Sleepers 2

by Jacqueline Druga

  “Goes.”

  I secretly chuckled, I figured as much. “Danny?”

  “Goes.”

  I knew that, as well. I also had a gut feeling about Michael. “Padre.”

  “Stays.”

  I avoided asking Mera because I knew her answer. I wasn’t sure what Sonny thought. But I knew at three ‘stays’ and two ‘goes’, Sonny could turn it, leave no tie to break. “Sonny?”

  “She should go.”

  I wanted to scream, Are you kidding me! I breathed out slowly, gave an apologetic look to Jillian, and, defeated, called Mera’s name.

  Mera paused and then she stated, “She stays. For now.”

  I was blown away. The look on Beck’s face confused me further. He swiped his hand across his mouth to hide his grin. What the hell? What got me was no one seemed to react to Mera’s sudden change of heart. A woman who had a gun to Jillian’s head not twenty-four hours earlier, screaming to kick her out, suddenly voted in an opposite direction?

  Mera walked off, and I followed.

  She was headed to the office that she considered her bedroom. “Mera, wait,” I called her. “Wait.”

  “What’s up?” she turned around.

  “What is going on? Yesterday you call her Sleeper bait, and today you’re okay for her to stay?”

  She moistened her lips, looked beyond me, grabbed my arm and tugged me away. “Come here.” She stared at me.

  I lifted my hands. “Well?”

  “Did you hear what she said?”

  “Yes, so what she said changed your mind?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “So you don’t think she was wrong now?”

  “What?” Mera rocked back. “She is so cold. She let her son die on purpose. ‘Give it to God, in God’s hands,’” she mocked. “Please. Give me a break. Michael gave her that ‘Give it to God’ line three times yesterday. It’s a crock. She let Calvin die on purpose.”

  “Then what the hell, Mera? You had the opportunity to throw her out.”

  “Because did you hear what she said?”

  “Yes, she let Calvin—”

  “No, Alex, not that, about the plague. It was supposed to be a plague for six months. Societal breakdown, people would die. I don’t know what plane of existence she lived on but running for the hills didn’t save a damn child on my street or Beck’s kids. They didn’t have a chance to run anywhere.”

  “So what are you saying?”

  “I don’t know,” she said with some frustration. “The whole lot of them are odd.”

  “They’re cult members. What do you expect?”

  “The whole world died, Alex, every child, and those kids lived because they were in the mountains.”

  “Maybe…” I held up my hand. “Let’s just go out on a farfetched limb here.”

  Mera folded her arms. “Go on.”

  “Talk of the padre being the Son of God, of the kids coming from a cult, maybe they got a message, maybe this whole thing is really more religious than we’ve thought all along.”

  “Do you really believe that?”

  I answered without hesitation. “No.”

  “Neither do I.”

  “Then what did you think?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Then she’s not Sleeper bait anymore?”

  “Oh, she’s still Sleeper bait, but until I figure out what the hell doesn’t make sense with this story…” Mera peered over my shoulder, “she’s off the hook.”

  “No pun intended to the term bait?”

  Mera twitched her head. “Maybe some.”

  At first I thought Mera was a little off her rocker, but the farther I walked away, and the more I thought about Jillian’s words, the more I wondered if perhaps Mera was right.

  * * *

  I gave careful thought to what Mera said, and I watched the children and Jillian. I spoke to Bonnie and asked her if she thought the kids were a little odd. Her explanation was similar to mine – children who lived sheltered lives in religious communities were often different.

  I asked her about Ray. She didn’t know much about him; he died shortly after they met. He was a doctor, that was all she knew, and as far as the children surviving, Bonnie wasn’t as close to the death of billions. It wasn’t any more real to her than it was to me. Had I run into a bunch of kids instead of Mera and Beck, I wouldn’t have thought twice about it either.

  I don’t know why it bothered me, why I jumped on the Mera train and automatically assumed there was another story to this crew. My first thought was that this group of kids had gotten the untainted form of the virus; hence why worked on them the way it was intended. But how?

  From what Randy showed us in the holograph, the future people had sent a virus to improve man. The future man in the video said: “Ugh. We screwed up. Our germs compromised Project Savior.”

  Okay, maybe he didn’t say ugh.

  These kids, if part of a cult, hadn’t lived normal lives. Would they have? They would have always been secluded, and maybe hadn’t even had inoculations. Maybe they were spared because there were certain elements never introduced into their systems.

  Admittedly, within twenty-five minutes the whole thing was driving me nuts. The day before I didn’t think twice about it.

  The old saying ‘out of the mouths of babes’ crossed my mind.

  It was time to learn about this cult.

  I grabbed the first kid I saw, a little boy. I wasn’t sure of his name, but he was young. “So, you went camping?”

  He looked at me.

  “The field trip. It was a camping trip. Did you have fun?”

  “Fun. Yes.”

  “So how long were you on the trip?”

  “The trip. Not long.”

  “How long?”

  “Seconds.”

  “How old are you?”

  “Eight.”

  “Yeah, makes sense, I’m getting nowhere with you. Go play.” I patted him on the head and sought a bigger child. Where the heck was that Marissa girl when I needed her? Then I spotted the spiked hair boy, Nick. I whistled and waved him to come to me. He looked somewhat apprehensive at first, and he kept his distance.

  “Yes, Mr. Alex Sans.”

  “I want to ask you a few questions, is that okay?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Good boy.” I gestured for him to sit down next to me. “So, where did you go to school?”

  “School?”

  “Yes, the place you learn to read and write. Can you read?”

  “Doesn’t everyone?”

  I twitched my head. “Maybe now. Who taught you?”

  “The elders.”

  Elders. That was it. That was the evidence of a cult that I was looking for. I moved on to my theories on why the kids were never really sick.

  “Nick. Did these leaders keep you from seeing other people?”

  “You mean people in our community?”

  “No, I mean outside of the community. Did you kids ever go and meet other kids from other communities?”

  “No, Nick said, “there was only us. Anything outside was bad.”

  “Ever get a shot?”

  “With a gun?”

  “No, a needle.”

  “Why would I get shot with a needle? That doesn’t seem useful.”

  “No, it doesn’t.”

  “Unless it went in my eye.”

  I laughed. “So you didn’t see anyone but those in your community. No needles. How about… did you grow your own food, or did the elders go to a store?”

  “No stores.”

  “So you grew your own food?”

  “Doesn’t everyone?”

  “No,” I answered and saw the look of shock on his face. “This place here is where people get food. Well, they don’t come here, or they didn’t. This warehouse we’re in shipped it to stores, and consumers such as myself bought it.”

  “Seems like a lot of steps to take to eat.”

  Nick made me laugh; his
innocence was impressive. I thanked him and told him to go play. At that moment in time I had it all figured out. I figured out why the virus didn’t affect those children the way it did billions of others. At least I believed I understood.

  No immunizations, no processed foods, no exposure to other people. Purity. And that filled me with confidence that the group of kids were probably not the only ones who were isolated. There had to be other cult-type communities. The Amish for starters, not that the Amish people were a cult.

  We very well could have been missing the boat.

  Excitedly, I decided to share my views and theories with the others, thinking about mapping out areas that could include kids, especially out east where I was familiar with Amish country, particularly in Ohio.

  I checked out the kids playing some crazy game of chase, and as I headed over, I heard Michael call my name.

  A moment after, I heard my name again. Only it wasn’t someone from our group.

  “Alex Sans. Alex Sans come in.”

  I bit back my reply, wanting to blurt out the biggest, loudest ‘fuck’, but I didn’t want the kids to hear it, and I didn’t know what wicked things the padre would do to me.

  He was sitting near the radio and he looked pretty sad.

  I walked across the bay, toward the radio set up. Everyone else started to gather, and they were looking at me waiting for an answer. Like a bad debt or bill collector, they were a reminder I couldn’t run from an obligation.

  “Don’t answer them,” Beck said. “Don’t give them a chance to hone in.”

  I nodded. Then as I did, the voice on the radio said two words: “Sunnybrook Foods.”

  Every ounce of air escaped me, and my heart dropped to my stomach.

  “Alex Sans, we know your whereabouts. The world may have gone to pot, but there are these functioning things called satellites.”

  “What do I do?” I asked Beck.

  Mera stepped forward. “Ignore them. You heard Randy, he said to run. Ignore them.”

  The radio man spoke again. “Three days, Sans. You agree to a meet, or we come to you. We don’t even care if you come with us. You know what we need. Don’t make this difficult for those in your group.”

  My head dropped again, and I walked to the microphone.

  Difficult for those in my group.

  Was it fair for all these children to be put in danger because of me and my failure to keep my word?

  Randy’s warning weighing heavily on my mind, I reached for the radio despite everyone yelling No! After taking a deep breath, I depressed the button. “This is Sans. If I agree to set up a meeting place, I’ll do it on one condition. There’s something you need to bring for this group.”

  “Go on.”

  I took a moment. “Randy Briggs.”

  That was my deal. If I agreed to go, agreed to leave with Phoenix, the group had to get Randy in return. They needed him and his knowledge and wisdom more than they needed me.

  30. MERA STEVENS

  It was a plan in which I was not privileged to know the details. In fact, only Alex, Beck and Sonny knew.

  I was not happy about that. Bonnie was indifferent as long as we were all safe.

  Sonny scouted out a farm not far away, about 100 miles south. He spent that whole first day going through the place. It was twelve miles from a small town. A quick scope from a distance didn’t raise any Sleeper concerns.

  In fact, the ranch wasn’t too far from Lincoln, Nebraska, which, according to Sonny, was hit with some sort of bomb. Not a nuclear warhead, though, because bodies of decomposing Sleepers lined the street.

  He was gone an entire day and returned on the second to load a truck and tow supplies.

  Again, alone.

  Alex stayed with us at the warehouse in case they were tracking him again.

  He needed to be spotted leaving the warehouse as a decoy for those of us who would head south.

  That alone told me that he had a plan, and that was to get Randy.

  I asked him, “What about Phoenix?”

  And he simply replied, “Don’t worry about him.”

  I brought it up to Beck, and he told me, “All we need to do is stay alive, Mera. All of us. That has to be our priority. The moment Alex leaves and goes west, we travel south.”

  Alex set up a meeting place far from the warehouse, in the opposite direction.

  I truly believed those in the ARC were smarter than Alex was giving them credit for.

  The message from The New Jerusalem was playing three or four times a day.

  Always the same:

  This is the New Jerusalem. We are with people from Project Savior. We are a second facility. We seek others and believe with the right elements we can create a strong future.

  Despite how much Alex and Michael tried to get a reply, no other response came.

  The radio was to be the last thing we packed. Alex insisted that he took his turn on the air so the ARC could hear him.

  It was winding down. It was D-Day – Deliverance Day. The school bus had to be left behind; it was too easily spotted. We picked up vehicles from neighboring areas and acquired as much gasoline as we could get.

  I was glad I wasn’t going to be riding in a bus or van since it was so hot. We placed a case of water in the sun, and it made a nice, warm bath for the babies. They enjoyed it, and it soothed them both. I hated leaving our gold mine of supplies, but Sonny was right, it would be there if we needed to make a run for more.

  I had the babies in their Moses baskets, set outside the car. Jessie would ride in the back of the car with them, Beck and I up front. Danny and Bonnie were driving a truck with several children and Michael, with Jillian, was driving the van, and that was packed.

  We were nervously prepared.

  I expected that we’d all get in our vehicles at the same time. Three of us would go one way, and Alex and Sonny in the red pickup truck would go the other. In several hours, we’d be reunited with Sonny, Alex, and, hopefully, Randy.

  I was more concerned making sure the children were safe in the van and knew the rules about staying still for Michael. The plan, even though I didn’t know what it was, was set in stone.

  We completed our packing, and Michael tossed the radio in the van. I was ready to put Jessie and the babies in the car.

  Alex said his goodbyes, in case there was trouble. Sonny got in the truck, and just as Alex was about to get into the driver’s seat, Bonnie yelled out, “Stop!”

  Alex did. “What’s wrong?”

  “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

  Alex startled and looked around. “No.”

  “Yeah,” she snapped rather quickly. “Alex, my God, please don’t tell me that you are going to try to pull one over on the ARC people.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You haven’t said anything. I figured you were just making a trade. I had no idea you were pulling a scam.”

  “Listen, Bonnie—”

  “No, you listen, Alex,” Bonnie scolded. “This isn’t just you. This isn’t just your life. These people threatened us. They know where you are, and if you think they won’t find you, you are utterly mistaken. What are you and Sonny going to do, make a false exchange, get this Randy guy, and shoot the pilot and everyone on that chopper?”

  “It is our only option.”

  “The hell it is!” she blasted. “My God, Alex. We have children here. Many children. Including the babies and teenagers there are close to twenty. You want to be accused of stealing the future of mankind, then damn it, put them in jeopardy and you have screwed mankind’s future. Look at the faces, Alex. They are the future.”

  “I don’t know what I can do. They want the child because he is immune, he holds a cure. Yet, our friend Randy said to run, which tells me there’s danger.”

  “I agree,” Bonnie said, “and if you think they won’t take it one step further when you pull the wool over their eyes and don’t give them a potential cure, an immune child, then you’re wro
ng. The danger is there. They’ll come for us. There are far too many of us to run and hide on a moment’s notice.”

  “What do you want me to do, Bonnie?” Alex tossed out his hands. “Huh?”

  “Do the right thing.”

  I thought, I honestly thought, Alex would just get in the truck, and we’d all head south.

  “What’s the right thing?”

  “Give them what they want,” Bonnie said.

  My eyes widened. “He can’t do that.”

  “He can.” She stared at Alex. “He can and has to. It’s one life against many. Do the right thing. The child was born and lived when all others died. He is unique.” She stared intently at him. “Give them what they want. “

  “What if they only want to kill him?”

  “Why would they do that?” she asked. “Really? He was born alive, he holds the key. But go without a baby and they will hunt us down. Do you want to risk the lives of this entire group over one baby?” She paused and locked another serious stare on him. “Do the right thing.”

  I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe my ears or the case she presented. My heart raced and beat loudly. Alex grabbed hold of the door, looked at Bonnie, put his weapon in the truck, and then without hesitation walked to our car.

  “She’s right.”

  “What?” I gasped.

  “I’m sorry, Mera. I’m sorry.”

  Before I could say anything else, Alex reached down, grabbed the baby basket and bolted to the truck.

  Jessie screamed.

  I screamed.

  “Alex! Stop!” Beck blasted out, and charged full speed after the truck.

  Alex peeled out. After my brief moment of shock, I ran as fast as I could run, chasing that truck. But he was long gone.

  Alex didn’t just rip a baby from our possession, he tore a part of my soul from me. I felt it physically tear from my gut. The pain blasted through me as if I had been stabbed. Crying out again, I dropped to the pavement in defeat.

  Beck stooped down, wrapping his arms around me. “I’m sorry.”

  “We have to go after them,” I wept. “We have to.”

  “Mera, we can’t. We have to move everyone, and you know it.”

  My throat closed, and I could barely speak. “He took the baby.”