Sleepers (Book 7): Sleepers 7

by Druga, Jacqueline

  I stopped the truck a few feet from the gate, stepped out, and stood with Miles.

  “This won’t work,” I said. “It’s just one big house. No way are we getting a hundred people in here comfortably. Plus, there needs to be a medical facility for our doctors. How did we live here, or rather, how do we live here?”

  “In Ed’s future there weren’t many of us, remember? We probably had no problem.”

  “This won’t do. We have to keep moving.” I looked at my watch. “We should stop for the night.”

  “Wanna stay here?” Miles asked.

  “Looks spooky,” I said.

  “Yeah, it does.”

  “Not sure if I’ll sleep well. I’ll bet it’s haunted.”

  “Probably is,” Miles said. “You scared of ghosts?”

  “I’m man enough to admit I am.”

  “Yeah, me too.”

  “I saw an old Motel Six down the road,” I pointed back with my thumb. “Let’s head there.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  I gazed at the house for another minute. It was a beautiful old home. Creepy, yet beautiful. Just as I turned, I saw her through the corner of my eye. Her hair was pulled up and she twirled and danced around the front of the house wearing a dress straight from the 1800’s.

  “Shit,” I said, backing up. “I knew it. You see that? I told you it was haunted.”

  “Never doubted you for a second.” Miles hurried to the passenger side.

  “I hope she doesn’t follow us.” I raced to the driver’s door.

  “Wait!” the female voice called out faintly.

  “Christ, Sonny, she’s speaking. Get in! Get in!”

  I whipped open the door and jumped in. I could still hear her calling, her ghostly frame running toward the fence. After starting the truck, I put it in reverse, backed up a little, then slammed on the brakes.

  “What? What is it?” Miles asked.

  I looked at the woman at the gate.

  “That’s not a ghost.” I put the truck in park, opened the door, and stepped out.

  Her age was hard to tell, she had some drastic makeup on. Ruby cheeks, blue eyeshadow, and bright red lips. She was wearing one of those old hooped dresses, and her blouse had a bow so big it blocked her entire chest.

  “If she’s real, she’s fucking nuts,” Miles whispered.

  “Yeah, I’m gonna agree.” I walked closer to the fence. “Are you real?”

  “Yes,” she replied.

  I reached out with my index finger and touched her. She was flesh and bone.

  “She real?” Miles asked.

  I nodded.

  “Thank God you’re here,” she said. “Can you help me? I’m stuck.”

  “Stuck?” I echoed.

  “Yes. See?” She pulled on the gate. “It’s locked.”

  Immediately, I looked at Miles, then we both did the same thing. We leaned back and looked at the wall. The one she could have simply walked around.

  Miles scratched his head. “I’m not saying you didn’t think of it, but is there any reason you didn’t just walk through the trees?”

  She nodded and pointed to a sign. “I can’t. The property is protected by an invisible electric fence. I can’t figure out how to shut it off.”

  “So you have electricity?” I asked.

  “Oh, no. we haven’t had power in a long time.”

  “Generator?”

  She snickered as if I were being silly. “It wouldn’t do any good to have a generator if you have no power to run.”

  I closed my eyes tightly trying to make heads or tails out of what she said and then I walked perpendicular along the wall to the first tree.

  “What’s he doing?” she asked. “Where did he go?”

  It was a hunch and I was probably going to regret it if I was wrong, but I was willing to bet that fence she feared wasn’t on. Actually, I was sure it wasn’t and I stepped across the property line.

  The second I did, she screamed loud and shrill.

  “What? What?” I yelled.

  “I thought you were gonna die!” she gushed. “Did you shut it off?”

  “Um…yeah.” I turned my head when I heard the ‘clink’ of the fence.

  Miles opened it and stepped through. “I picked the lock.”

  “For real?” I asked.

  He made a scoffing sound. “Yep, just like you shut off that electric fence. Damn latch was a bitch.”

  “Thank you.” She took my hands, squeezed them and faced Miles. “Thank you. Can I offer you water? A drink maybe?”

  “We were just getting ready to stop for the night,” I said.

  “Yeah,” Miles added. “We were gonna stay at the Motel Six.”

  “But they’re closed,” she said.

  “We’ll make do,” I told her. “We just need to rest for the night.”

  “Then stay here. Please. It’s been so long since I’ve seen anyone. Please. I’ll cook, I have food. Please.”

  I looked at Miles and we both exhaled.

  “Sure,” I told her.

  She squealed excitedly. “I’ll meet you at the house. It’s right up this driveway.” The woman turned and took off running.

  Mikes whistled. “She’s a freaking loon.”

  “Tell me about it.” I walked through the gate to the truck, getting inside.

  “You think that it’s all an act?” Miles asked.

  “I don’t know.” I turned the ignition. “One thing is for sure. One of us stays awake all night so she doesn’t slit our throats.”

  The woman had run fast all the way down the driveway. She waved frantically from the front porch as if to signal us that it was where she wanted us to go.

  I wasn’t sure about the safety factor with her, but I was certain the evening wasn’t going to be dull.

  ***

  After we introduced ourselves, she told us her name was Stacey. Her good friends called her ‘Stace,’ but we weren’t allowed to because technically we were still strangers.

  She opened the door to the grand house.

  “Excuse the mess. My staff left last week. I’m still working on cleaning.”

  “Your staff?” I asked.

  Stacey nodded. “They got angry with me. At first I thought after Spencer left they were on strike, but they didn’t try to negotiate anything. They just locked me in,” she said nonchalantly. “Come to the kitchen. It’s the best room of the house.”

  The place was awesome and I could see why our future group would stay there. It was spacious, and in thinking about it, if we didn’t find another place, we could make it work, though I’d have to find some trailers. There was enough land for them.

  Miles wasn’t looking at the house as much as he was looking confused. “Stacey, you realize there was an extinction level virus that wiped out most of the world and caused zombie-like beings, right?”

  “I know about the virus,” she said, sounding normal without a forced upbeat attitude as we entered the huge galley kitchen. “I lost everyone I loved from it. But zombies?”

  “Technically, they aren’t zombies,” Miles said, taking a seat on a barstool at the island. “Zombies are dead.”

  “Technically, no,” I argued. “Zombie is a state. Not of life, but of mind. They could be zombies, but they don’t rot. They stink though.”

  Her eyes shifted from me to Miles. “Would you like some alcohol? Maybe the trip was too long.”

  “I could use a drink,” Miles said.

  “Me too.”

  “Good. I have plenty. The help took half of everything, this is what I have left.” She walked to the first cabinet and opened it. “Bourbon.” She exposed a full cabinet packed with bottles. “Vodka.” She opened the next. “Rum…there’s a lot of that. No one drank rum.”


  “I’ll take rum,” I said. “I haven’t had that in years.”

  She got glasses. “Hey!” she nearly, “I know him.” She pointed to my shirt. “We met once.”

  “Tom Selleck?”

  “Yes, at a benefit. Nice man. Very nice.”

  Miles snapped his fingers. “That’s it! That’s why you look familiar. Your name is Daisy Dellassandro. Reality TV star. I didn’t recognize you with the uh…”

  “Make up?” she asked. “I was bored and playing dress-up.”

  Miles looked at me. “Sonny, you never saw Picking Daisy?”

  “Heard of it, never seen it,” I said. “I didn’t watch much TV.”

  “Didn’t miss anything,” Stacey said. “It was all scripted.” She shrugged and poured drinks. “My real name is Stacey Kolinsky. No relation.”

  “To?” I asked.

  “Huh?” she questioned.

  “You said no relation. I was asking to whom? Never mind.” I took the drink she held out. “You said you’ve been alone for a week?”

  Stacey nodded. “Seven sleeps.”

  “What did the…help say when they left?” I asked.

  “They couldn’t take it anymore. Told me I was a nice person and all, but they took off. You know how guys are. Is that all that’s left in the world?”

  “No, we have women in our camp. Why…why would they leave you? You said they were men?”

  “Three. We weren’t supposed to stay here. It was just for the winter. They wanted to move on, I didn’t. I thought this was a great place and well stocked. Someone was here before us and it has that invisible electric fence for protection.”

  “Um, yeah,” I said. “So there were only four of you?”

  “There were more. Twenty or so of us when this all started. We lost them over the years.”

  “Killed?” Miles asked.

  “No, they left. Everyone wanted to find this place called Project Savior. We had a radio and kept picking up signals from some man named Alex. It stopped a while back, we settled, and then it picked back up a few months ago and we started moving again.”

  “We are from Project Savior,” I said. “Alex is my friend.”

  “No.”

  “Yes.”

  “Did any of our people ever show up there?” she asked.

  “I don’t know. No. Not in the last year or so.”

  She looked sad and lowered her head. “Maybe the help will find you and I’ll run into them again.”

  “Why do you keep calling them ‘the help?’” Miles asked.

  “They did everything,” she said. “So do you think I might find them?”

  “Possibly,” I said. “Where were they headed?”

  “They said something about Texas.”

  “You won’t see them again,” I said. “So you were in one place…?”

  “Florida,” she said. “We moved to Virginia last spring. We were there for a couple of months. It was a great place. Big, too big for the twenty of us. Then we left and found this place at the beginning of fall. I thought we were settling here. But nope, some left during the winter, the help left last week.”

  Miles asked. “And you were the only woman?”

  She shook her head. “Liza was there in the beginning. She lost her children, her husband, and was so happy when she got pregnant. The baby was born, and it was one of those babies. You know. She took her own life. That baby moved in her belly up until the day she was born. Too bad she didn’t have her earlier. Took us by surprise. We should have gotten it before it changed.”

  For all the airhead things Stacey said, that actually made a bit of sense, and seeing how we had babies due in Haven, I was going to bring that up to Javier.

  “Did you have children?” I asked. “Don’t answer that if it’s too painful.”

  “No, I’m fortunate. I wasn’t a mother when this hit.”

  “Yeah,” Miles said. “Of course, the show was scripted, but last season, if I recall, you and Matt were going to fertility clinics and trying to have a baby?”

  Stacey nodded. “Scripted. I was trying to have a baby, but not with Matt, with my wife. Matt was a product of the reality show.” She sighed. “We were going to introduce my love for Ginger in season nine.”

  “Ginger?” Miles said. “Your assistant?”

  “My wife.”

  “Wait. Wait. Wait.” I held up my hand. “You’re a lesbian?”

  Her shoulders dropped. “Oh my God, please don’t tell me you’re gonna get mad because you’re a man and I am a lesbian in this world?”

  “No, no,” I said. “I’m just shocked. I thought all lesbians were intelligent. Really, really intelligent. Don’t take that the wrong way.”

  “I won’t.”

  “Hey, now,” Miles said, “that’s not nice. I’m sure she’s just overwhelmed right now.”

  “I am,” Stacey said. “And hungry. Are you? I can make us some food. I have plenty of Marie Meals.”

  I wasn’t hungry, but I felt bad for implying that she wasn’t smart. After all, she did come up with the idea to deliver the baby early. Maybe she was tired, or drunk. Plus, I was curious to what a Marie Meal was. Probably a regional food. “Sure,” I said. “I can eat.”

  “I’ll be right back. Going to the pantry.”

  I watched her for a second then turned to Miles. “You don’t think she’s gonna get a gun and shoot us, do you?”

  “Nah. She’s excited to not be alone. She wasn’t very nice on the show, but I bet she is now.”

  “I do feel kinda bad for saying that.”

  “You should.”

  “I do. I blame my wife.” I said. “She used to say lesbians were super intelligent because they stay away from men. But if you think about it, do you know any flighty lesbians?”

  “No, but I know a flighty electrician.”

  “Who?”

  Miles grumbled. “Give her time before we judge her intelligence. I bet she’s smart.”

  “Miles? Sonny?” she called out. “Which Marie meal do you prefer?” She stepped from the pantry. “Chili or chicken ala king?” She held up two brown foil pouches that were clearly marked ‘MRE.’

  I looked at Miles. “You were saying?”

  22. Alex

  It was only a matter of time, days, according to Sonny, and we’d have a plan. He had been gone four days, two of them were spent looking in West Virginia for a place that he couldn’t find.

  Kentucky was an option, he said. Plenty of land, He didn’t see any Sleepers, and if need be, we could stay there. To the best of my recollection though, Kentucky winters weren’t all that easy.

  He picked up a survivor. All he told us was he found someone living alone, who wasn’t the brightest bulb in the batch, but seemed to think they knew of a place in Virginia. He’d check in when he had more to go on.

  That was enough for me and Beck to start planning.

  Things were starting to settle. Mera was out of the medical building, although they reserved her bed for her return. We put her in an upper level cell because no one could sleep with her coughing. Javier said it was possible she’d have that cough a long time.

  Swell.

  The baby cried easily, and woke every time Mera went into a coughing spasm.

  Thank God Beck kept the cradle near him. He had a knack with Hope.

  Our second in command leader, Danny, who bragged daily he was in charge, actually put some foot work in and took inventory. He gave Beck the lists and left it to us to organize what needed to be done to move the camp.

  Sitting in the library, work sprawled out in front of him, Beck smoked a cigarette, something I’d never seen him do.

  Cigarettes were a rarity, and I asked him about it. It looked homemade.

  “Just in the mood,” Beck said. “I u
sed to smoke when I was younger.”

  “Where did you get it? It looks weird.”

  Beck reached into his pocket and handed me a cigarette. “Our looters had cases of tobacco and papers. I’m guessing they looted a store. The tobacco is fresh grown. Jenson said it was fine.”

  “For real? At least they gave something back.” I tucked the smoke behind my ear. “I’ll save it for later. Too bad they didn’t happen to

  grow weed.”

  Beck looked at me.

  “What? You anti-drug?’

  “No, it surprises me about you.”

  “Who me? I don’t smoke weed. I was thinking it could chill some people out around here.”

  “Yeah, well, the chill person has it all.”

  “Randy?” I asked.

  Beck laughed. “No, Sonny. He put it somewhere.”

  “I bet he’s a pothead.”

  “He may be.”

  “Aside from smokes, we get anything else?”

  “A better bus,” Beck said. “And two of their big trucks. According to Danny’s list,” he pushed it forward, “we unloaded the food, a lot of supplies are still in the truck. Mainly because we had the idea that we’d eventually leave.”

  “What are you proposing we pack first?”

  Beck exhaled a cloud of smoke. “I want to dedicate one truck solely to the greenhouse. We have a lot of shit growing there. Hopefully we can transfer it.”

  “Greenhouse growing won’t be possible without a greenhouse,” I said.

  “When Sonny finds a place, I will instruct him to wait there, maybe get the greenhouse going. We’ll send Jenson, Randy, and Renee out on the first bus to start setting up things.”

  I nodded. “Medical next?”

  “Yep. Then a few security guys. I’m thinking a couple of our soldiers. Don’t send them to the Reckoning, let them live here. They can go get things secure. I don’t want this camp unprotected in the interim.”

  “Then do we pilgrimage, or are you thinking waves?”

  “Five trips, five or six vehicles. First trip greenhouse, second trip medical and security, then three trips bringing the remaining people and items. Food and medical has to get there first.”

  It all sounded good, but depending on where we went that was a lot of fuel.