Hot Zone (35 page)

I had gone through all the channels twice and hadn’t found anything to watch which was a good indicator of how upset I was. Why hadn’t Tucker called? Was I being overly demanding? I hoped not, but I was getting increasingly mad at being ignored like this.

Then there was a knock at the door, a soft knock, tentative. I was at the door before I realized that Tucker would never knock—he’d been living here too long. I opened the door, hoping anyway, to see a face I’d thought I might not see again—Cal. He looked older, tougher, and almost wary. He gave me a smile. “Hey, Madde.”

I threw myself into his arms, and he stumbled back, laughing. I launched out of his arms to go and wake Meri, and then slid to a halt on the slate floor. “Wait—Cal? Can we let her sleep a little more? I want to talk to you for a second.”

Cal came in. “I guess, but Christ, Madde, I haven’t seen her for—”

“I know. Just a sec. I have a feeling I won’t get another chance for awhile.”

Cal grinned, and he looked like his old self. “Shoot,” he said.

“Okay, well, I don’t know what you know about the changes we’ve had here in the area.”

Again the wary look. “As much as anyone, I guess. I watch TV.”

“Right. Uh, well, see, it’s not common knowledge that some of the people here have had some rather odd changes—to themselves.”

“I might have heard something about that. There are rumors.” He sounded so distant that for a minute I felt like I didn’t even know him.

“Yeah, well, it’s true. And last night we had one of the weirdest experiences yet, and as you’ll see, that’s saying something. A woman got really upset, and Meri tried to calm her down, and the woman twisted Meri’s arm.” Cal tensed. “No, she’s pretty much unhurt. The medic who came here didn’t think her arm was broken, although if it still hurts a lot she can get it x-rayed. It’s not that. The woman had some kind of caustic stuff on her—we think her skin somehow produces it, because it doesn’t hurt her. And it got on Meri’s skin and burned her. She took some pain medication, and she might be really out of it. Or she might be in pain. We didn’t bandage her, so I didn’t want you to just to grab her and not know. It’s her right arm.”

Cal nodded slowly. “I understand,” he said.

I was surprised. I had expected him to be more upset, more confused, more unbelieving. His easy acceptance threw me. “Okay then. Uh, we have a bunch of people living here, but the good news is we’re starting to move to another building in town.”

Cal gave a snort. “Town? I drove through it on the way here. Not much left.”

“I know. We’ve all had time to get used to this. It must be especially shocking for you.”

Cal gave me an intense look. “I just want Meri safe,” he said firmly. “And that’s what I’m doing here.”

“Good,” I said. I suppose having to watch all of the destruction from afar must have been terrible for him.

“So, you going to show me where she is?” he asked, smiling again.

I nodded and then stopped again. “Oh, we’re doubled and tripled up in the bedrooms. Um, if you two want some privacy, use my mom and dad’s room.”

“Are they here?”

“No. Haven’t seen them since the aftermath.” My answer was a little short.

“Oh, I’m sorry Madde. I always liked them. Who’s using the room then? Won’t they be mad if I kick them out of bed?”

“No, it’s my room.” Mine and Tucker’s, but that story could wait. “Just make yourself at home.”

I went to show him the room Meri was in and quietly opened the door and went into the dim room. I knew it was early—probably not even six o’clock yet, but I thought once Meri saw Cal, she’d make enough noise that everyone in the house would hear. I went and shook her shoulder gently. “Meri, honey. Wake up. Cal is here!”

Cal pushed me aside when Meri didn’t immediately wake. “Meri? It’s me. I love you,” he said, pushing off the covers and gathering her into his arms easily.

Meri mumbled and opened her eyes. She blinked several times. “Cal?” she whispered.

“Yes, I’m here.” He kissed her hair, and carried her out of the room.

Meri didn’t scream as I’d expected, she just stared at him and cried softly. “I can’t believe you’re really here. I can’t believe you’re back.” She tried to put her arms around him and hissed in pain as her burned and abused right arm brushed against his neck.

He turned to me. “Can you get her another pain pill?”

I nodded. “Sure.”

Cal took her down the hall and into the open door of my parent’s bedroom. He left the door open, and I went to get some Advil and water. I doubted he’d want her loopy.

I knocked on the doorframe as I reached the master bedroom. “Advil,” I said.

Meri was on the bed, sitting up against pillows. Cal was next to her, helping her get comfortable. Meri had a death grip on his arm with her good hand. I went over and held out my hands with the pills. “Here, Meri.”

She shook her head. “I’m okay.”

Cal said gently, “Take the pills, Mair. I don’t like to see you hurting.”

Meri reluctantly put out her good hand for the pills, tossing them down and chasing them with water. She handed me the cup. Her face was wet with the tears that just seemed to keep coming. I quietly left the room, shutting the door behind me.

I was tired of waiting around for Tucker to tell me everything was okay (which he really should have done. How hard was it to text
I’m okay
?). So, I decided to go over and help at the hotel. We’d had to do some work to get it set up—for example, not all the rooms had beds. But that went fairly well. Now it was just little things, and some people had already moved in. Someone had ‘visited’ a house on the edge of downtown and torched it and killed the two teens living there. I felt really bad. I hadn’t even known anyone was living there, much less two kids playing house. The result was that even more people were interested in getting some kind of police system in place, as well as grouping together. I’d planned to have Tucker handle some of the police stuff today, but that was assuming he ever contacted me.

I’d gone round and round about moving out of my parents’ house, but had finally decided to do it. The hotel could fit everyone comfortably, and I suppose it was a lot easier having everyone together. I felt like I needed to set an example, but I wasn’t real happy about leaving my house. It seemed like giving up on Mom and Dad, somehow. We planned to keep the security system in place, and I hoped it wouldn’t get looted.

I was at the hotel with only a few other early risers about when my cell buzzed. I snapped it open and had it against my ear in a second. “Hello?” I said, thinking it had to be Tucker.

“Yes, hello Miss Moreton, oh, you wanted me to call you Madde, right?” Great, if I wasn’t mistaken, it was one of the outlets herself, the beautiful Raine.

“Miss Moreton is fine,” I said, feeling bitchy.

“Of course.” I was pleased to hear her sound a little taken aback. “Gabriel wanted me to apprise you of some of the tasks he would like you to perform.”

Oh, this just got better and better. “Do tell,” I said dryly.

Raine began to list off simplistic tasks that any idiot could do. I studied my nails and rolled my eyes. “Are you writing these down?” she asked.

“Absolutely. Keep it coming.” I sat down and put my feet up and stared at the ceiling, thinking it would have to be a cold day in hell before I took orders from Miss Outlet.

Finally she seemed to run out of menial tasks. I snapped my attention back to her. “Great, I’ll get right on it,” I said with sardonic eagerness.

“Wonderful. If you have any problems, please call me and I’ll help you out.”

I took the phone from my ear and stared at it incredulously. She had to be kidding. Gabriel thought I’d signed up to be her
assistant? The man had truly lost it. “Oh yes, I’ll just put you on my speed dial, honey,” I said, and didn’t wait for a reply before hanging up the phone. I stared at it for a minute, then smiled and put her number under the ‘ignore’ list. She was the only one on it. I’d never used the feature before. How nice she gave me a chance to try it.

I felt better now that Gabriel had contacted me through Outlet number two, so I was relieved of the chore of calling him. And since I wasn’t doing her bidding, I had more time today than I thought I’d have. I did plan to do some of the things I’d talked to Gabriel about before, but as far as the other tasks—not a chance. If he didn’t like it, he could always withhold my pay that I wasn’t getting anyway.

I was whistling as I moved some cleaning supplies into a closet. I had chosen a small room on the ground floor—very accessible. I’d thought I’d share it with Tucker, but if he didn’t call, I was going to kill him, so then I’d have the room to myself. No, now I needed to be nice. Sure I did. Humph.

I didn’t really have much stuff here. I decided I would drive home and go ahead and move here today. Then I realized that Meri and Cal were no doubt still in there. I sighed and lay on the bed, wondering if it was too early to make some calls to neighboring communities. Next I realized that Gabriel hadn’t given me the contact information. I could go there to the actual towns, I guessed, but then again, I could just close my eyes for a little bit. I hadn’t gotten much sleep last night. Before I did nap, I went to the door and engaged all the locks. Strange that I felt like I needed to do that here, when at home things were mostly left open. Course, there were other people coming and going here. People I didn’t know all that well, if at all. I’d seen some people here I’d never seen before, and suspected we had some newcomers. I wasn’t sure why people would come here to Catfish, but as long as we could handle them, we wouldn’t turn anyone away.

I shut off my phone with a glare at it—try to message me now Tucker! And I lay down, just thinking I’d snooze for a half hour or so.

I was dreaming of my illness during the aftermath of the bombs. My head had hurt so badly. I came awake slowly to realize that it wasn’t just in my dream that my head had ached. I did have a headache. It wasn’t anything compared to the headache I’d had then, but it wasn’t anything minor either. Maybe I was dehydrated or something. I took my cell phone and checked the time—almost noon! Crap! I’d slept four hours! I saw I had messages, and scanned them briefly. There were two phone messages—one from Meri asking where I’d hied off to, and another from Phil saying she’d be home by dinner. I had no texts. Damn! Now I was really getting worried. What if the toxic ex- had poisoned him? What if she’d hit him over the head? What if she’d won him back? No, that was no way to think. I believed he loved me. But I also believed he was a very nice guy whom a sophisticated manipulator could guilt trip into about anything. Great. Now I was insecure. Lovely.

I also had a notification that several blocked calls had been received. I smiled, feeling a little better. I pushed my tangled hair out of my face and called Meri. She picked up right away. “Hi Meri, it’s me.”

“Where are you? I would have called the police if we had any. Are you all right? Don’t tell me you’ve run off somewhere.”

“Meri, take it down a notch, okay? I’m at the hotel and fell asleep. I’m on my way back to the house now.”

There was a short silence. “You didn’t, um, yeah. That sounds good. Come straight back here, because …” There was a short pause while Meri tried to come up with a lie. Meri was the absolute worst liar in the world. “Cal wants to talk to you.”

I smiled into the phone. “Put him on,” I invited.

“Er, he’s not here at the moment. He’s, um, in the er, shower.”

“Okay.” I said, cutting her some slack. If I knew her, she was nearly in tears. Lying made her feel awful. Whatever it was probably didn’t warrant any concern, but I was curious over what she wouldn’t tell me. “I’m on my way. See you soon.”

I shut the phone and unlocked the door. Now that I’d claimed the room, I had to keep the key card with me or be locked out. We’d put the key cards on rubber bands around the doors of the unclaimed rooms. When someone claimed a room, they took the key card. Except for one person who took four suites for himself, it had worked out well.

I refused to let myself think about Tucker, and so inevitably thought about him the entire ride home. What if he had just ‘said’ he loved me? I didn’t believe it, but what if it had happened that way? I think I might just swear off men and get myself a soapbox and a car and travel from town to town preaching of their evils. Okay, not really, but it would be rather a blow to my self-esteem. Maybe that was too light. As I considered that Tucker might not want me I understood I liked him more than I’d thought.

I saw there weren’t nearly as many cars as usual at the house and guessed some of the other people who lived here had the same thought about moving to the hotel that I did. I went into the house and saw that Meri was wringing her hands. Not a good sign. Cal was standing near her, and they looked like they’d both been waiting for me.

I felt another sense of foreboding hit me, and nearly followed it and ran back to my car. Something really bad would be happening. Then I frowned. No, damn it! I did not have precognition! I refused to have it, and that was that.

Cal said easily, “Hey, Madde. Would you come talk to us for a little bit?”

I didn’t want to. I said, my voice sounding just as easy, “Actually can we chat in the kitchen? I’m starved.”

Meri shot Cal a look, a warning look he seemed to ignore. “Sure.”

We went into the kitchen, and I found that like old Mother Hubbard’s house, our cupboards were bare. Whatever food we’d had was most likely now at the hotel. I finally found a can of peas and heated them up in the microwave. I didn’t even have butter for them. Pathetic.

Cal and Meri mostly talked to each other as I got the peas ready. I sat down and spooned up a mouthful. “Okay, hit me. What’s up?”

They looked at each other. Meri said, “Just try to hear him out, okay Madde?”

I nodded slowly.

Cal was watching me carefully. He had dark hair in a short, almost buzz cut. He had green eyes and very sharp features. He wasn’t especially tall, but was muscular in a lithe, cat-like way. He always seemed too intense to me, but Meri adored him. “I want to know more about Gabriel,” he said bluntly.