“They’re meant to be brothers,” Beck said. “There is something remarkable. They feel it, I feel it.”
I grazed my finger lightly across their joined hands. “How am I going to give him up for six months? He won’t know me when Alex brings him back.”
Beck backed from the cradle. “Why don’t you go with Alex to the ARC?”
“What? No. And leave Jessie?”
“You couldn’t leave her before because we were waiting on a death sentence. You can now. She’ll be fine. I’ll take care of her. This baby needs you.”
“And what about Keller?”
“I can take care of Keller. We have a lot more people now, Mera. We’ll find a place, and we’ll wait it out. Wait for you guys,” Beck said. “I’d feel better if you went with Phoenix.”
I shook my head slowly as I exhaled. “I can’t go. I can’t leave my daughter. Plus I don’t really want to stay away from you for six months. You’ve become my rock.”
He smiled gently. “I appreciate that. Okay, how about my plan B? What if when they call for Alex we tell them Danny is MIA after the crash. That way he doesn’t go back.”
“Why don’t we say they are all MIA, Alex and the baby as well?”
He tilted his head. “You know as well as I do, Phoenix has to go back to the ARC. He has the cure in his blood. He has to go. As painful as it is for us, that call for him is going to come.” Beck turned again to the cradle and reached his hand to Phoenix.
22. ALEX SANS
I heard the engine of the yellow bus long before I saw Sonny drive into the camp. He and Beck had finished the tire the day before. Since we had to get on the road, it was time to bring the bus to the camp. How else were we going to manage the trip with all the children?
I asked Bonnie where she was headed, and she didn’t have a clue. She was just moving forward. I felt sorry for Sonny, Mera, Beck, Danny, and even Jessie. None of us had signed on for taking care of a bunch of kids. I sure didn’t.
From what I witnessed, Bonnie did a good job, but the children weren’t important to her. She offered to leave with the kids but stated she’d appreciate being part of our group.
Not to mention the news that Sonny brought.
“Eight. I counted eight,” Sonny said. “Moving slow, but straight up the highway.”
“Did they follow you?” I asked.
Sonny shook his head. “I climbed to the roof of the bus to take a look. I don’t think they even saw the bus. But they probably heard it.”
“Damn.” I picked up my radio. Danny had ended up on the night watch and was still out there on the cliff. “Dan, you there?”
“Yeah.”
“Any Sleepers?”
“None that I see.”
“Keep me posted,” I told him. “Sonny spotted several on the road.”
“Got it.”
I munched on a cracker while I looked at the map. How I missed the days of just being able to go on the Internet and find things. The original concept of the Internet was to survive a nuclear war, to keep the county running, but damn if it hadn’t lasted longer than a week.
“Here’s a thought,” Sonny said. “I’m pretty well stocked at the ranch. Big Bear Grocery warehouse is fifty miles from here. If it hasn’t been hit, we can stock up even more. My land is good. What about sending a cleanup crew to clear it? There’s plenty of room there.”
“Yeah, but we need to be secure. You saw how many Sleepers were at the Bargain Mart. I saw firsthand at the ARC that a fence doesn’t cut it.”
“What about a prison or a work farm? There’s one in Kentucky that actually has a wall. It’s a boys’ detention work center.”
“That might not be a bad idea. How’d you know about it?”
Sonny gave an embarrassed smile. “I grew up in Ohio, got locked up there.”
“No shit? An Ohio boy? I’m from Ohio, too,” I said. “Dude, what did you get locked …” I paused. “You know what? I don’t want to know. New world. New start.”
“Appreciate it.”
I looked at the map. “Anywhere you guys go should buy you enough time to think of winter prep.”
“You really are going to the ARC?” Sonny asked.
“Man of my word.” I said with little enthusiasm. “Okay, boys’ work center, good idea, we’ll pitch it to the others. Any other ideas?”
“We can go high,” Sonny said. “Like a skyscraper. But then water will be an issue. Underground is out.”
“True. Unless it’s one of those decked out government …oh, shit.”
“What?” Sony asked.
“That’s probably where the New Jerusalem is.” I peered over my shoulder to Mike who was starting breakfast. “Padre?”
The padre immediately stopped what he was doing and turned to me, looking frustrated. “What’s up, Alex, are you going to insult me?”
“What?” I laughed. “No. Hear anything from that place that claims they’re the New Jerusalem?”
“No, nothing in days,” he snapped.
“What’s wrong with you?” I asked when I heard his sharp tone.
“Lots. Number one being the fact that I can’t figure out how we are going to feed all these people all the time. Dinner, yeah, you and Danny plowed the fish.”
I rubbed my chin and looked at Sonny. “Wherever we go a lake is our number one priority. Maybe Mike here can turn a few fish into a miracle, and we won't have to worry about feeding everyone.”
Michael bobbed his head. “Yeah, yeah, make the jokes. I’m really tired of it.”
“You said you read the Doctrines,” Sonny remarked. “Did you get to the place where you returned, and everyone thought you were the Savior?”
“I did. Long before we even left the church, I read it. I was pretty sure,” he shifted his eyes to me, “not that I was the Son of God but that I wasn’t going to die. Then again, according to the Doctrines, I didn’t die until we were almost at the ARC.”
“How did they think you were the Son of God?” Sonny asked. “I’m curious.”
“Yeah, me, too,” I added. “Randy never really got to that part.”
“Mera,” Michael stated. “The Mother, as the Doctrines called her, convinced them. Apparently they were going to kill me. She said I rose from the dead, and they tossed me out with the Palers. When they didn’t eat me, and they backed off, they were convinced I was there as the Savior. The Second Coming.”
“Then what?” I asked. “What became of you?”
Michael lowered his head. “I was crucified.”
“Oh my God.” I stumbled back. “That’s horrible. Really?”
“No, I’m lying, Alex,” Michael said. “Consider it my payback for all the times you mess with me. Actually, I became a teacher and was highly regarded, I think. I don’t know, it was weird. It read like fiction.”
Sonny laughed. “Isn’t that what you said, Alex?”
“Yep.” I nodded. “Reads like fiction. I’m convinced someone made it all up and the interpreters made it sound Biblical.”
“Along those lines,” Michael said, “fiction, I mean. Something extremely odd has happened.” He looked at me then Sonny. “You know how I took notes on the Doctrines? I have three notebooks. Well, I looked through them, and they—”
“Alex!” Danny’s panicked voice rang through my radio, interrupting Michael.
I lifted the radio mic. “What’s up, Danny?”
“Pack it up dude, seriously, get everyone moving. Like now. I’m on my way back to camp. We got Sleepers on the highway.”
I laughed. Really, that showed his youth. “Dan, come on. We can handle eight Sleepers.”
“Eight? Eight?” Danny asked. “Leading the pack, yeah. Try hundreds. Too many to count.”
“Shit!” I told Danny to haul ass to camp and turned to Michael and Sonny. “Pack it up. Grab the radio, rustle up everyone. Grab all we can. Let’s load the bus.”
“If Danny just spotted them,” Sonny said, “and they’re moving at a st
eady pace, we have a little time until they get to the entrance.”
“Let’s not chance it,” I replied and turned, fully intending to shout out a wakeup call to everyone.
Then we heard static.
“Alex Sans, calling Alex Sans.”
The call came from Michael’s radio.
“This is the ARC. We just lifted your voice. Come in.”
I walked over to Michael’s radio and whispered to him, “Go wake everyone. Hurry.”
“Alex Sans, do you read me? Come in.”
I don’t know why, but I just stared at the radio. That was it. It was my call to leave. To take Phoenix and go. My heart sank.
“Alex Sans, repeat, come in.”
I was reaching for the radio when the creak of the trailer door caught my attention. Beck stepped out, pulling a shirt over his head.
“ARC?” he asked.
I nodded and reached for the microphone.
Beck grabbed my hand, stopping me. “Mera and I were talking last night. Whatever you do—”
“Alex!” Danny came barreling through the woods. “The whole pack is moving pretty quickly. We have to pack it up or prepare for battle.”
Beck looked at Danny. “Sleepers?”
“A ton,” Danny replied.
I cringed. I had to buy more time. I couldn’t just go to the ARC and leave everyone. I had to know where my group was going.
“Alex Sans,” they called again.
I faced Beck. “I have to answer. How do I buy time?”
“I don’t know. I’ll get things packed, but whatever you do, please, tell them Danny is MIA with the pilot.”
“I had planned on that.” Finally, I lifted the radio. “This is Alex Sans. Look, I’ve got to move out right now, I have a major Sleeper attack headed my way.”
“Sans, we located the chopper wreckage. We have men in the air. Give us your location and we can give you air support. Do you have the Phoenix child and the teenager?”
“Danny is missing. He was thrown from the wreckage when the chopper crashed.” I said.
Bonnie laid her hand firmly on mine, shaking her head.
I released the button so she couldn’t be heard. “What?”
“Ray was so adamant about the ARC,” she said. “As if he knew. Don’t you have one of your people there? Speak to him first, before you say anything further. Okay?”
I nodded. “Is my friend, Randy Briggs with you?” I asked on the radio.
“Yes,” the ARC person replied.
“I’d like to speak to him before I say anything else, just to make sure he’s all right.”
“Hold please.”
I took a deep breath, snapped my fingers to get everyone moving. At that moment, everyone scurried. The children moved about quickly as if it were a familiar routine for them to escape from Sleepers.
I looked at the faces that surrounded me. Mera had emerged holding Phoenix, Jessie holding Keller, Beck.
Michael and Sonny rushed about gathered our things.
“Alex,” Randy’s voice spoke over the radio. “Alex, are you there?”
“Randy. Man, are you okay?”
“Yes.” He paused. “Alex, is the baby with you?”
I hesitated, moistened my lips, finally answering after a brief pause. If anyone did, Randy knew the importance of getting Phoenix to the ARC. “Yeah, he’s fine. He’s good. We’re together, and we new people.”
“Good. Alex, they need your location,” Randy said. “A county, city, somewhere they can find you. Can you give that to them?”
I hadn’t a clue how to explain where we were, so I turned to Sonny. His finger pointed to the map.
“Yeah, I can.”
“Good,” Randy said. “Then I want you to… run.”
My heart dropped.
His voice picked up speed. “Run, Alex, take the baby and go. Run. Hide. Whatever you do, don’t let Phoenix—”
He was cut off.
End of transmission.
I didn’t try to call back in case they were tracking the signal.
As best as we could, as fast as we could, we would follow Randy’s behest.
We would run.
From the Sleepers and from whatever it was that Randy feared.
23. RANDY BRIGGS
The butt of the M-4 not only silenced me in the midst of my sentence, it broke my front tooth.
My warning was heeded; at least I believed it was. Alex Sans was a smart man. All he needed to hear from me was the word ‘run’.
I expected to die in the moments after that radio call. I was supposed to get the information from Alex, find out where they were, and set him up as Demetrious had done to me.
However, I couldn’t.
Alex was my friend. He was a remarkable man with extraordinary instincts and abilities. If anyone could hide and protect the Phoenix child, he could.
They used my life against me. Told me that they would kill me if I didn’t get the information, that my life meant nothing, but what did I care? I would perhaps be born again.
That’s what I thought.
They couldn’t use Demetrious. He died within two hours after he visited me in my prison room. His body stayed there, reeking of death, for nearly three days.
They came for him when they believed the heard Alex’s voice on the radio.
Actually, they came for me and only removed his body.
They needed and wanted the Phoenix child.
I found out a lot of things in those last few hours with Demetrious, things I needed to know, things Alex needed to know. I had to chance getting that information to him. I knew when they said they’d probably require me to find out his location that I’d get my chance on the radio to either tell him what I found out or tell him to run.
I opted for running, especially after I asked to see the President and found that he had become a Sleeper. Some demented man named Leonard was now running the project.
Demetrious had told me that those from Project Savior were the ones in the New Jerusalem, and with that knowledge, I prayed Alex could find them.
I was still alive because Leonard believed that since Alex asked for me, Alex would eventually negotiate to get me.
Alex was smarter than that.
My life wasn’t important.
Phoenix’s was.
The ARC wanted the child. They wanted him for many reasons – none of which was good. They would pursue him relentlessly.
24. ALEX SANS
Run.
I never realized the impact that the three-letter word could have until Randy blurted it out.
Run.
I got the message; he didn’t have to say anymore.
I prayed that God would protect him as much as Randy was trying to protect Phoenix and me.
Run.
That told me so much. The intentions of the ARC were not what we thought, and either Phoenix or I was in danger, or both of us were. Either way, my friend warned us, and I listened.
Our immediate thoughts were about the ARC finding us, and about the band of Sleepers that were homing on our sound and the smell of the breakfast fire. So much so, they picked up speed.
Two things came at us not ten minutes later.
One was the stampede sound of running Sleepers, and the other was helicopters.
The bus was large enough to haul us all safely off that hill and plow through the Sleepers, but the bus was also a prominent yellow target for the choppers.
The idea of staying in the camp held two scary prospects. One, the Sleepers would invade us and be too much for us to handle, and two, the choppers were going to be looking for activity.
Beck loaded a clip in his M-4 then attached two more clips to his belt. “What do you wanna do, Alex?”
I had to think fast. My eyes caught Mike’s and a thought hit me.
I tossed Sonny the keys to the bus. “Take it down the hill. Take out as many as you can, then get them to follow you. Got it?”
“Excellent idea.
” Sonny gripped the keys. “I’ll pull out on the highway as well and try to get the choppers to spot us.”
Bonnie rushed to the bus. “I’ll go with you. They won’t buy for a second only you in this big bus.”
“Good idea,” I told her then swung around to Danny. “Take your mom, the babies, Jessie, and a few kids into Sonny’s trailer, lock it, keep them down, quiet, and stand guard.”
Danny nodded.
“Michael, take Jillian and the rest the rest of the kids into the Hoss trailer, same thing. Down. Quiet. Lock it. Watch them.”
“Got it.” Michael began gathering children. The Hoss trailer, as I called it, was a double wide, permanent trailer directly across the main road from Sonny’s trailer.
“Beck, you and I will take high watch. Shoot anything that makes it into the camp. I’ll take the check-in station by the gate, you take the rec center. That way you can get anything that I don’t.”
I got his agreement and watched him move in the direction of the rec center. He paused to look at Mera and Jessie as they went into Sonny’s trailer, telling them to please stay down.
I gave my final instructions to Danny and Michael. “Don’t be a cowboy, and don’t try to be a hero unless you have to be. No shooting. No noise, no matter what happens out here. One sound can jeopardize the whole lot of you.”
I could tell by the looks on their faces that I was preaching to the choir, but I had to be sure. I didn’t want one of them to race out to save Beck or me.
The bus started to roll away. It covered the sound of the helicopters, lessening my ability to pinpoint their location. I was hopeful that the bus would cause the diversion I needed.
It was an easy climb to the roof of the check-in station. I got a clear view of the road and watched the taillights of the bus disappear around the bend. I gave the camp one last look. The door to Sonny’s trailer was closed, and I breathed out in relief that Mera and her family were in there. Beck was already on the roof of the rec center. There was one thing wrong.
Jillian.
She struggled with Mike as he tried to get her inside the trailer. I wanted to yell, but I was too far; my voice wouldn’t carry.
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