“Breaking News!” the TV called out as I switched it on. Alex and I had just returned inside from our third day of training. We’d both practiced individually, as well as practicing safely flying while carrying him. He got me to lift weights with him so I could eventually carry his weight easier. In the meantime he managed to convince me that his grip strength was strong enough to grab my ankles while I was in the air, and hang behind me. He’d argued that he would be safer from my wings there, and I’d be able to focus on flying. We tried it out and it went well enough. It was definitely easier than the unbalanced hug that was our first flight. We were both exhausted from the day, and basically fell onto the couch to turn our attention to the TV’s claims. I had doubts that the breaking news would actually have any relation to our situation, but we had to watch as much as possible just in case.
“This just in, the governor of Texas has officially declared a state of emergency.” I sat up a bit straighter and gave my full attention to the broadcast. “A mystery disease has cropped up in the area surrounding Dallas, Texas. According to CDC officials not much is known about the disease other than its high mortality rate, and its extreme contagiousness.”
I felt my stomach leap into my throat. It was really happening. The amount of people in on covering this up had to be astronomical, and they were powerful people. My head spun trying to accept that the cover story had made it to this level. I glanced at Alex, who was looking back at me with a similar look plastered to his face. I took a shaky breath and turned back towards the tv.
“The governor has already taken steps to prevent the spread of disease. Starting today the area surrounding Dallas, where cases have been confirmed, will be placed on total lockdown. Citizens will not be permitted to enter or exit the quarantine zone, and have been asked to stay inside their houses as much as possible. All non-essential businesses will be closed until the state of things is better understood. Additionally, The CDC will be sending members to each residence on a timeline according to this grid to deliver, and then collect blood tests. Those who test positive for the disease will be transferred to a quarantine hospital to be treated. The governor asks that everyone remain calm and follow these instructions. This is Stacy White, signing off.”
The screen went black for a moment, then the broadcast started over. “Breaking news!” it repeated. I felt sick. The two maps displayed on the screen showed the quarantine zone, which we were inside of, and the testing timeline. We were close to the edge of the large quarantine zone, and weeks out on the schedule for blood tests. I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, I wasn’t even sure if I was breathing. All I could do was watch the broadcast repeat its lies. How many would be captured? Were they being killed under the guise of a lethal new disease?
Alex stood up and walked over to the junk drawer in the kitchen. After digging for a moment he produced a large paper map. He unfolded it to reveal the greater north Texas area. He took a red pen and carefully marked the quarantine area’s borders according to the broadcast. He then made notes on testing timelines, and then circled a small area outside of the quarantine zone. I turned my attention back to the broadcast to locate the area he’d circled. It was outside of the quarantine zone, but it was highlighted as if it was part of it. Alex drew a star in the middle of the mysterious circle.
“They clearly don’t want people going here, and I’ll bet it’s not a hospital,” Alex hissed. His anger was palpable, “If we want answers, this is a good place to start.”
“Where do we stay?” my voice quivered, the fear becoming almost too much for me.
Alex took note of my current state and joined me on the couch. He placed a hand on my knee to calm me. His hand was shaking, likely more from anger than fear. He scratched at his chin as he considered our next steps. He studied the map and put a small circle at our current location. It was roughly 10 miles from the edge of the quarantine zone’s border. He drew a curved line up around the side of the lake, and towards the edge of the border. He was careful to have the line follow areas with little to no population. It traced the edge of the lake, then went north past the border, and out to the east.
The line ended near another lake I’d never heard of, and it was just a ways north of the separate quarantine pocket he’d circled earlier. He put a question mark over the edge of the new lake. And then drew another line from there, to the circle with a star. 60 miles east to the new lake, 15 miles south to the circle. All in all it was a lot of ground to cover safely. Thankfully only a small bit of it was inside of the quarantine border.
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
He put the marker down and put his finger on our location, tracing along the lines as he explained the plan. “From here we follow the lake on foot until we cross the border. We cross here, there's no road so probably not much security if any at this point. Then we reach this small town and jack a car, we take the highway until we reach this town, ditch the car, and hike the rest of the way to this lake. We can find an empty cabin there and lay low for a while. Then we head for whatever the fuck is waiting in this zone, and we’ll go from there.” I nodded along, agreeing to each leg of the journey.
Alex sighed as he let go of the map. He looked around the cabin, and his eyes fell on the first aid kit. “We’re going to have to pack light. I have some backpacks, we’ll bring a few changes of clothes, some essentials from the first aid kit, and food. That’s all we can fit I think.”
He frowned and locked eyes with me, “Can you handle it? I don’t think flying is safe.”
I nodded. “I wasn’t in track for no reason. I can keep up,” I assured him.
“We leave before sunrise tomorrow then. Big dinner tonight and as much sleep as we can, and hopefully we can cross before they have a proper border established. Sound good?” Alex inquired, looking at me for approval.
I nodded my head in agreement. The man that wanted to be a cop just days ago was proposing a plan that involved escaping a government mandated quarantine, stealing a car, breaking into a cabin, and probably worse once we reached the other quarantine area. At this point it was impossible to deny how tilted our reality had become.
We hashed out the details of the plan for a few more hours, and decided on what to do if things went wrong. After dinner I took a long hot shower, and relished every moment of it. I didn’t know when I’d have access to something as simple as running water again. I sat under the water and thought about the other simple luxuries we’d lost. No shopping, fast food, internet. I’d taken it all for granted before. I stopped and thought about it for a second, and then quickly got out of the shower to share my revelation with Alex. I threw on a set of sweats and hurried to his bedroom door, knocking desperately.
Alex answered the door, squinting and looking confused. The lights were off, and he was probably already asleep. I felt a wave of embarrassment and made up an excuse to dismiss my interruption and leave, but he grabbed my arm before I could make it back to my room. “Just tell me what’s going on,” Alex mumbled groggily. He motioned for me to come in and flicked the bedside lamp on before sitting back down on the bed.
I took a seat next to him, mumbling an apology for waking him up while I built the nerve to spring my theory on him. “Ok, have you checked social media like at all since prom?” I spit out the question frantically.
He scratched his head, looking puzzled by the question. “No I guess not,” he admitted. “I was so distracted with everything going on, and then we ditched our phones so..”
“Same here,” I cut him off eagerly. “Don’t you think there are others like us? People who gained weird abilities and managed to hide it? People who saw one of the covered up events too closely and caught on to the quarantine thing being a lie? Maybe someone else got luckier and didn’t have to run yet, maybe someone thought to tell everyone on social media. Maybe people know, and they’ll come to help,” I took a deep breath as I finished the rushed sentence.
Alex frowned and thought about it for a minute, “How widespread do you think this is? Why did the news single out our area? We haven’t heard anything about it being anywhere else. What the hell could even cause this to happen to our bodies, and why is it happening to so many people so quickly?”
I was stumped at his line of questioning. We hadn’t really talked about the bigger picture, and we had no way of knowing anything for sure. We talked about it for a long time, and all we did was come up with more questions. We were sure there had to be others like us, but had no idea how to find them. We didn’t know if people on the outside of the zone were dealing with the same thing, or even aware of the issue. If this cover up was large enough for the governor of a state to lie about a state of emergency, then he had to be in on it, maybe the news channels were too. If so the only way for this to get out would be social media. But still, we both thought there must be some people becoming aware of our circumstances. We fell asleep like that on his bed, with the light still on. We’d been exhausted from the long couple of days, and our conversation lasted longer than either of us intended it to.