by Jack Hunt
Josh looked over his shoulder at Lily who was watching, mesmerized and confused.
With a clack of metal, a flame burst to life. He tossed it into the house, then hurried away. At the bike, he took a smaller helmet and pushed it over Lily’s head, and then put his own on. He mounted the bike first. Josh kick-started it to life. It rumbled loudly. All the while behind them, flames chewed through the house, sending thick black smoke out. He flipped up the visor and helped Lily onto the back of the bike. “Hold on to me tight,” he said, his voice muffled behind the helmet. Lily wrapped her arms around his waist. Flipping down his visor, Josh looked back at the house one more time. The weight of the moment felt heavy on his shoulders. There was no going back now.
Suddenly, an explosion rocked the house, shattering windows and sending shards of glass out like jagged knives. Josh felt Lily grip hard. She pressed against his back. He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze before the bike lurched forward.
The engine rattled between his legs. Josh squeezed the clutch, shifting into second, leaving behind the home. Clutch, throttle, and a good amount of gas, and they surged up the driveway. Josh glanced in his mirror at the flames.
The world they knew was now gone in the blink of an eye.
Chapter Two
21 days earlier
June 14
Minnie Rogers Juvenile Justice Center was sandwiched between the cities of Beaumont and Port Arthur. The drab government institution was set back from U.S. 69.
Out of sight, out of mind.
It was, however, within spitting distance of the Jefferson County Correctional Facility to the north. Elizabeth wondered if it was purposely placed there to make the youth mindful of what the outcome would be if they continued down the path of crime.
She veered into the parking lot in front of the one-story building and noticed tall fencing that encircled the rear yard. It contained delinquents. The ages varied from ten to seventeen. For many, the institution was a chance at rehabilitation, a place of education, and care. For her son, it was misery, a place he’d been warned about only two years earlier.
Elizabeth felt a heavyweight on her chest at the thought of collecting him after the 90 days inside for property damage. Like most juvenile courts, the local ones would often bend over backward to avoid sending kids here. Time in custody was seen as the first step toward institutionalization and unless the offense was violent, residential placement was preferred. The juvenile court had shown a great deal of leniency toward Josh, far more than she’d expected under the circumstances.
Especially since this wasn’t his first offense.
He’d already been through a diversion program and done a stint in a residential treatment facility for petty theft back when he was fourteen. Two years later, and he was arrested for property damage.
Contrary to what some might have said, he wasn’t a bad kid. Many of the youth who found their way into the juvenile justice system were products of their environment. Elizabeth would have been lying to think that her separation from his father ten years earlier hadn’t been a factor, that and the long hours she was putting in at the hospital. As a single mom without support from her parents who were in Florida, the struggle to raise him and Lily only made life more challenging. It also didn’t help that he’d fallen in with the wrong crowd.
Elizabeth parked her silver SUV in the lot. She turned to Lily in the back. Lily was ten now, blonde, with short straight hair tucked behind her ears. She was listening to music and swiping at a tablet screen. “Hey,” Elizabeth said, clicking her fingers to get her attention. Lily removed her headphones.
“Yeah?”
“Remember what I said.”
“Be nice. Don’t ask how it was. I got it, Mom.”
She smiled. Like many kids of divorce, she’d had to grow up fast. “All right. Good. I just don’t want to make him feel any worse. He probably won’t be in the best mood.” As she was saying that, her phone rang. The caller ID displayed a friend of hers from the hospital. She tapped accept while flipping down the visor to adjust one of her contact lenses. Elizabeth had green eyes, pale skin from spending the majority of the time working inside, and an oval face with shoulder-length dark hair much like her own mother. Now she was closing in on forty-one, a few gray strands were peeking through. “Jenna. Everything okay?”
“You home already?” Jenna asked.
“No, I’m picking up Josh.”
“Oh, right, I forgot. How’s that going?”
“I’ll let you know. He hasn’t come out yet.” She sighed and looked out the window toward the main doors, feeling a twinge of anxiety. “He blames me.”
“Isn’t that always the case with teens?”
“Yeah, but…”
“It wasn’t you who destroyed the property.”
“No, but maybe I should have listened more. You know, been there…”
“Hey, you’ve done the best you could. Don’t beat yourself up. Look, I don’t mean to change the subject but can you come in tonight?”
“I’ve already worked a shift.”
“I know but Carol just called in sick.”
“Another one?” There had been an increase in staff taking sick leave. “Must be one hell of a bug going around.”
“It’s more than a bug, it’s all they’re talking about right now.”
“Who is?”
“Turn on your radio. It’s on multiple stations. Something big is happening.”
“And by big you mean?”
Over the phone, she heard someone call Jenna. “Look, I got to dash. Can you fill the shift?”
“Jenna, you know I would help in a heartbeat but it’s Josh’s first night out. Can’t you find someone else?”
Jenna released a tired sigh. In their profession, it was rare to feel anything but tired.
“All right. I’ll see what I can do. If you change your mind, call me.”
She hung up abruptly. Elizabeth was about to turn on the radio to hear what all the drama was about when Josh came out of the main doors. “Okay, he’s here. Remember what I said.”
Lily told her to relax as she got out. Elizabeth crossed the lot, a smile forming as Josh and a detention center officer approached. With each year he was beginning to look more like his father when she first met him. Loose dark hair, five foot ten, a smile that when he let it show could put anyone at ease, and a swagger that exuded confidence. He was wearing a black V-neck T-shirt, blue jeans, and military ankle boots.
“Ms. Davenport.”
She gave a nod.
“You good from here?” He asked.
Elizabeth waved him off. “Sure. Thank you.”
“Let’s hope we don’t see you again, Josh.”
Josh grunted.
“Hey, darlin’.”
She placed a hand on his shoulder and he shrugged it off. There was no malice in his stare, more a need for space, to be alone.
As the officer walked back to the building, they made their way to the vehicle. “So. How was it?” The words flew out without even thinking. It was instinct. A normal question any parent would ask, yet the very thing she’d told Lily not to say.
“Peachy. You know, like summer camp without the fun,” he said, walking on.
She sidled up beside him as they got closer to the SUV. “I figured we could order in pizza this evening. Your favorite.”
“I’m going out tonight.”
Her eyes widened. “But you just got back.”
“Uh-huh,” he said, without a smile, as he made his way around the vehicle.
Elizabeth had told herself before going to collect him that she wouldn’t lose her cool. She’d expected resentment or at least for him to be distant. Most days he was difficult to gauge. His mood changed like the weather. The once bubbly kid had become withdrawn over the past few years. It had worried her, especially with so many teen suicides. If she pressed too hard he might think she was smothering him, if she gave him too much space, she’d regret it if something bad
happened. “Lily’s in the back so jump in the front.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The ma’am bit at the end caught her off guard. She wasn’t sure if he was being sarcastic or if his time inside had helped. She figured it would have added some structure to his life, respect even. God knows, he needed some guidance without his father in the mix. Inside the car, Lily was her usual happy-go-lucky self. She looked up to her big brother. Idolized him. The thought of him dragging her into trouble was another thing that worried Elizabeth.
“Josh, look at the tablet mom got me.”
She leaned forward, jabbing it out so he could see as Elizabeth started the engine. “That’s cool, Bean,” he said, buckling into his seat and taking out his phone, eager to get back to texting his friends. Bean was a nickname he’d given Lily. He used it from time to time. When he was six, he’d gone with Elizabeth to an ultrasound and had said she looked like a bean. He’d wanted her to be called that but they’d named her Lily instead. Still, it didn’t stop him from calling her that. The nickname stuck.
Josh was quick to pull out his phone and power it up.
“Do you think that can wait until later?” Elizabeth said.
“Why?”
She shifted the gear into reverse and backed out of the space. “Uh, because, I want us to talk. We haven’t chatted in a while.”
“About what?”
She smirked. “Anything.”
He kept navel-gazing as he tapped out a message to a friend.
“Josh.”
“Yeah, one minute.”
She reached over and took the phone out of his hand and tossed it into the back seat. He lifted his hands with an expression of utter disbelief. “What the…?”
“Listen, I don’t want to go back to how things were before you went in. There’s a reason why you went there. So there are going to be some changes made around here. That starts with when I want to talk to you, you listen, okay?”
He exhaled hard, making it clear he was annoyed. “I might as well be back inside.”
Elizabeth wanted to slam the brakes on and get into it with him but instead, she held her tongue and continued. “All right. If you don’t want to talk. Fine.” Conversations only led to disagreements and the first day out, that was the last thing she wanted. For the past three months, the house had been peaceful. No outbursts. No arguments. No trying to track him down or deal with unruly behavior. As much as she wanted to shake some sense into him, she knew it wouldn’t do any good. She could only hope he’d learned from his time in the facility.
Elizabeth switched on the radio, and within a few presses of the scan button, she heard the reports Jenna was talking about. She caught the tail end of one. “Homeland Security and the Centers for Disease Control are still unsure of what they are dealing with, while some are calling it some kind of terrorist attack. As the death toll rises and cases surge in hospitals, it has led to speculation that eastern U.S. cities may have been the target of a biological attack. We will continue to update you as we learn more.”
Elizabeth flipped through a few more stations, hoping to catch some more, anything that might offer clarity, but it was just the same, vague, general details, still early. Either that or they were being tight-lipped about what was happening in the hopes of reeling it in before the situation got out of hand.
“Glad to see the world is still as messed up as ever,” Josh muttered.
“Mom!” Lily bellowed. She glanced in her rearview mirror to see Lily looking over her shoulder. “You just went by it,” Lily said. She’d promised to get her ice cream from Baskin-Robbins on the way back.
“All right, hold on,” she said, pulling over and making a quick U-turn.
Home was Vidor, Texas, a small town east of Beaumont with a population of just over ten thousand. She’d been there for the past twenty years, commuting to Beaumont to work at the hospital as an RN. She could have raised them in the larger city as it would have made her commute a lot shorter, but it was only fifteen minutes away, and she preferred small towns.
Lily was out the door before she could even put the SUV in park.
“Lily!”
Josh remained in the vehicle.
“You coming?” Elizabeth asked.
He shook his head.
“Can I get you anything then?”
“Nah, I’m good.”
She could feel the familiar weight of having him home. Lily was already standing by the store door as she made it across the lot. Elizabeth looked back and saw Josh on his phone again.
After getting ice cream, Elizabeth and Lily were making their way back to the vehicle when she noticed an elderly woman at the edge of the road, just staring absently as the traffic rolled by. It might not have caught her attention if it wasn’t for the youthful attire. It was the kind of clothing a teenager might have worn.
At that moment it felt like the world slowed as she saw her take two steps into the traffic at the exact moment a delivery van was approaching.
It happened so fast.
One second she was on grass, the next soaring through the air. Her body slammed into the road hard, with a sickening thud. Brakes screeched, vehicles swerved, as one after the other they collided.
Elizabeth dropped the ice cream in her hand and yelled for Lily to get into the SUV as she dashed to the trunk of her vehicle where she kept additional medical supplies.
She scooped up the bag and hurried over to the chaotic scene.
Now, the van driver was out and staring at the woman, shock set in. “I didn’t see her. I didn’t…” Elizabeth dropped down beside the woman. There was blood coming from the back of her head and her entire body was rigid.
“Call an ambulance,” she yelled, taking charge of the situation.
Other pedestrians and drivers gathered.
“Lady, do you know what you’re doing?” someone behind her asked.
“I’m a nurse,” she replied.
Elizabeth checked vitals. She was still alive but if they didn’t get her to a hospital fast, she wouldn’t make it. There was a chance she wouldn’t survive anyway. The damage was severe. While the van driver had managed to swerve and only clipped her, it still could have been enough to cause major internal damage.
As she began performing CPR and someone called 911, Josh jogged over.
She immediately raised a hand at him.
“Josh, I need you to stay in the vehicle with Lily.”
He stared at the woman as if he recognized her, his head tilting to the side.
“Hey! Do you hear me?” She clicked her fingers. She didn’t want this image in his head. He turned, glancing back as he returned to the vehicle where Lily was out, watching.
The woman began coughing.
“Stay with me.” She wasn’t even close to being out of the woods. “You got a name, honey?” Elizabeth asked.
There was no reply.
It didn’t take long for police and EMTs to arrive. Within minutes there was a flurry of activity on the street as officers took control. One erected cones while another got the traffic flowing. Two more cruisers arrived and officers kept back curious onlookers to allow the medics to do their job.
“She just stepped out in front of my vehicle,” the van driver said. “There was nothing I could do. You saw it. Isn’t that right?”
A cop turned to Elizabeth. “Did you see it?”
She nodded, still looking at the woman.
Crouched beside the medics as they worked, she listened as they went through their usual routine, trying to communicate while applying the necessary life-saving equipment.
“Hey hon, can you hear me?” a medic asked, shining a light in her eyes while peppering her with questions. “Are you on any medication? Do you have a name?”
A cop strolled across to a leather handbag nearby. Its contents were strewn all over the asphalt. He collected some and then rifled through to find an ID. Elizabeth rose to her feet and looked at him as he gave this confused expression. His ga
ze darted to the woman and then back to the ID.
The medic asked, “Officer, you got a name?”
“Yeah, it’s…uh…” He paused. “This bag can’t be hers.” He shook his head as he made his way over and flashed the driver’s license. The photo didn’t match the woman. “This is for a Carla Harris.”
The name rang a bell. The daughter of a local restaurant owner.
“You saw the accident, ma’am?” the cop asked.
“Yeah.”
“Do you remember her carrying this bag?”
Elizabeth looked at it again. “I think so.”
“Maybe she stole it,” the medic said.
“Did you say the name is Carla Harris?” Elizabeth asked.
“Yeah, you know her?”
Elizabeth nodded and looked at the ID again and then gazed down at the elderly woman with an incredulous look. She squinted, tilted her head, and then looked at the ID one more time. She was older, but the resemblance was uncanny. It couldn’t be. It was impossible. Carla was twenty-four, but this woman had to be in her eighties.
Chapter Three
July 5
The black Suzuki DR-Z400 crapped out roughly ten miles from their destination of Jasper, Texas. It had only managed to get around fifty miles on the tank of gas. They’d been coasting on fumes for the last mile.
Josh veered off the highway onto a country road somewhere past Kirbyville. They were in the middle of nowhere. No gas station, no small town to speak of, just a rural area of farmhouses spread apart over the landscape.
“Why are we stopping?” Lily asked.
“Out of gas. Hop off,” he said before rolling the bike into the tree line of a nearby forest. Besides the chirping of birds, it was quiet. The journey north had been harder than he’d expected. Twenty-one days inside his home, he’d only seen the world through video footage across online media outlets. The reality was far worse. Several times, he’d had to adjust the course when he found a road blocked, or when vehicles had been purposely lit on fire to create a wall of smoke in an attempt to get drivers to slow down so they could be ambushed.