“She’s sick, huh? I thought she looked a bit sweaty while we were there, but I figured she was nervous. I hope she didn’t give us whatever it is she has.” She tugged on me and I fell back down beside her. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” I said as the phone rang again. “Damn it. He’s not going to stop calling. Don’t they have friends?”
“Rod? Friends? You’re asking this out loud?”
“I know.” I didn’t like Rod, but the idea of April being sick enough to need a hospital and not being able to get there gnawed at me. “Shit. Lana.”
“You want to go rescue her, don’t you?” When I turned to look, she grinned. “You’re my knight in shining armor.”
“I’m not. I’m a mean and nasty person and I hate that asshole, damn it.”
“Yeah, but you love rescuing the downtrodden, the underdogs, the lost souls who need lifted from the darkness they’ve fallen into!” The last bit ended in a not-so-quiet shout and I shushed her. “We going?”
I cursed under my breath. “Yeah, we’re going but let me try the hospital. Maybe he’s just an idiot.” I looked up the number for the nearest hospital and called it. “‘All circuits are busy. Please try your call again.’ Huh.” I tried another and it was the same deal. “Why is he getting through to us?”
“Because we’re not an ER?”
I glanced back at the window and then the quiet TV. “What if what’s happening on the east coast has spread here?”
She took her phone and typed out a text. After a moment, the phone binged. “Jackson wants to know why we’re up so late. He’s fine. Tucker is fine. Your parents are fine.”
I opened my phone and found a local news site. It was quiet, talking about a fall festival tomorrow and featuring a local haunted house. No alarms about an outbreak here. “Maybe there was an accident on the freeway or something?”
Lana shrugged. “Lucky for us we don’t have to take the freeway to get to Rod’s house. Come on. Let’s get dressed and get over there before that poor woman dies. I’ll call him and let him know we’re on the way.”
I dressed and took another peek outside. It was still quiet: no mass murder, no riots, no crazy high guys eating each other. All was right with the world. I still couldn’t shake the feeling of unease that settled on my shoulders like a cloak.
“Ready?” Lana asked, already bundled in her coat.
“Yeah.” I grabbed my leather jacket off the back of the chair and followed her down the hall to the elevators. A drunk couple stumbled out as we go in, the guy leaning heavily on his date.
“It’s crazy out there,” he slurred.
My gaze flicked to the woman, who rolled her eyes. “Come on, asshole. If you get any heavier, I’ll drop you and leave you to sleep in the hall.”
“Crazy out there,” he called back to us as the doors slid shut.
“I wish I could find such joy in drunkenness,” Lana said. After dealing with Rod’s addiction for so many years, she couldn’t see any benefit in drinking. I had to agree with her.
The drive back to Rod’s house took longer than I expected because there was a lot of traffic out. “Does this seem odd to you?” Taillights lit the night up in red and I heard the distant sound of a siren. “Maybe they got through after all,” I said, thinking of April.
“That would be good,” Lana said and checked her phone. “No new text from them, though.”
“Eh. Too much to hope for I suppose.” We waited through a green light and another red and then we were able to go. We pulled up the narrow street and parked behind a battered work truck a half a block away since it was now packed with cars. Our car doors were loud in the relative silence outside, though I heard what could be the same dog barking like mad. “I’m surprised that’s allowed.”
Lana linked her arm in mine, and we walked to the house. It took three rings of the doorbell before the door finally swung open. Rod’s face was pale, his eyes red-rimmed. I thought the worse.
“Thank God you’re here,” he said and took us inside. “She’s been coughing so hard her face turns red and she can’t breathe. I keep trying 911 but the damned circuits are busy. Can you take us to the hospital? I tried and tried to get the car started and it’s dead. Knocked on the neighbor’s door but they didn’t answer. Called a friend but he was out of town. April honey? They’re here to take you to the hospital.”
April looked like death warmed over. Her pale skin was waxy and wet with sweat. She didn’t open her eyes when we entered the bedroom, she only moaned and called for her mom.
“This is bad,” I said. “What happened?”
Rod shrugged. I noticed he would not meet my eyes.
“Rod? Did she overdose?”
Lana’s eyebrows shot up, but I wasn’t interested in her expression. I was waiting for Rod. He immediately got angry. “She’s six months sober! Of course she didn’t overdose. She’s proud of her progress, as am I. She’d never.” He reached out with shaking hands and turned up her sleeve. A bandage spotted red covered a wound on her forearm. When he unwrapped it, I saw a mangled mess of flesh and blood. “She went out for a walk after you left. I stayed here to do the dishes and oh God I wish
