Isolation , Jones, Nathan [top 20 books to read TXT] 📗

Their dad set down the bowl he'd been rinsing and pushed weakly to his feet, looking stricken. “You mean ransacked, or trash trashed?”

“Trash trashed,” Chet growled. “Like they were having fun with it.”

“Oh no.” Aimee left Tallie on her chair and hobbled forward at the best pace her weakened body could manage to throw her arms around him, hugging him as tightly as she could. As if trying to lend him some of her own diminished strength in his time of need. “I'm so sorry, honey.”

He hugged her back, taking comfort in her familiar warmth, and somehow in her arms the dam of his anger gave way to grief. He felt tears burning in his eyes and closed them quickly. “As if we haven't lost enough already,” he whispered.

Her breath caught, but she didn't pause in comfortingly rubbing his back.

“It's just a house,” his dad said, although his own voice was thick with weary grief; he was probably thinking of his wife and the years they'd spent in the place. Even so, he forced himself to sound confident as he continued. “What's important is you three. Maybe we can repair the place once things settle down, but all that matters is that we get through this. And we will . . . together.”

Ben stepped past Chet, briefly resting a hand on his shoulder, then pulled their dad into a brief hug. “That's right, Dad. We will.” He stepped back, jaw clenched, and glanced across the camp. “I'm going to see if I can find Nick or Denny and report this. They'll want to know.”

Their dad nodded. “Good idea. Maybe our house was one of the first, and we can protect the others. Spare our friends in town that sort of grief on top of everything.”

“I'll go with you,” Chet said, reluctantly pulling back from Aimee. He gave her a brief but heartfelt kiss and a strained smile. “You okay to hold down the fort here?”

“Yeah.” She smiled back, although she was slow to let go of his hand, and she had that familiar crinkle between her eyebrows that hinted she was worried. “It's just stuff,” she murmured for his ears only. “We have to remember that. Your dad's right that's important is our loved ones, and getting through this.”

It was hard to meet those big brown eyes as he realized she wasn't just offering encouragement, but also subtly pleading for him to keep his cool. And that she had good reason to.

Aimee knew him better than anyone, even his dad or Ben. Chet had opened up with her in a way he just wouldn't have felt comfortable doing with anyone else. But while she'd been as eager as the rest of them to find the people who'd infected their families with Zolos, once she learned it was the Drydens, and what Chet had done to Tony when he found out, her perspective had changed.

“Screw the Drydens,” she'd told him when they'd talked about it. “I don't care that that selfish little weasel Tony got punched in the face after what he did. He deserves that and more.” But then she'd rested a hand on his arm and leaned in close, looking up at him anxiously. “I just don't like seeing what it's doing to you, being the guy doing the punching. Maybe Nick and Mayor Darby are right, and we should leave it to the courts to see justice done.”

Chet appreciated Nick going to bat for him, but he hadn't really cared what the man had to say when it came to the Drydens. He didn't feel bad about losing his cool, either. But what he did care about was Aimee; he was willing to accept the consequences to himself for his rash actions, but what he did affected her, too, and he was not willing to let her suffer them.

She'd already been through enough.

That was the main reason he'd left the Drydens alone after that, although admittedly once he cooled down he hadn't been planning on doing anything more than cussing them out anyway, if he ever crossed paths with them. And that was why he hadn't flown completely off the handle when he realized they'd fled the camp and escaped justice.

Chet gently squeezed Aimee's hand. “That's what's important,” he agreed. He gave her another quick kiss, then hurried to catch up to Ben.

She was right, he shouldn't let his emotions get the better of him and go looking for trouble. Although some part of him, deep down, couldn't help but think that since he was responsible for defending the camp and town from Jay's attacks, he might end up fighting the people who'd trashed his house and disrespected his mom's memory.

He wouldn't complain if that happened.

Chapter One

The Best Defense

Ellie Feldman was a bit embarrassed that it had taken her all this time to start focusing on her children's schooling again.

Sure, the fact that everyone had been trapped indoors struggling to survive the end of the world was a good excuse. Especially since she'd been focused on organizing the quarantine camp outside of Stanberry, Missouri, ever since being reunited with her children a few weeks ago.

Not to mention that teaching Ricky would've been hard while she was forced to stay at least ten feet away from him in quarantine isolation, although that was no excuse.

Ultimately, though, the main reason she'd decided to gather up her son and Hal's siblings in an impromptu school for several hours every day was because, now that they were effectively pinned down in their new camp outside the entrance of the quarantine camp while Jay was terrorizing the area, there wasn't much else to do. Johnny was managing the quarantine camp well enough, especially with Starr locking things down against potential attacks, so she had less and less to do there.

Besides, it provided a good distraction for all of them from the constant threat of attack. And it was a great way for Ellie to get to know the children who'd soon