Free The Emerald Virus by Patrick Shea

people immediately who should be on the bunker team. The problem was
that he didn’t know if they were in a position to volunteer. He wouldn’t try to
force anyone to leave their family at a time like this. As he reached his
office, Jack stopped at Irene’s desk and asked her to join him in his office.
        
As Irene took a chair at the work table, Jack sat on the edge of the table and
thought about how to open the discussion. After a minute or so he said, “Irene,
A.J. is going to talk to the staff this afternoon about who would like to
volunteer to evacuate into one of the national bunkers in order to continue to
work with survivors of the Virus. I’d like you to consider volunteering. I know
this is a surprise, and I don’t need an answer now, but I wanted to let you
know I think you would be an important member of that team.”
        
“Jack, I’m not sure why you think that. I’m a good admin person, and I can do
research; but there are a lot of special skill sets on the staff and I don’t
see myself competing with any of our experts.”
        
“I thought you would feel that way, but take a minute and look at this from my
perspective. The experts are all very good at what they do, but they tend to
look at the world from a very narrow perspective. We need someone who has an
unrestricted view of the world under the current circumstances; someone who
will voice ideas that may be out of the ordinary. I’ve watched you grow and
progress and I think you’re close enough to the problem to understand where the
team is going, and confident enough to speak up. And of course, whoever ends up
on the bunker team is going to need a lot of help keeping organized, and our
experts are famous for the chaos in which they work. You’re our expert in that
area and you’ll have the confidence of everyone on the team.”
        
Jack smiled at Irene as he said, “I know this is too much to ask of any person;
and while I don’t know a lot about your personal life, I do know that you will
make the best decision you can.”
        
One of the things Jack liked about Irene was that she stayed calm and in
control. While she laughed easily, she never let herself go too far. As he
looked at Irene now he could see the slightest tick under her left eye, and he
knew that was a sign of stress. He had seen that specific tell when Irene’s father
had died last year. He also knew that was the only sign of stress he would see.
He didn’t know how calm she was or wasn’t on the inside, but he felt sure she
would let him know if this was too much for her.
        
Irene replied, “Thanks Jack. I appreciate the offer, the support, and the fact
that sometimes I think you know the professional side of me better than I do.
I’ll think about what to do and talk to my sister and her husband this evening.
By the way, you’ll be in the bunker too, won’t you?”
       
Jack told her he had just found out about this himself and he hadn’t yet had
time to think about it. He felt a little guilty since he was almost sure he
would not volunteer. There were too many others with better skill sets. 
        
Several hours later Jack hung up the telephone after spending thirtyminutes talking with Harry. He walked down the
hall to the conference room and convened the afternoon team leaders’ meeting;
and as promised A.J. was there. After listening to the team leaders report on
progress and helping them tweak their plans a bit, he told the group that Dr.
McCloud had something important to say to them.
        
A.J. opened by telling them exactly what she had told Jack earlier in the day.
She then said, “Meet with your senior staff this afternoon and let them know
they can choose to volunteer. But remember, I don’t want volunteers looking at
this as a means of salvation. First of all you will be underground living in a
bunker. No sunlight, military style meals called “Meals Ready to Eat” or MREs,
that are made to heat on an