The Seventh Day Read Free Page A

garage.
    "Lou?"
    I blink, realizing he is still talking.
"Where are you, Dad?"
    "Russia but I'm coming home tonight.
I'll call you in a bit. Do the things I texted you. I am coming for you."
    I nod. "Okay."
    "Don’t talk to anyone. No one. Anyone
could have this thing, Lou. Anyone."
    "Okay." I don’t know what I'm
agreeing to or what I'm saying or what he's saying. I just nod, I can’t think.
My brain is so full of blood it feels like it might burst.
    "I love you, Lou. Give Joey a kiss for
me and tell her to be strong. Keep your mom in line, kid." Keep Mom in line? He always tells me to
cut her slack. “We both know you’re the strong one. You have to be strong,
okay? Be the girl I know you are until I can get there.”
    I swallow hard as the phone disconnects,
leaving me to feel more alone than I ever have. I walk inside, noticing that
the stinging in my eyes starts to dissipate when I get into the kitchen, where
Mom is washing her hands again. Joey walks to me, holding the remote. “The
channels aren’t working.”
    I press the other button and turn on Apple
TV so she can watch Netflix. The moment her show about the Australian mermaids
starts, our house looks normal, except of course for the fact that my mom is
still naked.
    "I have to go to the store, for
Dad."
    She spins around. "NO!" Her face
is the most frightening thing I have ever seen, apart from the bloody man.
    "I have to."
    She looks like she might freak
out—worse than she already is. I'm scared I might. I give her my best
attempt at a smile. "He said we need to get some things and I won’t go
anywhere that's heavily populated. It’s just the store out here."
    She gives me a look like she might argue,
but I nod toward Joey. My sister is oblivious to my mother's nakedness,
sobbing, and cleaning. Joey’s lost in her show. Mom's eyes dart between the two
of us and finally she nods. "Hurry."
    "I will. I can use the Visa you gave
me."
    She shakes her head. "I have cash
upstairs."
    I hurry up the stairs, going up before her
so I don’t have to follow her naked body up. "What did Dad tell you?"
    “That maybe the man at the school could be
one of what the CDC is calling the infected. They think they have a form of mad
cow disease, but for humans. The people are violent and sick, beyond the help
of doctors.” She shakes her head. "Something about it being a virus, they
aren’t positive though. Not that it matters—people are getting really
sick, whatever it is. He said until they have answers, to stay inside. It's bad
in the big cities. The blood is infectious so you can’t touch it or let them
touch you.” She pauses, staring at herself. Her next sentence is softer, almost
as if she doesn't believe what she’s saying. “He said they bite. The sick
people bite the other people."
    A shiver trickles through me, tugging at
every nerve. I don't know what she means by they bite. I understand the
sentence—it’s fairly simple, and yet my head can’t seem to wrap around
it. They bite?
    She pulls on some yoga pants and a tee
shirt, staring at her reflection in the large mirror in the corner. "I
swear , I can feel his blood on me."
    My blood is ice, I’m certain of it. I nod,
still trying to be brave but inside I’m rocking the way Joey does. "I'll
just go to the store out here." Her dark hair is still in a fancy bun and
her dark-blue eyes look almost brown with the black makeup everywhere. She’s a
mess. I point at the mirror. "You should wash up before Joey sees you like
that."
    She lifts her gaze to her face, wincing and
snapping out of the weird confusion she seems to be stuck in. "Oh
God." She hands me a wad of cash and heads for the bathroom. "Be
fast."
    I’m almost excited to see her back to being
closed off and bossy. I turn and run down the stairs, locking the door to the
house when I get into the garage. I start the SUV exactly the opposite of how
my dad taught me to drive, opening the huge garage door after the vehicle is
started. As I press