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jogged back
toward the porch and started telling everyone to stay back.
    Parrish moved toward
the shadows again, watching as the paramedics placed the man on a
white-sheeted gurney and lifted him into the ambulance. They were
wearing masks and for some reason, the sight of it mixed with the
fear in Noah’s eyes kept her up for the rest of the night,
unable to sleep.

Noah
    Noah stood in the
kitchen and stared at the door to the basement.
    He cracked open a can
of soda and downed half of it without taking his eye off the door.
What had his dad been doing down there this whole time?
    He’d been in that
stupid basement for twelve hours straight without a break. Noah
hadn’t even seen him come up to grab food or a shower or
anything. Last night when Noah called to tell him about the man on
the street, his dad had rushed home like a maniac. He’d pulled
one of the paramedics aside and convinced him to let him take some
samples from the sick man.
    Noah had never seen his
dad do something like that. It was weird. Paranoid.
    His dad had put on a
mask, then spent about five minutes in the ambulance with the sick
man before finally coming out with a bag full of who-knows-what. He’d
barely said two words to Noah. He’d just pointed toward the
house and told him to stay put. That’s when he disappeared into
the basement.
    Noah hadn’t seen
him since.
    He downed the rest of
his drink, then set it down on the counter.
    He took two steps
toward the basement door, then stopped. He ran a hand through his
hair. Crap. He wasn’t allowed down there. How many times had
his dad lectured him about it?
    Any time he was working
down there meant he needed peace and quiet and a sterile environment.
Noah knew that.
    But he hated not
knowing what was going on. Was this virus really that dangerous?
    His dad always got
over-excited about new strains and potentially deadly viruses, but
there was also some level of caution, too. He was trained to stay
calm even in the face of the worst kinds of disasters. The last thing
the CDC needed was for one of their own doctors to start freaking out
and telling everyone the world was ending.
    Speeding up to an
ambulance and demanding tissue samples or whatever was definitely not
in the CDC handbook of things that were okay to do.
    So why would he do it?
    Noah had been up half
the night thinking about it. He’d been sitting here in the
kitchen for hours just waiting for his dad to come out. It was
driving him insane.
    He needed a break from
staring at that damn door wondering what on earth had his dad so
spooked. He opened the kitchen trashcan and looked inside. Half-full.
Good enough.
    He lifted the bag and
tied it off, then opened the garage door and stepped outside.
    The afternoon sun was
bright and warm. He stood there for a moment and let the heat sink
into his skin. Maybe he’d take the car and drive out to the
lake later when it cooled off some. He could use a good run. This
whole thing had him freaked out.
    He walked to the other
side of the driveway, opened the lid to the large trash can and
stuffed the bag inside, then wheeled the whole thing out to the curb.
The trash didn’t come until tomorrow, but it wouldn’t
hurt to get it out too early.
    He couldn’t help
but glance across the street. The spot where the man had collapsed
looked the same as it did every other day, but the whole place felt
different. Scary. It was one thing when his dad said there was a new
virus he was researching. It was something else entirely when Noah
saw that virus in full effect right here in his own front yard.
    He had to assume that
was what this was all about. Why else would his dad have gone so
crazy?
    In the driveway across
the street, six suitcases of different sizes were piled up behind the
Sorrows’ SUV. Probably Zoe and her dad getting ready to fly out
for her music tour. The kid really was talented, but he’d
enjoyed talking to Parrish more than listening to her sister play the
violin.
    And