That was really all they ever said on the news, Adam thought bitterly. Stay in your home. Don’t go outside. Do whatever the military tells you to do.
He leaned forward in his seat, trying to get a better look at the pandemonium outside the hospital. The semi-organized line had given way and become a messy clump of people, all of them pressing toward the doors of the hospital. Some people had small children up on their shoulders, trying to keep them from being crushed in the crowd. As Adam watched, one of the soldiers at the door raised a weapon and fired it into the air. Screams went up, and Adam shivered where he sat.
Maybe I should get out of here.
It wasn’t the first time that thought had occurred to him. He’d spent the last few weeks watching the San Francisco he knew descend into chaos, after all. More and more people were turning up dead with every passing day. And his food might be plentiful right now, but it wasn’t going to last forever. What was he going to do, just stay here in his apartment until he ran out of canned tuna and then slowly starve to death?
It might be better to get out of the city. Adam had always been an urban sort of guy, but getting off the grid might be smarter at a time like this. There would be no soldiers—or, at the very least, there would be fewer of them. And there would be fewer people, which meant that the disease, whatever it was, would be less quick to spread.
Because it was spreading. That much was obvious now. Far too many people had died for Adam to cling to the belief that the nanovirus only impacted those with the nanotech. The bots just hadn’t been available to that many people. They had been too expensive. So that didn’t account for the spread of the disease anymore.
But where would he go? It wasn’t as if Adam knew anyone who didn’t live in San Francisco or Los Angeles, and he had an idea that LA would be just as bad.
“The World Health Organization states that this crisis has reached pandemic levels,” the newscaster said. “Outbreaks have been recorded throughout the United States, Europe, the Pacific Rim nations, South America…” he swallowed hard and mopped sweat from his brow. “We…we recommend that everyone stay inside…stay in your homes…”
Adam squinted at the screen. Was it possible that the newscaster was getting sick? He didn’t look well. It might have just been stress, but somehow Adam didn’t like the man’s chances.
The shot cut back to the hospital. The soldier raised his weapon again. This time he fired into the crowd. Adam almost dropped his tuna. Is he kidding? That’s just going to make the panic worse!
It did. Adam would have expected the crowd to scatter—maybe the soldiers were expecting that, too, because they actually stepped forward as if in pursuit—but instead, everyone surged toward the doors of the hospital like a wave. Adam could make out people falling, children toppling from their safe perches on top of parents’ shoulders. They’re going to be trampled, he realized, horrified.
Perhaps worst of all was the fact that, even if these people did manage to be treated, it was just as likely that they’d be reinfected on their way home.
The phone rang.
Adam didn’t respond. His phone hadn’t rung in weeks. The sound must have been coming from the TV.
It rang again.
Adam muted the TV and waited.
A third ring.
Weird. Who could possibly be calling him right now? He pulled his phone off the charger and looked at the screen. Cody Granger.
What could this be about?
Adam accepted the call. “Cody?”
“Hey, bro.” Cody Granger was a fast talker and a fast thinker with a laid-back lifestyle that didn’t match his hot temper. Now, though, he sounded surprisingly relaxed. “How’s it hanging?”
“Um, we’re in the middle of a global health crisis,” Adam said. “Have you been on the internet at all lately?”
“Give me some credit, dude. I do know about the nanovirus.”
“Okay.”
Maybe Adam had been a little hard on his friend, but with Cody, you never could tell. When they’d been in school together, Cody was always the guy in the group who forgot when exams were. He was always the guy who smoked pot in places where teachers might catch him and relied on his friends to bail him out. Cody had been popular in high school because he’d emancipated himself from his parents and had been able to throw wild parties at the apartment he rented, but as they’d gotten older, most of their friend group had fallen away, gone on to more adult things.
But Cody had been there for Adam when he’d hit rock bottom. Cody had allowed Adam to crash on his couch after his first mental breakdown, when he’d been fired from Juniper Creek. Years later, Cody had been the one to drive Adam to rehab. He’d even paid for it. Adam owed everything to his friend, and he knew it.
“So why are you calling?” Adam asked. “I have food, if you need it.”
“You’re offering me your food? Bro.”
“I’m not going to let a buddy starve.”
“Well, you can bring it with you,” Cody said. “I’m calling because I’m going out on my yacht, and I want you to come with me.”
Adam blinked. “You want me to go yachting with you?”
“Why the hell not?”
“Are you watching TV at all?”
“No,” Cody said. “Are they still predicting doomsday?”
“Um, yeah. I just saw a soldier fire into a crowd in front of St. Clement’s.”
“Those lemmings are going to get themselves killed fighting over those MRI machines.”
“Machine,” Adam corrected. “Apparently one broke down.”
“Listen, staying in the city at a time like this is psychotic,” Cody said. “Getting out on the water by ourselves is the best thing we can do. It’s the best way to keep ourselves safe.”
Adam hesitated. “I was just thinking about getting out of San Francisco,” he admitted.
Cody chuckled. “You see? It’s fate. Come with me. We’ll be much better off on my boat. Besides, it’ll be fun. We’ll bring a bunch of beers.”
“Cody, c’mon.”
“Right. Shit. Forgot. Okay, I’ll bring beers, and you can bring diet soda or whatever it is you drink nowadays.”
“You know, some people would say that making fun of a recovering addict for choosing not to drink is a dick move.”
“And some people would say that paying for your rehab gives me the right to bust your chops.”
Adam laughed. “Okay, okay.”
“So what do you say? Will you come?”
“How long do you think we’re going to stay out there?”
“I don’t know,” Cody said. “Whatever. We’ll bring a radio so we can keep up with the situation on the mainland, and when things start to settle down, we’ll head back in. Easy peasy.”
“You really think things are just going to turn around?” Adam asked. The idea was so tempting. He really wanted to believe what his friend was saying. That all he needed to do was to get on a yacht for a few weeks, relax on the waves, and when he came back everything would be fine.
“Bring all that food you say you’ve got,” Cody said. “We don’t know how long we’ll be out there. It’ll probably be a while.”
“Do you have any food?” Adam asked.
“Sure I do,” Cody said easily. “Chips, fruit snacks, a bunch of frozen steaks in my meat locker.”
“Frozen steaks? Seriously?”
He laughed. “What have you been eating?”
“Not steaks.”
“Well, come out on the boat with me. We’ll live like kings. Trust me, Adam, you couldn’t be anywhere better right now.”
Adam drew a breath and released it slowly. “I guess it does seem like the best idea.”
“That’s the spirit,” Cody said, his tone smugly happy, as if he’d known all along that Adam would agree. “Can you meet me down at the marina at nine tomorrow?”
“Nine a.m.?”
“Of course nine a.m. We’re not going to leave in the middle of the nig
ht.”
“Okay,” Adam agreed. “I’ll meet you there. And I’ll bring all my food.”
“Awesome,” Cody said. “You won’t regret it, I promise.”
Adam hung up the phone. Feeling numb, he made his way back to his recliner, sat down, and stared at the riots on TV. In the time he’d been on the phone, about a third of the crowd fighting to get into the hospital had fallen. They were being kicked and stepped over by the rest of the crowd, as if they weren’t even there. Adam thought they were probably dead.
Was this happening all over the world, too?
Cody was right, he decided. Getting off the mainland was the best thing they could possibly do to keep themselves safe. And with the waves rolling along beneath them and the company of a good friend, who knew? Life might even be fun again.
For the first time in days, Adam switched off the TV.
Chapter 4
Without any way of knowing how long Cody’s yacht would be at sea, Adam felt at a loss for what to pack. Clothes would be essential, of course, and maybe a book or two, something to pass the time…
But first things first. Cody had said to bring all the food in the house, and for once, Adam thought, his friend had been talking sense. It wasn’t like they’d be able to stop for groceries once they were out on the water. Fishing might be an option, but man couldn’t live on fish alone, right?
Adam went to his closet, felt around on the top shelf, and found the huge green army duffel bag that had once belonged to his father. He had never used it himself. His father had thought it might be of use one day for college, but between acting on Juniper Creek and his famous mental breakdown, Adam had never gotten around to higher education.
Well I’m putting it to use now, at least, he thought. Thanks, Dad. His father had died years ago, but maybe, somewhere, he approved.
Adam took the bag to the kitchen, threw open all his cupboards, and surveyed the options. All the cans would have to come along, of course. Each can of food represented a meal, and although they weren’t light, they were small. He scooped them out of the cupboard and dropped them into the bottom of the bag. He piled the boxes of cereal on top of that. Then he slung the bag over his shoulder and went to his bathroom closet, where he added his stockpiled tubes of toothpaste, rolls of toilet paper, and bars of soap.
What about water? Adam had been drinking from the tap since the crisis had set in, but that wouldn’t be an option on the yacht. Would Cody have thought of drinking water? Probably not, Adam thought. It would be very like Cody to get out on the middle of the ocean with nothing but beer to drink and then look surprised when someone asked about staying hydrated.
Unfortunately, Adam didn’t have any bottled water in the house. He would have to remind Cody of that need before they set off tomorrow. In the meantime, he found some empty milk jugs in the recycling bin, washed them out carefully, and filled them up with tap water. It was better than nothing. He added the jugs to his duffel bag and zipped it up.
When it came to clothing, he would travel light. There wouldn’t be a lot of room on a boat. He filled a hiking backpack with socks, underwear, T-shirts, and a few pairs of jeans. That would have to do. When it came to washing clothes, Adam thought, water would be plentiful. They’d just haul it up from the sea.
He couldn’t believe he was really doing this.
He hauled his bags into the living room and set them on the couch, where they would be ready to grab first thing in the morning. Then, fighting a sense of surreality, he wandered back into his bedroom and flopped down on the bed. When morning came, he would be leaving this house. He would be leaving the land.
Would he be back?
Don’t be stupid, he told himself. Of course you’ll be back. This is temporary. But then he remembered what the newscaster had said on today’s broadcast. The World Health Organization was calling the nanovirus a global pandemic. It had spread to countries around the world. It was affecting people who had never received the nanotech injection. And now hospitals were facing riots as people tried to get in to use the MRI machines, desperate to protect themselves against violent death.
So many people have died already, Adam thought. Maybe we really aren’t coming back from this one. Maybe this is how humanity meets its match.
Suddenly, for the first time in a long time, he thought of his mother.
He didn’t speak to her, in the general course of things. There was too much resentment there. Adam didn’t blame her for his addiction and breakdown, exactly—at a certain point he knew the choices he’d made were his own—but there was no denying she’d put pressure on him in his childhood that most kids didn’t have. When Adam had been working twelve-hour days on a set with people who were, for the most part, much older than he was, other kids his age had been playing video games and throwing footballs around. He was willing to bet that most of his peers wouldn’t have even known where to get heroin at the age of sixteen.
But if he was going to be leaving the mainland tomorrow, maybe he should at least let his mother know what was going on. She deserved to know that her son was leaving San Francisco, at least. Much as he struggled to get along with her, Adam didn’t want to think of her trying to find him and unable to do so, wondering where he had gone.
He would give her a call, he decided. Just to check in. Just to catch her up on the plan he and Cody had formed. She was all the way in Los Angeles. There would be no harm in speaking to her briefly tonight.
Still, it was intimidating. He hadn’t spoken to her since the nanovirus had struck, and now it occurred to him to wonder if she might think he’d gotten the injection. Adam wasn’t exactly rich, but he did have some savings stocked away from his time on the show, and if he’d really wanted it he could have done it. It was something a lot of D-list celebrities had done to revive their spotlight a little bit.
She must have figured he was alive. Surely she would have called if she thought he might be dead.
Unless…
A horrible thought struck him and he jumped to his feet and ran to the living room, where his phone still sat on the charger. He hadn’t spoken to her since Christmas, so her name was pretty far down on his list of contacts, and as he scrolled the thought turned itself over and over in his head.
What if she had gotten sick?
You didn’t need to have nanotech to catch the virus. Just about everyone was agreed on that. Anybody could get it. Anybody was vulnerable.
The phone rang.
Come on, Mom, Adam thought. Pick up. Pick up the phone.
“Adam?”
It wasn’t his mother. His heart dropped like a stone.
“Gerard? Where’s Mom?”
Adam’s stepfather hesitated, and that silence spoke volumes. “We’re in the hospital,” he said after a stretch.
“The hospital? Why?”
Let it be something innocuous, Adam thought. She sprained her ankle and they went to get it fixed up. But he knew that wasn’t the answer. No one went to hospitals for things like sprained ankles anymore. There was only one reason to go to the hospital now.
“Do you know about this nanotech disease?” Gerard asked.
Adam felt like his heart was ripping in half. He had always had problems with his mother, but he and Gerard had gotten along fine. Although the relationship between them had never exactly been familial—Adam’s mother had married Gerard too quickly after his father’s death for Adam to feel filial toward him—Adam had always enjoyed his company. He had liked Gerard’s enthusiasm for new technology and enjoyed his complete failure to understand how most of it worked. Calling the nanovirus “this nanotech disease” was so utterly like Gerard that Adam could practically close his eyes and imagine his stepfather was in the room with him.
“Mom has it?” he asked quietly.
“She started showing signs this morning,” Gerard said. “I won’t…I won’t burden you with the details, Adam. I brought her to the hospital as soon as I knew what we were dealing with.”
�
��How did she catch it?” Adam asked.
“She got the injection,” Gerard said heavily.
“Oh my God, she didn’t.”
Adam couldn’t believe it. It had never occurred to him that his mother would do such a thing. But now that he thought about it, it seemed obvious. She had always been the one interested in fame. That was why she had pushed Adam so hard. And when people were being asked to go on TV and give interviews about their nanotech experiences, Adam could imagine his mother would have seen it as the perfect opportunity to grab the limelight.
And she had the money, he realized belatedly. She had his money, the money he’d earned acting on Juniper Creek. The money she’d claimed as his “manager.”
In other words, Adam had paid for that injection.
And now his mom had the virus.
“How…how is she?” Adam asked.
Gerard’s answer was very gentle. “She’s not doing well,” he said. “Her fever’s very high, and she’s…she’s unconscious.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“I’m sorry,” Gerard said. “I should have. It’s just all happened so fast.” His voice broke, and Adam realized that his stepfather was near tears.
“It’s all right,” Adam said quickly. “I’m just glad I called…I’m glad I found out…”
“I’m glad you called, too,” Gerard said thickly. “It’s good to hear your voice, son.”
Gerard had never called him “son” before. Somehow, Adam didn’t feel like arguing.
“Wait,” he realized suddenly. “You’re at the hospital. What about the MRIs? Can’t she do that? They’re supposed to cure the virus, that’s what it said on TV.”
“We tried,” Gerard said. “That’s why we came here. We were hoping they’d be able to see her. But the line…Adam, it’s so long. Stretching out the front door of the place.”
“It’s like that here, too,” Adam said.
“The techs are doing their best,” Gerard said. “A nurse came and found us in line. When he saw that she was sick, they brought us inside and put us in a quarantine room. I had hope then. I thought it must be almost our turn.”
Escape The Dark (Book 1): Dark Tides Page 3
