The Player's Twins (Book Two of The Great Age Plague series)

Chapter Twenty

To my horror, the first thing they did was separate the boys, girls, and animals. Cally and I were led to the right by two people in hazmat suits, Josh and Keon to the left, and our pets were taken off to the side into a corridor I couldn't see down along with our luggage. Before I was ushered away, Josh reached over and pulled me into his arms. I was shaking. A million thoughts ran through my head, worrying about us in quarantine, how this stress would affect the babies, where our pets were going. I felt tears bubbling up in my eyes as I held back the urge to run after Fitzy, who I heard let out a sad bark as he disappeared down the hallway. Josh kissed the top of my head and said "See you on the the other side." I swallowed my fear as the men in suits tapped their feet impatiently. 

Cally reached over took my hand, sensing my obvious fear. We walked down a white corridor of plastic with the sounds around us getting noisier and noisier. There were spraying sound of water, a large vacuuming noise, and even a few angry or disjointed voices. Babies could be heard here as well-- crying loudly. I rested a hand on my swollen stomach. On top of the nerves, I felt ill, having not eaten anything that day out of anxiety. 

The men in hazmat suits left us with a few women in hazmat suits who stood at the threshold of a large metal box. The box entrance was draped with hazy plastic strips, but beyond that I could see what appeared to be a shower. Wrapping my arms tightly around myself, I released Cally's hand. The young woman in the hazmat suit tried to give me a comforting smile. She didn't look any old than fifteen, but her hair was buzzed and I could see the army green collar tight around her neck. 

"Okay," she said in her tinny voice, distorted by her mask "I'm going to need you two to take off your clothing and dump it in this hatch over here. Then my partner and I are going to shower you off. You guys can scrub yourselves down, but make sure to really soap up your armpits and behind your knees. Then we will rinse you off and get you robes. Do you understand?" Cally and I both nodded "yes" and pushed past the plastic draping. We were revealed to a pop up trailer that funneled like a cone in the center. The hatches the army woman had been referring to were on either side, each one a closed off metal box that led to a garbage can. I was glad I hadn't chosen to wear any of my favorite clothing that day. Nervously, I began pull off my clothing one by one until I was wearing only my bra and underwear. The noises of the other shower units were loud and that vacuuming sound was omnipresent, so I called over in my loudest voice tp the army lady. 

"Do I have to take off my underwear?" I yelled. The woman gave a sad smile and nodded. Huffing, I turned my back to her as I unlatched my bra and shimmed down my pink panties.  It wasn't an easy task to bend down and retrieve my clothing-- what with my big belly and all-- and I hated how exposed I felt in front of the three other women. I'd never been naked in front of anyone but Josh and Keon before. Even back in middle school gym I would hide in the bathroom stalls to change my clothes. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw both the women in hazmat suits watching me, eyeing to make sure I did the procedure correctly. I pushed my clothing into the garbage shoot and approached the shower. 

The soap provided smell like pool water it was so heavily doused in cleaning agents. I held back as gag as I soaped it quickly over my head and body. Once I was soaped up on dry skin, the women in suits walked over to give me a quick spritz of water, making it bubble up. The water was ice cold, causing goose flesh appear all over my skin. Glancing over at Cally, I saw her squeeze her eyes shut as she ran soapy water over her face, the hazmat suited helper slowly running the nozzle over her body. I did the same, making sure not to miss an inch of my body. Once they were happy with our cleaning, the women in suits led us to the next passage dripping wet. The "robes" they gave us were not warm nor fluffy, but instead paper thin robes that didn't cover up our backsides and stuck to our wet skin. I shivered as my hair dripped on the disinfected tile floor. Weirdly enough, I could see the skid marks from shopping carts in days gone by. With bare feet, Cally and I padded on to the next part of the decontamination.