by Jack Hunt
Tyrell told him that heading down there probably wasn’t a good idea. By the time they had made it across the bridge they had noticed a fire down at the yacht club. Outside the window where they were it was chaotic. It reminded her of the New Orleans Mardi Gras but without anyone smiling, or women flashing their breasts. The streets were packed. The radio was playing lightly in the background and the news was telling people to remain inside. Everyone was doing the opposite. Dark clouds rolled across the sky as rain tapped heavily against the window putting her in an almost trance state.
“Ella.”
She didn’t reply for a couple of seconds.
“Ella,” Gabriel repeated and touched her hand.
“Huh?”
“What did your mother say?”
“That he was about twenty minutes away.”
Gabriel rested his arms on the table and placed his head down looking tired. Ella glanced over at Hayley who was biting her nails and tapping her foot against the hardwood floor. Zach met her gaze for a second and then looked away. Tyrell was walking around looking at the artwork on the walls. All of them were dealing with the situation in their own way.
Ella went over to Hayley and tried to kill some time by finding out a little more about her. The interaction was cold and abrupt, and it fizzled out after a few questions. Hayley got up and walked away as if she had done something wrong.
“Don’t mind her,” Zach muttered twisting his cup around on the table in front of him. “She tends to get a little jealous when she sees other women around Gabriel.”
“Well maybe you can reassure her that I’m not interested.”
Zach gazed into his cup looking despondent.
“You know it wasn’t your fault.”
“You weren’t there.”
“I know, but you don’t strike me as the kind of person who might have done it on purpose.”
He didn’t reply and she was going to leave but then he spoke.
“The look in his eyes when the bullet went in him. It was like…” he trailed off and sighed. “I’ve never seen anyone dead before. I mean, online but not in person. Do you think he had a family? You know, a wife, kids?”
“Zach. Look outside.”
He glanced up and saw people shoving into each other.
“People are scared. I don’t think that will be the only person that dies accidentally by the time this is over.”
“That doesn’t make it easy.”
“No, it doesn’t. But uh…” She didn’t know what she was trying to explain to him. It wasn’t really as if she wanted him to understand. It was never okay to take a life but it happened and under the circumstances, it was what it was — an accident.
“Where’s your family?” she asked trying to shift his attention away from dwelling on what couldn’t be changed.
“Manhattan.”
“Are you all from there?”
“Hayley is from California, she moved out here with her mother a few years back.”
“And you all hang out together?”
“Yeah, I know Gabriel and Tyrell through the course I’m taking. Or was taking.”
There was heaviness to their conversation. She was about to say something when they heard glass shatter.
“Those bastards,” the owner said coming around the corner of the counter and heading over to the door. Outside someone had tossed a Molotov cocktail and now flames covered a portion of the sidewalk, including his A-frame sign outside.
“Get the fuck outta here!” he yelled in a thick New York accent. But there was no way to know who had done it. There were too many people outside. An alarm on a car went off and continued to ring out loudly.
“Okay, everyone, time to leave. I’m closing up,” the owner said coming back in, “before my store ends up in flames.”
Everyone looked at him for a second and then they all filed out leaving their drinks. Outside they took shelter under a porch that looked to be a restaurant, just to the right of the café. Water poured over the gutters creating a mini stream in the parking lot. As vehicles came and went, Ella was beginning to think her father wouldn’t show. What if something happened to him on his way in? What if he was hijacked? These were all legitimate concerns in a country that was beginning to change before their very eyes.
Fear now ruled decisions. Desperation determined actions.
Ella was looking off to her left when she heard her father’s voice.
“Ella!”
She turned and in a crowd of people and vehicles that were now clogging up the parking lot, she saw him. Tears of relief began to stream down her face as she rushed out into the downpour and into his arms. Even though there had been times she felt that she didn’t need him. Times she was embarrassed by his behavior. That all melted away in that moment.
They gripped each other tightly, and when they parted and she wiped away her tears and composed herself she turned to the others who stayed out of the rain under the porch.
“Who are they?”
“Come, I’ll introduce you to them.”
SAL STOOD by the idling SUV. “Sal,” Frank called out to him and he shut the engine off and came over. Frank was hesitant to get too close to the rest of them, even though he had hugged his daughter. As she was introducing them he kind of figured what she was going to ask.
Frank nodded. “Pleased to meet you.”
“Dad, I was wondering if we could give them a ride.”
“My family is in Watertown,” Tyrell said.
“And yours?” Frank asked the others.
“They’re going to stay with me,” Tyrell added.
Frank stepped back a few feet and turned slightly. “Ella, can I speak with you for a second?”
Frank walked over to the water’s edge. There were a number of schooners in the water; people looking to get as far away from the country as possible were filling them with belongings.
“I’m not sure we can fit them all in.”
He pointed to the SUV.
“Come on, Dad, if it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t be here.”
He glanced back over at them and ran a hand over his mask. He pulled out some sanitizer from his pocket and he was about to squirt some on his hands and rub it into areas of his skin, when he paused. He looked back at Ella’s friends. He sighed and tucked it back into his pocket without using it.
“Did you just?” Ella gave a smiling frown to her father.
“I told you! He’s making progress,” Sal hollered from near the truck.
“Put a sock in it, Sal, and start the engine.” He turned back to the others and motioned with his head. “Get in, it’s going to be a long ride. Let’s hope to God we make it.”
All of them hopped down from the porch into the rain and double-timed it over to the SUV. Within a matter of minutes, they left behind the café, the dock and the vast crowd of people looking to escape the pandemic that was spreading across the country like wildfire.
There was no telling what lay ahead. How desperate people would become or to what lengths they would go. Yet one thing was for sure; it was the beginning of something that would test them all. As they made the grueling journey back to the isolated cottage on the island, Frank glanced at his daughter sleeping beside him, and then the bottle of hand sanitizer perched on the dashboard.
Though some fears were relieved, and dangers overcome.
The challenges for these survivors had only just begun.
THANK YOU FOR READING
Phobia: (The Agora Virus Book 1)
Book 2 will be available at the end of January 2017
A PLEA
Thank you for reading Phobia: (The Agora Virus Book 1). If you enjoyed the book, I would really appreciate it if you would consider leaving a review. Without reviews, an author’s books are virtually invisible on the retail sites. It also lets me know what you liked. You can leave a review by visiting the book’s page. I would greatly appreciate it. It only takes a couple of seconds.
Thank you �
� Jack Hunt
NEWSLETTER
Thank you for buying Phobia: (The Agora Virus Book 1), published by Direct Response Publishing.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jack Hunt is the author of horror, sci-fi and post-apocalyptic novels. He currently has three books out in the Camp Zero series, five books out in the Renegades series, a time travel book called Killing Time and another called Mavericks: Hunters Moon. Jack lives on the East coast of North America.
www.jackhuntbooks.com
[email protected]
ALSO BY JACK HUNT
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The Agora Virus series
Phobia
Book 2 (Coming January 2017)
Camp Zero series
State of Panic
State of Shock
State of Decay
Renegades series
The Renegades
The Renegades Book 2: Aftermath
The Renegades Book 3: Fortress
The Renegades Book 4: Colony
The Renegades Book 5: United
Mavericks series
Mavericks: Hunters Moon
Time Agents series
Killing Time
Table of Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Synopsis
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
A Plea
Newsletter
About the Author
Also by Jack Hunt