Influenza Outbreak? part 8

That question was going thru my head for a long time. Maarten was listening to the navigation system, and when we reached the supermarket he pulled over. I searched for my wallet in my bag. Maarten got out the car and was looking for his backpack and mine. After I found my wallet I put it in my pocket. And I crawled from the front to the back, looking for the masks. 'Maarten, here is your mask.' I handed him the mask. Maarten took the mask and was playing with it between his fingers. 'Do I really have to wear that?' I looked at Maarten with very serious eyes, he knew I wasn't playing games. 'You made me a promise!' I yelled at him. 'I know, but it's so hard to breath with that thing on.' 'Tell me about, You act like I don't know that. Did you forgot that I am the one working in the healthcare?' I had put the mask on my face, and got out the car. Maarten threw the backpack into my arms. He had put the mask on and we walked hand in hand to the supermarket.

When we were walking to the supermarket when we saw a lot of people who were walking with masks. 'Now you can't see who could be infected and who not.' I was looking at the people who where walking in and out the store. 'Yes, I guess there is nothing we can do about it.' 'Yes we can.' I got some gloves out my backpack. I handed Maarten a couple. 'Glove up.' 'No way. What's the point?' With in my hand still the gloves I explaned it. 'It may be possible that you have a wound, how little it may be, but you can get in blood contact with them.' I waited till Maarten took them from my hand. He let out a big sigh before he took them and put them on. I was gloved up myself very quickly. Together we walked to the supermarket, we didn't stayed far from each others side.

Maarten got a cart and we went it. We quickly saw that the supplies where getting really thin. 'We'd better hurry if we want to get some supplies before they run out.' Maarten was tossing in a lot of stuff in the cart. When we walked past the handgloves and masks, I threw in 2 boxes of both of them. We got to the conserved goods, and saw that the shelf was more empty then filled. 'All there is left are white beans in tomatosauce.' I held up a can and showed it to Maarten. 'We have no time to be picky.' Maarten threw in the can I was holding in my hand, and the remaining 7 cans that were on the last on the shelf. 'Awww.' Was all I could out when I saw the cans laying in the cart. 'Stop your whining. Now is not the time to be all picky, about what you eat and don't eat!' Maarten was throwing some more canned food, like corn, mushrooms, beans, and more stuff like that. 'We need to get some more water! Or some soda's.' I got the front of the cart and was running to the soda and water aisle. Maarten had to run along to keep the cart in control. A lot of people where watching us. 'We are in luck, they still have enough water.' I loaded in as much bottles of water, I thought we might need. Maarten was looking at the soda's, and also did some of those in the cart. When we were done doing that, we went to the middle of the store.

'Is there anything else we need to look for here?' Maarten said to me and I started thinking. 'Ow can we get some chocolate please?' Maarten nodded and we got a lot of chocolate. 'And don't forget the cigarettes.' I had an idea that Maarten saw this as a perfect moment for me to stop smoking, so I had to put up my puppy eyes. 'Ow come on, not the puppy eyes. You know I can't resist that!' I got a big smile on my face, because I knew that Maarten wasn't going to turn me down. 'You rock!' And I hugged Maarten tightly, but I wanted to kiss him instead, but that was not possible because of the mask. We both couldn't think of anything that we wanted to get from the store. So we proceded to the check out, and after we had paid for the grocery's. I had to get as much cigarettes as I possibly could carry. I was at the special counter to get the cigarettes while Maarten was pushing the cart.

The young girl behind the counter looked at me with a little disbelieve. 'Hello, Can I help you?' She asked me. 'I need cigarettes. What do you have left?' She turned around and called up some names. 'I still have Malboro, L&M, Cabelero, West, Kent.' She turned back to face me. 'How much packages of each brand?' I wasn't joking. She looked at me with her mouth open and she turned back to the cigarette shelf. 'From Malboro we have 15 packages, L&M 10, Cabelero 17, West 3 and Kent we have 8 pachages.' She turned back around, she looked aggitaded. 'I'll take everything.' If her mouth could fall any further down then it would have been on the floor. 'I am sorry....' She said like she didn't heard me. 'I want everything you have left.' I said again. 'You weren't kidding when you said you needed a lot of cigarettes, if this day was ever going to happen.' Maarten stood behind me with the cart. The girl shoved all the cigarette packages over the counter and I put them in the cart. Once they were all in my cart, I paid the girl behind the counter. 'Here take these ones too!' She shoved some of those apple flavour cigarettes over the counter. Quickly I shoved them into my cart, and then we left the store.

We got to the car really soon. Maarten openend the trunk and I went to the backseat of the car, we moved some stuff from the trunk to the backseat, to create more space in the trunk for all those bottles. I gave Maarten my back pack. 'Throw all the cigarettes in there.' Maarten grabbed the back pack and loaded them in there. 'Do you think you have enough lighters to light all this stuff up?' My mind went blank. 'Shit.' I slapped myself on the head. I got out like a mad girl, and ran back to the store. While running back I put the mask back over my mouth, luckily I still had my gloves on.

I ran to the counter. 'You back again?' The girl behind the counter was stunned. 'Yes. I need a lot of lighters!' I laid down a lot of cash on the counter. 'How much can I buy with this?' The looked at the $30 that was laying there. 'I'll get everything that you can buy for that.' She got over 60 lighters, and put them on the counter. 'This will be everything that you can buy on lighters with $30. I grabbed a bag and shoved everything in the bag. 'Thank you!' And I left. When I got back at the car I saw that Maarten was done, with loading everything in the car. 'You get your lighters?' He slammed the trunk closed. 'Yes,I have enough of them. At least I hope.' I removed my mask before I said that. I felt so ridicilous with that thing on when I was around Maarten. We got in the car once we where ready. I was behind the wheel this time. We left the grocerystore behind us. I listened to the navigation system the entire time, watching very closely to the road ahead of me. Every now and then we saw a car.

I drove for a long time on the backroads, passing houses. The houses had a quarentine sign at the begin of the driveway. Maarten fell asleep after a 45 minutes looking at nothing but an empty landscape. I turned on the radio but not the hard, because I wanted to be able to hear what the navigation said. And I didn't want to wake up Maarten.

'In 100 meters, take a left turn. After that go straight for 12 kilometers.' The voice of the navigation said to me. I did what it said. For a moment I stopped the car, and grabbed my back pack from the back seat. 'I think it's time for a smoke.' I got a package of cigarettes out, and it seemed that I was going to smoke some apple flavoured ones. I zipped the bag and threw it back on the beack seat, and went fishing for my bag with lighters. After I found that and got a lighter, I lite the cigarette on fire. The first few puffs I started to like it. Maarten was still asleep but coughing a little, so I cracked open a window. 'Hmm fresh air.' While I said that I looked at Maarten. He is so cute when he is asleep. I looked at Maarten before while he was asleep, and that made me even love him more and more. I don't have an idea what will happen to me, if something happens to him.

I drove for a long hour without talking to anyone but the radio. And I cursed occiasionly at the navigation system. Because some directions where not possible to take, because some roads where blocked and being guarded. And others had burning tires on them. I made sure that the doors where locked, and I never stopped on a place that I didn't trust.

Maarten woke up. 'Hey.' I looked at him. 'Hey, sweetie. Did you had a good rest?' I turned my eyes back on the road. 'It was okay. How log have i've been out?' He pulled up his sleeve and looked on his watch. 'Shit!' Was the reaction when he saw what time it was. 'Have i've really been out so long?' 'Yes.' Was my only answer. 'Why didn't you wake me up?' 'I thought you needed the rest. It's been a long day. You could really use that couple of hours of sleep.' I laid my hand on his arm, just to let him know that I didn't mind. 'What did you do in the time I was out?' He twisted his bodie towards me. 'I've been watching the road, listening to the radio and cursing at the navigation system.' I met Maarten's eyes andsaw that he was clueless. 'There where some roadblocks. But nothing I couldn't handle.' I winked at him.