage system required electricity for drainage, and with almost two weeks of power failure, it had ceased to function.
Ike and his neighbors had to cope with these physical problems as best as they could. Ike had the added responsibility of disposing of trash bags, a task delegated to him by Anna.
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