Pandemic: The Beginning (Pandemic Book One) Read online

  Seeing that he was alone and that the door leading to the backyard was locked, she took the two steps down into the garage, and with the gun pointed at the floor and the magazine in her other hand, she walked toward Matt. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I saw Jack running.” She stopped beside Matt and held out the gun for him to take. “I was worried so I brought you this.”

  He stared at the gun in her hand like it was a foreign object, then he gazed at her before finally taking it and the magazine from her.

  Not sure what she expected him to do, she stood there watching him, waiting for some kind of guidance. When he didn’t say anything, she asked, “What happened out there?”

  With a look of disbelief, he slowly shook his head. “Jack’s gone stark raving mad.”

  At that moment, pounding sounded on the man-door.

  Jessica let out a scream, her heart in her throat. “Is that him?”

  Matt’s gaze shot to the door, then he shoved the magazine into the gun. “Yeah.”

  He seemed rather calm, which helped to settle Jessica’s nerves.

  Matt walked to the door and shouted, “Jack! Calm down.”

  “Open the door,” Jack yelled. “Open it right now.”

  Matt shook his head. “No can do, man. The Tylenol is out front. Grab it, then get off my property.”

  “Or what?” Jack said, his voice shaky yet defiant.

  Matt racked the slide, the sound loud and clear. “Or I will shoot you.”

  Jessica stared at Matt, her eyes wide with shock and fear. Would Matt really do that? But one look at his face and she believed him wholeheartedly.

  There was silence on the other side of the door.

  “Do you think he left?” she whispered.

  Matt looked at her, his expression serious. “Don’t know, but I’m not gonna open the door to find out.”

  They stood there for at least two minutes before Matt lowered the gun.

  “Let’s go inside,” he said, tucking the gun into the back of his waistband.

  Jessica was more than happy to comply. She led the way, and the moment they stepped into the house, the kids began asking what had happened.

  Matt came into the house, locking the door behind him, then, without answering the kids, he strode to the front room. Jessica and the kids followed him. When they caught up with him, Jessica looked over his shoulder as he peered out the window, and to her great relief, she saw Jack trudging down the sidewalk, away from their house.

  Exhaling audibly, Jessica felt her shoulders began to relax. “He’s gone,” she said.

  “But will he come back?” Matt muttered.

  She didn’t want to consider that, but she knew Matt was right. After all, Jack had hidden in the shadows waiting for Matt to appear. Who knew what he was capable of? His family was dying. He had to be desperate.

  Matt stepped away from the window and turned to Jessica and the kids. “I’m going to board up the windows by the front door.”

  Anything to keep them safe. “Good idea.”

  “I want to help,” Dylan said.

  “What happened out there?” Kayla asked. “I mean, we saw Jack running, Dad. Did he…” Her eyebrows tugged together. “Did he touch you?”

  Matt smiled and shook his head. “No, sweetie. I made it back into the garage before he caught up with me.”

  This was surreal. Their neighbor had chased Matt down and Matt had threatened to shoot him if he didn’t leave. All because of a virus. A deadly virus.

  Blinking to clear her mind, Jessica forced a smile but she felt like a fraud. She’d never been so worried and so terrified in her life. She liked to be in control, and right now she wasn’t. Not in any way, shape, or form. And she was pretty sure she wouldn’t be for a long, long time.

  While Matt and Dylan went out to the garage to get scraps of wood along with a hammer and nails, Jessica thought about Jack’s comment that no one was answering 911. Curious if he was exaggerating, she went into her bedroom and closed the door, then dialed 911. A moment later a busy signal sounded. Just as Jack had said. Frowning, Jessica tried again. Same result. Then she tried one more time. Busy.

  What was happening? Why was no one answering? Was help even available? Was everyone home with their families? Or were so many people sick or dead that there simply weren’t enough people to help?

  The thought that there was no one to call in an emergency made Jessica extremely nervous. What if someone got hurt? Or what if someone tried to break in? What if Jack came back with a gun of his own and shot his way into their house? There was no one to call for help. It was all up to them.

  With shaking hands, Jessica tucked her phone into her back pocket.

  They were on their own.

  Chapter 12

  Matt

  “We’ll have to cut this down to a narrower size,” Matt said as he hefted a large sheet of plywood. It was left over from a woodworking project he’d recently completed. He’d almost tossed it, but now he was glad he hadn’t.

  Dylan helped him move some things around in the garage so he could wheel his table saw into a space where he could work. A few minutes later they had two long, narrow sheets of plywood that would fit perfectly over the sidelights.

  “Grab the hammer,” he said to Dylan. Then, with the two sections of wood in his hands, he turned to go into the house.

  “Dad,” Dylan said, his tone stopping Matt in his tracks.

  “Yeah?” He lowered his arms so that the edge of the wood rested on the ground, then he turned to Dylan.

  With his hands holding the hammer and box of nails, Dylan gestured to Matt’s back with his chin. “Why do you have a gun in the back of your pants?”

  He’d forgotten that was there, but after what had happened with Jack, he had every intention of keeping it handy.

  “Uh,” he said, “just in case.”

  Dylan grinned. “Can I have a gun?”

  “No,” Matt said without thinking. Then he realized he should probably take some time to teach both Dylan and Kayla how to use his guns. At a minimum, he needed to review gun safety.

  At the look of disappointment on Dylan’s face, he smiled. “You can’t have a gun, but I’ll show you how to use it. Okay?”

  Dylan’s face lit up. “Okay.”

  He thought about Jessica. She wasn’t going to be happy about what he’d just promised.

  Not able to worry about that just then, he picked up the wood and carried it into the house, then he and Dylan nailed the boards into place.

  It looked eerie and kind of creepy to have wood covering the glass, but if that’s what it took to keep deranged neighbors and anyone else who might wish to do them harm from getting inside—or at least slowing any intruders down—then the boards would stay.

  “Dad’s gonna show me how to use a gun,” Dylan said.

  Matt turned around to see who he was telling, hoping it was Kayla so he would have a chance to talk to Jessica about it first, but no luck.

  “Oh really?” Jessica said, her eyebrows nearly in her hairline as she looked at Matt.

  “Yeah,” Dylan said, excitement in his voice. “Then I might get a gun of my own.”

  Now Jessica’s eyes widened as she stared at Matt. “Can I talk to you?”

  “Yeah. Sure. Let me put my tools away and then we can go into my office.”

  After putting the hammer and box of nails in the garage, Matt turned to Dylan. “Let me know if anyone comes to the door, but don’t open it.”

  Dylan rolled his eyes. “Of course not, Dad.”

  “Thanks.” Matt went into his office with Jessica. She closed the door and sat in his desk chair. He sat in the other chair. “The kids need to know how to use guns safely.”

  “That’s not what I want to talk to you about.”

  That surprised him. “Okay.”

  She scraped a hand through her hair. “I called 911—”

  “What for?” he asked, cutting her off. Would he
get in trouble for threatening to shoot Jack?

  “I wanted to see if they would answer.”

  That’s when he remembered Jack telling them that no one had picked up when he’d called 911. “Oh. And?”

  She clutched her hands together. “I tried three separate times and each time all I got was a busy signal.”

  That was deeply concerning. “Let’s try again. Maybe it’ll be working now.”

  She nodded, clearly eager to be proven wrong.

  Matt pulled his phone out of his pocket, dialed 911, then put the phone on speaker. A busy signal filled the silence.

  Jessica cupped her face with her hands, her eyebrows drawing together. “See?”

  Quietly sighing, Matt put his phone back in his pocket.

  Jessica dropped her hands to her lap. “There’s no one to help us. If someone gets hurt, we’re on our own. If the house catches fire, we’re on our own.” Her voice became louder with each sentence. “If someone wants to hurt us, Matt…” Her eyes were bracketed with terror. “We’ll be on our own.”

  Knowing they had no one to turn to in a true emergency made Matt feel cut off. And after what had happened with Jack, he was wary to reach out to his neighbors.

  Suddenly it didn’t seem so crazy to teach his fourteen-year-old son how to use a handgun.

  “What are we going to do?” Jessica asked as her hands twisted together in her lap. “I mean, what if Jack comes back with a gun and forces his way inside?”

  “That’s not going to happen.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  His shoulders slumped. “No. I don’t.” Then he straightened in his seat. “But you don’t know that he will, so let’s not assume the worst.”

  She sighed. “Fine.”

  When they finished speaking, Matt stood, prepared to discuss gun safety with his family.

  “Are you ready?” Jessica asked as she stood beside him.

  He nodded, not liking that he was being forced to teach his fourteen-year-old son and sixteen-year-old daughter how to use a gun in self-defense. Against neighbors.

  “Yeah,” he murmured.

  Side by side, he and Jessica walked into the family room, but when they crossed the threshold, they found Kayla and Dylan sitting on the couch in the family room with Kayla holding the remote and frantically changing channels.

  “What’s going on?” Matt asked.

  Kayla turned and looked at him, her eyes wide. “None of the news channels are on.”

  “What?” He held out his hand and she gave him the remote. He went to their favorite local channel, but it was showing a sitcom. “That’s weird.” For the last two days, it seemed as if the only thing all the news channels were broadcasting was information about the bird flu. “Maybe people were tired of hearing about the flu.”

  Then he went to Fox News. Vertical colored bars covered the screen. They were off the air.

  Stunned to see something he’d never expected to see on a twenty-four hour news station, he felt his mouth fall open as he turned to Jessica, who looked just as shocked as he felt.

  “It’s the beginning of the end, isn’t it?” she whispered.

  He didn’t want to acknowledge it, but he couldn’t deny the obvious. “Yeah.”

  Chapter 13

  Jessica

  Jessica was having a hard time accepting what Matt had just acknowledged.

  The end had come. The end to all she’d known. The end to safety and security. The end to her easy life, to the comforts she’d always taken for granted. The end to society.

  The end to life as she knew it.

  “What’s happening?” Kayla asked, her voice gushing fear.

  With her throat filling with a rapidly growing knot, Jessica couldn’t speak. Instead, she placed what she hoped was a comforting hand on Kayla’s shoulder.

  “The newscasters aren’t on,” Matt said, stating the obvious.

  “They’re all dead, right, Dad?” Dylan asked, his eyes tight with distress.

  Matt had a grim look on his face. “I don’t know. They probably just don’t have enough people to run things.”

  “No,” Kayla said. “They’re all dead.”

  With the matter-of-fact way Kayla had said that, Jessica didn’t know how to reply. Because she knew her daughter was right.

  The doorbell rang.

  They all froze.

  Jessica’s gaze shot to Matt, whose eyes were wide as he stared at the front door. With the sidelights boarded up, they had no way to see who was on the porch. There was no peephole.

  “Who do you think it is?” Kayla frantically whispered as she stood from the couch.

  An image of their desperate neighbor, Jack, flew into Jessica’s mind. It had only been a few hours since he’d been there. Had his family died? Had he come back with a gun? Ready to kill them all?

  Terror wound its way up Jessica’s throat. She could hardly breathe.

  A knock sounded. Not the pounding that Jack had done earlier, but a soft, hesitant tapping.

  That almost made it worse. Like he was trying to draw them out.

  Matt moved toward the front door.

  “No,” Jessica whisper-screamed. What if Jack had a gun? What if he shot through the door and hit Matt? Killed Matt?

  Matt stopped and turned to her. After a moment he softly sighed before walking the rest of the way to the door. “Who is it?” he called through the door.

  Jessica’s gaze was riveted to the door.

  “Brooke,” a soft voice answered.

  It wasn’t Jack. Slumping in relief, Jessica shifted her gaze to Matt, who turned and looked at her with a question in his eyes.

  “She might be infected,” Dylan said.

  “She’s an orphan,” Kayla said, her voice hitching like she was trying to hold back tears.

  Jessica regarded her daughter, trying to imagine what it would be like if Kayla was left completely alone and went to Brooke’s family for shelter. What if they turned her away?

  The thought broke her heart.

  Then she thought about her mom and Rochelle. Dead. So many dead. They couldn’t leave Brooke out on her own.

  “We have to help her,” Jessica heard herself say.

  Matt stared at her, then he turned to the door. “Are you sick?”

  “No,” Brooke said.

  “Come to the living room window.” He walked to the large window and opened the blinds. Jessica and the kids followed. A moment later Brooke came into view. Her hair was disheveled, she looked exhausted, and she had a backpack slung over her shoulders. But she didn’t look sick—good color in her face, eyes clear. She just looked like someone who had been through hell.

  “Are you alone?” Matt asked.

  Brooke glanced to the side as a German Shepherd appeared next to her. “Cleo’s with me.”

  “Okay. Hold on a minute.”

  She nodded again.

  “You’re not going to let her in, are you?” Dylan asked, his face panic-stricken. “If she’s infected she’ll kill us all.”

  Matt’s gaze went from Jessica to Dylan to Kayla. “I don’t think she’s sick.”

  “You can’t know that,” Dylan said, his voice tense.

  “I have an idea,” he said, then he turned to Kayla. “Gather some blankets and a pillow.”

  Kayla’s eyebrows bunched, but she nodded, then left the room. A few moments later she was back with what he’d requested.

  “Follow me,” he said before turning and walking out to the garage.

  All three of them followed him, watching as he took an air mattress from a shelf, blew it up, then spread blankets on it.

  “What if she and Cleo stay in here until the incubation period has passed? If Brooke’s healthy, she and Cleo can come in.” He looked at each of them, clearly wanting their agreement.

  “That’s a good idea,” Jessica said.

  “Yes,” Kayla said as a relieved smile lit her face.

  “Yeah,” Dylan added. “I guess that would b
e okay.”

  “Let me put some food and water out there for them,” Jessica said. Hurrying into the kitchen, she gathered what she had in mind. Once she’d set the items in the garage, she nodded to Matt.

  He unlocked the man-door that led to the backyard, opened it, peered outside, then closed it, leaving it unlocked.

  The four of them went back into the house, locked the door from the garage to the house, and walked to the front window.

  Brooke and Cleo stood where they’d left them.

  “You and Cleo go into the garage through the backyard door and lock it behind you,” Matt said. “Knock on the door that leads to the house when you’re safely inside the garage.”

  A tentative smile lifted Brooke’s lips. She nodded. “Okay.”

  The four of them hustled to the door that led to the garage. A few moments later a knock sounded on that door.

  “I’m here,” Brooke said.

  “Is the door to the backyard locked?” Matt asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Okay. Do you have food for Cleo?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do.” Then he explained their plan. “You and Cleo should have what you need to get you through until tomorrow evening.”

  “Thank you,” she said through the door.

  Jessica could hear tears in her voice and wanted nothing more than to gather her daughter’s best friend into her arms and tell her everything would be okay.

  She only hoped it would be, and that Brooke wasn’t carrying the virus that had killed both of her parents.

  Chapter 14

  Matt

  Matt tossed and turned all night, his mind on Brooke. Had he endangered his family by letting her in? True, it was just the garage, but if she was sick, the virus would be all over the garage, all over their things.

  It had been a mistake, he was sure of it. But he couldn’t leave her on her own. She was just a teenaged girl. An orphan. Letting her in had been the right thing to do. Besides, she might be perfectly healthy. Although she had been around two people who had died from the virus so she had to have been exposed.