by Ellis, Tara
Jess didn’t argue, but she was already planning her route to light every candle she could find. She’d never been afraid of the dark, but it was different when you didn’t have a choice about it. Plus, when you were literally living in a nightmare, it made everything more frightening.
Twin beams of light cut across the gravel driveway and lit the space between them and the house, as a truck came into view. Jess and Akuba reached for each other, though it was obviously her dad returning.
A second truck Jess didn’t recognize pulled in behind him, and then a third. The darkness felt even more absolute when all of the lights winked out one right after the other. Jess strained to see her dad clearly as he stepped out of the truck closest to them.
“Dad?” she called, when he began to walk around the front of the vehicle without even acknowledging them.
Pausing, his head swiveled in her direction. “What is it, Jessica? We have work to do.”
Jess cleared her throat anxiously, remembering she’d left the laptop in the barn. “Um, the power’s out.”
Mr. Van and Kavish got out of the second truck, and a fourth man Jess had never seen before exited the third. While the stranger and Mr. Van went to the back of the trucks, Kavish stumbled away from them.
“So it is,” Eric replied, turning to look at the darkened house. “It isn’t unexpected, though I had been hoping it would last another day or two.” Shrugging, he gestured at Kavish as he made his way toward Jess and Akuba. “Where are you going? We aren’t finished for the night.”
Kavish tripped and nearly fell in his haste to reach Akuba. He looked at her pleadingly, his eyes wild. “My work is done,” he sputtered, turning back to Eric. “I will have nothing more to do with your…plans, Dr. Davies. I will go help my cousin secure the house for the night before I leave.”
“Leave?” Akuba said, taking hold of Kavish’s forearm. “What’s happened?”
Mr. Van and the other man reappeared then, and they were carrying something large between them. Jess had a bad feeling that was only getting worse. As they got closer, on their way to the barn, Akuba gasped and Kavish groaned.
“Who is that?” Jess wailed, pointing at the man draped between them. She wasn’t even certain he was alive.
“One of the Kra Puru,” Kavish whispered, as if he were afraid to say it too loud. “Taken from the hospital.”
“Saved from the hospital,” Eric corrected.
Jess stared at her dad. He hadn’t moved, and his features were hard to make out in the gathering dusk. However, she was quite certain if she had been able to see his face, it would have been devoid of any emotion, the same as his voice.
She noticed the smell then; smokey and acrid like when someone was burning garbage. Mr. Van and his helper were already back at the third truck, and she could hear something heavy being dragged out of the bed. What had they done?
“He’s collecting them.” Kavish took another step toward the house, clearly terrified. “He let all of the others burn! Anyone who wasn’t in a coma.”
“They were dead already,” Eric retorted, waving a hand dismissively. “If you can’t see the importance behind what I’m accomplishing, Kavish, then I expect you to be gone by morning.”
“You must come with me,” Kavish implored, tugging at Akuba’s hand. “Please, famiri, we must leave this place. It is fluku.”
“Cursed?” Jess gasped, watching the whole exchange with growing unease.
Her father didn’t wait for a response from Kavish, and went to the back of his own truck, a shadow moving among shadows. There was the distinct sound of the tailgate dropping, and then he grunted with the effort of moving something heavy.
Akuba was pulling her backwards, away from the bizarre scene and toward the relative safety of the dark house. Spinning around, Jess found she didn’t recognize any of it anymore. In the heavy stillness of the night, everything was distorted, and all she could think of was how she wanted to turn the lights on. To turn the lights on throughout the whole world and make it right again.
But as her dad continued his work behind them, the sounds haunted her, and Jess was horrified it would all look the same in the daylight. That maybe, in their new world, the cover of night would be their only escape.
Chapter 16
PETA
Lassen National Forest, Northern California
Madeline Schaefer’s House
“We should already be gone.” Hernandez slammed the tailgate on the trailer, and then moved around to the back of the Hummer where Devon was attempting to cram another sleeping bag inside.
“You go explain that to Tyler,” Peta said, pointing back at the house. They were standing out in the driveway, and the sun was beginning to cast long shadows behind them. It was seven at night and they still had a couple of hours until dark, but she knew how fast that time would speed by. The part that angered her the most, was that for all of the man’s constant pestering, she knew he was right about having to leave.
Turning her back on the men, she stared up at the porch, where she could just make out the outer edge of the chair Tyler was seated on. His dad wouldn’t allow him inside, even with a mask, so he had stationed himself where he could see him on the couch, and talk to him through the open door.
A gentle hand on her arm prompted Peta to face the conversation she’d been putting off for six hours. Looking down at her feet, she allowed Devon to turn her and then met his concerned gaze. “I know,” she whispered. “I know.”
“We’ve been here twenty-four hours,” Devon pointed out anyway. “Bill’s the only one, and we agreed on the deadline.”
“How did it happen?” Peta’s frown deepened as she looked back and forth between Devon and Hernandez. “He didn’t even go in the house. You all touched the same things out in the garage. I wonder if I transmitted it on my clothes, from being in her room? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Does any of this?” Devon pushed. “It doesn’t matter how he got exposed. For all we know, it was at the gas station back in Reno. It won’t change anything. We need to decide what we’re doing with the mad doctor, and who stays and who goes. It can’t be put off any longer.”
“I’m assuming by the way you aren’t brimming with joy, that you didn’t have any success contacting anyone at that resort?” Hernandez asked.
Thankful for the brief delay in the inevitable decisions, Peta shook her head. “I tried the phone number Mads wrote down for the Libi Nati Resort. I can’t tell if it’s ringing through or not, but no one answered. Of course, it’s ten at night there, so who knows if there’s even anyone around.”
“If it’s the source, won’t everyone already be dead?” Hernandez screwed up his nose in consternation. “Or am I missing something here?”
“It’s impossible to know,” Devon answered for her. “There’s a high probability there’s been a mutation since the initial exposure, which is what could be contributing to it spreading so easily. So, there’s a chance it’s behaving differently amongst the people there.”
“Oh, great.” Hernandez threw his hands up in the air. “Is there anything that we actually do know? What are the odds of tracking down an electron microscope around there for you to study the water? I highly doubt the contraption that I saw down in the basement is something you commonly find hanging out in the Amazon. And it’s too big to fit in the trailer.”
“No one is forcing you to go with us!” Peta snapped. “You’re so eager to leave, yet you seem committed to finding and pointing out every possible flaw in our plan. Assess and adapt. Wasn’t that one of your ‘points’?”
Hernandez rubbed at his jawline and peered at Peta over his hand, looking somewhat chagrined. “I’m used to having a more solid plan, Peta. I don’t like unknowns.”
“You think I know what the hell I’m doing?” she threw back at him, not at all placated by his glimmer of humbleness. “I don’t have any answers. All I have are questions, but at least I’m willing to take the risk to pursue them. Wh
at other options do we have?”
Hernandez took a step toward her, and Peta was surprised when he reached out and actually took her hand in his. Holding it tightly, he stared at her with a fierceness that made her pulse speed up. “It’s a mistake to think we aren’t all going to die from this. It’s only a matter of time. The question is if we can put it off long enough to make a difference. We can’t do that from here.”
Peta’s breath caught as she nodded in agreement, dreading having to go back into the house. It was an unbearable situation. “Madeline is still what you’d call technically alive. I feel horrible just leaving her like that, but I don’t know what else we can do. And Bill—"
“Has he gotten worse?” Devon asked quietly, as Hernandez released Peta and she began to walk away.
Stopping, her shoulders dropped and she took a moment to close her eyes and allow the last heat of the sun to disperse some of the chill brought on by her dismay. “The headache and fever have progressed, but so far he isn’t experiencing any noticeable neurological symptoms.” Peering back over her right shoulder, she sighed. “It would almost be easier if he was.”
The men didn’t reply as she continued her trek back to the porch, and she wondered briefly how she’d become the one calling the shots. She didn’t ask for it, or want it. While it was partly because she’d been the one trapped in the house and left to pursue everything, she acknowledged it was more than that.
Placing a hand on the bannister at the bottom step, Peta tried to stop her thoughts from wandering too far into the past. Back to a time where she made the decision not to drive, changing their plans because it was what she wanted, not her fiancé. Her breath became ragged and perspiration sprang out on her forehead. She saw the headlights. Saw them barreling at them, and thinking that they should be moving out of the way. That she would have already been pulling on the wheel—
“Peta?”
Her head jerked up, and Peta saw Tyler staring down at her from the top of the stairs. She took several breaths and forced her pulse to slow into a more manageable rhythm. But she couldn’t say anything. She couldn’t bring herself to say it.
“You have to go,” Tyler said for her, and she felt ashamed that a sixteen-year-old had more emotional strength than she did.
“I need to talk to your dad,” she said in response. As she started to climb the stairs, Tyler moved aside but his arms were crossed in a defensive stance.
“I’m staying with him.” He wasn’t asking for permission, and the resolution on his face didn’t leave any room for debate.
Peta paused at the threshold to the office, and answered by smiling briefly at Tyler. It wasn’t her place to try and force him to leave his dad. He was old enough to make that choice on his own.
Reaching to take her mask from the patio table, she made sure it was snugly in place before entering the house. Though she suspected it didn’t really offer much protection, she hadn’t shared that belief with anyone. It opened up several other possibilities that only led to more questions and less answers.
Bill was laid out on the same uncomfortable couch she’d tried to sleep on the night before. Though he was still sweating profusely, he had a blanket pulled up under his chin and was shaking. Peta took some gloves from her back pocket she’d found in the basement lab, and put them on before reaching for the bottle of Advil on the table next to him.
He was watching her movements, so she gestured for him to stick his hand out. After shaking several pills onto his palm, she handed him a glass of water. “You need to try and get the fever under control,” she explained. “You’re burning up.”
Wincing as he swallowed, Bill barely managed to set the glass back on the table before collapsing into the cushions, exhausted by the simple movements. “You have to promise me.”
Peta began shaking her head before he even completed the sentence. It was what she’d feared the most. “Bill, I can’t make him go. I can’t make Tyler leave you.”
“You have to find a way,” he insisted. Bill’s face contorted and spasmed with pain as he gasped and grabbed at his head. “It’s getting worse,” he said through clenched teeth. “It feels like my brain is being cut up into pieces. Though, I suppose in a way it is.”
Peta grimaced at the imagery the comment conjured up. She didn’t know how to respond. She wanted to tell him he was wrong. To lie, and say she’d drag Tyler away and he could die in his own misery. But sitting there in the deceivingly normal house, with the comforting hiss of the air conditioner and all the comforts of home, it couldn’t have felt more wrong.
As the worst of the pain passed, Bill lowered his hands and took a settling breath before opening his eyes. “Can you turn the lights off?” he whispered. “I’m getting more sensitive to it.”
As she went about flipping switches, Peta watched Bill observing her. Other than being flushed, and having red-rimmed eyes, he didn’t look any different. It would have been easy to pretend like he was going to be okay. To just take some of the gear out of the trailer and load him up.
Peta paused with her hand on the dimmer switch. Why not? Sure, it would be a risk. And they’d literally be hauling a source of infection through every town they encountered. But in the end, would that matter? It was already everywhere. And if her suspicions were right about the prions being small enough to pass through most of the protective gear readily available to civilians, what would be the difference between leaving him alone, or dragging him along? Especially if there was even the slightest chance of finding a way to help him before it was too late.
Peta felt a sudden sense of urgency as she squatted down next to the couch. She should have listened to Hernandez from the beginning. Staying had been foolish. They could already be well on their way, and they’d lost valuable time.
“Bill,” she said, hoping the Advil was starting to kick in. “Who says we have to leave you? There’s a way we could make it work.”
He was already shaking his head. “No.” He struggled to look over at the sliding glass door, where Tyler was silhouetted. “No one else is sick. It would be too selfish, to take the chance of exposing all of you. Especially Tyler.” Grunting, he pushed himself onto an elbow and peered at Peta with unwavering resolution. “I promised his mother I would take care of him. That includes putting his safety before my own. I can’t let you do it, but I need to know you’re going to look out for him. I need your word.”
Peta stood, hands balled at her sides in frustration. “Fine! But you’re going to have to tell him. He isn’t going to agree any other way. I can’t force him!”
Bill dropped onto the pillow and nodded, looking relieved. “Of course. Give him a mask, and make sure he’s wearing gloves. Don’t let him get too close!” he added, when Peta started to move away.
Before Peta reached the door, Tyler was already stepping inside.
“Woah!” she shouted, pushing him back onto the porch. “Not without gloves and some other ground rules established first.”
“But—”
“I mean it!” Peta interrupted. She was about to do her best at a lecture when she noticed a familiar, distant noise.
Tyler noticed her hesitation, and pointed up at the sky. “That’s what I was trying to tell you!”
Peta shielded her eyes and searched for the source, aware that both Hernandez and Devon were already running from the Hummer.
“Everyone inside!” Hernandez ordered as he leapt up the stairs.
Stumbling back through the open doorway, Peta once again cursed herself for not being more decisive. Now, it might be too late for all of them.
Outside, a helicopter roared overhead, and then hovered over the house.
Chapter 17
TYLER
Lassen National Forest, Northern California
Madeline Schaefer’s House
“No!” Bill yelled at Tyler, gesturing for him to stay back as he staggered to his feet. “I don’t need help.”
Tyler ducked instinctively as the sound of the hel
icopter intensified, and dirt pattered against the window behind the couch. Despite his dad’s objections, he grabbed at his elbow when his legs began to buckle and supported his weight.
“Get him hidden and stay down!” Hernandez ordered, moving swiftly past them and to the front window, gun drawn. He eased the curtain back briefly with his left hand, before letting it drop into place. “They’re landing past the garden. We don’t have much more than a few minutes before they’ll be here.”
Peta ran from the desk with a gun clutched in each hand. Tyler recognized the one Hernandez had given her when they got to the house.
“I found this in Mads’ room,” Peta said as shoved the other one against Devon’s chest. “You know how to use it?”
Devon took the Glock without any hesitation, flipped it over in his hand, and gave a curt nod. “I said I didn’t like ‘em, not that I didn’t know how to use one.” After checking the chamber, he turned to Hernandez. “What do you think, boss? ICONS or someone else? I’d rather not shoot randomly and ask later.”
“The helicopter isn’t military,” Hernandez answered, gesturing for Tyler and his dad to get down behind the couch. “But there aren’t any noticeable markings on it.” Turning to the window, he risked looking again and then whistled slowly. “Yup. We’ve got two on the move, coming in low and fast. Armed. My guess is mercenaries of some sort, probably hired guns for ICONS.” He glanced over at Peta, who was stationed at the sliding glass door, a few feet away from Tyler.
Peta shook her head before pushing the door shut. “With everything that’s happening? They have to know she’s cut off out here. Why bother?” Her voice was muffled behind the mask, and even though she was practically yelling, it was still hard to hear her over the increasing whine of the helicopter.
