Waiting Out Winter Read Online Free PDF Page B

get Tyler. I’ve got Hunter.” Sarah picked up the eight-year-old with a grunt and headed toward the kitchen doorway where Jamie stood.
    “Nick,” Jamie’s voice stopped him and he turned around. “I’ll get Tyler. Scott’s on the phone. He’s at Cheryl’s… Sounds upset, you better take it.” They traded duties as she handed him the phone before heading down the hallway.
    Nick shut his eyes and exhaled, “Hey Scottie, what’s up?” Silence answered him and he pulled the phone away from his ear to look at it, as if it were a cell phone and he’d know if the connection was lost. He put it back to his hear and listened for a moment. He could barely make out the ragged breathing on the other end.
    “Scott?” He nudged with a soothing tone. Scott had never been a quiet person, they’d teased him all through college about never shutting up, and Nick immediately worried if Scott or the kids had been bitten. “Hey, man--”
    “Cheryl’s dead.” Scott’s voice was calm but trembling, cracked.
    “Dead? When? When did you get there?” Nick retreated to the kitchen and let Jamie and Sarah handle the boys on their own. Jerry sat at the table, eyebrows raised at Nick’s questions. Nick covered the phone and told Jerry, “Cheryl’s dead.” Jerry covered his mouth with his hand and shook his head before spitting tobacco juice into the Dixie cup he held.
    Scott continued on the phone, “I just got here… half hour ago maybe, or an hour, I don’t know.” Scott’s steady voice of logic cracked as he spoke. “Randy said she died last night. And Nick… he’s coughing.”
    “Oh shit, Scott. I’m sorry.” Jerry’s looked up at Nick’s word choice and Nick waved him off. “Is there any chance it’s just a cold?”
    “No. He was bit. He knows it and he knows what it means. He’s actually being quite brave for eight.”
    Nick thought of his Hunter and how very different his behavior was from Scott’s boy. “What about Michelle?”
    “She’s fine, but she’s in shock. Randy said Cheryl coughed pretty hard at the end. Michelle was sitting with her and got covered in blood. She hasn’t spoken since… she was still speckled in blood when I got here…” The ragged breathing turned to sobs and Nick waited for Scott to regain his composure and finish his thought.
    Silence answered him.
    “Scott? What do you want to do? What are you going to do?”
    “I don’t know. I don’t fucking know.” His voice skipped. “I mean… I still loved her. And her kids needed her. But I can’t fix it or change it… and now Randy…”
    “Come back here.” Nick was startled by his tone. He had meant it as a suggestion but it had sounded more like a demand. “You know, you could come here. Hole up with us instead of down there by yourself.”
    “I don’t know. I can’t do anything… I can’t even think straight. Randy--”
    “It’s ok. Just calm down. Maybe it’s not fatal for everyone.” Nick glanced at Jerry, their eyes acknowledged the lie he’d just uttered.
    “I can’t… I… I’ll call you later.”
    The phone went dead.
    “Shit.” Nick set the phone on the table.
    “Cheryl and Randy?”
    “Yeah. Damn.” Nick pulled out the chair next to Jerry and sat. “Maybe we should drive there and get him.”
    “What? How?” Jerry stood and paced the small room as Nick’s leg began bouncing with nervous energy. “We can’t. We can’t risk contaminating everyone all the way down and then back and then bring it into this house. We made it safe here. We--”
    “I know, I know.” Nick cut him off. “I just didn’t know what else to say or suggest. Fuck, this sucks.”
    Nick grabbed the phone and dialed Scott’s cell. He got the voicemail recording and slammed the phone down again.
    “We can’t do anything right now. Let’s just go to sleep… It’ll work itself out. Or we’ll figure something out. Either way, right here--right now--we’re useless.”
    Nick stared at Jerry