I'm not willing to speculate if this is about what is happening in out world right now. I don't want to scare anyone. I'm actually setting this story almost a year from now in a setting of what COULD happen.
I'm basing this story off of two books 'One Second After' and 'Last Town on Earth'. Both deal with a town isolating after a serious event and have to rely on local leaders and ingenuity to get through. I highly recommend them if you want something to read during this time that will give you some insight.
Norma was on the City Council in Bates Motel and Borowitz was the nice man who talked to her after she was in being shown to her office and was asking if it was true if she really called Lee Berman an A**. LOL. I'm keeping her on it at the time when she and George were kinda off when the pandemic hit. I originally wrote her as more of a worried stay at home mother who Alex has to save, but I don't like that. I like the idea of Norma as apart of things. Expressing the needs of families and the vulnerable because she knows what it's like to be like that.
I'm putting this story almost a year from now because I don't want my Normero socially distant and to quarantine the whole town means they'll be thrown together.
1.
February. Monday. Closed Meeting at City Hall
~ "We've done it before." Harris said. "Back in 1918, and again in 1919. During the flu pandemic."
"White Pine Bay was just a mill town back then." Mayor Rob Woodriff said somberly. "It didn't even appear on any maps. Hell, we didn't even have a post office. Just a general store and a doctors office."
"We could start the blockade from the Bates Motel." Max Borowitz said brightly. He glanced at Norma Bates who stared numbly at the papers before her and said nothing. "I remember the pictures of the Summers family keeping the quarantine from the old house there during the first pandemic."
"Yeah, they shot three and killed three people trying to get in." Sheriff Romero said gruffly.
All eyes suddenly turned to the Sheriff of White Pine Bay who had remained quite until now.
"Alex?" Mayor Woodriff asked calmly. His face showing the worry lines of dealing with this pandemic for almost a year now. "If you have a better idea, than please say so. What's happening in Seattle, what happened in Portland over the weekend, is alarming. We are discussing a very strict quarantine of this town. No one in or out. It was easier a century ago, can we even do it now?"
Alex Romero took his time to answer.
"We have to." He said softly. The admission felt like defeat. As though they had lost some kind of war. Which they had. "We have to seal off the town to stop those rioting, not just because of the virus." He clarified. "There's every reason to think what happened in Portland and in Seattle might migrate to here."
"How will we quarantine the bay?" Harris asked. "There's hundreds of boats out there."
"We can deploy wire nets to stop people from getting in and out. Ask our private fishermen to do a citizens patrol. Many of them have been doing that anyway since this began."
"This so called 'People's Army' in the major cities?" Woodriff asked. "The ones with assault weapons storming grocery stores and looting? You really think they'll come here?"
"Thanks to the bypass," Romero said, never losing his stoic manner. "They should pass us by in favor of a larger target. Go for a big box store and by then the National Guard will have stopped them."
"We can take the signs down by the exit route." Borowitz offered hopefully. "Maybe they won't know White Pine Bay is here."
Alex nodded.
"I think it's also a good idea... to quarantine the town. At least until summer." He said.
"Alex, that's months away." Norma finally spoke up. "What are we going to do for food?"
"We're still going to be able to get supplies." Romero said when the Mayor sat up a little straiter.
"Supply trucks will be the only thing let in." Borowitz said and Alex nodded. "Diver never makes contact with anyone here. They just unload at the local grocery store and leave."
"Can't we at least lift the restriction on going INTO the store?" Norma asked. "I hate not being able to buy what I need."
"No." Harris shook her head. "The phone app will ensure that there is no panic buying or hoarding of supplies. And the curbside delivery with help cut the virus exposure."
"Mail?" Norma asked.
"We can get mail, but it has to follow the same rules. Drivers never makes contact. He has to deliver to the post office and the employees take it from there. Maybe once a week?" Woodriff offered.
"Something this drastic might make the news." Harris said practically. "The other towns that did this made the news."
"The other towns that did this were larger and that was earlier in the pandemic. Plus, the news has other stories to cover right now." Alex reminded her.
Norma nodded her agreement. There were always other stories to distract people.
"How will we tell the people?" She asked looking between him and Mayor Woodriff.
"We use an emergency phone tree system. Emergency radio broadcast." Borowitz said knowledgeably.
He glanced at Alex.
"Wouldn't hurt to patrol the streets with a loud speaker and remind everyone to stay indoors and not to leave the town. Like we did in the beginning." He said.
Romero nodded.
"You'll need to use my motel for the blockade?" Norma asked him trying to sound unassuming. Trying to sound casual. "It's the main way into town."
Alex nodded.
"We can use the town's emergency funds to rent out the rooms." He nodded to the mayor. "The motel really is a perfect place to hold and quarantine anyone trying to get in."
Mayor Woodriff nodded without a second glance.
"I agree. Thank you, Mrs. Bates. Set up the blockade and make sure Mrs. Bates has whatever she needs to take care of any evacuees, Sheriff."
The meeting of the reduced City Council had been informally been dismissed.
~ "So strange now." Norma commented looking at the empty streets that were normally teaming with tourists this time of year.
Alex was driving her back to the motel. Back to the big house, Norman, Dylan and the endless monotony of life since the virus hit.
A endless few minutes seems to pass between them before Alex spoke.
"I remember having to learn about the first quarantine in school." He said at last. "We took a field trip to this little local history museum in the public library." He laughed a little at how it had seemed like such a big thing back then.
"How long did they shut off the town for?" Norma asked worriedly.
"White Pine Bay wasn't even really a town back then." Alex said. "Like Rob said it was a logging community."
He shrugged when Norma gave him an annoyed look.
"I think it was for a few months at a time. It all came in cycles. The Spanish flu pandemic was very serious. Whole families were being wiped out. People were really scared." He explained.
"People aren't scared now?" Norma asked. "Five hundred people in this town have already died in the past year."
"I know." Alex said somberly.
"I haven't been able to book guests since all this started. This blockade thing is what's going to get me through the next year. I mean, thank God the house and motel were paid for. We've been living off the stimulus checks. Can't really file for unemployment." She sighed.
"I doubt any of us is going to get rich of of this, Norma." Alex told her. "No one is having a good time."
"Of all the times to be stuck on the City Council." Norma sighed.
"You could always resign." Alex offered.
Norma rolled her eyes. They had already lost four members of the council in the past year from the virus and it had been a rare thing to meet face to face in the same room. The summer months had given them no new cases of the virus and a slight return to normality until the riots broke out in the major cities. Now with riots and a resurgence of the virus in major cities, there was a very real fear of food shortages, violence and more stay at home orders.
"Will you be at the house for dinner?" Norma asked when her phone buzzed angrily. A text alert about the town quarantine and to not leave the town's city limits was already going into effect.
"I have to get things started." Alex said angrily. "Set up the road blocks and call the national guard."
"The National Guard didn't come in Portland." Norma reminded him.
"I know." He said. "But I have to say I tried."
"What are you going to do to my motel?" She asked looking suddenly worried.
"Tell Dylan to meet me down there." He said "We can use the trucks to block the cars trying to get in and out until we can fill up rain barrels.
"Rain barrels?" Norma questioned.
"Rain barrels are heavy." Alex told her. "Cars can't ram them easily and if they do, they just destroy the car."
"Right." Norma nodded. She looked a little winded.
"I'm sorry." He said.
"For what?"
"I know you were looking forward to the lockdown being lifted and things going back to normal." He told her.
Norma shrugged.
"Things are never normal for me." She said. "It's been hard on all of us."
Alex knew exactly what she was talking about. She didn't have to say it.
"How's Norman?" He asked.
"Spends all his time in the basement." Norma sighed. "Dylan hunts pheasants for the meat once a week. We can only get two pounds a week of beef from the store now. It's not enough."
"I know." Alex sighed.
"Any issues we had before, it's like it's magnified." Norma admitted. "I want to..." she shook her head but didn't finish.
"What?" Alex asked.
"Nothing." She said. "Don't miss your turn."
~ "A blockade?" Dylan's eyes widened and Norma was compelled to comfort her oldest son.
"It's not as scary as it sounds." She assured him in a whisper.
"It sounds pretty damn scary, Norma." He whispered back. These days, when they had to talk about serious things, it was always done in whispers. When he wasn't hiding in his basement, Norman was lurking in the shadows of the house, eavesdropping on conversations he shouldn't overhear.
"Alex wants you to help him get things set up." Norma whispered nodding down to the motel. "Help create a road block. Just do what he says and be careful. People already know and they might be trying to leave the town."
"Should we? Leave town?" Dylan asked. His eyes growing wide again.
Norma shrugged.
"Where would we go?" She asked.
~ Norma found her youngest son down in the basement as usual. For almost a year, during the virus' rampage across the globe, the family had cloistered themselves in the Queen Anne house on the hill and spent that time fixing it up. Stripping away the peeling paint from the hallway and dinning room and repainting. Laying down new laminate flooring in the kitchen. In high summer, Alex had spent an entire week helping mother and sons pressure wash the exterior of the house so it could be properly cleaned and then painted a becoming shade of very pale yellow. As a result, the house had never looked better. Norma was, in fact, running out of home improvement projects to keep herself busy with. There was only so much reading, cooking and sewing she could stand to do in a day.
Yet, with all the improvements around the house, Norman refused to allow his basement to be touched. Aside from the addition of a new furnace and the old one hauled away. Something he was angry about because it had 'memories'. He liked his basement to stay exactly as it was. Dark, dank and entirely his world.
Norma had become concerned when he'd moved a small cot to sleep down there. Norman claimed he just didn't want to climb the stairs anymore and was tired.
She could hardly blame him. The past year had been sucking the energy out of everyone and there was still no end in sight.
"Norman?" She called out to the dimness from the safety of the ground floor landing. She hated going down into the basement.
"Yes, mother?" Norman called back. His voice like a ghost echoing though the darkness. She couldn't see him at all. He was apart of the shadows.
"Dinner will be ready in an hour. Why don't you come up?" She called out with a fake cheerfulness. The view to the basement was blocked by a large wooden shelf that the family had installed in front of the stairs. Shelves she'd stocked full of canned fruits and vegetables. All of which she'd canned herself last spring when the pandemic first started and no one thought it would last this long. Now she was thankful she had rows and rows of peaches and strawberry jams available on demand.
"I can eat down here." Norman's ghostly voice came back.
Norma's ire rose up hotly.
"No you can't!" She shouted irrationally. "It's not normal to spend all day in this basement! Now get upstairs and wash your hands! I did a load of your laundry and I want you to put it away!"
Norma slammed the door to the basement shut and felt instantly bad she had shouted at her son. Her tempter always striking red hot at a son who knew just how to push her buttons.
~ Romero barely acknowledged Dylan. It was never their way together and they both accepted it.
"Take your truck, block up the road. Like I did with mine." He nodded back to his SUV.
Dylan took a second to nod.
"Norma... told me we're locking down the town?" Dylan asked.
Romero nodded.
"Yeah." He said. "Move the truck. Some guys are coming to put rain barrels down to block the roads and parking lot."
Dylan took a moment to stare at Romero, but didn't ask.
In an hour, just as Norma was shouting at Norman for the last time to come up for dinner and he was ignoring her, two deputies were setting up rain barrels to finish blocking the road and motel parking lot.
"We can move the barrels for food and mail deliveries here." Alex explained to Dylan at last pointing to a barrel that was left deceptively empty. The two men standing six feet apart in the motel parking lot. "We may have to use the motel rooms to keep people in quarantine who want to enter. Also the deputies will need to sleep in shifts."
"Is this about the virus?" Dylan asked. "Or is this about those protests in Portland?"
"Tell your mother not to watch the news." Alex said with annoyance.
"You tell her." Dylan said casually. "She listens to you more than she does me."
"Dylan!" Norma's voice cracked through the air and both men turned. "Alex! I'm glad you're still here. I've made enough for everyone and Norman isn't coming out of his basement-"
He face fell when she saw the large rain barrels and deputies filling them up with water.
"When you're done... come up for dinner." She said softly. Before turning away and quickly climbing back up the stairs to the house.
"She's going to want you to stay for dinner." Dylan reminded him. "You keep putting it off."
"Tell her I'll be right there." Alex said as another police SUV pulled up to the makeshift barricade. "We can eat but I want you right back down here to help me set up a more permanent blockade."