Sleepers (Book 5)

by Jacqueline Druga

  *

  Danny took the last little bit of the hog stew that was left in the jar, claiming he’d earned it and wanted it while he was on watch. I spent some time with him before he left for shift. I tucked the kids away and waited on Beck. I was glad to see he returned without his posse of Sonny and Alex. I wanted to talk to him alone.

  He looked tired and wasn’t walking straight. Slumping some, he carried the weight of everything on his big shoulders.

  After kissing me, he sat down at the table and I slid his supper plate to him.

  “You know, if you popped in for fifteen minutes once in a while, you’d eat a hot meal,” I told him.

  “I’m sorry. We were talking about today, making some plans, and then Sonny and Alex decided they wanted to recreate a bar. Some sort of normalcy.”

  “Do you think that’s a bad idea?”

  “No. The moonshine might be though.”

  “Rod Stilton makes some great moonshine. He made it at Grace. It’ll be a hit. Normalcy is good.”

  “Yes, it is. We need it.”

  “We had it in Grace,” I said. “We... we want to have it here. Bonnie was talking about a pumpkin patch she saw and though maybe she and I and a few others should organize a Harvest Day festival.”

  Beck smiled. “That sounds like a great idea. Send out the main guys for the pumpkins.”

  “Alex, Sonny, Randy and Tony?”

  “Um, yeah.” Beck lifted his fork.

  “So we were talking and… Beck, are you… are you planning on leaving?”

  The fork dropped.

  “You are.”

  “I didn’t make up my mind. Goddamn Alex for telling you before I could!”

  “Alex knows?” I asked.

  “He didn’t tell you?”

  “No.”

  Beck grunted. “Then Sonny has a big mouth.”

  “Sonny knows too?” I asked. “Oh, I’m killing them both for not telling me.”

  “They didn’t tell you because they don’t want me to go. They’re trying to talk me out of it. If they didn’t say anything, who did?”

  “You don’t want to make any more guesses so I know who else may be one up on me?”

  He just looked at me.

  “Jessie. Jessie told me. She said Keller told her.”

  “I kind of told Keller when I was bathing him.”

  “Got news for you, Beck. He has this special ability and when you couple that with the revelation he probably hears, no secret is safe with him. So tell me…” I inched closer, “what’s going on?”

  “Another phase of Reckoning. Midwest. Not far from here. Other side of the Great Divide. Huge, I mean, huge ass gathering of Sleepers. They are migrating north, and we’re thinking they are headed to make their way over to this side.”

  “Is this your choice or were you asked?”

  “I was asked to lead the mission,” Beck said,

  I reached over and placed the fork in his hand, encouraging him to eat. It was also my way to convey that I wasn’t angry. “How long?”

  “Two or three weeks. They want me to leave in a few days. “

  “So you’ll be there for the surgery.”

  “Yes. I don’t have to go, Mera.”

  “You want to.”

  His eyes met mine. “Yeah, I do. Not because I want to leave, but because I want to make sure it goes down right. If I am there, I can make sure it works. If I am here, then I’ll sit and wonder. There was a reason the Reckoning didn’t work, Mera.”

  “Yeah, you weren’t there.”

  With a tightly closed mouth he smiled and placed his hand over mine. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too. This is who you are, and doing this makes you the man I adore. I don’t want you to listen to Alex and Sonny. Listen to your heart.”

  “What about listening to you?”

  “I pretty much agree with your heart.”

  He inhaled a breath as large as his body, and pulled me into him. He said more with that gesture than he could with any words. He was relieved that I was supporting him. I was. There was no doubt in my mind or in my heart. If he felt he had to leave to do the Reckoning right, then I stood behind him.

  We would be just fine.

  15. Sonny

  Beck’s goodbye was short and sweet. There wasn’t this long drawn out farewell, like he was going off to war and may not return. I expected tears and hysterics, but Mera was cool and calm about it and so proud. She projected it was what he had to do, wouldn’t be gone long, and she’d see him shortly.

  I marked the calendar on the date he left. October 16. The weather was still oddly warm. I was waiting for the fall to kick in. I wondered how the cold weather affected the Sleepers since we didn’t really have that in Texas. Maybe they’d migrate instinctively like birds, then we’d be relatively safe. Although, a part of me still wasn’t certain we’d be able to pull off heating the Haven effectively. Winter would tell.

  At least we had electricity. Which reminded me, I was overdue for a ‘check’ at the power grid.

  Beck left the day after Keller’s surgery. I thought the entire operation would be a simple thing as a snip of the cartilage covering the eardrums, but it was more complicated than that. Now it was wait and see to find out if Keller would hear.

  Beck was a man with a lot on his plate and focus everywhere. As he prepared for what he had to face, constantly in contact with ARC headquarters, he was on us, as if we hadn’t run things at Grace without him.

  It wasn’t a comfort that we hadn’t seen a Sleeper around the Haven in a week. It was a scary thought. They were somewhere. Beck was leaving, and I know he worried that we’d be attacked in his absence. He actually did the guard schedules ahead of time and the scouting schedules, putting Miles in charge of scouting for Sleepers.

  My electric fence defense was now hooked up to the guard tower. I lowered the charge some, so the Sleepers didn’t stick to the fence as much if they touched it. The jolt would throw them back instead of holding them in place.

  “Whoever is working tower at night cannot work any other shift during that day,” Beck instructed, going over his notes with us. “Got that? I don’t want them tired.”

  “Sleepers don’t attack at night anymore,” Alex said. “We know that. They may come near the fence though.”

  “I don’t want them near the fence. I want the switch thrown if a Sleeper comes near.”

  Alex scratched his head. “For a Sleeper or two that’s ridiculous.”

  “I agree,” Beck said. “Common sense should kick in. No one is gonna charge that fence for four or five Sleepers.”

  “Say, Beck,” I interjected, “what happens if we find them? I mean, right now I think they’re scattered. What happens if we find a mass of them?”

  “Watch them, if they’re close, and figure a way to take them out. What did you do at Grace?”

  I shrugged. “We only had stragglers. We really never were under attack until after you got back.”

  Then Alex made the mistake of saying, “Hey, maybe it’s you that’s calling them.”

  I knew he was joking, yet the glare Beck gave him said he didn’t appreciate the humor.

  “Whoa, big guy,” Alex raised his hands. “I’m just kidding. We know you aren’t calling them and know you aren’t grown up Phoenix.”

  “I have to wonder if that whole thing was a mistake,” Beck said. “Nothing has happened except the horse thing and that was outside. Don’t let your guard down, keep an eye out. I won’t be long. I’ll try my best to be in contact by radio, but even if I’m not, headquarters can reach me and you can reach the ARC.” He gathered up his things. “I have to go. I wanna say goodbye to Mera and the kids.”

  Beck shook my hand and gave me an embrace.

  “Be careful out there,” I told him.

  “Absolutely.”

  He then turned to Alex, shook his hand but the embrace was, well, less warm. They never really cleared the air completely after their last dis
agreement. Then again, Beck and Alex always seemed to butt heads.

  They probably always would.

  It was going to be odd not having Beck around for a while. However, I was certain things would go smoothly. Plus, I had confidence that if they didn’t, we’d handle it. We always did before.

  16. Alex

  Randy Briggs became my bosom buddy almost immediately after Beck left. I wondered if this was a ‘Beck’ request or Randy just felt I needed help.

  Help with what, though?

  I didn’t run things. I was part of a team that ran the community, just the way it had been in Grace. Beck was part of that. We’d fill in, we’d manage. After all, Beck wasn’t around all that much really. His presence was new.

  Randy was there, right next to me. He claimed it was because he was bored and needed something to do and was hoping to help out where he could.

  When not on guard duty or hanging out with the kids, my days were filled with checking on things. I checked on things all day long. Got the proper person, usually Sonny, to fix them, and figured out if things needed to be done.

  We decided things like, if we had to plan a supply run, were there problems in the facility, stuff like that. Never did I make a decision on my own. That wasn’t the way things ran.

  Randy was pretty smart. So, after him tagging along for the second day in a row, I figured I’d try to find out what his talents were. I knew what the old Randy could do. He was an adviser. He was always a good man to talk to, reliable and honest.

  I wasn't too sure where those qualities combined with quantum physics would fit in.

  After checking fences, we headed to the education area. Ed was there with Jessie and Phoenix. Keller was still recovering. There was another boy there, one of the future kids that lived in Grace before we got there. He was about nine. He was probably Ed’s only productive student, considering Phoenix was doing this scribbling thing on paper and Jessie was staring out the window.

  Michael didn’t seem happy to see me. “What is it, Alex? I have asked you several times to wait until after lunch to come in.”

  Man… if I didn’t know better I’d swear I was a source of irritation for a lot of people.

  “It is hard to get the kids focused in the morning,” Randy said in Mike’s defense.

  “I’d think it would be harder after recess.”

  The kids giggled. Yeah, they liked me at least.

  Michael said he needed nothing, all was fine.

  Next stop was Jenson, our agricultural guy from Grace. He was in the greenhouses, which I was glad were already there when we got to the Haven. He was in Greenhouse Two when we found him. We couldn’t see him, it was so overgrown in there.

  With a grunt, our resident farming expert came out from behind the world’s largest tomato plant.

  “Hey, Alex.” Jenson didn’t look like a farmer. He looked more like a middle aged business man, but he knew what he was doing.

  “Everything all right?” I asked.

  “Not keeping up. I need boxes and bushels and an extra set of hands or two.” He ran the back of his hand across his forehead. “I really need to get some of this stuff to the kitchen so they can do canning. I need jars, too. Did they tell you?”

  “No, I haven’t been there yet,” I said. “I didn’t realize we were producing so much.”

  “Yeah, well, we missed a couple cycles, things grow, they fall to the ground, seeds settle, it’s a jungle in here. I’d like to get things picked and start organizing.”

  I asked Randy, “Do you farm?”

  Randy shook his head. “No. I’m willing to learn.”

  “Oh, hey, sorry, Jenson, did you meet Randy?”

  “Saw him.” Jenson shook his hand. “Love to have your help and I’ll teach you. We have to pick, plant these things in order, and I also head up distributing food to the women in the kitchen.”

  “I’ll help as best as I can. I’ll head back down to the dorms and change,” Randy said. “I’ll be back.”

  Jenson gave a nod. “Appreciate it, and thanks, Alex.”

  “Not a problem, I’ll see what the kitchen needs. We probably have to make a run.” We left Jenson to his horticulture nightmare and Randy headed to the kitchen with me, since he’d be working with the ladies there.

  Mera made such a fuss about the fact that it was always the women working the kitchen. She had to remember most of our women were in Grace before we got there and were part of that religious order.

  Besides, we had men helping to pack things up.

  Patty was there when we entered through the back door. She was the busiest woman I knew. She worked every hour she wasn’t sleeping. She was always either in the kitchen, the school, or with Levi. She had no husband or children. She had no story, although Mera said she had been married and lost her family in the Event. She had taken some sort of slave vow to God and that was the reason she was so obedient. I thought she and Sonny would make a good match. I even tried to hook them up.

  Patty did that subservient, humble look at us and shuffled away. I didn’t see anyone else around until Renee came from the back.

  “What’s up, Alex? You are just in time,” she said.

  “Got something good for us to snack on?”

  “No, but if you wait two hours I’ll have food for you to eat for lunch.”

  “You know, Randy, right?” I asked.

  “Doesn’t everyone?” Renee tilted her head and smiled brightly at Randy.

  “What the heck is that smile for?” I asked.

  “Randy is a nice man to all of us. He gets a nice smile.”

  “And I’m not?”

  “How’s it going without Beck?” She asked.

  “Ouch, you changed the subject.”

  “I did.”

  “Acknowledged. Anyhow, Randy,” I said, “is gonna be working with Jenson and he’ll be here a lot.”

  “That so?” She ‘upped’ her voice, and when she smiled, she did that universal chick flirting thing and tucked her hair behind her ears.

  I wanted to call her out, however, I decided to stay on topic. “Any problems? You said I was just in time.”

  “Yes,” she replied. “What do you wanna know first? Bad news, good news, or ‘somewhere in the middle I don’t know how to categorize it’ news?”

  “Let’s start with ‘somewhere in the middle that you don’t know how to categorize it’ news.”

  “With over seven hundred tomatoes now and more coming in, I need a place to put them. They won’t keep. We have to can them, cook them, or do something. We need jars, containers, or preferably, one of those seal a meal deals. People don’t return the jars.”

  “Okay, we need to make a run for food storage containers. Bad news?”

  “Someone is taking food,” Renee said. “Not sure how much, how often, but it’s disappearing.”

  “Are they just taking extra?”

  “No, see, we box and bag per person. For example, your household may get six jars of tomatoes as opposed to Randy, who gets one. We had seventy-five jars of tomatoes on the shelf back there and twenty-seven packages of hog jerky. Now we don’t have that much. We’re missing five jars of this, two packs of that. It is all disappearing from storage, not from what we pack up for distribution.”

  “Are you saying someone came in and took this stuff? When?”

  Renee shook her head. “I don’t know.”

  “You walked in today and saw it missing?”

  “No, I've kind of been suspicious. I think it’s being taken out a little at a time. It's almost like someone is rationing what they are taking. I can’t be sure. I’m afraid they are coming into storage and taking a little at a time.”

  “Alright, until we know, we do a daily inventory. I don’t think it’s anything to worry about, though. You could have misjudged what we had. What’s the good news?”

  “We’re ready for the pumpkins.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “The pumpkins. You are sending a crew ou
t to get them.”

  “No, I’m not.” “Yes, you are.”

  “Says who?’

  “Beck.”

  “He’s gone.”

  “Still.”

  “Still?” I tried not to laugh. “What the hell are we gonna do with a bunch of pumpkins anyhow?”

  “We’re having a festival. Where you been? We will carve them and remove the filing.”

  “And?” “Really? You gotta ask? And you wonder why no one likes you.”

  Randy laughed.

  “People like me,” I defended.

  “Ya think? Anyhow, we want them pumpkins. We can make pie, cookies, rolls, candied pumpkin, pancakes, baby foo—”

  “Okay, all right.”

  “Don’t forget,” Randy added, “we can munch on the seeds.”

  “Fine. Fine. We’ll get the pumpkins. And the jars, which means we got to put some good men at risk, all for pumpkin pie.”

  Renee folded her arms and stared at me.

  “I’ll make the suggestion, can’t make the promise. We have to go now. Randy will be back and you can finish flirting with him then.”

  I took great pleasure in the fact that she produced a really offended look when we walked out. I was mumbling, more like grumbling, about pumpkins and jars and trying to figure out the importance of it all.

  “You’re missing the bigger picture,” Randy told me.

  “You better not say pumpkin soup.”

  “No, I’m not talking about pumpkins or jars, I’m talking about the missing food.”

  I shook my head in a dismissive manner. “I don’t think it’s a big deal. Someone wants a little more. Or Renee thought we had more than we did. No one would take it.”

  “I don’t know, Alex, if it’s missing and she noticed, it’s got to be a lot. A jar here and there no one is going to notice at first. It adds up. You heard her, she said it seemed like they were rationing what they were taking.”

  “Well if it’s so suspicious to you then, what’s the point? Why steal food? It’s free. We have plenty. Besides, let’s withhold judgment on this until we know for sure it’s missing and being taken.”