Tim caught the fear in my eyes and snapped to attention. “What’s wrong?”
I adjusted the elastic on my mask and puffed out a sigh. “It’s Sadie.”
“What?” His eyes drilled into me. “Tell me.”
Laura gripped a fistful of Dustin’s shirt and froze.
Owen went quiet, shifting all his focus to me.
Thunder cracked so loudly, it rattled the windows.
Ten percent chance of survival, wasn’t that what Laura said?
My limbs trembled, and I struggled to comprehend the truth even as I said it out loud.
“Sadie has Ultimus.”
Fourteen
sadie
Ilay on Theo’s couch and stared at Ava’s texts until the words blurred. She’d secured a flight home in seven days—destination to be determined. Not as soon as I hoped, but still. She was coming home.
We’d been separated for so long, the idea of reuniting had started to feel impossible. Then my heart sank when I realised I might not be alive to see her.
I told her I loved her and left out the part about me being sick.
After warning Theo to stay away from his own home, I watched coverage of riots and protests around the world on his TV.
People were throwing objects through shop windows in London, running from supermarkets with full shopping trolleys in America. Businesses had pulled their roller shutters down, and in some countries, residents were patrolling their properties with firearms to keep looters away.
The images turned my stomach, and just I hoped Ava could get back before it became even worse.
With the blanket covering the lower part of my face, I lost myself in another bout of coughing, the sounds hacking from me again and again until I was on the verge of throwing up.
As soon as it was over, I examined the blanket and collapsed with a sigh. No blood. My internal organs weren’t giving up the fight yet, so there was that.
When a message alert sounded, I checked my phone and found a text from Theo.
On my way back up
I lurched upright, my head swimming with dizziness asI tapped out a response.
No! You can’t come in
Tough. I live there
I stared at the door as if he might come barging through any second. He had a sister, a niece. His dad. We weren’t on the same level. Theo had people to stay alive for, and I wouldn’t be responsible for his death.
I tried again.
Don’t come home
I’m begging you
Think of your family
I’d caught the virus outside, and I was standing more than a metre away from Brynn before I thought to pull up my mask. Theo’s chances of escaping it indoors with my germs hovering in the air would be even lower.
