by Lee Wise
“What isn’t strange these days?” Jill asked. “What happened to the police officer?”
“She was in another group. I’m not sure where she is.” Gary said. “She knew some people at the base.”
“Hopefully she’s okay.” I said.
“So, anything new happen since I’ve been gone?” Gary asked. We all laughed. New was definitely an understatement. Ben quickly recapped everything we had been through lately.
“Wow! Sounds like more action than I saw!” Gary exclaimed. Gavin agreed.
“Jill,” I said. She was getting ready to go in the other room to help Rose.
“I know what you’re going to say. I saw Nick’s shirt on Caleb and I’m fine with it. I’m glad it fit him.” She left the room.
Habba de ba!” Sammie said.
“Next thing we need to figure out is what to do with her.” John said. We all agreed.
Angela had a shed nearby that she called her art studio. We decided on converting it into a place for Sammie. It had a bathroom in it and we put a bed in also. We took out anything that could be used as a weapon. We nailed the windows shut and locked the doors from the outside. Someone would bring her food. For now, we would see how that would all work out. It was just a temporary thing, but at least she wouldn’t be tied up. Angela was kind of leery about the whole ordeal, but went with it since she couldn’t really think of a better solution. We were all hoping that maybe a cure would come along and we could fix Sammie. I think we also feared that if this could happen to her, it could happen to any of us.
The adults decided to have a meeting. We had a lot of things to discuss. Although Gavin was 17, he insisted on being at the meeting because he had been acting like an adult for a while now. There was some uproar from Piper and Jenny, but they soon decided that it was a lot calming to watch the kids instead. Allison also stayed with the kids upstairs while we had the meeting in Angela’s living room. She said it was too much stress on the baby and since it was so close to her due date, she wanted to keep the baby in a little longer!
The first to speak at the meeting was Angela. “We have a lot of mouths to feed and we are getting low on meat. I just got a deer, but that will only last so long. We need to build a smoker. Then we need to assign people to hunt animals as well as for security.”
We all agreed. We had a lot of canned vegetables, but not much meat. The good thing was that we had a lot of hunters in our group. Rose was the only vegetarian of the group. “I’ll stick to patching people up and working in the garden.” She said.
“That sounds like a good plan.” Ben responded. “Now, with Allison and Aleisha being pregnant, they should stay around the house. They can watch the kids and help out with garden work and things like that.” My face went red. How did he already know that I was pregnant? He noticed my face. “Sorry, word spreads quickly around here!”
I laughed. “No, it’s okay. I just didn’t know that everyone knew already!” I replied.
“I didn’t!” Gavin said making us all laugh.
“Gary,” Mike said. “Can you give us some insight what it’s like out there?”
Gary looked at Ethan and Gavin and sighed. “It’s pretty bad. Every time we thought we got a handle on the situation, there was a fire or ambush.”
“Crazy thing is that it wasn’t just maniacs. They have people that are working with them. We were unable to figure out the dynamic between the maniacs and those people.” Ethan said.
“That’s so strange.” Jill said. “Which brings us to another strange phenomenon. The new maniacs.” It was quiet for a minute. Everyone was still trying to deal with what had happened.
“I wish…” Rose began.
John, who had been at the beginning of the driveway with Luke and Robert, came in the room. “I hate to interrupt., But we ran out of water at the end of the driveway so I came up to get some. And… well, you need to see this. Ah… Angela, it’s not a sight… I am… well…”
“Is it Sammie?” Angela cried.
John’s eyes looked sad. He nodded. “It’s… well…”
“I have to see.” She said. We all agreed and John led us to the shed. Sammie lay on her belly dead outside the shed. The window was broken and a blood trail led to her. “Oh my God!”
John sighed. “I..I turned her over. She must’ve gotten cut on the glass coming out. There’s a big gash in her throat.” We were all shocked. None of us had thought she would try that desperately to get out.
Angela was crying. “We need to bury her.” She said. We all agreed.
“We will dig a hole for her.” Mike said. “If…if you want to make something to go over her grave.” He said to Angela.
She nodded. “I will.” She wiped her tears. “It wasn’t really Sammie anymore anyways. You know?” She walked off.
I had already turned away. “I’ll see if she needs anything.” I said.
“Good idea.” Ben agreed. “John, do you think you can go back down to guard. You didn’t miss much of the meeting.” He recapped everything. John got ready to go back down.
“John?” I said. “Did you forget the water?” He went back inside to get the water and I went to find Angela.
The door to the house flew open the kids came outside. John followed them out. “Wait!” He said.
The adults saw the kids in time and quickly blocked Sammie’s body. “What are you doing outside?” I asked.
“I came down to get snacks and you weren’t in the living room, so I figured the meeting was over.” Jenny replied. “What’s going on?”
“Jenny, never come down until we tell you to. What would you have done if there was a maniac out here?” Cathy lectured.
“I’m sorry!” Jenny cried.
“Well, there is a maniac out here!” Nick replied. We looked at him. “Well, Sammie’s in there, right?” He asked pointing towards the shed where the men were blocking Sammie’s body “What’s going on?”
Piper’s eyes went wide. She had figured it out. “Let’s go play tag out back and leave the adults to the talking.”
“I want to…” Nick began
Caleb looked at the adults. He also knew was going on. “I’ll race you to the back.” He said to the others. “Go!” They all chased after him.
Jenny stayed behind. “I’m sorry.” She said. “I wasn’t thinking.”
“It’s okay.” I said. I started to walk away but then thought about something. “Where’s Allison?” I asked. “She’s upstairs still. She said her stomach is hurting.” Cathy and I looked at each other.
“Rose!” I shouted. Rose came over. “I think we should check on Allison.” I stated.
“I think I’ll go play out back.” Jenny said.
Mrs. Ford walked over. “I’ll keep an eye on the kids.” She went out back with Jenny.
Cathy, Jill, Rose and I went to check on Allison with Ryan. Just as we had suspected, she was in labor. “Why didn’t you holler to us or have the kids come get us?” Ryan asked.
“Sorry.” Allison said. “I didn’t know that it was really that time.”
“It definitely is.” Rose said. She was examining Allison. “You’re almost fully dilated!”
“I’m not due for 10 more days!” Allison said.
“Try telling that to the baby!” Cathy laughed.
There was a knock on the door. I went to the door. “Sorry to interrupt.” It was Mike. “Can you come out here a minute Aleisha?”
I glanced over at Rose. “There’s plenty of us in here Aleisha. You’re all set.” I left the room.
“Sorry.” Mike said to me when I walked out. “Do you know where Angela went?” He asked. Oh no! I had completely forgotten that I was going to check on her.
“I’m not sure. She was heading in the direction of the garden.” I responded.
“Yeah, she’s not there. We wanted to know where she wants to bury Sammie.” He said.
“I’ll look for her.” We went downstairs.
“Well,” he said. “We’ll a
ll search for her. The only thing is that there’s a lot of land here and she knows her land well. So if she wants to be alone, she can make that happen.”
I sighed. “That’s true.”
“Not to mention, it’s going to get dark pretty soon, so we have to bury her within the next couple hours or we’ll have to close her up in the shed for the night.” Mike said.
“Well, let’s see if we can find her.” I said as we walked out the door.
“Mike, Ben, Ethan, Gavin and I will search for her.” Gary said. “I don’t want anything to happen to you. Do you think that you can make supper with Piper, Jenny and the kids?”
“I suppose I could.” I said. “Just be gentle with her when you find her.”
Mrs. Ford and the kids came in and we began to make a venison stew and carrot cake. Soon after we began to make it, we heard a baby crying. Cathy came down a few minutes later. “It’s a boy!” She said.
“Yay!” Nick shouted. We all laughed.
“How’s Allison?” I asked.
“She’s doing great. A little sore, but very excited.” Cathy said.
Rose came into the kitchen. She wasn’t smiling. I was confused since Cathy had given me a good update. I walked over to her and she motioned for me and Cathy to follow her into the living room.
“What’s going on mama?” Sarah asked.
“I’ll be right back honey.” I responded and Mrs. Ford distracted her.
“I thought Allison and the baby were okay.” Cathy said.
“It’s not them.” Rose responded. “Jeff’s legs need to be fixed and I’m not a doctor. Something has got to be done soon.”
Cathy sighed. “Well, there’s one option, but I don’t know if it’s a good one.”
“What?” I asked.
“Gary said that there’s a doctor in Augusta. He was a surgeon. I’m sure he could do something, if he’s still alive.” Cathy said.
“We would have to talk to Gary. I’m not sure how risky it is to go to Augusta right now.” Rose said.
“But we have to do something.” I argued.
The guys came in from outside. They changed shifts. Mike and Ryan were at the end of the driveway now. “Angela?” I asked Ben.
“We looked everywhere, but she’s just not around.” He said. “We’ll just have to hope she gets back soon, before it’s dark.”
The guys went into the kitchen. I heard groaning coming from the den where Jeff was staying. Cathy and I went to check on him. Rose went upstairs to check on Allison and the baby.
I knocked on the door and Jeff told me to come in. I could see the pain on his face when I entered, but he managed to smile anyways. “Hi ladies.” He said.
We smiled at him. “Do you need anything?” I asked.
“Well, Rose was going to grab me pain medicine earlier, but I believe she got distracted!” He stated.
“I’ll check with her on that.” Cathy replied. “Meanwhile supper will be ready soon so we’ll bring you that. Do you need anything else?”
“No thank you.” He said. “Just two good legs.”
I smiled. “I wish I could give you that.”
There was a knock on the door. “Come in.” He said.
Caleb walked in. “Hi Mr. LeClair!” He said. “Angela had this book on her bookshelf and I remember seeing it at your house.” He showed Jeff the book.
Jeff’s face beamed. “That’s my favorite book.” Caleb smiled. “Thank you so much Caleb.” Jeff said as Caleb handed him the book.
“You’re welcome Mr. LeClair.” Caleb said and left the room.
“That’s a good boy. His sister was always trying to cause trouble and Caleb looked like he was ready to be like her, but I think he is going to do well now.” He said.
I was more skeptical. I was hoping Jeff was right, but I unfortunately didn’t have as much hope for the world we were living in right now.
“Well, we’ll let you get some rest. I’ll check on the medicine. Until then if you need anything, just holler.” I said.
“Or you can use that bell I gave you earlier.” Cathy said pointing to a bell beside the bed.
“That will work to!” I laughed.
“Thank you ladies!”
We left the room and met up with Rose as she was coming back downstairs. “Thank you for checking on him.” She said.
“No problem.” I said. “He’s in a lot of pain.”
“The pain medicine!” Rose exclaimed and left us quickly.
“Poor Rose!” I said.
Cathy and I walked into the kitchen. The kids were no longer in there. Jacob was talking heatedly with the other men.
“What’s going on?” Cathy asked.
Gary sighed. “Rose told us what was going on with Jeff. Some of us want to go find the doctor, others think it’s unsafe.”
“We have to do something.” Cathy said.
“Exactly!” Jacob agreed.
“But it’s too dangerous!” Robert argued. “They said to stay away on your walkie-talkie.”
“They said to maintain radio silence. That doesn’t mean stay away.” Jacob said.
“It’s the same thing!” Robert said.
“I’m willing to go look for the doctor.” Gary said. “But I don’t want to risk anyone else’s life by bringing them with me.”
“I don’t mind going.” Ethan said.
“You’re young and I don’t want to risk your life by having you go. We don’t know what’s going on right now in Augusta.” Gary replied.
“Then I’ll go.” Jacob said.
Gary scratched his head. “I don’t know if two of us is enough.”
“I can go also.” Robert said.
“Robert!” Cathy said. “Think about Jenny!”
“I agree with Cathy. If something happens, I don’t want it to be someone who has something back here waiting for them.”
“I’ll go.” Angela said walking into the room. None of us had a clue she was there.
“Okay, I think three of us will work. We should wait until morning though. It’s starting to get dark and I think that’s too dangerous.” Gary said. Everyone agreed.
We had supper and the night was uneventful. We visited with the baby and I played some games with the kids. I slept better than I had for a while (even with the baby crying).
CHAPTER 9
The next morning, I actually woke up around the same time as the others and hugged the four who were about to go to Augusta. To tell the truth, I didn’t think the mission would be successful. What were the chances that the doctor would still be out there? Also how much could he actually do for Jeff? I was also wondering how they were going to protect Jeff if they needed to get away really quickly. What if something happened to the vehicle? Jeff couldn’t walk. I never used to be like this. I was always the glass half full type of person, but lately it was harder and harder to be that way. I knew I had a lot. I had family and friends, it just was hard knowing what I used to have. I missed feeling safe and spending more time with my girls.
I had to distract myself from these thoughts, so I helped clean the breakfast dishes. My stomach cramped a little, but I didn’t think anything of it. As lunch got near, the cramping got worse. Soon, I lost the baby. It was one of the worst moments of my life. I had done everything right, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be. I laid down for the remainder of the day and everyone just let me be. I could hear Allison’s baby in the other room. She had named him Dylan. That only made it worse.
The next couple days were a complete blur to me. They still hadn’t returned from Augusta and nothing very momentous happened. I didn’t think I’d ever come out of my depression. I was sitting at the kitchen table, just sipping some wine. Why not, right? Then, all of a sudden, there was a loud BOOM! My depression went away quickly. I had to protect my girls. The kids were outside playing. I hurried out with Cathy and Jill. Everyone was staring in the direction of town. Smoke was billowing through the sky.
“What was that?” Cathy said out lou
d. Allison came of the house holding Dylan. “That was loud!”
Robert came flying up the driveway in his Jeep. “John, Ben, Ryan and I are going to go check out the source of that noise. Mike is going to stay down the driveway. Luke, Ethan, can you join him? Gavin I need you and Bill to stay up here with the ladies and protect them. Can you do that?” Everyone agreed. Robert left with Luke and Ethan.
Gavin said. “I think the kids should go in the house.” Everyone agreed.
I went in the house. Gavin, Jill and Bill stayed outside. Molly started barking in the direction of the den. We all looked at each other. I ran out and got Gavin. Gavin came in quickly. “Aleisha or Rose can you stay in the kitchen and guard the kids?” Rose agreed. “I need someone to cover me.”
Cathy and I agreed to cover him. We quickly went into the den. Sitting on a rocking chair in the corner of the room was a woman. She was smiling. Gavin checked the room quickly and found it was just her. She was just sitting there and suddenly she said, “Boom.”
“What’s your name?” I asked.
She looked at me and started quoting from the Bible “The end of us is near.” She said.
“Did you cause the explosion?” Gavin asked.
“God did.” She responded. “We’re all being punished for our sins.”
“Wonderful!” Cathy said. “Why are you here?”
“I was wondering if all of you have been saved.” She responded.
Gavin looked at us. He had no clue what to do. “Did you cause the explosion?” He asked her again.
Cathy told the lady to stand. The lady stood up. Cathy patted her down to see if she was armed. “No weapons.” Cathy announced.
“I don’t need any weapons. I am armed with wisdom. Spiritual wisdom.”
“See how far that will get you in this world.” Cathy scoffed. The lady just smiled at Cathy.
We heard the front door open. “Keep an eye on her!” Gavin said and ran out of the room. We could hear people talking in the other room. Robert walked in the room with us. “Is everything okay?”
He asked.
I was about to speak when the lady did instead. “God is punishing all of us.”
“I’ll take that as a yes.” He laughed.