Jameson couldn’t stop the tears on his face. He didn’t fight them as he watched Elise stare at the miracle of her daughter as she slipped away by inches.
“You were immune to the first form of the virus,” Jameson murmured. “But when your daughter’s infected fluid got into your bloodstream…It was over.”
He thought he knew things about the virus now after having watched it as closely as he could. Several things, horrible things. Someone else needed to know them, too. He decided as he watched Elise slip away that he would have to leave and find someone who could use the knowledge he had.
“Take care…of her, please, Jameson,” Elise murmured as her arm dropped to her side. The other still cradled her daughter, until the last bit of life slipped away from her.
The last thing Jameson wanted was to say the words he found tumbling out of his mouth in the next instant:
“Leland, bring me a gun.”
Chapter Twenty-Six – Aftermath
The graves had to wait until night to be dug. Everyone was either too tired, too terrified, or too traumatized to do the grave-digging for the two unexpected casualties.
Jameson was glad Phoebe had slept through the worst of it, but he knew to expect her horror and outrage when she awakened.
She’d been crying in her room for the better part of an hour since she woke and he’d given her the tragic news. Now that he’d called up to her that the sun had set and he was off to dig the graves, she’d come out of her room dressed in fresh clothes.
Her eyes were shot through with red and puffy from crying. She carried her tennis shoes in one hand and sat on the bottom step to put them on as she said, “I want to help you.”
“You really don’t need to,” Jameson insisted as Leland approached.
“Me, too,” he said in a stuffy voice. He wore the evidence of his tears less prominently, but it was still there in his sagging shoulders, bleary eyes, and weary voice.
“All right, then,” Jameson agreed wearily as he turned toward the front door. “Let’s get it done.”
They chose a spot far away from the house and any fresh water source or garden the bodies could possibly contaminate. On the far corner of the back part of the wall, Phoebe simply started to dig without instructions or approval.
Leland joined in, and soon they all worked together in silence.
Jameson had wrapped the corpses of the mother and daughter together in a single white sheet. He gently lowered the bundle into the hole he’d dug with Leland and Phoebe and silently prayed for the salvation of their souls.
“It’s not right,” Leland declared as he let his shovel fall. “It’s just not right.”
Phoebe silently agreed with him as she began to fill the dirt back in. Jameson helped, and they soon had the grave covered with cool, soft earth.
“Should we say anything for them?” Jameson asked. There was plenty he wanted to say, but no words worked their way off his frozen tongue.
Phoebe took a mirror she’d hauled out from her uncle’s house and began to hammer nails into the wood of the wall near where Elise and her daughter had been buried. When she had a sturdy spot for it, she hung the mirror and pulled a thick permanent marker from her back pocket.
In sprawling cursive, she wrote the words, ‘Here lie Elise and Crystal. Treasured mother and daughter.’ Below that line, she wrote more words with a hand that shook and blurred the ink slightly, ‘Hope endures all.’
At the bottom, above the ornate gold frame that held the clean glass, she finished, ‘Love never dies.’
Jameson broke down and sat by the grave. He put his face in his hands and wept all of the outraged, fearful, and agonized tears he’d had built up since he watched Joselyn die.
Phoebe sat beside him and hugged him tight. She caught the sleeve of Leland’s shirt and pulled him down, as well. Together, they held each other and cried for the loss of Elise and her daughter.
“How did you know her name?” Jameson asked as he gestured to the words Phoebe had written.
“She told me,” Phoebe admitted. “She wanted someone to know in case…” She trailed off and more tears squeezed their way from her eyes. “I guess it doesn’t matter now.”
“It still does,” Leland declared. He didn’t know how it matter, but he knew it did.
“Come on,” Jameson said as he stood. He held out both of his hands and helped each of the teens to their feet. “We have a lot to talk about.”
They made their way back to the house, where the others were waiting.
“I’m so sorry, honey,” Jenn said as Phoebe walked by her.
“Thanks,” Phoebe said with a sad smile. She didn’t take the offered hug, but she wasn’t rude to her father’s wife. “We need to talk so we’ll see you guys later.”
Jenn nodded and took Gerry’s hand. She patted the back of his and smiled at him.
“Let’s go take a look at the gardens,” she suggested.
Gerry agreed and Art tagged along as they walked around the back of the farmhouse to give the others the privacy they obviously wanted.
Jameson, Leland, and Phoebe sat at the table in the dining room.
“I have to leave,” Jameson started off.
“Leave?” Phoebe asked incredulously. “We just lost Elise and you want to leave? Why?”
“I’m figuring things out about this virus,” Jameson explained as he poured a cup of tea from the glass pitcher on the table. “I can’t do anything about it from here. Another vampire needs the research I have on the flash drive, and they need to hear about what we’ve seen. I have to go find others of my kind.”
“But you would leave us without one of your kind,” Leland pointed out. “Come on, Jameson. You’re the only reason we’ve made it this far, man.”
“You’re secure now,” Jameson insisted. “The walls are high and strong. You can reinforce them easily. This place is going to be fine.”
“You won’t be if you go,” Phoebe insisted. “You can only travel at night, when the Rippers are strongest. They can move around during the day. If they find where you are, they could drive you out into the sun and fry you. What then? Your precious flash drive would go right up with you.”
Her insistent, stubborn look made Jameson want to break things. Of course she made solid points, which made him even more frustrated.
“I have to risk it,” he said. “I have to. If this is a virus, they can find a cure, they can find an antidote or vaccine or whatever. I think I have the blueprints for how this thing was made, how it spread. Someone who knows how to stop it needs the data I have.”
“I’ll do it,” Leland stated.
“No,” Jameson and Phoebe said together.
“It makes sense,” Leland declared. “I can move during the day and hide at night. If I get surrounded, I can run at any time of day without having to worry about my ass going up like a freaking torch. The further along this goes, the more likely it’ll be that the groups who survive are going to have a reason for it. My guess is, I find a group of human survivors and one or more of them will actually be like you.”
“Neither of you are going anywhere,” Phoebe exclaimed. “I put my foot down at suicide missions.”
She stood and paced.
Leland sighed and said, “Phoebe, what if we could help fix this? Come on, we have to do whatever we can to stop what’s happening. If another vampire might be able to figure things out...”
“Then they should come here!” Phoebe declared as she stomped one foot. She hated the temper tantrum, but she couldn’t think of a better way to express her outrage. “I don’t want to lose anyone else. We have a good thing here; let’s keep it.”
“Phoebe, if we let these things destroy the world, this place won’t stay good for long,” Jameson said. “You know that as well as I do. But I don’t want Leland to go, either.”
“Tell me it isn’t the smartest option and I won’t,” Leland countered.
Jameson slid his tea glass from one hand to the other.
With an exasperated growl, he snapped, “It is but I don’t have to like it.”
“I’ll try to send other people here,” Leland said as he stood. “Good people. People who prove themselves, okay? Jameson, why don’t you get started on building that village.”
Jameson stood, as well. He wore a concerned expression. “You plan on going now?”
“Sun’s high in the sky,” Leland said. “I’ll want to stop at a gas station and fill up, stay on the road for a while if I can. Did that maker of yours ever say how many vampires are out there?”
Jameson shrugged. “Hundreds of thousands,” he said. “They’re there to find if you know what to look for.”
“Hell, I’m just gonna ask,” Leland countered. “Flash drive,” he requested as he held one hand out.
“It’s in my room,” Jameson said. “Let me grab it. Phoebe, could you pack him a bag and some supplies?”
“Oh, sure,” Phoebe said sarcastically. “Let me just jump right on this idiotic bandwagon.”
She stormed off and slammed the front door as she left.
“She’ll see it was the best thing to do in time,” Jameson told Leland as they climbed the stairs together.
“Yeah, give it a few years and she’ll be willing to talk to me again,” Leland said with a shrug. “But I’m right, man. You know I’m right.”
“I’m trusting you with a lot here,” Jameson said. “I’ve saved the file to my laptop, but you have some crazy important information in hand now. Do what needs to be done with it.”
“Take care of the place while I’m gone,” Leland said as he took the flash drive from Jameson.
“Come back in one piece,” Jameson responded. “We’ll see you back here soon.”
“You’re a moron,” Phoebe said sullenly as Leland joined her on the porch. “You’re going to die out there.”
“Come on, Phoebe,” Leland cajoled as he bumped into her with his pack. “You know this needs to be done.”
“Why by you, though?” Phoebe asked in a petulant tone. “Why not Gerry and Jenn?”
“Oh, come on,” Leland scoffed. “You trust them with this? Listen, I have to do this. I have to do what I think is right for me and you guys and this place.”
He stopped for a moment and thought about what he wanted to say. The words didn’t come easily, but when they did come, he knew they were right.
“You can’t always protect the people you love. You can’t always save your family. But you better believe I won’t stop trying to be there for the people who need me now. That’s all of you here. Someone can use this to make sure you’re safe somewhere down the line. And I’m going to make that happen by going out and getting it to that someone. I have to go, Phoebe.”
Phoebe sighed and looked up to the third floor. Jenn and Gerry had taken a jar full of caterpillars and ladybugs up to Eli and Carmen. Now that Elise was gone, Jenn seemed to want to take responsibility for the young kids.
“I need to get the kids back on a schedule,” she said, changing the topic. “When you’re out there, could you find books for a variety of ages and activities they can do? Try to find people with kids to send back here, too. Eli and Carmen could use some friends their age.”
Leland gave Phoebe a one-armed hug and smiled. “You’re the softest drill sergeant out there, kiddo. I’ll be back before you know it.”
“Please be careful,” Phoebe told him. “Please come back.”
“I’ll be home before you know it,” Leland promised with a smile. “Take care of things here. See you again before you know it…”
EPILOGUE – TEN YEARS LATER
“Mama Phoebe, Carmen can’t find Pebbles and she’s freaking out,” Eli announced. He rolled his bright, lively eyes and gestured in the direction he’d last seen Carmen. The two had grown as siblings for the past ten years. Though she’d finally begun to speak regularly and was an intelligent girl, Carmen was reserved, skittish, and seemed far younger than her thirteen years.
Eli, on the other hand, was always ready to be involved in anything. He was gregarious and determined to make himself useful around their small community. He looked at Jameson and Leland as heroes and role models and both he and Carmen regarded Phoebe as a respected and well-loved surrogate parent.
“Tell her I’ll come help her look for Pebbles in a bit,” Phoebe told Eli with a smile. “Uncle Jameson and I are working right now. Be sure to close the door when you leave. You know he can’t come out unless you do.”
“Yes, Mama Phoebe,” Eli said as he left. He carefully closed the door and sealed the room in darkness once more. Lighted only by lanterns, the space was a place of perpetual midnight.
The farmhouse Phoebe and the others had commandeered to serve as a safe house in the first wave of Grissom virus infection had become a thriving community with tall, strong walls, self-sustaining food and water, and a population of twenty-eight survivors. Twenty-nine was on the way. The doctor who’d come to them six years ago, Dr. Dale Gibson, had assured Phoebe time and again that the new pregnant arrival would have no complications with her pregnancy. Phoebe still watched the woman, named Bethany, as carefully as she watched everyone.
The people in her community were hers to protect and be concerned for.
“Jameson,” she called. She and the vampire were in the communications building. During the day, the door was forbidden to be opened without knocking, as that was where Jameson spent the most of his time. Eli had entered after knocking and calling out to let them know who he was. He knew the process of getting Jameson safely secured before sunlight was allowed into the building.
The vampire approached from the back room. Two lanterns illuminated the space. There was a door that shut off the entryway from the communications room, and another that led to the room where Jameson often slept during the day. Caution was a lesson they had all learned well, in its varied forms, throughout the years of being ruled by the Grissom virus and its victims.
“Holy shit, J, we have contact,” Phoebe hissed. “Someone must have repaired the tower. The damn system is back up!”
Phoebe depressed the button on her radio and spoke into the handheld speaker.
“This is safe zone 264 seeking outside assistance. I repeat, safe zone 264 in need of help. Does anybody copy? Over.”
After Leland had brought another vampire, Ramses, into their safe zone more than three years before, they’d been informed of their place as the 264th compound that had withstood the Ripper flood. There certainly weren’t two hundred and sixty-four safe zones still standing, but the previous numbers had been retired when their assigned compounds fell to the Rippers.
“Do you really need to say ‘over’?” Jameson asked jokingly as he sat beside her.
Phoebe shushed him and sat still as she waited with held breath for someone to respond.
“Yes, we copy you, 264.” The voice on the other line came through strong and steady. Phoebe nearly passed out in her relief and excitement. “We’ve just had one of our towers repaired,” the male on the other end of the radio continued. “We should have an open line of communication from this point on. Please tell us your status. Over.”
Phoebe’s voice went soft with worry as she spoke to the other safe zone.
“We’re all humans here except one,” she informed the other safe zone. By now, vampires had made their presence well known to the remaining humans. Any safe zone that still operated owed their success to having a vampire on board. “We have no supply runners, no guards, and our barricades are weakening. I don’t…I think they might get through soon.”
It took Phoebe a moment to end her assessment of their status with the word, “Over.” She knew it probably wasn’t what the other safe zone wanted to hear. Their communications had been down for years. Having it back up was fantastic, but the thought that it might be too late gnawed at everyone involved in the conversation.
“Hang tight, 264,” the voice on the other line urged. “We’ll get someone to you soon. Keep your lin
e open and call if you need us. We’ll help if we can. Over and out.”
Phoebe sighed and placed the broadcaster piece back on its holder on the small, square, black radio.
“I’m going to go walk the wall a little bit,” she told Jameson. “Talk to them if they get back with us and have questions or something.”
Jameson nodded and retreated to the back room until he heard Phoebe close and lock the outside door. When she was gone and the sun was cut off from his space, he returned to the radio to sit for the day.
Phoebe saw Carmen running toward her as she exited the communications building and squinted in the bright sunlight. Pebbles, the little brown mutt who’d been rescued just outside the wall a little less than three years back, nipped playfully at Carmen’s heels.
The dog, more than anything else, had brought Carmen fully out of her shell. She’d blossomed, just as the safe zone had blossomed. And now, Phoebe worried, she might be snuffed out along with it.
“Found Pebbles, Mama Phoebe,” Carmen said, a little out of breath. “Love your face.” Carmen had problems expressing emotion, and she didn’t say, “I love you,” to anyone at all. The most anyone got was that she loved some part of them.
Phoebe was told her face, hair, eyes, and brain were loved more often than anyone else. She would take that over the girl’s sometimes silent, and even less oftentimes violent moods.
Phoebe climbed up the lookout railing that had been built into the walls over the years. When she stood on the top one, her shoulders came up over the top of the fifteen foot wall and she could look over.
What she saw was not encouraging.
Rippers. An increasingly large horde of them; a hundred deep in some places. At night, when their strength and ferocity came, they clawed and punched at the walls. The attack tactic had been mostly ineffective up until that point, but the people she trusted agreed they would get through sooner or later.
There were people behind the walls to be protected at all costs. Phoebe knew she couldn’t let the safe zone fall. She’d called for help, but help might not come. She wanted to talk to Jameson and Leland, who had been safely back for almost four years.
The New Night Novels (Book 1): Rippers: A New Night Novel Page 14