Ellie could admit Hal made good points, but in her desperation to see her kids again it was hard not to feel like he just wanted to check on his own family first. She forced her emotions down and did her best to think rationally, reminding herself that Nick had kept the kids safe all this time.
She hoped.
It was unlikely that waiting a few hours until it was less dangerous to go in would be a problem for her family, but for her and her boyfriend it might mean the difference between reaching Nick's apartment safely and being attacked. Besides, it might be nice to have a chance to rest and clean herself up before she saw her kids. And she couldn't begrudge Hal wanting to see his family as soon as possible, either.
“As long as we go at the crack of dawn,” she said grudgingly.
He reached over and squeezed her knee, then put the car into gear and turned them around. After they'd driven for a few minutes it became clear that her boyfriend was wisely taking them on a road that would let them circle around west of the burning city and approach Kearney from a different direction.
It didn't take long at all, twenty minutes at most even driving on smaller roads in the dark looking for ways to continue forward in the direction they wanted. Almost before Ellie had had time to mentally prepare herself for the fact that she was meeting her boyfriend's family, fingers crossed that they'd been safe during the last few weeks, he was pulling behind a small building to the base of a set of wooden steps leading up to a modest second storey apartment.
He parked next to an old junker that she assumed was his mom's, then leaned back with a quiet sigh and sat still for a few seconds. Almost as if he was mentally preparing himself for the coming encounter.
In the light from the headlights Ellie caught the flicker of a curtain in the apartment's window, a hint of eyes peering out warily. “See that?” she asked, pointing, as Hal finally turned off the engine. Assuming that was his mom or one of his siblings, that was a hopeful sign.
And speaking of signs, she didn't see any posted notices, voluntary quarantine or Zolos contamination. That was also good, she hoped.
Her boyfriend grunted in reply as he turned off the headlights, then climbed out and stared up at the darkened apartment. Ellie opened the door to follow, then jumped as he abruptly raised his voice to a low shout. “Mom? You up there?”
A few seconds later the door flew open and a silhouette emerged, leaning over the railing of the small wooden porch in front of the door. “You infected?” a woman called down harshly. Ellie recognized the voice of Hal's mom, Cara, from when he'd called her in the quarantine camp when they'd first arrived.
She also recognized the tone, of a woman whose first question when her son came home safe and sound was whether he was a risk to her. Which she supposed was pragmatic, but it still rubbed her the wrong way.
Not just her; Hal sounded annoyed as he replied. “We just got out of the quarantine camp and came straight here. We're as safe as humanly possible.”
Cara sniffed, as if even that wasn't enough for her. “Who's that with you? The skank from your phone call in the quarantine camp?”
Oh wow. This was going to be delightful.
Her boyfriend sucked in a sharp breath. “This is my girlfriend, Ellie Feldman. And we can get back in the car and leave right now if you're not even going to try to be civil.”
Ellie didn't think they could; Hal had spent the last three weeks fretting over the safety of his brothers and sister, and she wasn't about to ask him to leave them just to punish an unpleasant person.
His mom sniffed again. “I guess you should come up, then. Bring food, if you've got it . . . we've been starving for over a week now, rationing the scraps you left us to practically nothing.” She started to back into the darkened apartment, then paused. “Oh, and we've all just been sitting in here dying of starvation since you called, by the way, so there's no Zolos here. In case you were worried.”
It had occurred to Ellie, although she'd assumed they were safe. She and her boyfriend gathered up their duffels and she grabbed a flashlight she'd found beneath the driver's seat, although she kept it off for now in case of prying eyes. They fumbled their way up the narrow, steep wooden stairs towards the dark, open door of the apartment above.
By the time they reached it faint lights were flickering inside, a couple candles Hal's mom had lit and was setting around the room. Combined with the flashlight, it was bright enough to see people's faces and the apartment's kitchen/living area.
“Close the door and lock it!” Cara snapped. “You want looters to just walk in and rape and murder us all?”
While the request wasn't an unreasonable one, it was a pretty extreme thing to say. Especially since down the hall leading to the two bedrooms Ellie spot three little heads peeking around a doorway, staring at them with wide eyes.
Then one of the children squealed in delighted greeting and came tearing into the living area to throw his arms around Hal. The other two quickly followed, until her boyfriend was swamped by his siblings. He couldn't have been happier, either, laughing and picking them up and swinging them around and hugging them tight in turn. He grinned fiercely the entire time, although tears glimmered in his eyes.
In stark contrast to the heartwarming scene, Cara stood aloof across the room, trying to keep her expression neutral but with a tight set to her lips and narrowed eyes. Ellie also left her boyfriend to his reunion, although for different reasons of course. Instead she shut and locked the door, then stood by it taking the opportunity to look around the apartment.
Hal's place was fairly utilitarian, like the homes of a lot of single men. It wasn't under-furnished or cheap by any means, just lacking decoration and a lot of the more homey touches. The black leather couch and mismatched green fabric overstuffed chair both looked fairly new and well maintained, and the coffee table in front of them was modern-looking metal with a glass top. The kitchen had a few cooking gadgets on the counters and looked like it saw regular use, suggesting Hal made his own meals at least every now and again.
She found it almost amusing that by far the nicest thing in the room was the giant TV hanging on the wall, with a gaming console sitting on the shelf beneath it along with a few other related gadgets. Also there was a large, framed map of some fantasy world hanging on the wall above a bookshelf loaded down with mostly fiction novels.
The only hint in the room that her athletic construction worker boyfriend had at least a hint of a nerdy side to him, a holdover from his youth spent reading books to escape a bad home life.
Smiling fondly at this insight into the life of the man she was coming to love, she turned her focus back to Hal and his siblings, who were still talking a mile a minute about everything that had happened to them. Then her eyes widened in shock as she got a closer look at the children; a quick glance at Cara confirmed she wasn't just seeing things.
The woman hadn't been lying that they'd been starving here. Her narrow, pinched features were hollow and her clothes hung loose on what had likely been a fairly robust frame at one point. The children were even more heart-wrenching, their faces gaunt and their arms and legs stick thin; the youngest boy Denny, around Tallie's age, visibly trembled in place from exhaustion more than excitement.
As if he barely had the strength to just stand.
If the sight of their pitiable state was a shock to Ellie, Hal looked like he wanted to cry as he hurried to hand out snacks from his duffel bag, which his family immediately dug into with ravenous enthusiasm. Ellie was almost afraid they were going to overdo it and make themselves sick, but she didn't have the heart to mention it in the face of their obvious relief and happiness at finally having food.
Once everyone had something to eat, her boyfriend slumped on the couch next to Denny, pulling his brother onto his lap and hugging him tight as the little boy continued to stuff food in his mouth. Next to him his sister Linny, a year or so younger than Ricky, leaned against her big brother's side contentedly as she munched on her own food. And ten-year-ol
d Todd, on Linny's other side, stretched across the back of the couch to rest a hand on Hal's shoulder.
It was obvious the three kids fiercely loved their big brother, and it warmed her heart to see them reunited.
At least until she glanced Cara's way and saw the woman giving them all, her included, the stink eye as she gnawed on some fruit leather. Ellie looked back calmly, although as she did she was struck by another realization about the other woman.
Even accounting for the fact that Cara's features were pinched and careworn enough to make her look older than she probably was, she couldn't be that much older than Ellie herself. Only ten or so years if she was any judge.
Realistically, she knew she should've expected that. But there was a major difference between knowing something in her mind and truly being confronted with it. And now that she was, looking at Hal on the couch with his young siblings, it was raising even more uncomfortable math.
Her boyfriend wouldn't have been a teenager yet when she was old enough to drink. Heck, he might've still been potty training when she became a teenager! She could've babysat him growing up and nobody would've been concerned about her being old enough to handle the responsibility.
What was she doing? Everything that had made so much sense, seemed so right, when she'd agreed to date him in the camp suddenly seemed fuzzy again.
She knew her sudden doubts were because of Cara's disapproving glare; she didn't even like the woman, but apparently that didn't matter. So she tried to firm her resolve, remind herself why she loved Hal so much. Which was easy enough to do, staring at the beautiful scene of him being reunited with his brothers and sister.
A scene their mother had coldly decided not to be a part of, apparently out of spite. So who cared what she thought?
As if sensing Ellie's doubts and some of what she was thinking, Cara abruptly spoke up. “Wow, Ellie, am I crazy or are you at least 30, probably closer to 35? Talk about robbing the cradle.” Without giving her a chance to answer the older woman turned to her son. “And you, son. I know you have mommy issues, but this . . .”
Ellie felt her cheeks catch fire, completely at a loss for words. Hal, expression full of suppressed fury, gently disentangled himself from his siblings and joined her at the door, putting a supportive arm around her shoulders and pulling her close. As she leaned gratefully against him he glared at his mom. “Even with the world ending and family the only thing we have left, you couldn't even pretend to be halfway decent?” he demanded.
Having her boyfriend holding her, reminding her of what they had, made things a bit less fuzzy for Ellie. If she wanted to do that kind of math when it came to ages it would be even more eyebrow-raising for her own parents, and she knew how happy they'd been together. How happy they'd all been as a family.
She and Hal were both adults, very mature and responsible adults, and she had no doubts about what they felt for each other.
A deeply uncomfortable silence settled as mother and son glared at each other, while on the couch the three kids huddled together as if wishing they were invisible. “Well,” Cara finally said grudgingly, “I guess they do say thirty is the new twenty.” Ellie started to relax, thinking the woman might actually be trying to mend fences, but then she continued. “Which is good, since my son is closer to the old twenty.”
“Mom,” Hal said wearily. The tone of someone who regularly had to endure this sort of thing and had learned to pick his battles.
The older woman turned away rather than apologizing or continuing the confrontation. “Well, it's late and the kids need their sleep. You and your cougar girlfriend can find some way to share the couch. I'll have the kids bring you their spare winter blankets.” She paused, as if unable to help herself, then continued. “I trust you'll behave yourselves under this roof, around young impressionable minds.”
Hal coughed, glancing with embarrassment at his siblings. “Actually, we're saving that for marriage, if our relationship gets that far. It's probably best if we sleep in different rooms.”
Cara looked at them incredulously. “What?”
He stared her down, expression resolute. “What we have together is serious, and we want to take it seriously.”
“More like this old lady is using you to keep her alive through this disaster by pretending to love you, but she doesn't want to actually put out.” His mom sniffed in derision. “Believe me, she'll bail the moment something better comes along.”
Ellie had had enough. “I'm sleeping in the car,” she snapped, turning for the door.
Hal gently but firmly caught her and pulled her protectively against his chest. “Mom,” he said, his tone entirely different from anything she'd heard from him tonight; it sounded like he'd had enough too. “We have enough food to keep all of us alive for weeks. I don't want my siblings to suffer any more than they already have, so I'd prefer to stay with them until this is all over.”
His tone hardened, something in it making it clear he was drawing a line in the sand. “But if you say another word, a single word, that's less than perfectly polite to Ellie, I'll leave the kids my half of the supplies, aside from enough to last me a few days, and we'll go.”
“No!” Todd shouted, bolting to his feet. He cringed a bit at drawing attention, but kept going desperately. “We need you, Hal! Don't leave us, or at least take us with you!”
Cara gasped. “You'd abandon your own mother?”
The ten-year-old shuffled uncomfortably. “I don't want to, but we'll starve and die if we stay here with you. You're too afraid to go outside and find food.”
The boy's mom may have seemed almost inhumanly cruel and unfeeling, but at that she flinched, pinched face paling with guilt. “I trusted Hal would be back in time to help us,” she whispered. “We could survive for weeks before we starved, but if we went outside and caught Zolos we would've died in days.”
“You would've had to leave eventually if something had happened to me,” Hal said, although some of the anger had gone out of his voice. “Were you going to wait until you were too weak to stand?”
Instead of answering, Cara glanced at Ellie then quickly away. “It's not my place to talk about you or your relationship,” she said, directing the words at the air somewhere between them. “If you don't want to hear wisdom borne of hard-won experience, I'll shut up about it. Miss Feldman, you're on the couch. Son, you can crash with your brothers.”
She grabbed a candle and disappeared back into one of the two bedrooms. But although she was gone, the mood in the room still remained uncomfortable. Like she'd left behind the emotional equivalent of a lingering fart.
Or maybe that was just Ellie's own lingering resentment about the outrageous things the woman had said.
Hal returned to the couch and gathered up Linny in his arms. “Let's get you guys back to bed,” he said gently as his little sister sleepily buried her face in his shoulder.
Denny obligingly moved to follow him, but Todd stayed by the couch, looking worried. “You're going to stay, aren't you big bro? Even if you and Mom are fighting again, you won't ditch us this time?”
Hal looked at the ground, expression ashamed. “No, not this time. I know things haven't gone as well as they could've in the past. I haven't tried as hard as I probably should've, for you guys.” He sighed, then added firmly. “But even if I can't change the past, I can still change the future.”
Todd brightened eagerly at that. “You can change the future?”
Ellie smiled at the ten-year-old; she could almost see him picturing time travel or something like that. “I think he means that if we try harder from now on, the future will be better because of that.”
“Oh,” the boy said, looking disappointed. “Well, I guess that's good too.”
Hal chuckled and ruffled his hair. “Missed you, bud.” He hugged Linny a bit closer and crouched to pull Denny into a hug as well. “I missed all of you.”
While he led his siblings off to bed, Ellie settled on the couch with a huge yawn. The drive had be
en tiring, but that confrontation had left her completely exhausted. She pulled off her shoes and stretched across the cool leather, eyelids drooping.
She was expecting Hal to come back after he'd tucked the kids in so they could talk things over, say goodnight and make plans for going into the city for her kids in the morning. But it turned out to be Linny who appeared first, arms overflowing with a big comforter and dragging half of it behind her.
The girl edged timidly into the room, striking dark green eyes looking much bigger on her gaunt face as she peeked up at Ellie from beneath pale blond bangs. “Here's a blanket for you,” she whispered shyly. “It's my winter one. It's really warm.”
Ellie smiled at Hal's sister as she accepted the comforter. “Thank you, Linny.”
The girl's eyes got even bigger. “You know my name?”
“Hal told me all about you. I'm his girlfriend, did you know that?” Linny nodded solemnly, and Ellie couldn't help but smile wider as she continued. “He really loves you, and all he wanted was to get out of the quarantine camp so he could come make sure you were okay.”
“I'm glad he did.” The girl absently rubbed her tummy. “It's nice to not be hungry anymore.” She hesitated sheepishly. “And it's good to see him, too, of course.”
Ellie patted the couch beside her, and the seven-year-old dragged the blanket over and climbed up to sit next to her. “You know, I have two kids. A girl a couple years younger than you and a boy a year older.”
Linny's brow furrowed. “If you have kids my age, does that mean you're as old as my mom?”
She couldn't help but wince as she laughed ruefully. “Not quite. Remember, Hal was your mom's first kid.”
“Oh yeah.” The girl looked towards the front door in confusion. “Where are your kids?”
It was a simple question, but Ellie couldn't help but feel a bit defensive about it. “In the city. We're going to go to them in the morning.”
“Okay. Can I play with them after you go get them?” Linny made a face. “I haven't seen anyone but Mom and my brothers for forever.”
Isolation (Book 2): Going Out Page 29
