Sleepers (Book 6)

by Jacqueline Druga

  Each time I tried to broach the subject, Beck would simply tell me he’d made a mistake. He’d rather not talk about it.

  I let it go, yet, I wanted to tell him I was pissed. How dare he beat up our friend? How dare he take his emotions out on a man who had done nothing but stand by his family?

  Granted I had a soft spot for Alex. For as much as he irritated me, made me angry, my God did I mourn him when he died. My soul was crushed beyond belief. And since changing that, the event of his death, I always carried with me how it felt to lose him. Alex Sans held a special place in my heart. So I felt a sense of protection toward him, the need to defend him. Then again, there were times there was no defending Alex.

  Sonny was another factor. He tended to be an easy target for people to pick on and yell at. I don’t think Sonny ever got enough credit. He was funny in his own way.

  When we passed the town business strip, we stopped at the electronics store and Sonny loaded up. Stuff for the fence, new radios, and that headset he was going to design for Michael.

  Thinking about Michael made me sigh. Beck kept saying we were missing something and I felt that to be true. I know what Ed told me, I read his letters, but in my heart I could not turn away from Michael. We had to tell him, and the discussion was ‘how’.

  There was so much to do once we returned to Haven. Beck had his military thing, Sonny had his electronics, and my disappearance had to be explained. There also was the residual effect of our leaving. On the Michael front, I asked that it be me that told him. I firmly believed out of our original group, aside from Danny, Michael was closest to me. It had to be me that sat down with him. I wanted it to be.

  On the return trip, Keller started talking even more.

  Ed told me that I had to start working with Keller on his psychic sight. It was something no one was to know about and only a few had the ability to help him see the outer world with his mind. Other than the obvious connection with Phoenix, Alex supposedly had the strongest bond with him. Then me.

  In the back seat, I’d hold his hand, look at things, focus, and Keller would respond. I questioned whether or not he was actually ‘seeing’ them in his mind until I focused on Alex, and Keller said, “Alex. Boo-boo.”

  “Yeah, his face is pretty messed up.”

  Alex said, “I’m still a handsome guy.”

  Baby Phoenix giggled. “Alex handsome.”

  Alex asked Ed, “Do you and I get along?”

  “It’s funny,” Ed replied. “You talk about it in future tense and I’ll talk about it in past tense.”

  “You didn’t answer the question.”

  “Sorry. Yeah, we get along great. You got me in trouble a lot with my dad.”

  “But you see us both as fathers.”

  “Yep. Because of him raising me alone at the ARC for eighteen months, though, that was his primary right. Like you with Keller. Plus, I started living half the time with him when I was ten. Which I hated because I wanted to be with my brother all the time.”

  “Makes sense,” Alex said.

  “No.” I leaned forward. “That doesn’t make sense. Why does Alex have Keller living with him and not me?”

  Ed lifted his eyes to the rearview mirror. “Shit.”

  “Shit? What do you mean shit?” I asked. “Do I suck at raising a blind child and Alex took him? Oh, I can see you taking him from me, Alex. You suck.”

  “The only job you’re really good at, Mera, is being Suzy Homemaker,” Alex rebutted. “Why would I fire you from that job?” He paused. “Ed?”

  Ed looked in the mirror again. “Shit.”

  “Ah," Alex looked back. “I think him saying ‘shit’ is Ed’s way of saying he forgot to add ‘spoiler alert’.”

  “Huh?” I asked in confusion.

  “Spoiler alert,” Alex said. “You don’t live with Beck.”

  I gasped. “I’m not with Beck? How did that happen? Him and I rarely fight. I know me, I’m a commitment for life. He’s not dead. Who am I with? Or am I alone?”

  “You’re not alone,” Ed replied.

  “Who then?” I asked.

  Alex looked back at me with the shittiest of grins.

  “Sonny,” Ed replied.

  Alex lost his smile. “Sonny? No way. Sonny? You’re lying. He’s lying, Mera. Sonny?”

  Ed didn’t really respond to that. With another look at me through the rear view mirror, he smiled sneakily and kept on driving.

  <><><><>

  Whoever was on tower watch must have spotted us coming long before we arrived, because when we pulled up at the gate there was a crowd.

  It felt good to be missed. We were mobbed the second we got out of the trucks.

  Bonnie raced over to me, hugging me. “What happened?” she whispered in my ear.

  “We’ll talk later,” I told her and kissed her on the cheek.

  Randy stepped forward. “My God, I was worried sick about all of you.” He grabbed on to me. “I am so glad you’re fine.”

  “I am. I’m better now. Randy, I…”

  It was at that moment that a ruckus began. Men shuffling, and rushing forward, asking roughly why Ed had returned.

  It dawned on me that everyone knew and blamed him.

  “Why is he here?”

  “Kick him out.”

  “I thought you’d shoot him, Beck.”

  “Stop!” I shouted. “Stop.” Once the voices calmed, I spoke. “Ed didn’t do anything. It was me. It was all me. I’m the guilty party. When he tried to save Jessie, I felt as if I could trust him and I forced him to go with me. I told him either he came or I went on my own. I wanted to go home. The whole thing was me. Not him.”

  Bonnie spoke up. “And I’m guilty too, because I knew and I helped her.”

  I was back, I was fine, and there was really no reason to suspect foul play.

  Randy placed his hands on my arms. “Did you get what you needed?”

  “Oh, yes. Wait until you see.”

  Beck, who was standing right next to me, stepped back. Sonny cleared his throat. There was an immediate feeling of tension and I saw why, when Michael approached.

  He smiled and reached for me.

  While I believe the others momentarily saw what he would become, I saw my friend and I reached for him, embraced him.

  “Thank God you are all right. I wish you would have said something.”

  “I wasn’t in the right frame of mind.” I inched back, laid my hands on his face and stared into his eyes.

  “What?”

  “Nothing.” I kissed him on the cheek and slid my hand down his arm, grabbing his hand. “Do you have time to talk?”

  “Whenever you need.”

  “How about now?” I asked, then turned to Beck. “Can you get things settled?”

  Beck nodded, his eyes never really locking onto Michael.

  I asked Randy, “Can you take Alex to see Javier, and make sure he’s healing?”

  “Absolutely,” Randy replied. “I’ll carry him if need be.”

  “What?” Alex roared. “No, I can walk, thank you.” He whispered to me, “You need me to come?”

  “No. I got this.”

  “What’s wrong?” Michael asked.

  “A lot. Nothing that can’t be fixed though.” I gripped his hand tighter.

  It was time to go talk to him. There was no need to delay or put it off. It was important and the number one thing that had to be dealt with. I wasn’t sure how Michael would handle the news or even believe it. He was a firm believer that no man should know too much about his destiny. This was one of those times he needed to know his path. I was also certain that if Michael did believe what I had to tell him, he would want to do everything in his power to make sure that path changed.

  INTERSECT – KELLER

  Thirty Years Post Event

  When we were twelve years old, my father took Phoenix and I to a place that he called the bargain shoppers dream. In the old world, before the Event, people went there, shopped,
spent tons of money thinking they were saving it. That’s what Alex said. He also said my mother loved that store and told the story about how early on, she had to stop to get make-up there.

  “Yep, world was done and she was shopping for lipstick,” my father said. “We all sat outside waiting on her while she was trying on clothes. Sleepers were coming after us and she didn’t care. She was looking for a single shade of lipstick.”

  We knew at an early age that my father, along with Sonny, often exaggerated stories. Sonny was more an honest exaggeration. My father did it on purpose. He was always fun.

  Beck knew we were going out and warned my dad not to do anything dangerous with Phoenix. We were always fishing. No matter what we did, where we went, the story was we were going fishing. And we did to cover our lie.

  By that point in my life, my connection between both my father and Phoenix was so strong, they barely had to touch me for me to tap into what they saw. I wish I could see what my father looked like as an aging man, although, the only way I ever saw him was young.

  It was different with Beck. I saw him age. My mother aged too. But for some reason, despite that Phoenix told me, “Alex is worn and gray,” I never saw it.

  I think he had something to do with it.

  That trip to the bargain mart was eventful, despite that the store had been ravaged by nature, with moss and vines growing all through it. Clothing was destroyed, merchandise broken, it was the first time I touched something and saw into the past.

  I didn’t realize that was what I was seeing until I described what I saw.

  It was a woman, a normal woman, not a Sleeper. I even called out that someone was in the store. Still, there wasn’t anyone there.

  My father laughed when I described what she was wearing and said that was what woman wore to the Bargain Mart. Thinking it was a shopper’s dress code, I asked my mother when we returned.

  When she heard me talk about ‘seeing’ the past, that was when she gave me the letters, the ones from Ed.

  I made a notation every time I got them. I saw the past ones, starting when I received it and why.

  His name wasn’t always Ed.

  My mother told me that Ed always handed her the letters after he wrote a new one. She kept them once he revealed himself to her. So no matter what happened in time, those letters were there. The past trips documented where as etched in stone as the Doctrines. If he changed time, we knew why and how.

  When Phoenix finished prepping everything for the trip, we talked. I was preparing myself to never see him again.

  He was preparing to die as he did on every trip.

  “This sucks, you know,” Phoenix said.

  “I know, but it has to be done.”

  “How many times do I have to die?”

  “Maybe you won’t this time. You were always twenty-two went you back. This time you’re an old man.”

  “Funny. I’m not old. Okay, let’s do this. I can’t wait to meet my father as a fun and happy man.”

  I laughed.

  “What?”

  “I don’t ever recall Beck being fun.”

  “True.” Phoenix laid a hand on my shoulder, showing me the tiny tube that would aid his return trip. “What happens to this?”

  “Give it to Mom. It’s quite advanced. Tell her she is not to show it to anyone until she meets Peter.”

  “Got it. And if I succeed?”

  “Then I’ll see you in five seconds.”

  Phoenix laughed. “You’ll see me.”

  “Not funny. If not…” I embraced my brother, “I love you.”

  “I love you too.”

  I felt my way to the controls, ones we had used and worked in practice. The set up made by Randy. I wondered how I would feel. Would I be somewhere else if he succeeded? I knew if I still sat there, I’d feel loss. Randy said that, theoretically, I would be confused, know very little. Then again, it was hard to gauge.

  I powered up the machine, set the coordinates, and initiated the sequence.

  “Goodbye, Keller,” Phoenix said. His voice faded. I could not see him one last time.

  I absorbed the moment and knew it was done. We’d failed.

  Just as I stood, I heard the familiar buzz of the return trip. Never in any of the letters had it been mentioned that we succeeded. Then again, the letters could have changed in that brief moment.

  “Phoenix?” I called excitedly. “We did it?”

  “I… I don’t know,” Phoenix said, desperation in his voice. “Keller, I think we made matters worse.”

  NINE – SONNY WILSON

  Michael will probably think I am the biggest dick after Mera tells him what we learned about him. He’ll probably think back and say, ‘Huh, Sonny didn’t even speak to me.”

  I hope Mera tells him I have the flu or something. I would hate for him to think I judged him.

  Now, Beck… Beck did judge him, as if he were a monster already. Man, would I like to be a fly on wall for that conversation between Mera and Michael. I probably would have been, had I not passed out.

  The sickness got the best of me. I started to dry heave and fell over. Next thing I knew I woke up in our clinic. Sometimes I think Javier, Noah, and Levi put people in there on purpose to have something to do.

  When I opened my eyes, Levi was there adjusting the intravenous pole. Why was it never Javier or Noah? I always had to see Levi.

  “How long was I out?”

  “Not long,” Levi said. “A few minutes. This should help you. You’re dehydrated and I added something for the nausea.”

  “Thank you. I feel really sick.”

  “You should.”

  “This is pretty bad,” I said.

  “It could be worse. You could be dead.”

  “Oh my God.” I tried to sit up. “I mean, I thought I was bad when we all got sick in Grace.”

  “Oh, I remember that well,” Levi replied. “This was worse on your system, like a poison. You’re lucky.”

  “So what are we gonna do?” I asked.

  “About?”

  “I think so we don’t have a repeat, we should quarantine all those around me.”

  “Why would we do that?”

  “Uh, you’re the doctor. So they don’t get sick. So we don’t have an epidemic.”

  “Unless stupidity is highly contagious, no one is catching this from you.”

  I gasped. “You are so mean to me.”

  “Sonny, you irritate me. You always irritated me. You break rules and think you’re infallible. Need I mention again your little stunt with putting Randy in the Doctrines so he could come back?”

  “You know, I liked you better when you didn’t speak our language well. You didn’t have much to say.”

  “Oh, I had a lot to say, I was only holding it in until I grasped your lingo.”

  “Maybe you still don’t grasp it. I mean, I could be very contagious.”

  He slammed the chart on the bed. “I am not a dumb man. I am not the idiot here. You are not contagious.”

  “How can you be sure?” I said. “Besides, the flu is always contagious.”

  Levi growled. “Is that what you think you have?”

  “Yes.”

  “No! Sonny you do not have the flu.”

  “Hating to undermine you, doctor,” I said. “I have been throwing up steadily for twenty-four hours.”

  “You have been throwing up because you ate two year old salami.”

  “Nah.” I shook my head. “That did not make me sick.”

  “Then maybe it was the two year old Twinkie.”

  “I did not eat that. I only took a bite. It was too hard to chew and I let it dissolve in my mouth.”

  “And you wonder why I call you names.” He grabbed his chart and started to leave.

  “You know, I am going to stand firm that I got the flu and it wasn’t from the salami. Because really, who are you to judge my intelligence when you missed the fact about Ed? Or maybe you didn’t and you were just unethic
al and tried to cover it up.”

  Levi turned around, walked back to me, and hit me with his folders.

  “Ow!” I groaned. “What was that for?”

  “I miss nothing and that was for calling me unethical. What in the world are you talking about?”

  “When Mera disappeared, I asked you again if Ed was Phoenix. You were all snippy and shitty and defensive, and said no.”

  “Because he’s not.”

  “Maybe Noah made a mistake then.”

  “Noah is a brilliant scientist and doctor, but his specialty is quantum physics, so he wouldn’t be working on blood.”

  “Oh, then definitely you.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “Levi, the jig is up. Okay. We know. He told us so you can stop lying.”

  Levi raised the folders again.

  “Don’t hit me!”

  “I do not lie. I can say with all honesty, if Ed is grown up Phoenix this is news to me. The tests Javier did….” He stopped talking.

  “Uh, oh?” I asked.

  Levi looked at me, and with folders in arms, he stormed from my room.

  The medicine was kicking in and I was starting to feel better. There was a sense of gloating I had as well. As with the Mera and Michael conversation, Levi facing off with Javier was another confrontation I wish I could witness. Then again, it would be boring. It was two scientists slash doctors, I probably wasn’t going to miss much.

  TEN – ALEX SANS

  It took six men to break up the fight. Actually, a lot more tried but they suffered injuries, which couldn’t be treated because our medical staff was doing some sort of no holds barred wrestling event throughout the community. And I mean throughout.

  We weren’t there to witness the beginning of it. Beck and I were in the library, AKA Beck’s war room, with Miles when we got the call.

  Larry radioed that there was a disturbance in Building C, the medical and necessity building, and we rushed over.