Quarantine

Mayra was standing by the park near the park with the Four Trees near her. There was something off about the trees, but she had other things to worry about. She leaned against the first tree and felt a small surge of energy that she barely noticed. She was trying to make sense on what was going on the last few days.

The town was only going more and more downhill as the days carried on. There was even something strange about the air in the town. She had been introduced to the guards at the gates, and there was something off about them. It was like they were there just to keep something out. In the back of her mind, a little voice was telling her that they were here to keep something in.

Mayra saw Grim walking around the town absently, and she felt bad for him. She had already heard from Blake what was going on just in case she had found him first. She was tempted to go and talk to him, but the way he looked made it obvious that he wanted to be left alone. She turned her attention away from the short-order cook. She had other things to worry about at that moment.

She was watching her back from Meredith. She couldn’t help about that worry. She had made Meredith look like a fool, and she was going to have to be making sure that favor wasn’t returned. Abe had already told her that he understood why she did that, and that he would have done the same thing.

“She knows better than to barge in and bother sick people. Her mother had taught her better,” he had said when he entered the room. “I will talk to her when I see her at lunch.”

She had just nodded, but she wanted to say that he should probably talk to her now and not later. She knew that once Meredith got something in her head, there was no way that anyone could talk her down. She could only wonder what was going through the journalist’s mind at that very minute.

Now, she was hoping that her boss was going to be able to talk her down for once. Mayra wasn’t much of an optimist, but she really didn’t want whatever Meredith was going to do to her. She just wanted to go on with her life and have the same for Meredith. Besides, if Meredith had stayed home, then she wouldn’t have been made to look like a fool. Not only that, she was probably furious that her little theory didn’t work out.

This wasn’t a good time for Mayra. She needed to know what was going on in the town, and now she had to worry about Meredith because she was trying to let the people in the hospital try to be relaxed and not worry about her questions that wouldn’t do any good. Mayra slightly wondered if she would have been okay with someone else asking her questions if she was the one who was sick. Mayra shook her head, trying to focus on what was going on around her.

This just seemed to keep getting worse with each second. There was always something that was happening, and it just seemed like it was going to get worse much faster than she would like to admit. She didn’t even know how she could feel that.

***

Abraham had called Meredith as soon as he got into his office. He had promised Mayra to talk to her and that was what he was going to do. He knew that Meredith was going to do something about this, and he needed to make sure that she would leave his officers alone especially since that he was doing his job.

Now, he was waiting on her to stop up at his house while his wife was at work. He was going to try to make this a private conversation as much as he could think possible. He stood in front of the coffee pot as he started it. It wasn’t long until he heard a knock on the door, sending him through the small house.

“Meredith, I’m glad that you could make it,” he said as he opened the door.

Meredith wasn’t at all happy about this. She could think of a million and one things that would be more fun and interesting than talking to her uncle about something that she already knew. “Well, you asked me to come, so here I am,” she said with a lack of enthusiasm.

“Well, we need to talk about something,” he said, stepping aside to let her come into the house. He led her back to the kitchen and made them both some coffee. “Olivia made some cookies.” He waved a hand towards the plate of chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies.

Meredith turned it down and looked at her uncle. “Did you really ask me over here to talk about cookies?” she asked a little bothered. Her uncle’s house was on the edge of town and was fixed to have the view of the forest that surrounded the town but now had a view of the wall and the tops of the trees.

“No, I didn’t. I want to talk to you about yesterday. I told you twice not to go there and to leave the people alone. They didn’t want to interviewed while they were sick and fearing the worst. Hell, they still are,” Abe said sternly.

“I figured I could still get something good for my article; you know how journalists are. We will go to the ends of the earth to get the story,” she joked, trying to make him change his mood slightly. It didn’t work at all, so she tried something else. “That girl made me look like a fool in front of everyone. Are you going to do anything about that?”

Abe shook his head. “No, I’m not. You ignored me and went to the hospital anyways even though you weren’t sick. She had to ask you twice from what I heard to get you to leave. You are lucky that she didn’t arrest you,” he said.

“You wouldn’t have let her done that, would you?” she asked, shocked.

“Yes, I would. Next time, something like this happens, I will ask my officers to arrest you if you show up when I tell you to stay home or at least away from there. This isn’t just some story for the paper, Meredith,” he replied with the same stern voice. “These are sick and scared people, and we need to help them.”

Meredith seemed to be at a loss of words for the first time in her life. She never thought that her uncle would let her get arrested, and honestly she wasn’t surprised. Staring at him now, she also knew that if she messed with any of the officers in any form would be a very bad idea. And for the first time since the incidents, she got just how serious this all was. If she was going to make her paper, she was going to need things that would cheer up the town, not bring it down more.

Abe watched her wrestle with her thoughts and was slightly happy that she looked like she was catching on to what was going around the town. He always knew that Meredith took a longer time to catch on to the severity of some situations because she was so wrapped up in her the newest story for her article. It was just a matter of finding a way to show her that she needed to see the full picture before taking notes and asking questions.

They talked for a few more minutes before they ended up having to go back to work. Abe drove back to the station, and Meredith drove to Avery’s Diner. She knew that the people inside were talking about her. There was no doubt about that even though she didn’t like it. She didn’t mind talking about other people behind their backs but had a problem with it when it was directed towards her. She didn’t even care how hypocritical that sounded to her.

When she walked in there was a hush over the crowd, and she was confirmed on what they were talking about. She also noticed there was something else. Ramona looked sad and so did some of the employees. It didn’t take her long to realize that Grim wasn’t there.