180 Days and Counting... Series Box Set books 1 - 3

by B. R. Paulson

  Chapter 2

  Cady

  The shrill blast of Def Leppard’s Pour Some Sugar on Me broke through the calm sleep claiming Cady. She blinked, struggling to pull herself from the restless dream she’d been locked in and she couldn’t seem to shake.

  Rolling to her side, she glared at the phone with its ringing face and caller ID declaring the caller was “Restricted”.

  She picked up the phone, resistant to answering as she glanced toward the wall clock. Three AM? THREE? Who called anyone at three in the morning? Bailey was home and Cady’s parents were supposed to be launching on their cruise any day now.

  The call went to voicemail and she sighed as she moved to set the phone back down on the mattress by her pillow. Without her husband, the bed was too large and Cady often found herself lost in the center as she sought some escape from the gruesome reality her life had taken on.

  She sighed, staring at the clock. How long would it take her to fall back to sleep now?

  The jarring mid-chorus ring startled her again. A repeat call? She flopped to her back and pulled the phone in front of her face. Swiping the answer key under the “Restricted” tag, Cady glared into the dark toward the ceiling. “Do you know what time it is?”

  “Did you do it? Did you forward your mail like I told you?” Jackson’s sultry tone snapped Cady from the pre-dawn confusion she was still wrapped up in. She’d never heard his voice before, but she’d recognize him no matter what time he called or what he sounded like.

  His words… their chilling meaning shook her to the core. He was serious.

  And she’d never been more terrified.

  Cady worked to control her breathing and her temper. “How did you get this number?” She wasn’t listed and she’d replaced her phone number not too long ago. How had he gotten it? Focusing on that issue would help her regulate her reaction to what his call was really about.

  Jackson’s soft laugh riddled the line. “I’m smart, Cady Moss. It’s not hard to find out anything about people these days. I just didn’t do it before since we had agreed to be anonymous before. I took that seriously. When you emailed me about your husband, well, that took off the need for anonymity. All bets are off now, aren’t they?” His laugh faded and he returned to a business-as-usual tone. “Did you do what I said? I need to make sure.”

  “I’m stocked up. I have forwarded my mail. I ripped the mailbox down and there is a gate across my driveway. We don’t put fences in up here because of restrictions in place, but the woods are thick enough and more of a deterrent than any picket fence would be.” She bit off the list with accuracy and stoicism. He had no idea what he was doing to her, or he did and he didn’t care.

  It was probably the latter. A man that would set out to completely wipe the world clean of human existence couldn’t have a shred of empathy inside him. How had she been so wrong for so long?

  “You have time for maybe one or two more trips to the store. I wouldn’t take more than that, Cady. I’ll call you five days after the last set of instructions arrives.” His voice filled with giddiness as he talked. “Who knows? I might call you before that. I’m finding that the world is my playground and soon, I’ll control everything.”

  “Jackson… please. Don’t do this.” Cady rubbed her eyes. She didn’t want to start crying, but he wasn’t just talking about destroying the world, he was talking about destroying her world – her daughter – Bailey, her parents, Scott, and so many more.

  Her desperation to keep it from happening warbled her voice. Tears dripped from her eyes into her hair. Cady’s anger couldn’t surpass the fear welling inside her. Deep down she knew it didn’t matter what she said, or what she did. Jackson was too far gone.

  But she had to hope. At that point in time, that’s all she had to hold onto.

  Sighing, Jackson hardened his voice like he was talking to a child and delivering a tough love speech. “Cady, you know we have to do this. You know it. Don’t try to make things harder than they need to be.”

  Maybe she had affected him, gave him pause. “We can lead a revolution. We can create awareness, or… something. I don’t know.” She racked her mind, looking for ideas. She had to do something. She couldn’t just sit there and let him warn her and kill everyone else. “Please, Jackson. I’m scared and I… I don’t want this.”

  He waited her out, silent longer than the sound of her voice as it faded over the line. When he spoke, his tone brought embarrassment to Cady’s stomach with a painful ache. “Apathy doesn’t care how much awareness is out there, Cady. Come on. I’m surprised at how you’re acting. This is the way it needs to be. We can’t make people aware about too many babies contributing to the world. How do you ask mothers to stop having babies? You can’t. I’d even be up for killing off the old once they reach a certain age, but who is going to lobby for that bill? The politicians who are already past the cut-off date? We need a reset. No, this needs to happen as a general cleansing. We can start everything over.”

  Cady couldn’t breathe and clutched at her chest with her free hand. Was she having a heart attack with the sharp stabbing pain ripping down her arms from a bandlike sensation across her breastbone? She didn’t reply.

  His voice softened and he spoke cajolingly. “Come on, Cady. I’ve always wanted to meet you. I used to think you were a guy and now… I want to meet you more, knowing you’re a woman. Let’s do this. We can be the last two people on Earth.” He paused, the moment dragging out forever as if they waited to see who would breathe next. Jackson didn’t too long before ending the call with a soft click.

  Cady pressed the phone against her ear long after the screen turned dark. She finally dropped it to her side on the main cover, staring into the darkness while her tears continued to course from the sides of her eyes into her hair.

  Jackson was going to end the world and Cady had no way to protect Bailey or her parents. Her daughter hated her since Cady’s husband, Bailey’s father, Zach had died a few weeks ago. One more thing was definitely going to rip them apart more – maybe more than would ever be fixable.

  Flopping onto her side, Cady stared out at the darkness. Winter would hang on a while longer, leaving them with dark hours until well after six in the morning. Where her house was located, they could get snow as late as June or July. Trying to close her eyes to get more rest, Cady tempered her breathing. It didn’t matter how slow and even she tried to breathe in and out – her pulse was speeding and she couldn’t get the chill from her skin.

  She would never get to sleep at that rate. Sliding from her bed, she pulled on her sweatpants, socks, and a comfortable sweatshirt. Maybe she could read downstairs and catch a nap on the couch before Bailey got up.

  Padding quietly down the hallway to her daughter’s room, Cady peeked inside. The soft sounds of sleep almost broke her heart.

  It was just them. She and Bailey against the rest of the world. Because once Jackson got started, they couldn’t trust anyone. That hurt more than anything.

  The fact that she didn’t know what was going to happen was hard to swallow. She had an idea, but with Jackson, anything was possible.

  What was ahead for her family? What nightmares did Jackson have planned and what could Cady do to prevent them?

  She’d done everything she could to be prepared and her neighbor, Scott, was going to help with some other things. But she’d never truly believed something horrific would come – and certainly not because of her.

  As she carefully closed Bailey’s door and returned to the stairs, Cady couldn’t help wondering, how did you stop a tsunami with one sandbag?

  Chapter 3

  Pete

  “I can’t believe you thought of me. This is incredible!” Carrie squealed again inside the 1980s Mustang with its rusty frame and supped-up engine.

  They’d parked at the two-theater cinemas on the side without the security cameras. Pete had already checked the movie times and the big premiere they were going to wouldn’t start for another forty-five m
inutes. He had plenty of time to do things to Carrie in that time. With how packed the movie would be, they wouldn’t be able to mess around in the backrow seats like they usually did.

  She wrinkled her nose and half-turned toward Pete with her long, bare legs bent his way. She wore a short black skirt and heels under a button-up white shirt that constrained her chest with creases where it was too tight. Carrie was a busty girl, and Pete liked that best about her. Knitting her eyebrows, she tapped the card on her white front teeth. “It smells so… I can’t put my finger on it. I love it.” She nonchalantly unbuttoned the top few buttons of her waitressing uniform and rubbed the face of one of the cards down into her rounded cleavage.

  Leaning forward with an eyebrow raised in challenge, Carrie dropped her voice to match the seductive glint in her eyes. “Pete, honey, can you make sure it smells okay on me?” She batted her incredibly long lashes and Pete didn’t stand a chance. She even thrust her chest toward him for easier access.

  He leaned forward, holding her gaze until he dipped his face into the softness of her bosom. He inhaled the aroma from her flesh that he’d already rubbed on himself. He licked her skin, nipping at the curve above her lacey bra cup.

  She squealed, stretching her legs across the seat and console to wrap around his waist. He reached his hand up under her skirt, delighted to find she hadn’t bothered with underwear that night.

  For all his nerves, Pete had made the best decision ever stealing the perfume samples.

  ***

  After getting in some great front seat sex, Pete and Carrie walked hand in hand to the theater, showing their tickets at the door. Carrie clung to Pete’s arm, still giddy from the gift and the reassurances he wouldn’t cheat on her a twelfth time.

  Pete rolled his eyes as he started to remember why he looked elsewhere sometimes. Carrie was great to screw, but she liked to talk – a lot – and Pete, after sex, liked to just veg out. He didn’t want to focus on what she’d done that day or who had said what. He just wanted to sit and watch the movie or whatever he was doing.

  Finding seats in the middle of the theater was fairly easy since they were still twenty minutes early.

  “Honey, can we have some popcorn?” Carrie looked at him hopefully with a sexy little pout to her lower lip.

  Half-distracted, Pete nodded, pushing himself to stand from the automatically folding seat. He smiled at her and pushed by her legs and the legs of a few more, early watchers. He ambled toward the counter, pointing a large bucket of popcorn and a large pop. They could just share the treats from the concession stand. It wasn’t like they hadn’t shared every other germ they had when they were in the car.

  Not for the first time, Pete had talked Carrie into not using a condom. No big deal, but he preferred it without. Plus, he knew she was on birth control.

  The cute cashier winked at him as she told him the price. If she wasn’t careful, she’d be his number thirteen. He pulled out his wallet from his back pocket, unknowingly dropping one of the stray fragrance cards to the ground at his feet. Pete paid the woman, accepting the small folded up paper she offered him. It most likely had her number on it and Pete was certain that as soon as he could ditch Carrie, he was going to make the cashier the next one on his list.

  He turned, a bit more of a bounce to his step.

  Pete ignored the card he’d dropped on the floor.

  He went back to the theater to sit beside his girlfriend to daydream about the things he wanted to do the girl behind the counter.

  But back at the counter, at the concession where the girl had flirted so boldly with the good-looking guy, a group of teenage girls congregated for popcorn and candy.

  Megan was one of those girls, but she hung back, worried about getting caught having snuck out of her room to go out with her friends. She couldn’t get into the mood of the evening with so much worry riding her shoulders and twisting in her gut.

  She glanced down, noticing that her shoelace was undone. Crouching, she tied it, spotting a familiar scene beneath the heel of her friend, Stacey. When Megan picked it up, she jumped up, clenching the card in her hands and squealing.

  Stacey turned, flipping her long blonde hair behind her. With a hand on her hip, she duck-lipped as she spoke. “What is wrong with you, Megan?”

  Megan wasn’t phased by Stacey’s rudeness. They didn’t like each other, and Megan didn’t care. She leaned toward the other girls, ignoring Stacey and thrusting the card into the middle of the group. “Look what I just found!”

  The girls crowded around the small card. Exclamations filled the air as they realized just what it was that Megan held. “Let me smell it first and then you guys can take turns.” She dragged out the excitement as everyone waited in breathless wonder as Megan sniffed the long-awaited perfume.

  Something familiar about it brought another sniff and Megan smiled. “Wow.” She sighed, handing the card to the next girl beside her. The moment became almost reverent as each girl quietly inhaled the aroma and then commenting about it to the girls around them.

  Stacey dropped her hand from her hip and stomped closer to Megan after everyone had taken a turn. “Aren’t you going to let me smell?” Of course, that question had to drive Stacey nuts, and Megan didn’t mind holding out a moment longer. But with everyone watching, she couldn’t be too catty.

  Holding out the card, Megan smiled beatifically. “Sure.” But she made Stacey smell it while Megan held it. There had to be some control when holding the End of the World in your hands.

  Chapter 4

  Jackson

  The Ford Bronco Jackson had purchased screamed tough with its sharp lines and dark colors. He’d opted out of two-tone and couldn’t help putting a white sticker of the universal sign of pandemic in the left corner of his limousine-tinted rear-window.

  All of the windows were tinted almost black. The sticker stood out at seven inches along each triangular side. The three crescent-style circles filled his chest with pride. He couldn’t tell anyone besides Cady, but the sticker was like his manifesto, his declaration that they all would die. A brand he wished he could stamp into every person’s forehead.

  Anyone who saw the sticker would be dead in no time.

  He couldn’t wait. As soon as the sun was completely up, he’d be able to focus more on the details of the drive. As it was he could only admire the sticker with the light from his penlight.

  He hated that the symbolism would be lost on everyone. Well, he would tell Cady and she would get it, that was more than enough for him.

  Jackson had regretted angering her. He just wanted to make sure she was safe. He didn’t want her to die. He wanted her with him. He no longer wanted to give her the choice to take the vaccine. If he could get there and not mess up his timeline, he would go straight to her house and give the shot to her himself – even if he had to hold her down.

  Of course, she was angry and didn’t want to go through with their plans. Jackson had been planning things for years. He’d had time to grow accustomed to the idea of the world being empty. He liked considering that he was returning the world to a virgin-like state. Cady hadn’t had time to assimilate what it would mean.

  She probably had friends she wanted to protect. Once she saw the beauty of the empty world, she wouldn’t be angry anymore. Jackson knew her. They were close. He was closer to her than anyone.

  He was only twenty-two hours from the Canadian border. From what he understood, Cady was two hours closer. As he made his way north to her, he had to stop and check out his accomplishments. Plus, delaying the momentous meeting gave him a shiver of anticipation he was fast burning through with the virus and plan B.

  Pulling out his paper planner, Jackson checked the timeline once more, shining the beam of his penlight onto the page.

  His commercial packages couldn’t be triggered for final delivery to malls and main shopping stores until after the plane, cruise lines, and hotels received their deliveries. The only way to get global without paying the atrocious s
hipping charges, was to go tourist traps first.

  Las Vegas, Disneyland, Orlando, and Chicago had been main sites to ship to. He couldn’t remember if he’d chosen New York or not, but no big deal, if he hadn’t. They’d been through enough terrorism acts in the past, he wasn’t sure anything would get through their security.

  It didn’t matter, the airlines all ran into New York and that was good enough for Jackson.

  Plus, the first shipment was wrapped in plastic and manageable. That hadn’t required special labels and shipping authorization.

  He had a fully stocked mail-order list going out with a Sunday paper soon as well as a paid circular. Both would go out the week following the release into the airports. He had things staged a specific way, so to maximize the spread of the virus as well as to make sure no cracks were left unchinked.

  The second shipment… the shipment of plan B wanted to give him an ulcer. Double-wrapped in aluminum and then a plastic case, he’d had to pay extra to get it through multiple ports of delivery. They had already been shipped to their final destinations with explicit instructions not to be opened until a date set two weeks in the future. The half-life on plan B was less than six weeks. Everyone would be dead before that expiration date.

  He couldn’t wait to see if that phase worked.

  Pocketing the final packet of cash he’d gotten with another loan he’d taken out, Jackson climbed onto the step of the Bronco to look over his items once more. He couldn’t even keep track of all the loans he’d taken out. If his plan didn’t work out, he’d be in so much debt, his eyeballs would roll.

  No one would be alive in a month to pay back anyway.

  If things didn’t work out… well, they would. He had procedures in place to make sure no one found out in time. The only person he’d told was Cady. Every other person that had been involved believed they’d participated in producing the world’s next great fragrance.