Death's Awakening (12 page)

Karmen walked over to
her laptop and started a Google search for “why have flights
been canceled?” A news story popped up near the top explaining
that the CDC had issued an order to stop all airline traffic in hopes
of slowing the spread of the latest outbreak of the flu. They were
urging anyone who was showing signs of the virus to stay where they
were and not to travel until they were fully recovered.

Holy crap.

Canceling flights to
slow an outbreak of the flu?

School had been
canceled for the past two days and now this? People got the flu all
the time, so what was the big deal? It sounded like your typical case
of people overreacting to the slightest thing. The country had gone
completely paranoid these days.

Karmen closed her
laptop and picked up her phone again. Well, if her parents weren’t
coming home for another few days and school was closed too, she was
going to make the best of it.

She texted her best
friend Kate.
House 2 myself still! Want 2 come over?

There was no immediate
response, so Karmen sent a message to Melody, too.

While she waited to
hear back from someone, she went in to the kitchen to make something
to eat. Her mom usually bought groceries on the weekend and the
people who came over for the party Friday night basically ate
everything they had in the house. She sighed and grabbed an apple
from the bottom drawer.

Maybe she should order
pizza or something, but she’d already eaten a ton of junk food
the last few days. With summer right around the corner, she couldn’t
afford to gain any weight. She was going to have to find her mom’s
credit card and go grocery shopping later.

Her phone buzzed
against the top of the counter. Karmen grabbed jar of peanut butter
from the pantry and a knife from the drawer, then checked the message
as she cut the apple into small slices. She dipped the first piece
into the jar, coating it with peanut butter.

My dad and sister
are really sick. Can’t leave them. Have u talked 2 Kate?

That was from Melody.
Karmen sighed. Too sick for her to leave and come hang out with a
friend?

No, why? Everything
okay?

The phone buzzed again.

Mark died this
morning.

Karmen had to read it
three times before the words sunk in. Mark was Kate’s little
brother. He was only two years old.

She set her half-eaten
apple slice on the counter and slid down onto the cold tile floor.
What the hell was happening? She’d spent the last couple of
days chilling out on the couch, watching marathons of Vampire
Diaries. Had the world completely changed in just two days? Was
everyone sick?

She dialed Aaron’s
number, her stomach suddenly queasy. He was supposed to come over
last night and watch a movie, but had totally bailed on her. Usually
he would at least call or something, but she’d never heard from
him. She’d been too pissed to call him earlier, but now, her
hands were trembling as she placed the phone to her ear and waited
for him to pick up.

The call went to
voicemail.

She tried him again,
this time calling his home phone instead of his cell.

On the fourth ring, his
mother picked up. “Hello?”

Her voice was strange
and tight.

“Hi Mrs. Goldman.
It’s Karmen. Can I talk to Aaron?”

Aaron’s mom
sobbed into the phone and Karmen’s heart went still. She
waited, not knowing what to say.

“Oh Karmen,
honey, I’m sorry, I should have called you,” Mrs. Goldman
said. Someone was coughing in the background. “It just happened
so fast, I didn’t even know what to think or who to call.”

“What happened?”
Karmen asked. “Is Aaron okay?”

“He’s been
sick since Sunday night.” His mom’s voice cracked as she
answered. “Karmen, Aaron passed away this morning.”

The phone dropped from
Karmen’s hand and the screen cracked as it hit the floor. She
stared straight ahead, unable to move or cry or even breathe.

How could Aaron be
dead? She’d just seen him on Friday night. She’d kissed
him. He hadn’t even been sick at all. Not even a cough or a
fever or anything. How had he gotten sick and died all in just the
last couple of days?

She pulled her knees
tight to her chest and lay her head against them. It was long past
midnight before she finally got up from the floor and made her way to
bed.

The neighborhood was
eerie and silent. The only time she remembered it being so quiet was
one morning after a particularly heavy snowfall. She had woken up
super early and taken a walk in the powdery white morning. But there
was no snow this time. It was sunny and hot and beautiful. The
flowers were blooming and the birds were still singing. Everything
looked normal for summer, except that there should have been children
playing in the yards and dads mowing lawns. People should be swimming
in their pools and heading out to the lake or the grocery store or
the mall.

Was anyone even going
to work anymore? Parrish couldn’t be sure.

Not one person had even
come over to check on her after her mother died. She was sure someone
had to know by now. But no one had come to see if she was doing okay
here by herself.

She hadn’t been
able to reach her aunt Stacey, her mom’s sister. She was
supposed to be coming to stay while her mom went to join her dad and
Zoe in Paris, but something in Parrish’s gut told her she
wasn’t coming. That she was sick, too, and would never be
coming to visit again.

She’d tried to
call her dad for days, but couldn’t get through to him. She
kept getting the same message about the cellular network being busy.
When she looked it up online, she found out that all of the signals
in New York City had been jammed like crazy and service had been
really patchy. She wasn’t sure what hotel they were staying in
and couldn’t find her mom’s notes about it anywhere.

She’d been
working her way through the phone book, calling every swanky hotel in
Manhattan, asking for her dad. The answer was always the same. No one
by that name was registered.

Parrish sat down in the
center of the living room floor and dialed the number for the Four
Seasons. It took a dozen rings for someone to finally pick up, and
when they did, Parrish went through her routine of asking for her
father or Zoe and explaining that they were guests of the New York
Philharmonic.

“Hold on one
moment and I’ll connect you,” the man said.

A gasp escaped
Parrish’s open mouth. She clutched the phone so tight against
her face, its warmth nearly burned her.

Three rings in, someone
picked up and Parrish nearly cried from relief.

“Hello?”
Zoe whispered into the phone.

“Zoe? It’s
me. Oh my God, are you okay?”

“Parrish?”

“Yes, I’ve
been trying to reach you for days,” she said. She couldn’t
sit still. She hopped up and paced the floor in front of the couch.
“The cell service where you are is completely screwed and I
couldn’t get through. I didn’t know where you guys were
staying.”

Zoe was crying. Parrish
could hear the little choked sobs coming from her sister and it broke
her heart.

“Is everything
okay, Zoe? Are you sick?”

“No,” she
said. Her voice was so small and quiet.

Parrish took a breath
in and released it slowly. “What about dad?” she asked.
“Is he okay?”

More sobs. Parrish
closed her eyes and leaned back against the wall.

“Is he there with
you now?”

“He’s in
his bedroom,” Zoe said. “We have two rooms here in a
suite and as soon as he started getting sick yesterday, he locked
himself in there and told me not to come in unless he opened the
door. He said he didn’t want to get me sick, too.”

Parrish balled her free
hand into a tight fist and slammed it against the wall.

“What about a
doctor?” she asked. “Can you call an ambulance or a
doctor there? Is there anyone you can call for help?”

“Parrish, I’m
so scared,” Zoe said. “People here are going crazy.
There’s a lot of people really sick. A lot of people are
fighting. They say there aren’t any more doctors who can help.
All the hospitals are closed. I was supposed to play tonight for the
orchestra, but they canceled all the rehearsals and the last time I
called Mr. Evans, he didn’t answer the phone.”

“Mr. Evans?
That’s the guy who invited you to play there?”

“Yes.”

“You left a
message for him?”

“Yes, but he
never called me back,” she said. “What if he’s
sick, too? I don’t know what to do.”

Parrish ran a hand
through her hair. She didn’t know what to do either. Her sister
was stuck in the middle of New York City. Millions of people, but no
one she really knew who could help. With flights temporarily canceled
by the CDC, Parrish had no idea how to get her sister home.

“Can you knock on
Dad’s door and tell him I’m on the phone?” she
said. “Maybe if he hears it’s me, he’ll be able to
pick up the phone.”

“Okay, hold on.”

Zoe walked away from
the phone. In the distance, Parrish could hear a few knocks. She
heard Zoe’s voice, but couldn’t make out what she was
saying. After a couple of minutes, Zoe came back on.

“He isn’t
answering me,” she said. “Maybe he’s asleep.”

Parrish brought her
hand to her mouth. What if he wasn’t sleeping?

“Can I talk to
Mom?” Zoe asked.

Parrish shook her head.
How could she tell Zoe the truth? It would crush any hope she had
right now. She was only ten years old. No one that age needed to go
through something like this.

“She’s not
here right now,” Parrish lied. “She went to the store,
but I’ll tell her I talked to you. Do you have everything you
need for a few days? What are you doing for food?”

“They’re
still running room service,” Zoe said. “Dad showed me how
to order and charge it to the room.”

“Okay, I want you
to order everything you see on the menu that will stay good for a
long time. Stuff like cereal and muffins,” she said. “Is
there a mini-bar in your room? Like a little fridge or something with
drinks and peanuts and stuff?”

“Yeah, I already
ate some cookies from there, but Dad said all of that was really
expensive.”

“Screw expensive,
you don’t need to worry about that right now,” she told
her sister. “Just get as much food as you can out of there and
hide it away in a safe place.”

“Why?”

“Because you
might have to be there for a little while before I can get to you,”
she said. “And someone might break in and try to take your food
if they run out.”

Zoe began to cry again.
Parrish hated herself for scaring her, but she needed to think
realistically at this point. If people were already going crazy and
stealing things and breaking out into fights in the city, it was only
a matter of time before the desperate ones started going door-to-door
in the hotel, stealing any food they could find.

“It’s going
to be okay, Zoe, I promise,” she said, even though she knew it
was a lie. She couldn’t promise anything right now.

“What are we
going to do?” Zoe asked. “Do you think Dad’s going
to be okay?”

“I don’t
know,” she said. “A lot of people are really sick right
now, and a lot of them aren’t getting better. We just have to
hope for the best, okay?”

“Okay.”

“I’m going
to try to come get you,” she said. “What room are you
in?”

Zoe paused, then
finally came back on the phone. “2358.”

Parrish grabbed a
sharpie from her desk and wrote the numbers on her wrist. “I’ll
do everything I can to get there soon, but it’s going to take
some time to drive there. Maybe a few days. Maybe longer,” she
said. “Promise me you won’t leave that room unless you
have to? And Zoe, if someone comes in the room, you hide.”

“I’m
scared,” Zoe said in a whisper.

“It’s going
to be okay,” Parrish said. “I’m coming for you.”

When they finally hung
up, Parrish fell onto her bed. Anger surged through her veins. How
could everything be falling apart so fast? Zoe was just a child. She
couldn’t survive up there alone for long, and if their dad was
already sick, what were the chances he would survive? What were the
chances he was even still alive right now?

Parrish had no idea how
many people were getting over this disease, but from the looks of
things at the hospital the night her mom died, a lot of people were
dying.

She flipped on the TV,
but it was just the same bullshit. On the news, they kept making it
sound like it was no big deal. There was no mention of the chaos at
the hospitals or the death toll, but the sight of all those white
sheets piled up in the parking lot was burned into her memory.

How come they weren’t
reporting the truth about what’s going on? Were they just
planning to leave them all alone here in the dark? Wasn’t
anyone going to help?

Rage burned in her
heart. She picked up a vase full of wilted yellow flowers that had
been left over from Zoe’s party.

Why did they keep
saying there’s nothing to worry about?

She flung the vase at
the TV. She wanted it to break into a million pieces, but instead it
just bounced off, leaving a dark mark on the screen. It left her
feeling powerless. Weak. She scanned the room, looking for something
more breakable.

A vaccine is being
researched? Don’t they realize it’s too late for their
stupid vaccines?

Parrish searched for a
better weapon.

Finally, her eyes
landed on a Japanese sword above the fireplace. She stared at it, her
heart racing. She remembered their trip to Japan when she was just a
little girl. Her mother had been performing Madame Butterfly with the
opera company in Tokyo and the whole family had tagged along. That
was just after she’d gotten pregnant with Zoe, so Parrish
couldn’t have been older than five at the time.