CHAPTER 1
QUARANTINE: DAY 1
EVAN“THEY LOCKED DOWN THE FUCKING city, man!” I rage into my cell phone while pacing my best friend Jake’s apartment.
“Ev, bro, relax. I can hear your blood pressure skyrocketing all the way from Africa. And I sincerely doubt that they’re locking down San Francisco. It’s one of the biggest cities in the world. There’s no way the government can close off a city of six million people, not to mention the commuters. You need to…”
“Jake…I swear on my mother’s life. The Department of Public Health laid it out, and the governor agreed. There’s a stay-at-home order for the entire Bay Area. Rumor’s in the press that it’s going to go statewide.”
“Okay, I understand you’re freaked out. You have a lot on your plate.” His patronizing tone makes my blood heat.
I fist the hand that’s not holding the phone to my ear in a vice-like grip until my fingers turn white. “Freaked out? I’m a sitting duck! If the media finds out where I am, it’s over for me. My side of the story hasn’t come out and I’m still working with my publicist on the best way to handle the shitshow that is my life right now.”
A heavy sigh comes through the line. “Evan, don’t be a douche. I’m in Africa fighting HIV/AIDS, malaria, and meningitis—to name a few—from killing hundreds of thousands of people. You will survive a minor inconvenience in the largest free country in the world.”
Shit. Now I do feel like a douche. I rub my forehead and push my fingers through the dirty blond waves of hair at my crown. “They’re calling it coronavirus. I guess it’s similar to the flu.”
In the background I can hear my friend sifting through some papers. “Yeah, we received the reports from our liaisons about the concerns. It originated in China in a small town called Wuhan. It looks like the World Health Organization received information about it in or around December. Much more serious and contagious than the flu. Seems as though the reports, data, and specifics are emerging daily.”
“It’s March, man. Why the heck are we just hearing about it now?” I grind out, irritation coating every word.
Another sigh trails through the line. “It’s simply not that easy. They can’t announce something could end up being a pandemic. We’ll just have to ride this out and see what’s happening. Word is China and Italy are devastated. Most of the world is still figuring out how bad this could get.”
“And while all of this is going down, I’m stuck in San Francisco,” I offer dryly.
“Stuck? Evan, you play for the Oakland Marauders. Your house is a twenty-minute drive away. It’s not like you’re stuck in bum-fuck Egypt. Besides, you could do worse than my apartment. It’s safe, you’re on the twentieth floor, and you’ve got company. Thanks for watching Gloria, by the way.” My best friend chuckles, instantly pissing me off more.
“You mean devil-kitty?” I glare at the orange cat hissing at me from her perch on top of the media center. I swear if that cat jumps off and attacks me, it will lose all nine of its lives taking a swan dive over the balcony.
“That’s not nice. She’s my pretty-pretty ginger princess. She just misses me, but eventually she’ll warm up to you. Give her some of the treats in the top right cabinet near the coffee pot. That will help win her over.”
Stomping into the kitchen, I open the cabinet and pull out the cat treats. The second I shake the bag, devil-kitty races into the kitchen and leaps onto the counter like a parkour ninja.
“Jesus Christ! What the fuck, cat?” I jump back while the feline stares me down as if she’s demanding that if I give her the treats now and walk away, no one will get hurt. Psycho cat.
Jake’s deep laughter fills my ear. Instead of feeding her the treats from my hand, I shake some directly onto the counter a good two feet away from the animal. I’ll be keeping my fingers today, thank you very much!
“She’s excitable. Wouldn’t you be if you were getting a treat?”
“If the treat was a tall blonde with big tits and a bubble butt, yeah. Though that won’t be happening any time soon since I’m in lockdown in my best friend’s apartment.”
“Okay, I’ll be right there.” Jake murmurs, his voice sounding far away from the phone, as though he’s talking to someone else. “Look Ev, I gotta go. I’m sure you’ll be fine. I’ll check in with you in a couple days. Just lay low. Eventually the truth will come out and your name will be cleared, yeah? Have a little faith.”
“Faith?” I huff. “In the press? In my team? Or maybe mankind at large?”
“All of the above. And wash your hands before and after you go out. They’re saying this thing has a two-week incubation time frame which means symptoms might not present themselves for up to fourteen days.”