QuaranTeam - Dave in Dallas Ch. 01

This story occurs within the Quaranteam universe created by CorruptingPower. He has granted permission to write this story. If you have not read the original, or any of the other spinoffs, I would highly recommend them. That is not required to understand this story, they're just good, and a lot of fun.

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Chapter 1

September 18, 2020

Dave Belsus sat on the floor of his hallway texturing the wall over the patch he'd installed a few days earlier. It had taken a sizable piece of sheetrock (from a layman's perspective) to repair the big gaping hole in his wall. There wasn't really a right or wrong pattern to the texturing and Dave was simultaneously restless and reluctant to move on to a different task. He finally stood, gathered his tools and materials, and hauled them down to the garage. There are still things to do. There are people depending on him.

He went out to his greenhouse and stopped, closed his eyes and smelled the green. Let it soak into him. He needed to feel life around him. He just stood there for . . . he wasn't sure how long. Not long enough. He still felt dead inside. But he had work to do.

David started harvesting some veggies to exchange with his neighbor, Lupe. Inspecting the cucumber plants, he could see two large ones were ready. He'd keep one for his own salads and send the other next door. Becca, Lupe's houseguest (once babysitter) had developed a taste for them after Dave offered one a few months ago. Several beefy tomatoes were ready, so he plucked them, keeping a few for himself. Maybe a tomato sandwich tonight or tomorrow. That'd be nice. Three heads of redleaf lettuce (he'd staggered his lettuce so a few heads were harvestable every week) were next, again, one for Dave, two for next door. Finally, a handful of strawberries were perfectly ripe. He'd let Lupe and the girls have all of those. Esme, Lupe's daughter loved strawberries. Well, who didn't? Cute little girl. Always gave Dave fierce, friendly hugs.

Dave missed the farmer's markets on the weekends where he could trade or buy/sell for other varieties and veggies he didn't have space or time for. Well, now he had all sorts of time, but he still didn't have the space.

Dave brought the harvested veggies into the house and sorted the veggies. Stuff for him went on the counter basket. Items for Lupe, Becca and Esme went back in the basket he'd carried into the greenhouse. Dave grabbed the basket and walked over to what had been a parlor just off his entryway. Now it was a decon area. Dave added a plasticized suit over the clothes he'd been wearing. Mid-September was still toasty in Texas, but fortunately not as bad as late August. That had been brutal. Hot enough Dave had thought about adding a water bottle with a straw to the inside of the suit. He hadn't come up with a way to attach it without breaching the suit's integrity, so he nixed the idea. He doubled down on pre-hydrating when it was absolutely necessary to go out in the damn thing.

Dave gathered up the basket in the clumsy gloves. He'd gotten fairly good at manipulating medium size items while wearing the gloves. The gloves were disposable dish gloves, tucked into the suit and duct taped to it for a seal. He opened his door and crossed the lawns over to Lupe's porch. He carefully transferred the veggies over to Lupe's porch pickup box, then gathered the dozen eggs she'd left him. Lupe had several hens in a large coop in her back yard. Dave had helped her install some anti-predator devices to the top of her fence and around the coop in the before times. Being that close to Lupe was a fond memory. Nothing romantic between them, just very comfortable. And it had paid off well too. He got a dozen eggs twice a week, and sometimes a whole chicken, plucked and dressed. Sometimes even separated into parts. If he was really lucky, after bringing her some good meat, he'd get homemade tamales. Lupe was a great cook.

Her cooking wasn't the only thing Dave appreciated about Lupe. Absolutely lovely inside and out. She wasn't beauty pageant pretty, she was normal girl pretty. What a lovely face to wake up to. A face that'd make a man want to come home. Nice figure too. She never wore anything too showy, but she wasn't one for baggy stuff either. Sure, she's in her early thirties and has a real job and a kid to keep track of, so she most certainly wouldn't have a washboard tummy under her shirts. Or dresses. God, Lupe looks fantastic in a dress. The way they billow around her calves always caught Dave's eye. And that hair. Long, lovely, raven black hair.

Hopping back onto his own porch, Dave put the basket down and flipped on the UV lights he'd installed in the porch awning. Step one in his decontamination process. Arms straight out from his shoulders, he turned slowly. One full circle palms down, another palms up. He flipped off the light, opened the door and grabbed the basket. Inside, he stripped off the outer suit, hanging it on hooks in the entryway, set the basket in the kitchen, then went straight to the upstairs shower, the one near the unused bedrooms.

Excessive? Possibly. But Dave wasn't going to be another statistic. Viruses don't negotiate. Dave didn't either. That's what Lysol was for. Not that the average person could get much of that anymore. Still, if you weed out the essential oils nuts, there were some good recipes for home sanitizers online. You just had to pay attention to the recommended duration. Some were stronger than others and didn't need to be left on a surface as long.

After toweling off and tossing the towel in the hamper, Dave went to the master bedroom to put on fresh clothes. Then he went back down to wash the lettuce and cucumber and started making a small salad. Dave didn't like eating right before exertion, but he hadn't eaten in a day and a half. He need to workout the anger surging through him too. So he compromised - a small salad, then beat the crap out of imaginary opponents.

Lettuce base, quartered tomato, quartered boiled egg, diced cucumber, and balsamic vinaigrette. Tasty enough that he'd finish it. Small enough he wouldn't blow chunks while he's exercising. Kitchen cleanup gave the food a little time to settle.

Dave walked across the house to get his staff from the gym, then went back to the sliding glass door separating the living room from the backyard. He walked to the large flat platform in the middle of the yard, stretching his arms as he went. He stretched his legs when he got there. Then he took a several minutes with warm up motions. He ran through each of the basic strikes and defenses in a pattern he practiced at least three times a week. He repeated the sequence five times. Then he launched into a series of combination motions. Half-staff upper hand strike on the right, followed by the left. A horizontal block leading into a full staff strike starting from the lower left into the upper right. On and on. Each pattern repeated. Each repetition faster. Turning. Striking. Blocking. Faster.

Dave's face, initially a blank mask, grew pained, then angry. Anger flowed into rage. In his rage, Dave lost track of his position on the platform. He unknowingly stepped off the platform. It was only two or three inches high, but that was enough. He caught his fall with his staff and avoided an unceremonious face plant. Still, the interruption pulled him out of the mental space he'd been in. His breathing was ragged. Sweat soaked his clothes, dripped from every part of his body. The air was no longer flinty, but it was still too hot for heavy, continuous exertion. He felt a small wave of nausea roll through his belly. Time to pack it in. He cleaned off the end of the staff he'd use to stop his fall, then walked inside, stowed the staff back in the gym, and went up to the master suite shower stall.

The shower refreshed Dave's body. Time to give his mind something to do. Eastfield College had only partially re-opened, just a few online classes. He had one section of astronomy to teach for the folks that wanted something more exciting than physical science for their science core requirement. No one was taking chemistry or physics this semester. The chemistry instructor was still alive. She'd laid down the law in her house and they had taken lockdown seriously. They just didn't have a good substitute for teaching the lab part of the class yet. The full-time physics guy had inexplicably taken the same attitude as too many in the county. He died before the spring semester ended. The guy had a doctorate in physics, twelve published papers to his name and spent twenty years living in scientific circles. You'd think he'd know better than to fall in with the idiot brigade. Hell, maybe the college would take Dave on full time to cover the physics courses once they opened up for real.

Dave logged into to the course website, checking grades in the online homework column and looking for any labs submitted by the faster, more diligent (or just bored) students. No new work since yesterday. Maybe the rest would wait until last minute on Sunday night. On no, a procrastinating college student. What a surprise!

A text message notification pulled him out of his reverie. It was from Lupe. "Please say yes." He was about to reply, asking her what he was supposed to say yes to, when he heard the doorbell. Crap. Dave rushed downstairs to the door, hearing a second ring on the way down. He grabbed a mask and slipped it on quickly just before opening the door a crack with his shoulder braced against it if he needed to slam it shut again. A man in a hazmat suit stood on Dave's porch, carrying a small case and wearing what appeared to be a watch on his right wrist.

"Good morning sir, my name is Arthur Samuelson, I'm with the CDC. May I come in?"

"You ain't a vampire are you?" The grin on Dave's face indicated he was joking.

Arthur chuckled. "No sir, just administering tests checking for DuoHalo and making arrangements for vaccination." Dave got the impression a few details were being skipped here, as if the man in front of him was easing him in with the broadest strokes first.

"A vaccine? Holy shit. Yeah, come on in dude." Dave backed up and opened the door fully. After making sure the door was fully closed, Dave led Arthur to the dining room table. Arthur immediately pulled out sterile cotton swabs, the kind with wooden stems and cotton only on one end, a small box. Arthur tapped the face of the watch and then typed in a numeric sequence when a digital number pad popped up.

"It's a monitor. Some folks have taken a militant approach since the lockdowns started. Every time the watch buzzes at me, I have to enter a code within 30 seconds or they send a squad of troops to my coordinates."

Dave reacted briefly, but nonverbally. Well, some people try to drown the lifeguard that's there to save their ass. Whoever said we've evolved past our caveman days isn't paying attention.

Arthur handed one of the hospital style cotton swabs to Dave. "Just swab the inside of your cheek very well, no brain tickling this time." Dave swabbed as instructed, then handed the stick back to Arthur. Arthur set about processing the sample and placing it in the testing device.

"This will take a few minutes. While we are waiting, is there anyone else to be tested here?"

"No, I live alone."

"Big place."

"Yeah, I . . . had other plans, but they didn't pan out. Been here by myself for a few years now. Nice neighbors, especially next door, Lupe." Dave mentioned Lupe intentionally. Given the short time span between the text and the doorbell, it was possible, but not certain, the two were connected.

"Yes, I just came from there. Nice ladies."

"So, are you going door-to-door doing this, like somebody selling steak knives?"

Arthur guffawed. "Not quite. We used electric usage rates to determine which houses still have people living in them. Then we set routes for each test administrator for a day. Also, you're going to like what I'm offering a lot more than steak knives, but they won't all come at once."

Dave chuckled, but held back a bit. "So multiple booster shots?"

"Something like that." Arthur's grin was slightly cryptic, like he was hiding a joke he wasn't ready to reveal just yet.

"I hate needles man. I put up with them, but I usually have to look away when I get stuck for shots or blood donations."

"We'll see what we can do to make it easier on you." The cryptic grin hadn't receded. Then the box trilled a three note sequence. Arthur checked it. "Congratulations, you are virus free. Let's make arrangements to keep you safe from this thing." Arthur pressed a button on the box, which then printed out a strip of paper. He handed the strip over to Dave. "So here's the deal: you know by now DuoHalo is deadly, especially to men. Like an 80% fatality rate for us guys."

Dave's eyes hooded over. "I'm aware."

"Yes, well it seems directly administering the vaccine is 100% fatal to men."

"How the fuck is that supposed to help? Leave a planet of valkyries that only survives if they solve cloning or learn to create artificial semen in one generation?" Dave shouted, but managed not to rise out of his seat.

Arthur leaned back somewhat, as if subconsciously giving Dave a little extra space. "No sir, we have a solution, just please hear me out."

Dave calmed himself and prepared to listen to what comes after three of the worst words to hear. Whatever followed those three words was either incredibly good, or monumentally bad. Dave wasn't holding his breath for the former.

"No, no, nothing like that. It turns out that women can act as intermediaries for the vaccine, sort of a buffer solution. I'm sorry, that may not - "

"I know what a buffer solution is and how it functions."

"Oh, excellent. You see, we have found that if a vaccinated woman has intercourse with a man, her body buffers the vaccine serum and her immunity transfers - in part - to the man."

"Intercourse? As in sex?"

Arthur smirked "Someone at the office started referring to this as the STV - Sexually Transmitted Vaccine."

Dave rolled his eyes briefly, then closed them and shook his head.

"Ok, there is a website with text and videos to explain more details, but a few more things I should say before I leave. First, it takes more than one woman to keep a man safe. That means you will have multiple women 'sharing' you." Dave's eyebrows shot up, but he kept his mouth shut and listened for now. "The vaccine also creates some kind of bond between men and women, so once they sleep with you, they can't be with another man. Ever. It's extremely dangerous for the woman." Seeing Dave start to object, Arthur rushed along "The website I gave you is a highly detailed and personal survey. Women take the same survey. The results get processed through a system called Oracle that has been rigorously tested to match people. We don't want someone stuck with a person they can't stand."

Hearing this, Dave was somewhat mollified. Arthur's haste from a moment ago clearly intended to forestall Dave's objection. Of course, Arthur probably thought the concern was for Dave being stuck with an objectionable woman. Dave was equally concerned with a woman getting stuck with him.

"Alright so last few questions, how much space is there in this house?"

"Oh, well, I have a king size canopy bed in the master bedroom. There are four more bedrooms upstairs, two of which have twin beds in them. The other two have no furniture."

"You're going to want to change that. Your first partner will likely arrive tomorrow, with more coming every week, maybe four days apart, at least until we get you up to four partners. Eventually, you will be assigned at least twelve women. Oh, and one more thing." Arthur handed Dave a plain white letter envelope bearing Dave's name in a flowing script. "Your neighbor Lupe asked me to give this to you. I'll step out to the living room to give you some privacy, but I'll need an answer before I leave."

Dave was puzzled and concerned but nodded Arthur towards the couch visible through the archway separating the dining and living rooms. Dave pulled out his pocketknife and slit the envelope open. His eyes widened at the first line. First line, hell - the salutation!

Dearest David,

Words cannot express just how wonderful it is just to address you in that way. I don't know when I began falling for you. I can tell you that last year, when I said I wanted a man who could make a living for us so that I could stay home, raise our kids, and love him with my whole heart, I was thinking of you. Yes, I know it's a bit silly to some, since I earn quite a nice income without any help, but that does not make me feel whole. I want to love you, and Esme, and the children we have together. Yes David, I want to bear your children and raise them with you. I wanted that before all of this lockdown and death started. And now, with all that's been lost, I want to feel life in my body. I want you to put it there. I never want to be away from Esme again. I want to manage your household and love you and our children and whomever else comes into our lives with the way the world is changing.

I understand from the gentleman that came to our door that the vaccine has some unusual effects, including emotional and psychological impacts. This is why I am writing to you now, before I take the vaccine. I want to make sure you know this is really what I want. Before anything affects me. I love you. I want to be with you for a lifetime.

You should also know that Becca wants to be with you as well. I suspect you will have objections based on her age. Yet, you know she is incredibly mature and responsible. You know what she went through to protect Esmeralda. You know what she has suffered through. Her world is completely unmoored. You, Esme, and I are all that she has left. Your heart and your mind know these things to be true. One thing you may not be aware of - Becca considers you her hero. For so many things big and small that you have done for us during this lockdown. Besides, she's a scifi and gaming nerd too, you two will get along quite well if you give her a chance.

I love you desperately David. Please say yes. For both of us.

Forever yours,

Lupe.

Dave reached into his back pocket for a handkerchief to dry his eyes. Lupe wanted him all along? Images flashed through his mind. Lupe laughing in a flowy dress on a pleasant spring day. Lupe's hands touching his as they exchanged eggs or produce. Lupe bringing him a glass of ice water while he repaired her fence because he couldn't bear the thought of her blowing money on a contractor. Lupe's proud grin as he thanked her and expounded on the deliciousness of the fresh tamales she brought over late last fall. Their hands had touched then too, hadn't they? No, she touched his hand. Not an accident. Dear God what an idiot! Hell yes he wanted Lupe in his life! And she had been showing him she wanted him in hers.

Then his mind turned to Rebecca. Just barely eighteen, and him already forty-six. If she were five years older, she'd still be half his age! Everything Lupe said in her letter was true though. The four of them had gotten through this lockdown together - Lupe, her nine-year-old daughter Esme, and Becca, the young babysitter that had taken on so much when this first started.

Loyalty to someone that had weathered the storm with him. Sympathy for someone who'd lost her entire family, even her extended relations. Admiration of the strength, character and resilience she'd shown. Mix in a little lust, 'cuz she's kinda cute. Nerdy cute. But then, Dave is a nerd, he likes nerd girls. Among others. So the only thing holding him back was a number? He'd seen that girl show more loyalty and honor than women twice her age!