Wake the Dead

by Victoria Buck

  An hour passed before Bear slowed down. He set the book aside and rubbed his eyes.

  “Tell you what. Let’s take a walk. I could use some coffee,” Bear said.

  Chase stood and stretched. “You lead the way.”

  The big man headed farther into the tunnel. Chase followed. It seemed the path went into the depths. Bear kept the candle in front of him. After nearly a quarter mile, they came to a concrete barrier in front of an opening. Bear handed the candle to Chase. He put his full weight on the heavy blockade. It hardly moved. “I usually get two other men to help me. You up to it, Chase?”

  “Let me give it a try,” Chase said. He handed Bear the candle, put his hands on the thing, and scooted it to the side.

  Bear’s eyebrows went up. “They do that to you, Chase?”

  “Yep.”

  “What the devil intends for evil, the Lord uses for good.” Bear led the way, and soon they were in a room filled with old electric lamps. Dozens of people moved about, laughing and talking. Children played. Several men and women stood behind a table where they stuffed sacks with sandwiches and fruit.

  A few primitive hot plates were plugged in to outlets on the far wall. The smell of fresh coffee filled the place.

  One person prodded the next, and soon they were all looking at Chase. A few gasps were followed by cheers. The adults came to surround him. The younger children went on with their games.

  Chase took a cup of steaming coffee and settled on a padded chair. Soon most of the crowd went back to their tasks. But some came and sat with Bear and Chase. Whispers filled the place. Chase could hear that while these people were glad to see him, they were afraid he’d bring their secret world to an end.

  “The kids don’t seem too interested in me,” Chase said. “But the adults are worried.”

  “Most of these kids don’t know who you are. Some of them have never even seen a GV. As for their parents, I’ll make sure they know you’re not a risk.” He turned to those sitting around him. “We need some help,” he said. “We’re looking for a verse in the Psalms that has something to do with receiving help.”

  The few gathered there didn’t ask why Bear needed to know this. They pulled out little Bibles and began reading. Some combinations of chapter and verse numbers that the people noted, Chase had already tried. Then a woman read aloud, “’May he send you help from the sanctuary and give you support from Zion.’”

  “Chapter and verse?” Bear asked.

  “Chapter twenty, verse two,” the woman said.

  Chase sparked the processor and pulled the number. And a flood of information came from the exoself. Lists of names and places from across the WR were followed by data in various languages. Chase understood every one. When the Mexican girl at the institute had led him to his room, Chase was grateful for the VPad translator. Sometime between now and then the exoself had gotten some language lessons. Robert must have added the program. Or maybe Mel built it in to this information trail.

  “I’ve got it,” he said. “I know where you can find crates of Bibles in the EU. There’s a tent in Egypt filled with fresh fruit, but it’s just a cover. Trucks are transporting people into safer territories.” Chase knew this information was current, not outdated like the WR data banks. “I don’t understand.”

  “What’s the problem?” Bear asked.

  “Mel put this stuff in me soon after I was injured. And then she left. Who’s updating the information? How can anybody send updates to the exoself when the WR can’t?”

  “All I know is Melody said you were hooked to computers around the world. Must be believers still in the system exchanging information with each other, and somehow you’re getting it.”

  “I had her making coffee and picking up my dry cleaning.” Chase laughed. “I knew she was smart. She’s outdone the best of them. Robert, my doctor, would be impressed.”

  Bear raised his brow and shook his head. “I’m glad you know what’s going on in Egypt. What about Atlanta?”

  Chase closed his eyes and searched the trail. “Cargo plane leaving here tomorrow night. Headed for New York City. They can take four people. No travel documents. No questions.” He leaned forward and clasped his hands. “Anyone here like to come with me?”

  The people turned to each other. No one volunteered.

  “You can’t leave tomorrow,” Bear said. “We’ve got to find the rest of the code.”

  “Now that I know what I’m looking for, I can keep searching on my own. I’ve got to get to New York.”

  “I hate to bring this up. By the time you get there, Melody may already be in the Far North Territory.”

  Chase sipped his coffee. A young girl came near and handed him a sandwich. “Thank you,” he said. She smiled and returned to an older woman’s side. The gray-headed lady nodded and put her arm around the girl.

  “Do you know exactly where Mel’s headed?” Chase unwrapped the sandwich and took a bite.

  “Somewhere in Quebec. It’s a big place,” Bear said. “But if you can get into her programs, maybe you can find her. I just don’t see how jetting off to New York City will do you any good if you don’t know where to go when you get there. It’s not as believer-friendly as Atlanta.”

  “Then we’d better get back to work. Read me some more of the Psalms.”

  A man stood and put his little Bible back into his pocket. “Lights go out in ten,” he said.

  “How do you know that?” Chase asked. “How do you even get power down here? Who pays for it?”

  “We’ve got a friend,” Bear said. “Newer buildings up top produce more energy than they use. Some techno-rebel hacker borrows from the grid and sends the power our way. God bless him. Lights come on for five hours every night. And nobody gets a bill for it.”

  A woman approached. “If you want to read more you’ll have to wait for daylight, Mr. Sterling. Right now, we’ll be getting our children to bed.”

  “Call me Chase. Thank you all for your hospitality. But I’ll keep reading. I can see in the dark.”

  “They do that to you, Chase?” Bear asked.

  “Just like the upper body strength.” He looked around. “And fair warning, when you talk about me, I’m probably listening. My hearing is enhanced.” He smiled. “You don’t have to worry about anybody following me here. And I’m not going to turn you in.”

  A couple of women standing nearby blushed. They turned away and went on with the chore of preparing for darkness.

  “Let’s you and me go back in the tunnel,” Bear said. “You read, I’ll listen. If I’d known earlier you had cat eyes, you would have been reading all along.”

  “Right behind you, Bear.”

  The big man threw the stub of a candle on the floor. “You lead the way. You’re the superman.”

  “I’m not sure he had night vision,” Chase said as he came to the room’s narrow doorway.

  47

  The second S showed itself quickly—twenty-two, twenty-six. “’The poor will eat and be satisfied; they who seek the Lord will praise Him—may your hearts live forever!’” Chase laughed when he read the last part.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “My heart—it could live forever. It’s not real.”

  “That’s nothing” Bear said, and he pounded on his chest. “This heart in my body will stop beating one day. But I’ve got something in me that will never die. And I didn’t need no augmentation to get it.”

  Chase pondered this. But he had to keep searching Mel’s trails. “Some of the information jumps categories. This trail leads to the same Bibles in the EU.”

  “Makes sense. People are listed as sympathizers. The goods or services they offer are listed elsewhere. Did you find names of individuals or groups when you used the first code?”

  “Yes. Some of them were fake names, I’m sure.”

  “People have to protect themselves. Those names will likely show up again when you find the code for safe houses. And the plane to New York will show up in safe tr
avel. It’s good to cross reference. Gives you confidence that the information is legit.” Chase thought of the man who’d given him supplies and a ride to Phoenix. He let the twenty-second processor go and sparked the twentieth again. There he searched for the name Chang. He didn’t find it, but he found Junk Store Perry. He smiled. “I was getting assistance even before I knew it, Bear. I just found a trail to some people I met two days ago.”

  “I’m not surprised. God’s got his hand on you, my friend.” Bear let out a yawn. “I think I’ll take a break, Chase. You need to rest?”

  On the train, working the exoself had drained his energy. But now he felt no desire for sleep. He must have adjusted to the process. “You rest,” he said. “I’ll keep reading.”

  The next chapter brought the third code—twenty-three, six. Mel had laid them out in order. Chase read it silently. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. This was familiar. He’d heard Psalm twenty-three before, but he didn’t know when. Someplace, sometime in his childhood, he guessed.

  He sparked the twenty-third processor and pulled on the sixth factor. Locations of church houses and hiding places filled his mind. He looked for Perry’s store and found it with cryptic directions from the center of town. He scanned all of Quebec and found only three main underground locations. That was good news, considering his search would likely take him there. He tried to pull names of individuals working or living at the locations but got nothing. The three churches in Quebec, like most of the secret places around the world, had strange names. The first was called Mist Covered Hill, the second, Storm on the River. And the third was called Blue Sky Field.

  “Blue Sky Field.” Chase dropped the Bible and reached to shake Bear awake. “I’ve got it. I know where to find Mel and my mother.”

  The big man sat straight and rubbed his eyes. “You found them? You got a data trail that tells you where they are?”

  “No, but I know where they’re headed if they aren’t there already.”

  “How?” Bear stretched and pulled a candle and match from his pocket. “I know you can see me. I’d like to see you, too.” He struck the match, and the light burned softly in the tunnel.

  “I just know it, Bear.” He had to give the man an explanation, even if it sounded crazy. “When I was getting worked on, you know, by the doctors, I had some dreams. I think I talked to God. And I think He told me to go this place. I think it’s like what you people call the Promised Land.”

  “Israel?”

  “No. Canada.”

  Bear laughed.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “You might have a computer for a brain, but you’ve got a lot to learn.”

  “I’m going to Quebec. I’ll take that plane to New York, and then I’ll make my way north.”

  “You’ve got all the S’s?”

  “Only three. I don’t have the last one.”

  “I can’t believe you got three in one night.” Bear stood as the group that had gone out of the tunnel came back from their venture in the night. The eleven men and women carried sacks spilling over with bread and fruit and glass jars filled with what looked like peanut butter. The weary-looking crowd greeted Chase and Bear and then continued down the tunnel.

  “Daylight’s coming,” Bear said. “The guard will be waking soon. That plane of yours is leaving after dark tonight, I hope. You got a fight schedule?”

  “The plane leaves at noon.”

  “What? What kind of fool made plans to take believers out of here in broad daylight?”

  “Somebody called Windsong,” Chase said. “You know anyone by that name?”

  “Doesn’t ring a bell. Where is takeoff for this foolhardy flight? Strip outside of town?”

  “Hartsfield-Jackson.”

  Bear put his big hands on his hips. “Atlanta International? I don’t think so.”

  “That’s what the exoself tells me.”

  “Who is this exoself?” Bear asked. “I’m not sure you should believe everything he says.”

  “Can I get there on time?”

  “In this case, time is the least of your problems, Chase.” Bear looked toward the boarded mouth of the tunnel. Daylight barely shimmered through. “Sun’s up. Must be after six o’ clock.”

  “It’s six fourteen.”

  Bear looked at him. “They do that to you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You’re just full of gadgets, aren’t you?”

  “Can we do this, Bear?”

  “I don’t see how. You’ve got no pass for the solar rail. You could walk if you left right now.”

  Chase walked as far as the metal trash can. He pulled out the flight pack and held it up. I don’t need to walk. I’m flying.”

  “Where did you get that?” Bear asked.

  “From the place of my creation. Don’t worry, my doctor unhooked the tracker.”

  “I’d like to meet this doctor of yours someday.”

  While Bear went to get them some breakfast, Chase continued through the Psalms. Chapters twenty-four through thirty. The number combinations produced no trail into the secret world of the Underground Church. He’d find it before he reached the end of chapter thirty-three—he only had so many processors.

  Bear came back with hard-boiled eggs and peanut butter sandwiches and a thermos of hot coffee. “You have chickens down here?” Chase asked.

  “Somebody from a church house sends them. Always boiled—they travel better. What I wouldn’t give for some scrambled eggs and bacon.” Bear stuffed half a sandwich in his mouth and made a face.

  “Real bacon? That stuff will kill you.”

  “Maybe so. Something on this planet will get me. But I’m laying up treasures in Heaven where moth and rust and bacon can’t destroy.”

  “Is that in your Bible?”

  Bear laughed. “I might have gotten it wrong. Don’t quote me.”

  “How do you know you’re going to Heaven?” Chase bit into mushy white bread and peanut butter. “How do you even know it’s real?”

  “I know because I know. Because I took the gift.”

  “What gift?”

  “Grace, my friend. Undeserved. Unearned. Unattainable.”

  “You people speak in riddles—you know that, don’t you?”

  “Nobody ever told you about grace? Not Melody or your mother?”

  “Mel wasn’t too open about what she believed. She worked in the entertainment industry. She lived, on the surface, by the rules of the WR. No proselytizing. And my mother, the last I knew, was OK with shipping Christians off to a desert island.”

  “Melody was afraid. Christians learned to be quiet years ago. The WR made threats, and we shut our mouths. But we struggle with it. We’re called to spread the Gospel, not hide in a hole in the ground.” Bear took a breath and looked toward the tunnel exit. “As for your mother, I think she might have changed her mind, Chase. And God might have changed her heart.”

  Chase counted the beats of his own heart—the only one he had. “Is that how it works, Bear? God changes your heart?”

  “It’s no riddle. Sure, it comes off that way to some people. It’s foolishness, ’til you believe it.”

  “Too bad.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It’s too bad I can’t get what you’ve got. I haven’t got a heart—not a real one. Not anymore.”

  “Man, that doesn’t matter to God. You are still—”

  The sound of boards dropping to pavement filled the place and daylight overtook the darkness. Guards appeared, and Chase felt Bear’s strong grip on his arm as the two rushed into the room where he’d first discovered the group.

  The face shield was still there on the floor. Bear picked it up and tossed it to Chase. Then he crouched in a corner and motioned Chase to take the opposite corner. The sound of guard boots filled the tunnel.

  “Dear God, Father in Heaven, do not allow this. Protect my people,” Bear whispere
d the prayer.

  Chase shut his eyes tight. This was his fault. They’d tracked him.

  48

  “You got some gadget in you to turn off robots?” Bear whispered.

  “Even if I shut them down, somebody sent them here. I’m sorry, Bear.” Chase threw down the mask and ran back into the tunnel. Bear was close behind him.

  “Go back—it’s me they want,” Chase said. But it was too late. They were both surrounded by speechless, mindless guards. Six of them.

  “You think we can stop them from going any further?” Bear asked.

  “Run, Bear. I’ll do what I can.”

  “I can’t let them take you, Chase. We need you. Turn them off or something.”

  The guards circled. Chase pictured the exoself and demanded a code that he wasn’t sure existed. The number thirteen immediately crossed three lines of code, and Chase sparked the processor and pulled the factor. The guards froze. Chase put his hand against one and pushed. The thing fell over.

  “Glory,” Bear shouted.

  “There’s probably an army outside. I’ve got to turn myself in.”

  “No. We’re going back into the tunnels together.” Bear pulled on Chase.

  “You’ll lead them right to your people. I’m going out alone. They want me, Bear.” Chase pulled away and walked into the daylight. Only one armed cop waited there. The one who’d turned off the guard—Cruiser. “I’m coming out,” Chase said. “There’s no reason for you to go any farther. I surrender.”

  “I’m here for the Christians. They’re under arrest,” the cop said. His voice carried no urgency or emotion. His tone didn’t waiver. Something was wrong.

  Chase stepped close. “You didn’t come here for me?”

  “I’m sending data now. If they want me to take you in, I will.”

  “They?”

  “WR specialty forces.”

  “Cruiser—that’s what they call you, isn’t it?”

  “I am outfitted to weed them out.” His eyes were blank. His expression didn’t vary. He pulled out a weapon and aimed it at Chase. “Step aside.”

  “Cruiser, only yesterday you were shutting down a guard. You were helping these people. Do you remember that?”