“Ball,” Phoenix said. “Blue ball.”
Keller just stared.
Then Phoenix picked up a block and proceeded to do the same thing. It made me curious. Did Phoenix know Keller couldn’t see? It would have been different if he were placing it in Keller’s hand, but he wasn’t. And Danny was watching them. One would think my son would have intervened, however, he didn’t.
“Hey,” Beck said. “We need you in the kitchen.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I was watching Phoenix try to teach Keller what things were. He’s describing it but not letting Keller touch. Danny isn’t helping.”
“Ed’s been doing that. It’s complicated. It has to do with some sort of sense Keller has.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. He can explain it better, I …” Beck paused, his eyes gazing behind me.
“What?”
“Oh my God, I am so sorry, I didn’t see those.” Beck walked to the staircase. “This is your life.”
“Yes. I’ve been trying to figure out which pictures to take.”
“Take them all, Mera. This is a gift to come back here and see this.”
“Ed knew I needed this.”
“Daniel?” he pointed to the picture of Daniel when he was young, way before we got married. It was actually before we met.
“Yeah.”
“Looks just like Danny,” Beck commented. “And that’s you when you were what, nine?”
“Yep.”
“What’s missing here?” He pointed to the blank spot.
“Our wedding picture, it’s in the box.”
“Can I look through that? This is amazing. This is your life, Mera. This is what made you the woman I love.”
I smiled gently at him, tipped up on my toes, and kissed him. “I missed you.”
“I missed you, too.” He kissed me again and his eyes shifted to another photo. “Jessie and you. She’s a baby. Why isn’t this in the box?”
“I was still deciding.”
“Seriously, take them all. I know you aren’t wanting to go back to the Haven. But imagine how these would look on the walls of our floor.” I lowered my head. “Sonny brought up some very important points on why I need to go back. So we have to figure out how we can make this right.”
“We will.” Beck’s eyebrow cocked. “Oh my God, speaking of Sonny.” His finger traced a picture of Daniel. It was one where my husband was sitting on a cooler holding a beer, smiling, wearing jeans and a tee shirt. “I see it. I see how much they look alike. It is actually scary.”
“Tell me about it. It’s more than the looks, it is what they did for a living, the way they act. I swear sometimes Sonny is Daniel reincarnated. I used to think, and please don’t laugh …”
“I won’t.”
“I used to think, for a while, that Sonny was Daniel, like a clone from the future. Not at first, you know, it was just strange the way we found him. Then he started divulging his past and that made it even crazier, because they lived mirror lives.”
“That’s not crazy thinking, considering we deal with time travel.”
“This is true.”
Beck sighed. “I hate to break this moment here.”
“I know. I know. We have to get into the kitchen.”
“We have lots to talk about. Especially the Michael situation. However, later, can we make time? I need that time alone with you and I need to process things.”
“Absolutely,” I knew exactly what Beck had to ‘process’. Jessie. It was still new to him. Me as well, but I had found a peace. After we all talked in the kitchen, I would make that time for him.
When we walked back into the kitchen, Danny had a smirk on his face. He excused himself from the room.
“You aren’t staying?” Beck asked.
“Nah, I’ll hang with the babies. Besides, the cloaking effect is compromised so I want to keep an eye out for Sleepers.”
I didn’t feel like explaining how the Phoenixes and Keller hid our presence, so I shrugged. Maybe because I was too focused on the fact that Sonny was eating as if he hadn’t had a meal in decades. He was enjoying whatever it was he was chewing on.
“Sonny?” I asked. “What—”
“Oh my God, Mera,” Sonny moaned as he chewed. “The perks of Ed. The fruit and this …” he held up something brown. “Ed, my man, good call on the salami.”
Ed ran his finger across his lips as if he were trying to block a laugh. “And I was trying to tell you, I didn’t bring… whatever salami is.”
Sonny looked at Ed then laughed and took another bite. “Yeah.”
“Sonny, where did you get that?” I asked.
He leaned back and pointed. “Corner of the counter.”
I gasped and jumped forward, snatching it from his hand. “Sonny, I bought that the day before the Event. It was for Daniel to take fishing. That’s two year old salami!”
He sniffed it. “It was still in its skin. Says it was dried. Smells fine, tastes great.”
“It’s two years old.”
“It’s fine. Dried salami has a shelf life of twenty years.”
“It does not!” I shrieked. “You’re thinking about Twinkies, and there’s a box in the cabinet if you want to try your luck there, too.”
Alex immediately stood up and walked to the cabinet.
“You will not eat two year old Twinkies,” I told him.
“I’m just curious,” Alex said, rummaging through my cabinets for the Twinkies. “Ha. Here.” He pulled the box out and laughed as he opened it. “Holy shit.” He held one up. “They look normal. But sorry Sonny. Even those great choppers….” he tossed it to the table and it landed hard like a rock, “aren’t biting through that.”
“Are we done?” Beck asked. “I want to get this done before Sonny gets too sick.”
“I’m not gonna get sick,” Sonny argued.
“You are going to get sick,” Beck told him. “Please stop eating that.”
Sonny slowed down chewing.
“Anyhow, Ed. Vermont, right now is not an option.”
“Why not?” Ed asked. “It’s the best option. Things happen, Beck.”
“And there are people that we care about in Haven,” Beck said. “We can’t leave them. You obviously came back to this time long after the events of Haven. What was your original mission? Originally you went back ten years.”
“Twelve years post event,” Ed corrected. “We went back when I was twenty-two. According to the letters, that was the point that everything turned, when the Sleepers got the upper hand. I know it doesn’t seem like it to you guys, but there are people out there. Colonies that never saw a Sleeper until that point in time. Then they were ill equipped to deal with them. Something happened and we couldn’t figure it out. What was driving them? We failed the mission time and time again.”
“So the Sleepers made it over the Great Divide?” Beck asked.
“Oh, hell yeah,” Ed stated. “Which is why you can’t stop the Reckoning. The events at Haven caused you to stop. You packed up what was left of the original group and you and Alex moved us constantly. We were never in one place very long. They always found us.”
“What was left?” I asked Ed.
Sadly, he nodded. “Yeah. There was a lot of lives lost.”
“How?” Alex asked. “Sonny has that fence as an awesome line of defense.”
“It failed.”
“How does it fail? He is to electricity like a pyromaniac is to fire,” Alex said. “How?”
“Michael, maybe?” Ed guessed.
“No.” Beck stated strongly. “I have to disagree. Is he calling them on purpose?”
“No.”
“To the best of your knowledge, did he ever do anything malicious?”
“No.”
“Out of control maybe, something we didn’t see?”
“No.”
“Then we’re missing something,” Beck said. “Chain of events— and correct me if I am wrong— I am out on another Reckoni
ng, the fence fails, Haven is hit, we lose a lot of people, including Javier.”
“Who…” Ed held up a finger, “is the key to the cure. We found his research. He was missing the element. Had he found it? He would have cured it and with the cure and your Reckoning, the Sleepers wouldn’t have crossed the Great Divide. Babies… babies wouldn’t be born stillbirths. Seventy five percent of all kids die.”
Beck groaned in frustration. “I still think we’re missing something. I come back, something devastating happens that makes me pack up and leave. Was it Jessie’s death? Maybe the events were wrong?”
Ed shook his head. “It wasn’t Jessie’s death.”
“Obviously, Mera doesn’t die,” Alex said. “Danny doesn’t. Not that my big friend Beck here isn’t compassionate, but I can’t figure out what would crush him so much that he’d pack up and leave.”
“The baby,” I whispered.
“No,” Alex argued. “NO. Randy said the baby was fine. It wasn’t an Ivory Statue baby.”
“He said it was a girl and it wasn’t an Ivory Statue baby.” I placed my hand on my stomach. “He was very vague.”
“The Doctrines are vague,” Ed stated. “I read the ones he brought. It is mentioned you are with female child and it was normal. No more than that.”
“The baby,” my voice quivered. “What happens to the baby?”
Before Ed could answer, Beck interjected. “Nothing. Nothing. Want to know why? Because we know. We know an attack happens, we know the date, we know Michael is calling them— all things we can cut off at the pass.”
“Do we chance it?” Ed asked.
“What was your plan?” Beck asked him. “Just hide Mera and the kids?”
“Pretty much, and when Alex found us, I would give him the proof, he would get Javier, get what he needs, get him the information.”
Alex mumbled, “And let everyone else die.”
Ed shot Alex a look. “Don’t. Don’t judge my choice. Not you. You… never mind.”
“I what?” Alex pressed.
“You argued with us when you found out what we were doing,” Ed said. “Then you told us if we go back then we go back to stop what happens to Mera. The rest will fall into place.”
I sighed. “It’s not the time to argue. Your original plan needs to be adjusted. How do we know for sure Michael’s this sandman?”
“Because we saw him,” Ed answered. “Eight years after we saw him die we saw him pretty much controlling a Sleeper army. But a part of him didn’t die. I guess he resurrected.”
Alex chuckled. “And he gets the tagline the son of God. Why can’t you take him down?”
“Because he won’t die. Bullets do nothing and we can’t get close enough to him to cut him to pieces,” Ed explained. “I’ve tried. Trust me I have tried. That’s how I got his hand. That is how we learned he was the cure.”
“I’m confused,” Alex said. “I thought you said you had Javier’s research.”
“We did. We have a doctor, and he was able to decipher the research. We even went to the ARC, which was overrun by the time we returned. Anyhow, Javier was missing one thing, and our doctor determined it was Michael’s blood. He figured that out when he tested Michael’s hand. Unfortunately, his mutated form of the blood can’t be used.”
“How does Michael die?” Beck asked. “Originally.”
“He never woke up one morning,” Ed answered. “We figured heart attack.”
“We know Michael has the virus,” Beck stated. “So we tell Javier, he gets Michael’s blood before he dies and reincarnates, cures the virus, cures Michael. In the meantime, Sonny gets to work on devising something electronic to stop him from passing and calling Sleepers, since we know electronics cause interference.”
Sonny, who had not said a word, finally spoke up. “Michael can’t be cured. We know that.”
“What?” Beck asked. “Why can’t he be cured? He has the virus.”
“No.” Again, Sonny replied as if he was saying something everyone knew. “Michael is a Sleeper. Born that way. I have a hard time believing Michael is the cure. I mean, wouldn’t Javier know, since he’s the one that figure it out?”
“Sonny,” Alex snapped, “are you on crack? What the hell are you talking about?”
“Um… Michael has the future virus, so he came from the future somehow; we know this because they took a sample of his blood at Beck’s request.” He looked up from picking at his salami. “Alex, you told me.”
My hands went to my face. I knew immediately what he was talking about. “The doorstep baby,” I mumbled.
Palms slamming to the table, Alex nearly screamed. “What the hell are you two talking about? Sonny, how can I tell you something I don’t know?”
“You told me on your… your…” Sonny looked at me. “Shit.”
“Well, heehaw, cowboy,” Alex said. “My what?”
“Deathbed,” Sonny said quickly and shoved another piece of meat in his mouth.
“Alex died,” I said.
“He what?” Beck asked.
“He died. Sonny wrote Randy into the Doctrines to get him to come back with the time machine. The three of us went back, stopped Alex from bringing a Sleeper baby into Grace. Because when he did, Jessie tried to return the baby and the Sleepers got her. Michael and Alex went to get her. Alex was injected with the Sleeper virus to be stealthy, but it didn’t work. That’s when they ran the test on Michael and discovered he had a …" I whistled, “like, thousand year old strain. Since he was a doorstep baby, you, Beck, kind of theorized he was a rejected Sleeper.”
Beck’s hands went to his face and he dragged his fingers across it. “Ed, did you know Alex died at one point in time?”
Ed shook his head. “I had no idea.”
“This is vital information. I mean right now, everyone thinks he caught a mutated form or mild form that didn’t take hold. No one dug deeper into the DNA of his virus. Ed? Can this work?”
“I don’t know. It’s worth a shot,” Ed said. “Although I still believe Vermont should be a bug out option.”
Beck nodded. “I’ll give you that. Right now, we rest up, head back. We talk to Javier and more importantly, we speak to Michael. And Sonny starts working on a failsafe for those fences. Alex?”
“Sounds like a plan. I’m just sitting here thinking,” Alex said. “Now that you know I died, how many times will you ask Mera why she brought me back?”
Beck shook his head. “Contrary to what you think, I bet I was pretty torn up about your death.”
“He was,” I added. “Maybe not enough to bring you back. But he was.”
At that moment, before a comment could be made about what I said, Danny walked into the kitchen in a rush. “Hey, guys. We have Sleepers. Front yard.”
Beck and Alex both stood quickly, I braced the table to stand and noticed Sonny wasn’t moving. “You all right?”
He cleared his throat. “Fine.”
“He’s getting sick,” Alex said. “Bet.”
“I’m not getting sick,” Sonny said defensively.
“How many?” Beck asked Danny.
“Twenty.”
“Probably followed Sonny and Beck, Ed said. “Hang back. I got this.” He walked from the kitchen.
“What the hell?” Alex asked.
“Stay put,” Beck ordered. “You’re injured. We’ll handle it.”
“Beck,” I said, “Ed told you he’s got this.”
“Twenty?” Beck questioned. “Come on.”
“Dude,” Danny remarked, “trust me, he’s got this.”
I don’t think it was a matter of whether Beck trusted Danny or not, it was more that he probably believed there was no way that Ed could handle it alone. He and Danny left the kitchen, Alex followed right behind them, and after waiting for a sluggish Sonny, curious as well, I went to see how the latest Sleeper attack would pan out.
SIX – SONNY WILSON
The babies sat on the sofa quietly, despite the fact that I could
feel the tension mounting in the room.
Beck peered out the curtain. “They are moving like a horde. Not fast though.” He checked his weapon. “And not quite on the front lawn, Danny.”
“They will be,” Danny said.
“I’ll take left side, you take right,” Beck said to Danny, then looked at Ed. “I have never seen you engage in a Sleeper attack. Are you sure?”
Danny laughed.
Wait, Danny laughed?
Ed was opening a long bag, it looked like a duffle bag, and I could only assume it was a massive weapon.
He ignored Beck’s comment and hooked something on his belt that looked like an old modified Walkman music player. “This will have to do. Definitely need this with the scent around,” Ed mumbled.
Beck shook his head and went outside, calling for Danny, who had taken position against the left railing, pistol in his grip.
Ed’s weapon wasn’t a gun or futuristic weapon, it was more Viking or medieval. Two swords, both about twenty-four inches long. I was more stuck on the fact they he withdrew two blades and stepped out to the porch.
“Don’t fire a shot. Why would you waste your bullets on this few?” Ed said.
“This few?” Beck echoed.
“I told you I had this.” Ed stepped off the porch.
“What is he doing, Danny?” Beck asked.
I moved to the door next to Mera and looked out. “Does he know what he’s doing?”
“Oh, yeah.”
Ed brought the swords crossed in an ‘X’ to his chest, and bowed his head.
“Is he praying?” I asked.
“I think so.”
He lifted his head, lowered his arms, then with his right hand still gripped to his sword, he pressed something on the player attached to his belt and opera music blasted out.
“Oh, this is new,” Mera remarked. “He didn’t do this on the road.”
Beck peered over his shoulder to us. “Are you shitting me? They’ll attack him. Danny, get ready. Raise that weapon.”
“Watch, Beck,” Mera stated. “Just watch.”
Two things occurred in that moment.
As soon as the powerful music began, the Sleepers… stopped. They didn’t look to the sky as if baffled or distracted, they looked engaged. Mesmerized by the music, the Sleepers moved only slightly, heads tilted as if asking ‘what is that wonderful noise?’.
Sleepers (Book 6) Page 3
