Pandora - Contagion by Eric L. Harry

Author:Eric L. Harry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2018-10-09T18:05:06+00:00

Chapter 22

THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY, VIRGINIA

Infection Date 53, 1730 GMT (1:30 p.m. Local)

Emma drank another cup of coffee at the cabin’s small dinette. The caffeine stimulated her. Objectives, plans to accomplish them, necessities required for success, the identification and sequencing of subtasks and prerequisites in a hand-drawn Gantt chart—details poured forth. She sat at the table trying to keep track of it all. When she heard her brother call to her from outside, she looked at her phone. Over an hour had passed since she had heard the loud bang. She had been sitting in the same place and position since she had breakfast that morning. Her muscles felt stiff when she rose.

Outside, Noah stood at a distance with Natalie, Jake, Chloe, and Isabel.

“Hi!” Isabel said. A green mask, not the usual blue from the hospital, dangled beneath her chin, but she didn’t raise it before coming over to give Emma a hug, no longer worried by Emma’s significantly lower level of contagiousness. Emma patted her twin sister’s back until Isabel pulled away. “Surprise.”

It wasn’t actually much of a surprise. When Emma heard the helicopter, she’d assumed it was Isabel.

“We brought you some more supplies!” Noah shouted. “And some pens and paper!”

Both would help. “My hearing was unaffected by SED, Noah. No need to yell.” Her brother and his kids each carried sacks. Everyone but Isabel had rifles. Emma jammed her fingernails into her palms and took deep breaths, slowly, slowly, until the worst of the trembling passed.

Noah told the kids to follow him inside with the supplies, but Natalie said to stay outside. Natalie’s look at Noah led him to agree instantly with his wife. She controlled Noah quite effectively. Sex is a powerful tool, the inner voice suggested helpfully. Noah and the kids nodded at Emma awkwardly as each laid their bags beside the front door. Natalie directed everyone to the shade of a steep hillside—outside, not inside the cabin.

Natalie sat on old stump. Noah, fittingly, sank to the ground at her feet. The two kids settled cross-legged onto grassy patches. Jake tossed pebbles down the hill. Chloe stared piercingly at Emma. Isabel and Emma sat on a flat rock outcropping roughly in the center of the semi-circle formed by their family.

Isabel held Emma’s hand, gloved fingers interlaced, just as she had on the Air Force transport from Siberia to Washington after Emma had been infected. Isabel patted and rubbed Emma’s jeaned thigh. “I was so worried about you after you ran off.”

Emma said, “In retrospect, it was a dangerous trip down here.”

“Did you run into any trouble?” Noah asked.

“There was a truck driver. He wanted sex in exchange for the ride, but he was disgustingly ugly.”

“Did he…?” Natalie began before glancing down at her kids.

“Did he what?”

No one uttered a word until Isabel, haltingly, said, “I think she’s asking, you know, whether he, you know…?”

“Raped you,” Chloe explained.

“Oh. No.”

Natalie put a hand to her chest and exhaled loudly. “I’m sorry, Emma. I was just afraid, you know…”

“That he raped me? No.

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