“What skills do you have?”
“Well…I can match separates.”
He stops with the skipping and cocks his head. “Separates?”
“Items of clothing. Like tops and pants and stuff.”
“Ah.”
“I am amazing with a curling wand. And I can track shit down on the internet like you wouldn’t believe. Seriously. My shopping skills are top tier. The amount of stuff I’ve found for friends on sale. But I assume the internet won’t survive the downfall of humanity, so…”
“Probably not,” he agrees. “What else you got?”
“I am quite good with a cocktail shaker. Not bad with a madeleine pan. But where I really shine is supporting therecently dumped by talking smack about their ex. Though that has bitten me on the ass a couple of times, because they’ve gotten back together after I said some things. So awkward.”
“That must suck.”
“You have no idea,” I say.
Nothing from him.
“I kind of want to kill you.”
He laughs. “You realize you’re hurting your argument with the threat. There I was, starting to fall for your bullshit and see you as nothing but a liability. But keeping you behind bars just seems wise now.”
“I’ve never actually wanted to physically harm someone before. Not really.”
“No?”
“No,” I say with wonder.
He nods his head. “I am honored.”
“We all say we want to do things like that now and then. It’s like a throwaway line that doesn’t mean anything. Butyou…”
Loud banging sounds come from somewhere. Dean’s smile falls from his face, and he turns his head to track the noises. Next is the roar of a car engine and the spinning of its wheels disappearing into the distance. The following silence is deafening.
“Was that a gun?”
“Yeah,” he answers. “I am not going to let anyone hurt you. You have my word.”
I don’t know what to say. In a rare moment of wisdom, I shut my mouth and sit my ass back down on the mattress. This is a lot. Just the whole situation.
He watches me for a moment in silence. Then he says, “All of the things that you think aren’t skills…you know how to live, Astrid. Do you even realize you go around with a smile on your face most of the damn time? You are basically a happy personwho knows how to make the most of your life. That’s something I can honestly say, after four decades on this planet, I still don’t have the hang of. But I am really hoping you can teach me.”
CHAPTER THREE
SATURDAY
News channels are now reporting that the hospitals are overrun. People are being directed to camps set up in parks and parking lots by FEMA. Our current President is the Secretary of Defense. Sixth in the line of succession. Seems the virus is moving faster now, laying waste to the population and life as we know it at an alarming rate.
This is real. It’s actually happening.
The other big news of the morning is how someone has blown up the Golden Gate Bridge. Hopefully Mom and Dad were nowhere near when it happened. Our military might have done it to slow down the exodus of sick people from the city. But it doesn’t seem to have happened elsewhere, and no one is laying claim to the deed. On the other side of the country, parts of the Eastern Seaboard have lost power.
No corner of the world has remained untouched by this disaster. Paris is rioting, Johannesburg is burning, and a nuclear power plant has exploded in Iran. Though some are saying it was a missile strike with some country using the chaos of the pandemic as cover.
And that’s not the only place where there’s talk of war. Various hands are apparently hovering over the nuclear codes. Like bombs are going to make anything better. Hard not to believe we aren’t doomed.
