The Release

Darla and Ethan exchanged glances.

“Did you take him outside without me noticing? You couldn’t have. No. Tell me…where is he?”

Flipping a pancake, the thick batter sticking a bit in the pan, Darla nodded toward the back of the house. “He’s outside,” she answered, as if this news was mundane and expected.

“He’s okay?” Lucy shrieked and she ran off without waiting for an explanation.

Lucy ran toward their kitchen and then out to their back porch. Grant sat by himself on the steps leading down to the backyard. The air was still damp, but it wasn’t raining. He turned to her and then patted the step next to him. His hair was a mess of tangles and his scruffy chin was growing fuller, the whiskers more defined.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you this morning,” Lucy said, breathless.

“I wasn’t expecting it either,” he replied. “When I opened my eyes this morning I wondered why Heaven looked so much like your parent’s bedroom.”

She laughed and leaned into him. But she was overcome with worry—Grant’s original theory, that they were taking longer to die, seemed to ring in her ears. Maybe he was just an anomaly, maybe it could still happen.

“What does this mean? Are you scared that—” Lucy stopped herself from asking the full question.

“Ethan and I talked this morning. The information your dad,” Grant hesitated, “well, the information that they found was very definitive. No survivors. None. Not ever. In every single study.”

“The virus was created with that endgame in mind, I imagine,” Lucy said and she stared out into the sky.

“So, the fact that I’m still here. It means something. It’s not an accident.”

“Like I keep saying…”

Grant smiled. “Yeah, well, apparently I’m superhuman. This surprise replaces the piano playing I think.”

“So…”

Grant nudged her with his elbow and he smiled. “I’m not going to die today Lucy Larkspur King. I think this means you’re stuck with me.”

“You promise?” Lucy asked.

“Pancake time!” came a cry from inside and then Teddy’s little feet pitter-pattered over to the screen on the kitchen door and the little boy pressed his face against the netting. “Pancake time,” he repeated. And they followed him inside.

“We have to go to Nebraska,” Lucy said over breakfast. They crowded around the dining room table with Ethan in his wheelchair. “Dad told us to get there if anything happened and that’s where we need to go.”

“How?” Darla asked, cutting up Teddy’s pancake pieces into smaller bites, even as he shoved her hand away. “The abandoned cars and all the wreckage? You can’t get out of the city. On top of that it’s…what…a month of walking? Two months?”

“Try three,” Grant said as he shoved a pancake into his mouth.

“Ethan,” Lucy turned to her brother. “We have to do this.”

“You’re out of your mind,” Ethan replied, instantly angry, and the table fell quiet. “Really? You want us to go? How can I do that? I can’t go. How can I go? How can I travel like this?” The timbre of his voice rose and fell, as if he were fighting back a wave of tears. “It’s not like you can just put me in the back of a car and drive out of here. It’s impossible. I can’t do it.”

“We can get you there—” Grant said after a long pause. “We can do it.”

“I can’t even take a dump by myself,” Ethan said and Teddy asked what that meant, Darla whispered a reply in his ear and he snickered. “But you guys want to take me on a cross-country road trip? No, Lucy. I need a doctor. I need medicine…and we’re working on that, but I can’t go anywhere. Not for a long time.”

The room grew silent.

“Besides,” Ethan continued, “what’s in Nebraska? Our family? If they’re alive, why aren’t they coming for us? Have you ever thought of that?”

“Dad went to the effort…”

“Writing some coordinates in a children’s book.”

“…to give us help on what to do if we got separated.”

“From something he might have had caused?” Ethan’s eyes flashed.

Darla drew in a sharp breath and then sucked her cheek against her teeth. “He has a point, Lucy,” she interjected. “I think you’re forgetting what you know to be true here. Nebraska could be dangerous.”

Lucy looked down at her plate. “We don’t know the truth. None of us know.”

“Well, I’m begi

Lowering her voice, Darla leaned in and narrowed her eyes. “You’re just going to show up in this town in Nebraska and knock on some doors until you’re reunited with your family? That’s not a great plan.”

“I don’t have a plan,” Lucy said in a small voice. “But I don’t want to sit here at the house waiting for us to run out of the meals my dad left and not doing anything to try to find the people I love. I’ve already done that. I just stayed at that stupid school waiting for someone to come rescue me.” She looked at everyone and put down her fork. “No more. This is something we can do. No more waiting around, I’m done with that.”

The fire popped.

“You know you can’t risk Ethan’s life by asking him to go with you,” Darla said with her mouth full. “Eat the pancake, Teddy.” She looked at Lucy and raised her eyebrows in expectation of a reply.

“We can’t just stay here. So, then what?” Lucy asked and she turned over her shoulder toward the den. She pushed her chair back away from the table and started to make her way to Ethan.

“Right,” Grant answered. His voice was strong and confident. “Well, that makes it easy.”

Lucy paused and turned to look at him. “What?”

“Lucy and I will go,” he said to Darla.

The offer hung in the room, palpable and tense. Everyone collectively held his or her breath.

Then Darla looked thoughtfully toward the ceiling and then back toward Grant. Her eyes went between the two of them, assessing. Finally, she assented. “It’s not the only way, but I suppose if you’re hell-bent on going…it is the best way. You can drive once you get out of the city. Gas is an issue because you can’t pump without power…but cars should be easy to come by.”

“But you just said—” Lucy started, but Darla raised a fork at her.

“Look,” she interrupted. “I’m not going to tell you not to take a risk. And I think you’re crazy, but I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t want some answers. I lost the love of my life and everyone on this planet I cared about with the exception of my son. You think you can do this? Then go.”

“Is this happening?” Lucy asked and she took a step forward. “Everyone is okay with this?”

Shrugging, Darla looked over at Teddy. “I’m not leaving my son. And I’m not taking my son. Your brother can’t travel. Neither of you should go alone. If Nebraska is in your future…then this has to be the way. I don’t think it’s safe and I am petrified about what’s waiting for you there. But if you want to go, I’m not going to stand in your way.”

Inside the den, Ethan flipped through records. Lucy entered and stood near the doorway, the sounds of the others clearing breakfast dishes in the background.

“You know what shocks me most of all?” he said with his back still turned to her. “Why would Dad just walk away from the life he built here? Why leave this heirloom? And his wedding pictures,” he nodded toward an album on the edge of their father’s work desk. “How could he risk losing us?”

Lucy sat down on the couch and leaned her head back—she stared at the white ceiling and the overhead fan above them—the blades decorated with some flowery design that had always looked like an abstract drawing of an owl’s face. She turned to face Ethan.