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

to help her up, then leaned in and gave him a lingering kiss. “Happy Birthday, honey.”

“Best one yet,” he said, then glanced around ruefully as if drawing her attention to the pandemic and the situation they were in. “In the ways that matter, at least.”

She watched as he strode purposefully off towards where Nick was working in the garden, then briskly brushed off the seat of her pants and headed over to join Gen watching the kids.

“Any last minute changes to the party?” her friend asked, stooping to pick up a wayward ball and tossing it back to Ricky and Todd.

“Football,” Ellie said. “And a roof by tonight.”

Gen laughed. “Wasn't he planning to have that done today anyway?” Ellie nodded, and her friend shook her head wryly. “Don't ask for too much from the end of the world, and you'll always be content.”

True enough. “Speaking of content,” Ellie teased, “you and Nick seem awfully cozy now that you don't have to stay fifteen feet apart.”

The plump woman turned a bit pink, although she took the ribbing in stride. “Just making up for lost time.”

“Look, Mommy!” Tallie called, dashing over while waving a piece of paper over her head. “Linny helped me draw a picture for Hal!”

Ellie couldn't help but laugh as she stooped to scoop her daughter up in her arms, taking the opportunity to hug her. After months apart from her sweet girl, she didn't think she'd ever be able to hold her again without being profoundly grateful for the opportunity.

She'd come so close to losing Tallie, and hadn't even known until weeks later. If Ellie was never blessed with another miracle in her life, she'd still be eternally grateful that her baby girl had pulled through her bout with Zolos and was now happy and healthy again.

At her daughter's insistence, she and Gen solemnly inspected the enthusiastically drawn picture of stick figures holding hands beneath a cheerful yellow sun. “Good job, honey,” she said. “I think Hal will love it. He'll probably want to hang it on the wall of our new house.”

“Okay.” Tallie squirmed in her arms to get down, pushing the picture into Ellie's hands. “Can you hold this for me? I want to draw another one.”

Laughing, Ellie did her best to smooth the rumpled paper as her daughter ran off to where Linny was busily drawing at the outdoor dining table.

“Hard to believe she's only five,” Gen said. “She does such a good job forming sentences.”

Ellie smiled after Tallie. “Well she'll be six in less than a month, but yes, she certainly is precocious.”

Billy's voice abruptly rose in a wail, and they turned to see him on the ground, crying. Nothing too serious judging by the tone of his voice, but they still went over to investigate.

It amazed Ellie to think that in the midst of this pandemic with death and suffering all around, they'd found this refuge of peace and safety where the worst they had to worry was the usual issues you'd expect to encounter caring for children.

It was something to truly be grateful for.

✽✽✽

Between his scavenging, then his part in the fight against Jay, Nick had been pretty close to the center of events for a while.

That had completely changed when he'd gone into isolation for what he hoped was the last time, effectively cutting himself off from the action. Thankfully, as far as he was concerned.

And there'd been plenty of action to miss, from what he'd overheard and all the rumors that made their way to his ears.

First off Borden, the acting mayor in Stanberry, had proposed to Denny that with Jay gone, the survivor patrols should resume Darrel's and the Stanberry patrols' previous efforts to venture out and turn people away from town, funneling them safely to the quarantine camp. His ultimate goal was to stretch the envelope around Stanberry to turn the area a hundred or so yards in all directions from the barricades into an enormous quarantine zone going through its 21 days.

When that was done, the people who'd fled into town for safety would be able to return home to the remaining houses outside the barricades, and the people in the quarantine camp who'd gone through their three weeks would be able to settle in that area.

And more importantly, the nearby fields would be open for the large scale planting of crops, a coordinated effort by Stanberry's residents and the new settlers.

The number of Zolos survivors in camp had grown along with the camp itself, but the survivors still remained overworked compared to everyone else, and not just because of the patrols. Denny had also resumed the scavenging efforts Nick had abandoned, sending out several teams of scavengers to offset the near-critical shortages the town and camp would be experiencing within the month.

The man had approached Nick to get a detailed description of everywhere his scavengers had already searched, so they wouldn't waste their time, but that had been the extent of Nick's involvement there. And he'd never been involved in the events in town because he'd been on the outside, and that hadn't changed during his isolation in spite of the news Ellie and Gen had fed to him during visits to the house.

Which was why Nick had taken to leaving his radio behind, since he never used it and there was never enough chatter on it to make listening in for entertainment worthwhile. He wouldn't even have known something big was happening at all if Bruce hadn't burst out of the house and made a beeline for his truck, clutching his rifle in one hand and pressing his chattering radio to his ear with the other.

Nick had been in the middle of helping Hal install a roof on the new house the man was making for his family, but as Bruce bolted across the yard they exchanged glances, then rushed to retrieve their rifles.

Even though the Wensbrook group seemed long gone and Denny's patrols remained vigilant, they'd all kept their guard up and their