by Willow Rose
Al gave Reese a suspicious look, then glared at me again. “I’m not happy about this.”
“I don’t think any of us are happy right now,” I said. “She has nowhere else to go. Someone attacked her in her own apartment and tried to kill her. The same person tried to kill her in my house last night too. We need your help. Please, Al.”
Al pulled aside with a reluctant grunt and let us in. She closed the door behind us and locked it safely. Her dining room table was topped with weapons—guns and even an AK47. I turned to face her.
“What’s going on here?”
“Just preparing,” she said.
“For what? Guerilla war?”
Al glared at me from above the rim of the glasses. “You don’t know what I know.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “Tell me; what’s going on?”
She walked to her desk. It had seven monitors on it, all showing surveillance cameras from all over the world, some even from people’s homes. Al “The Plague” Alvita, was a former CIA hacker, but what she did for a living now, I didn’t know. I had a few ideas and believed she might be working for private companies, but I tried not to think about it.
“There’s been a lot of chatter; let’s just leave it at that, okay?” she said.
“A lot of chatter?” I asked, definitely not ready to leave this alone.
“Online, on the underground web fora,” she said. “On the dark web, all the shady places, they’re talking about this virus. Even government officials are talking. Something is going on, and I, for one, am keeping myself ready.”
I shook my head. “Are we talking a state coup here or what? I thought it was just a virus?”
“There is no such thing as just a virus, Hunter. Don’t be naïve. Look what it has done to us, to the entire world? Has any other virus ever done this to us? Look at how fast it spread? In just a few days, four weeks in total, it reached the entire world? How’s that even possible? No other virus has ever done that. Researchers say the virus stems from snakes. But how does a snake virus suddenly jump to humans when it hasn’t done that before?”
“It mutated?” I said with a shrug.
“The thing is, normally, the snake virus can’t penetrate humans. It lacks a protein, what the experts call the S-protein. It’s simply impossible for it to harm us. But if you add this lacking protein to a virus, it suddenly becomes deadly to humans. It becomes transmittable to humans. The question is, how did the virus suddenly acquire this extra protein in its DNA?”
“What are you trying to say?” I asked. Reese sat down on the couch. She was tired and confused. I didn’t like the look on her face. She seemed so lost.
“It was created,” Al said. “This virus was manufactured to attack us. That’s what they’re all saying in the chats, including all the medical and virology experts who won’t dare to stand up and tell the world what they know because they have no proof, yet they all agree. This virus was created in a lab, then released on us.”
I stared down at the small woman in front of me. Al tended to be paranoid due to the work she used to do and the things she had seen. She knew stuff I was sure I didn’t want even to know was going on, especially when seeing what it did to her. She lived a lonely life, afraid to leave her house, trusting no one, and I didn’t want that life. Even if it meant me living in complete oblivion to what was really going on in the world, I believed ignorance could sometimes be bliss.
But even though I had heard some crazy talk from her over the years, I had never heard her talk like this before.
“What are you saying?” I asked. “Who would do something like that?”
She shrugged and sat by her screens, then tapped on her keyboard. “The government, a private company who already owns the vaccine, who knows? But I am not letting them get away with it, no matter who is behind this. I intend to find out who they are.” Al turned and smiled at Reese, who seemed even more confused than ever.
“And having patient zero here might actually prove to be a blessing in disguise.”
Chapter 24
I left them for a few hours to go home and take care of my family. My dad’s cough had gotten hollower, and now he was experiencing shortness of breath as well. I made a tray of food for Josie, then walked upstairs with it and placed it outside the door and knocked. I took a few steps back to keep my distance from her when she opened the door. Then I called her name.
“Josie? Food is here.”
It took a few seconds before the door handle turned, and she peeked out. My heart skipped a beat when seeing her as I realized how terribly I missed her, missed being close to my own daughter. She smiled when seeing me.
“How are you feeling?” I asked, worried about the answer. Was she a little pale? Were her eyes weary?
“I’m okay; I guess,” she said with a small shrug.
“No fever? Any body aches?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. I’ve been very tired all day yesterday and this morning.”
My heart dropped. Fatigue was one of the first symptoms. This wasn’t good. Had she become symptomatic? Would she get a fever soon and then start to cough? I forced a smile, trying not to show her how scared I was. Then, something hit me.
“Have you been up all night, maybe? Getting to bed a little too late, playing computer games?”
That made her smile. “Maybe. Kinda.”
I sighed with relief. There was an explanation. The fact that she was feeling tired didn’t have to mean she had been infected. Maybe she was just being a teenager. After all, there was nothing unusual about a teenager experiencing fatigue. Maybe, just maybe, she was still all right.
“Try to get to bed at a decent time tonight, will you?” I asked. “It also helps your immune system, and we’re trying to keep you healthy here.”
She sighed. “I know. It’s just so boring, Dad. I stay in my room all day and have nothing to do. I have online friends across the globe that I play with, and they’re awake at night when I am supposed to sleep.”
“I know, sweetie. I know. You can’t change your rhythm to be awake all night and sleep all day. That’s not healthy. I know it’s no fun right now. Believe me; I don’t find it particularly amusing either. It’s tough being apart and being locked in like this. But it’s necessary to keep you safe.”
“You keep saying that. But I’m fine. How’s Grandpa?” she asked, her eyes worried. “Is he better?”
I looked down, then shook my head. “I am afraid he’s getting worse. But I’m sure he’ll get better soon. I don’t want you to worry, you hear me?”
“Well, I do,” she said, tears welling up. “It’s pretty hard not to.”
I took a deep breath and exhaled. I knew what she meant. I was extremely worried too.
“I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
“You don’t sound very convincing,” she said with a scoff. “I read yesterday that people over the age of sixty are more likely to die from this virus because the hospitals aren’t taking them in anymore. How can they do that? They’re people too? Plus, they’re old, and they need care more than younger people.”
“They’re thinking about the kids,” I said. “This virus is tough on the younger generation, and a lot have already died from it. The hospitals have reached their capacity. They simply don’t have room for them.”
“But aren’t old people human too?”
That was a hard one. I couldn’t really argue against that. I wondered how we were going to look back at this afterward. At the decisions that were being made, how much we were going to regret. Then I wondered about Al and what she had told me. No one knew how this virus had originated. And up until now, no one had really focused on it since everything had happened so fast, and focus had remained only on the survival of the population and especially the children. But for the first time, I was thinking about just that while watching my daughter take in her tray and send me a feeble smile. I wondered who was responsible for this mess that right now seemed like it w
as about to destroy so incredibly many lives.
Chapter 25
When I returned to Al’s place, they were both sitting at her screens, the chairs placed with space between them. I sensed that Al was slowly accepting that Reese wasn’t contagious anymore, but still taking precautions.
“We’ve been busy,” she said as she let me in and returned to her seat. I stood behind her, looking over her shoulder, not getting too close. After all, I had a sick dad at home, even if I did take all the precautions in the world and made sure I was completely clean when leaving the house, even changing my clothes and wearing both gloves and a mask, the risk of me infecting Al was still pretty big, and we both knew it.
I was taking my own temperature three times a day to make sure that if I had the least bit of an elevation, I could stay home. So far, I was fine, and I felt good too, not counting the nagging worry in the pit of my stomach that had become my steady companion lately.
“Yeah? You found anything?”
Al tapped on her keyboard and pulled up a video on the screen in front of her.
“We have been tracing your sister’s whereabouts using facial recognition software,” Al said. “This is the video from the supermarket downtown, where she fainted in the middle of a crowd.”
Al started the clip, and I saw Reese walking around the supermarket. She wasn’t picking up many groceries; she was mostly just pushing her cart around, walking down one aisle, then stopping to lean on the shelves before continuing. It was obvious in the clip that she was sick and fighting to make it through. She seemed confused, walking down one aisle, then another like she didn’t know what she had entered the store to get. Finally, she grabbed a gallon of milk, then walked to the bread section, where she stood for a little while, leaning on her cart before she seemed to decide to leave. She pushed the cart down the aisle toward the registers, then got in line to pay for the milk and bread. While waiting, people were standing very close to her, almost crowding her, and she was leaning onto the cart, barely keeping upright. As it was almost her turn, her legs suddenly gave way beneath her, and she slid to the floor. A huge crowd surrounded her immediately. Some came running to help, getting close to her, bending down over her. Someone knelt next to her, then put her face close to Reese’s and felt for a pulse. Next, she performed CPR, giving Reese mouth to mouth.
Al paused the video. “This woman saved Reese’s life that day but died herself seven days later in the hospital from the virus. Before she died, she managed to infect her entire family and the office where she works. Within a week, half of them were dead. It’s a miracle that Reese is alive today.”
“Wow,” I said.
All these people had rushed to save my sister, but most of them had ended up getting the virus from her, and a lot had died. I looked at Reese and saw the shame on her face. This was a lot to bear for anyone, let alone someone as fragile as my sister.
“But what’s really interesting,” Al said as she let her fingers dance across the keyboard, “Look at this guy here, wearing a cap pushed down into his face. He entered the supermarket right after Reese did, and he walked right behind her, staying at a distance, but like he was following her, look. He’s here, and here, and there. But more than that. I found some other footage from the days before this happened, here, where you see Reese walking downtown. Look who is a few feet behind her as she talks to someone here. Or when she buys a sandwich from this vendor here—look who is standing across the street, looking at her if we use a different camera with another angle; here, look. And the day before, when Reese went to her job at CVS, he came in around noon, then walked up and talked to her, look.”
Al zoomed closer in on the guy, but we couldn’t really see his face. It wasn’t very good quality, and it became blurry pretty fast.
“Looks to me like he was following you, am I right?” Al said and looked at Reese. “And it also kind of looks like you two know each other.”
I stared at the picture of him and Reese chatting, then at my sister. “What do you remember about this guy?”
Reese stared at the screen, her eyes blank. She shook her head. “He seems familiar, but I can’t really…”
“Can you zoom any closer?” I asked.
“I think I have a better picture of him from the street corner,” Al said and tapped again, then found another picture that she zoomed in. Once again, it got pixelated and hard to see. But it was still enough for me to realize that not only did Reese know this guy…I did too.
Chapter 26
Reese stared at the guy on the screen. She felt so confused, yet there was definitely something about his face that rang a bell. There was something about him that was very familiar—almost eerily so.
“Try to remember, Reese,” Harry said, sounding like he was losing his patience with her. “Please, try to remember where you met him?”
She looked up at her brother and tried. She really did her best. Yet, she couldn’t.
“Was he a client of yours? Was he a regular customer at the pharmacy?” Al asked. “Was that how you met him?”
“I think so,” she said.
“But why would he be following you?” Harry asked, sounding agitated now. “Why would Bobby Kay, the famous environmentalist and artist, be following you, Reese Hunter?”
She shook her head. She didn’t know. She wished she knew; she wished she had something to tell him and thought like crazy about it, trying so hard to remember. Even his name rang a bell, and there was more to this, she was certain of it, a lot more; she just couldn’t really get her thoughts clear enough to create a picture. She couldn’t tell her brother what he needed to hear, and it tormented her.
“I don’t know.”
Harry tapped on his phone and found a picture, then showed it to her. “This is him, right? This is the guy that you talked to and who was following you, right?”
She nodded. It looked a lot like him. Then something hit her. A memory burst into her mind.
“I think that’s the guy from the store, yes. I think I remember him now. He came in a couple of times and talked to me. But there’s more. I think I know him from somewhere else too. I think I’ve been to his office. I remember being there with other people too. I remember he was angry and talking about what he called the inequality of our society. How we should blame the one percent, the rich, and how the system kept the masses poor to control them better. But one day, it would change, he said. One day, the masses would rise from the dust, and it would all change. He also said something about how he wanted to be that change, and we should join him.”
Reese smiled when realizing she had finally remembered something seemingly important.
“Sounds like the Bobby Kay we know,” Al said, “from all his YouTube videos and demonstrations he has arranged over the years.”
“Wait,” Harry said and looked at Reese intensely. “Was he also the guy that attacked you last night? You said you saw his eyes but wasn’t sure where you had seen them before? Is this him, Reese?”
Reese stared at the picture again, trying to remember his eyes. She couldn’t see them in the picture. Were they the same eyes that she had seen the night before, staring down at her while holding a knife to her throat? Were they the same eyes she had seen in her hallucinations?
“I…it might be,” she said.
“But you’re not sure?” Harry asked with a deep frown.
She looked into his eyes. She didn’t like disappointing him. He had been so nice to her through all this. He had believed her and taken her in, then made sure she got her medicine, even though she had been away for so long, completely ignoring him and dodging his calls. Even though she had a baby without telling him, still, he hadn’t been angry with her. Shocked, yes, but he never yelled like most men she met. Heck, he’d always been so good to her. He had been taking good care of her all through her life, and she was sick of feeling ashamed of herself because she couldn’t remember things when he asked. She really wanted to be able to help him, and even though she
had her doubts, she was fairly sure.
“No, I think it’s him,” she said. “I’m pretty sure it is him.”
Harry’s frown turned into a smile. Reese enjoyed seeing that. It made her feel calm and like she was useful—that she was finally contributing something. She loved her younger brother dearly. They had always been close, and she had realized just how badly she had missed having him in her life. When Harry was around, everything was good or would be soon enough. He had that ability to always float on top, no matter how badly life wanted to push him down and drown him.
He got up and looked at her.
“Thank you, Reese. You have no idea how big of a help you’ve just been.”
Harry looked at his phone and went to the kitchen for a few minutes, reading something on it, then looked at her, his eyes lighting up. Harry then said he needed to step out for a little while and rushed to the door. Reese glared after him, wanting desperately to ask him… What about Abby? What about the baby? But it was too late.
He had left.
She slumped her shoulders and closed her eyes briefly, listening to her baby’s cries, wondering if they only existed in her mind or if she was lying somewhere desperately crying for her mother.
Chapter 27
I knocked on the door, then waited. The shops in the strip mall were all closed up with shutters and plywood, reminding me of the few times I had experienced Miami being evacuated when expecting a hurricane. It was odd how you changed your perspective on things when something bad happened. Suddenly, a hurricane seemed like a walk in the park compared to what we were going through. At least we’d know it would have an end at some point. Once the hurricane had passed, we’d do everything to return to normal, and it would happen pretty fast. It lasted a week—maybe two—before things were back to normal, and we’d go about our lives again, soon forgetting it was even here. This virus seemed to go on forever, and there was no end in sight. No one could promise us that we’d be back to our everyday lives within even a month or maybe five. Who knew how long we’d have to stay isolated and scared inside our houses?