Sleepers (Book 5)

by Jacqueline Druga

  “I didn’t. I wanted to talk to you first and I didn’t want Beck to get pissed about me eavesdropping.”

  “It’s Beck, he’s so laid back. He doesn’t really get mad. We’ll ask him. Where is he going?”

  “Beckoning Three, I suppose. Two week deploy Midwest.”

  “Humph.” I hadn’t even heard about the possibility of him going back out to continue the Reckoning, or Beckoning as I called it. It was worth asking about, however, I highly doubted Beck would leave his family again.

  *

  By the time my relief came, Beck wasn’t in his office. We found him in the library, standing around a table with maps. Five or six of his soldiers were there listening intently. As soon as I saw him, I realized how comfortable Beck was in that position and suddenly Sonny’s suspicions didn’t seem that far off.

  “Beck, you got a minute?” I asked.

  “Gentlemen, take five,” Beck said.

  Once the soldiers left, Sonny and I stepped in. “Wow, it has a real military feel in this room.”

  Beck shook his head with a partial smile. “What’s up, Alex?

  “What are you guys doing? Setting up Sleeper runs?” I asked.

  “No, Miles and you do that. This is… this is regarding Midwest movement, a large one, of Sleepers.”

  Sonny asked. “Where in the Midwest?”

  “Indiana, west of the Great Divide. There are a lot. They migrated.”

  I nodded. “So, uh, Sonny here heard this rumor that maybe you’re going out to get those migrated Sleepers.”

  Beck lowered his head. “They want me to go on this mission.”

  “You said no, right?”

  “Alex, I need to go.”

  “You said no, right?”

  Beck looked at me. “It’s a two week deploy. Mera will be fine with it.”

  “Mera, won’t say squat to you. I will. Why do you have to be the one? Your place is here, with your family.”

  “So they can what? Live behind these walls for the rest of their lives?” Beck asked. “Is that what they want? What you want? I don’t want it. I want them to be safe, to be able to go where they want, and the only way to do that is to kill every single Sleeper that we can.”

  “I totally understand tha—”

  “Do you? I designed this plan. I know what needs to be done. This was my job for my entire life, Alex. Granted, I didn’t deal with Sleepers, I dealt with the enemy. I am a soldier.”

  “The Army is dead, Beck. The United States doesn’t exist anymore.”

  Beck gathered his map. “This country is far from dead and whether it’s one solder or ten thousand, the Army is not dead. We will win this battle.”

  “What about the war?”

  “That, too.”

  “What about grown up Phoenix?”

  Beck huffed. “If— and that’s a big if— he’s here, he’s not gonna show himself by doing anything stupid, you know that.”

  “While you’re out killing Sleepers during the Beckoning, what happens if they attack?” I asked.

  “Alex, really? You can’t handle it? Sonny designed a first line of defense second to none. What did you do when I was at the ARC?” He held up a finger. “I am one man. One.”

  “Who has responsibilities to his family and this community.”

  “Yes, yes, I do, that’s why I want to go so I can keep them safe, not just around our perimeter. If I kill them out there, it stops them from coming here.”

  “So in the meantime, you go, shuck all your personal responsibilities on us? Make us fill in?”

  With eyes partially squinted, a glare I had never seen on his face, Beck spoke low and soft. “You didn’t have a problem filling in for me before now, did you?’

  “What’s that supposed to mean?

  “You know exactly what it means.” He gathered up his things. “Conversation’s done.”

  “I’m not.”

  “I am.” Beck brushed by me and walked out.

  In the after air of hostile silence, Sonny whistled. “Wow.”

  “Yeah, wow. Thanks, Sonny, for saying something.”

  Sonny shrugged. “You were doing good. So what did Beck mean by you didn’t have a problem filling in before?”

  I glanced at Sonny, snorted a laugh, shook my head, and walked out.

  8. Mera

  I wanted to hold my son’s hand, like I did when he was a little boy. Danny wasn’t a child anymore. The world had made him a man. He was my child, though, and no matter how old he got, he would always be young to me.

  I looped my hand through his upper arm and leaned against him in our stroll. I was so proud of him catching that wild boar. Renee kept calling it a hog, I think she didn’t want people put off by the term boar. Even so, that was the tastiest meal I had eaten in a while.

  Lunch in the cafeteria was interesting. Ed and I sat with Jessie and the babies at a table. Bonnie joined us. I don’t know how she lived her life not being involved with many people. She only talked to us and that wasn’t much. She wanted to know if Sonny was awake because she wanted that Tom Selleck poster, and she wanted to get Jessie.

  “Ed, you mind if I snatch up Jessie?” Bonnie asked. “I miss my girl. I’d like her to miss class. I got the horses again, she can help me break them.”

  “Without a doubt,” Ed told her. “She told me about riding.”

  “You ought to see her. If this world hadn’t ended she could compete. She has a natural talent.”

  I was proud, and in a world that soon would be without cars, riding a horse would be a valuable skill.

  After lunch I got bored with watching Ed teach. They worked on pencil holding skills, although to me it would be interesting to see what Keller drew, considering he couldn’t see.

  Then I found Danny and we went for a walk. We laughed and made up tales about why Sonny and Alex were walking to the main building.

  What were they up to?

  When Beck appeared to ‘storm’ out, Danny said, “We know what they were up to. Pissing off Beck.”

  “You think?”

  “Do you see them?” he asked.

  Then Sonny appeared. He looked as though he was in his own world, meandering along. Alex emerged shortly after.

  “What do you suppose they argued about?” I asked.

  “Who knows? Sleepers? Sonny sleeping for two days?” he guessed.

  “Grown up Phoenix?”

  Danny stopped walking.

  “Danny, what do you make of that?”

  “It’s hard to believe, Mom. It really is. Hard to comprehend if it is real. I mean… it’s Phoenix and Keller we’re talking about. Levi wants us to believe some evil incarnate of Phoenix from the future showed up. How can that be? We know Phoenix. He’s not bad. He’s a baby. And Keller, that baby is as sweet as they come.”

  “They’re saying Phoenix is calling them. Jessie says she hears Phoenix calling them. Levi said it’s not the baby, it’s the adult.”

  Danny exhaled. “It’s not the baby and I can’t judge. I wish we’d find him, then we’d know. People believe the strangest shit, Mom. We know they’re babies. But look at it from an outside perspective. They are years ahead of their ages. You know, like a chimp advances. Keller is advanced too. They aren’t normal toddlers.”

  “I know. I still don’t understand how people can logically believe it.”

  “It’s not logical. And the more that happens, the more they are convinced.” Danny explained. “Look at what the people in the Bible believed. A third of Grace was made up of a religious sect that lived there before the Event. They based their lives on the Bible. Good, bad, God, Satan. They lived there and had no Sleeper attacks until we showed up. And we are followed and attacked, get here and get attacked. They see that as a biblical thing. Something about our group attracts them.”

  “What about the people who weren’t original residents of Grace?” I asked. “Why are they so quick to jump on the bandwagon?”

  Danny laughed. “You don’
t interact much with the people, Mom. You think you do. People still believe this was a God thing, not a science thing. God. ”

  “What about Michael? Do people think he’s evil?”

  “The opposite. He rose from the dead, Sleepers don’t see him, the Doctrines talk about him. He is the Holy man.”

  “Son of God.”

  “Yep.”

  “Christ,” I muttered.

  “Exactly.”

  I gave a playful shove to my son. “Thanks for explaining that.”

  “I know it doesn’t make you feel better, it at least it sheds some light on why people are being weird lately. They are looking at the religious angle.”

  “Will it pass?”

  Danny shrugged. “If no more happens or the attacks are less severe, it may. It’s a wait and see.”

  “If it doesn’t?”

  Danny bit his bottom lip and looked around. “This is a great place. It won’t be if my family isn’t welcome or are treated as outcasts. We’ll cross that bridge when and if we get there. Deal?”

  “Deal.”

  “Right now, you worry about my brother or sister that you’re carrying.”

  “Randy said the Doctrines say the baby is born and is not an Ivory Statue baby. I’ll hold on to that. We had too many stillbirths in Grace.”

  “I know. And …” Danny exhaled, “I have to work.”

  “Thank you for the walk.” I tiptoed up and kissed him on the cheek. “I am very proud of you.”

  Danny smiled. “I love you, Mom.”

  It warmed my heart to hear that no matter how many times it was said. Danny walked off, so grown up, so mature, and I went inside. I had a little bit of time before I had to get the others from school. Maybe I’d learn a few of the new signing words for Keller.

  When I walked into our cell block, the boys were off to the end of our large table, building blocks and playing nicely together. Ed was gathering the crayons and art supplies.

  “How was art?” I asked.

  “Productive. Fun. Messy.” He smiled and pushed two sheets of paper my way. “Once we got the hang of it, we drew. Mera, this is impressive and, well, let’s keep the talent between us for now okay?”

  I didn’t understand what he meant until I glanced down. Two pictures, both in complete contrast to each other. One was clearly a child’s picture, scribbles that stretched off the page, with random streaks of color.

  The other, while far from a masterpiece, was obviously also a child’s drawing. But this one had clear images. It was a basic stick figure style house, with two trees. I tilted my head and looked at the attempt to draw a flower bed in front of the house.

  Bringing the picture closer I peered at the childlike detail. “Is that a porch swing?”

  Ed nodded.

  My breath escaped me. “Oh my God, that looks like the number fifteen.”

  “It does.”

  “My… my old house, my address was 1515. We had two trees, a flower bed, and a porch swing. This is weird. Really weird.”

  “It’s probably a coincidence, but still, even more reason to keep this a secret. This is good... too good for a child his age. With the way people are being right now after the attack, we can’t tell them about this artistic talent.”

  “I’d say. This looks more like a three year old drew it.”

  “It does.”

  “Well,” I exhaled and set down the picture. “Phoenix has talent.”

  “That’s the kicker,” said Ed. He lifted the scribbled drawing. “This is the picture Phoenix drew.” He then pointed to the picture of the house. “Keller drew this one.”

  9. Sonny

  It wasn’t funny, although Alex was making a joke out of it.

  “Now, that you got your rest, son,” Alex said to me. “Need ya to pack up and hit that mom and pop store about twenty-seven miles northwest of here. We need toilet paper. Beck says we’re out.”

  His way of telling me I had to do Sleeper surveillance. Sort of. It was a two part plan.

  Beck took the joke out of it, explaining my ‘real’ task, giving glares of irritation to Alex.

  I wondered how long their newest beef would last. I guessed that for the moment, I was being the neutralizer, the middle man to Beck’s anger and Alex’s sarcastic disposition.

  There was a horse farm that was located nearly thirty miles from us. Beck figured that was where the horses came from, the ones that Bonnie was breaking. They were young and wild, and Bonnie had given me a list of people who could ride. Those people would go with me, and Randy volunteered to drive the truck. The plan was to go out and try to herd them. At the very least, each of us had to try to get a horse.

  Yeah, that was going to work. If they were younger than two they were wild. They weren’t taking too kindly to being saddled and ridden.

  I’d been thrown from a horse before, and I knew it was dangerous. However, it was something that needed to be done.

  Horses were important because with waning gasoline, they were our means of transportation. While they were domesticated at one time, those horses on the farm, like everything else, reverted to nature. Bonnie had told Alex and Beck a lot of the mares could be pregnant, and she wanted to have them at the Haven when they delivered. I saw her point. Get them now before they gave birth.

  I was also on the list of people that could ride well. So was Jessie.

  Seldom did I argue about anything, yet I argued about that.

  “She’s not going,” I said to Beck. “Sorry.”

  “I’ll be there,” Bonnie said, stepping forward.

  “She can’t go. It’s too dangerous.”

  “She’s the best rider we have,” Bonnie insisted.

  “Be that as it may,” I said, “she also has the mentality of a child. She doesn’t have the ability to think her way out of a situation.”

  “She can ride her way out,” Bonnie argued.

  “We don’t know what’s there.” I turned to Beck. “We don’t. We don’t know if that’s in the middle of Sleeper territory or not. I won’t take her. I can’t believe Mera gave her consent.”

  The moment I heard the exhale, I realized Mera didn’t know.

  “Oh, then for sure no,” I said, waving my hands about. “And Alex, of all people, I can’t believe you gave an okay to this.”

  “Don’t look at me,” Alex said, shaking his head. “I’d rather have Jav and Levi come up with another fuel source. This was not my call.”

  “Beck?” I asked. “Was it yours?”

  “Yes. I asked Bonnie to get the group together and get me a list. However, Sonny has a point. We’ll be making more than one trip. What if Jessie doesn’t go until we know what we’re dealing with?”

  “What if she goes so she can see ahead of time what she has to deal with and next time she can ride,” Bonnie suggested. “Will that work? She really is a good rider. She got on a stallion and broke him in ten minutes. I've never seen it done before. She’s like a horse whisperer.”

  Alex laughed.

  Bonnie shot a glare. “Laugh, you asshole.”

  “Oh my God,” Alex squealed. “The way the women in this community just toss out that word to describe me.”

  “Maybe it should tell you something?”

  “Yeah, you’re all estrogen enraged.” “Oh you—”

  “Okay, all right.” Beck held up his hand. “Name calling done. We all know how Alex is.”

  I glanced at Alex to see his reaction. And as I suspected he was dumbfounded. He had this look on his face as if to say, ‘can anyone else pick on me today?’

  Beck made the decision to include Jessie in the trip but she wasn’t to ride or leave the truck. Reluctantly I agreed. I was totally against taking Jessie. She was just a child, I didn’t care how old she looked, I knew her.

  Beck didn’t; he spent a lot of time away.

  Before I allowed her on that truck, I wanted to hear it from Mera first.

  If Mera gave her ‘okay’ then I would take her. Howev
er, if Mera gave the slightest hesitation, best rider in Haven or not, Jessie stayed behind.

  She was safe in Haven. Outside the walls she was more or less like everyone else… bait.

  10. Alex

  I found a certain demented enjoyment in Mera’s reaction to being told by Beck that they wanted Jessie to go with Sonny for the horse run.

  She blasted Sonny. She did so as we stood right outside our cell block door. As if it were all his idea, she laid into him like there was no tomorrow. I didn’t know whether to feel bad for Sonny or to laugh. When she looked at me, I simply held up my hands, palms out. “Not my idea!”

  When Mera returned to Bonnie, I was waiting for the blasting. Mera and Bonnie would have been a good vocal match up. Mera folded, almost as if she was slightly fearful of Bonnie.

  What the hell?

  She listened to their reasoning and actually agreed, on one condition.

  “There’s someone I want to go with them,” Mera said. “I trust him. I want him there to watch Jessie.”

  I saw it on Sonny’s face; man, was he insulted. He had to figure Mera would want me to go. After all, I can ride. Maybe not as good as Sonny the Marlboro Ranch man, still I could hold my own with a horse.

  Plus, I helped raised Jessie the last two years. Of course, she’d want me to protect her daughter, make sure she was safe.

  “I want Michael to go,” Mera stated.

  Wait, what?

  “I’d be glad to go, Mera,” Michael stated humbly.

  My reaction wasn’t subtle nor was it mature. “Really? All this time you’re talking about the padre?” I snapped.

  “Alex,” Mera said, “he’s a repellent.”

  “Oh, that’s right, yeah, he’s also the Son of God, forgot to throw that one in there. No offense, Padre.”

  “Offense taken as usual, Alex,” Michael said.

  Beck laughed sarcastically. “You can’t possibly be upset. Why are you? Because she didn’t choose you to go? Grow up.”

  I didn’t have the best response and I exhaled heavily. Apparently, I was looking more foolish at that moment than rational.