Fiction
Do Me a Favor and Don’t Go Through This Alone
The Quarantine Diaries, Part Six
This is part of a series of short stories. To read them all, head here.
When the virus got especially bad, the city was completely locked down. People stopped leaving their houses, the shops closed, and the trains stopped running. Businesses were paused indefinitely, people worked from home, and in worst-case scenarios, makeshift dormitories and campsites were set up in facilities designated essential. The government introduced drone-delivered rations, and we were told not to leave our houses. A mist of quiet and fear settled over the country, the end of which felt very hazy.
During this time, I went on a lot of walks.
The walks started quite short. Small laps of the neighborhood, mostly. I’d heard the SDF were patrolling in armored cars, and groups of people in biohazard suits were wandering in the evening. Both assumed that if you walked the streets, you were sick. You had the virus. That meant they could do what they wanted, and the stories weren’t very nice.
But in those early days, I never saw anyone. No soldiers walking the streets, no faces in the windows. Not even silhouettes on the curtains. It was just me and the empty streets. No cars, no trains, and no people…
