Since The Sirens Box Set | Books 1-7

by Isherwood, E. E.

  Her watch read 4:44.

  She nodded off while absently wondering if she heard boat horns.

  3

  The slapping of water against the shore woke her. It was darker than it was while holding Jerry, like it had become night again, but he remained in the same place under the Willow tree.

  A well-lit towboat pushed a grouping of barges down the river. Its wake trailed behind, making lots of noise as it struck the rocks.

  She stood up, ensuring Jerry remained out. He needed his sleep, she assumed, more than she did.

  To the left, upstream, another towboat waved its spotlight from side to side. The long beams penetrated a thin veil of fog near the water's surface. It reminded her of a spaceship for some reason.

  When the waves of the first boat passed, everything settled down at the shore. The engines faded on the one downstream, and the other wasn't close enough to hear.

  A lone cricket chirped in the distance as if something needed to make a sound.

  “Hello, Lana Marie,” a man's soft voice called from a nearby bush.

  “Who's there?” she shot back with balled fists.

  A soldier stepped from the darkness. He had a glow to him, like a television screen. When he got close, she recognized him from old photographs.

  “Grandpa Al?” She'd never met Jerry's paternal grandfather, but Grandma Marty talked about him all the time, including how he'd fought in World War II. She knew his life's story better than she did her own grandparents-both of whom passed when she was a teenager.

  “Hiya,” he said, seemingly reaffirming her guess.

  “Oh no, am I dead?” She spun to Jerry. He remained where he fell asleep, but she kneeled to check his heartbeat. When she found it, she looked back up. “He's alive.”

  Al continued to gaze at her with a friendly smile but said nothing.

  “Am I sleepwalking? Liam swore he did this. And he saw you.”

  “And he was right,” he said in a friendly voice. “You thought he was lying?”

  “Maybe. No. I guess not. Not with everything else going on in the world. Things aren't what they used to be. I've just seen Jerry rise from the dead. Now I've seen a talking bush.”

  Al laughed. “I assure you, that is all coincidence.”

  “Um, rising from the dead? How can that be a coincidence?”

  He turned serious, though still had a partial smile. “I meant the bush. Resurrection is not a miracle. That's science, my dear. All of this that you see in this broken world is scientifically possible. And be glad, too. There would need to be so many miracles any deity would grow bored down here.”

  He swept his arm out over the river. “Though a few good miracles could stop those boats. I wouldn't complain if God got a little involved.”

  She cocked her head. “So, you're saying God could get involved?”

  He smiled, then offered his hand to pull her up.

  She obliged.

  “I'm saying I have no idea what God does. Maybe she takes an interest. Maybe it humors her to nudge a few people in the right direction. Or, maybe she put me in my position, so I could do the nudging. I honestly don't know.”

  “She?”

  “Don't you see God as a woman? I won't say I can read your mind, but I can see what I like to think of as background noise. Everyone carries it.”

  “I guess I never thought of it. It's hard to fight the image I grew up with: the bearded man in the white robes.”

  “God has to be female because no man could create a being as mysterious as a woman,” he said with a chuckle.

  She laughed, as well. “We're not that complicated. Especially when our best friends are returned to us from the dead.”

  “Yeah, about that,” he said, sounding dramatically less enthusiastic.

  “You came to take him back,” she said with disappointment.

  He pushed out his hands like he was trying to stop her from advancing. “No. Not at all. I shouldn't have said it like that. What I was going to say is that I'm glad your Jerry came back from where he was, because I need you to do something for me.”

  She gave him a serious brow-furrowed glare. “How do I know you're telling the truth? Maybe you're playing me? How do I know you're really Al and not some kind of monster?”

  He rubbed the back of his neck. “Gosh, you Peters' are a tough crowd. Every one of you has asked if I'm the devil in disguise. I say even if I was a devil, that would be good for you. It would mean there was a God. We could all celebrate.”

  She shook her head. “I'd rather have a God without a devil.”

  “Or a devil without a God?” he replied. “Can you imagine what that world would look like?”

  Lana pointed in the general direction of the river and the world beyond. “Umm, a little like that?”

  “Point taken, but it could be so much worse.”

  “Okay. Provisionally, let's say I believe you are here to help us.”

  “Yes. Thank you.” He turned and pointed to the boats. “Let's start with those.”

  “Are they coming from Cairo? I got thrown in the water and bounced off hundreds of them parked near that town. I couldn't tell what they were for.”

  “This, uh, vision you see is from last night,” Al replied. “They only move in the darkest hours. When you passed out drifting on the river, these boats sped by.”

  “Why? What are they doing?”

  “They're the start of the next phase of this unfortunate mistake. This disease. And, what comes next is shaping up to be much worse than what we've seen already. There are some bad and obscenely powerful people working around the clock to make everything worse. I can't say it any plainer than that.”

  “Is this what you told Marty and Liam?”

  “No. Not at all. They have a role to play, too. And they're playing that role as well as can be expected, though not as well as I had hoped. That's why I'm enlisting you and your husband.”

  “To help Liam? Is he still alive?”

  His eyes twinkled in the starlight. “He and Victoria live, yes.”

  She exhaled what she'd been holding in her lungs. “And Marty?”

  “Also alive, though-” He trailed off.

  “What? She is alive though, right?”

  “Yes. And you can help-”

  “I've got to see him,” she shot back. “Can you show him to me?”

  “No, my dear. There's no time for that. I'm sorry.”

  She stared at him with arms crossed, waiting for him to explain, but he didn't elaborate.

  “That's it? You show up and tell me my son is alive, but so sorry you can't see him? You can't stop me, you know. Just tell me where he is.” She sounded more defiant than she felt. It wouldn't take much to stop her if she had to carry Jerry on her back.

  “Please. I'm on your side. In due course you will see your son again. If all goes to plan. But you can make that day come so much faster if you let me help you.”

  Her frustration burned through. “So, you want me to see my son, but first I have to help you? That sounds more like blackmail.”

  “It would be much easier if I showed you,” he said matter-of-factly. Before she could offer any protest, he touched her on the shoulder.

  The world spun under her feet.

  4

  “Welcome to my home,” Al said while sweeping his hand in front of them both.

  She stood on a cliff overlooking an ocean. Though the sky above was black and filled with stars, the water was green and constantly lit up by flashes of what could only be described as underwater lightning.

  A cool breeze swept up from below. Looking down at her feet, she had no shoes or socks. The grass below was crisp and lush, like any number of golf greens from television.

  “My God. This is-this is just amazing. But where?”

  “Where are you?” He laughed heartily. “You aren't dead, if that's what you're thinking. Though I often wonder if you'd know it if you were.”

  “It's breathtaking. It's-wait.”
She turned around to address him. “What did ... ”

  Her question fizzled when she looked over his shoulders. A lush grove of small trees and shrubs huddled around a little pond beneath a majestic waterfall that went straight up into the heavens. There was no top to it, and no rocks behind it. The water fell from a column that seemingly went up to the stars.

  Behind that unbelievable feature there was an ancient forest of odd-shaped trees that had to be hundreds of feet tall. Their bases were thick, and their leafless branches interlocked to form one long forest edge along the cliff above the ocean. She imagined Sequoia Redwoods had somehow bedded ancient Oaks to produce such chaotic shapes. The waterfall seemed to drop from somewhere above the highest point of the dark forest.

  “ ... you say?” She could barely contain her emotions after the day she'd been having. Losing a husband. Losing a son. Regaining both. Seeing this.

  Al dished the tour information as if he'd seen it a million times yet wanted to impress one more patron. “This is my place in the multiverse. I've already described all this to Marty, Liam, and Victoria. What you see is organized in a way your eyes can process. The sea is the engine that powers each universe along this coastline. Those are represented by these waterfalls.”

  Lana glanced both directions along the coast and picked out dozens of waterfalls in the miles of cliff within her view. Her eyes seemed to play tricks on her because the more she looked in one direction, it felt like she picked out more and more detail. It caused her to experience a brief bout of vertigo, so she closed her eyes.

  “Wow.”

  “It is a lot to take in,” he agreed.

  She needed to start small, so she opened her eyes and motioned beyond the waterfall. “And the dead trees back there?”

  “Hmm. I'd best describe them as old universes. Each universe ages and expires. They dry up. Every molecule across that creation comes to a stop. Becomes petrified wood, to use a term you might understand.”

  “The forest goes on forever?” It clearly went a long way in each direction on the coast, but it was impossible to see how far inland it went while standing where she was.

  “I don't really know. I've never needed to go find out,” he said, as if realizing a surprising fact.

  “Is our universe dying? Is it one of those trees?”

  “Dying is such a harsh word. It has been doing that since the instant of the Big Bang, if we are talking in absolutes. But more precisely, no, your universe is not dying. The nutrients from the waterfall are feeding that small tree next to the pond.”

  He pointed to one that might have been an impressive Christmas tree back on earth, but here appeared as a tiny evergreen pine.

  “That little thing?”

  “Yep. This universe is currently in its 14th billions of years old. When it reaches its final days, it will be as big as those giant trees you see behind it.”

  “Wow,” she repeated. “The universe is just getting started.”

  “I didn't bring you here to sight-see, I'm afraid. I've brought you here to explain what your family is doing, and how you can help them.”

  She'd allowed herself to embrace the distraction, but the word family brought her back from the tour.

  “Liam was here,” she said matter-of-factly, putting it all together.

  “Yep.”

  “And he's not dead?” she asked, still not sure she was ready to accept his earlier answer.

  “No, and I can prove it. Come over here.” He urged her to follow as he walked around the grove toward a rock face in the cliff next to the waterfall.

  After staring up at the tumbling water, she noticed it wasn't moving.

  “Why is it stopped like that?” she wondered.

  “I wish I had the time to explain everything in detail,” he said while still walking. “Suffice to say it moves at a different speed while we are in this place. It allows me to take time off from my duties so that I can speak with you. Put another way, if the water fell in what you call real time, I would never be able to interact with your kind like we're doing right now.”

  “Because you'd be moving as fast as a computer chip?”

  Al stopped in his tracks. “That's it, exactly, my dear. This waterfall is a representation of your universe moving at a processing speed beyond your comprehension, but I'm able to adjust your perception to match this place so that we can talk.”

  “Can't you freeze time, or whatever, so we can do this without being in a rush?”

  “I have a lot of powers, but freezing time isn't one of them. This waterfall is, in fact, moving. You just have to get very close and watch for a long time to notice. Every second you and I spend here requires energy. It also takes me away from other areas of concern in the universe.”

  She wanted to ask more questions, but they came up on a glass window.

  “You have windows in Heaven?” She had a hard time putting the place into perspective. If it wasn't Heaven, it was certainly heavenly.

  “Big, yes, but this isn't the ever after.” He pointed away from his waterfall to others along the cliff. “This does go on pretty much forever, though. I do get over to some of my neighbors for a cup of sugar.”

  She looked longingly at the next waterfall. It could have been a mile away, or hundreds. It was mesmerizing to try to figure it out. But, eventually, she realized he'd told a joke.

  “Sugar, huh? I bet. Did Liam freak out when he was here? Cuz I feel like I might freak out.” She wrapped her arms around herself as a defense mechanism, as if she were trying to stay warm.

  “No, and neither did his great-grandma,” he said with a little chuckle.

  She looked at him. “You mean your wife, right?”

  “Of course. My dearest Martinette. She was the key to the whole thing. This,” he directed her toward the door.

  Inside the glass window of the door was a small circular room with other doors that looked like the one at which she stood. Hers was the only one she could see through. In the middle of the room was a very sleek laptop with a lit display in screensaver mode. After every wondrous second she'd spent absorbing the magnitude and brilliance of the landscape, the laptop came across as the most alien.

  “What is it?” she said with breathtaking awe.

  She felt his eyes as he stood next to her at the window. “It's a laptop.”

  “No,” she peered at him, searching for a joke, “I know what it is. I mean what is it, here?”

  He laughed it off. “Of course. Marty saw this device as something else. I had to be sure you and I were in sync, looking at it now. As to what it is, that is complicated.”

  “Look, I've had a long day. Can you just give me a straight answer?”

  He grinned. “That's why I like your family. Always right to the point.” He turned back to the computer.

  “Marty was the key. She bonded with Liam and Victoria through the trials of the disaster and the sharing of their most powerful memories. Your psychologists might call it a trading of memory engrams, but they functioned as three-factor authentication passwords to access this computer you see on the table.”

  “They used it?” she said with surprise.

  “They were in this room, Lana, and they got the computer running. In essence, they loaded the program that has the potential to reverse this, uh, flaw in the system. That error was created when military scientists from another agency hacked in and changed one core function of what was supposed to be the dawn of a new version of humanity.”

  “You're talking about the zombies? This thing created the zombies?” She shifted on her feet, as if looking inside was forbidden.

  “Yes. And no. Your scientists discovered the signal and, as much as it pains me to admit, I was outplayed. Never in my entire experience has anyone been able to manipulate the code like that.”

  “Wait just a damned minute,” she said, turning to him. “All this is a fancy way of saying this is just a dream, right? A computer caused the zombies? Liam and Marty-of all people-got in there an
d are going to save the human race? How the hell would anyone believe that? Marty doesn't know how to use the remote control for her television!”

  “Once the hackers got in, there was very little to do. They may not even know they did it. One virtual switch changed from 1 to 0. From life, to death. After that, it was out of our hands.”

  “Well, Mr. Computer Brainiac, just switch it back.”

  “The computer program belatedly put up defenses, but it was far too late. Liam, Marty and Victoria are working on fixing that broken switch. Those three formed the triad necessary to gain access to begin the repairs. The program was restarted, but the servers need, uh, what you would call a hard reboot. That's why they are going to Colorado.”

  “What?” she said breathlessly. “This is all bullshit. I'm calling you on this. It doesn't make any sense.”

  She took several steps away from the door, then put her back to him.

  “It doesn't have to make sense, for it to be true,” Al said softly. “I wouldn't bring you here to lie to you. I gave you back your husband as a down payment.”

  That got her attention.

  5

  He directed her to a stone park bench she'd not noticed before. It was near the edge of the cliff, so she could watch the water from the nearby pond snake along a little creek, then tumble over the edge into the sea far below. Unlike the water she'd seen on the main waterfall, this was flowing exactly as water should flow.

  “Just as the infection can pass from victim to victim through bites, the cure can pass from survivor to survivor through touching, bodily fluids, or simply breathing on them,” he stated without any drama.

  “The cure? Who has the cure? Is the plague over?”

  “Far from it. No, the infection spun out of control before any cure could be synthesized. What was once going to be the savior of humanity became its doom. The infection was the cure, before it was corrupted.”

  “But you cured my Jerry. It can be done, right?”

  He looked at her with sad eyes.

  “He's alive, right?”

  She could have punched him for how long he took to respond. But he finally did.

  “Yes. We were able to use your proximity to him on your boat ride to deliver the proper DNA changes. But even that was an almost-miss because it still wasn't enough time. We were fortunate you two floated together for so many hours after. It gave it the time needed to reformat his genes. It was very unusual how it worked out.”