“You mean like an exit? No you’re good.”
“No.” He shook his head. “The Alex thing.”
“A lot,” Danny said. “Dude, you were like in the military mountain for eighteen months. Alex was the leader.”
“Alex was always the leader,” Beck said. “That’s not what I mean. Your mom—”
“Beck, Alex handled things at the house and the community,” I interrupted. “They were tight.”
“That’s what I mean.” Beck had this look on his face. Confused? Sad, maybe even lost. “Mera is…. Mera is really bad about this. We all are, but she’s different. Be straight with me, okay? Please? I’m not gonna get mad, I can’t— I was away. But… did something more transpire between your mom and Alex while I was gone? Like maybe an affair?”
Danny released a typical, “Ugh, dude, that’s my mom.”
I laughed. “Beck, those two had the biggest love-hate relationship. They fought. So much so, Michael had to counsel them at the request of the community.”
“He irritated my mom as much as he made her laugh,” Danny said. “Besides, that’s not even a concern. My mom is the most dedicated person I know. She brags how she was with my dad forever. No, as farfetched as it is, the only way my mom would remotely be with Alex is if you died. So there.”
If you died.
I froze. My smile dropped.
Beck took a full body heaving breath, nodded, smiled at Danny and then started to drive.
If you died.
Something about that struck me.
Beck may have moved on from that subject, but my mind stayed on it.
8. MERA
Jessie held my hand tight, just like she did when she was a little girl. She didn’t say much. Her hand swung slightly was we walked near the back of the new building, always in view of Miles.
The kids were playing, and we had a lot of them with us. There weren’t many adults yet, and only a few were in the tractor trailer that followed us out of Grace and met up with us in Brady.
More were coming; we would soon be a full-fledged community again. We had to rebuild.
Levi was good to talk to. He had a great optimistic view of things. He came from a future where he truly was a prisoner to the Sleepers, so the correctional facility was a gift. One day, he’d tell us about it. In all the time I knew him, I got only bits and pieces of his story.
The fence was far from where we walked, yet I couldn’t help but think of how exposed we were to any Sleepers. The more we walked about the more easily we’d be spotted.
“Keller sad,” Jessie said. “I’m sad.”
“I know, me, too.” I pulled my hand from hers and placed it around her arm. She looked at over to where Keller and Phoenix were playing with stones near the side of the facility, using them as if they were blocks.
I needed to watch them, as well. I was worried about Danny, Beck and Sonny being out in unchartered territory.
They were all experts in handling Sleepers, but Danny was still was my son. I feared transcending into an overly paranoid state; death often makes that happen.
“Want to sit and watch the babies with me?” I asked Jessie.
She looked at me, almost hesitant in answering.
“What?”
“I am helping Bonnie,” she said hesitantly.
“That’s right. You go.” I kissed her on the cheek and she smiled at that. I guess she didn’t want to let me know she wanted to help Bonnie. Perhaps she didn’t want to hurt my feelings.
She ran off and darted into a propped open door at the back of the cafeteria.
Bonnie was in the building preparing a late lunch. She had found four big cans of beef stew in the facility cafeteria and was heating them so there would be food for Michael and the others when they arrived. She didn’t want any help, except Jessie. They were going to attempt to make pan biscuits too, Bonnie said, whatever they were.
Bonnie struck me as a camping person, so she probably could whip up a batch of biscuits without a stove.
I stood alone for a second, listening to the sounds of the kids playing, then I turned again to Phoenix and Keller. When Keller played with anything, one would never know the child couldn’t hear or see. We worked hard to teach him simple signing, but when he played, he was all child.
As I took a step, I watched Keller stiffen up. His arms dropped to his side and his head cocked. Phoenix reached over and touched him, garnishing his attention.
Then Phoenix looked up to me and smiled widely. So precious, so perfect. I really needed to just sit and watch them play.
After smiling at me, Phoenix returned to playing with the stones and as soon as he did, Keller lifted a rock and, as if he could see his brother, he struck Phoenix with the stone.
Phoenix screamed.
I was shocked. I had never seen Keller do anything violent. Phoenix didn’t strike back, but jumped up and ran to me, crying. I grabbed on to Phoenix, then crouched down to Keller, grabbing his hand firmly.
“No. We don’t hit.” I shook the rock from his hand, gave another firm squeeze. “No.” Even without ears, Keller had a psychic sense to him. I knew he heard me, sensed me, understood my anger.
I lifted Phoenix and saw a small trickle of blood rolling down from his head.
“Oh, sweetie, let me take you inside.” I called for an older child to keep an eye on Keller and then I headed toward the kitchen entrance. “I’m sorry he did that, Phoenix.”
“Keller … Keller bad,” Phoenix said.
“He’s not bad; he just did a bad thing.”
“No, Mama. Keller very bad.” Phoenix rested his head on my shoulder, and before I stepped inside I glanced back once more at Keller.
He sat happily playing with his stones as if nothing had transpired. It was odd what had occurred, and trying to concentrate only on Phoenix’s wound, I took him inside. I would deal with the Keller issue later. I just had to figure out how.
9. SONNY
So much was on my mind. The abundance of Sleepers, the words Alex spoke to me. Not only did the Walmart trip add to all I thought about, when we returned, we found Mera hysterical because Keller had hit Phoenix with a rock. As a mother, Mera of all people should have known that sort of thing happens.
Still, there were other things I needed to know. Things I was aware of but never asked, because a part of me didn’t believe it. I alone felt I was putting together a puzzle. Nothing was making sense.
Individually, the pieces meant nothing, but together, I believed it was all part of a bigger picture. I just didn’t know how to put that picture together.
For one piece though, I sought out an authority. Or at least he said he was.
“Really, Sonny,” Levi said, carrying a cup of tea. Lord only knows how old those tea bags were. “I swear I have known you for nearly two years and we spent more time together in a day than we did in months back at Grace.”
“You’re exaggerating,” I told him.
“Probably. What’s up? I want to be at the gate to meet the truck.”
I looked at my watch. “We still have an hour.”
“You don’t plan on sitting here an hour do you?”
“Levi, please.”
“What can I do for you, Sonny?”
“I have questions about time travel.”
“You my friend,” Levi pointed a finger at me, “swore you didn’t want to hear it.”
“Now, I do. Can you give a nutshell explanation?”
“It’s science. See, it is a matter of bending—”
“No, no,” I said, waving away his explanation, “the two groups.”
Levi folded his hands and stared at me. “Two groups. Two different time frames. Two different reasons. Technically, my group, 1,300 years from the future, came back at the end of your plague, to escape our world.”
I nodded. “You wanted to live and your world was dying because of the Sleepers.”
“Yes. Randy’s group came from only a few hundred years from now. To get
Phoenix to the facility, they were basing it on The Doctrines.”
“If there is the existence of time travel, why not stop the plague?”
“You cannot stop the event that spawned the creation of the time machine. It was built as a learning tool post plague, not a device to change time. Therefore, because the plague caused its creation, it cannot cancel out the plague. Understand?”
I did. Although in my mind, I could hear Alex and his stock saying, I hate this time travel shit.
“Plus,” Levi added, “no one knows exactly when and how it started, so stopping it would be impossible.”
“Randy swore you started the plague. That people from the future came and started it.”
“Again, that was based on what he picked up as a signal from Project Savior. I still do not know who he saw on that video message. That was the name of our group, but it was named that to save our race. To bring us back in time to live. We thought for sure, with seventy-five percent of the world besieged from plague, we would slip in unnoticed.”
“You had to know about the Sleepers.”
“The infected, yes. But we had no idea it was this way. We didn’t cause this, however, we did cause the disasters.”
“The disasters?”
“Earthquakes, storms and such. Typically, one trip will not ripple or cause the Earth disturbances, or even a close time trip, but we had twenty-seven groups traveling over a thousand years and we knocked things out of whack. When the space-time continuum is bent, things occur.”
“So if the plague caused the creation of the time machine, technically, Randy would not have been able to get the cure to the ARC.”
“Correct. He couldn’t stop the event that caused him to time travel.”
“Will he be born again?”
“The illness is not cured; we still do not know the effects on future births. So he could be born again.”
“Is his death going to change or ripple his future?”
Levi shook his head. “When someone goes back in time and dies before they were even born, unless they remove a link in the chain of people that lead to their birth, they will be born again.”
“If I went to 1955 and was hit by a car, what happens right now?”
“We would have no knowledge of you ever going through. The event would slip.”
“Like, let’s say, I died. And let’s say Beck used a cerebral trip to bring me back….”
Levi laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“Why would Beck bring you back?”
“I write The Doctrines.”
“Please, anyone can do that,” he scoffed.
“It’s hypothetical, Levi. If he did that, what happened to the cerebral trip?”
“It would be gone. I would have knowledge that it was used, because I always go along as the assurance.”
“What if you didn’t?”
“I always do.”
“What if you didn’t?”
“Theoretically again, the cerebral trip would be gone. Another reason for it would replace it, I suppose. Unlike physically traveling, we can check if the machine was used. But I always go as assurance for cerebrals.”
I knew better than that. That was, if Mera was correct in what she told me about her and Alex.
“Is that all?” Levi asked. “It’s been nine minutes.”
“Yes.” I stood. “No.” I sat back down.
Levi huffed.
“If Randy is born again will be make the trip again?”
“By what I was told,” Levi said, “he and the others followed The Doctrines. So I’d say more than likely, yes.”
“You have the ability to go back. You said the physical trip can go forward. Apparently we can’t use a cerebral trip to a place we haven’t been. But can we somehow call someone from the future?”
“If they have the access to time travel, which is hard, then yes. Randy did. You can.”
“Me. How?”
Levi stood up and walked across the room. He opened a drawer and returned to me, holding a pen.
I chuckled. “What? Write a letter?”
“No. For a smart man, you are not showing how bright you are. You, Sonny, can do it. You hold the power.” He handed me the pen. “Because you write The Doctrines.”
10. MERA
“When I was six,” Beck told me as we sat in the kitchen of the facility, “my brother, I think he was three, hit me in the head with my mom’s crockpot lid. It didn’t break the lid, but I got ten stitches in my head.”
“He just walked up and hit you?” I asked.
“Yep. I was playing Legos. Never saw it coming. My mom got mad, smacked my brother. I remember her being so upset with Bobby, that she forgot I was bleeding all over the place.”
“You’re telling me this why?”
“Brothers do that to brothers. Hell, siblings do that. They may have a reason, they may not. Jessie and Danny are two years apart. Think.”
At that instance, I remembered plenty of episodes. “But, Beck. typically it was provoked.”
“Okay.”
“I was watching. I didn’t see Phoenix provoke him. Besides, it’s Phoenix, he’s so—”
“He’s two, Mera.” Beck reached over and grabbed my hand. “We don’t know what’s going through their minds. They call them terrible twos for a reason. Now these, ” Beck picked up a biscuit, “are far from terrible.”
“Jessie made them, and you changed the subject.”
“I did. You didn’t ask about Walmart.”
“I saw all the toilet paper.”
Beck smiled. “Yeah.”
“That makes you happy?”
“You’ll find out, Mera, I am very easy to make happy.” He leaned in and kissed me lightly. “I am also very sorry I missed so much of all of your lives.”
“You were protecting Phoenix. You did it for me. I appreciate that. When you were at the facility, did you notice anything about—”
“So did you guys come up with a name for this place yet?” Beck interrupted.
“You just changed the subject again.”
“We need a name for this place.” Beck looked around. “Danny wants to call it Irk.”
“Irk?” I asked.
“Indian River Correction. Irk.”
I shook my head. “No. Maybe Hope.”
“Follow the lines of Grace?”
“Yes.”
“No. Be original.” He scraped the last of his stew from his dish.
“There is more stew.”
“I plan on sleeping after Mike arrives, so I don’t want to be too full. Besides, we don’t know how many he is bringing.”
“Thank you for sitting with me like this. Thank you for checking Phoenix’s head.”
“We have doctors for that,” Beck said. “But it was just a small cut. He’s fine. Speaking of fine… how are you?”
“Waiting on Michael. It’s sad. I feel like he’s going to be a dose of medicine I need.”
“Nothing is going to be a dose of good for a while. You lost your friend, a very… a good friend.”
I lowered my head and my eyes lifted, and then shifted.
“What are you looking for?”
“The boys.”
“They went out with Jessie.”
I stood immediately.
“Where are you going? Sit. I’ll go check.”
“Thank you. I just worry about it. It’s odd.”
Almost in a huff, like he was irritated with me, Beck stared down. “Mera, sweetie, listen. I don’t understand why you are freaking out. The babies had an incident. That’s all.”
After lowering my head again, I too, stood. “Don’t laugh.”
“Do I ever laugh at you?”
“No. But I am worried. See, Phoenix said—”
“Phoenix said?” Beck placed his hands on my shoulders. “He speaks great, but what could Phoenix say that would make you worried.”
“He said Keller is bad.”
Beck
nodded. “Yes, he would say that. Keller hit him with a rock.”
“No, Beck he said ‘Keller very bad’.”
“A kid would say that about another kid who hit him with a rock. Look…” He pointed out the window. “Look at them playing, this doesn’t warrant this worry. You’re tired, you said you weren’t feeling well, and I think you’re emotional because you are so upset over Alex.”
“I am. Maybe I’m not thinking clearly.”
“What are you thinking Mera?”
“Randy said… Randy said that Keller …” I shifted my eyes and dropped my voice, even though no one was around, I whispered, “That Keller is the Antichrist.”
Beck laughed.
“You said you wouldn’t laugh at me.”
“I not laughing at you, I am laughing at that notion. The Antichrist, Mera? Okay, even if I did buy into The Bible, the Antichrist would not have imperfections. He certainly wouldn’t put himself at such a disadvantage as being blind and deaf.” Beck cocked an eyebrow.
“But he speaks.”
“Speaks.”
“Not always, but sometimes. It’s not physical, it’s mental.”
“Like telepathy?”
“Yes, I heard it. Alex heard it. Jessie hears him.”
Beck held up his hand. “Not judging what you’re saying, but I’m gonna withhold until I … hear him.”
“I can accept that. So he’s not at a complete disadvantage if he can do that, and Randy—”
“Stop. Stop that. What happened to the world is not biblical. We both know this. So there are no religious implications in this at all. And let me correct you: Randy did not say Keller was the Antichrist; he said The Doctrines stated that.”
“Yes.”
“Then problem solved. If you’re so worried, and you seriously want to know, ask Sonny.” He kissed me on the cheek. “He writes The Doctrines. Ask him why he would say that.”
“He wouldn’t.”
“Misinterpretation. Whoever translated them and rewrote them added flair.” Beck led me to the window. “Look at them, Mera. Look at the boys.”
I peered out. Keller and Phoenix were playing together again. Jessie assisted, as she often did, guiding Keller’s hands to toys.
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