Danny wondered if he should tell Jen about what happened before he got to the town. Before he met dad at the tree. Before he even knew it was dad.

I wasn't just what happened, it was how he got there. He looked at Jen, now in a deep, exhausted sleep. He wondered if she had slept this well in... well, however long she'd been here. It must have been hard with no one to watch out. He was glad he could do that for her. He was glad to have his sister back after all these years. Glad to have the memories of her back too. Even if it was in this awful, strange place. Even if it was with them being hunted by their father, who was also a beast, who was also a...priest.

"The priest..." Danny said and almost stood up in shock before remembering the low cavern ceiling finally. "Shit."

His mind begin to race back to what happened after the events of his dream. The parts that did happen, anyway. He had to tell Jen. He'd felt he had betrayed her by abandoning her when they were kids. Leaving her stuck with dad. Yes, he was a kid too. Yes, he had no way of knowing she'd be stuck with him. But it was his decision to abandon -- to forget.

He leaned against the cave wall and remembered...

16 Months Earlier

Two weeks passed after that day at the grocery store and things went from bad to worse in a hurry. The social distancing policies just weren't working. The virus had proven far more contagious than previously thought. As bad as it was in the good ol' US of A it was much worse overseas. Europe was a powder keg waiting to blow. The EU had collapsed after too many members accused it being useless and unable to provide support. Countries were fighting over supplies, even robbing trucks attempting to cross through their country to supply another. Two world leaders from there had died. In the Ukraine, after their leader had died, two people claimed they were the rightful successor and a military coup had taken place. Russia was reporting now moving in tanks and troops.

Then there was China, where the outbreak was first reported. China had reported only good news officially. Initially entire regions had been devastated, but for awhile it appeared things had turned the corner as the rest of the world started to get hit even harder. Then, something happened. Cases shot up. The Chinese government were open about it at first, but soon they booted out foreign press and went silent. But things leaked out and there were reports something devastating going on in parts of China. The military had completely sealed off entire regions. No one in or out.

Soon Danny saw satellite images of mass graves there. Then reporters that the virus was mutating in some way that no one understood. Then there was the video...

The video, which kept getting taken down YouTube but was easily accessible on the deep web showed what was said to be a quarantine hotel in the Hubei province. A nurse in full PPE gear runs out of a room screaming and talking loudly. A man runs out in a bright yellow gown, which the Chinese required all virus patients to wear in their hospitals. His mask is a matching yellow color and he's staggering out, clearly ill, when suddenly he's yanked back into the room by some force. The camera or phone gets knocked to the ground and it goes black.

The video was widely said to be fake and Danny might have believed this too except it was posted by someone named Dante.

Dante was a posted on the deep web who had become well known for posting information about the virus not being reported by the press or government. The thing was he had been right every time or at least hadn't been proven wrong.

Danny had discovered him months earlier while using a TOR to explore the deep web. He'd gone there to buy items like hand sanitizer and a medical mask via the black markets there where they could still be sold (both items had been largely restricted for medical personnel and retail workers only). It was where he had gotten his prized 3M N95 mask that he felt made him a target whenever he went out.

Dante's post could be found on 4 Chan and other places. Dante had posted about the virus mutating along with the video, both of which were unverified. But he had also posted that the government would promise to send every American a mask and two days later, they did, even if they hadn't delivered. He had told everyone about the move to shopping on certain days based on Social Security number a week before states started implementing it. He then accurately reported it would be national law and then it was.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

He'd also been right about mandated no contact deliveries for all delivery drivers like Luis and the nationalization of virus related policies, both of which had happened in the last week. He'd told everyone about the Immunity Pass, which was like an ID card issued to people who had gotten the virus and recovered allowing them to freely travel and work more, a full month before it was announced. The Pass worried Danny and it turned out he had good reason to be. Not only had it caused a two class system to occur that reminded him of Dr. Seuss' Star-Bellied Sneetches ("...they had no Immunity Pass upon thars"), but it hadn't gone well for the holders of the passes either. People, angry at their privilege, discriminated against them and even worse there had been more than a few instances of people with the passes beaten up and even killed because of it. "Immunity Nazis" they were being called. The government was now advising that anyone with immunity keep quite about it.

There were other issues with the pass too. It looked like a drivers license, but images had surfaced online where someone had cut one of the cards open and inside they found an RFID chip. Dante posted that this chip wouldn't just be used to allow them access to certain buildings, but would eventually be used to track their every move using cell phone towers. He even theorized that this was the real reason for the problems with 5G reception people across the nation were reporting. For now they were installing censors along highways until the system was fully operational.

According to Dante, the eventual plan was to issue every American an ID such as this and once a person got immunity they would be sent a special holographic sticker matching the ones on the current ID's to place on it to show their new immunity.

Danny had become kind of a Dante fan boy and would always comment on his posts. One day Dante was posting about how a nursing home in Indiana had so many deaths they'd been hiding bodies in the walk in freezer where they kept the food and Danny replied mentioning he was from Indiana. In fact, the nursing home was one town over from where he had grown up. While he didn't remember much about his past at the time, he remembered that.

Dante had replied and they had a little conversation. Then there were more conversations and eventually they started chatting in private with Danny opening up probably more than he should have, but holding back. Dante didn't know his real name or even exactly where he lived and he was lonely and bored and hungry for intellectual conversations. He was a welcome escape from Luis, who only wanted to talk about weed, Cheetos and titties.

"I like the way you look at things" Dante had said to him. "You really get it"

Little things like this meant a lot. He was also deeply interested in the Immunity Pass program so he asked Dante about it a lot, especially after meeting Tyrone and ScarLo at the Wal-Mart a couple of weeks earlier.

He told Dante he'd met a couple who were both immune and Dante had said "it's rare to find, especially a couple. The number of people who get the virus and live is dropping and it's because there are multiple strains and it's mutating fast and becoming worse. The only good news is so far the strains are similar enough, at least in the U.S., that if someone gets the virus and recovers the immunity seems across the board for all known strains in the U.S. The rest of the world has worse ones, though. That's what I think the one in China from the video was..."

"But" Dante added. "If they're immune they're good people to know. You don't have to worry about getting sick hanging out with them."

Danny said he wanted to hang out with them. That while he loved talking to Dante he needed some real life connections.

"You should" Dante encouraged.

That same day his phone rang. He didn't recognize the number.

"Hey man..." said a familiar voice. He knew it instantly, but still asked "Hey, who's this?"

"It's Tyrone and ScarLo, man. You want to hang out?"