Sleepers

by Jacqueline Druga

  I moved away, stunned and without words. I stepped from the porch to not only face my son but face one more thing that made me question what was going on.

  8. Catching Up

  Bill made a comment that he felt stupid and that the 1990s called wanting their radios back. He felt so proud of them at first, getting information and so forth, but looked at them half heartedly when he realized they failed him more than helping him. Which wasn’t really true, but I am certain in his mind it was.

  The radios kept him in the dark and he was relying on them. I reminded Bill that had it not been for his radio, George Lawson wouldn’t have been able to make his last round of house calls.

  That then spawned a conversation about George. Where was he? How was he? That caused Bill to ask us to watch Jen and he sauntered away. I use the word ‘sauntered’ because I can’t think of another word to describe Bill’s walk. He was a tall man that moved slowly. He just struck me as a kid in a big man’s body.

  When he first left and walked down the street, I had no clue where he went.

  That was, of course, after Danny had told us all he could tell us. He sat on a blanket on the lawn not far from our SUV, his things in a duffel bag next to him. He wouldn’t go near the porch. I had tried unsuccessfully to wake Daniel. His fever raged. The wet rag I used on him immediately dried. I even attempted to get him to lie down on the swing. This only caused him to roll, almost lifeless off the swing and onto the porch.

  Never once did he respond to the fall.

  About an hour after that, I notice blisters forming on his mouth. His lips were dry and swollen and the fever blisters only made them look worse. I wiped, or at least tried, to wipe him down every twenty minutes.

  What was happening with my husband?

  For as much as I loved Danny, I tried not to put too much stock in what he said. All except when he said, “Jessie’s fine.”

  “How do you know?” I asked.

  “Mom, I told you I had internet. I spoke with her online. She gave me the address of her friend’s house. She promised to stay there until we get there.”

  “When’s the last time you spoke to her?”

  “About two hours before I left to come here. We lost connection. Things or rather the sickness hadn’t started there yet.”

  “Danny? Where did you hear about this?” I asked.

  “On the news. The internet gave more details though. But you can’t believe it all.”

  He went on to tell us how across the world, shortly after the children came down with the illness, that people started disappearing. Entire villages in China were gone. Israel reported blocks and scores of people missing. This was news I hadn’t heard.

  The night we had the three tornados in Philadelphia, similar storms and tornados ripped across the plains of the Midwest. Earthquakes shook the coastal cities. Wave warnings were issued and the temperature began to rise. That little tidbit I didn’t need the news to tell me.

  In the twenty-four hours that I was without power or communication, the world pretty much threw science and virology out the window and prayer took on new meaning. Prayer was the new penicillin.

  It wasn’t happening. I was in a suspension of disbelief.

  Then again I hadn’t left my little suburb; I would, and soon enough I would be hit with some sort of reality. Until then I worried for my husband.

  What was this sickness? What did Danny know?

  Only what he had heard and some of what he had seen.

  “It happens or kicks in once you fall asleep,” he told me and Bill. “Not everyone. But most. A lot of people just won’t sleep now. In China and over there, they’re saying that the fever rages a person so bad that when they are finally conscious they are nothing. Some say they get violent, I don’t know. At Carson, all the instructors got it. That’s when we decided to book.”

  “What happened with them?” I questioned. “What made you run? Were you afraid of getting it?”

  “No, it was freaky,” Danny said. “They just stared. They had these sores on their faces, they moved, but they watched you and stared. No reaction. No talking. Like they were thinking about what to do with you.”

  Breaking the moment of silence, Bill shivered with an ‘uh’, as he wiped his hands against his own arms. “That’s scary.”

  “Tell me about it,” Danny said.

  “Every instructor?” he asked.

  “Every one.”

  “All the staff?” Another question from Bill.

  “Every one.”

  “But the kids. Not the kids, right,” Bill said.

  “The ones older than fourteen. The ones that hadn’t gone to sleep yet. And only a couple. One kid had it in the car on the way here.”

  I shook my head. “That can’t be right. Every single person on your campus with the exception of a few kids who didn’t sleep.”

  “Mom, why don’t you believe me?”

  “It’s just sounds farfetched, that’s all.”

  “Oh, yeah.” Danny raised an eyebrow. “When’s the last time you saw anyone but Mr. Logan here on the street moving about?”

  That question from Danny was the one that caused Bill to stand up and walk off.

  Me, I didn’t have an answer, but I was pretty sure I had seen someone else, a few others moving about. I don’t know what was wrong with me. Perhaps it was my grief, the overwhelming abundance of sadness I was swimming in, I don’t know. But I had such a hard time believing the words of my son. It just seems so ridiculous. First, all the children then others disappear, disasters, and now some weird sickness?

  It was far beyond the realm of what I could believe. A sickness that kicks in once you sleep. It was out of a science fiction movie. Unreal. And to top it off they were saying it was God? God? All my life I believed in God, but at that moment, when unexplained things occurred, I doubted His existence at all.

  I had fetched more water to wipe down Daniel when Bill finally returned a few hours later. He looked tired and drawn and had broken a sweat. His locks of hair had turned into wet curls framing his face.

  I was with Daniel, saw his approach, but kept doing what I was doing.

  “Mera,” he called my name breathless.

  “I’m almost done,” I replied. “You need to wipe Jen down soon.”

  “Mera, I walked for eight blocks. At least.”

  “Look at his lips, Bill. Look at what the fever is doing.”

  “Mera, listen to me.” He laid his hand on mine. “Eight blocks.”

  “Do you think he’s not responding because of this fever?” I stayed focused on Daniel, even though I did hear what he had to say. Change of subject, avoidance of subject, to me that made it less real.

  “Eight blocks,” he said. “No one. Not a single person didn’t . . . Mera, every person I saw was curled up, lying there with a fever. I went into homes, looked at those sleeping on their lawns.”

  I didn’t reply. I just kept wiping down Bill. It broke my heart that with each swipe against his forehead, the wet cloth became dry.

  “Mera, did you hear me?”

  After a pause, I replied. “Yes.” I dipped the cloth in the water and wrung out the excess. Before placing it on Daniel, I looked at Bill. “Everyone?” I asked.

  “Everyone.”

  I wanted to lay that cloth on Daniel. I wanted to. But I clenched it, water dripping out onto my hand. My forehead went to my clutched fist and I began to sob.

  9. Awakening

  Though it wasn’t hot, we still had running water. It didn’t matter, I hadn’t showered in days and the cold water felt refreshing, especially with the heat. It was hard to believe that it had been two days since I woke up thinking all was right with the world.

  There was no steam to clear from the mirror and I was immediately assaulted by my own reflection. It wasn’t even fully light out, yet I could see enough. My God, I looked bad. My eyes were puffy from crying, my face drawn and looking thinner than it usually did. I had been crying nonstop; I
couldn’t even stop crying long enough to take the shower.

  I felt refreshed, somewhat. The good shower sobbing episode helped. I knew I needed sleep. But that wasn’t an option. Not yet. Plus I was still a little scared to fall asleep. Danny and I were in debate. He wanted to get on the road right away to head to Seattle. I told him there was no way we were leaving his father, to which he replied staying wasn’t going to be an option and I’d see.

  I grew angry at that military school, wondering what they had done to my son. When did they remove the compassionate gene in him? Yes, he was a troubled teen, but he had emotions. He cared, that’s why he fought. But suddenly my son went into some sort of strange survivalist mode. He removed things from our vehicle saying they weren’t needed and replaced them with other items. He collected gas cans that the neighbors had for their lawnmowers, combining the fuel and getting as much as he could.

  Roy Littlemen had an NRA member sticker on his car. Danny remembered that about him and went to Roy’s house. He returned with two 9mm handguns and a shotgun, along with ammunition.

  Danny seemed to not think twice about his looting.

  “What you are doing, it’s against the law.” I followed him as he stayed focused loading our vehicle.

  “Mom, please.”

  That’s when I spotted the guns. “What the hell are you doing, Danny? Those are Roy’s.”

  “Yes, they are.”

  “You can’t just take them.”

  “Roy doesn’t know. He’s on his couch with the sickness.” Danny tossed the items in the car. “We need them.”

  “For what?”

  “Protection.”

  “We’ll get arrested. We don’t have a license for those.”

  “Mom.”

  “Oh my God.” My hand went to my head. It literally spun. I felt dizzy, scared. I kept thinking, we’re going to get in the car, start to drive and Martial Law was probably already in effect. We’d be pulled over.

  That’s where my thoughts were.

  To me, all of it was temporary. Rationalizing the long term hadn’t even begun for me. I wasn’t there yet. Danny was. Not me.

  “Mom, really, arrested? You can’t possibly be that naïve.”

  “Don’t talk to me like that,” I scolded. “Don’t.”

  “Well, don’t be like this. Come on.”

  “Like what?” I asked. “Honest. Law-abiding.”

  “Scared.” Danny leaned into me. “You’re scared.”

  “I am,” I argued with passion. “And adding guns to this makes it worse. We don’t need them.”

  “We do. Ask Mr. Logan.” Danny swung around with a point across the street.

  Bill was in his yard; he had taken to holding Jen in his arms, rocking back and forth.

  “I don’t think Bill cares about anything right now except his sick wife,” I told him, “like I am with my husband, your father. Your father, Danny, remember?”

  Danny huffed out. “You don’t think I care?”

  “I’m beginning to wonder.”

  Danny turned his head with a look that said, ‘unbelievable’.

  “No,” I argued. “When did you get like this? When?”

  “Like what?”

  “Cold.”

  “Not cold, mom. Focused. Right now I’m focused.”

  “Then focus on your family!” I turned hard and headed back to the porch and to Daniel.

  “I am!”

  Danny’s words made me stop.

  He ran up to me. “Mom, I am.” He stepped before me. “I love my father with all my heart. My baby brother too. I love them.” He brought his fist to his chest. “But there is nothing we can do about them. Nothing. But Jessie, she’s another story, we can help her. She needs us and we have to go as soon as we can to get her. This is a dying world. Who knows how much time we have to find her.”

  I saw it in my son’s face and heard it in his words he delivered with marked maturity. But he was wrong and to me stuck in some mode that the school had instilled in him. There was no logical explanation for what was going on, but surely he was exaggerating.

  Unfortunately, I was in complete denial, a denial that lessened some when I took another step to the porch and noticed the grass beneath my feet. The night before that same grass was cool and damp; now it was dry and dying.

  I raised my eyes and looked around for the first time that morning. The leaves on the trees were turning brown, the flowers in our flower bed were wilted and dead. Everything on our street that once exuded life was quickly losing that life.

  At that moment I realized there was more truth to my son’s label of a ‘dying world’ than I cared or wanted to admit.

  But all that had to be put behind me. I had to worry about Daniel. Just as I lifted my foot to the front porch my attention was drawn to Bill’s voice.

  The street was quiet, everything echoed and even though he didn’t shout, his voice was loud and clear as he stuttered out, ‘Oh, shit. Oh my God.’

  I turned completely around. Bill was scooting back from Jen. Using hands and feet, not standing he moved back quickly. Had she died?

  Danny called out to him and as Bill looked Danny’s way, Jen, head still turned toward Bill sat straight up. Almost as if she had some sort of ejection lever, her head moved smoothly, almost mechanically to look our way, then back to Bill.

  Bill looked at his wife, let out a short shriek, then glanced our way and shrieked again as he scurried to his feet.

  It the midst of my watching, I felt it against my back, the slightest bump as if someone had moved directly against me.

  Slowly, I turned around and the shock of it stumbled me back a few steps. Daniel was standing on the porch, his eyes glossy and encircled by dark rings, his face pale. With his head tilted slightly to the right he just stared at me; without blinking, he stared.

  “Daniel.” I heaved out a breath of relief. “How are you?”

  No response.

  “You were so sick last night . . .”

  Daniel took the first of the two steps down from the porch.

  “Daniel? Danny’s home. He came back last night. I tried to wake you.”

  Another step and he was on the lawn with me. I didn’t know how to react; he wasn’t saying anything, just staring and moving slowly to me.

  I was intimidated, scared, anyone would be. But this was my husband. What was I to fear about him?

  “Mom.” Danny’s call of my name and grasp to my arm jolted me back from Daniel. “Let’s go. Get in the car.”

  “Danny, he’s just sick. That’s all.”

  “Mera,” Bill approached out of breath. “I have a bad feeling.”

  Danny added. “Me, too.”

  My mouth dropped open in shock. I was ready to blast them, ready to ask what was wrong with them, scold them, because our family needed help. As I turned around, words just about to emerge from my mouth, I saw.

  Not just Jen, but other neighbors were walking from the grass, all moving slowly, staring out, heads tilted and walking in the same direction, to us. There had to be thirty and more came from down the street. As if the three of us were some sort of calling beacon. “Oh, my God,” I whispered out.

  “Yeah,” Danny said with sarcasm. “Let’s go.” He tugged my arm.

  “I can’t leave your father.”

  “Start the car, Danny.” Bill ordered. “I’ll grab her.”

  “What?” I blasted. “You’re going to leave Jen. I can’t . . .”

  “Mera.” Bill called my name hard as if to snap me to reality. He took hold of my shoulders. “Look around. This isn’t right. We have to go. We have to go now.”

  I shifted my eyes and looked. It was surreal, like a nightmare. They just edged their way toward us. No noise. No sounds. Just closing in. I felt the rush, the urgency, as if we were on the brink of something.

  “Mera.” Bill called my name again.

  “Okay.” I pulled away from him. “Okay. I’ll go. Just let me say goodbye.” Instinctively,
I knew it wouldn’t do any good. Daniel mentally wasn’t there, he wasn’t right. Wiping my hand over my face, I faced my husband and looked up. “Daniel, I am sorry. I have to go get Jessie. I love you.” I tiptoed and leaned forward to kiss him but never made it.

  Before I could comprehend, Daniel’s hand snapped out and clutched my throat. His grip was hard, strong and strangling. Immediately, I felt the pain to my neck, my larynx felt as if it were crushing.

  “Mom!” Danny cried out.

  I heard Danny, couldn’t call out for help. I couldn’t even get air. I dug my nails into my husband’s hand and tried to verbally plead, but couldn’t. Fighting and struggling made it worse, and trying to make eye contact with Daniel was useless; his eyes looked right through me like I was a stranger. My God, he was killing me. Then Daniel exuded strength I never knew he had when he lifted me in the chokehold single-handedly from the ground.

  Danny’s voice, Bill’s voice, their shouts faded and were drowned out by the sound of rushing blood to my ears. I kicked, struggled to get any breath. I could see through my increasingly blurred vision how Danny and Bill diligently tried to pull Daniel from me.

  It was all in vain.

  I was fading. I knew it.

  The heartbeat in my ears replaced the rushing blood. Thump-thump . . . thump . . . thump.

  The beats slowed down.

  There was no air.

  My blurred vision grew darker and I no longer had control of my eyes, they rolled behind my head and my arms and legs grew numb and weak.

  My body shook, but that was all I felt. A peaceful feeling took over. My life literally flashed before my eyes.

  I heard Jeremy’s voice, his laughter, Jessie’s voice, her smile. I saw a flash of a vision of Danny in his school uniform.

  And then I saw Daniel the day we were married. So young, so handsome, he looked down to me. “I love you, Chirp.”

  At that split second in time, I knew I was dying.

  Then the sound of a single gunshot brought me a gasping rush of air and it all went black.

  10. Coffee and Reality