HARD ROAD: Heaven Bound

by Terry McDonald

  “Did you hear what he said to Saint?”

  “He said, ‘Jerry, get Saint on the radio right now. Tell him I’m going to make his day’. Saint came on the radio and said ‘What you got.’

  “Then the man said, ‘I tell you what I got John, I got the ones what’s been killin’ our men. What’s it worth to you?’

  “Saint said, ‘Don’t mess with me Puckett, where are you?’ and the man Puckett said, ‘I ain’t messing with you John, but I want ten extra days with the white whores.’

  “Saint said… do you want me to say the bad words?”

  “Only this time,” Jake said.

  “He said, ‘Hell, you can have twenty days with the fucking whores. Tell me where they are, you son-of-a-bitch.’

  “That’s when Al gave me the signal to kill him. I shot him in the neck first so he couldn’t talk anymore, and then I shot him in the chest like you told Al to do with the gun.”

  “Janie, Al, you two handled a scary situation perfectly, and I’m right that you probably saved our lives. I’m so proud of you, I don’t know the right words to say. Al, are you okay?”

  “I’m okay. It’s her did the killing.”

  “Al told me we couldn’t kill him till we were sure he was a bad man. He thinks the good people are trying to hide, but maybe some are trying to get to safe places like we are.” Janie said.

  “He’s right, but most of the ones roaming are up to no good. This is a sorry point we’ve come to for kids to have to decide who lives or dies. I’m sick of it.” Jake said.

  “I’m taking the two young ones to the cabin,” Eva said. “I need a new icepack, and I want a few minutes alone with them. The rest of you can make sure there isn’t anyone else creeping up on us.”

  Jake stood. “Thank you Eva. Beth, you and Agnes stay on guard and watch each other’s backs. I’m taking a hike the way he came from. From the conversation Janie related, I believe he was alone, but I rather not go on an assumption.”

  When Jake returned, he relieved Agnes, and remained at the edge of the cut on guard with Beth. Beth informed him that someone, she assumed, John Saint, had spoken twice on the radio trying to get Puckett to talk to him.

  Jake looked at the radio and a smile formed on his face. He removed the microphone from its clasp.

  “What do you think Beth, should we talk to Saint?”

  “Why would we? What would we say to him?”

  “This could be an opportunity to mislead him, misdirect him. It will also be fun in a gruesome sort of way.”

  “You just want to mess with him.” Beth said, with a smile on her face to match his. “I want to talk too.”

  Jake keyed the microphone. “Are you there John?”

  There was a long pause before a voice came from the radio.

  “Who the hell is this?”

  “I’m the man who’s going to kill you. Name’s Markett, Jake Markett. You keep calling for your man Puckett. Well John, Puckett can’t speak anymore, a friend of mine cut his throat.”

  “You son of a bitch, I’ll do worse than that when I get my hands on you.”

  “Those are mighty brave words for a sissy. We killed your man not a half mile from where you are. The lady who killed him is sitting right beside me on top of a building. We’re watching your camp.”

  Beth could not help laughing. She reached for the microphone.

  “Hello John, this is Beth. We haven’t met yet, but I hope to meet you late at night. I’m going to cut you with the same knife I used on Puckett and I’m not even going to wipe his blood off it.”

  “Fuck you bitch, we’ll catch you two before you get out of town and my men can have a party in your ass.”

  “We’re the ones been having the party. After we killed your four on the road, I’m the one who shot your truck driver in the face. We killed your gang of rapists at the farm house, and burned up a bunch of cannibals later that night.”

  Beth passed the microphone back to Jake.

  “John, are you still there?”

  “I’m here, you bastard.”

  “We have to go now. Don’t want your men to catch us. How many of you have we killed already? My count’s at twenty-four, but I may be missing a few. It’s so easy, we’ll probably kill a few more before we come for you.”

  Beth reached with her hand, indicating she wanted to speak again. Jake passed the microphone to her.

  “Hello John, we have to go now, but I needed to correct Jake. He forgot to include Puckett. That makes twenty-five of your men dead. You'll see me standing over you one night with my bloody butcher knife in my hand... Oh, by the way, I’m a black woman. When we bury you that’s what we’ll write on your grave. John Saint, cut dead by the hand of a black woman.”

  “You fuckin' bitch, when I—.

  Jake turned the radio off.

  “Saint will have his men searching every building in Bainbridge,” he said, unable to suppress a laugh. “That should keep him confused as to our whereabouts.” He laughed again. “I bet he has nightmares for a while.”

  *

  It took five days for the swelling to reduce enough for Agnes to repair Eva’s nose. The time weighed heavily on Jake’s mind, but Eva’s condition was such, the delay was mandatory. To keep his mind off it, he found ways to occupy himself. It was while working in the forest nearby the cabin, Agnes and Eva came to him, interrupting his vigorous machete attack on the underbrush and small trees.

  “I figured we’d find you here. You’re making progress.” Agnes said, looking back along the path he was making through the forest. She handed him a bottle of water. “Would you mind taking a break for a few minutes?”

  He accepted the water gratefully, wiping sweat from his face with a rag, motioning for them to sit in a cleared section he was working on.

  “Jake, Eva has some information to pass on to you, and I have a few questions to ask.”

  “Sounds serious,” Jake, responded. He turned to Eva. “What’s up?”

  “Nothing bad, just some information I need to relate. Yesterday Beth had her first period.”

  “But that’s impossible… wait a minute, you’re serious aren’t you?”

  “I’m dead serious. In the time since the plague, she is the only female I’ve encountered to have a monthly cycle.”

  “That’s one of the effects of the nanobot infection.”

  “I know about your theory concerning the infection.”

  “Not a theory,” he interjected, “a proven fact.”

  “I’m not denying it, what I’m saying is, having had her period, it’s possible she could get pregnant. I thought you should know. I’ve already explained this to her.”

  “I’m glad you told me.”

  “There are some other things,” Eva continued. "Agnes gave Beth a physical yesterday. Her report to me indicated she is a virgin. I examined her myself. Her hymen is intact. I don’t have any explanation for this. Jake, I’m not a psychiatrist, so I can’t speak professionally, but as we examined her this morning, just from bits of the general conversation, her emotional frame of mind is that she is a virgin. You know her past, Agnes has told me as well. There’s something going on here that I can’t conceptualize.”

  “Has Agnes told you about the studies the researchers in Wisconsin are doing and that I had an accident involving them?”

  “Yes she has, and she’s detailed the phenomenon involving the four of you.”

  “Good. Agnes, you may recall, the researchers discovered even people unaffected by the plague have nanobots inside them masquerading as normal cells.

  “An MRI generates a very strong magnetic field. Doctor Leonard Bernstein, one of the researchers up in Wisconsin performed several scans on survivors of the plague. When they examined his results, they found a large number of what they called hot spots. They couldn’t get a fine resolution of the cause, but they knew anything that could disrupt the field had to be generating a field of its own.

  “They ran more people through the
machine, targeting different areas, and found them to have hotspots scattered throughout their bodies.”

  “So you’re saying, right now, the three of us sitting here have these machines inside us. I find that to be very disturbing,” Eva said.

  “It is to me too… no… especially to me.” Jake agreed. “I know they are affecting the three siblings, changing them and Agnes too.”

  “They do more than promote good health.” Agnes stated.

  “Yes they do,” Jake agreed. “I thought that was all they did, but now I’m not so sure. I think listen to us talk, and they are infecting and altering the people close to me, for a purpose.

  “I am worried about one thing, and it’s a big worry. Is what’s happening between Beth and me being influenced by the nanobots for their own ends? Are the feelings we came to have for each other nothing more than manipulations by some damn, murderous machines?”

  “”I’m aghast at the thought they would be capable of that,” Eva said.

  “Hold up there a minute, Jake,” Agnes said. “I watched the two of you fall in love and it was a natural progression. I’ll admit it was a fast romance, but—.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Jake interjected. “I’m in head over heels, and I’m asking her to marry me.”

  “Considering they made her a virgin for you, you'd be remiss not doing so.” Eva said, contritely.

  “No, they did that for her, because she wanted to be one for me. Let me explain something else I believe is happening. I think the nanobots are acting on words I say. I compliment Janie’s eyesight, and it gets even better, same thing with her martial arts skills. I tell Al he’s smart, and he gets smarter. Beth subconsciously wanted to be a virgin and now she is.

  “There’s another thing. When I first met Beth, we had a strange experience. I saw her as she is now, fully mature. I also related her skin color to chocolate, and now, I often get the distinct flavor of milk chocolate in my mouth when she comes close. It’s weird, like magic, and I don’t know why it’s happening.”

  “Beth told me about your, 'look in my eyes, thing',” Agnes said. “She came away from the experience smelling Old Spice when she’s near you, the same cologne her father used.

  “I find all this rather frightening,” Eva said.

  “Well, I don’t,” Agnes, disagreed, “So far, now that they're not killing people, all they’re doing is good stuff. I would be careful though, Jake. If they can read your mind and hear your words, they may not take kindly to you calling them murdering machines.”

  “If they are reading my mind they have heard worse than that,” Jake replied grimly.

  “Well, unless Doctor Herman has a cure, I guess we’re stuck with them. Agnes stood and offered Eva a hand up. You may as well get back to chopping Jake. We’re no less confused, but what the hell. I’m going to check on the rest of our infected tribe.”

  “I’ll join you in a minute Agnes,” Eva, said. “I want a private word with Jake.” She watched her until she was out of sight before turning to speak to him.

  “Jake, I haven’t had an opportunity to thank you for what you’ve done for me. I want you to know I appreciate and thank you for taking this, uppity old Yankee Jew, in from the wilds.”

  Jake laughed, “You have a way about you. You know, now that your swelling has gone down, you remind me of someone.”

  “Katherine Hepburn. I get that all the time.”

  “Now that you mention it, yeah, and you sound a lot like her.”

  “Just about the same heritage and upbringing,” she replied. “I have to ask this question. Jake, in your heart of hearts, do you feel that the nanobots are behind what’s happening between you and Beth?”

  “Without a doubt, yes they are.”

  “And that doesn’t bother you?”

  “Eva, you have no idea how much it bothers me.”

  “And yet you’ll ask her to marry you?”

  “The damn machines may be manipulating her pheromones to make her irresistible, but it is not lust that drives me. I am comfortable with her and somehow I feel she’s a part of me that was missing.

  “I was married. She and my sons are no longer alive. Joan and I loved each other. It was a good love, relaxed and comfortable.

  “Eva, I strive to be a man of good character, but first and foremost, I am a warrior. I knew this from the moment of my first time in battle. Beth is a fighter. She has the heart of a warrior. When I am with her, I feel complete, whole.

  “So, you see, it doesn’t matter that the nanobots are influencing events.”

  “Is it possible that the nanobots made her into a warrior just for that very reason?”

  “Beth was in-your-face combative from the first moment I met her.”

  Eva said, “In that case, I am glad you found each other. And I also say bravo to the warriors who rescued me. Beth is a sweet girl and it is hard to imagine a warrior resides in her.

  Her siblings are sweet as well, yet Janie, not yet ten years old killed a man and feels no remorse at all. She did say she wished the man hadn’t come and made her kill him and that it was his own fault he’s dead. I have a feeling that you can add her to your warrior list.”

  Jake nodded, “She doesn’t want to kill, but she is the epitome of practical. In a practical sense, she had to kill the man that was planning harm for us. How about Allen? What did you glean from him with your talk?”

  “Allen is a thinker, not a warrior. He did tell me, if not for the noise the rifle would have made, he would have shot the man to spare his sister from the duty, that’s how he’s sees the situation; a duty to be done. Unlike Janie who would meet danger head-on, Allen is non-confrontational and would look for other than lethal solutions.”

  Jake smiled and said, “I am guessing your doctorate is in psychology?

  “My minor; my doctorate is neurosurgery. I hope I have not overstepped my bounds with my questions and thoughts.”

  “No, Eva. Your questions and statements were fairly asked and given and I welcome, no, I thank you for them. What you related fits perfectly with what I think are the dynamics concerning Beth and the kids.”

  *

  Jake returned to wielding his machete only to be interrupted again by the arrival of Al. Al stopped near him, and looked back the way he'd come.

  “Why are you cutting a trail through the woods?”

  Jake laid down his machete, mopped his forehead with a rag and took a swallow from the water bottle. “Mostly for something to do. How's Janie holding up?” he asked, sitting on the ground and motioning Al to join him.

  “She's okay, but in a way she's not okay. I came out here to talk to you about her.”

  Jake shifted his position to face him. “Sounds like you've got something serious on your mind. Is she having a problem dealing with what she had to do?”

  “No, and that's the problem. Killing that man means nothing at all to her. I asked her the next day if she was having any bad dreams about it, and she told me she wasn’t, and that she didn't even think about him unless somebody mentions him. To her, she killed a bad man, and that it is not the same thing as killing a real person. She told me bad people don't count at all.”

  Jake looked at the young boy in front of him. Al seemed almost ready to cry.

  “What do you think about that and how do you feel about your part in what happened?” he asked in a gentle tone.

  “I think about him, about how he looked around at us when Janie shot him in the neck. I saw how hurt and surprised he was, and I could see his fear. He was afraid of us, and afraid of dying. It was like I was seeing everything slower than normal. Janie notched and fired her second arrow so fast he didn't have time to even try to speak, but I could see his face, and his whole body screaming for her not to kill him. I did have a nightmare the first night after.”

  Jake reached for Al's hand and held it in both of his. “I am so sorry protecting us fell on you and Janie, but this is the world we have to survive in. Can you think of anything that
could have been done differently?”

  Al shook his head. “No. We did what needed to be done, and from reading the books, I realize that justice has to be dealt, but what I don't like is that it doesn't bother Janie.”

  “Is she acting differently?”

  Again, Al shook his head. “No, she's the same as always.”

  Jake realized Al needed an answer to something very difficult to explain, but knew he had to make the attempt.

  “Al, I want you to listen carefully. Everyone is different, and their differences allow them to handle the experiences in life in many diverse ways. People are complicated. There are those like John Saint, who have no respect for life at all, but love themselves above everything and everyone. There are those like Eva who would rather heal than harm. There are people like me and Beth, so full of hate that we want to kill those who harm us, and will go out of our way to do it. You have Janie. She doesn't want to kill, but she will if it means keeping us from harm. Thankfully, it doesn't weight heavy on her mind. There is you. You would kill also to keep us from harm, but it would weigh on you.

  “You have been reading the books on philosophy and law. The search for life’s meaning has eluded even the greatest of minds, but laws have not. Law, in its simplest form, is based on the premise, live your life how you see fit, but don't do anything to harm others... What does all this I said mean to you?”

  Al thought for a minute. “If people were all the same and thought just alike, we wouldn't need laws.”

  Jake, smiled. “No laws at all?

  Al thought again before answering. “Are rules the same thing as laws?

  “Rules can be considered laws, but not absolute laws.”

  “I think I understand better about people. Janie and I are together so much that I thought she should be more like me. I guess I should be glad she doesn't have nightmares about killing that man. I'm going to keep reading the books, and maybe when we get to Heaven, there will be more. If there are going to be a lot of people there, then we're going to have to have rules and laws. I want us to be where people live by laws.”

  Jake gave Al's hand a squeeze before letting go of it. “That's why we're fighting to get there, and why we can't let anyone stop us. When we arrive, we will have a huge job ahead of us and you will be a big part of whether we succeed or fail. I commend you and recommend that you continue your studies. Perhaps guidance and governance is the role the nanobots see for you.”