The Island - Part 2 (Fallen Earth) Read Free Page A

cooking.”
    She hesitated and looked at the boy beside her.
    The sudden thought struck me that she didn’t want him to hear what she was about to say. I rose and motioned toward him.
    “Come on Daniel. Let’s go check out some of these old houses.”
    The old woman reached out and pulled him close.
    “It’s okay, Hill William. He was there. He’s heard it already. It’s just sad.”
    She pulled him over and put her arms around him.
    “I turned it on for the music. I couldn’t find any. Every station had nothing but news. They’re saying that The Fever is spreading too fast to contain. It’s in every state now, even Alaska and Hawaii. The announcer said that new estimates put the death toll by morning between five and ten thousand.”
    Her voice trailed off into stunned silence. I sat down as abruptly as I had risen. Everyone, including me, had thought it would take weeks for the disease to migrate that far.
    “The hospitals are in trouble. The infection control procedures aren’t working. Doctors and nurses are coming down with it faster than the general public,” she continued.  “Not everyone is dying from it. About 40 percent survive if they get good care. That’s the problem though. There are too many people sick.”
    “This morning we heard a thousand dead by nightfall, not five to ten thousand,” Denise blurted out. “Where are they coming up with these numbers?”
    Elsie lifted weary shoulders.
    “I don’t know. The annou ncer said we were playing catch-up.”
    “What the hell does that mean?” Devon said in a sharp voice. I glanced over at him and stifled the sudden urge step between them. He could question the reports all he wanted, but he was not going to curse her in the process.
    “It means two things,” I said and ticked them off on my fingers. “One, the reports are an estimate. No one knows how many are actually dying.”
    I let that sink in before I stuck up finger number two. “Second, people have been ill and didn’t know it. You don’t catch a bug in the morning and end up sick by afternoon with most diseases. There’s an incubation period where it multiplies. By the time you start feeling bad, your body is swarming with the infection.”
    Elsie looked old in the firelight. The flames highlighted the deep wrinkles at the corners of her eyes and cast her face in shadows that left her looking gaunt and tired.
    “They revised that today,” she said quietly.
    I shot her a surprised look.
    “They said it could manifest symptoms in three to four days. That’s down from a week to ten days. They said The Fever is evolving.”
    She looked at Joshua. “I don’t think you will be evacuated, at least not for a while. Police, fire and rescue, they’re expected to be swamped trying to enforce the ban. They’re not talking detention. They’re saying that anyone violating the travel ban could be treated as a mass murderer.”
    I gave the old woman a sideways glance. She caught my eye and looked puzzled. I shook my head and turned back to the fire, mentally chalking up an other note about Elsie Morgan. Most of the day she’d talked like a grandma who’d never made it out of the flatlands. The words she had just spoken could have come from an English professor.
    “What does that mean?” Kelly broke in.
    “It means if you can’t get home by tomorrow noon, you might get shot for trying.”
    Tyler wiped hair from his eyes.
    “You can’t be serious.”
    Elsie nodded. “I am. It’s not official policy and groups are already threatening lawsuits, but the announcer said noon tomorrow, people better stop wherever they are until they see how the ban is going to be enforced.”
    She glanced around the fire. “At minimum, you’re looking at jail time.”
    The dark- haired girl who had been so friendly earlier spoke up.
    “Well they can’t just leave us out here, can they?”
    Elsie shrugged. “I don’t think they know you’re out here. If they do, I think they have bigger things