by Gillian Zane
“One of the bats got my friend, the bachelorette. She was supposed to be married the next weekend. Got her square in the temple, and I held her in my arms. There was so much blood, and all I could do was cry and scream. I should have been dead too, he was coming back, but this man, he wasn’t a cop, or anything like that. He stood up and began shooting back.”
“Thomas Caine.” I knew the name, I had seen the news reports.
“Yeah, the Reckoners got him eventually, but he took out four of them before he went down. While he was doing that, another man managed to take out two others, and finally, the cops got the last one… well, the last one in our area. Her voice broke off. There were no tears in her eyes, but they were in her voice.
“Were you near there, the restaurant they took all the hostages?”
“No, I was in the streets; everyone but me and another girl, Daneela, died in the initial onslaught. If I would have had a gun that night, I might have made a difference.”
“How old were you?”
“Eighteen.”
“Fuck, Miley.” I pulled her into my arms. No wonder she was so strong. Things like that either broke you or gave you nerves of steel.
“Right after that, I got a little obsessive with the guns, like overly obsessive. That’s when I started the Instagram thing, and they have these fitness girls that pose with guns who sucked me in. By the time I picked up my first sponsors, I was not as deep into the gun and workout scene and was moving more to just lifestyle stuff. The model shots always got the most likes, so I was focusing there. And so, here we are.” She made finger guns in the air and smiled, wiping away the look of pain that had been on her face from sharing the story.
“C’mon, I want watermelon now.” She picked up the big melon, shot a very come-hither type of look over her shoulder and bounded up the back steps of her porch.
25
The two of us had decided to go on a news blackout after we came back from our last grocery shopping adventure. I couldn't take the negativity, and the reports seemed odd. In my heart I knew I couldn’t believe what I was seeing on the news anymore. It all depended on who they were taking a payment from. Most of the news reports were under the employ of the government. Most of the “fake news outlets” were exposed for being sponsored by big Pharma, and political groups that were outside of our country, mostly China. After the first pandemic, most of the big media companies were dissolved by the government, but it led to the government taking control of them and using them as voices for whatever tyrant was in charge.
There were only a few holdouts that weren’t public broadcasts, mostly on the internet and they were slowly dying. The phone companies were blocking access and not allowing them to get their apps in their app stores. When we got inside though, I decided it was time to check in on the world. I turned on the television in the kitchen and changed it to the only remaining independent national news channel available. It looked like it had been filmed by high school journalists.
Laying the watermelon on a cutting board, I grabbed my biggest knife and began cutting into the juicy fruit. When I glanced at the television, I stopped what I was doing.
“There are now nearly twenty million infected in the United States with the new pollen caused infection. The death rate reaching nearly eighty percent of the infected. Clusters have now popped up in Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, California, Nevada, and Colorado. There has been no correlation between location and super-spreaders. Doctor Rav Maldi of the Seattle Institute of Virology and Fredericka Miller of the Arelia Group are here to discuss the impact of this, allergy, is that what you are calling this?”
“You are right, Melinda. It’s an allergy caused by a pollen, and we are looking in the wrong direction. The CDC is misguided, it is a pollen not a virus, and we should be looking at wind patterns. The pollen is being carried on the wind, and if my data is correct, the pollen spread is originating somewhere near the Gulf of Mexico…”
“Get your computer,” I shot over my shoulder at Zeke. He ran into the garage and Aralia got his laptop, pulling up the map with the pollen hot spots when he returned. He moved to the side and let me look over his shoulder.
“Ten million, holy shit, we were only at a million a few days ago.” He typed something into his computer.
“She’s ramped up efforts,” I whispered.
“It’s being carried by the wind. Is she able to do that?”
“The storms, those are hers, right? So, she can it. It has to be her. Those two hurricanes that formed in the Gulf and off the coast of Georgia, they never made landfall, they were there to move the pollen.” I pulled up the tracking maps on my phone. I had been worried about the one in the Gulf and had been following it, but it stalled out before it hit land. A relief, but maybe there was another reason. The wind had pick up, the wind pattern changing from a southernly direction to a northerly pattern. She was pushing the pollen up North.
“The rains of a storm would have inhibited the pollen, forcing it to the ground and making it useless. That’s why a good rain is always good for people suffering from allergies. She’s forming storms off the coasts to keep the pollen on land, look.” He showed me the satellite shots of huge storms over most of the gulfs.
“The storms probably point to all the locations of the plants.” I tapped the computer screen, making it zoom in. South Atlantic near Brazil, the Gulf of Tonkin had a huge storm churning, so did the South Pacific.
“The Gulf of Mexico, that’s our plant. South Atlantic, gotta be one in Brazil, right? That makes sense, Gulf of Tonkin, China has its own plant.” That didn’t sit well with me. There was no way we could travel to China; it was locked down.
“South Atlantic, eastern coast of Australia, look at this,” I pointed to the storm in the Southern Ocean, “Would there be one in Antarctica. Are there even plants in Antarctica?”
“Seven continents, got to be, right? There are some plants in Antarctica, not a lot, but there are some. Grasses mostly.”
“There are no storms near Europe, though.” I clicked on another link. “Oh, yeah, forgot about that one.” A huge storm had powered in to the Mediterranean and took out the Southern tip of Italy and Sicily.
“That one has dissipated, possibly her first. Maybe she learned from that? Her storms spread the pollen more; right after that Europe’s numbers boomed.” He pulled up another, and he was right, Europe’s numbers were higher than every other region.
“This has got to be it. Track the wind and where the storms were concentrated, the pattern spread. It should point you right where the plants are located.” I printed the picture of the blooms in the US. Grabbing the paper, I drew lines from our area to the hot spots. I held it up to the computer which showed the weather. It correlated to the wind patterns. I smiled because I was pretty proud of myself. Glad that I at least turned the television on. Who would have thought you could pick up real information on the news?
“You’re a genius, Miley.” Zeke squeezed my shoulder. I wouldn’t have thought that being praised would mean so much to me, but my heart sped up, and my cheeks flushed. I was beaming. Who’d a thought?
It was 9am in the morning, and my phone was going off. I had let it ring once, but then it had started ringing again until I rolled over in bed and grabbed for my cell phone. I had gotten out of the habit of putting it on ‘do not disturb’ at night as the cell phone towers began to fail. No one called me anymore, and texts came through hit or miss. For some reason, the internet was still up and running, but all the cellular companies were a hot mess.
“Yes,” I slurred into the phone. I hadn’t been up that late last night, but I need a good nine hours of sleep to feel like a human. It was a bad habit I picked up in the last couple of years without a nine-to-five job.
“Miley, this is Jim, at Ferrier Pharmacy.” His voice was loud and booming in my ear. A friend of my dad’s, I had tried to stay in touch with him over the years. He was always willing to step in and help with minor things a father would help ou
t with. Or at least, as much as I would let him. A flat tire here, a leaky faucet, things like that.
“Hey Jim, what’s going on?” I didn’t have a prescription or anything, did I? And then my mind clicked into wakefulness, and I sat up.
“I have a guy here, said he’s looking for you.” I should have called Jim and warned him. I might have put him in danger. Shit. What was I thinking?
“Yeah, okay? He’s not doing anything to you? Is his name Liam?” I fired off the questions too quick for him to answer.
“Liam. That’s what he said. He seems a little put out, Miley. Like he went through something bad. He’s a vet, he’s got PTSD or something?”
“No, he should be fine. Tell him to hold tight. Is that coffee shop still open next door?”
“No, it closed last month.”
“Crap.”
“A pop-up tamale truck has set up shop across the street, they have picnic benches. I think they are serving breakfast.”
“Ok, perfect, tell him to go over there. I will be there in about thirty minutes.”
After a few pleasantries, I hung up with Jim and ran into the bathroom, doing the quickest brush teeth and face wash ever, then I slipped into a sundress and tennis shoes without even looking to see if they matched or had stains.
When I hurried into the kitchen, I was relieved to see Zeke sitting at the counter dressed and ready. He was an early riser, and I had given him permission to come in and use the coffee maker and make breakfast whenever he wanted. Shouldn’t have to dirty up two kitchens.
“Hey.” I skidded to a stop.
“Hey.” He looked at me quizzically and took a sip of his coffee.
“That guy Liam showed up at the pharmacy. I have a friend there, Jim. Said he came in kind of off. I told him we would meet him there.”
“Damn, so it worked.”
“Yeah, I know. You coming?”
“Of course.” He grabbed his phone from the counter and followed me into the garage and into my SUV with the now fixed window. This apocalypse was so odd, you could get your car window fixed but you couldn't find fresh eggs.
“What did he say, did you talk to Liam?”
“No, the pharmacist is an old friend of the family. I’ve been knowing him since I was a baby, so I knew if I sent him there, Jim would call me immediately. I should have warned him, but I forgot. It was a stupid mistake. But yeah, the guy just showed up there asking for me. Jim said he seems off, or something.”
“That’s not good. It could be a trap.”
“Yeah, it could be.”
It took us ten minutes to get there, and Zeke went through all of the possible scenarios along the way. Or at least, I hope he did. But as I thought of things, more and more scenarios started popping into my head.
“If he attacks right when we get there, make sure—”
“I know, I know.” I patted his knee reassuringly. Not telling him the one scenario that he hadn’t been setting up, what if Liam brought more of the Mother’s followers? Or if she was here? Because of this, I drove past the little tamale truck first.
“Pay attention, see if you can feel anything.” We rolled the windows down; Zeke practically holding his head out the window like a puppy.
“I can’t feel anything,” he said when I neared the little parking lot with the truck selling breakfast burritos.
“I think he’s alone.” I parked, and the only person sitting at the picnic table turned around. It was the same guy from the other day, but there were dark circles under his eyes that I could see from far away.
“How did you know?” Liam stood and called the moment I stepped out of the SUV. Zeke was at my side in an instant, touching but not touching. He took a deep breath.
“I don’t smell Earth or anything like that guy before,” he said under his breath. I took a deep breath, pulling the air into my lungs, and he was correct, there was nothing there.
“Because we went through it as well,” I answered as I sat at the picnic table across from him, Zeke joining me, his hand touching mine under the table. That little bit of connection gave me comfort.
“And you let me go in there? You let me deal with that?” I noticed there were scratches on his face. His ear looked to be torn. He sat down hard, looking like he was about to collapse. I felt for the guy.
“Did you just get back?”
“Yes! Where else was I supposed to go? To the police? They would laugh at me! My sister’s? What am I supposed to tell her? They killed both of the dogs. Ripped them to shreds. Right in front of me. Oh, sweet Jesus. They tried to do that to me, but something stopped them. I got away. I don’t even know what happened. How could you let me go through that?”
“You were attacked?” Zeke asked.
“Yes, I woke up in the parking lot, by my Jeep. And there were these dogs, huge, they attacked the puppies first because they were guarding me. Oh God, they were trying to protect me. When I saw I couldn’t help them, when I saw they were as good as dead, I jumped in the Jeep like an asshole and raced over here. I came here first thing because those words in my head, your voice.” He put his head in his hands. “Is this what she meant? Were those dogs her followers? She said she would kill me.” He dropped his head to the table, letting his forehead touch the wood. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I didn’t want to do what she wanted me to do, but I don’t want to die either.”
“There is another option.” I reached for the guy’s hand and pulled it away from his face, making him look up at me. His eyes were bright blue and sparkling with unshed tears. I felt so terrible for him. I wished I could have warned him more.
“What other option could there be? Was that woman, was she really Mother Nature? How do you fight Mother Nature?”
“With Father Sky,” Zeke said. I glanced at him, and he gave me a weird grimace then looked away, at Liam, at my hand.
“Father Sky, what do you mean?”
“You met the Mother, you heard what she had in mind. We heard the same thing. We rejected her and then we aligned ourselves with the Father. He doesn’t want her to kill off the humans, he doesn’t agree with what she is doing, he wants to stop her.”
“How is this even real, is it like God God? What about Jesus? I don’t understand how this could be possible.” He emphasized God.
“I believe it’s possible that Father Sky is what we think of as God, but I’m not sure. They don’t seem like he is all-knowing, or omniscience. I think they answer to others, and that might be your God God. Jesus, from what I can tell, was a child of one of the Gods, but again, I don’t know if it was God and the Holy Spirit and all that. I can’t help you with that, I’m struggling with it myself. All I know is what he preached is worth knowing, and it did help humanity, so there is something there.” I was rambling. He didn’t need to hear all this.
“Not really helping.” He pulled his hand back and rubbed at his eyes. Well, that was kind of rude. I was just trying to help.
“Are you okay, Liam, are you hurt?” Zeke asked.
“I don’t think so, it got me on my arm.” He held it out and then rubbed at his forearm. “I thought it bit me here. Were they like werewolves, they spoke? Am I going to turn into a wolf? It bit me!”
“You’re going to heal faster now, and you're probably not going to turn into a wolf. I'm not sure of the dynamics, but I don't think this is how it works. You’ll get your own gift. It's why she targeted you,” I told him.
“Is that what she meant; I’ll be some kind of freak?” He slapped his hands on the table, his breath coming in quick pants. An alarm began to sound from a car near us. The guy in the roach coach popped his head out and clicked his alarm button to shut off the car.
“Hey, y’all got to order something to sit there,” he yelled.
“Three sausage burritos,” I called over my shoulder.
“You gotta come to the window and pay,” the man called back.
“I’ll go.” Zeke stood and walked to the window to finish the ord
er.
“Calm down, Liam,” I said in my authoritative voice, and he began to breathe regularly. “The pollen changes you. It’s from the Mother, and she concocted some kind of super-spreading pollen that does something to everyone that breathes it in. People like us, for some reason, it changes us. Give us powers, I don’t know what to call it. It is killing everyone else.”
“Like X-Men?” he asked earnestly, and I laughed, not meaning to make fun, but I couldn’t help it.
“Yeah, actually kind of like that. I don’t think quite that powerful, though. I wish I had those kinds of powers, would come in handy.” I continued to explain to him how we were being changed, even though it was still confusing to me.
“What can you do?”
“Control people with my voice.” I smiled an apology.
“Is that what you did there?” He pointed at me in accusation.
“You calmed down, didn’t you? You feel better, right?”
“That’s not the point.”
“I know, and I’m sorry, but we don’t know what you can do, and it tends to happen when you get worked up.”
“What am I supposed to do with all this?” He was getting agitated again.
“We can help you. Zeke and I have been trying to learn how to control our powers. We could help you, too.”
Zeke returned with three plates, putting one in front of me and one in front of Liam. Liam grabbed his and took a huge bite, like he hadn’t eaten in days, which was probably pretty accurate if he had been with the Mother this entire time.
“What can you do?” Liam asked Zeke, and I was pleased that he swallowed his mouthful first before he began speaking.
“I can control plants.” He pointed a finger at a weed growing near the table, and Liam gasped as a huge flower sprouted from its stalk.
“And you can help me? You can protect me from the Mother? She said she wants me dead, that I could ruin all her plans.”
“Yes, we can help you,” I nodded solemnly. The wind picked up around us, and the smell of a storm brewing caught my nose, making me smile. The smell of the sky.
