The Sleep of the Gods

by James Sperl

  Catherine’s eyes welled as she spoke, her words resonating with the thought of her own daughters. Her grandbaby. And every second she spent trying to convince Madeline of her worth made Catherine resent the woman. Resent her for the potential future she might rob from everyone if they waited here any longer.

  Josh’s voice suddenly broke through the tension, but only added to it. “Mom, I can see them! They’re at the bottom of the last ravine. They’re getting closer!”

  “Come on, I know you can do it,” Catherine continued, her voice filled with urgency. “We’ll all help you. But you have to get up.”

  Madeline looked directly at Catherine, “Take care of her. Get her to safety...I know you will.”

  Catherine’s fists clenched in frustration and overwhelming anguish. “Goddammit, Madeline. If nothing else, do it for your daughter.”

  “I am,” Madeline said. A tiny smile broke on her cracked lips. “By staying behind.”

  It was no use. The woman’s mind was made up and there wasn’t enough time to try to convince her otherwise. Catherine stood up, looked down on Madeline and sighed heavily.

  “All right,” she forced out dryly. “Let’s keep moving.”

  Shelby whirled around, broke free from Leanne’s consoling arms. She glanced at her mother still sitting in a heap on the dusty creek bed. “What? We can’t leave her! She’s not staying here!”

  “She says she can’t make it, Shelby,” Catherine said. “And we don’t have time to argue with her.” Catherine walked over to the spot where Josh began his ascent. “We’ve got to go.”

  Shelby ran to her mother, crying uncontrollably. She dropped to her knees and pulled tirelessly at her mother’s arms, tried to hoist her to her feet. But Madeline only slumped like a sack of potatoes, eventually falling back to the earth with a painful thud.

  “Mom, get up, get up, get up!” Shelby bawled. “I can’t leave you here!”

  “You can,” Madeline said. “And you will.”

  Shelby hugged her mother fiercely. “No, I won’t. I’ll stay here with you! We’ll wait until you’re rested and we’ll take our chances. The others can go if they want to, but I’m staying!”

  “No, you’re not.”

  “Yes, I am! And there’s nothing you can say—”

  In a swift move that surprised everyone, Madeline’s hand met the side of Shelby’s cheek in an alarming slap, jerking the girl upright. Madeline grabbed the stunned girl by each shoulder, her arms trembling violently as she lifted them there.

  “I love you. More than you will ever know...And if you love me you will march up that hill with the others and get as far away from here as possible.” Madeline rubbed the girl’s welted cheek. “I’ve gone as far as I can go. At this point, I’ll only slow everyone down. And I won’t have that on my conscience. You have a chance to have a life still. Please, for me, don’t waste it.”

  Catherine watched this scene play out with anxious feet. As a mother she wanted to give Madeline every last second she could afford to give her. As a survivalist with a family of her own, she wanted to get the hell out of that canyon. Pronto.

  Tears streamed down Shelby’s cheek in an endless flow. Her mouth opened, but no words would come. Madeline nodded, swiping the water stains from her face. “I know, sweetie,” she said. “I know.”

  The echo of falling rocks reverberated up from the gorge below. Faint sounds of footsteps shuffling through arid, stony brooks ricocheted off the cliff walls.

  Catherine waited as long as she could.

  “We’re, uh...we have to go now,” Catherine said timidly. “They’re too close. We...we can’t stay here any longer. Please, if you’re coming...”

  Leanne eyed Shelby mournfully then edged past Catherine and began her climb toward Josh.

  Madeline worked her head around to face Catherine and gave a subtle nod. Turning back to her daughter, Madeline kissed Shelby on the cheek. “Stay close and do whatever Catherine says.”

  Shelby could only stare. She hugged her mother fiercely, collapsing into her lap. Madeline stroked her hair, tucking wayward strands gingerly behind her ear.

  Catherine maintained her position at the bottom of the hill, shifting uneasily as she waited for Shelby to rise and join her. It was the sensible thing to do. The smart thing. The only thing. But Shelby only lay in her mother’s arms, crying with a pain Catherine hoped she never felt.

  It was all she could do to keep from turning away and storming up the hill behind Leanne and Josh. She desperately wanted to be on her way. They still had to locate the shelter, after all. But that damned maternal instinct inside her tingled like a thousand blunt needles.

  Before she was even aware that her feet were moving, Catherine snatched up Shelby by her arm and pulled her away from Madeline. The ensuing scream was more than Catherine could tolerate. Slamming her hand over the grief-stricken girl’s mouth, Catherine spoke as calmly as she could given the buzz of immediacy that stirred in her belly.

  “Shelby. I understand this is horrific for you. I do. I can’t imagine anything worse. But you cannot scream.” Catherine removed her hand. “The NHs are just down the grade from us and now probably have a better idea as to where we are. Let’s not help them if we don’t have to, okay?”

  Shelby stared, her eyes wide, shocked. Finally, she forced her head to move, nodding in quick movements.

  Catherine glanced up the steep incline toward Josh. She could see the concern on his flushed face as he peeked back in quick stares, his expectant gazes transforming to uncertainty at Shelby’s immobility. Catherine held Shelby’s cheeks in her hands, made sure eye contact was made before she spoke. “We’re gonna get through this. I promise. Now climb up after Leanne and step where she steps.”

  Numbly, Shelby moved forward and trudged through the thigh high brush. She stared at the ground, but Catherine doubted she was really looking at anything at all.

  Madeline smiled. The bittersweet kind a retiring fighter might give after losing his final bout. Giving in to her condition, Madeline lay back on the rocks and stared at the sky. She allowed her eyes to slide shut and placed her hands on her chest, it rising and falling like the ebb and flow of the sea.

  The desert scrub pricked at Catherine’s legs as she pushed uphill. She watched Shelby with the type of concern a parent has for the well-being of another person’s child. She felt Shelby would overcome today’s events. She would have to. There was so much more to come. And if any of them had any hope of retaining their sanity they would need to find a way to cope with the changes looming on the horizon.

  To her credit, Shelby only glanced back at her mother once before leaving the dry creek bed behind her.

  They ran with the conviction of wanted felons. Time wasn’t the only issue—it was now also a question of endurance.

  Upon seeing the gang of New Humans crest the ridge and head directly for them, Catherine and the others found a renewed sense of purpose—and a hidden cache of energy. Ignoring the pleadings of every muscle in their bodies, the group ran.

  Catherine scrutinized the mountain pass they ambled toward, her body screaming its protestations with each step. Sighting the mountain on which they currently found themselves, she pinpointed the peaks Warren had labeled as “D” “E” and “G”. Somewhere in their obtuse triangulation, in what she supposed was “canyon 8”, lay the back entrance to the shelter. And her family. She had checked the map countless times. Any more would be an exercise in obsessive-compulsive behavior. She was sure. It was down there somewhere. The question was, could they reach it before the New Humans caught up to them?

  It wasn’t until they’d rounded a boulder pile and begun their descent into a wide expanse of valley that Catherine’s initial hypotheses had been verified. They were indeed heading into “canyon 8” and lest there be any lingering question regarding its location, Catherine took as an affirmation the chain link and barbed-wire fence that extended in either direction across the hillsides below.

  She c
aught up with Shelby and Leanne, the two girls panting profusely as they struggled to push themselves beyond their limits. “Come on,” Catherine said in a pathetic attempt to offer encouragement. “Keep moving. We can...make it.”

  Catherine could feel her stomach tighten and that queasy feeling rise again. Just as the thought of puking sent her gag reflex into overtime, Leanne lost what little remained in her stomach down the front of her shirt. But she kept going.

  “I see a way in!” came Josh’s voice from somewhere over the next rise. Catherine, Leanne and Shelby ran doggedly toward a small plateau that dropped off in a steep decline. Josh was at the bottom waving his arms frantically, his gloved hands—still?—standing out like beacons against the beige landscape as he pointed in the direction of the fence.

  Catherine took the lead and leapt headlong down the arduous grade, her momentum propelling her forward much faster than she would have liked. For a moment she thought her legs would buckle and she would tumble the remainder of the way over sharp rocks and thorny cacti. But she managed to keep her footing despite the immense fatigue. Shelby and Leanne jumped right after, each stumbling a bit before righting themselves and charging for the bottom.

  Once they were all clear of the slope, Josh was off again. He left the three women in his wake as he sprinted toward the fence, checking over his shoulder periodically to verify they were all still with him.

  Catherine wrenched her head around as she ran. She could see dust clouds floating just over the top of the plateau, no doubt kicked up by the approaching New Humans. They grew immeasurably thicker when finally the first one, a slender man, appeared at the top of the hill. It stared down the sharp drop and seemed to be confused as to how Catherine and the others had reached the bottom.

  Good, Catherine thought. Maybe this would buy them a little time. The New Humans were adaptive but, it seemed, not very adept at problem solving on the fly. This might just be the break they needed.

  Others soon joined the first New Human, all displaying the same lack of intuitiveness. Catherine turned back around and tried to use the respite to her advantage, driving her legs as fast as she could get them to move.

  Shelby started to lag. Catherine ran up beside the emotionally and physically drained girl and took her arm in her hand, thrusting her forward against her will. “We’re...almost there...Just a little...farther.”

  Nodding like a bobble head doll, Shelby only stared straight ahead, her glazed over eyes focused on nothing at all. All body functions were diverted toward one thing: running.

  The fence was getting closer and a quick look back revealed that the New Humans had figured out the solution to their problem. Two were on the slope traversing the incline; one was at the bottom.

  Catherine started to doubt how much farther she could go. Her panting was becoming more labored. She struggled to get enough oxygen to her lungs and the limited amount she was inhaling was oven hot and sprinkled with dust. It was more than a human could take.

  But then, as thoughts of surrender taunted her, something appeared on the horizon, there seemingly to snuff it out. In any other setting she would have considered the sight horrific, but things being what they were, could only find beauty.

  Josh stood along the fence line a hundred or so yards away. Piled up beside him in what looked to have been a terrific crash were two vehicles. Burned out and crushed, the cars looked to have impacted each other at high speed. A smaller, compacted two door of some sort lay underneath what looked to be a military jeep. But what made the sight relevant was that the incident occurred right at the point where the fence met the earth. Charred and twisted, the one time impenetrable fencing now sported a gaping hole inside the perimeter.

  Josh hopped onto the hood of the jeep and began pulling Catherine, Leanne and Shelby up over the blackened metal until all had passed through the fence. Tracks from the jeep dissolved into the distance, heading around a bend and straight for the nearest peak.

  Resuming her bone-aching run, Catherine looked back toward the fence and caught sight of the New Humans through the chain link. More had made their way down and the ones at the bottom weren’t waiting around for an invitation. They charged toward the breach with a sense of urgency and as they drew ever closer, a peculiar thought occurred to Catherine: why hadn’t the fence been repaired? If it was the first level of protection, why leave such a blatant opening into what was supposed to be a secured area?

  The answer struck her like a blow to the chest: it wasn’t repaired because it didn’t matter. The world was ending, remember? But this simple revelation led to another concern, one that could be the wild card in her plan and foil any hopes of rescue.

  And in a matter of minutes she would discover her worst fears had become a nightmarish reality.

  “There!” Josh screamed, his voice equal parts exhaustion and exuberance. “It’s there!”

  Josh’s booming words cut through the air, forcing Catherine, Shelby and Leanne to glance up.

  “Oh, my God,” Leanne mumbled and started to cry. “Oh, my God.”

  “You see,” Catherine began, interjecting words in between breaths. “We’re almost there. We...can make it.”

  At the base of the mountain in front of them—was it “A”? “G”? —lay the pot of gold to a long and arduous rainbow. Jutting out into the desert from a steep face were two massive concrete walls running parallel to one another. They appeared to be fairly high, perhaps as much as twenty feet, and were adorned with copious amounts of barbed wire. The space in between the two walls, Catherine assumed, must be where the shelter entrance lay.

  Catherine turned to Shelby who was struggling mightily to keep moving. “You can...do it,” Catherine panted. “It’s right...in front of you.” Shelby forced what looked like a pained smile. Her cheeks were an unhealthy red and sweat poured down her face, soaking her clothes. She wasn’t so much running as she was trudging quickly, her feet barely leaving the ground as she took steps.

  Rotating around, Catherine peered along the fence toward the opening. A New Human had just dropped down from the jeep inside the wire and five others were in the process of climbing over.

  Grabbing each girl by their respective bicep, Catherine tugged them forward, a new fear enveloping her. The opening in the fence was a little more than two hundred meters behind them with what looked to be at least that distance ahead to reach the shelter. With their current pace matched up against the New Humans’, Catherine was certain of one thing: they wouldn’t make it. The time for plumbing the depths of one’s desire to live had now been pushed to its limit.

  “Come on, girls,” Catherine huffed. “We have...to hurry.”

  “I...can’t,” Shelby muttered incoherently, almost in tears.

  “If we don’t...they will...catch us.”

  Leanne twisted around and looked over her shoulder. Her eyes grew as wide as dinner plates at the sight of the New Humans bearing down. It was all the incentive she needed. Pulling free from Catherine’s grasp, Leanne moved ahead, her legs pumping furiously.

  As they approached the concrete wall, Catherine could make out another structure directly in front of it. She couldn’t be sure but it looked like—

  “Mom!”

  Josh’s voice broke her stream of thought and redirected her concentration back to the task at hand. It was then, for the first time, that she became aware of the sound of footsteps somewhere behind her.

  Catherine started to turn to see how close they were.

  “No!” Josh screamed. “Don’t turn around! Just keep going! As fast as you can! Hurry!”

  The urgency in Josh’s voice scared the hell out of Catherine. The New Humans were directly behind her. She knew it. Could feel it. And they were gaining.

  Josh was already to the structure when Catherine realized what it was. Four equispaced metal poles protruded out of the ground. They propped up a simple olive green canvas, which cast a seemingly deliberate shadow directly on the area where Josh stood—it was like an oasis
in the desert.

  Summoning almost superhuman reserves, Catherine charged forward, virtually shoving Shelby ahead of her. The girl had begun crying irrepressibly, but Catherine had come too far to have it all end at the doorstep of her new home.

  Leanne ran, arms swinging wildly, valiantly trying to reach the canopy. Catherine sprinted with all she had left, the structure only meters away. She gulped at the air in desperate bids for oxygen, her body on the verge of total collapse. But she wouldn’t allow that to happen. Not now.

  The footsteps in her ears were louder and more numerous. Jesus, they’re right behind me! she thought.

  Josh stood under the canopy flailing his arms madly. “Run! Run! Faster!” he screamed. “You’re almost here!”

  Leanne collapsed underneath the canopy beside Josh in a puff of dust. Catherine was close enough now to see the color of her son’s eyes, wild as they were. The footsteps thundered in her ears, more of them, bearing down on her from all around. So close she thought she could smell them.

  With a final all or nothing push, Catherine lunged for the canopy, tossing Shelby ahead of her with every final bit of strength she had. The girl crossed the threshold and crashed to the ground alongside Leanne just us Catherine made her last ditch leap for the safety of the shadows. Falling to the ground she felt a distinct tugging sensation on her foot. She slammed into the earth with a massive thud, rolling uncontrollably until Leanne caught her. Gathering her wits, Catherine stared in the direction from whence she came and shuddered.

  Advancing on the canopy was the remainder of the New Humans with still more slowly making their way from outside the fence. Oddly, this wasn’t what caused a chill to momentarily slither up Catherine’s spine. Rather, it was the sight of the New Human lying on its stomach right where Catherine had just stepped a few seconds previous. Its arm was still outstretched, literally inches from the cast shadow of the canopy, as if something had just barely evaded its grasp.