Sleepers 2

by Jacqueline Druga

  I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but it was obvious that Beck had words with her. Finally, Beck’s hand flew out in a ‘screw it’ motion to Mike.

  Mike backed up into the trailer. Jillian, holding her son’s hand, slammed the trailer door and took off with the red-haired boy into the woods.

  Maybe she wanted to protect what was hers. Maybe she didn’t see the safety in numbers. Whatever her reasons, they were her reasons, and he was her child. My job at that moment was to protect the camp.

  I turned back to the road. Sonny wasn’t going to be able to run over all the Sleepers or, like the Pied Piper, lead them all away. Nevertheless, I hoped he would lead enough away from our camp to give us a fighting chance.

  25. MERA STEVENS

  We had done it again. We became complacent and let our guard down. I found myself hiding under a thick comforter with four terrified young children.

  It wasn’t their first time hiding from a Sleeper attack, and for that, I was grateful. They knew to be quiet.

  Danny had hustled four boys and a girl into our trailer. Confident that Sleepers wouldn’t touch Jessie, I hid Jessie, a ten year old girl named Marissa, and the two babies in the closet.

  Jessie, like Michael, was a source of protection. The little girl was there to help her with the babies, almost like a sitter. Marissa was intelligent.

  We stayed in the hallway near the rear bedroom so we had an escape route out the back door. All the blinds were closed, lights were out, and we waited.

  It happened so fast. I had just woken up, taken a sip of soda for some caffeine. Beck had changed both babies, handed Phoenix to me, gave Keller to Jessie, and walked out.

  I heard the voice and only had time to open the door before I was overwhelmed with instructions.

  Run here. Run there. Do this. Do that.

  Danny rushed at me. “Mom, come on. We have to stay low.”

  Danny was barking out instructions to the kids that went into our trailer, and I was still in the dark.

  “Danny, what the hell?”

  “The ARC radioed. Randy got on, said for Alex to run. It can’t be good, and we have hundreds of Sleepers barreling our way, more than likely from the Bargain Mart.”

  I called out, “Beck?” “Get inside, stay quiet,” he told me. “It’ll be all right. Alex and I have this.”

  He spoke with confidence. Even thought I didn’t know what was going on, I brought the children into the trailer.

  I was still trying to understand if Alex was told to run because of the impending Sleeper attack or if something else had happened.

  Then I heard the helicopters. I told the kids they had to be quiet, not to cry, shout, or make any noise. We muffled any sounds with the comforters and blankets in the hallway.

  It was rush, rush, rush. My heart beat out of control; I helped Danny to lock all the doors, close the blinds, and secure everyone.

  He was armed with a rifle, and I had a pistol.

  We were ready, and I had faith in Alex and Beck.

  Just as we settled, I heard Beck’s voice. He was arguing, using a deep growling voice to command, “Get in. Now.”

  I was under the blanket when it started, and I emerged.

  “Mom, get under,” Danny told me.

  “I’m fine. What’s going on out there?”

  “Beck’s arguing with Jillian,” Danny said ruefully.

  “Why?”

  He replied, exasperated, “I don’t know!”

  The voices stopped, I heard the slam of a door and figured it was over.

  It grew quiet again.

  I could no longer hear the bus engine, and the helicopters sounded so far away.

  It was quiet.

  But not for long.

  In the distance, it sounded like war had broken out and we were on the front line, or close to it. I heard rapid gunfire. I closed my eyes and feared for Sonny. Within minutes, Beck and Alex were firing, not much, an occasional pop-pop-pop here and there. I envisioned Alex aiming at the Sleepers and Beck picking off the ones he missed. From the sound of things, it was worse in the distance.

  I truly believed that we were spared, but in a brief moment of quiet, a spine-tingling sound rang out in the form of a child’s voice.

  “Mommy!

  My eyes popped open, and my head cocked. I looked at Danny.

  He had the same look on his face.

  “Mommy! Where are you?” It came from behind the trailer in the distance.

  “Calvin!” Jillian returned the call.

  I sat up. “Oh my God.”

  “Mom,” Danny warned.

  My heart raced.

  “Mommy! Mommy, I’m scared. Where are you?” Calvin’s words were breathless and echoing; he had to be in the woods.

  “Keep calling me, Calvin! Keep calling.”

  My mind screamed. No! No! No, don’t call. Please be quiet, Calvin.

  “Mommy! Mommy!” His voice sped up with terror. “Mommy there’s a group of them!”

  “Keep calling my name, so I can find you.”

  “Mommy!”

  My jaw tightened, my face burned, and fear raged through my entire being. “Danny?”

  He closed his eyes tightly, his face clenched with pain as he dug the palms of his hands into his head.

  In a flash I saw little Calvin in my mind, lean and agile, his red hair tossed about, his face dirty, running, looking behind him, trying to escape, trying to find his mother.

  Danny and I locked eyes when we heard the shrill, long, chesty scream preceding the most horrifying cry of, “Mommy!”

  I jumped up.

  “Mom, no.”

  “You stay here. Watch the children.” I checked the clip on my gun; it was full.

  “I’ll go.”

  “No, Danny, you have to stay. Lock and barricade the door behind me. I’ll be back.” I moved as fast as I could to the back door and quietly moved the barricade. Standing off to the side, I peeked out. I didn’t see any Sleepers. I nodded to Danny, readied my gun, and waited for him to open the door. I had to be fast.

  I didn’t even know what direction the sound came from, only that it was behind the trailer and more than likely in the woods.

  I heard him cry out again. “Mommy! Help me!”

  Oh, God, they had him. The sound of his voice, the crying, the shrill screams tore at my heart.

  The door opened, I slipped out, and I heard the door shut.

  Two feet out, a Sleeper jumped at me. I fired. I don’t know where I hit him, but it moved him away from me. I looked left to right and didn’t see any more of them.

  “Mommy!”

  “Calvin!”

  “Mommy! Help me. Ow! Mommy!” Scream.

  My feet pounded, weapon ready, and I raced in the direction of the voice.

  Nothing. I saw nothing.

  Calvin’s cries for help were drowned in heart wrenchingly painful sobs and each one burned my ears.

  “Mom… Mommy … hurt ….. me ….” Another scream.

  The woods became a maze. The sun darted through the leaves and blinded me as I ran. I could hardly breathe.

  “Mommy! Please!”

  He was close.

  “I’m sorry, Calvin. Mommy’s sorry! Mommy’s so sorry!”

  “Mommy!”

  “There’s too many …Mommy’s …”

  I stumbled upon Jillian as she cried the word, “Sorry”. She dropped to her knees and sobbed.

  My jaw clenched when I made eye contact with her.

  “There are too many.” Her shoulders bounced with her sobs.

  About fifteen feet beyond her I saw a group of Sleepers, maybe six. They were on the ground, arms flailing.

  “No!” I aimed my gun and shot indiscriminately.

  I hit one, then another. They fell over, and I saw small legs.

  Oh God!

  I aimed to fire again but before I could press the trigger fast, consecutive, single shots, accurately fired, knocked off the rest.


  I looked to my left and saw Beck on the other side.

  The Sleepers were down, and I raced over. My heart beat so loud that I heard it, I felt it, and when I caught sight of Calvin, all that swirled in me, every emotion, every bit of sadness, anger, ignited like a split atom and burst from my being in a cry that I was sure echoed through the woods over and over.

  All hope that Calvin would be all right was instantly dashed.

  His midsection was torn to shreds. His little head was tilted to the right, eyes open, mouth agape as if he looked, searched, prayed for help.

  I dropped to my knees, leaned forward, and cradled his head, then lifted him to me. This poor child, one of few left in this childless world, lost his life as he cried for help that did not come, only to die alone in pain, without loving arms reaching out to him.

  I sobbed as if he were my own. My heart broke for him and all that he endured. How scared he was. That poor baby. That poor, poor baby.

  I couldn’t stop crying.

  “Mera,” Beck walked up to me, speaking softly.

  I lifted my eyes. “Where were you?”

  His head rocked back, and he stammered for words. “W-What?”

  “How could you let this happen?”

  “Don’t, Mera.” He ran his hand over his mouth. “Don’t put this on me. Please.” His eyes closed and he dropped down. One knee raised, he looked at us, brought his hand to his face, and turned a little. “Please.” His shoulders bounced once, and he released a cry of sadness. “I tried. I looked. I tried. I couldn’t find … the trees. It was …” Another sound of sadness. “I’m sorry, I failed him.”

  “No. I’m sorry, Beck. I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry.” My crying continued. My left arm held Calvin to me as I reached out my other hand for Beck. He moved closer, gripping my hand, still not looking at me.

  Sleepers could have been upon us, encircling us. It didn’t matter. I didn’t even hear Alex coming, just his voice.

  “What happ…. Oh my God.”

  Alex was standing there. He looked away. I couldn’t say anything.

  Alex said, “I saw Beck take off. I’m sorry.”

  I sniffled hard, tried to stop crying.

  Beck finally lifted his head. “I’ll be back. I want to get a blanket to cover him, so the other kids don’t see him.”

  I nodded.

  He stood, and I saw how much sorrow he carried. Head lowered, shoulders slumped, he hurried from the woods.

  “It’s safe now,” Alex stated. “No Sleepers that I saw.” He took a deep breath. “His poor mother.”

  When he said that, something inside of me snapped.

  “Jillian, I am so, so sorry,” Alex said.

  He looked beyond me. I turned to see her standing ten feet behind me.

  “We saw them,” she said weakly. “The Sleepers. We were hiding and—”

  “Don’t speak,” I said, turning from her.

  “Mera?” Alex said..

  Jillian continued, “I thought if I sent him farther …”

  My eyes fluttered. Sent him farther? Alone?

  “Don’t. Speak.” I repeated.

  “I saw them chase … I couldn’t see him.”

  “Please…” I begged. “Don’t speak.”

  “There were so many, I couldn’t –”

  “I said don’t speak!” I screamed.

  “Mera!” Alex blasted.

  I gently placed Calvin on the ground. I closed his eyes, looked at him for the last time, and stood.

  Beck had returned with the blanket. He paused when he saw Jillian.

  My facial muscles were tense, and my gut wrenched. I slowly turned around as Beck covered the child. I inhaled deeply.

  I was always obedient. I never raised my hand to my children. I never fought in school. Violence was not in my nature.

  Yet, when I saw Jillian, I raced toward her with a tightly closed fist, and I nailed her with everything I had.

  She fell backwards and scurried away as I went for her again. Alex intervened, bodily moving me away from her.

  “Mera!” he scolded. “What the hell? She just lost her child!”

  “She…she” I tried to catch my breath. “He cried. He begged, Alex, begged her to help, and she just stood there and watched.”

  She wiped her nose. “There were too man—”

  “There are never too many when it comes to your child!” I screamed. I went for her again, and again Alex stopped me.

  “Knock it off,” Alex scolded. “Beck, do something.”

  “No, I’d rather stay out of it, thank you,” Beck replied without malice.

  Alex growled. “Mera, let’s go.” He took hold of my arm led me away.

  “I can walk,” I snapped at him, snatching my arm from his grip. “I’m fine.” I stalked away from Alex, looking over my shoulder.

  “Let it go, Mera. Let it go for now,” Alex said. “Calm down.”

  I honestly didn’t care what he said at that moment. I continued walking toward camp. I did need to calm down, though. Not just for me, but for the others in our group.

  However, what I felt right then was too hard to let go. I wouldn’t let it go for a long time.

  26. ALEX SANS

  We’d gotten a bit of a reprieve, just enough time to pack up and move. I still didn’t know what was going on with our pursuers from the ARC.

  Mera marched angrily back to camp ahead of me. I had never seen her that far out of control.

  She wasn’t even rational. I didn’t have the story yet, but whatever it was, Mera forgot that Calvin was Jillian’s son. Jillian had lost her son. No matter what Jillian had or had not done, her son was dead.

  I couldn’t understand Mera’s position at all. I just couldn’t. Beck passively sided with Mera, as usual. At that moment, I didn’t know if Beck reacted to Jillian or to Mera’s opinion of Jillian’s actions.

  One thing was for sure, when we arrived back to camp, it wasn’t good.

  The kids knew what had happened. They, like Mera, had heard Calvin scream. Their response was surprising. Quietly, unemotionally, they watched Beck carry the body past, and then went on with what they were doing. Not Jessie.

  She screamed and freaked out when she saw the blood on her mother. How do you explain to a person with the mentality of a toddler that the blood wasn’t her mom’s?

  We tried, but Jesse wouldn’t stop screaming until Mera cleaned up. She followed her mother into the trailer to shower. I hoped that, despite the early hour, Mera would hit that bottle of bourbon. If she didn’t, I was going to shove it into her mouth.

  In the months that I had known Mera, I only once saw her with an attitude, and that was for a short time after she met Pastor Mike. However, that time she got over it quickly. Now, I was even a little bit afraid of her, so I thought about other things.

  Like where we would go. We had to go soon.

  Beck returned holding Calvin’s blanket-covered body. Jillian followed ten paces behind him.

  The look on the big guy’s face told me that he was broken up over the death of the little boy. We hardly knew the boy, but I figured it wasn’t who he was, it was what he was a kid.

  The children all stood around and stared as Beck took the body and placed it to the side.

  “Danny,” Beck called out, “I need you over here.”

  I followed Danny. Mera was still in the trailer. I didn’t need to keep an eye on her any longer.

  Beck told Danny, “I’m gonna go dig a grave. Can you keep the kids away from him, please?”

  “Yes,” Danny replied. He looked down at the body. “How bad, Beck?”

  “Bad.” Beck placed his hand on Danny’s shoulder when he walked by him.

  Michael told his group of kids to sit on the road where we used to have our campfire and then walked toward me. His hand shot to his mouth. “I heard him cry.” Michael’s eyes watered. “I could swear on my life, Beck would have saved him.”

  My heart thumped in my chest. “Me, to
o, Padre, but, uh, do me a favor, don’t say that to the big guy, okay? He’s taking this pretty hard. So is Mera.”

  “As is his mother,” Michael said.

  My eyes shifted to where Jillian was sitting a few feet away from the children. “Yeah,” I said. “I’m sure.”

  “I’m going to pray for him, right now.” Michael walked to the body and knelt by him.

  “Why?”

  He shot me an angry glance.

  I raised my hands. “Just asking.”

  The school bus returned then, and I was glad to see it. The bus looked as if it had seen better days.

  Sonny and Bonnie emerged from the bus like excited champions.

  “We plowed through a lot of Sleepers,” Sonny said.

  “I don’t think any more than a couple dozen came through,” Bonnie said. “We figured you could ...” her eyes lifted.

  It was obvious she’d picked up the atmosphere of the camp.

  “What happened?” Sonny asked.

  I lowered my head. “We lost Calvin.”

  Bonnie gasped. “Excuse me,” she said, and brushed past me straight to Jillian.

  Sonny looked confused. “How? Weren’t all the kids together?”

  “The details are still sketchy,” I said, one eye closed. “Now tell me what happened.”

  “Hundreds of Sleepers. Once we ran over a bunch of them, we waited until the rest followed. We actually moved pretty slowly until we hit the highway. Your buddies really saved the day though.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The choppers fired on the Sleepers. They hit them with small explosives. The highway is littered with them.” He paused. “I think they thought you were on the bus ’cause they landed.”

  “And?”

  “And they asked for you. I said I didn’t have a clue who you were.”

  “You think they believed you?”

  Sonny shrugged. “I don’t know. They did say if I ran into you, I should tell you that you have three days. After that, they’re coming after you, and they aren’t gonna make it easy.”

  My face crinkled. “I’m not a criminal.”

  Sonny chuckled. “Bonnie asked that. She asked them if you were a criminal, and they said yes.”

  “What?”