“I hope not. If there are two of us in this one city, then maybe there are one or two in every city. That adds up to thousands of people. Hundreds of thousands, all spread out. No disease in the history of the world has had a 100 percent infection rate. And no disease in the world has 100 percent mortality when modern medical practices are used.”

I study him a little more carefully. “How do you know all that?”

He flashes a grin. “I’m a smart guy.”

And nice to look at. Or maybe that’s the loneliness of the last few days talking. I never want to be alone again. “So this disease hit everywhere? The whole world?”

“Wow, you don’t know anything, do you?”

Something about his tone irritates me. “In a coma for six days, remember?”

“That’s what I mean. You woke up and found a whole different planet. But yeah, almost all at once. The Great Lakes area was first, but by the next day, people were dying off in New York City, Moscow, Lagos, Shanghai . . .”

It’s like a light winks out inside me. I must have been clinging to the possibility that the disease didn’t spread worldwide.

At least I’ve found someone. Even if it’s only one person. I hope Trey is a decent human being. I need him to be. I don’t know what I’ll do if I find out otherwise.

“Which is impossible, you know,” he adds.

“What is?”

“For a disease to hit everywhere at once.”

I nod. “They always start with a vector and spread.”

“You’re smart too.”

“I just played a lot of Plague Inc. on my tablet.” I grab another piece of bread. Eating was hard when I first woke up, but now I’m craving calories. I could eat until I popped. “So tell me,” I say around a mouthful. “Why all the hiding?”

Emmaline has finished licking the plate clean, and she walks over to Trey and sits primly at his feet, gazing hopefully into his face.

“Don’t beg, Emmy,” I say. She used to do this all the time when Ryan and I went over to Mrs. Carby’s house for cookies. Emmaline recognizes the command and slinks away from him. She hops up onto the couch beside me and curls up against my thigh. “Good girl.” Her tail thumps.

“I’ve been seeing things,” Trey says at last. “But I’m not crazy, and I’m not on drugs so don’t even say it.”

“Um. Okay.”

“You’re not the first person I’ve seen alive.”

I sit straight up. “What?”