The mirror was proof that she looked as dirty as she felt.
“That’s okay,” Corina said, stepping further into her room, but pointing back the way she had come. “My mommy has water in the tub and we could have it ready for you in two shakes.”
“Two shakes? Two shakes of what?” Jillybean couldn’t imagine what Mrs. Woods would shake in order to get a bath ready. Bath salts, which Jillybean had discovered weren’t salty at all, was the only thing she could figure. She didn’t care for them much, in her opinion they only slimed up the water.
“Of a lamb’s tail, silly. She’s had it ready for a while, but we were waiting for you to wake up, and then you didn’t. You just slept and slept the whole day away. We’re supposed to call on Doctor April when you wake up. She said she wants to give you a look-over, but don’t worry, I asked if you would be getting a shot and she said not this time.”
Jillybean’s fear and the hissing, which was beginning to sound like whispering again, had faded into the background, however now that grownups were being brought into the conversation, they came on again. She had the strongest desire to grab Emily and run away without so much as a thank you.
“A bath sounds pretty good, but I don’t need to see a doctor. That’s what means I’m fine. Really. I was just tired is all.”
Corina laughed like a child should—a high, happy sound that was devoid of any fear. “Boy, I’d say you were tired. You slept the whole day away and now it’s night out. It’s even past my bedtime, but mommy wanted my help with the baby.”
A new fear smote Jillybean. First there had been talk of a doctor and now Emily needed to be helped? This got her out of the bed and hurrying towards the door. “Is she okay?”
“Sure. She’s a rascal and that’s for certain. She’s a grabber, too. She took Father Amacker glasses right off his face and she grabbed daddy’s beard. And she got hold of Anita’s hair and wouldn’t let go, not for nothing.”
Jillybean stopped in the doorway. Emily was fine, why go on? she thought to herself. Why not just go back to bed? The bed was only a temporary refuge. She knew she had to go on and face the grownups but the fear of them and what they would ask was too much and turned her feet to lead.
“She’s still awake,” Corina said, taking Jillybean’s hand in hers. “You can see her before your bath.” Effortlessly, the younger girl guided Jillybean from the room and down the stairs where Rachael and David Woods waited. By their expressions, they had heard parts of the conversation and were expecting Jillybean.
Rachael was still so soft and fresh of face. If it weren’t for the two gas lamps and the heavy curtains, it would not have seemed as though this was a time of monsters and murder and slavers in the hills looking down on them. Rachael held Emily, who gazed with tired goggle-eyes at Jillybean. She reached out a pudgy fist, but Rachael made no move to hand over the baby. Standing next to her, David seemed like a giant. He was trying to keep a pleasant look on his normally rough face.
Jillybean fully expected an interrogation concerning the baby, similar to what Grey had put her through, however Rachael smiled and asked, “How are you feeling? Are you hungry? We have chicken and biscuits. They’re a little cold. Some people like them like that, but if you want, I can heat them up. And then what do you say to a bath?”
Was this a trick of some sort? Jillybean wondered. Why weren’t they grilling me? “Uh, yes please. If it’s not too much trouble, I like stuff warm when I can get it.”
“I’m the same way,” Rachael agreed. “Here, do you want to hold the baby while I get a plate ready?” She handed over the baby, picked up one of the lamps and then beckoned Jillybean to the kitchen. Corina followed, playing peek-a-boo with Emily behind Jillybean as they walked. David strode along in silence at the rear and Jillybean could tell the questions about the baby were coming.
However, Rachael only busied herself at the stove while Dave leaned in the doorway. Jillybean was so unnerved that she didn’t notice that Emily wasn’t wearing her usual diapers. The ones she had on were cloth. “How’s her diaper rash? It was hard to…” Just then, Emily reached into the mess of hair on Jillybean’s head and gave it a good yank. “Ow!”
“She’s got a heck of a grip,” David remarked and then nodded his head towards the door. “I’m going to take off, to get you know who. I’ll be right back.”
Rachael’s smile became fixed and her: “Sure, dear,” was accompanied by a quick look in Jillybean’s direction. Who were they going to get? Father Amacker to denounce her sins? Doctor April to give her a “shot” that was really some sort of knock-out drug? A group of men to drag her off to the same pit she and Sadie had been inspected in on their first visit?
The thought of the pit sent a shiver through her and now there were more snakes whispering back and forth in her head. She turned to Corina, who didn’t seem to hear them at all. “What’s her name?” Corina was asking. “We’ve just been calling her ‘baby’ except Anita, who wanted to call her Anita Junior or just AJ but nobody thought that was a good name at all. I thought she looked like a Jessica because she’s kinda sassy.”
“Sassy?” Jillybean didn’t know how such a small baby could be sassy, exactly. “Um, no, her name is Emily.”
“That’s nice, too. Emily, Em-a-lee. I like it. You know what you could call her instead of something like junior? You could call her Emilybean. You’d be Jillybean and she’d be Emilybean.”
That would never happen. No one would ever call her that, certainly not Emily’s parents. To change the subject, Jillybean laid the baby down to check her diaper rash. Surprisingly the rash was gone.
“She was teething,” Corina told her. “I don’t know how it works but when a baby’s mouth hurts they get a rash. Crazy, huh?”
Jillybean agreed that it was crazy and then needed to change the subject a second time. Thankfully, Corina had a lot to say. She went into extended detail about the new planting, Anita’s new front teeth, and the pregnant cat that had begun hanging around the town. The idea of getting a kitten was like heaven to her.
At some time during one of Corina’s run-on sentences, her mother set a steaming plate in front of Jillybean with one hand and took Emily in the other. For the next ten minutes, the little girl shoveled food into her mouth, nodding on occasion to Corina, who progressed from topic to topic without pause.
The front door opened just as Jillybean was about to take the last bite of gravy and chicken. The fork stopped just in front of her mouth. There seemed to be some sort of barrier in front of her lips.
“Bed time, Corina,” her mommy ordered, curtly. “We’ll all be up soon.” Her tone made it clear that no argument would be entertained.
“Night,” Corina said and then slipped out of the kitchen just as David entered with Father Amacker and Doctor April. When she left, the four grownups smiled at Jillybean and she could tell they were trying to ease her fears. It wasn’t going to happen. She didn’t like so many eyes on her, especially when they looked down from so high up. They were like harsh pale, accusing moons.
Father Amacker took the initiative, however his first question threw Jillybean for a loop. “Can you tell me where Sadie is?”
“Sadie?” she asked, forgetting for a moment that only she could see the ghost of her sister. She stared around the kitchen, searching the shadows thrown off by the single lantern; there were plenty of them. She missed the girl in black at first, but then Sadie raised a white hand. Jillybean had to force herself not to react. The grownups wouldn’t understand.
Lies started springing into her head but with the priest’s rheumy eyes baring down on her, Jillybean decided that the fewer lies the better. “Sh-she died. A slaver shot her.”
Father Amacker let out a long breath. “Oh, that is terrible news, your sister was quite a remarkable person. I think I can speak for all us when I say how sorry we are.” The grownups nodded and Jillybean took that moment to drop her chin, breaking eye contact. Now would come the tough questions.
“Can you tell us about the baby?” Doctor April asked. “Whose is she?”
Even though the question was expected, the snakes and the whisperers really started to kick up a racket. “A person I know. A friend I mean. Emily…she was kidnapped.” This was true and didn’t that make it alright to say?
“Oh, dear. That’s terrible,” Rachael said. “Was it the same slavers that killed Sadie?”
In a manner of speaking it was. Sadie was dead because Jillybean was too slow. She was to blame for it all.
Sadie wouldn’t stand for this. She strode out of the shadows to stand just behind the priest. I thought you weren’t going to lie, she accused, because that is a damned lie. I died because bad people did some very bad things. Not because of you. Now, tell them, or I will.
“No, it wasn’t the same people,” she answered as she ducked her chin to her chest again. “There are a lot of bad guys out there, I guess.”
“And how did you end up with the baby?” David Woods asked. He and Doctor April had very shrewd eyes. Whenever Jillybean glanced up, she saw them drilling into her, looking for lies.
She had to tread very lightly. She had to walk the line between truth and lies or she would lose Emily. “I stolded her. At night, when no one was looking I stolded her and now I’m bringing her to Bainbridge and that’s what means it’s an island over by Seattle. Her mom is going to meet me there. You see there were these notes and riddles and, and it’s very complicated, but that is where I have to go. I have to leave in the morning to make sure everything turns out alright.”
Father Amacker seemed confused. “What happened to finding a home out west? That’s what you and Sadie were doing, correct?”
David held up a finger before Jillybean could answer. “And what’s with all the explosives on the top of your car? Did you make those? Because that’s…uh, interesting.”
More questions equalled more whispers and as they grew, she started to feel a thrumming in her chest and an ache in her tummy. She took a deep breath and answered the second question first. For her bombs weren’t scary. They relaxed her. “I think bombs are interesting, too, and those ones use ANFO and that’s what means it’s a ammonium nitrate, fuel oil based industrial explosive. And that’s what means…” She stopped as her enthusiasm seemed be worrying the adults. “Anyway, they are bombs and we did find a new place to live at Bainbridge. It’s very nice. It’s why we’re meeting there.”
“Oh, dear,” Rachael said again. She looked stricken and turned to her husband. “Dave, honey, she can’t go alone.”
“No, no she can’t.” He thought for a few seconds, squinting at the wall as though he could see through it. “It’ll be a three, maybe four day trip. I’ll check to see if some of the fellas would be willing to come along. I know Jason Holmes was a little sweet on Sadie. He’ll come for sure. Probably George Cook and Troy Holt, too. If we’re looking at a morning departure I should go give them a heads up.”
Rachael grabbed his arm. “You’ll need someone to help with Emily. You can’t put it all on Jillybean. I’d ask Zoe Fletcher if she wouldn’t mind going with you. She’s handy with a gun as well as a diaper.”
David grinned at this. “One more person between me and a diaper is reason enough to bring her along. I’ll ask.” He kissed his wife, nodded to April and Father Amacker, and left. As his boots sounded in the hall, Jillybean was suddenly hopeful. Maybe this meant that they were going to leave her alone. Maybe they were done with the questions.
“So, this is happening?” Doctor April asked, looking perturbed. “Just like that? Look, I’m fine with David and the others going, but Jillybean really should stay. You can see the trauma she’s experienced in her eyes.”
Father Amacker shrugged and nodded, and was about to agree with her. Jillybean couldn’t allow it. There would be trouble if they tried to force her to remain behind. “I have to go,” she insisted. “There are bad guys…lots of them. Lots and lots of them, but I know how to get through. That’s what me and Sadie were doing, finding the safe path. If they go without me, they’ll die.”
Rachael’s pleasant and clear face, suddenly went hard, and the small smile she always wore turned into a grim line. “I say she goes with them. I know it sounds rough, but she knows better than anyone here in Colton what’s out there, and she knows how to deal with it all, maybe even better than David. And they’ll bring her back with them.”
Jillybean nodded in agreement and it was a lie. David and the others would find out soon that she was the kidnapper and the bad guy. They wouldn’t want her then, no matter if God forgave her sins, or not.
Doctor April was far from satisfied. “I’d like to give Jillybean a quick checkup, before I sign off on this.”
“She also needs a bath,” Rachael said, “so don’t be too long.”
“Some things are more important than bathing, and yes, Father, I understand cleanliness is next to godliness. Let’s go, Jillybean.” April marched her to the upstairs bathroom and as they walked, Jillybean had the illogical feeling that if she turned around, she would see the doctor with a pistol in her hands.
She only carried a lantern, which she set on the edge of the sink. “Okay sweetie, I need you to strip down to your undies.” Jillybean never felt so vulnerable as when she was in front of an adult without clothes on. Normally, the feeling wasn’t so bad when it was a female, however, Doctor April had those shrewd eyes. As well, she knew things. She was a real doctor, after all. “Hmmmm,” she said a few times as she shined a penlight into Jillybean’s eyes and mouth. She then tapped her all over, both with a little hammer and with her fingers.
“I don’t know how to do percussive examinations,” Jillybean admitted. “I just know it’s a thing. How’s it work?”
April shook her head. “I’ll tell you when you get back, though I think I should say if you get back. I get the feeling you don’t plan on coming back. I know you’re not telling us all there is to tell. Are you?”
Sadie was in the tub behind the curtain. She was just a shadow of a shadow, now. Jillybean glanced at her before dropping her chin down and answering in a little voice, “No.”
“Is it about Sadie?” April asked. It was just one of many crucial things that Jillybean was holding back; she nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Are you hearing her speak in your head? Like before? It won’t do you any good to lie. You don’t look good and the way your eyes twitch…it’s not right. And I found these in your car.” She held up the bottle marked Zyprexa and gave it a rattle. “This is the same bottle I gave you weeks ago. You should have been out by now and that means you’ve been missing a lot of doses.”
“Yes ma’am.”
The doctor opened the bottle and shook a pill out into her palm. “I want you to take this, right here, right now. Do you want water with that?”
Jillybean didn’t need water to take an aspirin and in the flicker of the lantern, the pill looked like any other pill—if one didn’t look too closely. Quickly, before April saw that it wasn’t the antipsychotic that she had prescribed, Jillybean dry swallowed it and then opened her mouth to April.
“Good,” Doctor April said. “Now, I’m going to give the rest of these to Mr. Woods and he’s going to make sure you take them twice a day. When you get to Bainbridge, he’s going to make sure that whoever is there knows the same thing. It’s for your own good, Jillybean.” The doctor then yawned and said, “After your bath, I want it to be bed time, got it? You need your rest. Doctor’s orders.”
When it came to Jillybean’s physical health, Doctor April ranked higher than both the priest and the mother of the house, though neither of them actually argued. Jillybean had her bath, a luxurious affair that she didn’t want to end, however by midnight Rachael was exhausted from a day spent with Emily. She sent Jillybean to bed.
Jillybean had already slept twelve hours and didn’t think she could sleep another minute, however her exhaustion went deep into her bones. She slept through to sunrise and she might have slept further,
however the house came alive with not just the normal routines but also with the hectic preparations involved in a trip.
David Woods was a smart man and a good planner. He had a Dodge Ram geared up for a ten day trip. “Just in case,” he said to his wife. He wouldn’t need even a day’s worth of goods. Jillybean had made her own preparations. As much as she liked the idea of grownups coming with her, she couldn’t allow it.
They would die. They always died. If Sadie could be killed, it meant that no one was safe.
But before they would die, they would see Jillybean for who she really was: a killer. There were bad guys between her and Bainbridge and they would have to be destroyed—totally destroyed. But there would be casualties and she didn’t think she could take it picturing Rachael waiting in her second floor bedroom watching out the window day after day.
The Dodge Ram went first, with David driving, looking stern, while in the passenger seat Jason Holmes worked the controls of the drone she had named Julio. Jillybean had watched him practice with it and was glad that she had two back-ups. He was fumble-fingered and they could go no faster than the drone which slipped and slid across the sky as though it was drunk.
In the back, holding an M4 pointed out the window, was a fellow named Troy Holt. He had a scar across the bridge of his nose and another that cut a part in his hairline. She guessed that he was a tough sort of guy. It wouldn’t matter. He’d be just as dead if he left their little mountain retreat.
Zoe Fletcher rode with Jillybean. She had a pleasant face, soft flaxen hair and quick hands. When she wasn’t holding different items out for Emily to grab and stuff in her mouth, she practiced changing out the magazine in the Glock she carried. Despite the snail pace, Zoe insisted that Emily ride in her car seat and that was perfect. The car seat, along with the rumble of the Camry’s motor had a sleepafying affect on the baby and within a half hour, before they had made it ten miles, she was asleep.
The Undead World (Book 10): The Apocalypse Sacrifice Page 46