“What do we do?” he wondered.
Victoria's face was blank. When she saw him protecting Debbie, she scooted up next to him to help.
“We pray.”
He heard and then felt the turbine wash of one of the drones as it hovered above them. Its single gun faced the stairwell. If it looked down, he'd be dead.
One of the smaller drones hovered over the steps when it exploded in a shower of sparks. It fell straight into the hold.
He heard a distant pane of glass shatter. That noise was followed a moment later by the whip-smack of a gun shot and ricochet from the chassis of the metal hulk above them. The thing turned and let loose with its gun onto what Liam guessed was the bridge of the barge towboat attached to them.
From such distance, he couldn't see the identity of the shooter.
In the commotion of the firefight, Debbie became animated. In seconds she seemed completely awake. He and Victoria were both on top of her, so she could only turn her head side-to-side.
“Get OFF!” she said as she squirmed.
“Be quiet. You want to get us killed?”
“Us killed? What's happening? Where's my mom? She's supposed to pick me up,” she said in a slightly whiny voice.
“She's in a boat speeding away from here,” Liam replied. The powerful engine of the big watercraft echoed off the barges on the other side of the river.
“You guys win the battle, but not the war.” Elsa's voice came from the little unarmed drone she'd used to communicate with them. “The launch vehicle is already out of the tube. You have to clear out of there. Jump in the water. Swim away. Take my daughter and I may let today slide.”
He looked at Victoria. At Elsa's daughter. Finally, they looked at the metal roofing of the hold below.
“Are you thinking what I am?” he asked her.
“Use this boat to ram this girl's failed mother?”
“No, I hadn't thought of that. But I like where you're going,” he said with a sliver of humor. “We need to move this barge so we can save the people below.”
“Where can we take them to get away from a nuclear missile?” Victoria asked.
Debbie grunted in pain. “Can you please get off? I know where we can go. My mom told me to report if they ever moved this barge. There's only one place she didn't want it. That's where we'll be safe.”
Liam pulled back a little. “And where might that be?”
Chapter 23: Elma Jean
Jasper had used the distractions at the front of his boat to crawl across the barges back to where he'd left his rifle. The lips and lids of the varying types of barges in the flotilla provided the cover he needed. He avoided looking into the cargo box filled with bodies. The smell was enough to keep him moving.
Once Elsa showed up he knew his only chance was to punch through her drones if he was going to have any chance of stopping her. He waited with his rifle in the captain's perch until the right moment to risk his position.
He watched the young woman get felled by the dark drone, then watched the two Secret Service agents pepper it with enough lead to knock it down. The scene was a flurry of flying robots hovering around the deck of the boat, some with guns, some not. He selectively fired on those he felt were the most threat to the kids lying on the deck and left the SS men to fend for themselves until he knew the others were safe. The Elma Jean had enough surveillance tech he could hear the discussions on the front side of the barge—200 feet away.
He already knew why he didn't like Elsa, but once she explained who she was, he thought about putting a bullet through her brain and ending it. The thing stopping him was the ICBM she claimed to have launched. If he knew his math, they didn't have much time to get to safe ground. The North Dakota to Illinois routes was measured in minutes. And he didn't know when the missile cleared its hatch.
When the firing stopped, he was happy to see the three kids running his way.
“Toss off the lines,” he shouted down to them while pointing to the heavy ropes linking them with the next row of barges. The boy skidded to a stop, turned around, and ran forward again. The girls continued until they reached the cleat at the back.
“Fire her up,” he ordered Bill.
The delay gave him a moment to study Elsa driving her boat in the choppy brown water just off the starboard bow.
“She's staying close,” he said, mostly to himself.
“Her daughter is still here,” Bill replied.
“Of course,” he thought.
The gunfight was fast, but deadly. One woman was dead at the cost of a few drones. It was some kind of miracle those kids managed to lay right out in the open and not get swept by all the gunfire.
The two girls came in the hatch, followed a second later by the boy.
“This is Debbie,” the boy started before he was inside the room. “A missile is heading for us! She knows where to go.”
“Well, all right then.”
She pointed and Bill nodded gravely.
“There's an ICBM heading for us,” the boy said.
“You're Liam, right? This boat has excellent hearing. I've heard everything spoken down there.”
“You've been up here the whole time?” Victoria asked.
John pointed to the bodies in the nearby barge. From up in the bridge they could all see down into the cargo area and what was inside.
“I had to be sure what I was dealing with. I followed Liam and this other girl when they brought those older women.”
Victoria smiled at Liam like she was proud of him.
“I'm here to kill Elsa,” he said with a stoic voice as he and everyone else felt the towboat accelerate.
“Get in line,” Liam responded. “She's pretty much the top person responsible for giving us the zombies.”
“I almost can't believe that. I was with her in Cairo. I've seen her operate. She's smart and seems full of herself, but destroying the world? I always thought it would be a man in a big chair with a white cat.”
“I've been trying to figure this out,” Liam explained, “because I promised the dead fiancé of that maniac I would find out whoever was responsible and make sure the world knows who to blame. Does this ship have recording equipment?”
Bill, working the controls of the ship, nodded.
“Then we have the evidence we need. If we get this to someone in charge, we can—”
“There is no one in charge,” he replied to Liam. “The government has been pared down below the critical mass needed to keep things operational. Yes, there are military units still fighting along with the convoy, but I'll be damned if I can find anyone higher than me in the chain of command. And look at me—a two-star general piloting a barge. That's the extent of my authority.”
The three kids gave him serious looks.
“One thing at a time. First, we save the ship. Then, we get that bitch—”
“She's my mom,” Debbie said vacantly.
He paused to consider the poor girl's situation.
“I'm sorry your mom is the queen of all bitches.”
Debbie gave him the faintest of smiles in return.
2
Bill the pilot had the barge moving at what John thought was a high rate of speed. The water was fairly calm, but swirled in muddy eddies all the way across. The dull green superstructure of the bridge towered above them and the shadow of the highway soon eclipsed the sun. They were heading for a gap in the fleet of parked barges. Apparently, the towboat operators frowned on parking barges near the bridge pylons. That gave them all the room they needed.
“You're gonna feel a jolt,” Bill warned. “Brace yourselves.”
Ten seconds later they all leaned forward as the front of the barge ahead of them ran part-way up onto the riverbank underneath the bridge. Bill gunned the engines then throttled back. The towboat drifted with the current, but he increased the propeller speed. He used the powerful engine to push against the current. As long as they kept at it, they could hold the barge partially on the shore.
“With a little luck, we can pull her back off.”
Luck. Yes. An ICBM's-worth of luck.
“What do we do now?” Liam asked.
“You guys go back down into the hold. Make sure those SS guys knows what we're doing. Keep an eye on those snow birds,” he said with a smile.
The two girls ran out right away, but he stopped Liam.
“Your grandma is still alive. I saw her this morning back in Cairo.”
Liam stepped back in the room.
“Where?”
John pointed down and across the river to the point of land formed where the Mississippi River and the Ohio river joined together. It wasn't more than a mile away.
“I left her with Chloe, one of the few people I trust over there. She'll get her to that point," he showed Liam the southern tip of land where his people were waiting for him, "and then they'll get out of Dodge. The zombies have taken the rest of the town. Be quick.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Your grandma was very proud of you. I thought she was nuts when she first told me about you. Going off into the wild. Getting yourself in sticky situations like this one. But you did good. I had a whole Army battalion behind me, and I couldn't pin Elsa down.”
“Well, we don't have her yet, but thanks to your recording device we have the evidence we need.”
Liam gave him a thumbs up before taking off after the two girls.
“Bill, if you show me what to do, I can man this station while you get below.”
“Pfft,” he huffed out. “You Army men are all the same. Always want to be the heroes.” Bill gave him a harsh look but cracked himself up before John could reply.
“Let me guess. Navy?” he said cheerfully to Bill.
“Yep, did a tour in 'Nam on the America. SAR, mostly.”
“Well Bill, USN, we're about to see the might and fury of United States Air Force.”
“So they're going to miss us by a whole state?”
They shared a laugh as the roof dropped in on them.
Chapter 24: Non-Linear
Liam's awareness returned, slowly.
His face was on well-manicured grass, which was odd because his previous memory was running down the length of the industrial-metal decking of a Mississippi River barge…
“What happened?” he asked himself.
While sitting up, he discovered Victoria. She was similarly sprawled on the turf next to him but also stirring. Her black tank top and faded jeans appeared fresh out of the washer. His “gifted” black honey badger t-shirt had returned to just-bought condition as well.
“Liam?”
“I'm right here.” He reached out and touched her hip to let her know he was close.
The grass was bright green, as if lit by the sun, but when he turned to the sky it was dark as night. Stars and constellations graced the heavens from horizon to horizon around him. Only the waterfall blocked his—
“A waterfall from space,” he said rhetorically.
“I'm not feeling right. I'm hallucinating,” she answered.
“No, I think we both are.”
They helped each other so they could stand and properly take in the view. The waterfall fell from the darkness above, which made him realize something was affecting his perspectives. Stars above were clear, like each one magnified when he looked at it, but if he saw them from the corner of his eye they fell back among their peers.
“It's all real,” said a weak voice behind them.
Liam spun around, knowing it was Grandma.
“You're alive!” he shouted, followed a moment later by, “I think.”
His excitement was tempered by the impossibility of everything around him. They all hugged while Grandma sat on a stone bench at one edge of the grassy patch, near a cliff overlooking an ocean. They watched the green-tinted water light up with the ferocity of an electrical storm. As far out as he could see, the water appeared agitated under the surface.
“I'm so happy to see you,” Victoria said while they held each other tightly.
“Grandma. That woman dug up—” his voice wavered, “—Dad. Elsa infected him, like those soldiers we saw in the mine. He attacked Mom.” It was all he could say before getting too emotional.
The hug continued while Grandma spoke.
“Mercy, me. I'm so sorry you had to see that. Just remember, it wasn't your dad. Jerry died a long time ago.”
Liam found himself impressed with her composure. Jerry was her grandson, after all.
Finally, with one final squeeze, he stepped back. He and Victoria took a seat on opposite sides of her, so they could all watch the spectacle in the water.
“What is this place?” he asked, assuming she would know. “Are we dead?”
“I don't think so,” Grandma replied. “This is where Al has been taking me ever since the zombies arrived. He said this was inside my own mind.” Her speech slowed as if she didn't believe those final words. “Which means you two can't be real.”
Liam protested. “We're real! I was running with Victoria, and Debbie, when I...blacked out...I think. I'm not really sure. But I'm not in your imagination,” he said with conviction.
“I remember the same thing. I was running with Liam when I heard a loud banging noise, followed by blackness. I should be on the barge.”
Grandma made a sound. An audible “hmm,” like she was impressed.
“I don't know. Maybe this is real.”
“Where are you? I mean out there?” he asked.
“I'm in a truck in Cairo. I'm with Chloe. A sweet girl who is a friend of the man protecting the town. I heard...a sound. Chloe screamed. I think I hit my head.”
“A friend?” Liam spoke with disbelief. “Elsa said she had an agent of hers bringing you to her. She was excited to hurt you. She wanted to hurt all of us—our whole family—because of Grandma Rose. She wants to be president of the country or something.”
“Chloe isn't a spy,” she said, but Liam wasn't happy to hear a wedge of doubt in those words.
They sat in silence for a couple of minutes. No one seemed to know what to say next. Liam certainly didn't. If they were dead, it was a nice place to end up. If they were still alive, he couldn't imagine what had brought them there.
“Does it always take this long when you come here?” he asked her.
“No, usually Al is here guiding me. Or he takes me other places, like that bridge from your book.”
He laughed gently. “I wish we were there. I'd like to go into those books for real. Maybe if we're dead, that's what the afterlife is all about? Experiencing the memories of others. We can drop into story after story, forever.”
“I wouldn't want to drop into the books you read, Liam,” Victoria said from the other end of the bench. “I've had enough of zombies and scary stuff for the rest of my life.”
“Oh, they're not that bad. None of them really scared me. They weren't real, you know. This is real.” He laughed. “Not where we are now. I mean the world with barges and infected and ICBM's.”
“ICBM's,” he and Victoria echoed the letters.
They both leaned forward to look at each other across from Grandma. “The missile hit us. That's why we're dead,” he said with the sound of “of course” in his tone.
“None of you are dead.” The voice sounded electronic at first, but resolved into a man's voice. Like it was adjusting itself.
They all got up.
2
“Al!”
“Great-Grandpa? You're real?”
“Hiya Marty,” the man said. “Hi Liam.”
“He's not really Al,” Grandma offered.
“No, it's a convenient form so that I can communicate with you.”
“What do you look like, then?” Victoria chimed in.
Al smiled broadly. “You all love to ask questions.”
“You've been talking to my Grandma all this time and you haven't shown her what you actually look like?”
He put on a brave face, but he wa
s terrified inside. Dealing with zombies was one thing, but interacting with ghosts was upping the “OMG” factor.
“I can see there's no use in continuing until I explain what I am.”
Liam nodded, as if that would force Al to continue down that line of thinking.
“I will tell you, and show you, but first I want you to take a short walk with me. Deal?”
Everyone agreed, but when he reached for Grandma to help her move, she had already started. She didn't need a hand. Her back seemed straighter, and thus she appeared taller. The hair remained white like the snow, but her gait suggested a much younger woman.
They walked around the pond below the waterfall. It appeared as a grotto of ferns, shrubbery, and exotic flowers. The water was clear and deep, and he could see to the rocky white bottom below the surface. A small creek flowed from the pond toward the cliff near the ocean.
“I've explained this all to Marty. This waterfall is a representation of how she sees my computer network. All the planets are linked on the waterfall like computers on the internet. Some stations are lit up, and some are dark. It all depends on a few factors I'll get to in a moment.”
"A computer system?" Marty asked quizzically. "This isn't outer space?"
"You'll see," Al assured her.
Liam was dizzy looking up at the tumbling water. He recalled a photo of Angel Falls in one of his school textbooks and imagined this was higher and wider than that one, but without any frame of reference to compare and contrast, he had no way to know. As they rounded the pool and approached the falling water, it became obvious the water was frozen—not moving.
“The water is moving, Liam. But it moves at Galactic Time, which is different than how you experience time.”
“It's amazing,” Victoria said, sharing his sense of wonder. She held his hand while pointing to everything, like a kid at the zoo. “Are we moving fast or does Galactic Time move slower?”
“GT moves at a glacial pace compared to how you experience time. It has to so that I can manage everything that needs...managing. I'm not all-powerful, you know,” he said while smiling at her.
“So what are you?” she countered.
Since The Sirens Box Set | Books 1-7 Page 173