Isolation (Book 1): Shut In

by Jones, Nathan

  Ellie ran low and fast, looking at the loot pile which currently stood abandoned. In a few moments that felt like an eternity she was at the green sedan, dropping down beside Hal with her hands splayed on the dirty pavement, peering around the bumper to check the pile.

  Another group had arrived, raucous as they tossed around precious items as if they were so much junk before heading off again. She tried not to listen to the awful things they were saying as they wandered out of earshot.

  She glanced back at her friend and nodded, motioning it was time to go.

  But before she could begin circling the front of the car to reach the driver's side door, a shout from the street made her jump and freeze, torn between ducking down again and making a beeline for the door to try to get inside, start the engine, and get away.

  A flash of motion by the truck caught her attention, and she realized the shout hadn't been directed at her. She sank back down behind the front of the car and held her breath, peering underneath the bunker to see what was going on.

  A man was at the back of the truck, bruised and bloody and desperately sawing at something out of view inside the bed with a kitchen knife. Ellie guessed he was a resident from the first house, and he'd followed their example of vaulting over the cinder block wall in an attempt to save his wife or girlfriend.

  The truck was far more exposed than their car, however, and men with guns had appeared from seemingly nowhere to converge on the man. He dropped his knife and desperately hauled the woman from the first house, hands freed but legs still taped, out of the truck bed, spinning to bolt back towards their house with her slung over one shoulder.

  Ellie bit back a scream as a hail of gunfire mowed the man down in a spray of blood. The scene was so brutal she almost couldn't believe it was real, although it had a horrific immediacy to it that no action movie could reproduce. The man dropped, his wife tumbling from his shoulder and hitting the ground hard, barely managing to catch herself before slamming her head on the pavement.

  The woman hauled herself around to hold her husband, tears streaming from her eyes and not even the tape gag completely blocking her horrified scream. Then she looked up, devastation turning to terror, and tried to drag herself away with just her arms as the scrape of shoes on pavement replaced the sound of gunfire.

  “Go!” Ellie hissed, deciding she'd seen enough.

  She ducked around the front of the car and took a step towards the driver's side door, then froze as another gunshot was accompanied by the deafening crash of the window just in front of her shattering. She looked up to see a man pointing a gun at her, while movement at the corner of her eyes showed more men turning her way, weapons raised.

  Frantic, Ellie tried to dodge three different directions in less than a second, ending up in a tangle of limbs on the ground before scrambling frantically back to her feet. By that point the men who'd come to stop the husband had moved to begin circling the sedan, weapons raised, and there was nowhere to run.

  With no other option she stood there frozen, barely aware of the terrified mewling noises escaping her mouth. Hal had similarly froze on the far side of the car, his expression dominated by helpless rage and despair that he tried to hide behind fierce determination.

  The robbers closed in around them, filling the air with a mixture of mocking whoops, cursing, and threats. Above them rose a louder, more authoritative voice. “Don't move! Stop! You come within ten feet of any of us and we'll use you as target dummies!”

  Ellie had no intention of moving. She huddled against the car's side, despair crashing down on her in a torrent as she realized her worst fear had come true. She was about to end up duct taped and tossed in the back of the truck with the other women, while Hal would be lucky to escape with no more than bruises at the hands of these monsters.

  A bigger man, the one who'd first spoken to the robbers to get them started looting the town and who owned the authoritative voice, shuffled slightly closer, keeping a big handgun pointed at her chest. “Both of you, away from the car.” He gestured with his weapon. “Over there.”

  She inched cautiously away from the vehicle, to a spot halfway between the pumps and the front of the convenience store. Hal joined her there, and she leaned against him and clutched his arm in a death grip as he held her protectively.

  All of her training in conflict resolution had fled just when she needed it most, leaving her unable to think of anything to say or do. Which probably didn't matter, because she doubted there was anything she could do in this situation.

  A couple of the robbers had caught the woman, taping her hands behind her back again and tossing her back up onto the truck bed. Her husband they casually dragged over beside the wall, leaving him there as if he was so much trash in spite of the fact that he looked to still be alive, twitching weakly as blood continued to pour from his gunshot wounds.

  “What do we do with these two?” a scrawny guy with a mean look and an even meaner shotgun asked the bigger guy.

  “Wait for Hutch and see what he says,” Big replied. Ellie was surprised to realize he wasn't the leader of all the robbers; maybe the group that had parked in the other gas station was the main one? Or maybe this Hutch was waiting with the trucks that would be needed to haul all this loot?

  It was likely the former because after just a minute or two of standing with arms raised, which felt like an eternity with half a dozen men holding them at gunpoint, a lone man walked up to the group along the sidewalk from the direction of the other gas station. From the way everyone immediately gave him their attention he had to be Hutch.

  “What's the deal?” he asked Big.

  His lieutenant motioned towards the sedan, then them. “Questionables. These two were trying for the car.” The way he was looking at her made Ellie's skin crawl, especially after the stuff she'd heard these lowlifes say. But it was the sort of casual interest that didn't seem like it intended to go anywhere; she'd seen it before from guys checking her out at parties who never ended up approaching her, for whatever reason.

  She wished these guys wouldn't approach her. Or better yet, that they'd all drop dead from sudden terminal cases of Zolos.

  “No one saw them come from a house?” the leader asked.

  “Nah, we caught them just before they drove off,” the scrawny guy said. Hutch just grunted in response, and Scrawny eyed Ellie in a way that made her want to take a shower. “What you want to do with them? The chick needs some cleaning up and she's getting a bit long in the tooth, but I'd say she's worth taking. Pop the dude?”

  Ellie stepped protectively in front of Hal, even though she knew it was a useless gesture. She wasn't sure what sickened her more, the awful things this animal was talking about doing, or the casual way he talked about them. As if there wasn't a shred of humanity in him.

  The robbers' leader grunted again. “Nah, he's the sort I'm looking for to put to work.” He eyed Ellie as well, a chillingly clinical act as if sizing her up for his men even though he wasn't personally interested.

  “You should be careful with us, we've been exposed to Zolos,” Hal abruptly said. He stayed perfectly still as he spoke, but even so a few of the robbers tensed menacingly, fingers twitchy on their triggers.

  Hutch eyed him lazily. “That a fact?”

  “Yeah, we were at LAX when the infected broke containment.” The young man spoke with complete conviction, although his voice quavered with nerves.

  Ellie admired the bluff, although it was a dangerous one; men who had no qualms about taking women as sex slaves wouldn't blink at shooting them both if they thought they were a danger.

  Then again, if that was going to be her fate she wasn't sure being shot right now was such a horrible alternative. It was worth a try, at least.

  Hutch turned to her, eyes promising dire retribution if she tried to lie. “That true?”

  Ellie nodded, speaking with her own solid conviction. “I watched them break through the police cordon just a few dozen feet away. We were trapped at the do
ors with them trying to get out right along with us.” All technically true, if presented as worse than it had really been.

  The leader continued to eye her, making her skin crawl in a way that had nothing to do with how she'd felt at Scrawny's leering. Then he turned back to Hal, tone mild. “You could be telling the truth. Seem to be, if I'm any judge.” He leaned back on his heels, hooking thumbs in his front pockets as he blew out through pursed lips. “Then again, you also don't seem to be freaking out at the possibility you're going to die a horrible death. So I have my doubts about whether you believe you've been exposed to Zolos.”

  “Do we want to take that chance, boss?” Big asked nervously, shifting his bulk from foot to foot but keeping his pistol aimed steadily at Hal's chest.

  “We certainly don't,” Hutch said with a slow smirk. He turned away dismissively, speaking over his shoulder as he strode off while gesturing curtly to his men to follow. “Give 'em both to the Q Team. They can take the car too if it looks worth it.”

  “Sure thing!” Big called after him. Most of the others left with their leader, leaving just the big guy and Scrawny behind.

  Chapter Fourteen: Captive

  This was a nightmare. This had to be a nightmare.

  Ellie tried not to hyperventilate, but all she could see was the leer on Scrawny's face, and in her ears rang the phantom screams of that poor woman in the third house.

  That would be her soon enough. She had to swallow back bile before she emptied her stomach in pure terror.

  As Hutch and his men walked off Hal huddled closer to her, speaking so quietly she barely heard him. “Hold tight. The second I see a chance to get you out of this, I'm taking it.”

  She fought the urge to wheel on him in a panic. Much as she appreciated the sentiment, she didn't want her friend getting himself killed. “Hal!” she hissed in warning.

  “Hey!” They both lurched apart fearfully as Scrawny hefted his shotgun, glaring at her. “Shut your yap, lady. We'll be giving it a workout soon enough.”

  Ellie shuddered in revulsion and fell silent, although she resolved that this filthy animal was wrong about that, at least: whatever punishment she suffered for it, she was going to take a bite out of anything that came within reach of her teeth.

  A tense few minutes followed, at least tense for her. The two guys guarding them settled back, glancing around warily but not seeming too worried about trouble. Beyond them more robbers brought loot for the pile, while a few dragged a limp woman with torn clothes and a bruised face, bound like the others, to toss in the back of the truck.

  Ellie wondered if that was the woman from the third house, and against her will dropped to her hands and knees and emptied her stomach on the asphalt.

  “Well that drops you down a few points,” Scrawny said sarcastically, seeming to take sick delight in her suffering. “I'd still hit it, though.”

  Ellie shuddered and gagged again, spitting out a last mouthful of bile. Hal dropped down beside her, pulling her hair away and patting her back soothingly. His expression was bleak, anguished, and didn't do anything to lift the despair she'd sunk down into.

  No. She'd spent half a decade learning conflict resolution, even a workplace hostage negotiation class at one point. Her fate might be looking grim, but she couldn't stop trying. So she'd try to talk to these men, see if she could dig out a shred of humanity in them and try to build some rapport.

  And on the plus side, if talking got her shot that might be an improvement on her circumstances.

  She hauled herself to her feet with Hal's help, spitting again then wiping at her mouth with her sleeve. Then she stepped away from the puddle of her sick, mostly to keep the queasy reek of it from making her retch again, and cleared her throat. “So what's the Q Team?”

  The scrawny guy waved his shotgun menacingly, calling her a few filthy names. “Anyone tell you it was suddenly okay to talk?”

  “If “Q” stands for quarantine and you're putting me around people with Zolos, I've got a right to know,” she insisted. “We haven't been around any infected areas this entire time, and I don't want to catch it just because you think I'm infected.”

  “That so?” The guy leered at her again and she felt her skin crawl. “Guess we'll know in four days, when the Q Team can be sure you're not dying of it and you're safe to be among them.” His leer took a nasty turn. “Then their fun begins.”

  Hal made an angry noise, although he was wise enough not to say anything. Ellie swallowed as her gut roiled again, struggling to keep her voice steady. “And what exactly lets them know we're safe?”

  “Dude, don't talk to the entertainment,” Big growled, still warily eyeing the town around them. He'd kept his pistol at low ready the entire time, and she got the feeling of the two he was far more familiar with this kind of thing.

  Scrawny waved his shotgun lazily. “What else am I going to do?” He tossed another spine-crawling look her way. “After all, if I sweet talk her now then maybe after the three weeks are up she'll be happy to see me again.”

  This guy had to be nuts if he actually thought that.

  The thug turned back to her. “So here's the deal. We've got us, the people we're sure were never even close to Zolos, that's Hutch's team. Then we've got our guys who might've been exposed, but we can't be sure. So we stick them in isolation for 4 days to make sure they're not showing symptoms. But they could still be carrying it, so they need to stay separate from us.

  “That's the Q Team, for “Quarantine” or more commonly “Questionables”, and they'll stick to themselves for seventeen more days after that, the full three weeks, so we're sure they're not carrying the virus. Then they'll go through decontamination and join us with Hutch. Until then we send them after any suspicious people who aren't showing visible symptoms. They manage quarantine for those prisoners, and get first dibs on them too.” He eyed her up and down again. “Lucky them.”

  Ellie bit her lip hard, hoping to wake up from this nightmare.

  How could he act like this, without the slightest shred of kindness or even basic human decency? Was he even human anymore? It didn't seem possible he could become so vile in under a week, so this disease of the soul must've been present before Zolos was ever even heard of.

  And now, with law enforcement putting all their efforts into protecting people from the virus, men like this were running lose. And they had her and Hal.

  The minutes passed with agonizing slowness, their two guards hanging out and looking more nervous by the second. After about an hour the other robbers finished their work and began to gather on the far side of the lot again, watching as a semi rumbled up. They loaded it up, then hopped back on their bikes or into the truck.

  With a roar of engines the robbers all rumbled away, the semi following, leaving Ellie and Hal alone in the parking lot with Big and Scrawny. She expected something to happen soon after that, but as more minutes passed with their two guards continuing to look bored she settled back down into her bleak despair.

  “You know what I don't get?” Big said idly after a while, words directed at his buddy.

  Scrawny glanced over; he'd been eyeing Ellie again in that way that made her skin crawl; she could almost see what he was imagining doing in his ugly expression. “Huh?”

  The big man waved his pistol. “What's with all those scenes on TV where someone's got someone else at gunpoint and they're asking them questions, and just to lean on their prisoner a bit more they cock the hammer on their weapon to intimidate them, show they're “really serious?”

  “What about it?”

  The big guy displayed his gun to the other man. “That might work for revolvers, sure, but most of the time they're using guns like this for that. Semi-automatics, right? Only you notice my hammer's already cocked? It cocks when you rack the slide to chamber a round, and cocks again every time you fire a shot. That's why, y'know, they're called semi-automatics.”

  “So?”

  Big looked at his buddy like he was an idiot. “S
o what're the geniuses on TV doing manually cocking the hammer on a semi auto? The only time the gun's even uncocked is when there's not a round in the chamber, unless of course they decided to de-cock it for some reason, which is stupid and makes the gun unusable until you cock the hammer again.”

  “Maybe they de-cock their pistol just so they can menace their prisoner by cocking it again,” Scrawny suggested.

  It was horribly surreal for Ellie to be in this waking nightmare and listening to her captors shooting the breeze about such mundane things. As if this was just another day for them, while she was facing a future too awful to contemplate.

  Insane as it seemed, she almost wondered if she would've preferred it if they'd spent the time leering and talking about all the terrible things they planned to do to her. At least that would've kept what monsters they were at the forefront, rather than giving a mask of normalcy to men who could do such evil things without apparent remorse.

  Big snorted. “Anyone who knows the slightest thing about guns would just think they're a moron for that. But it's either that or in a dangerous situation they're running around with an empty chamber, and uselessly cocking the hammer on a gun that won't fire until they actually chamber a round.”

  The scrawny guy shrugged, looking half annoyed and half amused. “How should I know, man? Maybe it's more dramatic even if it doesn't make sense, or people who make shows for a living just write it that way because everyone else does.”

  The big man opened his mouth, but before he could say anything the rumble of engines caught his attention, and he perked up. “About time.”

  “Yeah.” Scrawny eyed Ellie again. “I want to get back to the hideout already. Looking at all this food I can't eat is making me hungry, and there'll be new items on the menu there.”

  She genuinely hoped something terrible happened to this man. To all these animals; she was just grateful that the fear of Zolos had kept them away, or they might've already done something to her.