The Great Thirst Boxed Set

by Mary C. Findley

  Talia shook her head. She moved a few steps down their walkway. “Gail. Baby. Look what you just did. You shot your sister. Put the gun down. Let me go help Lisa.”

  “I don’t know what to do,” Gail wailed. “I want to kill people. I want to die. I don’t know how to stop this!”

  Cara drew a bead on Gail. Talia shot her a look, and then glanced at Keith, her eyes pleading.

  “Hold on, Cara,” Keith said. “We’re just the backup.”

  Cara shot him an incredulous look but lifted her gun muzzle into the air.

  “I’ll tell you what to do, Gail,” Talia said, still moving slowly forward. “I’m speaking the name of Jesus Christ over you. I’m telling you to throw that gun as far as you can throw it. I need to go help Lisa. You need to listen to a different voice from the one that’s been telling you what to do for a long time.”

  Gail screamed and threw the gun sideways against the picket fence around their house. It bounced off and fell into the grass. Gail grabbed her head, both fists grinding into her temples, and squatted down in the street. Keith ran out to retrieve the fallen gun.

  “Put the safety on!” Talia ordered as she ran for Lisa, who was struggling to get up. Keith found it and obeyed, shoving both guns into his waistband. Cara ran into the street and grabbed Gail, holding her by the shoulders. Lynette appeared at the front door.

  “Gail?” she called out timidly. “Do you want to come in? There are still some pancakes left.”

  Chapter Seventy-nine –Protective Custody

  Jim Lauchs, the town’s other police officer, arrived. He stood in the yard staring at Keith nailing plywood over the broken window. He also took in Cara Townsend standing in the middle of the lawn, at ease, but with her weapon at the ready. Jim was younger than Keith and wore an expression of hopelessness and terror.

  “How many dead?” he asked.

  Keith chuckled. “Come on inside,” he invited. Jim followed him in a daze. Both Lisa and Gail sat in the Bradley kitchen eating pancakes. Lisa’s wound was just a superficial one that had creased her forehead. Keith tried to explain what had happened and handed Gail’s gun over to Jim. He took it with two fingers and looked as if he didn’t know what to do with it.

  “So Mrs. Bradley cast out a demon from Gail?” Ruan asked.

  “Whatever happened, God did it, not me,” Talia said, mussing Ruan’s hair.

  “Mom and dad were gone,” Gail said. “The house was empty. I didn’t know where anyone was. They just left me a note saying I had better have my tablet when they got back. There’s never any food in the house. I thought maybe they just went out to get breakfast.

  “So I got my tablet out and started playing the game. It had a level about radiation poisoning everybody. I had to stop the radiation pouring out of that building. I had to stop those people who were letting it loose on us. I called Lisa and told her I had to go to your house and stop you from poisoning us …” she trailed off, and looked from Keith to Talia to her sister. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

  Lisa leaned over and squeezed her shoulder. “Gail called me in the middle of class, but I went outside and took the call because she’d never done anything like that before. She was talking about mom and dad being missing, and how maybe the people who were poisoning us with radiation got them. But she said she was going to get them back. I know Gail’s been getting kind of crazy, and I heard about what happened at school – I just felt like I ought to come home and see if it was more Gail crazy stuff, or something serious. I got to the house just in time to see her running down the street with that gun. I’m sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Bradley, that I didn’t get here in time to stop her.”

  “Where did she get this gun?” Jim managed to ask.

  “It’s mom’s,” Lisa replied. “She was never interested in guns before we moved here and she never used it, or even practiced with it, that I know of. She kept telling us it was in her nightstand drawer, though, if we ever need to protect ourselves. Like anybody would ever come after anybody in this town.” Her eyes locked with Gail’s and they started crying. Talia reached around to hug them both.

  Keith’s phone rang. “Excuse me,” he said. “Busy morning.” He stepped aside into the hallway. “Hey, Adam. Your cousin hasn’t called me back yet. You and Stephen okay? What? Adam, I’m going to come over and get both of you. No. Just go in another room. Lock the door and flush the key down the toilet if you have to. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  “Adam’s getting the same messages through his tablet, isn’t he?” Talia asked. “What if he tries to hurt you or Stephen?”

  “Can you take me over there, Jim?” Keith asked.

  “But I haven’t finished here,” Jim protested. “I really don’t even know how to finish. I mean … there’s nothing really to investigate. Are you going to press charges, Keith?”

  Keith glanced at the girls, who were still crying, and Talia, who met his eyes and shook her head.

  “No. We’re not,” Keith replied.

  “Miss Sheldon – Lisa – do you want to press charges?”

  “No,” Lisa whispered.

  “Look, Jim, get everybody to give you a written statement of what happened,” Keith said, exasperated. “File a report or whatever you need to do. I’m going to go get Adam and Stephen.”

  “You can’t go alone,” Talia insisted. “What if …”

  “I’ll swing by Clark’s place and see if he was serious about that police escort thing,” Keith said. “Jim, stay here ‘til I get back, okay? I’ll bring Clark, and he should be able to tell you what to do. Meanwhile you can keep an eye on everybody here, for me, right?”

  “Yeah. I can do that.” Jim brightened considerably.

  “Count me in,” Clark said when Keith had explained his mission. He had come to the door within two minutes of Keith’s arrival, fully dressed, before his wife had even had a chance to tell Keith he was asleep. Clark was not in uniform but he grabbed his gun from the rack by the door.

  “Clark, you were just up all night,” his wife protested. “And what about your cast?”

  “Duty calls, Sweetie.” Clark kissed his wife and followed Keith out to the Tesla. “You know, I’ve wanted a chance to ride in this car since the first time I saw it. Here’s hoping there won’t be any trouble with those boys. Heard on the scanner about your shooting incident. Strange times in our little town, aren’t they?”

  “They sure are,” Keith said. He didn’t comment on how strange it was to have Clark riding shotgun beside him. They drove out to the Gregory house. Adam stood on the front lawn, shivering in shorts, a T-shirt, and flip-flops. His little brother Stephen wore footie pajamas and had a blanket wrapped around him.

  “The only key I could find was to the whole house,” Adam said. “And I threw it down the storm drain. I feel better now, Mr. Bradley, but I still want to go home with you.”

  “Well, it’s kind of crowded there right now,” Keith said with a slight smile.

  “We need to remove these boys from a dangerous situation,” Clark insisted. Adam looked startled to see him climb out of the car and awkwardly wrap his own coat around him. “Their parents are missing, and they don’t feel safe in their own house. Not to mention that they’re locked out. What better reasons for them to come with us?”

  “Yeah, you’re right, Clark,” Keith said. “C’mon, guys. Hop in the back.”

  Keith helped Talia set the new arrivals up with more pancakes while Clark read Jim the riot act about investigational procedures. The two men left together after Clark made Keith promise to call him, no matter who was on duty, if there was any more trouble.

  “Well, something good came out of all this,” Keith said.

  “What?” Adam asked.

  “I learned to cook,” Keith replied as he flipped a pancake. Talia threw a dishtowel at him.

  George Holden arrived around noon and stared at the kids crowding the kitchen table while Lisa dished out soup and sandwiches. “More missing parents?” he asked a
s he shook hands with Keith. “You’re the one my brother told me I could contact about those Bibles and notebooks turning to dust? The one with the signature theory?”

  “That’s me,” Keith said. “Not so sure it’s still just a theory, though.”

  “This has gotten deadly serious, hasn’t it?” George asked. Talia brought coffee and sandwiches into the living room and they sat down together. He glanced at the plywood on the window.

  “Good choice of words,” Talia said with a rueful smile.

  “My mother wasn’t all that clear about explaining exactly what happened,” George said. “My brother and his wife are missing? Lynette and Ruan walked three or four miles to your house last night? And now …” he looked at the window again. “These are all children who have had some sort of reaction to these tablets?”

  “Or they were afraid they were going to,” Keith said.

  “I can’t imagine what’s happened to Tim and these other parents,” George said. “And what if something triggers this violence in the kids again? They’ve been exposed to these tablets for over a year now.”

  “Didn’t the children in your Bible study get tablets?” Talia asked. “Didn’t you?”

  “Well … yes …” George hesitated. “What should I do with them? I never really used mine after I figured out the repository site didn’t work right and all anybody could do on it was play those games. I had a lot of overtime at work, and my wife has needed me at home, so I didn’t keep up with the Bible study this year.”

  “That doesn’t mean the kids haven’t been using the tablets,” Keith said. “Last summer we had a couple of weeks of camp for kids from the school. Some of them brought their tablets. We had to take them away for the same reason we took them away at school. Kids were addicted to them and impossible to discipline until they’d been separated from them awhile. Usually only a few hours. I think you need to warn the families of your Bible study to get rid of the tablets. We have to find somebody who does recycling of computer parts, or something – a person we can trust – and have them destroyed safely.”

  “Tim would have known about that,” George said. “But in the meantime, you think it’s safe for the kids now, as long a they’re tablet-free? I’m sorry. I don’t want to sound selfish, but taking Lynette and Ruan means taking them to my house. My mother’s health is declining, no matter how strong and determined she sounds over the phone. My kids are little, and my wife is expecting.”

  “I understand your concerns,” Keith said. “My wife is expecting too. Look … Was Mrs. Holden able to get legal permission to care for Ruan and Lynette because of their parents being missing?”

  “Yes. My uncle is a lawyer. He drew up some general emergency custody papers.” George produced them. “He deliberately kept the wording vague, so that anyone we designate can care for them until we find Tim and Julia. Also … well … I might as well say it … my mother insisted on adding a clause about determining their fitness as parents, after this fiasco.”

  “Can you sign them so that Talia and I won’t be in trouble if we keep them awhile?” Keith asked. He had hesitated before asking, but the look in Talia’s eyes told him he’d said the right thing. “They’re kind of settling in with us, it looks like, and it might help everybody keep calmer, to work through this together.”

  “And Mrs. Bradley can shoot anybody who tries to get us!” Ruan exclaimed.

  Chapter Eighty –The Doomsday Duffelbag II

  Keith went up to see his father alone, leaving Talia and Cara to take care of the students who had suddenly become their responsibility. He drove his father’s old Taurus in spite of Talia’s insistence that he take the Tesla.

  “Considering what’s been happening, I want you to be able to make a quick exit if the need arises,” Keith said. “Dad’s car and I are old friends. I can tear it apart and put it back together if I have to. It’ll get me there and back again.”

  Talia wrapped her arms around his neck. “I want to give you something first,” she said. “Come with me.”

  She led him into the bedroom. “I’ve been making this up a little at a time,” she said, presenting him with a large canvas shoulder bag.

  “What is this? It weighs a ton.”

  “It’s your very own Doomsday Duffelbag,” Talia said. “Please be careful. Tell your dad I love him and we are all praying for him.”

  “I want to call Drew and have somebody ride up with you,” Cara said as Keith hefted the bag down the hall toward the door.

  “I have got to go, Cara,” Keith said. “Sure, call him and have somebody follow me or something. But I can’t wait.”

  Keith filled the Taurus up at the gas station a block away from his house and headed out for the state capital. His phone signaled a text just after he got onto the highway but it was an unfamiliar number. The camel bell ringtone didn’t reassure him, since he had heard that back at the airport when people had gotten the jump on Drew Summers and stolen his phone. About an hour down the road he pulled into a rest area and checked the message.

  “Newton Brain, following a red Econoline van following you. No license plate. Mine is a green Suburban. D Summers.”

  Keith went into the bathroom, lugging his Doomsday Duffelbag and pretending to concentrate on his phone while watching the highway. A red Econoline sped past the rest area but he could see it signaling to take the next exit. Keith locked himself in a bathroom stall and rapidly inventoried the contents of the bag.

  “Oh, I love you, Talia,” he breathed. He put his phone on silent and sent Drew Summers a brief text. Rapidly he shed his black leather jacket.

  Five minutes later Keith walked out with gray sweats and a blue hoodie. He had rubbed wet teabags over the new white canvas bag and altered its appearance dramatically. He slouched and wore shades, a nondescript ball cap, and sandals with socks – something he had sworn he’d never do. He checked his phone, saw a green Suburban flick its lights, and hurried toward it.

  “You look fantastic. I see the Econoline coming off the ramp,” Drew said. “Let’s go.”

  “I have a fantastic wife,” Keith said, hugging his duffle bag as they tore away from the rest area.

  “You really do,” Drew said. “Thank God she chose today to give that to you.”

  “I suppose it’s out of the question to go see my dad now,” Keith said.

  “Not out of the question, but I’m sure whoever’s following you knew that to be your destination. All those kids you took in are going to make this very difficult, but I communicated with Cara to try to get Talia to arrange a move to somewhere safer. They can all fit in that van Naddy and Sophie equipped for your grandmother and Joana since it has those foldaway seats. Maybe you can cautiously get a message to your grandmother that it’s time to flee to the mountains again. We upgraded the security on the phones so it should be safe for now.

  Keith called Grandma Bradley. “Hey, Grandma. I need you to pack a bag. Talia will be coming by and …”

  “I started packing my bag when I heard on the scanner about that child who came to your house with a gun. Please tell me everyone is all right.”

  “Oh … wow. I’m sorry you had to hear about it like that. We should have called you. Yeah, we’re fine.”

  “Good. I’ll be ready when your precious wife gets here, to go wherever we need to. Kiss your father for me.”

  Keith hung up and stared at the phone for a second. “It’s like she already knows what to do about everything, even before I do,” he said.

  “That’s how grandmas are,” Drew said. “I’m sure Talia will be by for her very soon.”

  “She won’t leave the Tesla behind,” Keith said.

  “She won’t need to,” Drew said. “Cara will drive the van and Talia will follow her, and I’ll make sure they have more protection that’s not so … conspicuous. I don’t think they can afford the time to arrange for your trucker friends to hide the Tesla again, but I am going to contact them to see if they’re available to get my restocking cr
ew set up at our destination.” He sent a quick text on his phone.

  “Where are we going?” Keith asked. “And when will I get to see my dad?”

  “It’s not that far from the facility where your dad is being held. We will go see him, by roundabout ways, and then hopefully reconnect with your new extended family.”

  “Won’t we get in a whole lot of trouble if we take the kids out of town?”

  “If you want to keep them and your wife and grandmother safe, you don’t have any choice. Whoever is playing this game of chess with you needs to run out of pawns. That’s all these poor kids are to them. You’ve made a start at getting those pieces off the board. It never occurred to me that we can use leverage as well as they can. We’re not kidnapping them, or killing them, like your enemies are trying to do to you, but we are forcing them to come up with a new plan by taking away their ‘activation’ option on these kids.”

  “Do you think they’re somehow activating their parents?”

  “Yeah, whatever that means. This is their window of opportunity. Dr. Williams has laid down the gauntlet with that psych testing. The school board is either cowed or confused, and your father and the two of you are out of the picture. School is closed only until they get their ducks in a row for the final phase of their plan. If they have six parents in lockstep behind their new world order, there’s not much chance that Bradley Central will survive as we know it.”

  “God knows about all this,” Keith said with a sigh. “As much as I wanted to save it, and spare my dad this pain, I guess I knew our days at the school were numbered. I feel like we wasted our time here, when we should have just concentrated on finding the Testaments. We spun our wheels, and now we have nothing. No school, no way of communicating what we do find … I sure do feel like we failed.”

  “Not yet, you haven’t,” Drew said, patting Keith’s shoulder. “If there’s one thing I learned from hanging around with archaeologists, it’s patience. Secrets that have been hidden for centuries will wait a little longer ‘til we get back to them. Like you said, God knows about all this, but His time and His ways are not ours.”