The Aging: A Novel

by Jack Hunt

  “Too many people means too many mouths to feed, too many who could disagree. Too many things that could go wrong!” Ryan replied. “I’m sorry, it’s out of the question. I have these two to think about. I’m not endangering them.”

  Tommy ran a hand over his face and opened the door of the RV and stepped out.

  “Then I need to stay.”

  Ryan lifted a hand to his face and ran it over his head. “This is about this damn motel, isn’t it? It’s not even about them.”

  “Ryan, I built this place from the ground up. My entire life is in this motel.”

  “Yeah, and if you don’t get to safety soon, you won’t be alive to enjoy what little days remain.”

  “That’s you. Not me.”

  Josh frowned. What was that supposed to mean?

  “You really don’t make life easy, Tommy,” Ryan said.

  Tommy went about emptying the black and gray tanks on the RV. He opened up the side of the RV and took out a green tube and attached it to the RV and then prepared to use a large back slinky to guide the hose into the hole in the ground. He continued talking while he worked. “Forgive me, brother, if you think I’m being ungrateful but the way I see it… you are talking about not trusting strangers, and yet that’s exactly what you’re suggesting by heading down to a place on the word of your ex-wife. At least here, I know how things work.” He dropped the hose into the hole then yanked on the black tank valve to empty it. It made a flushing noise as it emptied. “I’m far enough outside of town that the few people heading this way are probably travelers trying to get out of Texas or Louisiana.”

  “Yeah, and where do you think they’ll stop to look for supplies?”

  “I’ll deal with that if it happens,” he said, not looking at Ryan.

  Ryan knew it was a losing game. “You got enough food?”

  “Do I have enough?” He laughed as if it was obvious.

  “Josh, Lily, get your things, we’re leaving.”

  “Nice meeting you, Uncle Tommy,” Josh said as he led Lily out of the RV.

  “You too, kiddo. I’m sorry it wasn’t under better circumstances.” He ruffled Lily’s hair. “And you, butterfly, you take care.”

  Josh could see it bothered his father. He couldn’t let it go. Gesturing for them to get in the truck, he handed the keys to Josh and then returned to Tommy’s RV. Within seconds the two of them were in a heated argument. Josh couldn’t make out what they were saying as Tommy waved him off and went inside the RV. Ryan followed. Josh expected it was stuff he couldn’t or didn’t want to say with them around. Lily peered around her brother.

  “Why won’t Uncle Tommy go with us?’

  “No idea, Bean.”

  It was easier for them as they had nothing to go back to, but this was his uncle’s business, his career, his life.

  Josh fired up the engine and turned on the air conditioning while they waited. He surveyed the office, and some of the suites off to the right that looked like newer additions to the lodge. He turned the radio on and scanned stations looking for an update. There was nothing except white noise. It was an older model truck with a cassette player. There was one part sticking out so Lily leaned forward and pushed it in. Country music blared out of the speakers so he turned it down. Josh turned to his phone while Lily bopped her head from side to side, enjoying the tunes.

  He’d been hoping to get hold of Callie but had gotten no response in the last few days. He could only hope that she hadn’t suffered the fate that so many had. Over the past week, more people were realizing the only key to their survival was to infect others. No other virus acted like that but this did. It brought a whole new meaning to spreading infection.

  Staying abreast of what was developing, he searched for news on Louisiana and the outbreak. Within twenty minutes they would be crossing into another state and he figured it would be wise to know what lay ahead.

  It was more of the same.

  The situation was only getting worse.

  Why would anyone self-isolate when there was a way to stop the aging by giving it to your neighbor? The images were gruesome. People defending their homes. Shooting anyone who tried to get near them. The infected tackling unsuspected people to the ground. Driving vehicles into other vehicles only to get out and pass it to the unconscious. Riots erupted in major cities as the National Guard tried to gain control of looters taking advantage of the chaos.

  Josh had his head down when he was startled by a gun erupting.

  Glancing sideways, he saw Tommy lunge at some stranger, forcing them to the ground with a rifle in hand, as another lay on the ground not moving. Several more people were trying to get into the RV, pulling on a closed door. A second later, his father emerged, clambering out of the top of the RV, a gun in hand. “JOSH!” he bellowed. The gaze of several people turned and they began running toward them.

  His eyes bulged.

  Fear spread.

  Josh dropped his phone and slid into the driver’s seat, hitting the lock.

  He told Lily to do the same as he shifted the vehicle into reverse and backed out, swerving the truck around. There didn’t seem to be more than six. They dashed forward, one dived onto the hood, and began cracking the front windshield with a tire iron.

  Lily screamed.

  Josh punched the gas and the truck lurched forward barreling into the group, knocking them over like bowling pins. The truck bounced, sending the guy on the hood off.

  Adrenaline surged through his veins as he yanked the wheel to the right and then the left to get another guy, who was bleeding from his nose, off the top of the truck. A second or two and the man slid sideways, disappearing out of view.

  “Hold on,” he shouted to Lily as he brought the truck around the back of the RV and slowed just enough for his father to jump off into the back of the truck bed. Ryan smacked a hand on the side of the truck.

  “Go!”

  He turned the wheel, coming around the RV, but then the unthinkable happened.

  Josh swerved to avoid hitting a young child, and as he did, the truck went down an embankment just beyond the parking lot and the engine died. “No, no, no,” he said, turning the key. It spluttered. The engine coughed.

  All the while, Ryan was shooting at those dashing toward them. “Any time now, Josh!”

  “What do you think I’m doing?”

  The engine caught and roared to life. He jammed into reverse and the wheels spun.

  The back end smashed into two people, sending them underneath.

  Behind them, gunfire echoed. A woman plowed into the passenger side of the vehicle, taking a brick and hitting the window. Lily screamed, leaning toward Josh, staying away from the window. The glass cracked, then the truck bit into the dirt and bounced onto the asphalt. In his rearview mirror, he saw his uncle swinging on several of them.

  It was too late for him. He’d been touched.

  Josh jammed the gear stick into drive and tore out of the lot, never letting up on the accelerator until Ryan smacked on the window and told him to pull over.

  When they were far enough away, he slowed the truck.

  As soon as it stopped, Josh got out. Ryan was pacing. “Shit. Damn it.” He slammed a fist into the side of the truck. “If he’d just listened to me.” Josh looked up the road. It was empty. No one was following.

  “What the hell happened? Where did they come from?”

  “Where do you think?” he asked, revealing his frustration.

  Still clutching his rifle, Ryan lowered to a crouch at the edge of the road, running a hand over his head. Josh could hear him cursing under his breath. He looked back in the vehicle. Lily looked traumatized. This was becoming all too real for her. Tears streamed down her cheeks.

  “I want mom.”

  “Hey. Hey,” he said, reaching across the driver’s seat to her. “I’m here. What did I say?”

  She struggled to get the words out.

  “Bean, what did I say?”

  “You won’t let any
thing happen to me.”

  He held her hand tight. “That’s right.”

  Glancing out of the rear window at his father pacing, he closed the driver’s side door and went around. Ryan was trying to come to grips with it all.

  Josh didn’t know whether he should say something or not. It was his father’s brother after all. He’d seen Tommy make contact. Throwing himself at the two individuals trying to get in. He’d put himself before his brother long enough for him to climb out the top and escape.

  “It happened so fast,” Ryan said, not even looking at Josh. “I was talking with him. Finally getting him to see reason when one of them entered the RV.”

  Ryan ran a hand over his beard.

  There was a long pause. Josh continued looking warily up the road. “Did anyone touch you?”

  “No,” Ryan shot back.

  Josh nodded and Ryan placed a hand on his shoulder. “You did the right thing, son.”

  Hearing that didn’t sit well with him. It didn’t feel right.

  “We should get moving,” Josh added, tossing the keys to him and then getting in the passenger side. His father waited out there a minute longer before he got in and they took off heading south down U.S. 190 toward the border of Louisiana. It was quiet. As they drove, Josh glanced at his father then back at the road.

  “If you have something to say, say it,” Ryan said.

  “Uncle Tommy said you were adopted.”

  Ryan nodded. “It’s a long story. Let’s just say my parents weren’t the best. My father, well… I ended up in the foster system and Tommy’s parents took me in and eventually adopted me. I was young. Not much older than Lily.”

  Josh nodded.

  The road was barren for the most part in the short drive across the border.

  Ten minutes down the road, Ryan turned on the radio. It was mostly static but now and again, it would pick up a station. As they saw a large “Welcome to Louisiana” sign, they tuned into KM27.01. It was a local station coming out of Merryville, a tiny town near the border about eighteen miles southeast of Newton, Texas. An older-timer came over the speaker. “And to y’all out there. I can’t say much because the infected are listening but there are safe zones out there. Remember. When in doubt, get out. If they’re bleeding from the nose. If they have the rash. Don’t go near them. For you who are infected. Godspeed. Stay safe, folks.”

  Ryan shook his head as he turned it off.

  “What did your mother tell you about Florida?”

  “Not much.”

  “She must have shared something. She wouldn’t have asked me to take you down there without divulging the situation you were heading into.”

  “All she said is it’s where our grandparents are. That they were alive. That they have a boat. That others have boats and they’re using them to stay out on the water and keep their distance from others. That there is some island or islands that are being used as safe zones.”

  They passed through Merryville with relative ease. Ryan kept off the main stretch and took some of the side roads. The few people they passed were either making a run to get food from whatever was being distributed from stores or they were carriers of the pathogen out to spread it, trying to gain some years before the virus robbed them of what little they had left.

  “How much gas do we have?” Josh asked.

  “Enough for a while.”

  “I need to use a washroom,” Lily said.

  “You’ll have to hold it,” Ryan said.

  “I can’t.”

  “Why didn’t you say something back in the last town?”

  “I didn’t need it then,” she replied.

  “The next town is ten minutes.”

  “I can’t hold it,” she said, crossing her legs.

  Josh looked at Ryan. “Pull over to the side of the road.”

  They were in the middle of nowhere. A lonely stretch of road between two towns where homes were absent and all that could be seen was miles of road and thick forest on either side. “Ryan! Pull over!” Josh said.

  Ryan sighed.

  After what they’d just been through back in Newton, he understood Ryan’s hesitation to stop even if there was no one around. He eased up on the gas and swerved to the edge of the road.

  “Okay, make it quick.”

  Lily hopped out and Josh shuffled over.

  “I can’t do it with you looking,” she said.

  Lily squatted at the side of the truck in the knee-high brush while he and Ryan looked at the road ahead. “How long have you been sober?” Josh asked.

  “Eighteen months, two weeks, and four days.”

  “I read the material in the folder.”

  “And?”

  Josh didn’t say anything.

  Ryan chuckled. “You wouldn’t be the first to not believe me. It’s okay.”

  “Is that why you and mom separated?”

  “That and other things. But you could say that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.” He brought his window down and a gentle breeze blew in. “Did your mom ever talk about me?”

  “Not really.”

  “Smart. It was such a mess, Josh. I wanted things to work out but it just all collapsed in on itself. And these things aren’t resolved quickly. Your mother tried. I will give her that. We both did. I don’t hold any animosity toward her for what she did. She did what was best for you in light of the situation. A new start. A place where no one knew her, you or me.”

  He was too young to remember. The memories were vague, fragmented, like trying to make sense of a kaleidoscope. He was about to reply when Lily let out a bellowing scream. He jumped out of the truck, expecting to see someone, but it was just her, gripping her leg, her pants still down. A snake slithered away into the brush. Josh caught sight of it. Its pattern was unmistakable.

  “What is it?” Ryan yelled, coming around the other side.

  At first, there was panic. Confusion even.

  “Copperhead.”

  Then it turned to terror when Lily turned and showed the bite on the back of her leg. She was crying uncontrollably, her anguished screams piercing the air. Josh scooped her up and double-timed it back to the passenger side. He pulled up the pant legs to cover her as he placed her in the vehicle. With not a second to lose, Ryan crushed the accelerator and the truck took off speeding toward the next town of Singer, Louisiana.

  Lily screamed as venom coursed through her young body.

  Chapter Twelve

  5 days earlier

  July 1

  No one was prepared to lose a parent before their time. Before this, you were lucky if you got eighty years, now, depending on a person’s age, it was days. It wasn’t meant to happen this way. She was meant to watch them graduate high school, cheer them on in their chosen career, be there to see them get married, and become a listening ear if they got divorced. Then, when it came time, when she was too old to take care of herself, the roles would reverse and they would become the caregiver. Eventually one day she would take her last breath and they would bury her in a plot that they could visit.

  That was the natural order.

  That was the way a parent goes out.

  The way life was meant to end.

  Not like this.

  Not this soon.

  “No. Absolutely not,” Josh said, walking away from his mother’s bedroom door. He couldn’t believe what she’d said, let alone what she was suggesting. He went into the kitchen and looked out the window. His mother called him back but he refused to listen to her reasoning. He didn’t want this on his conscience. It was hard enough thinking of how they would cope without her. Josh went outside and lit a cigarette as he wrestled with the inevitable. She was dying. They all were. Just she was arriving at death’s door quicker than most.

  “Josh, where you going?” Lily asked. He turned and blew out smoke.

  “Go back inside, Lily.”

  “You’re not leaving, are you?”

  “No. Just go in.” His frustration sho
ne through. Her fears too.

  She went inside and he walked the length of the driveway to the road, pushing the thoughts of his mother’s request from his mind so he could finish the cigarette in peace. Gripping the handgun, and surveying the woods, he was aware that his neighbors might not be the only ones looking to get inside. Since they’d tried to break in, he’d covered the windows with panels of plywood. It wasn’t perfect but at least they were able to sleep at night without fear of someone barging in. He didn’t figure his neighbors would be back anytime soon.

  In the weeks after the original incident in town, the situation had only gotten more out of hand.

  As the way to slow the aging and stop symptoms through infecting others became known, more people were taking matters into their own hands despite orders by state officials to self-isolate and notify them. While not everyone resorted to spreading the pathogen, the greater majority did. Desperation superseded morals and ethics when faced with imminent death.

  Josh looked back at the house that had once been a sanctuary to him, a safe place. It was no longer that. If he ignored his mother’s pleas she would be dead in days. Reports varied widely but most died when their heart gave out; others suffered excruciating agony as their body was unable to deal with the rapid pace of aging. He saw photos online of the dead. The worst cases had blood trickling out of their eyes, nose, and ears. It was a gruesome, slow and painful death that he wouldn’t wish upon anyone.

  That’s why his mother wanted to go out on her terms.

  She’d accepted that death was the outcome. Suicide just circumvented the suffering. She wasn’t the first to do it. Suffering was the reason why some chose to take their lives. Online videos showed people after having shot, hung, or offed themselves in other creative ways. That’s what that lady had tried to do the day of his release. She’d stepped out in front of a truck to end her life. Although she’d transferred the virus to his mother, it was too late for her.

  Her internal injuries were too severe.

  So, his mother wanted him to set a revolver outside her door, and then she would take care of the rest. Sure, he wasn’t the one pulling the trigger but it still felt like he was playing a large role in killing her. She wouldn’t come out and get the gun herself. She said she was too weak. The damage was done. Exposing him or Lily to what she now looked like would have scarred them for life. She didn’t want them to remember her that way.