Jeb said no.
Bishop couldn’t figure out how she survived, how she outran the Atranda. Of course, Jeb and his sarcasm stated that the Atranda left her alone as a celebration feast for the Loomis since, according to Mas, they ate humans.
“Ha, ha, ha, funny,” Bishop told him then. Melinda was that big. Who was he kidding? She really was.
He didn’t see it when he met her, he just saw her smile and her face, and they got drunk. Women were scarce, and when she offered a fun night to Bishop, well, he took it. It had been years since he had sex.
He was driven by sex with her, so much so that in the heat of the moment, he told Melinda he wanted to do it forever.
She held him to it, and Robi married them the next day.
Having someone in the desolate world was better than having no one, but it really was a tossup with Melinda.
Bishop didn’t care that she was well over three hundred pounds, or probably closer to four hundred pounds. That didn’t matter; he wasn’t a physically shallow person. He also didn’t care that she was fifty-three, a good twenty years his senior.
What he cared about was that she was mean and nasty. She yelled all the time, pulled his ear, and picked her feet in bed, leaving particles of toenails on Bishop’s side, tiny bits that remained unseen on the sheets until he rolled on them.
Ouch.
Truth be known, Melinda just wasn’t a nice person.
She didn’t need a radio to call for Bishop. She could stand outside their tubular home door and shout across their living area with her deep loud voice, and Bishop would hear her.
God help him.
So he hid and worked a lot. It was better than being bitched at or worse, having to perform his husbandly duties.
Occasionally they’d have meaningful conversation and get along, but those times were so few and far between that they didn’t make up for her abrasive and revolting personality.
He’d divorce her if there was divorce in SC. Then again, if there was, he was fearful of breaking up.
Everyone was scared of Melinda, even the fearless leader Robi, and she was scared of no one.
At least Bishop thought Robi was scared of her.
Until then, hide, work and wait.
“I want to go see the new people,” Bishop said.
“Will, shall we,” Mas replied. “Dinner is Robi planning for all. Explain shall she to the Galaxy of what happened.”
Bishop tapped his fingers. “There’s just really nothing to do. I don’t want to …” His words were interrupted by a ringing. Bishop’s head cocked. “What was that?”
Mas appeared confused. “Know I do not.” He stood and started working the controls.
Ring.
“Where’s it coming from? It’s not a phone.” Bishop searched. “I can’t even answer it. It’s coming from …”
“Satellite,” Mas stated.
Click.
“Hello? Hello?” A male voice came through the speaker.
“Hello?” Bishop replied.
Click.
“Locked,” Mas stated proudly.
“Was it someone’s satellite phone they got working?”
“No. Radio transmission it was. Satellite it bounced.”
“A male voice, calling us from a radio bounced from a satellite. Do we know where it came from?”
“Yes.” Mas nodded. “Four thousand miles.”
“Like China?” Bishop asked.
“No.” Mas answered. “Like space.” He pointed up.
Bishop sank slowly into his chair. “Space.” He exhaled. “Oh, this day keeps getting weirder.”
<><><><>
Reese supposed that after five years the events had lost their edge, sort of like recalling a great Super Bowl moment. That was the best way Reese could explain the nonchalant explanation of the world’s end, as given by Tate.
“Something happened. Some bug,” Tate told him on their way to the medical unit. “Everyone just dropped dead. Just like that. Planes fell from the sky. It was a mess. Brutal, actually, that’s what I was told. I slept thought it. We’ll fill you in. It’s a long story.”
“Everything seems to be a long story,” Reese said.
“Yeah, well, it’s been five years. Nothing we tell you will be a short story. That’s a hell of a gap.”
“Agreed,” Reese said.
They arrived at the medical unit. It was no less than a hospital, clinical and white, with very few workers. Tate, through his earpiece, learned where the crew of the Galaxy was staying.
He told Reese that the two other men, head injury and arm, were resting and he’d want to see Lucy.
Reese couldn’t agree more.
Jeb, Tate’s brother, was outside the door and extended a hand to Reese. “Colonel, I’m sorry we haven’t located your friend. There are many caverns and pathways. He’s there, and we’ll find him.”
“I appreciate it, Jeb. Is Lucy in there?” Reese asked indicating the closed door.
Jeb nodded.
As Reese reached for the door, it opened and Gene walked out.
“My God,” Reese’s voice graveled. “You look remarkable.”
“I feel well, Colonel, and I am very glad you are okay,” Gene replied and then shook Reese’s hand with a firm squeeze to his shoulder.
“Tell me I’m not too late, Mr. Brik,” Reese said.
“No,” Gene exhaled and pushed open the door. “But you don’t have much time.”
After a nod, Reese walked into the room and closed the door behind him. A steady, but slow beeping rang out. BJ was standing by Lucy’s bed.
He looked up to Reese.
The respirator clicked, Lucy’s eyes were closed. Reese grabbed a chair and pulled it to the other side of the bed.
BJ, or Ben as Lucy called him, was her focus, her goal after they landed. Find her son.
She did.
“I’m sorry,” Reese said to Ben. “I’m very sorry, Ben.”
“It’s okay. I got to see her. That’s what matters. I got to tell my mom thank you.”
“She loved you, you know that. She loved you with all of her heart.”
“I know.” Ben lowered his head.
“When she knew you were alive, she drew from that. Your mother is amazing.”
“I know that, too.” Ben tried to smile but couldn’t.
Reese sat down in the chair next to Lucy. Her body had lost all color. Her face so pale it was gray. As he lifted her hand he felt the coolness of her skin, saw the settling of blood and the abrasiveness of her breathing.
Lucy was indeed dying.
“She hasn’t opened her eyes since we saw you last,” Ben said.
Reese grabbed Lucy’s hand and brought her fingers to his lips. “I’m sorry, Lucy,” he whispered. “I am so sorry.” After bringing his lips to her fingers once more, Reese lowered his head, cupped Lucy’s hand, and stayed there.
<><><><>
It had been two hours since Lucy passed away, yet Robi was told the Colonel had not left the room.
No one wanted to bother or disturb him, but it was time to do so, and as leader of SC, Robi took on that duty.
She checked on the other patients. Thaddeus was being prepped for Martha, and Sam was already working on a future prosthetic for the young man.
Both were fine.
“You sure?” Jeb asked.
“No, I’ll talk to him,” Robi stood outside Lucy’s door. “I need you to go with Ben. He’s at SC-22; I’m putting him and the Colonel in the tubular two doors down from us.”
“Robi, BJ’s never lived in a tubular.”
“Yeah, well, he starts now. His mother expressed to him that she wanted the Colonel to take care of him and maybe that’s what BJ needs, a father figure.”
“I’ve been a father figure to him …”
“You’ve been a security leader to him.”
“I resent that,” Jeb stated.
“I’m sorry,” Robi nodded. “It’s just that this was he
r final wish, and we have to abide by that. BJ wants to, and we need to do this, too.”
“Okay.” Jeb leaned to her, kissed her on the cheek, and stepped back. “I’ll go get things ready.”
“Thank you.” Robi reached for the door, paused, knocked, and then walked in. She had not met him yet. They missed each other on the triage platform and the Colonel wasn’t what she expected.
Hearing ‘Colonel’, Robi had pictured an older man, not one in his early forties, strong and tall, and as she walked around to look at his face, she saw how much different he was than every other man in SC, or for that matter, every man left in the world. The Colonel was unaffected. His face showed no hardship of a war. He was certainly visually a blast from the past.
“Colonel,” she spoke softly. “I’m Robi. I’m in charge of SC and we welcome you.”
Reese raised his eyes. “Ma’am.”
As compassionately as she could, Robi said, “I know you are taking time and I apologize for intruding. But, housing is being set up, and we need to prepare Lucy for burial and a memorial service. Things need to move fast in this culture. I’m sorry.”
“That’s fine. I understand.” His eyes never left the body, which was now covered.
“You were close. She must have meant a lot to you.”
Reese exhaled. “She … was this amazing person, Robi. She believed when we didn’t. Lucy was a speck of light in the dark, innocent and naïve and optimistically contagious.”
Robi pursed her lips. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for your loss and for not getting to know her.”
“I’m sorry, too.” Reese slowly stood. “Because I have a feeling the qualities Lucy had are long gone in this dead world.” He looked down once more to Lucy, touched her, and turned to Robi. “Thank you for your compassion.” He reached out, touched her shoulder with a soft grip, turned and sadly walked out.
Robi could only stand there in the silent moment, taking in the after effect to his ever truthful words. Indeed, those qualities he described were long gone … from everyone.
<><><><>
SC didn’t start out that way, Jeb explained to Reese as they made their way to the main section. It actually started out in Southern California. But that was destroyed, leaving Jeb and Robi along with everyone else to trek to the other life signal they had found and lost.
“Long story?” Reese asked.
“Yep.”
“I figured as much.”
“You’ll learn more tonight. Robi is having everyone for dinner in one of the small halls. Just for you guys, I mean, not for the whole city. You’ll get the Cliff note version. Our first complex was big, but we expanded constantly. Mas invented these lasers that cut into the rocks. The city was actually finished about two years ago, and we will probably have to expand again. But we have tunnels that lead all over the place, mainly to different divisions that people work in.”
“Security?” Reese asked.
“I run that, and it is the busiest division.”
“I bet.”
“We run off of tunnels that lead to the tubes. That’s a common name,” Jeb explained. “Tubular housing. Not like you live in tubes. The homes are more like mobile units built into walls. Some are small, and some are big to accommodate families. We have several stand alone housing buildings for those who don’t want to have their own place.”
“How did you manage to do it all so fast? Reese asked.
“The housing portion was done. We literally just grabbed mobile homes. There is a mobile hotel that is all separate units. We simply slid them in vertically and connected them. That was the tricky part. But we have some good surviving engineers and architects, plus when it’s all you have to do, that’s what you do. I mean, you don’t look at beauty; you basically look at metal units fitted into a cave. We’re at 90% capacity now, so we have to eventually expand again. That’s gonna be tricky considering we don’t know when or where we’re getting hit.”
The rock door slid open, and Reese took a single step out into the city. He froze.
Jeb supposed for someone new it was a sight to behold. The expression on Reese’s face was one Jeb had seen a dozen times on new people.
Wide eyed, mouth slightly agape, staring around.
It was a lot to take it.
“This is the city,” Jeb motioned outward with his hand.
It had been likened many times to the inside of an astrodome. The sky was bright and the sun lit the entire city area.
The walls of stone, leveled like stadium seating, were the housing or tubular units, and the sun glistened off of them. But the open area was set up like a Mayberry town, complete with shops, people walking about, and a park where children played.
There was plenty of room, and they had emerged from the tunnel a good hundred feet from the beginning of the town square.
“My God,” Reese said. “I was wondering how you folks didn’t feel claustrophobic down here.”
“We can’t go up. Well, we do…” Jeb shrugged. “But the kids can’t and they can’t be without sun or an open area to see the sky. It’s not fair. The invaders already took our homes, our family, and our way of life, so we’re keeping everything we can, even if it’s just the sun on our face or some rain.”
“Do you worry about being spotted from the air?” Reese asked. “I mean, this is pretty open. I’m going to assume it closes like the Astrodome?”
“Yep.” Jeb nodded, talking with Reese. “We monitor the skies in our area. Today, though, was the first time we had to close it under emergency circumstances. This was the first time anything flew close.”
“This is a lot to take in.”
“It’s only the beginning,” Jeb told him. “Why we live like this, what we face, what we have faced. You need to understand that to understand all this.” Jeb led them out of the main area and down a street like tunnel. “You’ll see there are tunnels all over the place. Some are shut like the one we came though, but this is open because it’s more living space. They all have a name, they all have a code, they all have a purpose.” Jeb slowed down at the door of a unit. “Up there, two flights, that where we live, and this is you.” He reached for the door. “Oh, hey, Colonel, I have you and BJ in this single. But I have to caution you, he’s never lived in a tube or any structured housing for that matter.”
“Why is that?”
“He … he doesn’t fit in, so this may be an adjustment. Just giving you the heads up.” Jeb opened the door to the unit, stepped in and stopped. “Ben, get your ass down from the ceiling. Time to live civilized.”
With a flip, Ben dropped down. “Hey, Colonel.”
“Long story?” Reese asked.
“Not really,” Jeb answered. “Struck by an Atranda when he was little, it mutated his DNA, so now he’s like a chimp or something. I don’t know. But from now on, he’ll act normal, right BJ?”
“Yes, sir.” Ben nodded.
Jeb walked to the door. “I’ll let you guys get acquainted. Dinner is at seven.” He paused. “And for Christ’s sake, no pissing on the floor in here.”
“Yes, sir.” Ben nodded.
Jeb gave a ‘good luck’ to Reese then walked out, pulling the door closed behind him. He felt good about that. Things, hopefully, would work out with BJ and the Colonel.
BJ and the Colonel, he thought, sounded like an old television show. Then, just as he caught a moment of peace, that soothing silence of the city in the hours after an attack, Jeb heard it.
“Bishop Freaking Eugene Freaking Dean! Where are you!”
The booming voice echoed, children ran, doors slammed, and Jeb laughed and kept on walking.
Chapter Five
SC City
“Service me, Bishop. Now.”
Oh, God. Bishop cringed standing in the main room of his Tube. He poured a drink, and then another. Melinda called to him from the bedroom.
“I’m showered and ready …”
Oh, God. Bishop could see her in his mind, on the bed, covered by
a towel, smoking a cigarette, lying on her back. Of course, lying on her back was better. It was easier to find things that way. The abundance of extra weight sort of spread out and gravity pulled it down some. One more drink.
“I’m clean!”
At least she’s clean. He downed the drink. He drank so much these days that the taste of whiskey or moonshine didn’t even burn as it went down. Not only was he not in the mood to ‘service’ Melinda, but Tate had irritated him.
Laughing in that immature manner, racing into the control room, saying, “I’m here. Go. Melinda is blasting that mouth around the city. She needs to be serviced, Bishop.”
Bishop had to go. It was embarrassing.
“What exactly does servicing entail?” Tate asked. “Curious.”
Bishop grumbled and headed home. He thought at first he was in luck, because Melinda was in the shower. He could hear her flesh squeak against the tile of the shower and glass door. She barely fit, she had to squeeze in, and her naked wet body against the glass squeaked like a squeegee when she moved.
Maybe she would get stuck again and they would have to call Maintenance to lube her up to slide her out.
No such luck. The water stopped and she didn’t call for help.
“I’m home in case you’re wondering,” Bishop hollered. “No need to scream like a madwoman.”
He jumped back when she poked her head into the room. “You don’t think? The way you dilly dally around. I need to be serviced before we go to that dinner. I don’t want to be stressed; it’s stressful enough around Robi. She’s a hidden lesbian, you know. She hits on me all the time.”
Melinda didn’t see it, but Bishop’s mouth dropped open as he produced a look of disgust. Robi wanted his wife? Bishop wasn’t going to argue with Melinda or counteract it. Even if by some obscure chance Robi was a lesbian, and even if by some more obscure chance Robi wanted Melinda, Bishop liked Robi too much to put her in that position. He deemed himself the hero in the sexuality department, taking it for the team of men so they wouldn’t have to. It was a dangerous Amazonian jungle expedition that he wouldn’t wish on anyone, not even Jeb.
The Last Mile Trilogy Page 54