Isolation (Book 2): Going Out

by Jones, Nathan

  Ellie wrapped her free arm around him and gave him a brief, sympathetic squeeze. “I'm sorry.”

  He shook his head, looking a bit bitter. “Anyway, my teacher noticed the books I was reading and decided that since I was obviously smart, I must be a genius at math. So even though I was struggling at the current level, she decided that must be due to boredom because it was so easy for me, and pushed me ahead to the next grade's stuff.

  “Long story short it was a complete disaster. I was being forced to tackle math problems I wasn't ready for without the proper groundwork, stuff I didn't have the talent or the inclination for, and after just a couple weeks I was back with my class. Two weeks behind what they'd learned, to boot.”

  “So they tripped you while you were already struggling to run uphill, and made math seem hopelessly complicated and intimidating on top of it?” Ellie suggested gently.

  “Pretty much. I muddled my way along after that, and I do basic addition, multiplication, all that stuff just fine up to fairly big numbers. To the point where I don't need to break out the calculator very often.” He shook his head again. “Just don't ask me to ever take a calculus class.”

  “Gotcha, find another math teacher for the advanced stuff.” She took in her boyfriend's expression and felt a surge of sympathy and affection, leaning in to press her lips to his. “Hey, we survived through some insane things, and what we didn't know we figured out. Forget math, we're fine.”

  “Well, you're super fine,” Hal joked, pulling her closer to kiss her again.

  She made a noise, half pleased and half dubious. “Even though I'm a sweaty, exhausted, stressed out mess in spite of my best efforts to keep up a professional appearance, I am still going to accept that compliment and look forward to more along the same vein.”

  “Then your next compliment is about how fantastic you are at keeping up a professional appearance, since you don't look like any of those things,” he said, grinning. “In fact, if we didn't have some boring social gathering to go to, I'd be suggesting we head back to the tent for some quality time together before dinner.”

  Ellie was certainly tempted. “Maybe we can duck out after a few minutes. I'd say we've both earned an early night.”

  Another contented silence settled. They were almost back to their tent when Hal cleared his throat. “I've got to say.”

  “Oh?” She shifted in his arms so she could look up at his face, admiring his handsome features.

  He smiled down at her. “When we first met and you told me what you did, I half wondered if it wasn't some BS corporate time wasting stunt, like my dad sometimes described from his job.”

  Ellie felt a flash of hurt. “Oh?” she said again, not quite as warmly.

  Her boyfriend seemed to realize he'd put his foot in his mouth. “Hey, hey!” he said hastily, pulling her closer and squeezing her shoulder reassuringly. “Like I said, that was when we first met. Before I realized how incredible you are.” She continued to glare, only partially mollified, and he grinned and leaned down to kiss her forehead, as if he thought her annoyance was cute.

  “Seriously, El,” he said with surprising tenderness. “The way you're bringing this camp together, giving these people hope and purpose. I didn't think it was possible until I watched you in action. You're amazing.”

  Ellie couldn't stay annoyed in the face of that, and melted back against him with a contented sigh, resting her head on his shoulder. “You're pretty great yourself,” she murmured.

  Hal chuckled. “Great enough to talk you into ditching this gathering and heading back to our tent after all?”

  She rolled her eyes with a laugh. He really wasn't giving up. “Let's at least stick around long enough to get the ball rolling. Who knows, maybe you'll have fun and want to stick around.”

  “When the alternative is making out with you?” he said, sounding dubious. “It'd have to be some party.”

  “There'll be plenty of time for that,” she said playfully. “We owe it to the friends we haven't made yet to give them a chance.”

  He sighed in overdone disappointment, then briefly squeezed her tighter and rested his head against hers. “Love you,” he murmured.

  Ellie felt herself stiffening in shock. He'd said it so casually, almost offhand, that it took a second to realize it was the first time he'd specifically spoken the words.

  Hal had mentioned her being the only person he could love, and how incredible she was, and how strong his feelings for her were, but this was the first time he'd actually said it. It sent a thrill through her, made her want to laugh and cry and do other far more impulsive things. And she definitely wanted to tell him she loved him back.

  But she chickened out.

  So she just made another contented noise, planted a lingering kiss on his neck, and kept going towards their tent.

  She'd tell him, she just needed some time to sort out her feelings, build herself up to it. She had that right, didn't she, so soon after a painful divorce? With the first real relationship she'd had since her husband of almost a decade? Especially considering the guilt she felt at being stuck here, safe and with a man who made her happy, when her children needed her to get back to them.

  Ellie just hoped Hal could understand all that. Maybe she'd find a way to explain it to him when they were alone, later. Or maybe she'd show him her feelings in a way he'd appreciate more anyway. There was no reason to make this complicated.

  She should just enjoy the moment, appreciate this unlikely second chance she'd found with the most unlikely of people.

  Chapter Five

  Escape

  Nick jolted out of an exhausted daze when he felt Tallie's little hand in his give the slightest twitch. A surge of relief overwhelmed him as her eyes fluttered open, and he felt tears stinging his own.

  She'd been getting stronger by the hour, but this was the first time she'd woken up in days.

  “Hey, sweetie girl,” he whispered gently. “It's so good to see you awake. How do you feel?”

  She drew in her breath in a weak little rasp. “Thirsty,” she said, almost too quiet to hear. “And my whole body is tired.”

  He guessed she meant she still felt too weak to move. That fit with what Melody had told him about the long recovery time he could expect, although to be fair it had only been about a day since the bleeding stopped.

  Besides, at the moment even a recovery time of weeks seemed like a minor concern when it looked as if the worst was past and his daughter was going to live. That was all that mattered.

  She looked around blearily, eyes furrowed in sudden worry. “Where's Mommy?”

  Nick felt his heart sink. “She's still at the camp for a little while,” he said gently. “She'll be here as soon as she can.”

  Tallie began crying weakly, little shoulders shuddering in the most heart-wrenching sobs. “I want Mommy.”

  He kissed her forehead, then rested his cheek against it. “I know, sweetie. She wants to be here for you, too. Just give her a little time.”

  As she continued to cry, Nick retrieved one of the full water bottles and popped in an electrolyte tablet, helping Tallie sit up and drink. It was so much easier with her able to swallow on her own, to the point where he actually had to slow himself down to keep from giving her too much too fast.

  She calmed down as she drank, as well as seeming to gain more color to her cheeks by the mouthful. Once she finally turned her face away from the water bottle, he set her back down on the pillows and pulled the blanket snugly up under her chin. “Hey,” he said quietly. “What would you say to a road trip?”

  His daughter gave him a quizzical look. “Back to the doctor?”

  He hesitated. “No. Someplace else.”

  Over the last few days Nick had had a lot of quiet time to think about things, and he'd come to the grim but inescapable conclusion that it was time to leave the apartment.

  He hated to move Tallie when she was so weak, her recovery still uncertain. But at the same time the place was craw
ling with Zolos, and he needed to get Ricky out before his son also got sick. More importantly, he needed someone to watch the boy while he and Tallie remained contagious.

  There were other practical considerations as well. They were running low on food and water, for one thing. For another without power, gas, or running water the apartment provided only dubious shelter. A less pleasant consideration was that the days were steadily getting hotter, and with it the stink from the other apartments was getting worse instead of better, bringing with it the unpleasant thought of what was causing it.

  Then there was the fact that even though Kansas City looked like a ghost town, there had to be tens or even hundreds of thousands of people still alive out there. Including more criminals who might try to invade his home and expose Ricky to Zolos.

  Nick had a feeling the signs he'd put up warning that the apartment was full of the virus were enough to scare them off. But if they didn't believe him, or believed him but decided that it had been long enough since the initial outbreak that anyone still alive was no longer infectious, they might decide to come in anyway.

  Not to mention those like him who'd survived the illness and were immune; Zolos would have no more fear for them, and the criminally inclined among them would be even more eager to hit houses infected by the virus, whose inhabitants might no longer be around to put up a fight.

  No, it was time to go.

  The problem was, there was no place to go to. Even if he wanted to risk exposing Ricky to danger by going to a quarantine camp, where his son would almost certainly be separated from him and Tallie, it wasn't a long term solution. And that was assuming some sort of riot didn't erupt in the camp, exposing his son to the virus after all or making their separation permanent in the confusion.

  The only option he could think of was to accept Gen's dubious offer to go see her in Stanberry. She'd made it clear she couldn't really impose on her ex's parents to take them in, but maybe he could work something out, or she could help him in some other way.

  Or maybe, if all else failed, he could find some other place to stay in the small town. Someplace better than this apartment.

  “Where, Daddy?” Tallie murmured in her weak little voice.

  That was certainly the question, although Nick was a bit surprised his five-year-old daughter had thought to ask it. Then he realized that while he'd been off in space thinking about their long term situation, she'd been waiting for him to actually tell her where they were going.

  He gently took her hand, leaning forward. “I was thinking we might go pay Gen and Billy a visit up in Stanberry.”

  She brightened, at least as much as her weakened state allowed. “Really? Will I be able to play with him?”

  Nick grimaced. The risk of exposing their friends to Zolos was going to be a huge consideration. One that might end up getting them chased off at gunpoint, friends or no. “Not right away,” he said gently. “But by the time you're all better, we should be safe to be around other people.”

  “Okay.” His daughter's eyelids drooped shut again.

  He left her to rest and went out into the hall. “You hear any of that, Ricky?” he called.

  From inside his son's room he heard a snort and the creak of the bed shifting. “Wha?” Ricky mumbled sleepily.

  Nick frowned. It was almost noon, and as far as he knew his son hadn't had any trouble sleeping last night. “You feeling okay?”

  “Yeah, I think so. I haven't seen any of the Zolos symptoms you told me about.”

  “Just taking a nap, then?” he pressed.

  Ricky snorted. “What else is there to do? I'm sick of playing with toys and reading, so mostly I just lay in bed and think about stuff. Sometimes I fall asleep.”

  Nick supposed that made sense. “Well, how would you like to leave the apartment?”

  There was a long, almost suspicious pause. “Really? I thought it wasn't safe out there.”

  Safer than in here, probably, Nick thought grimly. He quickly explained his idea to head north to Stanberry to see if they could stay with Gen.

  “Good,” his son said when he finished. “I can't stay in this room much longer before I go crazy.”

  It was hard to argue with that. “I want you to gather up all the food and water you still have left,” he said. “Along with a few of your cleanest changes of clothes, including underwear and socks, your blankets and a pillow, and your coat and hat and other outdoor stuff. We'll leave as soon as I can get ready and move Tallie into the car.”

  Nick left the eight-year-old to pack and began scouring the apartment room by room, taking anything that might be useful and piling it all in the entryway next to the door. He tried to limit it to just necessities: food, water, the camping gear from his office, any tools that might be useful, blankets and clothes, coats and other warm clothing, and empty containers to put more water in if he found any. He also grabbed a couple of the biggest pots and pans for boiling water and cooking.

  He almost forgot the obvious in his haste, but while he was doing one last search of his apartment for anything he'd missed he spotted a drawing hanging on the fridge door. It was one Tallie had done in school, showing stick figures of her and her mommy holding hands in a grassy field full of flowers, with a wobbly rainbow stretching overhead.

  Ellie, right. He couldn't believe he'd almost missed something so important.

  Nick quickly wrote two new notes to replace the ones on the fire escape and front door, informing her of where they were going and warning her not to go into the apartment. He didn't know exactly where Billy's grandparents lived, aside from the fact that it was a bit outside Stanberry, but hopefully with some driving around he'd be able to recognize Gen's car.

  As for Ellie, he just hoped when she came after them she'd recognize his car.

  He loaded the car as quickly as he could, dumping stuff in the backseat and back foot space all the way to the roof, aside from a tiny space for looking through the rearview mirror. It turned out that, even with trying to bring just the necessities, there was far more to take than the backseat could hold. He crammed a bit into the front passenger foot space, then began sorting out the stuff he could probably most afford to leave behind.

  Finally, he judged it good enough for the time he had. Hopefully anything he'd missed he could find in Stanberry. As a last step he lowered the front passenger seat as low as possible, so Tallie could recline. He'd just have to drive extra carefully with her up front with him, but he couldn't think of any way to fit her in the backseat with all their stuff without risking her getting crushed under a pile of it.

  It was just a short drive, anyway. Which was good for Ricky; he wasn't going to like his seat for the trip one bit.

  Nick headed back inside. “Okay Ricky, listen up,” he called in his most serious voice. “I need you to get dressed to go outside, then put grocery bags on over your shoes and hands.” He knew the food Ricky had brought into his room had been in bags, so there should be enough.

  “Over my hands?” his son called back, as if he thought he must've heard wrong.

  “That's right. You're going to go straight down the hall and out the door without touching anything, then when you get outside you'll take off the bags over your shoes first, then the ones on your hands without touching the outside, and throw them all away.”

  “Will that work?”

  I hope so. “That's also why you need to be careful not to touch anything. I'll wipe down the middle of the floor between your room and the door.” Nick hesitated. “Also, hold your breath until you're outside. I'll open the door and windows to air the place out as much as I can, but better safe than sorry.”

  There was a long pause. “Um, this doesn't seem very safe, Dad.”

  “Safer than staying in this apartment any longer than you have to.” Nick headed for the bathroom to grab the wipes. “You have everything you need packed to go?”

  “I think so,” Ricky said doubtfully. “But I don't think I can take it all in one trip.”

/>   “Try to sort out the stuff you need the most. Put what you can in your backpack, and wrap more in a blanket to make a bundle and carry it in your arms.”

  As his son got to work, he made his preparations for Ricky to walk the twenty or so feet to the front door. Then he roused Tallie long enough to give her a last drink of water and a bit of the protein drink. By the time he finished with that Ricky was shouting he was ready, so Nick wrapped his daughter snugly in the blanket and lifted her gently.

  She'd fallen back asleep and didn't wake up, so he carried her limp weight out the door and to a place where he could still call into the apartment, but was far away from the path his son would take to the car.

  “Okay, son!” he called. “Go ahead!”

  He heard a loud thump, and seconds later the eight-year-old came bursting out the door, struggling to balance the heavy pack on his back and bundle in his arms and rustling loudly with plastic bags tied to his hands and feet. He bolted past where Nick held Tallie and made a beeline for the car, then froze mid-step when he came in sight of it in the parking lot.

  “Where's Tallie going to sit?” he asked, turning with his forehead furrowed in worry.

  Nick braced himself to deliver the bad news. “Up in front with me.”

  His son took a long look at the packed backseat, frown deepening. “So, um, where do I sit?” He abruptly looked horrified. “Wait, how can I go with you? You said that being in the car with you guys would make me sick too.”

  Nick nodded towards the trunk. “That's why you're going in there, kiddo.”

  To his relief, Ricky was young enough to face the prospect of riding in a pitch black, cramped space as an adventure rather than an intolerable inconvenience. At least in part. “Is it safe?”

  “Safer than riding with us.”

  The eight-year-old shook his head in a surprisingly world-weary way for someone his age. “I'm going to be hearing that a lot, aren't I?”