Suddenly scared, they all returned to their common room.
Paige looked at the TV again. The horrid words were still there, but she couldn’t look away. Phones started to ring again, in larger numbers now, and that yanked them all from their stupor.
Soon, almost everyone was talking to someone over the phone.
Their collective voices carried, and sobs echoed from the cathedral ceiling and bounced off the walls, coming back to haunt them as the girls spoke to their loved ones.
“Ursula?” Paige heard River on the phone, speaking with her Mom’s assistant. She walked a few feet away in search of some privacy and instinctively, Paige reached for her phone as well.
Finally, the words of the newscast started to sink in while she dialed her sister’s number.
Chen is obviously already affected by the virus, and it’s only a matter of time before it starts to spread to everyone else. Paige’s thoughts spiraled as she struggled to grasp the magnitude of what the news had said.
None of the girls in the common room looked sick, but that didn’t mean a thing. Chen hadn’t either when she first sat down for math today. And Paige was positive all those other people outside had looked fine only a couple of minutes before.
Paige’s agitation grew when she was unable to reach her sister. She’d just thrust her phone into her pocket when it rang. It took her a moment to react.
“H-hello?” Paige answered, not being able to control her shaky voice
“Oh, thank God, Paige.” Her father’s voice sounded strained. “I’m so relieved you’re okay,” he added with obvious worry in his tone.
Paige knew instantly that the matter was beyond serious if even her always stoic father appeared shaken.
“I am, but I’m scared,” she confessed, trying not to break down
“I don’t have much time,” he interrupted her.
“Dad, what’s going on?”
“Listen to what I’m about to say to you.” His voice went low so suddenly that Paige had difficulties hearing him properly. She moved away from the group and listened even harder.
“I can’t explain much, but the government knew about the virus.”
What? “What?” She felt stupid, echoing her thoughts aloud, but this was crazy so who cared?
“They are planning an evacuation.”
And Paige frowned. An evacuation…to where? “What?” she asked again in confusion.
This virus was spreading worldwide, so there wasn’t a place on earth they could escape to and be safe.
Are we going underground? To a bunker? Paige tried to make sense of her father’s words.
“I need you to get your sister and your Mom and meet me here at NASA, Maryland.” Her father resumed his instructions.
“Why can’t you just come get Willow and me?” she countered. Paige didn’t want to sound whiny, but she was terrified. How can I travel alone with Willow and Mom to Maryland?
“Paige...” Her father sounded tense and strained. “NASA is holding us hostage,” he confessed.
Paige shook her head. Too much was happening at once. She felt like she couldn’t take any new information in.
“Dad, what...” She started to speak but knew she couldn’t finish that sentence.
“I’m working on a way to get out, don’t worry about me.”
If they were holding people at NASA against their will, then she couldn’t waste time. “How do you expect me to do this?” she asked instead.
“Get to Maryland as soon as you can. The spaceships are leaving soon. Keep your head straight and don’t tell anyone where you’re going. There aren’t enough spacecraft for everyone,” he replied in a single breath and her head started to spin.
Spaceships? This can’t be my life, Paige thought in exasperation. Of course, she knew about them.
Her father worked in a special division that organized touristic attractions for the extremely rich. It was like Disneyland but there, you got to travel to Mars with your family.
“Dad, is the virus really that bad?” She had to ask, even though she felt foolish. Of course it was bad. They were leaving the planet altogether because of it.
“Really bad,” her dad answered. “But it’ll be okay. I love you.”
“Dad, I—” Paige started to reply but his phone went dead. She released a groan of frustration because she hadn’t even had the chance to say she loved him back.
Will I get another chance? She banished that thought. Her hands shook as she looked at her phone screen, wishing it would ring again.
She tried calling back, but he didn’t answer—or couldn’t. The frigging phone remained silent.
Nothing that he’d shared made any sense to her, yet at the same time, it fitted perfectly.
While her mind raced in circles, going over their brief conversation, her chest grew tighter and tighter. Despite the open space the common room provided, Paige felt like she couldn’t take one breath of air.
Because there is none, she thought. No. She rebelled, determined not to have a panic attack, forcing herself to stop spiraling.
The last one she’d had was on the day she left home, and she would be damned if she allowed herself one now.
Willow needed her, so she would have to get over it.
Still, the only way she could successfully do that was to think about something calming.
Which this whole situation didn’t provide.
Regardless, Paige forced herself to take slow and steady breaths as everyone around her succumbed to panic. She closed her eyes, focusing solely on what was happening inside her.
A mantra formed inside her mind. Everything is okay. Willow and I are only visiting Dad at work, nothing more. She lied to herself and knew it on a surface level, but the repetition calmed her and pushed her panic back under control.
Paige thrust all her fears and worries to the back of her mind, locking them in her mental vault, calming herself further.
Everything is okay, she repeated.
Once she opened her eyes, she was ready for action.
Paige looked over at River. She was still on her phone. Her parents would look after her. She, on the other hand, needed to take care of her family.
She ran toward her room, aware that someday, her vault would crack, and all her bad memories, insecurities, and fears would come out and try to bite her in the ass.
But that day is not today!
Reaching her room that followed the Gothic style to the letter, as did the rest of the college, she allowed herself a small relapse. She sank down onto the bed, wishing frantically she was in some fantasy where all her troubles could disappear with a few strokes of a wand.
But this was a reality, not some kids’ book, so she sprang into action. She’d already wasted way too much time.
Quickly, she undressed. Her skirt and shirt weren’t practical for today’s events. She traded the outfit for a pair of jeans and a blue top.
Her mom had always got her blue tops, she thought inconsequentially. She said it was because it made Paige’s eyes pop, but as a child, she’d thought it simply made her look like a boy. It didn’t help being a flat-chested kid. It was different now. Her body had grown, and blue was her favorite color. In retrospect, it also hadn’t helped that her mom gave her a pixie cut.
Looking back, Paige knew she’d intended it to look like an elegant bob, much like all the sweet girls in the commercials had at the time. The problem was that she kept cutting and cutting, making it shorter with each attempt until there was basically nothing left. After that, everyone had mistaken her for a boy.
It went without saying that the hairstyle didn’t help her popularity. Paige had never been among the in-crowd, but after the fatal haircut, they started teasing her relentlessly.
There were no fond childhood memories from that specific period of time, but there was a silver lining to the story. Because of it, she didn’t really have a problem transferring to a boarding school and later to college, even though there were so
me rich snobs there.
Come to think of it, her pixie hair would be welcomed at Rosehill since it was the latest trend for all the girls. Either way, that was not her thing, though. She wasn’t interested in looking like a boy ever again.
Once she was fully clothed, she reached for her leather jacket that hung over a desk chair. It was old and worn but it was one of her favorites. The chair didn’t want to release it, moving with the tug, but with a few gentle twists, she succeeded in freeing it and put it on. She immediately felt a little better.
The soft natural fabric hugged her body perfectly and brought all sorts of memories with it.
Naturally, her other sister, Brooke, was in the center of her thoughts.
Sometimes, Paige honestly thought she could still sense her lingering around her, especially at moments like this one when she wore her leather jacket.
Paige always assumed that only meant her sister was dead and not simply missing.
But she never managed to say that out loud. And on top of all this, the anniversary is only a few days away, she thought with dread.
Getting her mom calmly out of that ward would be a challenge because she was always agitated during this time of the year—the anniversary of when Brooke went missing.
Looking at herself in the mirror, Paige suddenly realized she looked exactly like Brooke. They had the same blonde hair with blues eyes. Even their body type was similar.
Picking up the photo frame from her desk, she removed their family picture. It had been taken a short while before Brooke went missing, and looking at it now, Paige thought how they really looked like twins since they were now at the same age.
Brooke had been twenty-one when she went missing.
Paige folded the picture carefully and put it in her back pocket. Her hands no longer shaking, she straightened her spine and vowed she would not lose another sister.
She needed to get to Willow. As her big sister, it was her responsibility to be there for her—always—and to protect her.
Resolute now, she pulled her hair up so it wouldn’t get in the way and grabbed her backpack with her free hand.
Dumping all her books unceremoniously onto the floor, she threw in another family picture—one of Willow, noticing how much they all looked alike, apart from the hairstyles because Willow had heavy bangs now—and grabbed some extra clothes, toiletries, all her money, and of course, her cell phone.
All I need to do now is to escape, she thought to herself as she shrugged her backpack on.
She dialed Willow’s number again and remembered the text she had sent her with the bunch of emojis…there was a building, an apple—a sudden realization hit her.
Her class was going on a field trip to New York City today. Willow had told her something about the Natural History Museum, but Paige hadn’t paid much attention at the time.
She’d been too busy not looking—but also looking—at AJ at the time. Now, she started to panic, trying to remember if she’d heard any news about New York City specifically.
All the reports had stated that the virus was spreading, but there was nothing about specific regions. Paige wanted to scream in frustration.
Heading back toward the common room, her mind raced with all kinds of thoughts and plans of how to reach Willow, but they all seemed stupid to her.
Passing a window along the way, she heard engines roar and couldn’t tell what made her pause to look out. Still, she was happy she did.
Paige opened the window and exhaled a sigh of relief as she watched yellow school buses returning to Willow’s school. They must have come back because of the crisis, she mused, watching as they drew closer.
Willow will okay. Now, I just need to get to Mom and get her out. Paige sighed. That will be a piece of cake
Not.
As the buses neared Willow’s school, Paige leaned her head out of the window for a better look and froze, not because of the temperature but because all three buses were completely empty. There were no teachers or kids on board. Which meant no Willow either.
Naturally, she began to panic all over again. Clenching her hands into fists, she forced it all down, knowing a panic attack was the last thing she needed at that moment.
She needed to stay focused. Her father trusted her to bring Willow to him, so she needed to find a solution. If she succumbed to her fears, all would be lost, her sister included.
The best course of action was to look for Willow at her school. Maybe she had been instructed to stay in her room like they were. Maybe, just maybe, they never left. At least she hoped so.
Paige tried calling Willow again.
“But why isn’t she picking up?” she muttered in growing frustration as she tried again.
She knew a couple of ways to leave the campus unseen, and thanks to Willow, she knew how to sneak into her school as well. That was exactly what she planned to do, but then she heard a scream.
Rushing back to the common room, she looked around for the source of all that commotion and found it instantly.
Val was screaming bloody murder.
“The virus, she has it. The virus,” Val screamed over and over again.
Others screamed as well, and Paige fought to try and see over them as the fear inside her intensified.
There, in the middle of the group as if inside a perfect circle sat River, holding her hand to her nose. She looked at Paige with petrified eyes.
Oh no... River has the virus.
CHAPTER SIX
The blood continued to pour from River’s nose, and everyone in the room backed slowly away from her.
Val was in hysterics, but some of the other girls rushed to her side to try and calm her.
They were all scared, but Paige held her ground. River was her best friend. They had clicked from day one. After a deep breath for courage, she took a step in her direction, then another.
“Don’t go near her. You’ll get the virus,” she heard one of her classmates say but ignored the warning.
She shut out all the voices, those from within as well as without, as she reached her.
River now looked like every other infected person they’d seen so far. She stared forward into empty space, completely oblivious to the world around her. With one hand, she covered her bleeding nose, but that wasn’t enough.
Blood seeped through her fingers, staining her clothes and even dripping onto the wooden floor, forming a small puddle between them.
“River?” Paige tried to get her attention, standing directly in her line of sight, but there was no response. River had no reaction to her whatsoever.
“Get away from her, Paige,” someone else urged, but she simply shook her head.
Her mom always told her she was too stubborn for her own good, and maybe this proved that, but she could not leave River alone when she needed her.
The slamming of the doors in the silence that followed told her all the girls had retreated to their rooms. She didn’t hold that against them.
They didn’t want to be near the virus and possibly get infected, and neither did she. Nevertheless, she remained beside her friend.
“River?” She tried again.
Pulling up her sleeve, her hand shaking slightly, Paige touched the other girl’s shoulder. She didn’t budge.
Throwing caution out the window, she grabbed her more firmly by the shoulder and squeezed gently, shaking her one more time in the hope of getting through to her.
Finally, River blinked her eyes slowly, and Paige released a sigh of relief as she watched her gaze appear to come back into focus.
She looked at her, confused and scared. “Paige…what’s happening to me?” Her voice sounded muffled and distorted as her hand was still pressed against her nose in an effort to stop the bleeding.
“I…I don’t know. We have to get you to the nurse,” Paige added hastily, not wanting to make River even more scared.
“Am I going to die?”
Paige started to shake her head as her throat closed. She didn�
��t want to have that conversation with her friend right now, and not ever. It was heartbreaking and terrifying and at that moment, she realized this must be how her parents felt every time she’d asked them about Brooke and if she would ever home.
“I don’t know.” She managed to choke the words out, stifling her own emotions because this moment wasn’t about her.
“Let’s get you out of here.” She placed an arm around River, walking her slowly out of the common room.
Some of the girls opened their doors and peeked out, checking their progress, and the relief on their faces at seeing them leave was immense. Again, Paige couldn’t really blame them. She would probably respond the same if someone else was in River’s place.
Once they reached the hallway again, they encountered security personnel leading other kids from their rooms.
Money is always helpful, especially when it’s the end of the world, Paige thought with disdain then immediately felt guilty about the meanness behind it.
Rich or poor, these kids were all sick and in the same boat together.
Get a grip, Paige, this can’t really be the end of the world. Can it?
Her dad said they knew the virus was coming. So that surely meant they were already working on the cure.
Yes, Paige agreed with herself.
Besides, if they could send tourists into space, they could find a cure for whatever virus caused all this.
But until they did, Paige had to find Willow and her mother and lead them to safety.
Maybe she could even ask one of her classmates if they could catch a ride with them. She liked that idea and wished she’d taken the time to make more friends so she could have more options available.
Her nose was always stuck in some textbook, and River was the only one who could ever pry her away from one successfully.
Unfortunately, the time for socializing had officially passed, and she had more pressing matters to attend to.
Paige didn’t like how River looked, so she wracked her brain to find a way to engage her in some way. There had to be something to divert her mind, for even the briefest of moments, from the fact that she was suffering from an unknown disease.
Contamination (Invasion Survivor Book 1) Page 4