Isolation (Book 2): Going Out

by Jones, Nathan

  While Gen was talking, the door behind her opened and an older couple came out, along with the woman's son Billy. The little boy waved to Ellie enthusiastically, and she couldn't help but smile as she waved back; he was good friends with her kids. Especially Tallie, who usually talked about him every time she came back from staying with her dad.

  As much as Ellie wanted to pursue her questions, it was only polite to stop and introduce herself and the others to who she assumed was the Norsons, the owners of this property. Especially since Hal's mom and siblings had joined them, making quite a crowd in the yard.

  The Norsons, who stiffly introduced themselves as Bruce and Winn, were obviously displeased by having six new arrivals to deal with. “We made your ex-husband and his new group of scavengers move off the property to reduce the threat to our family,” Bruce grumbled. “Our yard isn't a campground.”

  “None of us have even the possibility of being infected,” Ellie assured him, pulling out her certification from the Colorado Springs quarantine camp. “Me and Hal both spent 21 days in a camp, then came directly here without stopping anywhere dangerous, and his family were all holed up in his apartment for the same period of time without setting foot outside.”

  Winn cleared her throat. “That's good to hear, but you understand we can't take that on faith,” she said gently.

  “You calling us liars?” Cara demanded.

  Ellie bit back a curse. The last thing she needed while trying to sweet talk this family into letting them stay was Hal's mom opening her mouth. Even as poisonous as the woman was, surely she had to realize that it was to her own benefit to not antagonize the people they were asking for help?

  Maybe she just couldn't stop herself.

  “I'm saying that any reasonable person doesn't take a chance when it comes to swift and horrible death for them and their loved ones,” Winn replied, clearly annoyed. “This is our property, so I trust you'll respect that.”

  Cara started to open her mouth, but Hal quickly caught her arm and pulled her back towards the cars, whispering fiercely to her. That left Ellie to sort this mess out.

  Well, it was her mess so that was fair. “We don't want to impose on you,” she told the older couple. “I just need to talk to Nick and figure out what we're going to do moving forward.” She motioned to Ricky. “And I'd like to spend time with my son after being separated from him since before the pandemic started.”

  The Norsons' expression softened slightly at that. Winn turned to her husband. “Nick did tell us Ellie would be coming,” she said gently.

  “He didn't tell us she'd be bringing a crowd with her,” he grumbled, although with less bite to his tone than before.

  “Even so,” his wife persisted, “we became a community the moment he volunteered to fill our basement with the supplies we all need to survive long term. Which he's done. He deserves at least a chance to talk this over with us before we make any decisions.”

  Bruce hesitated. “If we're nearly doubling the size of our group he's going to need to scavenge more supplies for us. Which isn't going to help with our immediate need since they'll take weeks to be safe.”

  “We have some supplies,” Ellie offered. “Enough to feed our group for at least a week. Maybe two, if we're careful.”

  “Well, that'll take some of the strain off,” the older man said. “And it's a nice change for people coming to us seeking shelter to actually have their own supplies.”

  Behind him Gen shifted guiltily. Ellie felt a bit chagrined herself, realizing Nick must've come not only infected with Zolos, but also hat in hand. Which just showed how kind and generous the Norsons were.

  “It's several hours until we can expect Nick to come back, assuming we can catch him coming to or from the stockpile on his first trip,” Ellie said. “Until then, would you mind if I catch up with my son?”

  Bruce sighed. “Let's make sure you know which parts of the yard and surrounding area might be contaminated with Zolos.”

  ✽✽✽

  Ellie looked up from brushing Linny's long, fair hair, listening, then surged to her feet eagerly as the rumble of engines coming down the road reached her ears. “Finally,” she said, pocketing her hairbrush.

  Nearby, Hal was playing catch with his brothers and hadn't heard. But when he spotted her on her feet he hushed the two boys to listen himself, then jogged over to join her. His sister intercepted him and jumped around, arms upraised in a silent request, until he absently crouched enough for her to clamber up his back until she was perched on his shoulders, cheering as he straightened.

  Feeling like cheering herself as three trucks came into view, Ellie stepped closer to the road and waved urgently. She hoped Nick really was in one of those vehicles, otherwise this was going to be an embarrassing misunderstanding.

  The lead truck slowed to a stop almost as soon as she began waving, still a good fifty or so feet away, and two men hopped down from the cab and approached. It was hard to get any details from this distance, but their urgency was clear.

  “Keep back!” the one who'd been driving called sharply. “We're Zolos carriers!”

  Ellie stiffened, feeling her heart soar at the familiar voice coming from a less than familiar figure. Or at least, as Nick and the other man slowed to a stop a cautious twenty feet away his face was easily recognizable, but markedly different.

  He looked . . . good. Better than he had in years.

  When she'd last seen him six weeks ago he'd been overweight from stress eating, pallid from lack of fresh air and sunshine, and had serious bags under his eyes and a listless demeanor from pure exhaustion and stress. Not to mention being obviously depressed about the divorce, and struggling to adjust to a life alone and taking care of the kids by himself half the time.

  Now, though, her ex-husband's skin had a healthy flush and he was sporting a distinct farmer's tan. On top of that, while he was still thickset a lot of that now appeared to be muscles. He'd obviously been spending a lot of time outside doing manual labor recently, and it showed.

  Even beyond any of those other changes, he no longer looked like a shambling zombie living for the end of each hopeless day.

  There was still a bit of concern furrowing his brow, which was understandable considering their nation was collapsing around them. But there was also a sort of peace to him she hadn't seen for a long time, if ever. A determined set to his jaw, as if he'd faced the worst the Zolos pandemic had to offer and come out the other side stronger for it.

  It reminded her of the energy and optimism he'd possessed when she first met him, but combined with the patience and maturity of his experiences since then. While some had been beaten down by this crisis, Nick had obviously used it as an opportunity to grow.

  Good for him.

  By his expression, he seemed to be seeing some changes in her as well. Although the main emotion written on his tanned features was joy and relief. “Ellie!” he called, coming a bit closer. “You made it! Are you okay?” His eyes flashed curiously to Hal and his family, then back to her.

  “Great, now that I'm finally back with my kids!” she called back. She stared eagerly towards the cab, where she could just barely make out familiar locks of curly dark brown hair peeking above the dashboard. Her baby girl, buckled into the middle seat and straining to see what was happening.

  Nick jumped, a look of chagrin crossing his face at the broad hint, and rushed back to the truck to get their daughter.

  Ellie waited with her heart in her throat, barely noticing Hal coming to stand beside her with Linny still on his shoulders. Her first sight of her daughter in her ex-husband's arms, wrapped snugly in a blanket with just her head peeking out, beaming like the sun, made her eyes blur with tears for just a moment. Especially when she heard Tallie's happy cry, and blinked away the tears in time to see her baby girl struggling weakly to get out of her daddy's arms so she could go to her mommy.

  “Tallie!” she called, voice breaking. “I'm here, sweetie. Mommy's finally home!”

/>   Her daughter's face, which had been cherubic when she left, was now leaner, almost gaunt. It made her look older, as if she'd endured a year of hardship instead of a few weeks. Imagining the nightmare her poor girl had gone through made Ellie want to rush forward and snatch her from Nick's arms, then hug her tight and never let her go.

  The fact that she couldn't broke her heart, especially when her ex-husband had to gently but firmly keep their daughter from wiggling free, patiently explaining to her why it wasn't safe for either of them to go near Ellie yet.

  Tallie wasn't hearing him. “Let me go!” she yelled, squirming harder. “I want Mommy! Mommy!” Nick could only hold her helplessly, obviously equally heartbroken at their daughter's sorrow.

  Ellie cleared her throat. “It's okay, sweetie!” she called. “I can't hold you yet, it's not safe. But I'm still here. You can tell me all about your adventures while I was gone. Did you get to see Billy? I got to see him, and he's really happy you came to live with him.”

  The five-year-old allowed herself to be distracted by this topic of conversation. “I got to see him, but I can't play with him,” she said sadly. She began to cry harder. “I can't play with anyone but Daddy, and Val and Lily since they came to live with us. But I want you, Mommy.”

  By this time Hal's family had joined them, and by the trucks four other people, two men and two women, joined the man who'd been driving with Nick. Ellie assumed the women were Val and Lily, and felt irrationally jealous that they were able to hold her daughter and she wasn't.

  On that subject . . . “How many days do you have?” she called. “Are you on the same timeline as Ricky, or were you pushed back when the other scavengers joined you?”

  Nick winced. “I think we have to assume that as long as we're scavenging, we're being exposed every day. It's not safe to assume anything else.”

  Ellie felt like she'd been punched in the gut. “You're kidding. You mean I have to wait three weeks until I can hold my daughter?”

  He shifted uncomfortably. “Well, I've got a responsibility to keep scavenging, at least until the town either has enough or we can arrange something else. The quarantine camp is growing by the day, and the demand for supplies keeps growing with it.”

  She couldn't believe what she was hearing. She wanted to hold Tallie so much her arms ached from it, and the fact that Nick's decisions were keeping her from that filled her with fury.

  But she didn't want to spoil this reunion by getting into that now. So she took a deep breath and forced her tone to remain mild. “Can you get away now? I think we should head back to the Norsons' and make some plans for the future.”

  Nick glanced helplessly back at his scavengers. He obviously felt responsibility as their leader and didn't want to abandon them, and in most circumstances she would've approved of him showing that sort of leadership potential; she hadn't seen many opportunities for him to grow in that capacity in their marriage, and it was good to see those qualities in him now.

  As long as at this moment, he was willing to set his responsibilities aside to prioritize his family.

  “How would you guys feel about taking a few hours?” he asked. “Rest a bit, get a proper cooked lunch back at camp. I'd say we've earned that.”

  The scavengers exchanged looks. “Don't worry about it, boss,” a muscular young man said cheerfully. “I get you need to take a break to sort things out, but we're still playing catchup on our quota. How about we unload all this, and you can rejoin us when we head back to Wensbrook?”

  Nick obviously wasn't happy about leaving his people in the lurch, but he nodded reluctantly. “Thanks. I'll make up the lost time while you guys are at shooting practice for the next little while.”

  “Don't worry about it,” a lovely woman in her mid-to-late 30s, elegant in spite of her workmanlike clothes, said warmly, smiling at Tallie. “We're just happy this sweetheart is finally reunited with her mom.”

  In at least three weeks, Ellie thought somewhat bitterly.

  Her ex-husband nodded his gratitude and turned to the young man he'd been driving with. “In that case, mind dropping me off back at the Norsons' before you head to the stockpile?”

  The scavengers quickly headed back to their trucks, calling a few last goodbyes and congratulations on her making it safely here.

  As they left Hal set his sister down so he could wrap a supportive arm around Ellie, guiding her gently towards her car, which they'd all piled into on the drive here to intercept Nick outside of town. She followed leadenly, seething anger and numb disappointment roiling in her gut.

  She knew she should be happy that both her kids were alive and well and she was finally back with them, and she was. After reading Nick's note and dreading the worst all morning, to be able to see them both, to know for a fact that they were okay, was a blessing beyond words.

  A miracle, considering all the tragedy she'd seen since this pandemic started.

  But she couldn't hold her babies. Ricky for over a week, and Tallie for who knew how long. The reunion she'd longed for since first being trapped on that plane in Hawaii, way back at the beginning, had gone unexpectedly sour.

  And that wasn't even mentioning Nick's decision to take their daughter with him on dangerous scavenging trips. What had he been thinking?

  That was something they were going to have to address sooner rather than later.

  Epilogue

  New Home

  Nick wasn't sure quite how to react when Ellie finally got around to introducing the family she'd come with.

  It turned out the man she'd mentioned she was traveling home with in that call from the Colorado Springs quarantine camp, what felt like a lifetime ago, was now her boyfriend. And a serious boyfriend, considering how free with the PDA they were being.

  Or, you know, the fact that she'd brought his entire family along to go find her kids.

  It actually threw Nick for a loop the first time Hal put his arm around her waist as casually as if he'd done it a thousand times, and he'd almost wondered if it meant what it obviously looked like. The guy was about Chet's age, after all, and he viewed the brothers as just a few years away from being teenagers.

  Since that was, in fact, the case.

  It wasn't that he disliked Hal, of course. The man was energetic, outgoing, and kind, making a genuine effort to befriend Nick as they all settled down for socializing after lunch. He even went the extra mile helping his siblings find a way to play with Ricky and Tallie, even though they couldn't come within fifteen feet of them. Which meant a lot to Nick after watching his children endure loneliness for so long. And it looked as if Ellie genuinely cared for the man despite the disparity of their ages.

  Even so, it just struck Nick as odd.

  He knew a lot of that was his own conflicted feelings about seeing his ex-wife in her first relationship since the divorce. He'd resigned himself to the fact that it was going to happen sooner or later, even if some tiny part of him had hoped he and Ellie would somehow get back together.

  A hope that had gotten stronger as Zolos ripped society down around them, and he found himself envisioning it as the catalyst for a resurgence of their romance in a dying world.

  But realistically, he knew that was a pipe dream. She'd been ready to see the back of him when the divorce was finalized, and she was a beautiful woman who took care of herself and was passionate about her work. It was inevitable that if she'd wanted it, she'd have no problems finding someone else to be with.

  And she had. A man who happened to be built like a football player, was far more experienced at camping, shooting, and survival than Nick was, and was impossible to dislike in spite of a relationship to Ellie that felt like it had come out of nowhere.

  Well, to him, anyway; a month was a long time, especially considering all the stuff the two had talked about having gone through together. Experiences that created strong bonds.

  If being with this guy was what made Ellie happy then Nick wanted to be happy for her. In fact he was resolved to
be happy, for her sake. But he wasn't there yet.

  It was just too new. Too unexpected.

  Speaking of happy, Ricky and Tallie looked like they were having the best day ever. Not only was their mom back, even if for now they had to stay separated for fear of Zolos, but she'd also brought three kids for them to play with, albeit from a distance. At one point Nick thought he actually saw his son crying tears of joy when his new friends weren't looking. And once Tallie had resigned herself to the fact that she couldn't go to her mommy, she moved right on to being overjoyed about her mom's arrival and all the new friends she'd brought.

  As for Ellie, well . . . she looked pretty much the same as when she'd left, with no outward sign of the hardships she'd endured. Aside from maybe the fact that her clothes, while clean, were just a bit tattered. In fact, if anything she was in even better shape than she had been, with an energy and glow to her he hadn't seen for a long time.

  Certainly not as their marriage fell apart, or in the bleak months afterwards.

  But you couldn't be in a close relationship with someone for a decade without learning to see beyond the surface. It was obvious his ex-wife was overjoyed at finding them all alive and at being reunited with her children, but at the same time something was clearly bothering her.

  Nick could guess what easily enough: she'd been counting on him to protect and care for the kids while she was gone, and instead she'd returned to find them chased out of his apartment and crashing in a stranger's yard, their daughter bedridden after nearly dying and their son isolated.

  No surprise she was upset.

  The Norsons and Gen and her son had been on the porch participating in the celebration of the reunion from a distance, but after an hour or so Bruce stood and clapped his hands. “Well, me and Winn have finished thinking the situation over and come to a conclusion.”

  That got everyone's attention, and even the children stopped playing to turn and look at the older man. He looked around, then focused on Nick. “You'll need to scavenge us more supplies. You can sterilize them and put them in the shed, since you and your daughter are living in the scavenger camp now.”