Free Hot Zone by Sandy Holden Page B

full blast, but not for anything smaller than a dog. He also made them come on in sections, which gave us an idea where the movement had been detected. Good man. Didn’t want to be freaking out all night because a bat flew by. The deer didn’t like the lights, so mostly stayed away, and as Dad said, if they did show up they were nicely spotlighted for a little nature viewing.
    There were windows in Mom and Dad’s bedroom, but they were high up and not readily accessible. This was because of two different reasons depending on which parent was asked. Mom said that they didn’t want to bring in a lot of cold from the north side of the house (the place was passive solar, and some other environmental crap, but when Mom started to talk about it, I would snore and pretend to sleep), but Dad? Dad would say that they were crazy in love and things went on in this bedroom that even the birds shouldn’t see. While that response sort of creeped me out, I was so glad they were happy together. Someday I hoped to have the same thing. For now, however, the high windows made the bedroom pretty safe, and the smaller covered windows kept the occasional deer from waking up the household with the motion detector lights.
    Phil and Meri seemed good enough in there. Meri was feverish, but I had finally gotten some ibuprofen down her, so that was going to help. Tucker had fallen asleep in one of the open rooms (like I said, this house would have worked well for a family of ten instead of just Dick and I). I woke every hour or so and checked on Meri and Phil. At around three in the morning I was up with Meri, trying to get her fever down by putting a cool cloth on her head and wondering whether it was too early for more medicine, when I heard sirens. I went, curious, to the big room with its bank of windows facing the lake, and across the lake, the town. I could barely see some flashing lights, or at least thought I saw them. At least the police were still on the job , I thought to myself. Tucker was up now, so I went to bed in my room, and he went on “sick girl watch.” I didn’t think any more about the sirens but went right to sleep.

Chapter 5: Quarantine
    We slept late the next morning. I grabbed the clock when I realized how late it was, hoping I had misread the numbers. No, it really was ten. I felt terrible for zonking out and leaving Tucker alone to deal with Meri and Phil, especially since Phil was so scared of him. I needn’t have worried, however. Tucker was sound asleep on the couch, and Meri, bless her, was up and making a mess in the kitchen.
    I gave her a big hug and held on until she laughed at me. “Let go! I’m fine. Just a touch of the ‘flu, like you said.”
    I nodded, relieved. “Should you be up, though? Aren’t you tired?”
    “Not really. In fact, I feel pretty good.” She grinned at me. “And imagine my surprise when I woke up here! I didn’t know where I was at first, but then I remembered everything. Guess what?” she said excitedly, hardly stopping for breath. “Phil’s better too!”
    I looked towards Mom and Dad’s bedroom. “Is she awake?”
    “Not right now, but she was earlier, and she was so sweet to me. A little forgetful, and a little, um, I don’t know, ditzy, but compared with how she was, she’s great.”
    I smiled, happy we had come here, happy my friends were recovering. I went out and threw a pillow at Tucker, who sat up immediately. When he saw me grinning at him, he groaned and flopped back down. “What do you want?” he mumbled, the pillow over his head.
    “Go find a real bed,” I laughed. “I can’t be separated from a TV too long, you know.”
    Tucker yawned and looked towards the kitchen. “Who’s in there?” He could hear sounds from in there, but from his position, couldn’t see in.
    “Meri!” I said with a happy smile. “She’s feeling better!”
    Tucker looked surprised and went into the kitchen to see for himself while I turned on the TV and switched it to