Until the World Stops - L.A. Witt Page 0,30

regs. He’d also never miss an opportunity to sneer at the cloth masks we were all wearing, though he didn’t seem to be doing much to get us the proper ones. The Navy was allegedly getting us actual medical-grade masks, so Senior’s wife had sewn some cloth ones to tide us over in the meantime.

Mine was properly secured (especially since I actually took this shit seriously), so after Colby pressed the button to open the gate, I stepped out of the guard shack to wait for Chief to pull up.

When he did, he held his ID card out the window. Grimacing, he said, “Those masks comfortable?”

“Not really.” I gave his ID the usual glance before handing it back. “But Big Navy wants us wearing them.”

He huffed. “More like Big Pharma and the Democrats.”

I just kept myself from rolling my eyes, and instead waved him forward.

He didn’t move. “How’s Holloway handling all this? He still working with everything getting canceled?”

“Not really.” I hadn’t told Chief that amidst all the chaos, the event center where Tristan worked had shut down indefinitely, and the security staff had been laid off. The company insisted it was so people could get unemployment, but that didn’t help employees like Tristan who worked part-time. Allegedly there was some legislation in the works to help out part-time workers, but none of us were holding our breath about that. For the time being, unless and until he found another job, we had to assume we were down to my paycheck, our incoming tax refund, and whatever money he had left, which wasn’t much.

So no, Chief, he isn’t still working, he isn’t handling it very well, and yes, I notice whenever you call him Holloway even though you know damn well he took my last name.

Fortunately, Chief didn’t push to continue the conversation beyond that usual dig, and he drove onto the base. As the gate whined shut behind him, I swore behind my mask and went back into the guard shack.

“Let me guess.” MA2 Colby leaned back in her chair. “Masks are part of a liberal media plot to make COVID-19 seem like a crisis to blow the election?”

I shook my head. “Today it’s Big Pharma and the Democrats.”

“Damn. I already checked that box on my bingo card.”

I laughed as I took my seat, and I paused to jot Chief’s arrival in the desk journal. That was how quiet and slow this base was—we had to note everyone who came and went, since almost nothing else happened here. And there weren’t even that many people coming and going. Normally, the boredom and the tedium of documenting that boredom drove me up the guard shack walls. These days? I could handle boredom when the alternative was standing a busy gate while dozens and dozens of people—any one of whom could’ve been carrying the virus—came on-base and handed me their filthy ID cards. I shuddered.

Fussing with the ties on her mask, Colby turned to me. “Any word on when that PPE is coming in?”

“Not that I’ve heard. The hospitals can still barely get their hands on them, and if I had to guess, the big bases and the boats are higher priorities than Naval Station Podunk.”

She rolled her eyes. “Of course they are.” Evidently satisfied with her mask’s ties, she relaxed in her chair again. “Even without the PPE, I’ve never been more glad to be out here.”

“Yeah. Same.”

She and I were especially relieved. We’d both spent time aboard the Roosevelt, and we’d recently watched in horror as the CO was relieved of command for trying to protect his crew. That whole thing hit a bit too close to home. We both still had friends aboard the Roosevelt—some of whom had tested positive—plus Colby’s ex was on the destroyer that also had confirmed cases. We were watching a Navy-wide shit show from the safety of our tiny, remote base, simultaneously worried sick about our friends and relieved as hell we weren’t in the middle of it ourselves.

Quite frankly, just being where we were was too close for my comfort.

When I came out of the armory after turning in my weapon after shift, my chiefs were engaged in a heated debate about the pandemic. I didn’t stick around to listen. That was about all those two did these days—argue about who was to blame for the pandemic, how bad it really was, if the media was making it into something it wasn’t, whether scientists were worth listening to or if they were