“Yeah.” Jennie pushed her tray down and accepted a bowl of chili from the cafeteria worker.
“Jennie?” The woman said her name with a finger on her chin like she was trying to remember something. “Are you the same girl we watched walk through the aliens that day when they attacked, like a week ago?”
Jennie swallowed hard. She didn’t realize she was being watched. “Yeah, I guess.”
“That was awesome. How did you do that?”
“Jennie! Hurry up! You’re too slow.” Mickey called to her from across the room. She was thankful that she didn’t need to explain something unexplainable to someone who wasn’t likely to understand. She smiled her apologies, picked up her tray, and headed for the table.
She sat on the bench right next to her little brother and smiled when he took an extra brownie from his tray and put it on hers. “I took two before they ran out, so you could have one.”
“Thanks.”
“Do y’all mind if we sit with you?” Sarah stood in front of Brad who held both trays. He had an apologetic look and shrugged.
“Of course we don’t mind,” Mrs. Crawford answered.
The couple sat across from Jennie and her brother with Sarah directly across from her. “So Brad tells me that you all arrived here together. It’s great that you’re still with each other. How many were in your party?”
Mrs. Crawford answered, while Jennie chewed the cornbread she’d just stuck in her mouth. “There were three children, four women including myself, and five men.”
“That’s quite a load. How did you all get here at once?”
“A bus!” Mickey shouted. “And we picked up Mr. Phillip on the way here!”
“Wow. That’s a story Brad has neglected to tell.” She poked him in the ribs, eyeing him coldly, and he nearly coughed up his chili.
"Sorry, honey."
Jennie had to stop herself from shaking her head. This really didn’t seem much like him to her. But what did she really know about him? He’d never been so quiet, and he was clearly close to this woman, even though he didn’t seem to want to be. He reached for his empty glass.
“I forgot to get a drink.” He rose to his feet.
“Me, too!” Mickey called out and jumped up, although he had a glass of milk in front of him.
“You have milk, Silly.” Jennie chuckled.
“But I wanted chocolate milk.”
“Me, too, Bucko, let’s go get some.” Brad turned and took Mickey's hand.
“Brad’s so strange. He opens right up about some things, like Clarissa his ex-girlfriend, but clams up about things like all of you.”
“He talked about his ex-girlfriend? The one Hugh stole from him?”
She giggled and pointed her spoon at Jennie. “Hugh didn’t steal her. Brad took her from him. Where’d you get that idea? She was the senator’s daughter, too good to be with a school teacher who didn’t have any ambition. Before she turned zombie on Brad, she was going to invest in helping him start a garage of his own. If things ever return to normal, I plan on stepping in and being his partner.”
Jennie had stopped with her spoon halfway to her mouth while Sarah spoke. This was quite the opposite of the story Brad had told her. But why would he have lied to her, a complete stranger? She finished the spoon’s progression to her mouth, and her face flushed with embarrassment. What had she said to Hugh that night before they left? Didn’t she scold him for stealing Brad’s girlfriend? She felt like such a complete fool.
Brad returned with Mickey and their chocolate milks. The smile he’d had while joking with her little brother faded a bit when he sat down next to Sarah. He didn’t like her. Every part of his body language said so.
Jennie shook her head and looked down at her food when she came to a realization. Brad was staying with Sarah because of her money—although what good money would do now was debatable. Maybe she had other resources?
Jennie shook her head. That was the kind of person Brad was—the kind of man who would lie to a complete stranger, so she would think badly of his brother, and stay with a woman he couldn’t stand for, for...money. She looked back up at him while he ate his chili. Suddenly, she could understand why he’d had a black eye when she’d first met him. Part of her wanted to make it black again.
She looked back down at her chili and continued eating. There was no way that she could eat fast enough and get out of the company of the supposed love birds.
“I recognize you…you work at the quarantine facility, right? Do you know anything about my husband, Billy Crawford?” Mrs. Crawford pushed aside her tray and clasped her hands together on the table in a pleading motion.
“Uh…” Sarah suddenly looked very uncomfortable. “I only work with newly arrived refugees, the ones on the first floor. I don’t know anything about the fourth-floor experiments.”
“Experiments?” Mrs. Crawford’s voice cracked on the word. It didn’t sound promising to Jennie either.
“Uh…sorry. That’s what they call them. I honestly don’t know anything about what they are doing or the status of the patients up there.” Sarah looked uncomfortable and finished a few quick bites of her chili.
The air between them had turned cold, and Brad smiled at Sarah’s discomfort. He chewed with his mouth open in a wide grin. Jennie had to look away before she vomited. Mickey chattered to anyone who would listen about his great tasting brownie, but it did nothing to warm up the chill. After another minute passed in relative silence between the adults, Sarah said, “Brad, I forgot that I need to get something from my apartment before I head to the lab. We’d better get going.”
Brad furrowed his brow in disappointment and shook his head while he sipped his chocolate milk. She stood quickly and grabbed him by the elbow to encourage him to his feet.
“It was nice meeting you all. Hope to do this again sometime.” Her plastered smile said the opposite of her words, and she turned on her heel without looking back. Her demeanor showed her confidence that Brad would not hesitate to follow.
He shrugged and picked up their trays. “Have a nice night, y’all,” he said and started after her.
It wasn’t until he was gone that she realized he hadn’t said a word about Hugh. He didn’t seem to care about the status of his own brother. Her opinion of Brad Harris had changed considerably since she’d entered the mess hall. She took a bite of her brownie and watched him follow after Sarah like a whipped puppy.
At least after the love birds left, she was able to relax and enjoy the brownie in her little brother’s company. Mrs. Crawford seemed pensive but plastered on a smile for Mickey’s sake. She’d gotten to be stronger since being on her own without her husband. Jennie and her brother had been doing everything they could to help her on that journey.
The crowd in the mess hall had thinned when they left. Jennie held her brother’s mitten in her gloved hand. Dusk had fallen and so had the temperatures. A chill wind picked up, sending a shiver down Jennie’s spine. Lights along the street blinked on automatically with the darkening evening. The sky was barren of stars or clouds and seemed almost black in the washout of the military base’s lights. Across the street, two men stood under the porch light of the chapel.
“Billy?” Mrs. Crawford jogged toward the men.
The men who stood in the dim light of the chapel porch made Jennie’s heart skip a beat. They were tall and could easily be Hugh and Pastor Billy. Her jaw tightened, making her hold her tongue. Could they have been released from quarantine already?
The two of them stepped off the porch as Mrs. Crawford approached. She had stopped a short distance away, which made Jennie feel she was right to be reserved. Mickey pulled his hand from hers and patted her on the hip. She hardly needed to look at him to know he wanted her to pick him up. Without a second thought, she lifted him.
A deep voice began, “Mrs. Crawford, we regret to inform you—”
“NO!” She screamed and fell to her knees on the concrete sidewalk, covering her ears. Sobs racked h
er body, and she shook her head, refusing to listen.
Mickey clung tighter, as they stepped up to the three in front of the chapel. The two men were in plain clothes, but they stood rod straight and their crew cuts glistened in the light overhead. The speaker’s face was twisted with empathy for the woman who sobbed at his feet. He reached down to help her up, but she hung limp in his hands. “Mrs. Crawford, I’m so sorry. His heart couldn’t hold up under the stress.”
Bloody knees peeked out from beneath the hem of Mrs. Crawford's flowered skirt. Her face contorted into a silent scream, and sobs escaped her in hiccups. She fell into the arms of the man who’d helped her up. He was tall and probably in his mid-thirties, his hair cut so short it stood in spikes on his head. Without a word, he lifted her into his arms and started carrying her away. The thinner black man who’d been standing with him shrugged and asked, “Hey Johnson, where are you going?”
He stopped long enough to call back at his partner but met eyes with Jennie. “I’m taking her to the hospital. They can watch her and take care of her better there. She’s in shock.”
Jennie nodded, and the partner skipped forward to catch up with them. Mickey still clung to her, and when she pulled him away to look at him, she saw he’d been crying again. All of it broke her heart. They were both orphans, and he was so young. He’d done more crying in the past month than she’d ever want him to. His voice shook. “Is Miss Crawford gonna be okay?”
Would her brother always have a heart of gold? She nodded and said, “They’ll take care of her at the hospital. Don’t worry.”
He fell back on her shoulder, and she started up the steps of the chapel. If Hugh had died, too, would they keep their promise and tell her?
“JENNIE, WAKE UP. I’M HUNGRY.” Mickey shook her shoulder, forcing her to crack her eyelids open and let in the light of day.
The cot she laid on gave her a stiff back, and her shoulder ached from the lack of comfortable sleep. It used to be that she needed the room to be completely dark in order to sleep into the late morning, but the brightly lit chapel didn’t have the thick curtains of her bedroom. She had adapted amazingly. It had been late when they finally left Mrs. Crawford in the hospital, assured that the pastor’s wife remained in a sedated rest.
Jennie had spent the rest of the night tossing, turning, and crying for both the Crawfords and her parents. She did her best not to even think about Hugh.
Even though her eyes were open, Mickey still shook her shoulder.
“I’m up. I’m up!”
He giggled and backed up a step while she threw her legs over the edge of the cot.
“What time is it, anyway?”
“The clock says nine, five, five.”
“Ugh. We’re not going to make it in time for eggs. Are you okay with cereal again?”
“Yes, they have Cocoa Poofs. I love them!”
Jennie nodded and pulled herself up, ignoring the aches and pains. She headed for the bathroom. “Give me a minute, and we’ll head for the mess hall.”
When they finally reached the cafeteria, Mickey seemed ready to explode with energy. The mess was sparsely populated with the gentle hum of a few dozen people’s conversations. Jennie saw no one that she knew personally but nodded to several people who greeted her. The faces were familiar since she’d met just about every refugee on base due to the dispensary at the chapel.
Jennie yawned and collected two bowls of cereal. Mickey had found another boy about his age and wanted to sit at the same table with him. “Do you mind if we join you?” Jennie asked the woman who was likely the boy’s mother.
“No problem,” she said with a smile, as the boys sat together chattering away. The woman and child were wide-eyed and grossly underweight. She wore a shirt just this side of being a rag. Jennie had never seen them at the chapel’s dispensary.
“Jennie.” She offered her hand.
“Lenora.” The woman shook her hand limply.
“How long have you been on base?” Jennie asked.
“We just got here last night.”
Jennie nodded and started into her usual spiel about the dispensary and other options the woman had on base to help make her life as easy as possible.
As the children played the hand slapping game Mickey had learned on the bus ride to the base, they stayed and talked for a bit in shallow, polite conversation. Even though Lenora was not more than five years older than Jennie, they didn’t seem to have much in common. It wasn’t as though they would be talking about TV shows or music when the world was falling apart around their shoulders. And at the same time, no one wanted to talk about the events of the past few weeks.
After a half hour, the mess hall had been slowly emptying, and Jennie invited Lenora to come back to the chapel with her to find some clothing for her and Bobby, her son. The cloudless sky let the half-lit sun shine in full effect on the midday, and it made Jennie feel a little normal for a moment. Mickey and Bobby had become fast friends and were even holding hands as they ran ahead of them. Lenora called to them, “Don’t forget to look both ways before crossing the street!”
“We won’t!” Mickey answered. They stopped suddenly and turned their heads four times before venturing to cross.
Jennie’s eyes were focused on the boys, and their antics made her laugh. She smiled when she saw Lenora’s lost look disappear, replaced by a comfortable friendship. When Mickey stopped and turned suddenly to his sister with a look of horror on his face, her heart sank.
“Jennie!” he yelled and ran back to her, arms up in a demand to be lifted into her arms.
“What’s wrong?”
He was already crying and he pointed back behind him to the chapel. Two men stood on the porch step. The sight of them stung her eyes instantly with tears. They were there to inform her about Hugh. Her heart was replaced by a painful hollow space in her chest. Mechanically, she placed one foot in front of the other and prepared to face the fate they would hand her.
In a panic, Bobby ran over to his mother and demanded to be held, too. “What’s wrong, Mommy?”
Lenora shushed him and whispered, “I don’t know.”
Through Jennie’s blurred vision, the shadowy forms of the two men turned to her. They came down the steps to approach them. Sobs already shook her body, and she buried her face against Mickey. Her brother had begun to wail.
“Jennie.” She heard his voice, but it didn’t register. Was Brad calling her? She looked around for him and rubbed her eyes. “Jennie, it’s okay.”
The voice came from the direction of the two men, and when her vision was clear, she looked up into Hugh’s brown eyes. His face was a bit red, and he had scratches on his forehead. Half of his hair had been pulled out, and the rest was shaved to a stubble. “Hugh?”
He smiled and nodded.
Mickey turned around in her arms, tears still stuck to his eyelashes. “Mr. Hugh!” he called and wiggled in Jennie’s arms.
She let him down, still staring, and not quite comprehending. Her brother grabbed Hugh’s leg in a bear hug. Jennie choked up again, but this time it was joy that choked her.
“Jennie’s been so worried about you. She says your name in her sleep.”
Jennie felt the blood well in her cheeks.
Hugh smiled at her and said to Mickey, “Really? Because they said that I called her name in mine.”
Jennie swallowed the sob in her throat and ran over. She crashed into him with no remorse and hugged him hard, never wanting to let go.
THE PAIN THAT FILLED HUGH’S every joint with Jennie’s crushing embrace was nothing compared to the way his heart fluttered. She took his breath away in more ways than one. A brisk breeze blew through the close-cropped crew cut that remained of his patchwork hair. He might as well be bald. The comfort of her embrace chased away the lingering effects of the alien attack.
Mickey squeezed against his thigh, an arm around Hugh, and the other around his sister.
Hugh closed his eyes, drew a slow breath, and savor
ed her scent. This unexpected pleasure lasted for several breaths.
The soldier next to him cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, sir, but the Colonel is waiting.”
Jennie pulled away and swiped her wet cheeks. Red rimmed her wide eyes, and they darted between the soldier and Hugh. “What’s going on?”
The place on Hugh’s shirt where she’d rested her head was still wet with tears. He smiled at her reassuringly. “It’s not a big deal. Colonel Wesley just wants a full report of the attack and my recovery. It shouldn’t take very long.”
She nodded but wrung her hands. It was like she didn’t know what to do with them. “Will you come back here?”
His grin made his cheeks ache. “I’ll come straight back here.”
She blushed and gave him a shy smile. Mickey still clung to Hugh’s leg. She bent at the waist and gently pulled her brother to her. “We’ll wait for Mr. Hugh, right Mickey?”
The little boy nodded and pulled away, leaving a patch of wetness on Hugh’s pants’ leg as well. “Okay.”
“Great. I’ll try to be back before dinner,” Hugh reassured them and followed the soldier’s lead. The pull to look back at them standing on the church step was unbearable, but he resisted until they were about to turn a corner. When he glanced back, they hadn’t moved.
A magnolia tree stood sentry to an old brownstone complex that looked more like an old house than an office building. Its wax-covered leaves still clung to the branches, but half had begun to brown. The soldier led Hugh to the fourth floor office and escorted him in at the secretary’s nod.
The colonel stood at the window and didn’t turn until the door clicked shut at the soldier’s exit. “Mr. Harris. It’s good we have more evidence to your theory, but you know most scientists do not experiment on themselves.”
Hugh took a seat in a leather chair before the colonel’s desk. “I admit it was not my intention, sir.”
Colonel Wesley smiled and took a seat behind his great oak desk. “I’m sure it wasn’t.” The man’s face grew grave. “Five days ago, a band of Shisa breached our defenses and caused an attack that affected twenty soldiers and four civilians, yourself included. Of those infected, you and six others have recovered. Three are still in isolation; the remainder didn’t make it.”
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