Something inside told me there was still a sense of gratefulness to us for bringing Phoenix. Or maybe it was Randy’s scientist friend on the inside.
In any event, I made it a point to show my human side, not the one that threatened to snap the neck of a small baby. I apologized to the President for the loss of his children and his wife, who had turned into a Sleeper. His head lowered, he thanked me. After a brief, quiet moment he asked, “What do you know about the Sleeper virus?”
“Not much,” I admitted. “I know that you can reverse some of the effects if you catch it right away.”
“They remain carriers and able to infect others,” the President said. “This baby is vital. You know that. Not only, as I am told, to the future, but for now. He holds the key to the cure, or at least an inoculation. He has to. There are so many that are infected, that are carriers....”
“You mean like the ones we reversed?”
“No. They fell victim to the original strain, fell asleep, raged with fever, but they recovered. This is how it spread so fast. It’s airborne and highly contagious. These folks are contagious. If you aren’t immune, you’ll get sick. We had to force many people out of this shelter because of it, because there are many here that are not immune. If you did not sleep that first night, and you weren’t immune, the virus didn’t get a chance to take hold. You weren’t out of the woods unless you were isolated, like us.”
Immediately my mind went to Danny. I didn’t look at him, but I thought about that bite, the one he received from the Sleeper. How Danny got sick and recovered. How the President was toast if Danny was indeed a carrier.
“For those reasons, and because you found this child and brought him to us, I will listen to you. Out of gratefulness.”
“Okay, then let me play it straight,” I said. “This boy here, Danny, his mom Mera is the one that fought for this child. Her daughter Jessie was a Sleeper that I reversed. Your people wouldn’t take her because she is a carrier. Mera stayed with her daughter, trapped on a roof, surrounded by Sleepers. Mera, Jessie, and a man named Beck will die when your bombs go off. They don’t deserve that. I’m not asking for you to bring them here. I’m asking you to hold the bombs for one day. Spare the fuel, fly there, lift them to a safe location, and give them a fighting chance.”
The President stared at me for a moment, and then glanced at his scientist buddies.
One scientist shook his head. “You don’t need to do that. A day can be costly. We need to eliminate the Sleepers that are outside. You know that. We have to seal this place completely.”
Danny stepped toward the President and spoke with a pleading tone. “It’s my mom. Please. I’ve already lost my father, my brother…please don’t let me lose my mom.”
“Please,” I said. “Give them a fighting chance.” Then I asked the question I believe was the deciding factor. “Didn’t they give you a fighting chance?”
4. ALEX SANS
I would be lying if I said I didn’t hold my breath when they took Danny’s blood. Turns out he was immune. Suffice to say I was relieved, but not as much as I was over the fact that they delayed the bombing of Denver and its suburbs. They didn’t have enough bombs to take out every major city, but they were planning to eliminate anything close to or on the same side of the country as the ARC.
Then the doors to the ARC would be sealed for six months. No one would go in or out.
I promised Mera I would watch Danny. This weighed heavily on my mind. Here was the problem: they had agreed to delay the bombings, they would send out a flight to airlift Mera, Jessie, and Beck to a safe location; in return, they had to have access to Phoenix.
I wanted to go to the safe location with them, as did Danny. Surprisingly, Randy did, as well. However, the deal was they had to keep Phoenix to use as a cure. Mera would have my head if we left Phoenix in their care without one of us there.
Personally, I didn’t want to leave Phoenix behind. In fact, I wanted Danny safe within that ARC, as well. So, after hashing out some things as if it were a freaking peace treaty, we made a decision.
The next day when the chopper flew out to get them, I would go and take Phoenix with me. That would be my assurance that they weren’t pulling anything funny. Danny wanted to go, too. And this time, his goodbye to his mother wouldn’t be final.
We’d airlift them, bring them to safety. Then Danny, Phoenix, and I would return to the ARC. They could have Phoenix for those six months, but I would be there, along with Danny and Randy as the baby’s caretakers.
Six months. That was all Beck, Mera and Jessie had to survive without us. It wasn’t long, really. After all, we were in that church with Pastor Mike for two months. And I was confident in Beck.
When the doors to the ARC opened, we would be able to go, along with everyone else. It wasn’t a prison; we would be free.
Those officials in the ARC believed that six months would be ample time for the Sleepers to die off.
We’d meet up with Beck, Mera and Jessie.
That was the plan.
* * *
They gave us a meal. It wasn’t much, but they made a big deal out of it, like it was some gourmet supper or something. However, I liked my Spam, and Pastor Mike was one of the oddballs like me who had plenty of it, so I was used to eating Spam regularly. After all that salt, everything tasted bland.
Our small group was kept away from everyone else for some reason, and no, I didn’t allow them to take Phoenix from us until we returned to the ARC.
Danny fell asleep, but Randy was just as nervous as me. I kept thinking about Mera and Beck on that roof, how they looked when we left them, how they had to be feeling.
They were faced with their own demise, waiting on their deaths. I kept looking at my watch, counting down the minutes, seconds to when the bomb was supposed to go off. I imagined them staring at the sky, watching and waiting.
I prayed they felt a sense of relief and knew something was up when the sky didn’t explode.
Would I? If I had stayed with Mera, not Beck, would I assume they’d cancelled the bombs?
I didn’t know. Of course, knowing me, I would think it was a mental tease or something, that, at any second, it would happen.
I’d find out soon enough when we flew out to get them off the roof. For the night, though, I was out of my head. I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t relax. I wished the baby had colic or something to use as my excuse to walk the floor with him. Even Phoenix seemed to be annoyed because I couldn’t settle down.
So I decided to hit the Doctrines, those Bible-wannabe passages written by a man in our group, Bill, who had died before he could fulfill his destiny of writing the Doctrines in the future. I wondered who would take over that role. Man, I hoped it wasn’t me.
Randy was more than happy to give me the Doctrines, I figured to shut me up. Like Mera and everyone else, I had only read until our arrival at the ARC. To be honest, I really didn’t give a shit what happened after that. We’d already changed so much. The baby was the only one from the original Doctrines that lived. Personally, I thought they got a little boring when I bit the dust.
The Doctrines stated that I was shot in the head. I doubted that. I think Bill went fictional for a while. Then again, according to Randy they had gone though several translations, just like the Holy Bible.
I settled into my bunk above Danny and let the baby cuddle with Randy. I asked Randy to make sure he didn’t roll over on the baby and suffocate him. He didn’t think I was funny. I didn’t mean to be. Randy was a stocky guy, kind of hefty.
It wasn’t my intention to keep him from sleeping, at least not consciously. But between my laughing comments while reading the Doctrines and intermittently asking Randy if Phoenix was still breathing, the typically mild-mannered man huffed at me.
I think it was my last burst of laughter that threw him over the edge.
“You know, Alex,” Randy stated with irritation, “reading isn’t one of those activities that usually warrants commentary.”
“Really? You met Bill– you seriously think he didn’t exaggerate? He was creative.”
“I don’t think it was Bill,” Randy said. “I believe it was the translators and those who made interpretations of it. We highly regard and respect the word of the Doctrines, Alex. It’s necessary to our culture. There are valuable lessons in there. Very valuable. Man begins again.”
“I honestly don’t mean to laugh,” I said. “Okay, I do. This has me…” I read the latest passage aloud, “And the Technological Man and the Mother found love while in the New Jerusalem. There they raised their new child together ….”
I realized Danny wasn’t asleep when he barked out “What?” He sat up so fast his head hit the bottom of my bunk.
“Why do you two find it so hard to believe that Mera and Bill found love?” Randy asked.
“Because,” I replied, “for one, it’s Bill. Really.” I rolled my eyes. “And two, Mera can’t have any more kids.”
“Yeah,” Danny added. “Mom can’t have any more kids. Wait. How did you know that, Alex?”
“Um, we were in that church for two months, guy,” I told him. “One night your mom asked me why I didn’t ever have kids. I told her I never had the chance. And when I asked her why she didn’t have any more, she told me she had her tubes tied after Jeremy was born. Hence, why this is fiction and Bill got creative.”
“Her sterilization process means nothing,” Randy stated. “Keep reading.”
“And you read this whole thing?” I asked.
“Yes, hundreds of times. I’m waiting for you to get to the ‘Oh shit’ moment.”
It took Danny aback as much as me because he commented on it before I could even open my mouth. “Randy, did you just swear?” Danny asked.
“I did.” Randy held Phoenix close to him. “And I believe he’s close.”
“To an ‘Oh shit’ moment?” I asked.
“Yes.”
I glanced down to the small computer thingy then noticed that Randy was staring at me. “Are you gonna sit there and watch me read?”
“Yes, while making sure I don’t suffocate Phoenix. You’re close. Read.”
“Fine.” I settled back again, feeling self-conscious. I promised myself that I wouldn’t laugh while I was reading and, even if it surprised me, not to show it. I had every intention that I wouldn’t give Randy the satisfaction of hearing me have an actual ‘Oh shit’ moment. Besides, there wasn’t anything that could cause me to do that.
Was there?
I read … three, four scrolls of the screen later …
Bam. The ceiling wasn’t high enough, and I repeated Danny’s action only I sat up and whacked my head on the suspended ceiling tiles.
Randy grinned. “There it is.”
Danny jumped from the bunk and stood. “Oh shit?”
I swung my legs over the edge, rubbing my head with the computer in my hand. I looked at a smiling Randy and at Danny.
“Oh shit.”
* * *
We reveled in the ‘Oh, shit’ moment for quite some time. It actually wasn’t clear at first, merely a guess on my part and a good one, at that. I wanted to read more, but obviously, more time had passed than I thought, because just as Randy began to explain things, they came for us.
The chopper was getting ready to go.
I swaddled Phoenix in a blanket, and I kept him zippered in my oversize coat, close to my chest. They provided me with earplugs for him, and were also generous enough to pack a small survival duffle bag for Beck, Mera and Jessie. Some water, some MREs, antibiotics, things like that. Another thing I was grateful for.
Danny and I were both nervous but excited. Randy stayed behind, not because he wanted to but because they made him. He was their assurance that I wouldn’t take a jump off the chopper and keep running.
I liked Randy, but did they think I’d return for him? Okay, that was wrong. I would find a way to go back for hm. If they kept Danny, that would be another story. But Danny had to go; he needed to see his mother once more. Six months would be a long time for him.
I would return to the ARC, not because of Randy, but because I made a deal. I gave them my word. I would go back. In a new world, just beginning over, I don’t want to go down as the person who broke their word and caused the loss of a lot of lives, lives Phoenix could easily save.
The trip to the city was short. It seemed to take longer, but I think that was because we were anxious. It was the same pilot as the night before, and he made the comment before I even noticed.
“Sleepers moved.”
Both Danny and I peered out the window. They swarmed as they did the night before, but seemed to be further away from the highway and the medical center.
“There’s where we got you guys,” the pilot said, pointing. “Give me a second to swing around and …” he paused. “Something’s not right.”
My heart sunk to my stomach. Surely, he saw they were dead. I looked at Danny; his face was pale.
The pilot hovered, and then I saw what he’d seen. I knew Danny did, as well.
The roof was empty.
The stairwell door was open, and no one was on the roof. Not even a Sleeper.
Had the Sleepers broken through?
“Can you pull back to look at the street?” I asked.
The pilot did, tilting the bird. “Nothing down below. No movement. Just a few Sleepers.”
I was afraid to look at the sidewalk myself, fearful of seeing a splattered body or two. The pilot circled the roof again; there were no signs of blood. Nothing. Just an open door and an empty roof.
“Beck’s black bag and gun,” Danny said. “They aren’t there.”
I breathed out so heavily it formed condensation on the window. My hand cradled Phoenix. “Can you circle around?”
“Sir, the fuel—”
“Please?” I asked with sincerity. “You had enough gas to drop them somewhere, right?”
The pilot didn’t refuse. I felt the bird lift up and maneuver away.
He circled the city then branched out. We hovered over the streets looking for movement, checking all rooftops. Our van still sat on the highway ramp as we left it.
We even went out toward the roads, the woods.
We flew around and searched for over half an hour until the pilot called it quits and we headed back to the ARC.
We headed back with our mission unaccomplished. The bombs would be going off. We would be locked away for six months without any answers regarding their circumstances.
All we knew as we flew away was that Beck, Mera and Jessie were gone without a trace.
5. MERA STEVENS
My legs burned, my stomach twisted and my fingers ached. I felt physically beaten, worse than I had felt in a long time. My head was throbbing so badly I thought it was going to explode.
However, no matter how poorly I felt, I was alive.
We were alive.
I tried to rest some on the ride, but my head kept bouncing against the window or the seat; it didn’t matter where I laid it. Jessie slept with her head on my lap, her arms cradling my legs. She was peaceful, completely unaware.
I was probably in a state of shock. No … I know I was. How could I not be?
The world had become a place that I had resigned myself to leaving. I had said my goodbyes to almost everything before I ever faced my death. As I stood there on that roof, I never would have imagined that I would go through the five stages of grief in four short hours.
I had stayed behind with my daughter. The little girl I adored had grown into a beautiful young woman. I called her my best friend, my lifeline. When she was born she became the air that I breathed, and I could not abandon her. I would not abandon her.
And Beck, well, he didn’t want to abandon us. He was a quiet, complex man who was extremely levelheaded and smart. He was a career soldier who’d left his post for a new mission: the search for Jessie. He completed that mission with me, and I guess he thought that if it was going to
end, he was going to end it with us.
He stood there waiting for his death as well, and he did so with such bravery. It broke my heart to know he was going to die, that he had a full life ahead of him, and he chose to end it with us. It was a sacrifice that he didn’t have to make, and I would be forever in his debt.
I don’t know what I would have done without him there.
When that helicopter lifted my entire being sunk.
Stages of grief commenced.
Denial.
No, it wasn’t happening. We didn’t just search and find Jessie, cure Jessie, find a way to the ARC to have them refuse to take in my daughter. I fully expected they would see it as some sort of mistake; that some soldier on the radio would tell them to turn around. I expected that helicopter to come back.
It didn’t.
It was quiet, except for the eerie moans of the pursuing Sleepers.
Anger.
I got angry, for stupid reasons mostly. Why didn’t Beck go with them? Why wasn’t Alex doing something? He was on that chopper; why didn’t he fight for us? Why didn’t he argue with them to turn around? Then my mind strayed to the silliest of all reasons: Alex would be raising my son. I liked Alex, he was a good man, but he wasn’t Beck.
Beck was a father, he was reasonable. Alex would have my son inked up, let him grow his hair long. He’d have Danny dropping the ‘F’ bomb as if it were a normal adjective.
That anger issue was short-lived. It was based more on jealousy that I wouldn’t get to see my son grow up. I wouldn’t be there when he met his first love, had his first child.
I wouldn’t be there.
I heard my son’s voice in my head. He’d said to Bill early on, ‘There are no atheists in foxholes.’
That would be me.
The loss of life, watching my son Jeremy crumble in a horrendous death, left me bitter against a God who would allow such a travesty to happen.
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