Sunshine

by Wenner, Natalie

  He however, smiles when he sees me. “Honey I’m home.”

  “Oh my God, Marcus.” I set down my gun and put his arm around me to support his weight. I set him down on the bed. Sunshine is babbling very loudly on the floor. He wants to be acknowledged by Marcus as well.

  “Yeah, yeah little bear I missed you too.”

  I take a closer look at his wounds, but I still can’t place the gashes.

  “Barbed wire fencing. We need to get going. They might come looking for me. In fact I guarantee they will me. Is the car still outside?”

  There are a million question I want to ask, but now is not the time.

  “I’m not sure; we haven’t been out of this room.”

  “Good girl you followed my directions. Can you go find me some supplies for my gunshot wound? The bullet is still in there.”

  “Yes, I’ll be right back.”

  I quickly gather together some surgical supplies and head back. Marcus wasn’t looking too good on the bed. We need to move fast so I could take care of his arm.

  “Alright let’s go.”

  It was difficult to maneuver with Sunny on my hip, Marcus leaning on me, and a pack on my back. I don’t know how he got there, but finally I load them in the car.

  “Don’t turn your lights on and drive as quietly as you can. They might hear us.”

  Chapter 23

  Dr. Emma

  Finally by day break the next day we arrive back at the church. I never thought I would see this place again. Marcus was nearly passed out in the passenger seat I could tell he was struggling to stay conscious.

  Sunny was asleep, so I laid him down in the bed and laid Marcus down on the floor. I gathered the medical supplies and gave myself a pat on the back for picking up some Vicodin and morphine. He had already taken four Vicodin, but I shot a bit of morphine in his good arm.

  “What do I do? I’ve got these tweezer things to pull it out, but then what?”

  “I have no idea. Just try not to hit any important stuff.”

  I put everything into a pan of alcohol and rubbed my hands with antibacterial solution before putting on some gloves. He would have to be given a penicillin shot once I was done.

  “Ok brace yourself this is going to hurt a lot.” Damn I forgot a wooden spoon they always place them in their mouth in movies, well hopefully a towel works.

  I rinsed out the wound and tried to see the bullet. It wasn’t very deep in there and I could easily get to it. It was difficult though with very little lighting. I slowly inserted the tweezers and quickly got a grip around the bullet it easily came out. Marcus was screaming and thrashing around.

  The wound was now bleeding very badly. I opened some bandage cloth, but it was quickly bleeding through.

  “You need to cauterize it. Warm that tool over there.”

  “On what? We don’t have a fire.”

  “The cigarette lighter in the car.”

  I ran out to the car and it seemed to take a million years to heat up. It was bright orange definitely hot enough. However the heat didn’t transfer as well onto the tool. He wasn’t going to like what I was going to have to do.

  I put it back in and this time when it popped out I ran inside and stuck it right into his wound. The scream that left his mouth was horrifying. It sounded as if he was being torn to pieces. It, however, had worked. The bleeding had mostly stopped and it appeared to no longer need stitches. He was sweating all over and Sunny was now screaming on the bed. I rubbed on some antibacterial goop and wrapped it with gauze.

  After removing my gloves I went over to Sunny and placed him and his blanket on the floor. He would have rolled himself off if I hadn’t.

  Now I had to tend to Marcus’s other wounds.

  “How are you doing? I’m sorry for that, but it’s all I could think of.”

  “Yeah, that doesn’t make my top ten favorite moments. Remind me never to piss you off, Princess.”

  He was still calling me nicknames so I must be forgiven. His cuts didn’t look as bad once they were cleaned up. Only one needed a few stitches. I sewed it as if I was in home economics. He didn’t want me to touch his nose. It was only a little crooked and it was probably for the best. I would have made it worse. After a shot a penicillin and some more Vicodin I helped him into the bed.

  “Thank you. I feel a little bit better. Keep your ears and eyes open there is still danger out there.” He stoked my cheek gently and I planted a small kiss on his forehead, as it was the only part of his face that was unbroken.

  I couldn’t stay awake any longer. I knew I needed to keep a look out, but it was impossible. It had been a very long few days. When I awoke there was a very loud noise at the door. Someone was banging around. Had the Baltimore people followed us? That question, however, was quickly answered.

  One of the stained classes windows viciously burst into a million pieces and a Jack was now standing in front of me. My gun was on the other side of the room next to my bag. Marcus was now awake, but as he tried to get up he fell. The Jack was ignoring us and seemed to be a mission of his own; it was sighted in on Sunny. He was being very quiet, surely he was awake, but he had come to learn in dangerous situations to stay silent.

  It had already spotted him, though. I ran towards it and jumped onto its back. It was no match for me and quickly threw me off into the shards of glass. I could feel my body tear as it landed. I quickly got up and grabbed the only thing around me, a free standing cross. I hit it on its back as hard as I could, but it didn’t flinch. The cross was now in two. I had to do something it was now only a few feet from Sunny. Marcus was standing and slowly making his way towards the intruder. He had a knife in hand.

  “Marcus, the knife.” I held out my hand.

  He threw it to me and I caught the handle, but my pinky managed to catch part of the blade and was now bleeding profusely. The Jack turned; it must have smelled the fresh blood. How the hell was I going to do this? I couldn’t defeat a Jack with just a knife.

  I saw Marcus had now reached Sunny. “Get into the confessional, now.”

  I could see he looked desperate. He wanted to fight, but he didn’t stand a chance. He still had morphine in his system.

  The Jack looked at me with a look of pure starvation. I planned to go straight for its heart. It came charging towards me and I sliced it across the chest. It grabbed on to my arm and it felt as if it would snap into two. I plunged the blade into its thigh, yet it didn’t react. I threw up my knee in pure desperation; I hoped this would hurt as much as it did normal people. I met my target, right between the legs. It let go of me slightly, it was just enough to get my knife up and I planted it right in its heart.

  That was it. It fell to the ground. There could still be more. I grabbed my gun and headed out the broken window. Outside I found nothing. That was a close one.

  I opened the confessional and I could tell Marcus was surprised I was still alive. It was now his turn to play doctor as he cleaned my cuts and stitched up my finger. I didn’t want any pain medicine, because as soon as he finished I headed up towards the bell tower. I had been stupid to think I could sleep.

  Chapter 24

  Bathing, My New Favorite Activity

  In the morning I came down to find the body gone. I didn’t want to know where it was or how Marcus had moved it. There was a large amount of blood stain on the floor. I loaded everyone into the car and we set off towards the ocean. I am tired of only dreaming of living on the sea. I was going to make it happen. It’s what’s best for my family.

  Marcus hasn’t said a word since he woke up except for groans and moans. He is very sore and I every time I look at him I see a new bruise. I drive the entire day only stopping to take care of Sunny. As night falls we pull into an auto garage. I figured it’s the best we can do. We don’t make it out of the car. We take turns at watch and in the morning we are off again.

  The roads are becoming more and more congested as we get closer to the ocean. We probably could have made it to the
ocean in a couple of hours back in the day. The air smells of salt and fish, which only lightens my spirit. I see water on the horizon, but I soon realize it must be a bay. However, a few short minutes later I see it, the ocean, we finally made it.

  Sunny is babbling away in the back seat. He now says Mamam, but I’m not sure if he’s talking about me or Marcus. I beat he will think my name is Sugar, Pumpkin, or Honey.

  There is a slight chill to the air and I know we made it right in time. I park as close to the beach as I can. It must be a residential area as I only see houses. Spectacular houses that must have cost a fortune. Marcus doesn’t want to get out, but I force him to come. I take a quick look for danger and see nothing.

  I set Marcus down on a blanket in the sand; he’s cradling his gun, and I then carry Sunny over to the waves. He is elated. I can’t help, but shed a tear at the perfection of the moment. Of course, it doesn’t last long because Marcus is begging to get under shelter. There seems to be a storm brewing.

  We pick the smallest house on the strip. I do a once through and see no sign of Jacks or other people. I give Sunny a well needed bath and a bottle. He cuddles up with a teddy bear. Marcus is my next victim.

  “You know you really smell. I need to change your dressings.”

  “I can take care of myself.”

  “Ha, very funny.”

  His shirt is filthy so I simply cut it off, instead of torturing him getting it off. I don’t know why he put it on this morning. His pants, however, are the opposite. They are stuck to him from the dried on blood so instead I have to slowly peel them off. This couldn’t be more awkward.

  I’ve been with one guy and he was my high school sweet heart. This was different. Marcus was my friend, well kind of. I didn’t know what we were. I didn’t like seeing him in pain, but seeing him nearly naked was exciting. I knew I was blushing and I didn’t care.

  “Alright you can take your boxers off and clean yourself, umm there, I’ll be back to clean your wounds.” Holy hell I got that out without laughing. I had really matured. However, his next line threw me over the edge.

  “Aww man I was really looking forward to your face when you took them off. What if I can’t clean it well enough? Wouldn’t want it to fall off due to poor hygiene.”

  I threw him a pair of clean undies and ran out of the room laughing uncontrollably.

  When I came in later they were on and he had a huge smirk on his face. He knew that I had imagined him naked. Again I felt like slapping him.

  I set down the new bucket of water next to him and began to wipe his cuts. His legs were bad they seemed a bit infected, I dabbed on some peroxide. I removed the gauze from his arm and it looked a hundred times better then I suspected. It looked like a bad burn, but the color looked good and after a quick clean I wrapped it up again. Now came his chest.

  I wiped it and then applied peroxide to the cuts. He has a lot of chest hair so there was a lot of dried on blood. His face was in better shape as well. Overall I was quite surprised by his recovery.

  “Alright you look pretty good, ready for a little prick?”

  “Huh?”

  “You’re shot, Dummy.”

  After helping him into new clothes I headed towards the bathroom to clean myself up. The house had had a women around my size and age. I used all the beauty products I could find and put on a very pretty pink sundress. Why not dress up, while I could?

  I walked in as Marcus’s eyes lit up.

  “Well look at you Daisy, you look stunning.”

  “Thank you.” I awkwardly sat beside him on the couch. I could take this two different ways. I could keep going with the flirting and see what could happen or I could make it informative seeing as he was in such a good mood. I went with the latter.

  “Marcus, will you please tell me what happened when they took you?”

  “You don’t want to know. It will ruin your dream view of people.”

  “Please, I want to know.”

  “Fine, but if you have nightmares it’s not my fault.”

  Chapter 25

  The Dark Side

  “The reason that Baltimore was Jack free was because of them. They act as if they own the town. Any outsiders are treated like they are just as dangerous as Jacks, if not more. After receiving a beating of a lifetime they threw me into the Hummer where they knocked me out with the butt of a rifle. I later awoke and vaguely remember being in a basement. I passed out again and woke up chained to a tree. I remained there throughout the night and into the next day.

  I was being watched by everyone, they all had their guns on me, but they were all on the top floors of buildings or on roofs. It all seemed very odd. Finally in the morning they took me back into the basement and brought me food. A woman came in and wrapped my arm.

  Later I overheard them talking. “Don’t take pity on him. I don’t care how much he reminds you of your brother. He is nothing more than a worm on a hook to us.”

  It all made sense now. I was their bait. They had tied me to the tree hoping my moans would attract any Jacks in the area, and then they would shoot them from the roof tops. I’ve never seen anything like it. There was no way I was going to survive this place. I tried to escape the room, but there was no way out.

  Finally I gave up and they took me out to the tree. I remained there again for a long time. I could not see nor hear any Jacks, but the people were getting restless. I could hear them yelling at each other in frustration. Finally a man came out and after breaking my nose the son of a bitch led me back into the basement.

  I slept that night hoping to build up some strength. Again in the morning they retrieved me, but this time I fought back. I knocked out the two guys that pulled me out and ran for it. I expected to be shot in the back, but when I looked back I saw why I had been brought out. This time there was a pack of Jacks and they were causing pure chaos.

  I climbed the fence getting cut up pretty badly on the top barbed wire. I followed the hospital signs here and thankfully you were still here, just as I had told you. Good job Peaches.”

  I couldn’t believe what I had just heard. “I’m so sorry I made you go down there. I didn’t know. “

  “I forgive you. You didn’t know. There’s something else. It wasn’t all bad, I also learned some information.”

  “Huh, what did you learn?”

  “The night before I escaped the girl who saw her brother in me came to bring me dinner, but she didn’t leave right away. She said, “You remind me a lot of my brother. I’m sorry they are using you. I can’t convince them to save you.” I asked why she would want me to be saved. “Because I couldn’t save him, so at least I could save you. He turned just like everyone else. The virus killed everyone I loved; now I have to live with murderers.” “What do you mean virus?” “You don’t know the virus that caused the Jacks?” “What do mean virus? It was the implants.” “Yes, it was the implants. The government was experimenting wanted to boost the testosterone in our soldiers. Thought it would improve their strength, it was only an experiment. Something went horribly wrong though and the virus went worldwide. They tried to reverse it, but it was too late. Once the signal was released it took only a week for the levels in the body to reach critical and the symptoms started to show; five days later they are a full on Jack. “”What government did this, Iraq, Russia, or Korea?” “No ours, the good old red, white, and blue.”

  I don’t know if this is true or not. I never got to ask her again, but I can’t get it out of my head. It feels right to me. I can’t believe I finally found out why the world is such shit and it’s our government’s fault.”

  This couldn’t be true, yet it was the only information I have ever heard. I never found anything those first few months when I went searching for answers.

  “I’m tired, now how about you pay me back for my troubles with a back rub?”

  “Ha, Fine.” I had to be very gentle, but I could soon hear him snoring.

  In the silence I continue to contemplate the i
nformation I just heard. I hope it isn’t true. I’ve always thought it was some sort of terrorist attack, not an experiment.

  I slowly get up and gently picked up Sunny and placed him next to Marcus. He had missed his father. I quietly opened up the porch and set up camp for the night. Whether created by mistake or intentionally the Jacks still wanted to eat my guts, so I would have to keep my eyes and ears open.

  Chapter 26

  Ding, Ding

  The next day I spent some well needed time with my son. He was adorable and his every move was melting my heart. He was sitting all by himself and his crawl wasn’t exactly what I would call crawling. It was more like squirming around. We headed out to the beach again. The storm had blown over and it was now a very sunny warm day. I dangled his feet in the waves and we even build a small sand castle.

  Marcus thought I was being ridiculous and kept a constant watch on everything. After dinner we laid out the map and decided on places to look for boats. There was a private marina a short walk down the beach, so we took a quick stroll. The boats were incredible. All were huge and required a motor. I wanted a sailboat. I was tired of having to find fuel all the time.

  Finally at the last dock there was a beautiful boat. I felt very smug with myself. I went underneath and found a couple of books on sailing. I quickly read through; bear reach, alee, luff up what the hell?

  “Reading up sweetheart? Good, because I have no idea how to sail. You can do all the work and I’ll just steer.”

  “Umm, Marcus, I don’t understand any of these words. Damn I really wanted to sail. I’m sick of looking for fuel, but I think we are going to have to get a boat with an engine.”

  “That has to be the smartest thing you have ever said, honeybuns.”