Day 7: Hunger

Song: Knocking On Heavens Door by RaignDay 7:

Today has been one week since the quarantine was established. It's been four days since our phone privileges have been in affect and I am actually doing surprisingly well. Yesterday I had the idea to start writing a journal of what has been going on so I can give it to Hannah to read when the quarantine is lifted. I was able to get a blank journal provided by Dr. Cannerts but I haven't written in it yet. Today I slept in until 9:30 which made me feel pretty well. After having a small breakfast and making sure the kids were alright I grabbed a pencil, sat down at one of the tables in the room, and started writing.

Day 7 of QuarantineDear Hannah,I am starting to write this journal so that you will know what my life has been like in the cordon. To be honest I don't know if I will give this to you face-to-face or if someone else will give you this but either way you will get it. Today has been exactly one week since the outbreak and four days since I haven't been able to contact you. I am absolutely fine, Katie and a few of the kids are with me (Quentin, Thomas and Mary). I've gotten to know Jake Riley this past week and he seems really nice, I can't help but say I've developed a crush on him. Katie obviously knows this and bugs me about it whenever Jake is not in the room. However, I'mfocusing on the quarantine, not guys (no matter how attractive he is). A day ago I opened up to both of them about what happened to me, Katie could hardly speak... She thought she was the only ok ne who had it bad. Jake assured me it wasn't my fault and that it was my choice, he kinda sounded like Mom but it make me feel better. Sometimes I wonder what life would have been like if I kept the baby... Would S/he like me? Our family? The world we live in? Anyway I hope the café is doing good and you are getting pretty good pay. Tell Mom and Luke not to worry, I could probably get another jo-

"Hey, what are you writing?" I heard a familiar male voice ask from a few feet away from me. I look up to see Jake setting his helmet on his bed and taking off his protective vest. "Oh hi, I'm starting a journal so that my sister and parents will know what's been happening to me. Why are you back?" I put my pencil down and turned to face him curiously. "You do know that it is 11:30 right? I'm on break." Jake said slowly as he walked up to me. I looked at my small wrist watch and gasped a little. "I didn't notice, I was so caught up in this." Jake chuckled and reached over for it causing me to snatch it away quickly. "No, you're not allowed to read it." He just scoffed at me. "That's no fair. Do you have something private in there that you don't want me to know about?" "God, you're acting like a mom who's teenage daughter doesn't want her to read her diary." I said as I put the journal back on the table and rested my arm over it. "That would be invading my privacy and I don't want you to do that." I added smartly.Jake pulled up another chair and sat in it backwards but facing me. "Well how 'bout you read a snippet of what you wrote?" I bit my lip hesitantly but finally nodded in agreement. "To be honest I don't know if I will give this to you face-to-face or if someone else will give you this but either way you will get it." I read quickly then kept my eyes on the page avoiding looking at Jake. "Hey, look at me." Jake said making me tear my eyes away from the page. I looked up to see a sympathetic yet stern look appear on his face. "Nothing will happen to you, you are perfectly safe with me." I bit my lip once again and glanced down. "But what if something does happen?" I looked back up to see that his face didn't change. "Well if that ever does happen then I promise you, I will be the one to give your family this." He slightly smiled and motioned to the journal.I nodded and quickly changed the subject. "Where's Katie?" Looking around I saw that Quentin was also gone.Jake smiled and got up to put his chair back. "Probably to go get food. I'll be around if you need me." I nodded and opened my journal back up as soon as I heard him walk away.

-b at one of the shops here (that is still open). I could tell them to transfer my money into your bank account. Well I should go get lunch now. Tell everyone I love and miss them. I love you sis.

Forever and Always~Iris

I stood up and put the journal in my bag before walking out of the room to go get food. I saw Jake walking about 40 feet in front of me and remembered something. "Jake! Wait up!" I yelled as I ran up next to him."Yeah?" He turned to face me as we both turned a corner."Didn't you tell me that there was gonna be a drop off of food today?" I pushed a few strands of hair out of my face and stuck my hands in the pockets of my jacket."Yup, I'm also going to bring food back over here so don't worry." He replied and ran a hand through his black hair. "That's great. Be careful, I don't want you getting hurt." I said but mentally slapped myself after. You're giving it away, Iris."Is Iris concerned about my safety?" Jake said putting a hand to his chest dramatically.I chuckled and rolled my eyes. "Hey, all I'm saying is that I don't want you dying on me. So don't." I added pointing a finger at him. "Well I promise you, your Knight In Shinning Armor will be safe." I rolled my eyes and turned around to walk back to the cafeteria.

After I had my lunch and I got Mary some lunch, I headed back up to the room to see Jake had left and Britney was back. "Hey Britney, So glad your back!" Britney smiled and waved to me as I handed Mary her lunch. "I didn't know they were letting you come back today so I didn't get you lunch."Rey who was sitting next to Britney got up quickly. "You don't need to go back, I'll get her lunch." I thanked Rey before he left and sat down next to Quentin. "Where's your mom?" I asked curiously as he was playing with a tennis ball. "She told me she wants to find out more information on something she won't tell me." I nodded and thought about her going all over the hospital asking questions.

Jake's POV

"Here" I said as I turned around and grabbed a box of food that Lex and the other police men sent over. "It's enough to feed a family of four for a week. It's not the best tasting food but it's decent." I gave it to Lex's girlfriend Jana who gladly accepted it. "Thanks, Jake." Jana said as she positioned the box in her hands. "Take care, you and Katie.""And Iris." I added, immediately smiling to myself. "Iris?" Jana asked with a curious look on her face."Katie's student teacher." I replied casually. Jana opened her mouth to say something but I turned around and walked away.

Iris's POV

Rey brought Britney her food while Quentin and Mary were playing a game with the tennis ball. I decided to draw in the journal Dr. Cannerts gave me. I grabbed a pencil and opened the journal to the back of my first letter. I started to draw a face, I didn't realize who's face it was until I started adding the features. I drew him smiling down at his shoes, his short wavy hair fully in view. "Miss Iris?" A voice suddenly asked, making me jump out of my little bubble. "Uh, yes?" I said closing the journal and putting everything in my bag. I looked up to see Dr. Cannerts standing by the doorway. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I was wondering if you could do me a favor." Dr. Cannerts said as I got up and looked around the room to make sure everyone was there."Of course, what do you need?" Dr. Cannerts shifted slightly on his heels and motioned for us to walk into the hallway. I gave a quick look at Rey who nodded and went back to talking to Britney. I walked into the hallway with Cannerts next to me. "Well Katie has been... Asking many questions. I was wondering if you could talk to her for me." "Yeah I will, she's just very... curious." Dr. Cannerts nodded and walked off into another hallway. "Oh Katie what are you doing?.." I mumbled to myself while walking around the find her.

                             ~~~~

"Katie!" I whisper yelled down a dimly lit hallway. After about two hours of searching I finally found her sneaking around. She jumped and turned around then let out a breath of relief. "Iris you scared me! What are you doing here?" "I could ask you the same thing. You are not supposed to be down here! Dr. Cannerts told me about you pestering him with Patient Zero. Look I know it doesn't make sense and you want to figure out what's really happening, hell I want to also, but we will get in trouble!" I said while walking closer to her. "None of this makes sense, I really want to know what's going on Iris. Look! I found this ledger about 'Patient Zero' but it has missing pages." Katie said eagerly as she pushed the notebook into my hands. "Katie, not now... I spent half the day wondering where you were and worrying about the food drop." "But Iris loo-" Katie protested but I quickly cut her off."No Katie, just please not today... I'm gonna go look for Jake." With that, I left Katie standing in the hallway holding the ledger.

After about 5 minutes I decided to see if Jake was in what I call 'The Incineration Room.' I personally try to avoid it at all costs but I doubt he would've gone into the room we all share. When I got into the hallway Dr. Cannerts was just leaving. "Oh hello Iris, what brings you here?" "I came to see if Jake was here, I need to talk to him." Dr. Cannerts seemed to understand and said no more. "Oh and I also talked to Katie, no more detective work, I promise." "Thank you." He nodded his head then left me to walk down the hallway alone.I got halfway until I heard a male scream in anger which caused me to burst into a run. "JAKE!" I screamed as I reached the room and saw him sitting down against the wall holding what appeared to be a dirty stuffed bear. "Jake are you okay?" I said more calmly as I went and sat next to him. He just shook his head and a few tears ran down his cheeks. "Jake what's wrong?" I bit my lip knowing that I couldn't touch him and make a small gesture. He was sweaty and had dried blood on his gloves. "I met this little girl today.... Sh-she was sick and I couldn't do anything.... She wouldn't let go of her bear..." I looked at the dirty bear and realized what he had done."It's not your fault... this virus, we can't cure it." I looked at my gloves hands and then put one on the bears head, touching it's soft but unclean hair. "She was so innocent..." Jake turned and looked me in the eyes and my heart broke for him."Jake, no more tonight. You need to shower, eat, and sleep. C'mon lets go." I said before noticing a brown box in the corner. "What's that?"Jake got up and put the bear on the shelf with jars before answering. "I was able to snag this book of food, a group of guys took a good portion of the food so this is all I got." "It's fine, at least we got more food." I said as I picked the box up and walked out of the room before Jake could offer to carry it for me.

We went down a few hallways before Katie ran up to us, still holding the ledger. "We need to talk." She said causing me to sigh but nod. "Can I shower first?" Jake said while wipping his forehead with his arm. Katie noticed me holding the box in my arms and tilted her head slightly. "I wanted to get more but this didn't go as planned." He said, taking notice of her staring. "I think we're being lied to." Katie said changing the subject. "Everyone's being lied to. You, me, and Iris, we know what we saw. The two patients who died before patient zero, they got sick before him. The guy we saw was probably the female victims boyfriend. Either he got it first and passed it to her or vise-versa. This ledger should prove that 'Patient Zero' came in after Dr. Sanders was sick but the pages are missing." She held out the notebook to him so he could take it, but he didn't. "Katie, I just incinerated a little girl's body and collected the ashes of a fellow cop." Jake replied tiredly. My eyes widened a little wondering why he didn't tell me about the cop. "Let's save the detective act for the morning.""Oh I'm sorry, did you have a bad day?" Katie asked while sarcasm filled her sentence. "Thirty-five people crammed into those isolation rooms who will never see the light of day again. My son who might not see his grandmother again. Me, when I have to tell my kids we're stuck here, that I have no idea when we get to go home! And you know what will make all of this a tiny bit better? Something hopeful! The people, doctors, that trapped us here, we're supposed to trust, aren't liars." My jaw dropped and I stepped closer to Katie. "Did you not here what he just said? Katie you are not the one risking your life everyday to keep the people in here safe! We do want to figure this out, trust me when I say we do! Just give us a break though." Katie turned to me and crossed her arms over her chest. "You get a break everyday, we can't teach the class anymore because there's no class! You sleep in late and just watch the kids!"Jake looked at me as if asking me if he should stop her. I shook my head and placed the box down. "What else should I do? I have no way of contacting my family, no way of them knowing if I'm alive! You have Quentin.... I have no one." I whispered the last part, tears threatening their way out of my eyes. "What can I do to help?" Jake suddenly asked pulling our attention toward him. He looked at Katie, then at me. "I need to somehow let my family know I'm fine." I told Jake before picking up the box and walking to the room we share.

Jake's POV

"I believe it's my duty to keep these people safe." Lex said as he sat diagonal from me in the container we use. "You believe them? Katie and Iris"Without thinking I instantly respond. "Yeah, I believe them." I believes that Katie is right about Patient Zero. I also know that Iris wants to believe her, it's just she doesn't want to focus on anything but how much she misses her family.""She must be something, to make you feel this way." Lex said with a small chuckle. "Jana agrees." Lex immediately perked up after hearing his girlfriends name. "You talked to Jana? How is she?" "Yeah, I did, she's fine." I saw tears fill his eyes as he looked down at his hands.