Shut In (Isolation Book 1) by Nathan Jones

Author:Nathan Jones [Jones, Nathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-11-21T16:00:00+00:00

Ellie stared at her phone with a sort of numb blankness.

Not content to take Nick's word for it, she'd tried calling the nursing home herself. The phone had rang and then gone to a full voicemail box three times in a row before she gave up. Then she'd looked up the numbers of some of the nursing home's staff and tried calling them, to similar results.

As a last desperate measure, she'd even tried to contact emergency services in KC to ask them what they knew. Only to find them, of course, so bogged down with other people calling in their own emergencies that she'd be waiting on the line until long after her phone's battery life ran out.

Something had happened, something bad.

Maybe the place had been hit with Zolos and evacuated to the nearest hospital, with no time to inform loved ones of the move. Or maybe the staff had all refused to come in to work, and her mom and dozens of other elderly people in need of special care were all helpless and suffering. Or maybe the local government had created a quarantine camp, like LA had, and her mom had been moved there as a precautionary measure.

The worst thing was that she had no way of knowing. Whether she should grieve or try to take action or simply fret helplessly.

Ellie had already done her best to resign herself to the fact that she might lose her mom, back when she'd been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's. That even if her mom lived for a long time to come, before long she'd practically be a stranger. It was a heartbreaking reality that she'd struggled with for a long time, and still struggled with.

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.

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