28 Days or "Blame it on the H1N1 (Hine)"

So Kiki found out through work that Downers Grove South High School would be one of the DuPage County Center for Disease Control’s clinic sites for H1N1 (Blame it on the HINI!) vaccinations. She signed up Sam for the vaccine and sent me with him while she & Miette went to church. The Appointment was at 10:10, and we were instructed to be there at 10.
No problem, right?
So, I noticed a lot of cars turning down Dunham at 63rd St. If you know the High School, you can picture this, but there were cars lined up 1000 feet down the street. At Norfolk St (the next block), we were directed into the lot by large neon orange VACCINATION signs. A parking lot attendant, one of 2 total, promptly directed us back out of the parking lot…
So, I fought for a spot like I was at DSW, and finally got one about as far away from the main entrance as possible. So, I carried Sam up to the door, where we were greeted by “NO VACCINATIONS GIVEN WITHOUT AN APPPOINTMENT” signs in ingles and Spanish. We were then handed a clipboard and sent about 300 yards up a north-south hallway that was roped down the middle only to turn back south and wait in line. From there, we ambled along the 300 yards or so down the main east-west hallway to the west towards the “Cafetorium” (yes, Cafetorium) if you’re familiar with the school.
This was the worst part of the wait. The form was simple, but the school was hot. There were people everywhere and all the people there to get shots were either old or kids. Or parents holding Kids. There was no where to put coats, and if you were carrying a child like I was, no good way to take your coat off. Along the main east-west hallway, they had a rope line bisecting the hallway into 2 lines. All the CDC staffers – and there were probably 200 of them – were in orange windbreakers or jumpsuits with CDC in reflective tape on the back. They kept shuttling bins of clipboards and the occasional wheelchair up and down the hallway. Every other CDC person stormed through shouting “Stay to the wall, please! Pay attention and move forward!” I swear I saw a bullhorn, though I didn’t see it used.
At this point the immigrant camp scenes from “Children of Men” were swimming through my head. I literally had to stop myself and remind myself that I was just there to get Sam a shot, not get sequestered into some walled-off section of London.
We finally came to the end of the hallway and were stopped at a row of doors. Firelines of CDC employees held us there and relayed the number of patients they could take at a time in the various lines. The commons we were directed to was divided by folded-up dining tables arranged into cattle chutes and walls. In front of a table of 4 nurses, we had to wait in makeshift waiting areas that felt very DMV. The nurse checked the form and sent us to another makeshift waiting area. There were like 4 groups of 40 chairs. There were 2 CDC employees seating people then releasing them to wait in another line. That line ended in the big tiered band practice area. We were ushered there by another fireline to the person that actually administered the shot.
All told, it took about 40 minutes. Most of it eaten up by the lines, but the parking lot was incredible. I truly felt like I was in an outbreak movie. It was apropos that the last person we interfaced with reminded us to get the H1N1 booster “28 Days Later”.