Sleepers 3

by Jacqueline Druga

  More than Beck realized, I knew how he felt. I knew what I felt like when he left us. At that moment, I was so glad I’d broken the rules and changed things. I couldn’t imagine what would happen to Mera and the kids without one of us.

  “I need you to do me a favor, Alex. I need you to hold on. With everything you have, hold on.”

  “It may be out of my control.”

  He shook his head. “No. I don’t believe that. Not for one second. I believe, right now, you have the ability to hang in there. You, of all people, after all you’ve done for us, you don’t deserve to leave us in a dirty small-town hospital.”

  “You have a better place in mind?”

  “Yeah… yeah, I do. If God’s gonna take you home, then I’d rather it be from your home.”

  “The Haven?”

  Beck produced a sad smile and nodded.

  Home.

  They wanted to take me home. I would do my best; it was a goal to hang on to, and I’d try with everything I had to reach that goal.

  But if by some chance I didn’t… I was okay with it.

  I was okay with everything.

  Even dying.

  38.

  Mera Stevens

  Beck worked the whole night. He and Danny siphoned all the gasoline they could while intermittently trying to reach Michael.

  Just before dawn, he made radio contact with Michael. A trailer from Grace had found him. Michael was a part of our group, not having him with us was hard, and that had something to do with Beck’s insistence to speak to him. However, when I heard Beck, I knew why he wanted Michael.

  “Alex is bad, Mike,” Beck said with a shaking voice. “He is so… bad. We can’t lose him. We can’t, but I know it’s gonna take a miracle.” He paused and sniffed. “So if anything is left, any connection, any pull, please use it. We need a miracle.”

  “I’m praying, Beck. I am praying with everything I am.”

  “Thanks,” Beck crackled out and closed his eyes. He brought the radio to his forehead. He gripped it so tightly I thought he was going to crush it. His arms tensed and he leaned forward to the side of the bus and slammed his fist hard into the side, causing a loud echoing bang that carried out across the street.

  “Beck,” I whispered and reached for him.

  Shunning me, he just shook his head, turned, sniffed hard, and walked away without letting me see his face.

  His physical actions epitomized every emotion we were all feeling. He stayed focused and about two hours later he found me and called me to the bus.

  “Are they getting him ready?” Beck asked.

  “Yeah, they are.”

  “I wanna get on the road. But I wanted to show you what I did.”

  First, he showed me the small generator strapped tightly to the roof of the bus, the power cord trailing through the last window. We stepped inside and Beck walked me to the back. He had laid a board across the two back seats, connecting them, and had placed a cot mattress on top. For privacy, he’d hung a curtain.

  “We can hook his support system up without the generator getting fumes in the bus.”

  “This is good, thank you.”

  “It’s fucked up,” he said. “But it’s the best I can do for him. It’s a long trip.” He exhaled. “I feel bad. I haven’t even talked to Jessie.”

  “She’s not talking much.” I lowered my head. “Beck… she isn’t saying what happened. I’m sick about it. Levi said…”

  “I know what he said.” Beck held up his hand and his faced tensed up in pain. “She’ll get through it.”

  “How? How is she to understand what happened? How do we make her trust people again? How does she grow up knowing not everyone wants to take care of her? And Beck, she may mentally be a baby, but physically she’s a woman. What if… what if the Sleepers did… you know, and she got pregnant?”

  “Mera, then we’ll deal with it. We’ll face it together.” He stepped to me, taking me in his arms. “One day. One step at a time.”

  “Beck!” Danny hurriedly called his name. “Sleepers!”

  I backed away and Beck moved forward to the front of the bus and to Danny.

  “Where?” Beck asked.

  “Coming down the road. Just spotted them. I counted thirty. We can take them.”

  Beck shook his head. “No, let’s get everyone on the bus and head out. You and I will keep a watch until this bus starts to roll.” He looked back at me. “Get the kids, the babies, and Alex.”

  I agreed and left the bus. Bonnie had already heard about the Sleepers and was escorting the children to the door.

  “Jessie has the boys,” Bonnie said. “They’re right inside the hospital entrance.”

  “I’m headed that way,” I said. “I’ll tell them to get on the bus.”

  We were parked right in front of the hospital, so it was only a few steps. I was taken aback when I saw them, all three of them. Jessie stood in the middle, holding both boys’ hands, and when I stepped inside, they all faced me and tilted their heads the same way, the same speed, at the same time.

  “We need to get on the bus now,” I said.

  “Sleepers,” Jessie said.

  “Sleepers, yes. Go to the bus now.”

  “We saw Alex.”

  “Good. Get on the bus.” I waited until I saw them pass through the doors and Bonnie took over. Just as I turned to head toward Alex’s room, Javier and Levi rolled a cot with Alex down the hall.

  I hadn’t seen him in an hour, and I swore he looked worse.

  “Hey…” Alex called out sluggishly. “I’m ready to roll. I am rolling.”

  “Sick as you are, you’re still making jokes.” I walked alongside as they moved him. “Beck has a nice area set up for you on the bus.”

  “Are you gonna stay by me?”

  “I’m not leaving your side.”

  “Good.”

  They moved him beyond me and to the bus. I was so glad they did so quickly, because not long after they placed him on the makeshift bed, I heard Beck shout.

  “Danny, I need a headcount on the bus. Now!”

  Within seconds, my son was on the bus. Even through the chaos of getting situated, he held out his hand, looking. “Where’s Levi?”

  I pointed behind me. Levi couldn’t be seen behind the curtain.

  “Beck!” Danny shouted out of the bus. “All accounted for.” He walked on the bus. “I need everyone seated.”

  The Sleepers had to be close. I looked out the emergency exit and could see the group moving up the road toward us. What the hell? How did they get there?

  I heard Beck talking to Bonnie.

  “We’re good. Drive,” he said, his voice carrying back to me. I kept my eyes on the Sleepers. The bus door squeaked as it closed, and we immediately started to drive.

  Javier exhaled so hard and long that I felt his breath hit my cheek. “I’m gonna sit down,” he said. “He’s all hooked up.”

  Levi flipped the switch on the portable respirator and monitor then checked the IV and scooted by me.

  I closed the curtain and sat on the seat in front of Alex, facing him. “That was a rush. We’re on our way now.”

  “I can tell.” Alex’s eyes were partially open; his head moved side to side with the motion of the bus. “Sleepers.”

  “Yeah, they’re everywhere.”

  “No.”

  “No?”

  “Got…” He reached and laid his hand on my wrist. He tried to grip it but couldn’t. “…to get east. He can’t call them once we cross the Great Divide.” His hand slid from mine. “He can’t call them anymore. ”

  “Who?” I asked. “Who is calling the Sleepers?”

  His monitor beeped steadily and Alex closed his eyes. He had passed out.

  39.

  Sonny

  We had been at our final destination for two days. We made great time, even though we stopped when we could and grabbed supplies. We didn’t see a single Sleeper... alive, that is. When The Event happened, everyo
ne ran for help for the children. After that, no one really left or went anywhere. They stayed put and turned. That made traveling easier with fewer cars on the roads.

  I found what we were looking for. I wondered if someone else had taken haven where we stayed, but I knew it wasn’t the case when we pulled up. The grass was so high around Indian River Correction that it buried the fence that ran the perimeter.

  The positive thing was that corn grew in the field next to the facility. It looked like wheat did, as well. That was hopeful.

  There were forty-seven Sleepers locked in on the property, most outside, some inside, all of them dead. Withered away by starvation and malnutrition was my guess. There really wasn’t much left of the bodies outside. Inside, some were persevered and they hadn’t eaten. The water was still in bottles, cans laid about the floor, unopened, but some had labels off, dents on the lid which could only be bite marks. The vending machine was broken into. They’d tried, they’d failed. They had perished.

  We spent the first day, clearing bodies, and at first light on the next morning, foraged for food and supplies. I intended to start the clean up process on the third day.

  What I wasn’t expecting was the radio call from Danny.

  The connection was crystal clear, which let me know they were close.

  A couple of hours, Danny said. They were hauling ass. So Miles and I did the same to get ready. Clearing up eighteen months’ worth of dust, dirt, bugs, and animals wasn’t an easy task.

  There were thirty-plus arriving by bus and more in the tractor trailer. We prepped for that as best as we could, then took the pickup, opened the gate, and waited.

  I screamed with joy inside when I saw that beautiful old beat-up bus roll toward our gate.

  My smile was the width of my face when I stepped out of the way to allow the bus to pass through the gate.

  It stopped.

  The door opened and an outpouring of kids raced from the bus and encircled me as if they hadn’t seen me in ages. I tried my best to hug them all. Then after them came Javier, Levi, and Noah, all extending a hand and thanking me.

  Thanking me? I didn’t do anything. A few more people I knew from Grace unloaded and that’s when I started to get a sick feeling. They looked bad, scared, and worse for wear.

  Bonnie stepped off. She hugged me, shook her head, and waited. Jessie then followed. Her face was bruised and red, her arms went around my waist and her head to my chest.

  “Missed you, Sonny. Missed you.”

  “I missed you too, baby.” I lifted her face. “What happened to you?”

  She was about to tell me when Bonnie pulled her away. My eyes went from her to Danny. He looked as if he’d lost his best friend. Oh my God. Mera.

  “Danny?”

  His lips puckered and he tried to talk. I didn’t want to ask where Mera was, I was scared of the answer. Beck stepped from the bus holding both babies. After setting them down, he joined their hands and told Phoenix and Keller, “Go to Bonnie.”

  “Beck, what happened? Where’s Mera? Where’s Alex?”

  “We…we…” Beck choked up. “We had problems, Sonny. Bad ones. Alex isn’t going to make it.”

  Oh, God.

  “He wants to see you,” Beck said.

  I nodded and stepped onto the bus. Mera stood before a parted curtain that blocked off the back.

  “Sonny, you found a place.”

  “Yeah.” I walked to Mera and embraced her. “Are you okay?”

  “I’ve been better.” She wiped her face. “Alex has been better, too.” She struggled with her words. “He wants to speak to you alone. He was very specific.” She started to walk away but paused, grabbing my arms. “Make it count, okay?”

  Those were her words of advice. Make it count. I wish she would have told me more. Perhaps I wouldn’t have been so shocked when I stepped through the curtain and saw Alex.

  My heart broke. His body was thick with swelling, some of it discolored. The rough, tough, no nonsense guy was weak. I couldn’t take it.

  “Hey, Boots.”

  Boots. Of all things. He was sick and he called me that stupid nickname he gave me all because Mera mentioned my boots a lot.

  “Hey, Alex. What did you go and do to yourself?”

  “I don’t know. One minute I’m thinking I’m infallible, the next, I’m carrying Jessie and my liver.”

  I tried not to let it be heard, but a groan slipped from my throat. “How?”

  “Not important. But something is.”

  Laced within his struggling raspy words was a dead serious tone.

  “Sonny… I need to tell you something. Only you can know. Close the curtain.”

  Without asking any questions I closed the curtain and sat down.

  40.

  Mera Stevens

  He wanted to go home with dignity. Alex wanted the children to see him get in the truck and have their last look be how they remembered him.

  We washed his face, cleaned him up as best as we could and I straightened his hair into a neat ponytail. We put a crisp, clean shit over his bandaged torso and a bigger pair of jeans. As I put on his boots, I saw it. He cringed. Alex was finally feeling the pain.

  With the help of Beck, he gave the appearance of stepping off that bus. Only three of us would go to the Survival Haven with him. We’d stay there until he got well or…

  Alex wanted to walk to the truck; it wasn’t far from the bus. He did, with me on one side, Beck on the other and Sonny behind him.

  The children and those from Grace lined up as he walked by. Sadness laced their faces. They waved as if he were embarking on a long trip. He stopped at Keller and Phoenix and told them to be good, then he paused at Jessie.

  “I’m so proud of you,” he told her.

  “I’m proud of you, Alex.”

  He smiled sadly and laid his hand on her face as he took the last step to the truck. There at the open door he looked around.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Danny? I don’t see him.”

  I searched around for my son and saw him a few feet away with his back toward us. “I’ll be back.”

  “Let him go.”

  “No. I’ll be back. Stay here.” I walked to my son. “Danny...” He didn’t turn around. “Danny. Alex is leaving. We’re taking him home. Come say goodbye. He wants to see you.”

  “I can’t, Mom. I can’t.” Danny lowered his head and I saw his shoulders bounce.

  I moved closer to him placing my forehead against his back. “Danny, I know this is hard. But you need to do this. For you and for Alex, okay? Please.”

  “He’s leaving us. I can’t say goodbye to him.”

  “Then don’t. Go over, wish him luck. Tell him you’ll see him. But see him now.”

  Danny slowly nodded, reached behind him, and grabbed my hand. I turned him around and we walked to the truck.

  He was trying. Danny was trying so hard not to break down. A few steps into our walk, he sobbed once.

  Beck intercepted, stood before Danny. “It’ll be okay.”

  “No, it won’t,” Danny replied. “It won’t.”

  “You’re right.” Beck gripped Danny’s shoulders and squeezed, stepped aside, and headed to the driver’s side of the truck.

  I guided my son to Alex.

  An immediate explosion of emotional energy was generated between them just by a glance.

  “Thank you for seeing me off,” Alex said.

  Danny pursed his lips, fighting his turmoil, anger, and hurt. “I can’t say goodbye, Alex. I can’t do this. This is wrong. I can’t believe this is happening.”

  “Yeah, I know. But despite what you think, it’ll be okay. I’m so proud of you. So proud. Danny…” Alex shifted his weight, “I need you to watch your mom. I mean it. Okay? You be there. You believe her when she tells you things. She is going to need you. I have a feeling this world has a big role in it for you. One only you can fill.”

  “You’re gonna try, right Alex? You’re g
onna try to beat this?”

  “Oh, yeah. I’m not gone yet. But I better go.”

  Then they embraced.

  Alex grabbed Danny and Danny held onto Alex, arms wrapped tightly around each other for a long time.

  “I have to go,” Alex said emotionally.

  Danny nodded within the embrace.

  Alex stepped back, placed both hands to Danny’s cheeks, and planted his lips on my son’s forehead, leaving them there with his eyes closed. After a shivering breath, Alex pulled back and tried his damndest to climb into the truck himself.

  Sonny helped, moving Alex to the middle of the bench seat.

  “Wait!” Danny called out before I climbed in, and ran to the truck. He reached inside and grabbed Alex’s hand. “I’m proud of you, too, Alex. Proud of you, too.”

  I led my son from the truck and kissed him. I knew what was going to happen next. I knew it by the way Danny waved once and walked away. He wasn’t going to watch the truck leave, or, at the very least, let us see he was watching.

  I knew my son. He was going to find a quiet place to break down. I felt bad for him. He was hurting. We all were.

  It was Alex.

  * * *

  Alex was filled with a strange and energetic renewal as we drove closer to his home. Sonny sat outside in the rear, his side against the cab window, engaging in conversation with Alex who narrated every mile.

  This is where this happened …

  Oh, I remember this …

  Turn here, Beck. Turn here.

  He grabbed my hand and squeezed it. I looked over at Alex; he was smiling.

  We passed that sign for the Survival Haven, the one we first saw almost two years ago. Weeds were grown over it and entangled around it.

  “Almost there,” Beck said. “I remember this road. Hopefully no Sleepers are out this way.”

  “Only me,” Alex replied. “There are no Sleepers on this side of the Divide.”

  From the window, Sonny asked, “Is that it up ahead, Alex? Nice place.”

  “My pride and joy.”

  Pulling up to the Survival Haven brought back memories of that day when we arrived with Danny, looking for help, trying to let him heal from his injury. Alex helped him that day. The area around the Haven was dirt and brush back then and wasn’t much different now. The place looked nearly the same.