Isolation | Book 4 | Holding On

by Jones, Nathan

  Chet clapped him on the shoulder, making him jump slightly. “We'll get back to our route, boss,” he said, giving Gen a strained but genuine smile. “You can catch up to us.”

  “Okay,” he said, feeling a bit bad about suspecting his friend; Chet was a good man, and if he had burned down houses in Wensbrook he had a valid reason to want to. Not that Nick approved, but . . .

  Gah, why did he always get these dilemmas dumped in his lap?

  “How are you doing?” he asked Gen as his patrol moved out.

  She grimaced. “I probably look like a wreck, don't I?”

  He hesitated. “You look beautiful,” he said honestly. “But this craziness with Jay is stressing us all out, and I want to make sure you're not pushing yourself too hard.”

  “I hope you aren't either, since you're in the thick of it,” she said. “I worry for you.”

  That admission warmed Nick's heart, but he wished she wouldn't deflect his own worry. Still, he didn't want to press the issue. “How's Billy holding up with all this?”

  Gen flashed that warm smile again. “He's an inspiration, a testament to how resilient kids can be.” She laughed ruefully. “Honestly, he's comforted me as much as I've comforted him through all this.”

  “That's good to hear. Ricky and Tallie both miss him.” He jerked his head towards the house. “What about Bruce and Winn? Did they come with you?”

  “Yeah, they're down in the basement seeing how many trips this will take.” She glanced over her shoulder. “I'm surprised they haven't come out to say hello.”

  “Well I'm glad I have a chance to talk to you.” He felt his cheeks heat. “I've missed you. It was hard enough when we had to stay fifteen feet apart, but at least we could still talk.”

  She sighed and settled down on the top step, looking off into the distance. “You think Jay might've been telling the truth about walking away from this, before someone burned their houses down?”

  Nick glanced to the southwest, as if he could see Wensbrook even with it forty minutes away. “It seems a bit convenient. Jay's always saying things to make his side seem like the victims and everything they do justified. The fact that we just hit him with an ambush and he was threatening to kill us all the day before really doesn't do much for his story, either.”

  “Yeah, you're right. Even if it was true, though, they're certainly back now.” Gen sighed again. “What do you think he has in store for us next?”

  Nick turned to look back at her. “What do you mean? He's in the middle of burning down a bunch of houses, that's what he's got in store.”

  “And after that?” she asked, brow furrowed in concern. “He's already pulled so many tricks out of his sleeve, what else can he do?”

  “I don't know,” he admitted. “I've been trying to think of things he might try so we can defend against them, but it almost seems like he's running out of moves.”

  A glimmer of hope entered her gray eyes. “You think so?”

  Nick nodded. “He's already done everything he could to us without getting too close to the town or camp, things like keeping us from scavenging, hitting our outlying houses, and turning away people headed for the quarantine camp. Now all that's left is to attack us or try to sneak into the town or camp again, and we're too well dug in and vigilant for that at this point.”

  Gen looked relieved at his reassurances, although her brows were still furrowed in worry. “What if he thinks of something he can do besides all that?”

  That's what I'm afraid of, Nick thought grimly. But he gave her the most confident smile he could manage. “Then we'll think of it first and be ready for it.”

  She smiled back, the warmth in it once again transforming her strained features. “I wish I could give you the biggest hug right now.”

  He unexpectedly felt his eyes burn; maybe it was his exhaustion, or the constant stress he was under and the dangerous situations he'd been in lately, but he hadn't realized how much he needed to see her, to talk to her. “I love you, Gen,” he whispered.

  “You have no idea how good it feels every time you say that,” she murmured back. There was a muffled call from inside the house, and she groaned wearily and started to stand. “Well, I really need to get to work. The longer this takes, the better chance Jay has of catching us outside the barricade.”

  Nick nodded; he'd feel better when she was safely back in town, too. “I need to get back to my patrol,” he agreed. “We'll be out there keeping guard . . . keep your radio on in case we need to call in a warning.”

  “We will.” Gen blew him a kiss, then reluctantly slipped back into the house.

  With equal reluctance he turned to hurry in the direction his patrol had gone. He would've preferred to keep his thoughts on Gen and the fleeting but pleasant moments they'd just shared, but with the columns of smoke on the horizon in front of him he found his thoughts turning grimly back to Jay, and what the man might have planned for them.

  As well as Chet and Ben, and whether they really had disappeared last night to go light some fires of their own.

  Chapter Five

  Uneasy Quiet

  Nick finished trickling the last of the water in the bottle he held into the mouth of the older man he was helping, then took a rag and gently wiped away the blood around his eyes, nose, ears, and lips.

  The Zolos patient was barely conscious, frail and bleeding heavily from his orifices. Betty wasn't hopeful of his recovery, but they still needed to try as hard as they could.

  If nothing else, it was kindness to at least make his final hours as comfortable as possible.

  Nick set the cloth aside and rested a hand on the man's shoulder. “Hang in there,” he whispered. He didn't even know the patient's name, and felt bad that he could only spare a few moments for him; the man hadn't soiled his adult diaper, and it wasn't due to be changed for a few hours yet for the blood seeping out of his orifices down there.

  Although Nick had been faced with that unpleasant task plenty of times in the last couple days, as he'd volunteered to help the sick between patrol shifts.

  With a weary sigh he straightened and moved on to the patient on the next cot, fetching a fresh water bottle, an electrolyte tablet, and a clean cloth. The young man there was alert, propped up with pillows, and offered Nick a weak smile as he approached. “More water, huh? I already feel like my bladder's going to explode.”

  “Do you need to be changed?” Nick asked, trying to sound brisk and businesslike about the onerous task. He wasn't a trained nurse or orderly; the closest thing he had to that sort of experience was caring for Tallie and Mack Gerson. He was sure neither him or this poor guy were overjoyed with this situation.

  The man grimaced, a truly ghastly expression with blood crusted around his eyes, nose, and mouth, and more seeping out. “I was actually holding out for a trip to the latrine, if you want to give me a hand.”

  Nick bit back a grimace of his own. He'd helped a few of the stronger patients with that, but it was exhausting unless he had another person helping to carry what basically amounted to limp weight, and they were seriously stretched thin with far more sick than volunteers to care for them.

  “How about a bedpan?” he offered.

  “Better than sitting in my own piss like a baby, I guess,” the patient said in weary resignation. “I'm almost looking forward to getting so sick I pass out, as long as I pull through the other side.”

  Nick didn't have the heart to point out to the poor guy that if he did pull through, which thankfully seemed likely given his condition, he'd be too weak to care for himself. He'd have to endure this sort of indignity for weeks, yet.

  He helped his patient take care of his bodily needs, got him cleaned up and situated comfortably again, then gave him some water and moved on.

  The rest of his time helping the patients felt like an eternity of exhausting and less than pleasant tasks. Although as was often the case with work like that, looking back it was all a blur by the time he finally took a break to eat a has
ty lunch before his next patrol shift.

  The town and camp hadn't lessened their vigilance in the last two days since Jay's confrontation about the fires in his town. But in spite of the man's obvious fury, aside from burning the outlying houses he hadn't tried anything.

  At least as far as they knew.

  Even Jay's scouts seemed to have pulled back, out of view, and he'd also abandoned his previous strategy of zooming around menacing Stanberry with his convoy of six vehicles. Everything was quiet out there, although knowing what he knew about Jay's volatile nature Nick wasn't foolish enough to call it peaceful.

  It was just a matter of time before the man attacked again. And considering he was taking days to prepare, it was probably going to be a big one.

  Nick's grim mood evaporated quickly as he got closer to the scavenger group's campsite and heard the unmistakeable and heartwarming sound of Tallie's giggles. Grinning, he sped up and came into view of the fire to find his daughter rolling on the ground laughing.

  Beside her Aimee was leaning over a pot of what looked like oatmeal, face set in an expression of good-natured exasperation as she slapped and shook one of those little plastic honey containers. It was mostly full but the honey inside was crystallized, and even though the young woman had taken the squeeze top off she still couldn't get any out.

  When she spotted Nick approaching she shook the container at him, mock scowling. “What am I supposed to do with this?”

  He shrugged and scooped up his daughter, cuddling her as he settled down in a camp chair. “Are there any other ones?”

  Aimee's scowl deepened. “You'd think so, since we got an entire crate of them from that prepper's house you scavenged. But they're all solid like this and won't pour.” She squeezed the plastic sides in demonstration, nothing happening.

  Nick set Tallie down again, happy to see her strong enough to stand with barely even a wobble, testament to the fact that she was almost completely recovered from her terrifying bout of Zolos, and reached for his pocket knife. “Here, I'll cut it open. We'll have to find some way to store what's left over, though.”

  “Fine by me, as long as I can actually use the stupid stuff.”

  He sliced the container lengthwise and pried it open, handing it back to Aimee so she could scoop a generous amount into the oatmeal. Then she filled bowls for him and Tallie, giving them time to get started eating, before calling to the rest of their camp that lunch was ready.

  Tallie climbed back into his lap and began happily spooning oatmeal into her mouth, although after a few bites she paused and shot him a solemn look. “Aimee took me to visit Mommy and Ricky earlier,” she said.

  “Oh yeah?” Nick mumbled around a big mouthful; he only had a few minutes left before his shift started. “How are they doing?”

  “Good,” she said, although her big greenish-brown eyes became sad. “Ricky said their isolation ends tomorrow, and they're going to try to move into Stanberry with Gen where it's safer. That means we won't be able to visit them, right?”

  He blinked; had it been three weeks already since Ellie got here? He supposed it had, although the time had certainly flown with everything that had happened. “For a while,” he admitted. “But I'm glad that they'll be safe in town.”

  “But are they going to have the wedding before they move in?” Tallie asked anxiously. “If they have it in Stanberry we won't be able to go!”

  Maybe it was a bit cynical, but Nick thought Ellie trying to have a huge wedding in the middle of a siege wasn't the best idea anyway. Although he could understand why their daughter would be devastated about not being able to attend the big event.

  “We'll ask your mom about it,” he told her, kissing the top of her head. “But I'm sure she wouldn't want us to miss such an important day . . . she's already said they're postponing the wedding until things settle down, right?”

  Tallie nodded, looking relieved, and went back to eating her oatmeal.

  The rest of Nick's day was mostly uneventful. Jay and his thugs remained worryingly absent, even when Nick risked having his patrol venture farther out looking for signs of them. Darby had asked them earlier to try to find whatever hideout Jay and his people were using as they harassed Stanberry, since it couldn't be too far away, but Nick was leery about venturing out too far.

  Wherever Jay and his people were, they'd have their own sentries and patrols and were probably well dug in. While Nick was well aware of the importance of knowing where the enemy was, he didn't want to get his people killed by blundering around carelessly.

  Although he meant to talk it over with Denny and the other leaders when he got the chance, see what they could come up with; the entire point of the Zolos-immune patrols was to do the stuff that the people trapped in the camp and town couldn't.

  That included not letting Jay control this fight, even if it meant venturing out into more dangerous areas.

  The Wensbrook group still hadn't tried anything when Nick finished his shift that evening, wearily heading back to camp to catch a late dinner and tuck Tallie in for the night. On the way there he also stopped by Ellie's camp to ask her about the wedding and say goodnight to Ricky.

  “We'll have to see what Stanberry says,” his ex-wife said. “I'm going to talk to Darby in the morning about moving in. But as for any plans . . .”

  She glanced longingly in the direction of the scavengers' camp, obviously thinking of their daughter; it had been months since she'd been able to hold Tallie, and Nick could understand how hard that must be for her.

  It hadn't been quite as long since he'd been able to hug Ricky, but he still missed his son more than words could say.

  Ellie turned back to him with a shaky breath and continued firmly. “You're right, of course we won't make any plans that would leave Tallie out. Or you and our friends in the survivors' camp.” She gave him a wan smile. “Although with everything that's going on setting a new date is kind of up in the air.”

  Nick nodded grimly, but let the subject drop and turned to Ricky. “How you doing, buddy? Has it been nice to have other kids around to play with?”

  “Yeah.” His son said, although he made a face. “But mostly we just do schoolwork, or sit around. There's not enough room in here to really play any games.”

  “Well hopefully tomorrow you'll be able to head into town and there'll be lots of fun stuff to do.” Nick stifled a yawn, then reluctantly said his goodnights and headed back to camp.

  The night after Jay had burned the outlying houses Nick had barely slept at all. Thankfully last night he'd slept a bit better, mostly due to pure exhaustion, even though the tension of an impending attack was still there. But tonight he was looking forward to really getting some solid sleep.

  Unless of course Jay attacked.

  But whatever that psycho did, Nick needed to learn to get rest when he could. He was going to burn out fast otherwise.

  And he couldn't afford to be at anything but his best, with his loved ones depending on him.

  ✽✽✽

  Ellie finished jotting down the numbers Johnny had just fed her, then leaned away from her workspace with a weary sigh. “Okay, thanks for the update,” she said. “I think you're right that the numbers are going down . . . we might be getting to the tail end of this outbreak.”

  “Fingers crossed,” her counterpart in the camp said, then signed off to get back to work.

  She set down the radio and leaned back over her figures, doing some quick math. As of this morning, the fourth since the outbreak began, there were 571 Zolos cases. There had only been 93 new ones in the last 24 hours, and in the last 12 only 31.

  Fingers crossed, that meant their containment efforts had been completely effective, and within the next few hours the new cases would peter out to none.

  Moving into Stanberry would be less stressful without having to worry about that. Although Ellie still needed to plan the shift rotations for the day, which was getting harder since a lot of volunteers were dropping out; she wasn't sure if
that was from exhaustion or because the crisis had been going on for days now, but she was having to do a lot more wheedling to find enough people to get things done.

  First things first, though, she figured it was late enough in the morning where she could contact Darby and he'd be awake and moving on with his day.

  Feeling a bit nervous, Ellie picked up her radio again and caught Hal's eye, motioning him over. He patted Todd on the back and stood from the fire, making his way over. “I still have my doubts they'll agree to this,” he told her.

  She had her own doubts, but she tried to sound confident even so. “They promised when we got here that when we went through our 21 days we could enter town.”

  “Yeah.” He wrapped an arm around her and pressed the side of his head against hers. “Fingers crossed.”

  Ellie nodded and raised the radio. “Feldman to Mayor Darby.”

  He had to agree to let them in. He had to. She couldn't keep sitting out here with her son, outside either of the places offering protection from Jay and his marauding band.

  There was a crackle. “Darby here. What can I do for you, Ms. Feldman?”

  Hal squeezed her shoulder encouragingly and she took a breath. “I'm calling to let you know my group has gone through our 21 days of isolation. We'd like to enter the safety of town.”

  There was a long silence. “You must realize that's impossible,” the Mayor finally said.

  She felt her face flush. “Could I ask why?”

  “Well, obviously the danger of you bringing Zolos inside the barricades is too great to risk.”

  Hal swore quietly, and across the camp Cara snorted almost triumphantly, even though she'd been complaining about their vulnerable position ever since they moved camps. But that was pretty much par for the course for her.

  Ellie grit her teeth. “We've very carefully maintained isolation, just like you asked for. And you agreed that at the end of isolation people in the camp or surrounding areas could enter Stanberry.”