The only thing that put a hole in my theory was when Fisherman Guy spotted us and flailed his arms frantically trying to reach us. He did that eerie growl and cry, which echoed in the hollow of the valley.
We both kept an eye out for more Sleepers.
The Sleeper fisherman had probably headed to the hills and, while out, transformed.
A few times he rocked his boat trying to get to us, but he didn’t attempt to paddle. I wondered how long he had been out there.
We kept watching him, but we also cast our lines. The lake was full of fish.
Within an hour, we caught several bass, strung them up, and prepared to head back to camp. I lifted my rifle again, scoped out Sleeper Fisherman. He looked at us, and I fired. The shot was dead on but the sound rang out so loudly birds flew from the trees, squawking and disrupting any peaceful feeling.
I radioed that we were fine and on our way back.
* * *
Sonny built a cooking hole that seriously impressed me. Little smoke escaped it, and it buried a lot of the aromas.
We ate our meal of fresh fish and canned vegetables and talked about the situation. I probably would say it was the best meal I had since before the Event.
Beck was obviously tired of debating the Sleepers. “We established it wasn’t a God-driven event. Therefore, not every place would feel it at once. That’s my opinion.”
“How do we know it’s not God’s event?” Danny asked. “Really, dude, seriously. Explain Pastor Mike.”
Beck inhaled deeply though his nostrils, ate a bite of his food and said, “He’s a Sleeper.”
That did not go over well. Everyone thought he was joking, though I saw validity in his reasoning.
“Plus, adding to what Beck just said,” I said, “they said at the ARC that not everyone walking around today is immune. The President is not; they sealed him in an airtight environment fast enough. Me, Danny and Randy are. We were tested.”
“And going by Beck’s theory,” Danny said “it’s probably in the air, and those out in rural areas like Sonny’s family are taking longer to get it.”
Mera gasped. “I may not be immune. I could become one, then.”
“I doubt that. You’re immune.” I reached out, grabbed her leg, and indicated the deep scratches. “So is the big guy. He didn’t break a fever with that bite.”
“Bite? What bite?” Mera asked. “When were you bit, Beck?”
I answered. “When he was trying to save Bill. Never knew he was bitten, never flinched. It was a little one.”
For some odd reason, Mera seemed to fade after being informed that Beck had been bitten, and she hadn’t known. I saw all over her face that it bothered her. I wanted to say right then and there that she’d been wrapped up in Jessie, and all of us were crushed by Bill’s death.
I almost said it, and then we heard the sound. It was a loud pop followed by a bang.
There wasn’t even one of us who didn’t jump up trying to find out where it was coming from.
“What was that?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where did it come from?”
“Over there.”
Voices meshed. Me? I ran to the edge of the hill to look out.
I stood there, Beck right next to me, and spotted the source of the sound.
A school bus with a blown out rear tire was on the side of the road.
“Holy shit,” I gasped.
“What are the odds it would stop right here where we are?” Beck asked.
Danny’s mocking voice entered into the equation. “Pretty good if you guys didn’t continuously rule out the God thing.”
Both Beck and I looked at him. “Son,” I said, “you need to stop listening to the padre so much. Grab a rifle. You’re heading down with us.”
* * *
I’d be lying if I said it didn’t cross my mind that a Sleeper was driving the bus. I had just seen one fishing. It would not have surprised me.
Beck, Danny, and I took the hillside straight down to the bus and arrived about the same time that Mera and the others did in the van.
That pissed me off. They should have stayed put. We didn’t know who or what was driving that bus.
No one emerged, and that raised my suspicions higher.
I signaled to Mera and the others to be quiet and motioned for them to stay back while Beck and I moved closer to the front of the bus.
It struck me as odd that all the school bus windows were covered by blankets or something, all but the front two windows.
I lifted my weapon and called out, “Hello! Anyone there? Are you hurt?”
No answer.
I fully expected that, at any given moment, a busload of Sleepers would pour out and charge us. I turned and motioned to Sonny to get in the van and get ready.
I called again, “We’re harmless. We’re a safe group with women and young people. Are you hurt?”
A voice emerged, a woman’s voice. “Need you to look into the side view mirror real good, so I can see your eyes.”
“I’m not a Sleeper.”
“I know that!” she shouted back. “Haven’t run into one that talks, yet. I judge a man by his eyes. Look in the mirror.”
“What?” I chuckled . “Hell, Beck, you look in that mirror, you look more reliable than me.”
Beck stepped forward. “Ma’am, I’m Major Beck of the United States Army, not that there’s a military left. I can assure you that you’re safe. We mean you no harm.”
“Are there any of those Sleepers around?”
“None that we see or hear. We’re armed, so you’re safe.”
“Hold on,” she said. After a moment, we heard the bus door open.
We didn’t see her at first. Then she emerged around the front of the bus, a woman in her fifties with short red hair. She held a rifle, but it wasn’t aimed. The moment I saw her, I could imagine that she worked on a cattle ranch. Her appearance, her blue jeans, and her earthy appearance gave me that feeling.
She shifted her eyes around, looked back at our people, then nodded. “None of those things is around?”
“No,” I answered.
“You a good shot? Fast?”
“Yes, ma’am. Big guy is, too.”
“Good. Good. Need to remove some weight from this bus, so we can change this tire.”
I couldn’t figure out what she had. She walked around the other side and hollered. “Come on. Come and get some fresh air. Cool down.”
Others? I thought. More people? I had turned to Beck, so he saw them first.
One frightened little girl peeked around the front end of the bus. She stepped into the road. She was maybe ten, but she wasn’t the only one.
There was a boy, then another and another.
Before we could take it all in, more than a dozen children stood on the road by that bus.
A dozen.
It doesn’t sound like a lot, but in a world where every child died and turned to dust, a dozen children weren’t just a bunch.
It was a miracle.
* * *
Of everyone in our group, I was the only one who didn’t experience, in one way or another, what happened to the children in the Event.
After seeing the kids, admittedly I was dumbfounded, shocked, and speechless.
Beck dropped his weapon.
Danny spun to Mera with a questioning look. Michael dropped to his knees. And Mera rushed forward.
She raced to the line of children, all of them looking as if they had seen better days. Her hand extended to the face of a little boy about eight, and then Mera dropped to her knees, Phoenix still in her arms, and sobbed.
She sobbed uncontrollably, her head resting on the pavement, her body curled in.
The maverick woman who drove the bus walked up to Mera, rested her hand on her head then kneeled to the ground next to her. A stranger comforting a stranger.
It was an emotional moment.
To believe that we lived in a world void of children,
void of all young life with the exception of Phoenix, then to see that indeed, somehow, some way, we were wrong.
So many questions raced through my mind. Where had this woman found these children?
I wanted to ask, however, we were all in shock. Finally, Beck snapped out of it, picked up his weapon and asked, “Do you have a spare tire, ma’am, or should we try to find one?”
“I have one, thank you,” she said. “And, please, call me Bonnie. It’s under the bus, strapped on. Everything you need to change the tire is on the bus. I thought ahead.”
“Bonnie,” I said, “we have a camp at a big campsite, about a mile from here. Sonny …” I pointed to him, “and Pastor Mike can take you guys up there while we fix this tire. I promise you, you and the children will be safe.”
“Oh, I feel that.” She smiled. “He has trusting eyes,” she said, indicating Beck.
I felt the need to apologize for the silence and for all of us acting strangely. “Please understand that we aren’t usually this slow or strange. It’s just the kids …”
Her head lowered. “Don’t think for one second I didn’t have the same reaction when I found them. Or rather,” she laid her hand on a little girl’s head, “they found me. I’d like to say we’ll pass on the camp, let you fix that tire and be on our way, but the truth is, I need help. We need help. This is far too much for us to handle.”
At that moment, Mera finally lifted from the ground. “We’ll help. We’ll help in any way we can.”
Bonnie smiled and placed her hand on Mera’s face. She reminded me a lot of my mother, feisty, beautiful, tough.
“I don’t suppose any of you has any medical knowledge?” she asked.
“Alex does,” Mera replied before I could speak up. She grabbed my hand and pulled me forward. “He’s incredible. He saved my daughter and my son; he’s our chief life saver.”
I think I blushed. It wasn’t all that, I just did what needed to be done. I liked helping people, which was why I had been an EMT.
Bonnie asked, “You have any medical supplies?”
“Some. Not much. Find me a clinic around here and I’ll get what I need,” I replied. “Is someone hurt? Ill?”
“I don’t know how you’d describe it. Really, I don’t.” Bonnie took a deep breath. “Follow me please.”
Convincing Mera to stay behind wasn’t hard at all. She immediately walked to the kids, touching them, giving them hugs. I could only imagine what was going through her mind.
Beck and I walked around the front of the bus, following Bonnie. As soon as we walked through the doors, I heard a little whimpering sound. I turned around and looked at Beck.
“A baby?” I said to him.
“It is.” Bonnie pointed.
Another woman was seated toward the back of the bus, her arm securing a basket next to her. A little boy sat in the seat in front of her. He couldn’t have been older than six.
“Look, Mommy, two men.”
“I know, Calvin, sit, please.”
Bonnie introduced her; her name was Jillian.
“Jillian and her son were hiding out when I found them. They were nowhere near the other kids, but were in the same town where I was looking for supplies. I spotted a Sleeper. She was dead, bleeding from between her legs. I noticed the partial placenta.”
Jillian picked up the story. “I heard the Sleeper cry out, but I was scared and stayed with Calvin. Then I heard the bus and ran for her.”
“I made Jill stay with the kids while I followed the blood. I had a weird feeling, you know,” Bonnie said.
Immediately, my mind flashed back to the Sleeper that had given birth to Phoenix. Was it possible, another Phoenix baby?
Bonnie continued. “And that’s when I found the baby lying on the ground. I clamped the cord as best as I could. Lord knows how many of these Sleepers gave birth. I was under the impression that every birth was stillbirth.”
“Me, too,” I said.
Beck asked. “How long ago was this, Ma’am?”
“Two days ago. I can’t believe he’s still alive.”
“So is he sick? Injured?” Beck questioned.
She answered just as my hand reached for the child who was in the basket. “No,” she said. “He’s an abomination.”
I lowered the blanket exposing the tiny infant. Beck heaved out a breath; I felt it against my neck. I looked back at him then to the boy. I had heard Mera, Beck and Michael talk about it, but I hadn’t witnessed it with my own eyes. Something they all called the Ivory Statue stillbirths.
Only this child wasn’t stillborn. He was alive, but how, I didn’t know.
From what I saw, his body was normal. He had a small mouth that moved and a tiny hole that could have been part of a nostril, and something that could have been an ear canal. Oh my God, it was so hard to tell. I didn’t know. But the rest of his face was smooth, formless, as they described … an ivory statute.
No eyes, no ears, merely smooth.
I didn’t even know where to start.
20. MERA STEVENS
Alex went with Sonny to the nearest medical center, which was thirty-two miles away. Bonnie told us that she had passed the place, and it wasn’t Sleeper-infested, which made me feel better. Alex wasn’t convinced that the child could breathe while he ate, and he needed items to create a feeding tube for the baby. It saddened me that they hadn’t even named him yet. Bonnie’s reasoning was that naming him made him more real and it would be all the more painful when he died.
I didn’t quite agree with that.
Beck sectioned off the camp to let the kids play, and they did.
Jessie joined them. Not a single child out there was over twelve years old. How had they escaped the Event? How were they this fortunate?
I was overjoyed, yet a part of me was extremely sad. Why couldn’t my son Jeremy be one of those few exceptional children not touched?
If there were those twelve, there had to be more.
Many things went through my mind while waiting for Alex to come back, in addition to my concern. I thought a lot about Randy, how he carried the Doctrines, and nothing was mentioned about other children, at least that was what Michael said.
Could those in our group who believed much of the Doctrines had been embellished have been right? That could be the reason they didn’t change.
I wondered if Randy was all right. Was he was hungry, scared, lonely? Did he miss us? It had only been a few days, and I missed him with all my heart. We as a group had become such a close-knit new family.
The new woman, Jillian, was sleeping in the lounge chair and her son, the cutest little red-haired boy I’d ever seen, ran about, playing mostly with my daughter.
The new baby was sleeping in a Moses basket, and I felt awful for him. I hadn’t touched him. Actually, no one wanted to. Then again, Phoenix was in my arms. I looked down at Phoenix. His hair was fair and starting to come in, although I suspected he’d lose it again.
His eyes were bright blue and staring at me, and he cooed and smiled all the time. He had progressed so much since we found him. I wished Alex would stop giving him Spam to suck on, though. He tried to put off that he didn’t, but I knew.
Alex and Beck had grabbed a car seat from Sonny’s house, brand-new in the box, and it had become quite handy when putting Phoenix down for a nap or feeding, not that I would ever strap him in the seat when we travelled. To me, the ability to free him easily in case Sleepers overran us outweighed the dangers of holding him in my arms.
I couldn’t imagine trying to get him out of a car seat or the car seat out of the van in the midst of a Sleeper attack.
I moved the car seat nearer to Michael, who was peeling potatoes, cutting off the bad spots while listing to static on the radio.
“Can you keep an eye on Phoenix?” I asked him.
Michael looked surprised. “Wow, yeah, sure. Absolutely. Everything okay? Are you sick?”
That made me smile. “No, why?”
“You never ask
anyone to handle him when you can.”
“I want to spend some time with that baby. I feel bad for him. No one holds him. Alex said when he was fixing his umbilical cord, he seemed to enjoy being touched.”
“The mother in you emerges.” Michael smiled. “I think that’s a great idea. Maybe with some warm, loving arms to hold him, he may actually figure out how to eat and breathe at the same time.”
“I’m sure Jillian and Bonnie have tried.”
Michael didn’t respond, just looked at me.
“What?”
His eyes shifted to Jillian, who was sleeping, and then to Bonnie, who sat in a chair watching the children. He dropped his voice to a whisper, even though I was positive they couldn’t hear him.
“Beck said they referred to him as an abomination.”
When I heard that, my heart sank, yet, I found it hard to believe. “Maybe ... maybe they are unaware of the true meaning of the word.”
“Doubtful.”
“Any luck with the radio?” I asked. “Anything from the other New Jerusalem?”
“Nothing yet, but I’ve not given up hope even though it’s been three days.”
“Keep trying.” My words of encouragement lacked originality, but he knew I meant it. I left Phoenix in Michael’s safe hands and walked over to the basket.
“Bonnie, can I hold him?”
She looked over her shoulder at me as if I had said the most disgusting thing. She hesitated and then said, “If you want.”
I lifted the baby, keeping the blanket in place. The moment I looked down at him, my heart broke. He didn’t look right from the nose up. I parted the blanket, peeking at his body. His skin looked dry, and the diaper that Alex had placed on him hadn’t been soiled even a little.
Reaching down, I placed my hand on his little chest, and he curled into my touch. When he did that, a lump formed in my throat, and I brought him close to my chest. I wanted to cry. I felt my whole being tremble, and my throat thickened.
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