180 Days and Counting... Series Box Set books 1 - 3

by B. R. Paulson

  Cady stared at Bailey. She was going to help? Clearing her throat, Cady nodded in the direction of the absent truck. “What happened? Didn’t you just leave to go hang out with them?”

  “We were down at the café. I texted you when we got there. They didn’t believe me. None of my friends. I tried warning them but they laughed and… made fun of me. Becky’s brother brought me back.” She rolled her eyes, brown mascara streaking her cheeks, and sniffed. “Did you hear from Grandma and Grandpa yet?”

  Shaking her head and turning back to the job of unloading, Cady hid her wince. “Not yet. They’re supposed to be on their cruise sometime this week or next. I can’t get through to their cell. Sometimes it goes straight to voicemail and sometimes it rings a few times before going there. Pretty soon, I’ll have filled up their inbox.” Lightly chuckling like she wasn’t freaking out, Cady didn’t know what else to say. She’d texted more than a couple times an hour, but her mom was ignoring her.

  None of that boded well for their survival in the upcoming weeks and months. If Cady could just get them to her place, come back, they could weather the storm together. Even taking care of David would be better at Cady’s place than on a cruise ship.

  Bailey and Cady worked alongside each other, their breath puffing in front of them in small wisps of white that disappeared quickly in the humid air.

  “Hey, Mom?” Bailey continued without waiting for Cady to reply. “Why was Dad so mad all the time? You guys fought so much, but he wasn’t here enough for you to make him mad.” She stopped transferring boxes from the trailer to the porch and furrowed her brow at Cady with her hands on her hips.

  Cady stopped, matching her daughter’s expression and hanging her arms limply at her sides. She would have to face her weaknesses sooner or later. “Honestly? He wasn’t mad at me or anything here at home. He thought his job defined him. Like he wasn’t good enough as a truck driver, and that’s just not true.”

  “Why isn’t it true? Becky’s dad is an orthodontist and he said if she doesn’t go to school to become a doctor or something, she’s no daughter of his.” Bailey bit her lip. “Is that how Dad felt about me?”

  Cady shook her head, disgusted with that mentality. “Absolutely not. There’s only value in how you treat others. That’s what matters. Service, empathy. These are the things that define what type of a person you are. An orthodontist probably won’t be able to do much in the end of the world, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be kind or serve others then.” Cady reached out and pulled Bailey against her side.

  “What’s empathy?” Bailey didn’t pull away like normal, and Cady reveled in the connection with her daughter.

  “It’s when you understand how someone or a group of someones feel. We try to understand where they come from. It’s more important to understand people, than to feel bad for them which is pity.” Snowflakes drifted down, snagging Cady’s attention.

  She groaned. “Looks like we’re going to get more snow. Can you run out and make sure the gate is closed, please?”

  “Sure.” Bailey took a few steps toward the driveway gate, then turned back. “Hey, Mom. I’m sad that Dad’s dead. Is it normal to be sad so long?” She bit her lip, tears welling in her eyes again.

  Cady nodded, a sad-grin hard to hold on lips that just wanted to frown. “Oh, yes. I’m sad, too. It’s totally normal. I wish I could make things better for you.” She wished she could go back to the start of the year and change everything that had happened. But wishes weren’t real and hopes were just like whispers in the night.

  Bailey shook her head, fighting back tears as she sobbed. Her worked her words out, like struggling to say them but having to at the same time. “I was mad… you were alive and he… wasn’t.” Her voice choked on a whimper.

  “I know. I felt the same way.” Cady wrinkled her nose. She didn’t blame Bailey for feeling that way. Her daughter’s words hurt, but the young girl obviously needed to get them off her chest.

  “I’m sorry, Mom. I don’t really feel that way.” Bailey’s shoulders shook as she hunched forward and Cady stepped close to pull her back into her embrace.

  “Sh. It’s okay. You don’t need to apologize for your feelings. I understand.” Cady understood. “Tell you what. I’m going to meet Scott here this afternoon and he’s going to teach me how to shoot and how to handle the guns we have. Want to join us?”

  Bailey wrinkled her nose. She cocked her head to the side. “Do you think we could print off Marilee’s face to shoot at it?”

  Cady rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Girl, you are bad.”

  Dwelling on the way things had happened around Zach wasn’t good for either of them. Getting it off their chests was. How could Cady condemn Bailey when Cady had felt the same way?

  Chapter 11

  Margie

  Margie didn’t want to turn the phone on and face a deluge of messages and texts from Cady. Her messages had gotten more frantic and Margie couldn’t handle any more stress on top of everything else. Between double-checking David’s medicine, driving the motorhome by herself in Seattle traffic, and the things Cady was claiming in her messages – Margie couldn’t imagine more stress.

  Adding more stress to David wasn’t an option, either. The last conversation Margie had with Cady had left Margie feeling like a horrible mother for leaving and now not returning when Cady said she needed her. Why hadn’t Margie told Cady about David’s condition? He might never see her again and Margie had taken that goodbye from them.

  She jiggled the R.V. keys in her hand and smiled at her husband as he joined her by the small Subaru they’d towed behind the motorhome. Margie was excited to drive the smaller car. Driving that house on wheels was tiring and she just wanted to look in a mirror that didn’t say objects in mirror are larger than they appear. Waiting for him to reach the car, she leaned her hip on the door. “Are you ready?”

  His movements were slower, like the Ativan and morphine were wearing off. She’d have to up his dose which was alarming since she’d upped his dose a few weeks ago. He wasn’t supposed to be desensitized to it that fast. The pinched skin with white lines around his mouth and eyes though said he was in more pain than he would let on.

  “You bet.” He smiled and claimed the front passenger seat. They’d agreed he wouldn’t drive with so much medicine on board. He often took naps in the car anyway.

  The drive to the docks wasn’t far and normally Margie would have them walk, but something in her gut – spurred on by the panic in Cady’s voice on her messages – had her convinced it wouldn’t hurt to have her car handy. Their cruise ship would leave in just a few days.

  Until they were to dock, Margie and David had opted to stay in the hotel at the wharf. A mall was attached to the main lobby and Margie desperately needed to get her hair fixed. Locking the R.V. up in storage for the time they’d be away went against what she wanted to do, but so did going on the cruise.

  When she’d heard the cancer diagnosis and the prognosis, she’d gone into panic mode, planning everything she could to make sure the last few months of his life were full. But the more they did and the more pained his expressions were, Margie realized he would be fine just sitting on the back porch of their cabin, watching the deer and elk.

  The only problem was, sitting there alone and facing mortality – hers or her husbands – scared Margie and she’d planned the strenuous itinerary to escape her fears – jeopardizing her husband’s health in the process.

  If Margie really did what she wanted and what she knew David wanted, she’d grab her husband and they’d run straight back to north Idaho. She’d apologize to Cady for the terse way she treated her and they’d buckle down and ride whatever was coming at them at Cady’s.

  Cady was easy to believe. She wasn’t an easily worried child and the hysteria in her tone came from a place of truth, not drama or grief.

  That terrified Margie more than if Cady had been a blathering idiot.

  Beside her, David sneezed. He used hi
s linen handkerchief to wipe his nose and look apologetically at his wife. “I’m sorry. I seem to have caught a cold. I didn’t know raccoons and bears had germs.”

  They’d only camped a couple nights, if you could call watching TV in a queen bed with hot cocoa camping.

  A cold. Or maybe the virus Cady had mentioned in the last twenty text messages. No. Cady had mentioned something about five days or a week or something before it was released. No way did David have it. Margie gripped the steering wheel tighter. Was it okay to lie to him and say everything was alright?

  She sniffed herself and wiped under her eyes. Half-laughing, she glanced at David. “Maybe I’m getting a cold, too.” Was that enough to cancel their cruise and go back to Cady?

  The doctors had said to keep his stress down. If she told him what was going on and what she suspected from Cady’s broken messages, he would have more stress on him than he’d be able to handle. Stress was debilitating in the best of circumstances. Add cancer and it became one of the worst situations.

  The cruise was supposed to be a long one. Maybe they’d be able to avoid whatever was coming. The sickness would pass over the population and no one would have it on the ship because it hadn’t been released yet.

  That was more believable and plausible than the fact that there was even a virus being let loose on the world.

  Either way, she had no doubt in her mind there was a serious danger she might lose her husband and she didn’t know how would she survive that. Cancer or a virus or falling over the ship’s railing, anything could take him and she had a feeling the former was going to be the culprit.

  That would be her end. If that happened, would she sit down and give up?

  Chapter 12

  Cady

  “Thanks for this girls’ night, Mom. I wish…” Bailey blinked back regretful tears that Cady wished she could take away.

  “I know. I feel the same way. It’s a helpless feeling, isn’t it?” Cady tried keeping a lighthearted feeling in her tone, but she was running out of her own sanity.

  Cady knew exactly what Bailey was going through. Cady didn’t want to keep secrets from her friends, but what would she tell them? They didn’t have enough time to prepare for something she’d been warning them of for years – well, not that particular incident exactly, but more like the likelihood of something similar happening. She would only create a panic – if they even believed her

  The reality was, Cady had a real chance of facing an even worse incident with her friends than Bailey had. That was terrifying in itself.

  Green numbers on the DVD player’s digital clock flashed ten-thirty-two PM. Cady rubbed her eyes. “Wow, it’s late. Pride and Prejudice always makes me feel better.” Cady ignored the stack of new movies they’d brought in the afternoon before. They had both needed the comfort of something familiar and painstakingly classic. Plus, the shiny pile was daunting with its brand-new plastic wrap reflecting the light from the lamp. There were so many and they covered the lower half of the living room wall by the TV.

  Bailey rolled off the couch, grabbing her ice cream bowl and her mom’s. “I need to go to the bathroom. Are we going to try Sense and Sensibility next? Or are you too old to stay up that late?” She wiggled her eyebrows and grinned as she strode toward the kitchen.

  Cady could ignore the end of the world coming, if she had a good relationship going with Bailey. Maybe Jackson was crazy and that was all. Nothing was happening and she’d just blown a ton of money on items she didn’t need.

  Her cell phone screen lit up, announcing a call from Restricted.

  There was only one person who called her from a restricted line.

  Staring at the screen for one line of Def Leppard’s song, then two lines, then three, Cady’s hands shook. She was mad and scared and horrified that he thought it was some kind of game.

  After a minute, she picked up the phone, swiping the answer button to the right and lifting it to her ear. Cady didn’t say anything, staring toward the blue screen of the television as the DVD turned off.

  “Cady, it’s starting. Remember, no mail. There will be a red package within the next week sent via private courier. You’ll recognize it’s from me. You’ll know because of the logo on it.” Jackson’s glee was evident and the words choked Cady’s response. Jackson continued. “I know. It’s overwhelming. I’m sending you the vaccine, Cady. You have to take it in the next twenty-one days. Do you hear me? Twenty-one days, Cady. You must mark it from now. Today is day one. Any later and it’s too late. Do you understand?”

  His question broke her silence and she gripped the phone in both hands. Her throat was dry but she had to get the words out. “Jackson… Please, don’t do this. So many innocent people will die.”

  “No one is innocent. You know this. Why do you keep making me repeat it?” Jackson took a steadying breath. “This is good. I like that you’re so caring. You know why this has to happen. You even helped with this. I’m making it happen. You need to know I’ll always be there for you. I’m the protector. You’re the nurturer. That is good for the future of this world.”

  “Not. This. I wasn’t there to cause this. This…” Cady blinked back tears, her throat constricting with pain. Had he honestly just implied they were the future of the world he was destroying?

  “You’re more a part of it than you know. Remember the name? CJ180d? That’s the name of our virus, Cady. Every step of the way, I’ve had you in my mind. This is ours. We’ve accomplished so much.” When Cady didn’t rely, Jackson’s tone took on a mocking slant. “Wasn’t it frustrating when ole Benny didn’t believe you?”

  Cady’s lips fell open as she caught her breath. “You know?” She reached out, clenching the arm of the couch with fingers that sought to drill through the leather.

  “A personality profile predicted you would tell someone. I had to watch and see how accurate the profile prediction was. It also predicted what you would do with the vaccine – it stated a moral, ethical, and life-or-death decision would be made based on your need to survive.” Jackson’s arrogance stung over the line. “I knew what your answers would be because I know you.”

  Cady squeezed her eyes shut at the sensation of being violated.

  Jackson’s voice softened and became almost caressing. “I’m sure you know, we’ll be perfect together. I’ve sent you a choice. Choose me and we can rule this world together. Don’t choose me and I’d hate to see what your end is like.” He hung up, leaving Cady staring into the center of the living room while Bailey chattered happily from the kitchen.

  Choose Jackson or choose death… was there really an option?

  Chapter 13

  Cady

  Snow mounds clung to the ground with a determination Cady hadn’t seen since the winter of ’09. That year, the snow had reached the roof. They’d had snow on the ground clear until June and there was no spring of ’09. One day it’d been thirty-two and snowy and the next it was eighty-eight and sweltering.

  Cady sipped the Rooibos vanilla tea in her favorite blue and brown pottery mug. She’d only dropped in two cubes of sugar, but she was starting to wish she’d done six. She’d already started the rationing of her thousand pounds of sugar. She wasn’t ready to start a diet and that’s what it felt like already.

  Staring out the slider from her spot at the table, she waited for Bailey to join her. The days were already getting longer and almost unbearable with the knowledge that they couldn’t leave, shouldn’t leave. Normally, staying at the house for days on end was no big deal, but that’s when they had the option to stay or go. Without the option, neither of them had ever wanted to leave so bad.

  The sun would be down soon and the work the sun had done on to melt the snow would be undone by the freezing temperatures the night would bring. Watching the weather change was usually a pleasure for Cady. This year, however, every day that passed meant the virus was closer to spreading across the world. If it was released already, the virus was already evolving and taking what it wanted fro
m its hosts.

  Bailey stomped down the stairs, her steps louder as she got closer to the table. She stopped beside Cady, folding her arms and sighing. “When can we go out?” The dark auburn braid hanging down Bailey’s back had been carefully plaited, more so than when she planned on just staying around the house.

  “We can’t. I’m not sure for how long, Bailey.” Cady was tired of her daughter’s temper tantrums. She’d already told Bailey everything and there she was, circumventing everything with her demands. She had to take a calming breath and sip her tea. They were stuck in the house together. They would just have to get used to it and have a little bit more patience.

  She reached up to rub at her shoulder. The incessant ache from the shotgun recoil from shooting practice had left a sizable bruise in her flesh. Cady and Scott had agreed not to see each other for a few days. Cady had practiced a lot with the firearms she had and she needed a break.

  Cady regretted the decision to have him stay away. She had initially wanted to minimize her exposure to any germs – which meant limiting time with Scott. But, at that point, she wished he could come around and give Bailey and her a break from each other.

  Bailey started in again on her debate, not using anything new which made it even more incessantly frustrating. “Mom, what if it’s nothing? What if all of this is just a prank?” Bailey slapped her hands on her thighs and harrumphed into a chair beside Cady. She folded her arms and grunted. “I just talked to Becky. She said she believes me and wants to hang out tonight.”

  Cady arched an eyebrow and lowered her mug. “If she believes you, then why would she want to get together?” Cady turned on her seat and set her jaw. “What did you do?”

  Tears pricked Bailey’s eyes and she screwed her lips to the side. “I called her. I miss her, Mom. She’s my best-friend. I told her you were wrong and that everything was going to be fine.” Pink flooded her cheeks as she admitted what she’d done.