Isolation (Book 1): Shut In

by Jones, Nathan

  But this, this was something she couldn't have prepared herself for.

  Nick had offered to go check the nursing home. The fact that he hadn't already done so, even after knowing for over a day that something was up, suggested that he knew the extreme risk it represented. A risk he couldn't take when the kids were depending on him.

  The fact that he'd asked had placed an added burden on Ellie's shoulders, forced her to make the terrible choice to put the welfare of her kids above her mom's. She couldn't resent him for it, since the offer had been sincere and he'd been willing to put himself in danger if that's what she'd wanted.

  But it still devastated her.

  Ellie didn't know how long she sat there slumped on the roadside, staring at her phone and only vaguely aware that she'd forgotten to turn it off yet to conserve battery, before she realized how quiet it was.

  She looked over to find Hal on his knees not far away, hunched over with his head in his hands and his phone discarded a few feet away. The sight sent a surge of pity and dread through her, as she realized she wasn't the only one who'd received terrible news now that they finally had access to their phones.

  “Hal?” she asked gently. She finally turned off her phone, then pushed to her feet and shuffled over to him.

  He didn't stir, although he answered in a dull voice. “There was a Zolos case at my mom's apartment building before she could head up to my place. They shut down central air and warned everyone to stay inside, and were blocking the entrances when my mom called. But she's afraid the virus has already spread through the building.”

  The young man finally looked up, eyes haunted. “The last time I called her I couldn't wait to get off the phone. I told her my food is only for my siblings, like some sort of selfish, petty brat. I just painted her to you as a monster, after she'd done her best to raise me on her own. And now . . .”

  He trailed off, letting his head hang and staring at the road in pure misery.

  Ellie dropped down beside him and put an arm around his shoulders. That seemed to be all that was needed for the dam to burst, and he dissolved into silent, shuddering sobs. She let her own tears flow as her grief resurged. “My ex couldn't get ahold of my mom's nursing home,” she mumbled. “Neither can I . . . I don't know what's happened with her.”

  Hal reached up and grasped her hand on his shoulder, holding it in solid reassurance.

  She wasn't sure how long they stayed like that, both sunk into their private grief, finally allowing themselves to vent all the fear, anger, frustration, and sadness of what they'd been through the last few days. And taking solace in each other's presence, in spite of the fact that they barely knew one another. Although with this shared experience, she confirmed that she'd found in him a good friend.

  Ellie wasn't sure about her companion, but even though she was technically sitting down and resting the emotional tsunami sapped what remained of her strength, leaving her drained and bringing to the fore all the aches and pains of the last couple days of walking.

  So she was genuinely impressed when Hal somehow found the strength to stand, reaching down to help her to her feet as well. “We need to keep going,” he said, tone unexpectedly gentle.

  I don't know if I can, she thought to herself. But putting voice to that thought might make it reality, and he was right that they needed to. For themselves, for their loved ones. For her children.

  Ellie took a last shuddering breath, carefully dabbed at her eyes with a dust-caked sleeve, then took his hand and let him help her up.

  Chapter Eleven: St. George

  The jewel of a city that Ellie had seen as she drove past at midnight . . . was it three days ago now?, looked a bit less spectacular in the daylight. Neatly planned out, and greener than the desolation around it, it still had the yellowing-around-the-edges look of a place in a constant battle to look green and fertile in the middle of a desert.

  Although to her exhausted, hungry, and above all thirsty eyes, it might as well have been a luxurious oasis.

  Unfortunately, that view was still a few miles away. Hal took one look at it, glanced at the sun sinking steadily towards the western horizon, and frowned. “Even at the pace we managed today, we can get still there before dark. The question is . . . should we?”

  Ellie glanced at him. “You want to camp out one last time, then head in tomorrow morning?”

  He nodded. “I'm not sure I want to stumble around a potentially infected city in the dark, looking for help or someone to sell us a car.” He patted the pocket where he held his phone. “Besides, maybe we can use the same app we used to buy your other car to find someone selling down there.”

  She felt a surprising amount of relief at the suggestion; in spite of her urgency to get home, she was emotionally exhausted by the news about her mom, her agony about not knowing more or being able to do anything to help it. That piled on top of sheer physical exhaustion, to the point where the thought of trying to hike into St. George and search for a car tonight made her want to slump to the ground and just lay there comatose.

  And she wasn't the only one. Hal's news about his own family had similarly discouraged him, and they'd moved at a snail's pace all day, forcing themselves to go the remaining distance in what should've easily been half a day's walk at most.

  Maybe camping out one last time wasn't the worst idea.

  “Let's get to the city limits, at least,” she suggested. “Maybe we can find some place with an outdoor faucet we can drink from. Maybe even a socket so we can charge our phones.”

  “As long as it doesn't look like there's a cloud of Zolos hanging around it,” her friend said. He wearily hefted his pack, much lightened from their water being nearly gone, and trudged on down the road.

  As they walked Ellie examined the city below, a bit concerned by something she wasn't seeing: the roadblocks that had turned them off the Interstate onto smaller roads to keep traffic out when they'd last been through here.

  Did that mean Zolos had hit the city, and they weren't bothering to try to keep it out anymore? Or had the local law enforcement who'd been manning the roadblocks all failed to show up for work, staying in their homes and focusing on protecting their families?

  She and Hal both agreed to stop at the first house they reached, a rambler far removed from I-15 with a high earth berm blocking the view, and more importantly the noise of passing cars. At least when there'd been those; it seemed like a lifetime ago Ellie had seen one, instead of yesterday.

  They stood on top of the berm for almost ten minutes, debating whether to take the risk of knocking on the door to ask for aid, or even to buy the truck or the car sitting in the driveway. It was impossible to tell whether the residents had been coming and going in the last few days, or if the place had remained safely isolated. Such a remote location seemed like an ideal candidate for being well protected from Zolos infection, but still . . .

  What if it wasn't?

  In the end, neither of them wanted to expose themselves to that danger. However, there was a spigot near the edge of the property that looked as if it was meant to water a nearby field, although the stretch of fenced-in ground was currently nothing but patches of parched grass and fine dirt, obviously untended for a long time. They warily drank deep of the cold, clean water, eyes on the house the entire time in case the angry residents charged out to chase them off.

  No one seemed in the mood to, probably in self-imposed quarantine and not willing to risk setting foot outside, especially with two strangers lurking around who might be carrying Zolos. Even so, in spite of the luxury of not needing to boil what they drank, and the pure deliciousness of the clean water, Ellie and Hal wasted no time refilling their bottles and moving on.

  Instead, they found a stand of rugged trees running along an irrigation ditch farther down the Interstate and found a place to spend the night there.

  Their camp that night was quiet, both of them sunk deep in their worry for their loved ones as they set up their tents, then sat around a sma
ll fire and ate jerky and mixed nuts.

  Ellie didn't know about Hal, but she was doing her best to reconcile hoping for the best when it came to her mom with preparing for the worst. She risked a few minutes of battery life to once again search for any hint about the fate of the nursing home, only to once again be frustrated by her fruitless efforts.

  As consolation, she used the opportunity to call her kids to wish them goodnight.

  Nick had to wake them up for it, which she felt bad about since she hadn't considered the time zone difference, but it was a relief to hear their voices and tell them she loved them. As she'd agreed with her ex-husband earlier, they avoided mentioning to their children that they hadn't been able to get any news about Grandma, deciding that it was better not to say anything until they knew for sure.

  Besides, the children, especially Tallie, were already anxious about some man who'd died of Zolos just across the street from the apartment. Nick had tried to keep them from seeing it, and he tried to steer the conversation away now to keep from further distressing them, but the kids wanted to talk about it.

  So they had a brief conversation, necessarily so because of her phone's limited remaining battery life, about the reality of death. Perhaps it was a good time for it, with so many people dying and things looking so grim, although it broke her heart to have to take away that bit of her children's innocence about the world.

  Especially when the discussion ended with her daughter breaking down crying. “Can you come home tomorrow, Mommy?” she begged.

  “I'll try, honey,” Ellie replied, blinking away tears of her own. “I'll try as hard as I can.”

  After they said their goodbyes and she turned off her phone again, she sat for several minutes staring at it, struggling with the bleak sense of hopelessness that washed over her as everything she'd been through, everything that was going on, all came crashing down on her.

  Hal had sat in silence across the fire, giving her space. But finally he stood and stepped closer, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Let's get some rest,” he said quietly. “We can get an early start tomorrow, find a car and get home.”

  She nodded and patted his hand in acknowledgment, but stayed sitting a bit longer as he disappeared inside his tent, staring at the dying flames.

  ◆◆◆

  Hal hadn't been able to find anyone in St. George willing to sell their cars by looking online, which left the option of either checking around at the city's car dealerships or going house to house.

  Dealerships were public areas, and while it was likely many of the cars there had remained untouched by anyone since before the Zolos crisis, it remained enough of a risk to make that an option of last resort. By that same token, they couldn't be confident that the people in the houses they passed wouldn't also have been traveling and possibly infected.

  There was one thing they had going for them, though; quarantine notices.

  Right from the first, the Federal Emergency Task Force as well as local and state emergency services had put the notices up on their websites. Anyone intending to go into self-quarantine could download and print the notice to put on their doors and windows.

  Of course, there was always the risk that the people with the quarantine notices had them up because there was actually Zolos in the residence. But there were good odds the telltale sheets of paper meant the family had closed themselves into their home on time, and they were safe to approach.

  Which was just what Ellie and Hal planned to do.

  To that purpose, they'd taken a bit of extra time heading back to the pump they'd used the previous night, giving each other some privacy to thoroughly wash up, clean their clothes, and make use of deodorant and other perks of civilization to make themselves as presentable as possible. Hal even shaved the stubble he'd accumulated over the past few days, putting the boyish back into his good looks.

  Ellie did her best, particularly with brushing her newly shampooed hair before tying it back in a ponytail again. But even without the use of a mirror, she was keenly aware that under normal circumstances she wouldn't even have wanted to visit the corner store looking like this, let alone engage in a business venture like trying to buy a car from wary strangers. She once again lamented leaving behind her expensive business clothes.

  “You look great,” Hal told her when she returned to their camp. He'd taken the opportunity during the not inconsiderable length of time she'd been gone to clean his backpack, her suitcase, and their other gear to make it look clean and respectable. She hadn't even considered that, and was grateful he had.

  “Thanks,” she replied wryly; he seemed completely sincere in the compliment, but given her previous moping about her appearance it was hard to take it seriously.

  They made their way into St. George a bit after sunrise, leaving I-15 and making their way into the residential area of the city, where they soon found themselves in a modestly prosperous neighborhood.

  It was eerie and unsettling to walk along a street bracketed by neatly painted houses, well-tended yards strewn with toys, and vehicles parked in driveways or along the curbs, and have it be utterly deserted of people. There were no children out playing with the toys, no early morning joggers along the side of the road. No residents in pajamas stepping outside to pick up the newspaper or take out the trash, no harried parents packing kids into vehicles to drive to school. No buses trundling down the streets picking up waiting kids, no crossing guards or kids burdened by backpacks converging on the schools.

  It was all deserted, as if everyone had disappeared overnight. The only evidence Ellie saw that people were still around was the flickers of residents peering out through blinds or behind curtains, faces glowering out windows at her as if she'd come to burn down their houses, instead of simply walking along the sidewalk with all the menace of a tail-wagging puppy.

  Hal motioned to a driveway with two cars parked one behind the other, in front of a house prominently displaying the quarantine notices. “Well, should we get started?”

  She grimaced in response. “You have much experience with cold approaches to potentially hostile business prospects?” The face he made was answer enough, and she shook her head ruefully. “All right, how about I take lead then?”

  “I defer to your expertise.” He motioned formally, and together they set off towards the front door.

  Not that they got anywhere near it, of course. Instead, they stopped twenty feet away and Ellie cupped her hands around her mouth, calling the remaining distance towards the still house. “Excuse me! Can we talk to you about purchasing one of your cars, please?”

  There was no response. She hadn't seen any sign of faces peering out windows, either, not so much as a flickering curtain. Still, she gave it half a minute before calling again, even going so far as to shout the house's address so the residents would know she was talking to them specifically.

  Still nothing. Ellie couldn't say she was surprised, although she was definitely disappointed. She could tell Hal was as well. “Hey, closing a deal is tough at the best of times, let alone when everyone's jumping at an invisible deadly virus,” she reassured him. “We're going to have to resign ourselves to the possibility it might take a while to find someone willing to even talk to us, let alone sell us their car.”

  He smiled gamely. “As long as we don't get shot by someone who's Hannah levels of paranoid because we're on their property potentially carrying Zolos.”

  Well, that wasn't a possibility she enjoyed contemplating. “On the plus side, I think we've gone long enough without showing symptoms that we're probably not infected.”

  Hal opened his mouth, then paused and shut it again, shrugging easily. “That's a pretty big plus.”

  What had he been about to say? Something along the lines of them possibly having it, but being immune and carrying it everywhere? Ellie wanted to contemplate that even less, especially when she was trying to get home to her kids. She did not want to go through all this to be reunited with her loved ones, only t
o expose them to this dreaded virus.

  Well, she could consider quarantine when she got to Nick's apartment. “On to the next one.”

  There was no response at the next place, either, although they saw eyes peeking out through the blinds, confirming that someone was home. At the place after that a dude cracked open his window just enough to hurl threats and obscenities at them until they fled the premises.

  But the third place was by far the worst: the front door flew open inwards the moment they stepped off the sidewalk, and although they couldn't see into the darkened interior of the house, they heard the distinctive click-clack of a shotgun chambering a shell echoing out through the screen door.

  Hal moved protectively between her and the house as they fled without waiting for the resident to say anything.

  For a dozen steps Ellie fully expected to hear the roar of the gun at least firing a warning shot, and more likely peppering her and her friend with buckshot. To her vast relief, instead she heard the door slam shut again; unless the unseen gunman was planning on firing through a window or something, that probably meant they were safe.

  That didn't stop them from passing up several potential houses and going until the menacing house was out of sight. Only then did they get back to work, shaken and far more cautious, but unable to think of anything else they could do other than keep trying.

  The morning passed in a miserable blur of silent houses, frightened and angry shouting, and even small, heavy household items thrown at them to chase them away. Thankfully nobody else tried to point a gun at them; Ellie wasn't sure she could've handled that again.

  After stopping to gnaw on a few handfuls of nuts and drink some water, they grudgingly agreed to check a nearby car dealership.

  That turned out to be a depressing failure, the entire place cordoned off by police tape and warning signs about it being a potential outbreak site. There were even a couple men, either soldiers or SWAT, wearing hazmat suits and holding serious looking rifles, watching the place to make sure nobody tried to go inside.