Quarantine

1

Deciding what to do about the quarantine had been a decision they had to make a lot faster than they wanted to. On Monday, things started picking up. By Tuesday night, the mayor was starting to talk about shutting the city down. That night, both of them worked overnight meaning they couldn't talk about anything until Wednesday evening when the mayor declared that starting Saturday at 12 am, the city was closing.

"What should we do?" Maya asked as they finished watching the news report together.

"Well, if we do this together, it will probably make it easier because then we can at least be with each other since neither of us has roommates," Carina said, "But we both have jobs of high risk."

And there was the unspoken tension that they had only been back together for about two weeks and thigs were still rocky.

"We could stay here," Maya said, knowing her place was closer to both of their jobs, "And you could probably go back to your place if you need space. I mean, it's not like you will be in contact with anyone there so it wouldn't put anyone at risk."

"That sounds reasonable Bella," Carina nodded, leaning over and kissing Maya gently.

The next two days were insane. With the city preparing to go on lockdown for an undetermined amount of time, it was like everyone lost their minds. Maya was busy getting everything ready for the A team to work.

They were going to be working an extra shift every week because they were already seeing an uptick in calls and that wasn't going to stop. They decided that they all had to wear masks in all spaces that were open to the public, meaning that only the beanery, showers, and sleeping quarters were mask free zones. For Maya, it meant she had to wear a mask in her office at all times except in her bunk. They also had to wear masks to all calls or their respirators.

They had extreme new cleaning protocols and twice a shift temp checks. If anyone got sick, they all had to quarantine for two weeks.

It was stressful and Maya found herself lying awake at night, struggling to sleep. She couldn't stop thinking.

By the time she and Carina were off at the same time, on Sunday after the city had gone into full lockdown, Maya was absolutely beat.

"Bella," Carina said as Maya walked in, the bags under her eyes big and dark.

"I need to shower," Maya said, brushing her off, "And wash my clothes. This whole pandemic thing sucks."

Carina nodded. Both the hospital and the fire station had given them a protocol to follow after each shift. Wash clothes, shower, scrub under the nails, brush teeth and use saline in the nose to get cleaned.

"My clothes are already in the washer waiting," Carina said.

Maya went into the laundry room, stripping before going to the bathroom, finding that Carina had already started the shower. She cleaned herself up, feeling the weight of the past few days heavy on her tired shoulders.

Once she was clean, she went and pulled on a clean pair of sweats before going into the kitchen where Carina had made avocado toast with fried eggs.

"How are you amor?" Carina asked as she carried plates into the living room, "Has everything been crazy since this started?"

"It's been barely 24 hours since lockdown started and we have been slammed," Maya said, taking her plate from Carina.

"You look exhausted," Carina said, touching Maya's cheek, "When was the last time you slept?"

"When was the last night we spent together?" Maya asked, picking at her food.

"Wednesday," Carina said, not understanding how that was relevant.