Those Who Remain

Chapter 31

The only sounds I could hear was mine and Ridge's soft breathing, which in all honesty felt like it was too loud. With our panicked states, I suppose it was as quiet as we could keep our breathing, especially when we were laying on our stomachs.

No one had entered the house yet, and we were waiting for the sound of the door opening to faintly fill the almost silence of the house. Ridge shifted next to me and grabbed my hand giving it a squeeze. In reply, I scooted my body so that all of our sides were touching trying to get and give as much physical comfort as I could.

Our breaths became noticeably quieter as we heard the front door creak open and the sound of voices flowing through the open bedroom door. "So you guys have two houses set aside for quarantine. Have they been utilized yet?"

"Sadly, they have," the sound of Lee's voice was slightly soothing since I knew he was going to do everything in his power to make sure we were safe. I was sure that Ryan had said we were running an errand in one of the quarantine houses for him, "out of the several people kept in the separate bedrooms, there has only been one case where a person was actually infected."

"That sounds promising," the man said and the voices grew closer to the bedroom, "I have to say it seems like a good system considering it has worked so far."

"Of course, we would swiftly alter our strategy if it hadn't." Lee's voice sounded slightly snippy as he spoke which gave away his opinion of the man.

"You said that everyone who was exposed would be housed in an upstairs bedroom. What is done with this one?" The door opened and I tightened my grip in Ridge's hand as I made my breathing virtually silent.

"This one is used for the doctors and nurses that stay in this house for the duration of an isolation stay. If any of them need to lay down or take a break, they are welcome to rest here."

"You guys have really thought about everything, haven't you," he walked farther into the room, right next to the bed. When he stopped his toe was slightly under the bed making the bed skirt ripple slightly. I could only hope that when he walked away he didn't move it in a way that would expose us. "It looks unused."

"I would imagine it would be hard to sleep just in case something were to happen. I know if I was in their shoes, I wouldn't be able to sleep." Lee made a very true point with that statement, but that was the least of my concerns right now.

"I'd have to agree," he said and moved away from the bed. Thankfully, the bed skirt fell right back into the position it was originally in.

As they left the room and moved away from us, I felt slight relief, but I knew that total relief wouldn't come until the man was outside of our walls. I knew Ridge felt the same since some of the tenseness in his shoulders relaxed, but a majority of it still remained.

We heard the heavy footsteps of Lee and the man for what I thought was about ten minutes before we finally heard the door close. Neither of us moved from our positions, which was probably for the best considering they could come right back. Our hands remained linked and the silence was suffocating.

After a few more minutes, Ridge broke the silence, "What are we going to do?" His voice was soft as we both didn't know an answer.

"Well, I'd say a good place to start is getting out from under this bed." Ridge let out a soft snort as he started shifting towards his side and me to mine. We brushed off the dust we collected on our clothes before starting to move out into the living room.

We sat down on the couch with Ridge's feet in my lap, which in different circumstances would gross me out considering he still had shoes on. Right now, however, it was the last thing on my mind. If anything, it was comforting.