Sleepers (Book 6)

by Jacqueline Druga

  Randy leaned forward between the seats. “This is where you found Phoenix? I remember that day.”

  “This is it. And that first floor emergency department was packed last we were here.”

  Ed had a look of shock. “Will you show me where you found me?”

  “Chances are your mother’s body is still there. Not a pretty sight.”

  “I don’t care. I have to see. No one ever told me the story,” he said. “You only said you found me.”

  “Mera was there when you were born,” I told him and opened the door. “Ready, Scout?”

  Scout barked.

  We got out of the truck and walked toward the hospital. I thought of the other places that were hard hit. The dark, desolate places. Not enough time had passed for mold to form or things to grow in the buildings, just multitudes of dust. The doctors’ offices, lab and vet center were untouched by the pandemonium. Unlike the hospital.

  It was a graveyard. A standing memorial to that fateful day. A testament to the determination and desperation felt by the parents who desperately tried to help their children.

  Scout kept barking.

  If he kept it up we wouldn’t need to go into the hospital to see Sleepers. I was certain that was where they were. Then I spotted one walking across the parking lot.

  Was it my imagination, or did he not notice us?

  Ed insisted that if I was cloaked, then between he and I we provided enough protection for Randy as long as he stayed close.

  As we neared the front doors, I realized no human survivor had been there since us.

  The doors were open, the left side broken. It didn’t have the stench of rotten flesh like it did that first day, but it did have the smell of Sleepers.

  Sleepers had this sour, dirty smell of never being clean, along with urine and shit.

  It permeated the air.

  I flashed back to that day when we arrived. The bodies in the waiting room were no longer flesh. We didn’t see bodies of any children because we knew they’d turned to dust. Empty cots with IV lines were still there. Their caregivers were there. Some were mostly skeletal, but the majority were dehydrated, sucked in leather flesh on bone.

  The charge nurse’s decomposed body was where we left her. It was all familiar to me.

  It was eerily quiet, especially since Scout had piped down.

  “Our Sleepers are probably outside,” Randy commented.

  “I smell then in here,” I said.

  Ed pulled his swords. “I do too.”

  “Where is the stuff we need to get?” Randy asked.

  “Supply room is down this way.” I indicated to the hallway.

  Who would have ever thought that I would be back at this hospital, walking the corridors with the adult version of the child we carried out of there?

  We heard shuffling, and still saw no Sleepers.

  “Will you show me, Alex?” Ed asked again. “After we get what we need, will you show me where you found me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Will you tell me the story?”

  “What the hell did I tell you before?”

  “Simply that you and Mom found me. She mentioned you didn’t like me because I had blond hair. I never believed that.”

  “Good, because I was born with blond hair.” I winked. “This way.”

  As it was two years earlier, the supply room was unlocked. We went back then to get only what we needed and left everything else. We all carried a large duffle bag and we loaded them up with everything we could grab. We’d check expiration dates later.

  Randy shouldered the bags and we pretty much emptied the room.

  “I think we have enough,” Randy said. “Javier and Levi have enough supplies for a while.”

  “I just don’t want to have to come back.” I peeked form the supply room, saw it was clear, gave a tug to Scout’s leash and turned left.

  Left wasn’t the way out; it was the way to the room where Phoenix was born.

  I hated the thought of going in there.

  I stood before the swinging doors. “Me and Mera came in here. We found your mother, she was a Sleeper, bound to the gurney. Mera wanted to cover her body, and I left her. We had some issues with Sleepers, and I plowed through these doors when I came back, not realizing Mera was right there. Knocked her out cold. When she came to, you were emerging from your mother’s body.” I pushed open the door.

  I didn’t know how Ed would feel. I didn’t know how I would feel. The evidence of my story was right there.

  His biological mother was still strapped to the bed, her face covered with a sheet. The bottom of the sheet was bloodstained and one of her blackened legs, looking like rawhide, poked out of the covering.

  “Is that her?” Ed asked.

  “Yeah. This is where you were born.”

  Randy moved about the room, looking around. “I wasn’t here, but everything still remains as if it happened yesterday.”

  “It feels like it did,” I said.

  Ed approached the top of the sheet and I grabbed his hand. “You don’t need to see this. I mean it. You were born in this room after she died. She is gonna look bad.”

  He retracted his hand. “I guess I wanted to see what she looked like.”

  “This isn’t a good representation.”

  Then Randy spoke up. “She was beautiful. Her name was Nina.”

  For a moment, I thought, Wow, did Randy know her?, then Ed and I both turned around at the same time.

  In one hand Randy held a purse and in the other was a wallet.

  Ed had taken a step to Randy, reaching out for the wallet, when Scout started barking furiously.

  I looked to the doors when I heard the shuffling of feet, the groaning of Sleepers. “Shit.” I took the wallet from Randy, shoved it back in the purse, raised the strap over the big guy’s head and let the purse fall under his shoulder. “Works for you. Give it to him later. Ready, gentlemen?”

  Randy raised his rifle, Ed lifted his swords. I took out my revolver, checked the clip and safety and, armed with our packed duffels and a barking dog, I led the way to the doors.

  The moment of truth was at hand.

  Would I or would I not be attacked?

  I hushed the dog and reached for the doors. One push and I knew the Sleepers were in the hall. The door hit against one of them and he or she cried out in the manner they always did. Probably Sleeper talk for, ‘hey guys we got them trapped’.

  And they did.

  There was no other way out of that room.

  We had no idea how many were in that hall, but we had to find out.

  Dogs weren’t invisible to Sleepers, so I handed Randy the leash and reached again for the door.

  I waited until Ed was nearby and after taking a deep breath, I flung open the door.

  There were eight of them. Not quite the mob Javier asked me to walk into, but close enough.

  The Sleeper closest to me was a tall son of a bitch, a man. His age was hard to tell. He wasn’t old. His hair was brown and dirty, long, too. Sleepers didn’t get haircuts. He was emaciated and when the door opened and I stood there, he looked at me.

  He stared right at me.

  My heart beat so hard I swore it would pound out of my chest.

  “You see me,” I said out loud but softly. “Why aren’t you attacking me?”

  The others gathered in. Then Tall Sleeper looked beyond me, peeking into the room, as if to say I wasn’t what he sought. The others followed suit and looked into the room.

  Scout barked, and like a wall of linebackers, the eight Sleepers plowed into the room past me and Ed and toward Randy and Scout.

  More so Scout. Their hands extended down as they surged their way along.

  Randy backed up all the way across the room, protecting the dog before reaching for the weapon. I suppose he couldn’t get a clear shot with me and Ed in the middle of the Sleeper mess.

  “Let’s do this, Alex,” Ed said. “Now is your chance. Walk up to them. If t
hey don’t react to you threatening them, you’re cloaked.” He handed me one of his swords. “Impale it. It won’t be as easy as it looks.”

  Besides not taking a chance of hitting Randy or Scout with a bullet, I did need to test if they sensed me when I was a threat.

  I walked up to the first one, placed my hand on his shoulder, turned him to face me and lunged the sword into his gut.

  Okay, it wasn’t quite so smooth. At first it was, but the Sleeper had no fat and I hit bone. He never took his eyes off of me, never fought his impending death.

  I approached another with the sword held high, he didn’t flinch either.

  The Sleepers did see me, I wasn’t invisible, I just wasn’t what they wanted.

  I also wasn’t quick at the sword killing, Ed had taken out the remainder before I downed the second Sleeper.

  There was absolutely no reaction to me whatsoever. Or any reaction to Ed.

  The game of Sleepers may have been twisted, but it actually did me a favor.

  I also learned something else there at the hospital. The Sleepers’ reaction, or lack thereof, was totally different than their reaction to Michael. It was something I would bring up to Javier.

  We gathered what we came for and headed out of the hospital. We couldn’t waste time. None of us knew what would be waiting outside.

  God willing … it would be nothing.

  TWENTY-SIX – MERA STEVENS

  Being the radio handler wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be. I enthusiastically volunteered to man the radio a couple of hours a day while the kids were in school. I didn’t expect to have to man the radio the entire time Alex, Ed, and Randy were gone. Not only did I have the worry of that on my mind, I had the boredom to boot. Thank God for Sonny and Renee.

  Renee was having something called, ‘experiment day’, where she was making different things in the kitchen that we all thought were long gone. Today it was the survivor techniques she had learned as a prepper on how to be creative with powdered milk.

  I made the hourly call out, kind of dismissing Alex’s dreadful plagiarized speech.

  Sonny constantly brought me things to pass the time. I was on my fourth comic book when he returned, a little out of breath.

  “Hey,” he said as he entered. “How’s it going?”

  “Done.” I put the comic book aside and noticed the small bowl in his hand. “What’s that?”

  “For you. Caramel.”

  “Oh my God. No.”

  “Yep. Renee said don’t look at it, just taste it.” He placed it down in front of me. “Are you down with the butter?”

  “Yes, tell her it was delicious. It’s a go.” I looked into the bowl. There wasn’t much caramel, maybe a couple of spoonfuls. Using the spoon in there, I tried it tentatively. It was amazing and I quickly gobbled the rest.

  “Mera, can I ask you something?”

  “Sure. This was good.” I scraped the bowl. “What’s next?”

  “I think whipped cream.”

  “Oh, I can’t wait. But you’ll have to run with that because it may get watery.”

  Sonny nodded and pulled up a chair. “Are you… are you okay?”

  “I feel fine.”

  “No, I mean… emotionally. Are you alright?”

  I gave him a quirky look. “Of course I am, why would you ask?”

  “Because your husband or whatever you want to call him now, left you.”

  “Sonny, he went on the Reckoning.”

  “He ended it Mera.”

  “He didn’t. He’s fine. He’s confused.”

  “So the ‘I am letting you go and breaking up with you’ letter was a mistake?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are you in denial, or is this an act?”

  I huffed. “Really, Sonny, I’m fine. Am I acting abnormally?”

  “As a matter of fact, you’re stress eating and fidgeting.”

  That made me laugh. “What?”

  “Since lunch, I have gotten you two cups of tea, one muffin with the new butter, a bowl of cereal with milk, and you gobbled that helping of caramel.”

  “I’d hardly call it a helping.”

  “Plus you leafed through four comic books.”

  “I read them,” I argued.

  “You looked at the pictures.”

  “Same difference.’

  “No, it is not.”

  “Sonny, I’m fine. I’m just bored.”

  “All in an hour?”

  “And I’m pregnant. And … and …” I handed him the bowl. “I would love you if you got me more of that caramel.”

  Sonny groaned and stood up. “Fine, but don’t blame me if you get sick.”

  “I won’t. I promise.”

  “I’ll be back.”

  “And, Sonny…” I waited until he stopped before he reached the door. “In all seriousness, thank you for being concerned.”

  I swear he wasn’t gone a minute when the radio crackled and hissed. It had to be someone trying to contact us, they were using the channel we announced.

  After another crackle, a male voice called out on the radio.

  “This is South Bound 52, calling in to Ohio Alex Sans, do you copy”

  Pause.

  “Looking for Alex Sans, a survivor located in Ohio. Do you read? Over.”

  I jumped up and ran to the door. Sonny wasn’t anywhere to be seen, so I grabbed our individual radio. “Sonny, get up here. Hurry!”

  “On my way.”

  I was taught how to man the radio, how to call out, but no one told me how to respond to incoming calls.

  “This is South Bound 52 looking for Alex Sans, a survivor living in Ohio.”

  There were two transceivers. One we used solely to call out, announcing what channel to reach us, the other was set to that channel.

  I didn’t want to take a chance of the man giving up, so hoping I didn’t make a mistake, I grabbed the microphone, pulled it closer and depressed the button.

  “Hello. This is Ohio.” Then I drew a blank.

  “Well, hot damn. He’s not alone. Here I was thinking he was like an omega man or something. Over.”

  “No. He’s not alone. Just highly unoriginal.”

  “You have to say over. Over.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “When you are done talking, you say over. Over.”

  “What if I want to say more?”

  “Never mind. I’ll wait for the pause. Is Alex there? Over.”

  “He’s out on a run.”

  “You guys are making runs? That’s impressive that you have the fuel for that. Over.”

  “Oh, sure we have tons of stuff here. How about you?”

  “Have enough for the winter, and one good move if we can find a stable place. Over.”

  “Then you’ve reached the right people. Can you hold? I’m waiting for someone else to take the radio. It’s really not my job because I don’t know what I’m supposed to say or not say.”

  “I’ll wait. And Ma’am, I think you did a very good job. Over.”

  “Aw, thank you.”

  It really felt good to make contact, to hear someone else out there. Knowing they had radio capabilities was encouraging. Plus, he seemed like a nice man, but with the world the way it was, it was hard to tell. I hated to put South 52 on hold or make him wait, but I didn’t want the responsibility, nor did I want to screw things up.

  Sonny wouldn’t be long. He was only downstairs. The radio conversation could wait.

  I did hope he had a chance to get me some more of that caramel.

  TWENTY-SEVEN – SONNY WILSON

  It baffled me that Mera had received contact and when I arrived at our radio room, she was staring at the radio biting her nails. She said she spoke briefly to the caller yet didn’t know what to say.

  Like I did?

  Almost as clueless as Mera, I engaged in conversation, precluding it with Alex wasn’t there.

  His name was Hank. He and a small group were southeast of us. He d
idn’t say how many there were, but I gathered it wasn’t many. We were the first ‘camp’ he had made contact with in years and they had all but given up hope. They didn’t give me too much information, probably like I didn’t want to give them too much either.

  There was a matter of trust that had to be established.

  “There was another camp about a year ago, maybe more,” he said. “They headed further south to the ocean and I haven’t heard from them since. We only got the radios back up and running last week.”

  Hank told us they were located in a closed off small town, were relatively safe from what they called ‘Creepers’, in fact they hadn’t seen one in a long time. They’d wiped out everything nearby and had about one more winter’s worth of supplies.

  “Can’t get a damn thing to grow,’ Hank said. “We tried.”

  “Do you need help?” I asked. “Do you need assistance? We can see what we can do.”

  “No, wouldn’t cry for help,” he replied. “We’re looking for a place to go. Either one we can start that will thrive or one established already. Weather hit us here hard so we’re pretty much stuck until it clears. We have enough resources for one more trip out and I’m hoping that will be to our next home.”

  He asked if we were settling and I told him we were relatively secure and self-sufficient, as Alex’s radio calls said. Security, food, medical. I didn’t elaborate. “We hope to not have to move,” I told him. “But we are deep in Sleeper country, so if things happen, we’re ready to go. Just not sure where.”

  “I understand.”

  Hank didn’t want to use up his resources, so he said he’d turn on his radio on the hour for a few minutes in case we reach out and we made an agreement to keep in touch.

  After we ended the conversation, the radio buzzed then Alex announced he was home.

  “Find Javier, tell him to meet us up front,” Alex said.

  I saw the look on Mera’s face, she was relieved and even smiled. I told her I’d send Alex up to see her if she stayed back at the radio room.

  By the time I reached the front gate, Javier had not only heard Alex on the radio, but had sprinted his way there.