Eve

Chapter 19

Last I had checked the news, the world had officially gone to shit. The body count was north of ten million – and they didn't even risk a number on the ones infected.

Big Bear was still calm, five weeks into the outbreak. Some more families had arrived, and we would occasionally hear their voices, the sound of parking cars nearby, etcetera. Once or twice, on walks, I saw groups of people gathered around in front yards, drinking beers. Barbecuing.

Trying to make it like the world wasn't ending, one sausage at a time.

Innara I hadn't seen since that day in the market, the week before. Nor have I looked, either. She might not have been the bitchy bitch she usually was when we talked, but we were not about to share post-apocalyptic marshmallows around fireplaces.

Mom and Edgar were doing their thing where they ate, talked, cleaned the house and pretended like the world was not ending.

Meredith was drinking.

And I was spending a lot of time in my room, trying not to think about the fact that the power could go out at any second for good, taking with it any hope of talking to Damian again.

It was a Tuesday, when I got the call. In the middle of the night. I was in bed, staring at the ceiling.

Really, not trying to sound deep or anything. I was really in bed staring at the ceiling, watching a moth wrestle with the light bulb. And then my phone rang.

Skype Call.

"Holy fucking shit!" I actually yelled, dropping the phone to the ground. I grabbed it with shaky hands.

"Damian? Damian?"

It felt like what I imagine the apostles felt when Jesus returned on Easter – except better, because Damian's prettier. His face lit up the screen.

"Hey, grumpy."

"You piece of shit!" I cried, sniffing the tears. "You idiot, asshole, flying piece of shit!"

"I've missed you."

I cleaned my eyes with the back of my sleeve. "How are you? What's going on there?"

"It's... huh... it's fine. It's fine. They're working on the – the cure, and... dad is..."

Damian was rambling. And Damian wasn't one to ramble.

"Damian, what's going on?"

He was in a dark room, like a bunker almost. Behind his pixelated imaged, all I could make out was half a blackout style curtain and a white wall. The sound of a newscaster's voice put a TV in his room, somewhere out of frame.

"Nothing, it's ok. The last few weeks have been kind of complicated, but we're trying to –"

"Stop bullshitting me."

"Eve, really, everything is fine."

Out of frame, the newscaster's voice rang: "Everything is most certainly not fine in Philadelphia, Chris. We have reports of –"

"When are you getting out of there, Damian?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. The airports are all closed for now. They say it's temporary, but –"

"—a situation that does not look temporary at all. There have been –"

"So take a car," I argued. "Take a bus. Walk, for Christ's sake!"

"We have to stay here, Eve. My father --" 

"Your father is not going to sort this out!" I yelled at the phone. "No one is! Didn't you guys get it, already? This is not containable anymore! I ran away from home, Damian, and so did most people. It's eat or be eaten. There's nothing left to do."

"—is infected."

"—it does look like the end of the world, Chris. People have –"

"What?"

Damian sighed. "He was bitten by a patient, a few days back. We're keeping him at the hotel. He's... he's not violent, but he's not... talking, either."

"Oh, shit, Damian..."

We kept quiet for a while, just looking at each other. In the distance, the newscaster's voice was telling Chris all about how Philadelphia had gone to shit and was imploding from within and how more and more people were joining the side of the debate that defended bombing the city. Telling Chris about how companies were doing the best they could to keep radio and internet communications up and working, so that everything wouldn't completely break down into chaos all over America. He was telling Chris about how the other states were not exactly doing well either, but that Pennsylvania was definitely the worst.

The newscaster was telling Chris all about how Damian was not going to make it.

When the silence between us began to get deafening, Damian sighed. "Well... I think I --"

Damian's face suddenly vanished, replaced by Skype's logo. Up in the right corner, the wifi icon was drained of color.

I frowned.

Pulling open my laptop, I noticed there was no wifi connections available there, either.

Shit. No, please. It can't be that bad.

I couldn't even begin to comprehend a world without internet. Surely it was something else. The internet couldn't be down in the whole world. No way.

I headed for the door. Out in the corridor, I went past Aunt Meredith and Edgar's room, then mom's. All doors closed.

I climbed the stairs to the living room upstairs one slow step at a time, hoping to God I'd find the modem disconnected. A loose wire. Anything but no internet.

Anything but never talking to Damian again.

I was at the last few steps when I heard the grunt.