When Danny woke up the next morning he wasn't sure what was real and what wasn't.

Had all of it been a dream? Or just the part where he hate fucked ScarLo?

All he knew is his head was full of new doubt. Just a day earlier he'd been all but ready to go to Maine with them but now something was very off about the entire thing.

Maybe it was as simple as he'd have to take a cross country trip through a wasteland with a couple in a broken marriage hiding in a cubbyhole. Or maybe it was much more deeper than that.

When he walked into the kitchen Tyrone was already there, plopped on the soda, watching CNN. Danny was nervous. He wondered if Tyrone had any idea about the weird sex him and ScarLo had the night before. What if he was not caught in the middle of their problems? What if he'd been used by ScarLo as a way for her to get back at Tyrone?

But if Tyrone knew at all, he didn't seem to care.

"Hey man, morning" he said, somewhat cheerfully. "Fix yourself some coffee. There's bacon in the microwave if you want some".

Danny skipped the bacon but did make him some coffee. He put the Columbian McCafe K-Pod in the machine and it watched it make him a cup. He then sheepishly made his way to Tyrone.

"Can you believe this shit?" Tyrone said motioning at the TV, remote in hand. He then turned up the volume as if telling Danny to pay attention.

Danny hadn't watched mainstream media in he didn't know when. It was all lies and propaganda. He got all his news from the deep web, mostly Dante. He used to snort when the President would call the media "fake news', but he'd decided in the age of the virus this was mostly true.

Still, there was no denying the scenes on the TV. They were from New York City and showed the National Guard, fully armed, moving into the city. There were reports of people going crazy and attacking other people and it was said at least three of those who had attacked were infected and in the overflowing death traps they called hospitals when it happened.

As Danny thought of what Dante had said about the cases of the new strain of the virus that were popping up, he watched police and National Guard fight off a group of angry protesters. He read one of their signs: "We are the 99%. The Immunity Nazis are the 1%". Technically, the amount of confirmed immune was thought to be at 2% of the U.S. population from what Danny read but the message was clear and Danny suspected this would be a growing trend for them.

"It's like what Dante said" Danny said. "About the new strain. That must be what's causing those attacks..."

Tyrone turned at him and nodded approvingly.

"I was thinking the same thing" he said. "...And these clowns are being called The Herd. They want everyone to be infected so there isn't a 'privileged class'. This is just getting started..."

Tyrone turned to Danny.

"Look man, I know I said I wouldn't press you on Maine so this is all I'm going to say: whatever is going on there in New York, it's going to spread and we need to go through upstate New York to get to Maine so if it spreads that far before we do than we'll get cut off. That's all I'll say about it".

Danny nodded.

"I'm going to get some more coffee" he said and walked back into the kitchen. As he loaded another K-Cup he noticed some car keys laying on the counter. They had a Enterprise Rent-A-Car key fob. At first Danny wondered if Tyrone had already secured the truck for the trip, but realized they looked more like cars he'd seen for a luxury car like a Lexus or Mercedes. They definitely didn't belong to their Range Rover.

He was going to examine them further but then ScarLo made her way down the stairs on a robe.

"Hey, there she is" Tyrone said. "Morning baby..."

"Morning" ScarLo said with a slight smile. She looked and sounded better.

ScarLo walked over to Danny and gave him a hug and a peck on the cheek.

"Thanks for putting up with me last night" she said. "That was awesome".

She then snatched Danny's freshly brewed cup of coffee and winked.

Danny smiled. He was glad she seemed to be doing better.

Tyrone smiled at ScarLo and nodded and then playfully patted her on the ass and wrapped his arms around her. She giggled.

"You boys want some breakfast?" ScarLo asked.

"Hell yeah" Tyrone said. "Least you can do after stealing my boys cup of coffee. How you like that move, Danny? She pulls that shit on me all. the. time".

"I do not" ScarLo hissed, playfully. Danny laughed and smiled. He was remembered why he had felt attracted to the two in the first place.

"I'm okay" Danny said about breakfast. "Really. I'll just grab a couple of slices of this bacon in the microwave and that'll do".

"Oh now see that's one of his moves..." ScarLo said. "The old 'I made some bacon in the microwave and acted like I cooked breakfast'. He pulls it on me all. the. time".

"Do not!" Tyrone laughed. ScarLo rolls her eyes.

"You sure, Danny?" ScarLo asked as Danny grabbed two of the bacon slices.

"I'm sure". He was already munching on one.

"Good right?" Tyrone asked. Danny nodded.

"See?" Tyrone looked at ScarLo accusingly, hands on hips. She rolled her eyes.

Danny started to head towards the door.

"You leaving us man?"

Danny nodded.

"Yeah, my room mate will be wondering where I am".

Danny didn't want to tell them about Luis and his quarantine. Even if they were immune he was worried they might think he was infected.

Tyrone nodded.

"OK, I'll give you a call in a day or two and we'll catch up..."

"Bye sweetie!" ScarLo called with a wave.

Danny was almost out the door when Tyrone called to him and came running over.

"Oh and man, one thing..." he said. He was holding the police scanner.

"I heard this morning they had a road block set up exactly where they did the last time you were here so you'll want to take the long way around like before just in case..."

Danny nodded. Thank God he'd told him. It was definitely not his shopping day and that was all he needed to deal with.

"Thanks man!"

"Hey, don't mention that".

As he walked to the car Danny had one fleeting thought: ScarLo came from upstairs but her and Tyrone's bedroom was downstairs. Had they slept in separate rooms? But they seemed to be on good terms again...

But Danny shrugged it off. He was just glad they seemed to happy and stable again. He got in his car and hit the road. The long way definitely added time to his drive. It basically meant going all the way around to get to where you could have gotten going straight.

Soon he was back on the main road. He'd look between the houses as he had the first trip but hadn't seen a road block. Either it was gone or he'd missed it.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

That's when he looked in the rear view and saw the car. It was a black Sedan with tinted windows. It was the kind of car government officials used. The kind of the feds used.

Danny had only noticed it because it was following very close. At first this was a comforting thought: any spook worth their salt would follow from a distance as to not be seen.

But as he turned onto one road and then another and the car did the same, the comfort faded quickly.

Danny intentionally went down a road he wouldn't normally take, doing so suddenly. The car behind him swerved sharply and did the same.

"Fuck" Danny muttered to himself.

He stepped on the gas and his Subaru accelerated. He turned a sharp left and the black car passed by but as he did he thought he saw its break shine bright red. Danny didn't stick around to see if the car backed up to continue pursuit. He took off towards home. When he arrived he looked all around him before he got out of the car, but the coast appeared clear.

Maybe it had all been in his head, but he didn't feel like it had been. Then, he heard sirens. Police sirens. One after another. His heart sunk but rose again as a line of five police cars came racing past his apartment complex and away from him.

He jumped up and headed inside.

Poor Luis. That was his first thought when he entered into the apartment. He'd really been neglecting his room mate.

"Hey bro, that you..." Luis said in a husky voice and then came the cough, deep and harsh. Danny's heart stopped.

"Man, where have you been?" Luis asked, coughing again.

"I'm sorry man, really I..."

"Just get me some water man. Please.... and some Tylenol..."

No Mountain Dew? No Cheetos? This was bad.

Danny cracked the door and tossed the Tylenol bottle inside. He rolled three water bottles across the floor one after another. He couldn't see Luis and didn't really want to...

"Thank God" he heard Luis say. The pills rattled and that bottle opened, then the cap of the water bottle was unscrewed.

"I didn't want to leave the room and risk touching anything" Luis said with a hack. "I think... I don't know man... I think that bitch got me..."

"You going to be OK?" Danny asked. "You want me to call the hospital or...?"

"NO!" Luis shouted and then went into a coughing fit. "Please don't... I ordered one of those home testing kits using my phone. It'll be here tomorrow..."

Danny understood why he didn't want to go to the hospital. It was accepting a harsh reality and it seemed like anyone who was sick and went to the hospital never came out.

"Well, if you need anything else I'll be here..." Danny said, not knowing what else to say.

There was a series of hacking coughs and then a "thanks man..."

Danny went to the kitchen and grabbed his stashed bottle of black market hand sanitizer and doused it over himself. He slipped on his face mask and decided he'd be wearing it in the apartment from now on.

He logged onto the computer and went straight to Dante's postings.

The first one was about the Postal inspections, just like Tyrone had said last night. He looked at the time stamp. He couldn't remember when he'd gotten to Tyrone and ScarLo's permanent AirBnB but it must have meant Tyrone had to have read it right before he got there.

There was also a new posting from hours ago with an update from only a couple minutes before and it made Danny's heart sink for what felt like what must have been the 100th time in the day.

The original post detailed several new cases reported of the mysterious advance strain of the virus, including right in Colorado, but it was the update that was scary.

Just a few miles away at the hospital police had responded after an infected woman had attacked several nurses. Dante reported the woman had been a prominent figure in the Herd Immunity movement, which is what people were now simply called The Herd, and there were videos of her advocating for intentionally infecting others if you were infected.

Could it be the police cars he'd seen have been responding to the hospital? Good thing Luis didn't go, he thought.

BLING

His heart jumped for the 101st time.

It was a new message from Dante. It was simple and to the point:

Hey man, I'm going to be cutting off communication for now. I think they're closing in on me and I don't want to put anyone else at risk. Maybe I'll see you in the promised land. If I find out I'm blown for sure, I'll try and send out a quick message warning you. Stay sane out there.

Your Friend,

Dante

"Stay sane out there" Danny replied, taking in the message. "Stay safe out there" had become the farewell of the time. It was pretty much what everyone said to each other now and "Stay sane out there" was Danny and Dante's spin on it. It had become an inside joke between the two.

The little green check mark beside Danny's message turned green showing the message had been read but there was no further reply.

Danny spend the rest of the day watching TV, playing video games and feeling very paranoid. He kept peering outside his door and windows. He felt like the feds were outside and the virus was behind the door. He no longer felt safe and the weird call that jolted him off the coach where he'd passed out didn't help.

It was Carol and she wasn't making any sense.

She sounded like she'd been crying. Her voice was filled with worry. It was jittery as a chair missing a leg.

"I need to see you..." she said. "I think something happened to Jack and... something is wrong and I need to see you in person... before I leave..."

"Carol, what are you talking about? Leave? Where are you going?"

"I...I saw a car leaving the day I found my Jack and I had been testing a new Nanny cam...for the nursery and I left it on and there's a shadow..."

She was rambling, not making sense, but the car part put Danny on alert. He thought about the one that had maybe been following him the day before.

"Danny, I know you're not really Immune..."

Danny felt a lump in his throat. He tried to speak but only stammered.

"But I don't care about that. It's them. I... they... they worried Jack for a solid week about that movie and set that up and..."

"Carol, I don't know what you're talking about. Jack had a heart attack. He had the virus and his heart was week and..."

"No" Carol responded coldly.

Danny got quite.

"OK" he said after a moment. "Tell me where and I'll be right there".

She gave the address and it was the theater. He agreed to meet her there in 20 minutes.

"Hurry" she said. "Before they find out".

The phone went dead.

Danny's heart couldn't take this anymore.

They?

He grabbed his keys and raced out the door, not even thinking to check on poor Luis.