Sleepers (Book 5) Read online

  SLEEPERS 5

  Jacqueline Druga

  A PERMUTED PRESS book

  Published at Smashwords

  ISBN (trade paperback): 978-1-61868-551-3

  ISBN (eBook): 978-1-61868-552-0

  SLEEPERS 5

  Copyright © 2015 by Jacqueline Druga.

  All Rights Reserved.

  Cover Art by Dean Samed, Conzpiracy Digital Arts

  This book is a work of fiction. People, places, events, and situations are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or historical events, is purely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author and publisher.

  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Permuted Press

  109 International Drive, Suite 300

  Franklin, TN 37067

  http://permutedpress.com

  Table of Contents

  Prologue 30 Years Post Event Keller

  1. Alex Sans

  2. Mera Stevens

  3. Sonny

  4. Alex

  5. Mera

  6. Sonny

  I - Intersect – Keller 30 Years Post Event

  7. Alex

  8. Mera

  9. Sonny

  10. Alex

  11. Mera

  12. Sonny

  13. Alex

  14. Mera

  15. Sonny

  16. Alex

  17. Mera

  18. Sonny

  19. Alex

  20. Mera

  21. Sonny

  22. Alex

  23. Mera

  24. Sonny

  25. Alex

  26. Mera

  27. Sonny

  28. Alex

  29. Mera

  30. Sonny

  31. Alex

  32. Mera

  33. Sonny

  34. Alex

  35. Mera

  36. Sonny

  37. Alex

  38. Mera

  II - Intersect – Keller 30 Years Post Event

  39. Sonny

  40. Alex

  41. Mera

  42. Sonny

  43. Alex

  44. Mera

  45. Sonny

  46. Alex

  47. Mera

  Prologue

  30 Years Post Event

  Keller

  In the words of my father, ‘I hate this time travel shit’. He only knew the half of it.

  I was born into a world ravaged by a virus that took nearly every child on the face of the earth. Unborn children never took their first breath. They called it the Ivory Baby Curse. No life, no human features. A stillbirth baby that resembled a statue made of ivory. In a world with no children there is no future. My mother tells the story that she woke up happy that spring day and by nightfall her world had been turned upside down. She died inside.

  My brother and I were special. We were born after and spared the Ivory Baby Curse. Well, sort of. My brother was spared; I suffered some of the effects.

  The extinction virus didn’t only infect the young, it infected most adults. Those who weren’t immune fell into a deep sleep and woke mere shells of their former beings, violent beings, and the more time passed, the more violent they became.

  The virus mutated from a simple attempt to regenerate tissue following traumatic brain injury. It was placed into the wrong hands and the results were devastating to the world.

  In the original time of the Event, they were called Sleepers. The name evolved as they did, into Palers. Because they woke up. Not just physically, they woke mentally.

  Time was a friend to the Palers. The longer they lived the more the virus mutated the brain. Their skin was white, their blood didn’t flow as easily, and they lacked iron and pigmentation. The offspring look worse than the parents.

  Second generation; there cannot be a next. Although we are told that in the future, after the first round of Paler Wars, there comes a brief respite, where man basks in his reign of the world again. He rebuilds and restores technology. That, of course, is short lived, because the Palers or Sleepers never vanished, they went into hiding, grew in numbers, planned and attacked. From that moment on, they ruled the world and man became nothing more than livestock.

  Because they existed, the virus did as well. While it was in the air, it still claimed the young and took the unborn.

  There was a cure. It was believed to be my brother. We know better now.

  Hence began the abuse of the ability to bend time. Every trip was never thought out, never made with complete knowledge. At least that was my opinion.

  My brother and I are both blessed and cursed with the ability to know, see, and feel things. We both have the same abilities as the Palers, without being one of them.

  Each event that rippled time, we had knowledge of. We also had the nine different copies of the Doctrines.

  Nine copies.

  No event or time trip that transpired required that much rewriting. We couldn’t figure out what Sonny was thinking when he wrote the Doctrines. Why did he change so much? Then I realized he wasn’t changing it, he was sending a message to the future.

  Each Doctrine was a different clue, a different message. An invitation or a cry for help.

  Right now, the war rages, it’s never ending. It’s fighting, running, hoping. It’s never really finding one place to live because they always come. They are driven by a powerful force that keeps them going, and keeps them smart. A force that grows stronger each year. There is no rest from the Palers. They always will come until an end is put to it all. The answer doesn’t lie with a cure to the virus, it lies with an end to the ‘Sleepers’. An end to the force that drives them. Not today, not in the future, but in the past.

  We must ensure the Reckoning is a success - one hundred percent - and remove the driving force behind them, no matter how heartbreaking it is.

  It has to be done.

  I’m sorry, Dad. Time travel shit or not, it’s the only choice.

  1. Alex Sans

  Where will it end? Seriously, it keeps getting crazier. Infected and enraged cannibalistic humans, I can deal with. It’s odd, yeah, but in a twisted enjoyable way, it’s not really crazy. The other stuff ... that’s insane.

  Point being, in the middle of an intense battle, Sleepers raging and burning like a bad barbeque against Sonny’s shock and drop fence, and Levi comes waddling out. Not that he waddles, mind you, however, he comes out in the middle of the battlefield.

  Okay, he waddles.

  His big reason for interruption? He knew how to stop it, or rather put it on pause. Find baby Phoenix, he says, and have him do it. Phoenix? That two year old little boy who, granted, is smarter than Sonny, but still, he’ll stop it?

  “Yes, yes,” Levi said. “Go tell him to tell the Sleepers to go away.”

  Because, and this is the kicker, the bigger Phoenix is calling them.

  What?

  Apparently, there are two Phoenix’s in the camp: one from the future and one in the present. Grown up Phoenix is here, stirring up trouble. Out of the hundreds of people here, we haven’t a clue who he is, yet evidently he’s here.

  I always thought two of the same matter couldn’t occupy the same spa
ce. Damn it, I hate this time travel shit.

  It’s all Sonny’s fault anyhow, and he’ll pay for it, still, at that moment, I did what any unreasonable man would do in that situation. I held up my hand, walked from the battlefield, and headed into the building where we kept the kids safe.

  We kept them more than safe, we kept them sealed in. With information we received from Randy, we know the Sleepers have the ability to be telepathic. We have four … semi, sort of Sleepers in our midst. Michael, Jessie, Phoenix and Keller. So, on the outside chance they were inadvertently sending messages, I kept them surrounded by concrete and electronics. The two things Randy said cause interference in telepathy.

  Had I not heard Keller speak in my mind, then I wouldn’t have believed it. I did. My son, born deaf and blind, spoke to me. I had to put stock into the fact that there was a possibility, even remote, that anything we said in front of Mike, Jessie, or the babies was getting to the Sleepers.

  If there was a possibility that they were calling the Sleepers, I had to hope that Levi was right and that we could put the battle on pause.

  We had them and we were taking them down. However, more were coming, and those, we weren’t completely ready for.

  I didn’t say much when I walked into the community area of that block. In fact, I didn’t say anything at all except, “Where’s Phoenix?”

  “Alex,” Mera said, following me. “What are you doing?”

  “Where is the baby?”

  “Why do you want the baby?”

  “I need ... ah, there he is.” Phoenix was sitting on the floor by his dorm room, “Come on, dude, come with me.” I reached down to him.

  Mera grabbed my arm. “Alex, where are you talking him? There is a war going on out there you know.”

  “Um, Mera, I know.” I perched Phoenix on my hip and gave him a smile. “Ready, dude?”

  Michael stood up, possibly being brave, I don’t know. He blocked my way.

  I exhaled. “Padre, I’m in a hurry, if you don’t mind.”

  “I do mind. Where are you taking the child?”

  “Do you think I’m gonna hurt him?”

  “We don’t know,” Michael replied. “Tell us. Because it’s pretty dangerous out there.”

  “Yes, I know that. That is why I have him.” I walked toward the door. “He’s gonna stop it.”

  Mera screamed, “Are you insane?” She flew to me, once again grabbing hold of my arm. “Do not take that child.”

  “Mera,” I said firmly, “this isn’t a joke, and there isn’t a choice here. I’m not hurting him or putting him in harm’s way. Stay here and back off.” I walked out.

  Mera screamed something at me. I believe it was an obscenity, except I didn’t think about it. In fact all I thought about was getting Phoenix outside to test Levi’s theory.

  “Scary people,” Phoenix said as soon as we stepped outside.

  “Yeah, buddy, they are and I need to think. Think words in your mind. Like Keller talks to you, I need you to talk to the scary people.”

  “And say what?”

  ‘Tell them to go away. Tell them to leave.”

  About that point, Beck made his way over with Sonny. This distracted Phoenix, who like the little boy he was, waved and talked to them.

  “Phoenix,” I said, redirecting his attention, “you do this and you can play with Sonny. He wants to play trucks with you. Look out at the scary people.”

  “You said to close my eyes.”

  I turned my body with Phoenix still on my hip and we faced the wall of Sleepers.

  “Think it, Phoenix. Think it real hard.”

  Phoenix closed his eyes. After a second, he said. “They aren’t talking back.”

  “That’s okay. Tell them.”

  A faint whisper came from Phoenix. He probably was thinking so hard, he spoke it out loud. “Go away. Go away,” he said.

  Within a minute, the wall of Sleepers turned and they all began to walk away.

  Levi was right.

  2. Mera Stevens

  It wasn’t that long ago that I mourned Alex Sans so deeply my soul was broken. That time slipped far from my mind as I stood in the middle of our cell block wanting to kill him.

  How dare he?

  Alex had the ability to infuriate me like no other, and he had done it again. With typical arrogance, his ‘I know all’ attitude, he had marched in, didn’t say a word, and taken Phoenix. He took hold of my son with a wide grin, as if he were taking him out to play on the swings. He wasn’t. He took Phoenix out during a time we were under attack.

  With him, Beck, Sonny, and even my son Danny out there, it wasn’t smart. It especially wasn’t right that he said nothing about why, only that Phoenix was supposed to be stopping it.

  It dawned on me that Phoenix was more a pawn than he was a child. He had been pursued by the ARC and taken and experimented upon. His mind was fed information to make him a genius. Perhaps the reason Phoenix was so extraordinary was because no one wanted to treat him as anything less.

  “They’re leaving,” Bonnie announced. She had gone into the dorm to peer out the window. “The Sleepers are leaving.”

  Though it was good news it was devastating as well. It meant that whatever plan Alex had that involved Phoenix had worked.

  Michael brushed his hand against my shoulder as he walked by me and into the dorm. I guess he had to see. I guess everyone had to see, because as I stood there, wallowing in a strange stupor, I was suddenly alone.

  I lowered my head. The sounds of cheers filled the cell block and in the enthusiasm over the Sleepers being gone, they forgot about Phoenix. The child was used as much as any weapon. Did it bother no one else but me?

  “Mama.”

  A tiny hand grabbed on to mine, and I opened my eyes and peered down at Keller.

  “Oh, sweetie.” I rested my hand on his head and he leaned against my thigh, then gripped my legs. I absorbed that moment with Keller, feeling the love he projected in that tiny baby hug.

  I heard Keller say, “Calm.” And the door to the cell block opened.

  Beck was the first one in and he rushed over to me, lifted Keller, and kissed me on the cheek. “You alright?”

  “Yeah, where is Phoenix?”

  “Alex has him.”

  “Alex is an asshole,” I said. “Taking him out there wasn’t right.”

  “It worked.”

  “What worked?”

  “He communicated with the Sleepers. He told them to leave and they did.”

  I inhaled and stared at him, trying to convey that what he said to me was a ridiculous notion. However, I knew better. I knew what had transpired in that cell block.

  The Sleepers had arrived and they had some sort of odd effect on those that had a Sleeper connection:

  Michael had stared, almost catatonic, at his hands; Keller didn’t move; Phoenix smiled for no reason, humming as he moved a truck around in circles; and Jessie acted possessed, reciting an eerie song that was entrance music for the Sleepers, building up to the moment she screamed out to ‘make him stop’ and that Phoenix was calling them. Then she had passed out.

  By the time I registered what was happening and saw the Sleepers, everything switched up.

  We had fear and pandemonium in the cell block. Some cried, the children hid. The sounds of the screaming Sleepers carried in loudly.

  Everyone reacted but me.

  I had fear all right, fear for those who had the Sleeper Virus inside them or a connection, like Keller. Things ‘clicked’ in me and I couldn’t explain it.

  “Mera?” Beck called, snapping me out of my thoughts.

  I cocked my head. “Where’s Phoenix?”

  Beyond Beck’s huge frame I saw Alex strut in carrying Phoenix. He set him down.

  “You had no right!” I shouted at him.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Alex asked.

  I snatched Phoenix into my arms. “This is a child. And from here on in, he will be treated no differently
than any other child here.”

  Alex stared at me.

  “Do you hear me?” I asked.

  “Oh, I hear you alright. Mera, he ain’t like any other child. So there goes that one out the window. And where the hell is Padre?” Alex walked from me toward the dorm. “Mike, away from that window. Please.”

  I followed Alex. “Why can’t he look out the window?’

  “Mera, don’t.”

  “Don’t what?”

  “I told you this before, this is a precaution for those who may inadvertently communicate with the Sleepers.”

  “You can’t keep them isolated and away from outside.”

  “Mera,” Alex brought his hand to his head in frustration, “I’m not being a bad guy here. I am trying to keep everyone safe.”

  “And keeping Michael away from a window is doing that?’

  “Yes.”

  “Do you hear yourself, Alex?” I asked. “Keep them inside concrete, around electronics, away from a window. That’s all but saying they had something to do with the attack or could. You don’t subscribe to this. ”

  “I do now. Phoenix—”

  “Didn’t call them.”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “You implied it.”

  “No I didn’t.”

  “Yes, you did!” I squealed. “You just said you subscribed to that. God! You frustrate me.”

  “And you frustrate me. Why are you being like this?”

  “You said his name.”

  “Whose?”

  “Phoenix.”

  “Yeah, well, I said his name the other day when he peed in my shoe. “

  “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “Nothing.” Alex tossed out his hands. “Look, I was trying to tell you something about Phoenix. You cut me off and assumed when I said his name that I am saying he had something to do with the Sleepers. That he what? Called them?”

  “Aren’t you implying that?”

  “No.” He paused. “Yes ….”

  “I knew it.!”

  Alex grunted in frustration, took Phoenix straight from my arms and walked him over to Beck. “Hold your son,” he told Beck, then took hold of my arm and despite how much I fought, led me outside the cell block.