***
May 2023
One night in late spring, there was a sharp knock at the front door. Andy was the first to hear it, so she quickly rose out of bed before a second knock could wake Katie. As she made her way through the house with her flashlight, she heard the soft pitter-patter of rain hitting the roof. She grabbed her pistol from a drawer in the kitchen and checked that it was loaded. As she leaned in toward the door to look through the peephole, there was another loud knock that made her jump back several feet.
“Jesus!” she hissed in the dark before leaning in once more to take a good look. In the moonlight, she could make out two figures wearing raincoats with hoods over their heads. As one turned sideways, she recognized Susan’s profile.
“Susan!” she gasped and fumbled with the lock before finally getting the door open.
“Well, it’s about time!” Brian exclaimed as he stepped inside. Andy quickly put her index finger to her lips to silence him. She was smiling, however, and when it registered who had greeted him, his eyes grew wide.
“Oh my God…Andy? You’re…you’re here? How…?”
“Shh.” She gestured for him to come inside and placed her gun on the kitchen table.
Susan followed her brother and expressed the same shock. “We thought we’d never see you again,” she said too loudly.
Once again, Andy put her finger to her lips. “I know. But right now we have to be quiet.”
“Oh, sorry,” Susan whispered. “Is everyone asleep?”
“Morgan and Jim are…and Katie, the baby.”
“Oh!” Susan cupped her hands over her mouth. “Morgan had a girl? What’s she like?”
“She’s adorable. Now keep your coats on. Let’s go across the street and we’ll talk. I’m sure Charlie will want to see you anyway. He and Ben are staying over there.”
Susan smiled in the darkness, flashing her teeth, and in seconds she was back outside. Brian, however, still couldn’t believe Andy was there. “What happened to you?”
She didn’t answer and instead gestured once more toward the door, but he shook his head. “I’m exhausted. You go across the street with Susan. I think I’ll just fall asleep right here on this couch.”
Without waiting for permission, Brian moved into the living room and removed his coat before plopping down on the couch. He kicked off his wet shoes and laid his head on a pillow.
Andy tiptoed upstairs to retrieve a spare blanket and found him already asleep by the time she returned. She gently placed the blanket over him before putting on her coat. Susan was waiting outside.
“Your brother looks exhausted.”
“He’s just been fighting a cold.”
“He’s already asleep on the couch.”
“I’m not surprised. He drove the whole way here, and it rained almost the whole time.”
The rain was steady so they dashed across the street. Andy knocked on the front door. When Charlie opened it, a wide grin spread across his face.
“Took you long enough!” was all he said before launching through the doorway to give Susan a long embrace.
***
The next morning began with introductions. Maria and her siblings finally met the friends they had been hearing about for more than four months, and Katie was introduced to Brian and Susan.
“Oh my God, she’s so cute!” Susan squealed as Katie clenched onto her pinky with her tiny hand as Morgan beamed.
“What are things in Aspen like?” Andy asked Brian.
“It got much worse after you all left. We stopped having council meetings, and every day more people were talking about their stuff getting stolen. Everyone kept coming by to ask us where you’d all gone. I swear, in all the years living on that farm, we never had so many people dropping by to visit. I think they wanted to know if you’d found somewhere better to live.”
“Then the day before we left, Garrett and Heath showed up and threatened to shoot our cattle if we tried to take them with us,” Susan added while bouncing Katie in her arms. “We lied and said we weren’t leaving but they didn’t buy it. Then Mikhail showed up and said he’d kill us if we didn’t give them our cattle right then.”
“The whole world has officially gone mad,” said Morgan.
“What’s worse is that they’ll end up killing those animals because they have no clue how to take care of them,” Brian lamented.
“If things were so bad, why did you wait so long to come?” Charlie asked.
“Because winter lasted forever this year and the snow didn’t melt off the roads until last week,” Susan replied.
“Well, at least you made it. That’s all that matters.”
Later, Maria invited everyone to her home for dinner, and as before, the meal was fresh and home-cooked. How she accomplished this remained a mystery, but no one bothered to question it when their stomachs rumbled with hunger.
***
A week after her twentieth birthday, Andy took a break one evening from reading a medical book that Charlie had rescued from Aspen and went across the street to talk to Ben. He was tinkering around with Maria’s truck, which had been giving her problems for a while. “How’s it going?” she asked.
Ben looked up from under the hood. His hands were covered in grease, and he was sweating. The truck’s stereo was on, playing rock music from the CD player. She recognized the song but the name of the band had slipped her mind.
“I should be done soon. Her timing belt needed to be replaced.”
“Is that difficult to do?”
He shook his head. “The first few times, maybe, but now it’s like changing a light bulb.”
“I’ll take your word for it. What band is this?”
He took a swig of water from a thermos and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Def Leppard. My dad listened to them a lot growing up.”
“So did mine, I think.”
The sun was beginning to set, and they watched it descend behind the row of homes on their street. Ben started to say something when he saw his own truck make a turn onto their street and head toward them. “Good, they’re back. I’m starving,” he said as he wiped his hands off with an old rag and shut the hood of Maria’s car.
Charlie, Brian, and Jim had gone hunting. As the truck approached, two extra people could be seen riding in the back.
“I thought this town was empty,” Andy said as the vehicle drew near. Ben’s eyes followed hers.
The truck pulled up to the curb beside the house and Jim hopped out of the back before it completely stopped. Carrying a hunting rifle, he marched directly toward Ben. “Don’t worry, I checked them for weapons,” he muttered under his breath.
Andy heard the words and her eyes darted to the two strangers. They were older boys, each carrying a large backpack as they stepped out of the truck. Along with their scruffy appearance, they wore expressions of fatigue and hunger.
“Thanks, you have no idea how grateful we are,” one of them said to Andy after she returned from the house with two large glasses of water. They emptied the glasses within seconds.
Their names were Kevin and Matt. Their car had run out of gas fifteen miles east of Santa Rosa, and they’d been wandering west on I-40 when Jim and the others came across them on their way home.
“Wait, Ben? Ben and Jim?” Matt pointed back and forth between the two cousins after introductions.
“Yeah?” Ben replied wearily after a moment’s hesitation.
“Your last names aren’t ‘Kelly,’ are they?”
Ben and Jim exchanged the quickest of looks before Jim took one step back and raised his rifle until the barrel was pointed directly at Matt. “Who are you?” he demanded as both of the boys’ hands shot up in the air.
“Whoa, whoa! We’re not looking for you two, believe me,” Kevin pleaded.
“Yeah, the reward’s not
that
good. Besides, we’re unarmed. If we were hunting you, we’d have guns.”
“So if you’re not looking for us, what are you doing here?” Ben challenged.
“We’re just trying to get to Phoenix,” Kevin replied. “We both had family there and wanted to know if they’re still there.”
“Where were you before? New York? Philly?”
“New York. Brooklyn.”
“Why aren’t you two armed?” Jim asked as he lowered the barrel of his rifle slightly.
“We were, but our guns were stolen from us when we were sleeping one night in a campground in Missouri, along with all our food.”
Suddenly, Morgan could be heard shouting, “Grub’s up!” from across the street, alerting everyone that dinner was ready. Holding a squirming Katie, she emerged from the house and began heading toward them until she saw Jim holding a gun in front of two people she’d never seen before. She stopped dead in her tracks and twisted her torso to shield her child.
“It’s okay!” Jim called out to her.
“Who’s that?” Matt asked with curiosity. “And what’s with the baby?”
“Just neighbors,” Jim quickly responded.
“So why did you guys leave New York now?” Ben asked, putting the questions back on the two strangers.
Kevin looked away as he brushed his fingers through his hair. “Yeah, well, it’s gotten worse…much worse.”
“You probably won’t believe this, but Sean’s still got the virus, and he’s still using it,” Matt said.
More confused than ever, Andy watched as Ben and Jim give each other stunned looks.
Shutting his eyes and shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe what he had just heard, Ben finally blurted out, “What are you talking about? How…?”
“Sorry, man…what you and Jim did at the laboratory last year was legendary, but you didn’t destroy it all,” Matt replied apologetically.
“It’s true,” Kevin went on. “Everyone thought there might finally be a chance to finish Sean forever, but six months after you guys disappeared, people started dying again, but this time in larger numbers.” He then made a sweeping motion with his arm. “Whole towns and suburbs have been wiped out. Whoever Sean’s found to make more of the virus is very good, and very quick.”
“There must’ve been some sample he had stashed somewhere,” Matt further explained.
Ben turned away as though he couldn’t take hearing anything more. Even Jim had to grit his teeth to stay composed, and he gestured absently toward the house across the street. “C’mon inside. You must be hungry.”
Anxious, Andy and Morgan looked at each other and then back at Ben and Jim with questioning gazes. Morgan’s eyes narrowed on Jim while Andy crossed her arms over her chest. “You two better start explaining things.”
Jim looked at Ben, who started to shake his head. “We will,” he replied, ignoring his cousin. Then he and Morgan disappeared inside with Katie.
Andy cast Ben a long and discerning stare before wordlessly following the others inside.
Standing alone, Ben stared down at his dirty hands. He shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Impossible,” he breathed.
Chapter XVII
M
att and Kevin had finished their meal and soon after fell asleep on the living room floor in the house across the street. Everyone was still gathered at the dinner table.
Andy began the inquisition. “Sounds like you two were pretty famous back east.” She glared pointedly at Ben.
“What all do you know about the virus?” Jim began.
“Nothing really. All we heard in Bermuda was something about a government project.”
“Something top secret,” Charlie added. “The news stopped once everyone started dying.”
“We heard pretty much the same thing,” Maria answered.
“Us too,” said Brian.
“So the part about the virus being some top secret government project was correct,” Jim confirmed. “What most people didn’t know was that the virus was designed to be a humane biological weapon.”
“How could a biological weapon be humane?” Morgan asked dubiously. “Was it supposed to kill people quicker or without pain or something?”
Jim shook his head. “Not that kind of humane. From what Ben and I were told, the virus was designed to distinguish the difference between an adult male and everyone else based upon the level of testosterone and other hormones that are naturally in the body. Those with high enough levels of testosterone who came in contact with the virus would be killed; those who didn’t would survive.”
“Why would the government create a virus like that?” asked Morgan.
But Maria had figured out the reason before Jim could answer. “So they could go after men like my father without worrying about killing women and children in the process. My father always knew that the DEA and the Mexican government would never go into his home if they thought his family was inside. That’s why he did all his business inside our house.”
Julio frowned as his sister spoke but said nothing.
“That’s right,” Jim continued. “Terrorists in the Middle East used the same tactics. The virus was supposed to be a way to get around that problem.”
“So how did it end up killing everyone over a certain age, both men and women?” asked Andy.