After we finished our food Brent was a gentleman and paid for our breakfast. He said he didn't want to leave his truck unattended so he just followed Maya and me all the way to the cabin. Brent was out of the truck before Maya had even pulled out the keys of the jeep, he opens the door for Maya and for a second I let a smile show.
"This is one fancy cabin y'all got here." He says with shock.
"I know," Maya says and flips her hair and laughs sarcastically.
I followed behind Maya and Brent, they were walking side by side. Maya unlocked the door and lets everyone in.
"Now, Brent you can stay on the couch or... in my room," Maya adds with a wink.
I groan at her sexual remark as I walk up the stairs to my bed. After I sat down in that bed I fell soundly asleep, not because I was tired but because it's the only place I don't have to worry about anything.
~~~
I wake up to Maya pushing my shoulder vigorously, she looks at me with her hand cradling the phone to her ear.
"It's Tom." She says monotone. "He interrupted Brent and mine's conversation."
She jokes and hands the phone to me. I open with, "Hi."
"Hey Honey, how are things over there?" He asks commiserative.
"It's good," I reply.
"I miss you..." He adds longingly, "So does Charlotte."
"I miss you too," I say, but later realize I had no emotion in it.
"Well, I just wanted to check in to see how things were going." He says despondently. "I'd better go give Charlotte her supper." He chuckles.
"Okay, I love you," I say with as much emotion as I can muster.
"Love you too Honey." He says and hangs up.
Why can't I be good enough for him, I don't deserve all the love and support he gives me. Hell, why is he still with this ghost of my former self? I'm no longer the loving, caring, and social girlfriend he was used to. I'm a different person now and I know Thomas sees that, but I want to be how I was before. Thinking about Thomas and how I'm consistently letting him down makes me want to just bury myself into my bed even more. So, I do exactly that.
~~~
"You need to get out of that bed." A voice tells me. The body with the voice starts to push me. "Get up, Annie." I open my eyes a tiny bit and look up to see a very annoyed Maya.
I groan and try to turn over and I grumble pleading her to leave me alone.
"You're not sitting up here in this room for another minute. You're coming downstairs and conversing with Brent and I." She states.
Maya pulls the covers off of me and turns on the overhead light, I groan again. She grabs me by my arm and pulls me up out of bed. Maya puts my arm around her neck and helps walk me down the loft stairs and drops me off on a loveseat in the living room. I sat there mute for a few minutes before Brent says anything.
"Well, Howdy there Annie." He says and smiles but I can tell he's uncomfortable.
"Annie here, has decided to join us." She says cheekily.
"We're watching The Walking Dead." Brent says and chuckles. "This episode started at 7, So you haven't missed but a couple minutes of it." He says and his southern accent starts to show.
I turn my head to look at the fish with the clock inside of it, mounted on the wall. It reads, 7:15, but the sun is still up so summer is getting closer and closer by the day. Suddenly the Tele switches from the fake bloody zombie-corpses to actual real ones, the female news reporter shows up after the photos of the corpses and her mascara is smudged along with her hair frizzy.
"Authorities in Washington have declared a state of emergency and all military personnel are being evacuated from the state. All hospitals are being converted to a safe zone for anyone ill or without shelter in this crisis. Bordering states are currently watching their hospitals for any signs of current-- or new-- patients said to contain the disease. Protocol for the disease is currently, confinement and research. The disease is highly contagious and they are warning everyone to stay away from anyone with symptoms. Thank you tuning in and I will see you again tomorrow." She ends her lines and the news turns off and The Walking Dead resumes.
Just earlier this morning the disease had first been spotted, a single patient had had it? Now, there must be many more with the disease if they are evacuating people from the military. Isn't the military supposed to be there for us in our times of crisis, to help? The hospitals are becoming safe-zones for people to turn to if they think they have the disease? How can this single patient we heard about at 4 in the morning been able to transfer the disease to this magnitude of people the woman was talking about?
"I'm going to go lock the doors." Maya says warily and Brent follows her.
"I'll come with you, what about the garage? I saw y'all had one, ya'd pro'lly wanna close 'er up too." He says with an ounce of concern, his southern twang really showing in his response.
"Good idea, would you like to come with me?" She asks and he replies back chivalrously, "Of course I'd love to keep you safe from the boogie man's outside ma'am," He says jokingly.
"We'll be right back Annie." Maya adds as she closes the door behind them.
I look around the living room and suddenly notice Maya left her phone on the coffee table, I'm assuming Brent's was in his pocket. Her phone lights up and starts to vibrate, a picture of her and her mum appears on the screen. I stare at her phone contemplating whether or not to answer it, the last time I'd spoken to Maya's mum, Eliza, was a week after the funeral when she came by to check on me and to drop off a lasagna she'd made. I'd hadn't said much to her, Thomas did all the talking and thanking for me; I had been in my bed trying to drown out life around me. The call ends with a final vibration, I look away from the phone and hear the garage door motor turn on, to close I assume. Maya's phone begins to vibrate again, the picture of Eliza and Maya returns, this time I decide to reach for the phone.
"Maya?" I hear Eliza's panicked voice cry out.
"It's Annie, Eliza." I say and begin to worry at the tone of her voice.
"I was watching the news and saw that Washington state has seen that Flu from the Middle East in their borders! I'm calling to see if you all are alright, I was contemplating buying you both tickets out of the states!" She practically screams.
Then Maya and Brent walk in through the front door laughing. Maya turns her head to look at me, her face contorted in confusion as she sees her phone in my hands. Eliza says hello as I haven't replied to her yet and I hold the phone out to Maya.
"It's your Mum." I say.
Maya looks at Brent and shushes him and takes the phone from me, "Hey Mum!"
Brent closes the door and locks it then resumes his previous position on the couch. Maya sits down next to him and continues to try and soothe her worried mother.
The rest of the night had been a blur, somewhere after the third of fourth episode Maya decided that she was to turn in, which in turn means I was able to retreat back to my loft. Brent remained on the couch and said goodnight to both of us after he turned off the tele. I went immediately to my bed where I went to sleep soundly.
~~~
I pick up the phone and put it exceedingly close to my ear,
"Hi, Mum," I whisper.
"Sweetie, are you sure I can't make dinner while your working, then when you get home it's all done! We can just visit with Thomas and Charlotte, you know how much your father and Thomas get along!" She says with a chuckle.
"Mum I don't think tonight's a good night, tomorrow night would be perfect, then I can visit with you guys too," I counter offer.
I'm then suddenly transported to the back seat of my Mum's old 2014 blue toyota, both of my parents sitting in the front looking back at me. Except, they aren't my real parents, my mum's face is torn off, an ashen color, and sprayed with dark maroon blood. My father's jaw where his beard had previously been is gone and his forehead is smashed and splattered with blood. They both growl and snarl at me and my mum lunges at me first then my father after her.
~~~
I wake up to hear some rustling coming from downstairs. I slowly get myself out of bed and start to inch down the stairs, I glance back at my bedside table where my phone is charging. I start to go down the stairs, but the third to second one from the top creaks as I press the weight of my foot on it. The rustling pauses, and I look over the railing to see the couch where Brent had slept on was disheveled and unmade. The living room lights are turned off but Maya's door is open and yellow light is pouring out from the opening. I continue down the stairs and the rustling resumes, I stand in the middle of the living room and look out into the kitchen. Maya and Brent are both in there, Maya standing on top of a chair and going through cabinets and Brent sitting at the table with a pen and paper in hand writing things down. Maya turns towards Brent and lists off some items of food and she catches me out of the side of her eye.
"You're awake!" Maya cries out excitedly.
"What time is it?" I ask groggily and confused.
"It's about 5 a.m!" She says too cheerfully. "I was just about to wake you up, we need to run into the city and grab some groceries, the deli is closed today since it's Sunday so the nearest grocery store would be in... Carlston. It's about a two hour drive, if we stop along the way. It will probably take a while so I was thinking we should start the day early!"
"The news was on 'bout 45 minutes ago, they were saying some stuff about borderin' states findin' more sick people. They said somethin' 'bout it comin' an epidemic." Brent tells me.
"Thomas texted me and said for you to call him when you woke up." Maya adds with her back turned to me, resuming rummaging through the cabinets.
I turn away from them and go back up the stairs to my loft. I go to my phone and unplug it, my phone must've been sitting here on the charger since I'd gone to sleep the first night I was here. I unlock it to see a couple texts from Thomas;
I know you're probably sleeping but call me when you wake up!
The next one read;
Anna! Call me ASAP!
I decide not to text him back and just to call him, it rings for about 30 seconds before he picks up. He sounds out of breath,
"Dear god, you called me. Okay, I've been watching the news and talking to my boss, people are saying the United States has seen the disease within their borders and it's spreading rapidly. My boss is saying by the end of tonight it might even spread all the way to Missouri, which from the map he showed me, is only two states away from you girls. I was talking with Maya's Mum because she called me last night and was worried about you girls and was going on about buying plane tickets. I was thinking about it and I think it would be best if you girls came back to the U.K to be here with us. There hasn't been any signs of the disease in Europe at all. I bought you girls both tickets for your tomorrow at 5 p.m, I'm hoping that by that time it will still be in Missouri and possibly Illinois."
"Ok." I reply.
"Anna I hate to seem like I'm bossing you ladies around, but I'm scared for you Anna. I don't want anything to happen to you if I can do something about it. I talked to my boss about letting me use the CDC helicopter and just trying to come pick you up, but he said it was too flashy and would start a huge argument between the U.S and the U.K. I'm going through every possible situation in my mind to get you both out of there safely. God, I love you so much Anna. I had no idea it would show up in the U.S or I wouldn't have bought you that ticket." He says and I can hear how distraught he is over it.
"I love you too Thomas." I say and actually kind of mean it.
"Anyways, I hate to ruin your morning. How has it been spending some time over there with Maya?" He asks genuinely intrigued.
"It's actually been good, I've gotten out of bed and gone to some places." I say.
"Really! That's amazing Anna! I think seeing Maya has done real good for you!" He says excitedly.
"I do too." I say and start to feel myself slip back off and remember my nightmare from last night.
"I can't wait to see you again, Anna. While Maya is over here and staying with Eliza, she'll have to come over for dinner." He says and his voice seems slow-motion when he says dinner.
My mind goes back to the library and I hear my mum's voice through the phone in my hand,
"Sweetie, are you sure I can't make dinner while your working?"
I start to feel myself slip father and farther off into the library, Thomas' words through the phone turns to a low inaudible mumble. I jolt back to reality and start to feel my throat close up and tears threaten to spill out from my eyes. Thomas continues to talk about what we can all do when I get there. I curl up into a ball on my bed and try to subdue my waterworks, Thomas asks me a question and I roll over the phone, it happens to end the call. I pull the covers over my body and head and try to muffle my screams and cries into the pillow. I hear footsteps coming from the stairs, the corner of the bed sinks down like someone had sat there.
"Annie," I hear Maya say and she starts to pull the covers off of me but only more sobs wrack my body.
Maya successfully peels the covers off of me and puts her arms around me and brings me to a sitting position. She puts my head on her shoulder and lets me cry and cry. She just hugs me and rocks the both of us back and forth. She pets my hair and says,
"Annie, it's going to be okay. It wasn't your fault."
When she says it isn't my fault I cry even more and think in my head that she is a liar and just doesn't want to hurt my feelings in my time of grief. Ultimately it was my fault, if I hadn't called my Mum to cancel she would've been able to focus on the road. I start to feel my tears subside, my eyes are watery and puffy. I feel as though I have no more tears left to shed.
"Annie, I want you to go hop into the shower and take your time, then when you come out get dressed and we will all leave to go to Carlston for groceries." She says soothingly and mother-like.
"-B-but Th-omas." I try to tell her about Thomas buying us plane tickets but she just shushes me and sends me off to the bathroom with a towel in hand.
~~~