James glanced at me, then at Dave. He began simply: “I had no idea. Not about any of this. When the outbreak began I was studying in Cambridge. The news we got over there was bewildering and contradictory. Some sort of avian flu 2.0. BBC disagreed with foreign networks, with each other, and with all common sense. Inasmuch as I knew, it was just a highly virulent flu which they had managed to quarantine here, in Knox County.”
Dave shot me a glance. He hadn’t moved, as if James hadn’t said a thing. I guess he didn’t mind that something was taking his mind off of what had just happened. James continued. “The bugger about it was that Liz was here. Of all the luck, my sister lands a job here.”
I choked a bit on my water, there. His sister?
“She works at the Waste Treatment Plant on the east edge. Wouldn’t stay in Georgia. Had to get away from Mother. From what I gather, she was present when this, this... crisis began. I came here to get her, but it appears that I lacked some indispensable facts before I arrived.”
“I’m... I’m sorry about your dog. I had no idea... no idea what to do. Those people. They were attacking us, they were cutting their hands but weren’t bleeding... And the noise. That moaning...”
He paused for a long second. “I’m sorry, Mr. Calhoun. I didn’t mean for your dog...”
He trailed off, staring at his own cup of water, a glass swiped from the cupboard. It had sunflowers and daisies all round it. His eyes stared at the unseen. The gentleman may have been walking all today without complaining, but it was obvious he was still weak from the head injury.
“What the bleeding hell is going on?” he whispered, watching the swirling water.
The flames cracked and churned outside. Light pushed through the window, past the brown, dead plants on the kitchen sill. No one moved.
Dave, surprisingly, was the one to answer. He pushed down inside the folds of his jacket and fished out his inhaler. One puff, and his hand reached back inside his breast pocket, pulling out a small flask. He let out a long sigh, then tipped it back.
“Damn horse shit.”
“Son,” he said, pushing his flask in front of Mattteson. “you shoulda listened when those quarantiners told you to stay put. Shoulda heard me when I told you ‘bout Dead Ed out there.”
His eyes glanced at the kitchen table, marked with brow stains. “Shoulda, but you didn’t.”
James started to speak, but the old man put up a hand. “Not the first time I tried talking good sense and nobody listened. Won’t be the last. My mutt is dead, and that’s all there is to say. Good thing she came back for you, ‘cause that shamed me to doing the right thing too.”
He looked at me, brown eyes deep. “Can’t leave nobody behind now. We breathers got to stick thick as thieves. Daisy got it right.”
James opened the flask and took a sip. He coughed, unused to the strong moonshine.
Dave stood. “Now, where’d you say that sis of yours was?”
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