She backed up, pushing her way through the crowds until she was free of the mass near the glass security doors. Struggling for air, she slumped down in an empty gate area near the glass windows facing the airport runways. All of the planes had been grounded, and the ground crews were gone. Caroline dug around in her backpack for her phone. She dialed her parents again. Her mother answered on the first ring.
“Honey! Thank God, what’s the matter? Natalie said something about you being stuck at the airport?”
“Mom… They aren’t letting us go home.” She tried to keep from crying. “It’s bad. Really bad.”
Her mother’s panicked breathing wasn’t a comfort. “Is it the virus from the news?”
“Yeah. A man behind me in line died today. He was infected. He coughed on me. I could be infected with it.”
