Sleepers (Book 5) Read online

  29. Mera

  “Dude, I swear to God,” Danny said, an edge to his voice, “you are dead. You are so dead.”

  I lowered my head. Danny was angry and rightfully so. His hands and feet were tied. For a while he slept peacefully in the back seat of the SUV, sandwiched between Keller and Phoenix, who were both in the built in car seats. Not only was Danny tied, he was buckled in.

  I felt bad for him. I could only imagine what was going through his mind when he woke up.

  Ed drove, keeping his eyes ahead on the deserted overgrown road.

  I was in the front passenger seat.

  “Dude, are you listening?” Danny asked. His voice cracked with emotion.

  “Do you need a drink?” Ed questioned.

  “I don’t need a drink. I need to be freed so I can kill you.”

  “Mera, give him a drink.”

  I had the water with a straw and I turned around, holding it to Danny.

  “You’re not tied?” Danny asked.

  Ed replied to that. “Your mother needs to be able to tend to the kids. She’s not fighting me, she’s smart.”

  “Here, Sweetie you’re probably dehydrated. Take a sip.”

  “Mom. What the hell?” he squealed. “This isn’t a sitcom family vacation. Untie me.”

  “I can’t, Danny.”

  “Untie me.” He looked at Phoenix. “Phoenix untie me.”

  “Okay.”

  “No,” Ed said. “Phoenix, do not untie him.”

  “Mom.”

  “What, Danny? Untie you then what? You fight with him, we lose control, swerve off the road with the babies in here. No. Sit back.” I showed him the water. “Take a sip.”

  He finally did, then sat back. “I swear, Ed, you’re dead. I will kill you when I get my chance.”

  “No, you won’t.”

  “Yeah, I will.”

  “No, you won’t.”

  “Why? Because you plan on killing me first?”

  Ed laughed. “I’m not hurting you, Danny. The whole reason for this is so you don’t get hurt. So that none of you do. Anymore.”

  “So why tie me up?”

  “Because you’re volatile. You always were, always are and always will be. You're a hot head. You won’t listen to reason, you have to be shown reason.”

  I agreed. “Oh my God, that is true. So true. I remember before he went to that military school and—”

  “Mom!” Danny screeched. “What the hell?”

  “What, Danny? I was just agreeing.”

  “Don’t. He kidnapped us. And what, so we don’t get hurt?” Danny scoffed. “Please. Look around. It’s a dead world. What are we gonna do if we get attacked by Sleepers?”

  Ed answered. “We won’t.”

  “How can you be so sure?” Danny asked. “You’re awfully confident.”

  “Because they can’t sense us. Those babies omit something. Like a cloaking device. It only works in small groups.”

  Danny laughed. A maddening laugh. “You don’t know anything.”

  “No, you don’t know anything,” Ed snapped, finally showing emotion. “Let me enlighten you about the Sleepers, Danny. They aren’t what you think. It’s not the Sleepers that evolve, it’s the virus in them. There are people in this country, alive, all over the world, who have never seen a Sleeper. Right now, the Sleepers attack on call. And it isn’t Phoenix calling them.”

  “Who then? And how do you know?”

  There was a silent moment, and I shifted my eyes between Ed and Danny. There was so much tension between them and in contrast the babies happily stared out the windows watching the barren world roll by.

  “You understand reason when you are shown reason. I promise I will show you and tell you more when we get to our destination.”

  “Where is that?”

  “We’re headed East. 1515 Hawthorn Street.” Ed looked at me then into the rearview mirror to Danny. “Back to your house. I’m taking all of you… home.”

  30. Sonny

  Randy wiped the sweat from his brow.

  I never understood how one individual could perspire as much as Randy. Poor guy. I could always tell how much he did or didn’t do by the amount of sweat that formed on his face and body. He had come up from the final basement search, taking a breather in the cafeteria while we waited on Alex.

  I searched, too. I didn’t want to say anything, I didn’t have this horrible, awful feeling. I wasn’t expecting to find Mera’s corpse in a closet like Alex was. Not that he said it, but he projected it.

  Alex was far from cool and calm. He had everyone out looking on the grounds, which I thought was ridiculous.

  Renee handed me a biscuit with a bowl of what looked like gravy. “Here. Eat up. I know you’re hungry and you can’t keep searching if your belly ain’t full.”

  “Thank you. I appreciate it.”

  I took a drink of my water, then grabbed the biscuit, it was still warm.

  “Glad you have time to sit and eat, Sonny” Alex’s voice blasted into the room. “Enjoying your break?”

  “For your information,” Renee said, “he just sat down and he needs to eat. So do you.”

  Alex had walked to the table with Judd, the man that worked night shift.

  Judd sat down across from me. “I’d sure like some of what he’s having.”

  Alex threw up his hands in frustration. “Is everyone stopping?”

  “Calm down, Alex,” Randy said. “Everyone is looking. We have looked everywhere.”

  “Look again.”

  An irritated sigh from Bonnie carried into the room. “Did it occur to any of you that she’s not missing, she’s not dead, that she and them kids simply up and left?”

  “With Ed?” Randy asked. “He’s missing too. No one seems to be asking the question, though. Where is Ed? Maybe he took them.”

  What Bonnie and Randy mentioned had crossed my mind, more than once. I was piecing things together. Was Alex? The missing food, the missing gasoline. We both thought someone was planning on leaving.

  It was too odd that it was Mera, Danny, the babies, and Ed.

  Ed was the factor I couldn’t figure out. Mera was only getting to know him, though perhaps she trusted him enough to help her.

  If she left, where would she go? Or had Ed taken her and the kids in some sort of sick, demented, twisted, ‘this is my family’ sort of thing?

  It the midst of my thoughts, Judd spoke up. “I’m not a slacker. I keep a good watch. I didn’t see anyone leave last night. I would have heard or seen them.”

  “No one is saying you slacked,” I told him. “They could have left.”

  “How?” Randy asked. “That’s the mystery.”

  “No it’s not, is it Alex?” I glanced up to him. “Think about it. Is there a way off the compound that no one knows about?”

  His jaws twitched, and after immediately turning red, Alex walked out.

  I sopped up some gravy on my biscuit, shoved the whole thing in my mouth and set out after Alex.

  I knew where to find him.

  The blind spot.

  31. Alex

  I screwed up. I screwed up big time. For ninety minutes I had every available person combing the compound. Because they disappeared during the night, and I had good men on watch, I had assumed there was no way they’d left the compound.

  When I arrived at the blind spot, however, I saw that someone had taken bolt cutters and removed the padlock. They had wrapped the chain around the section of fence in a half-assed attempt to secure it.

  The cut lock told me that Danny hadn’t left intentionally. He’d put that lock there; he knew the combination. If he had left of his own accord, why cut the lock?

  Danny had to have been drugged as well. To move him in a sedated state took someone strong.

  Ed.

  If Levi hadn’t told me that grown up Phoenix wasn’t in the compound, I’d swear he was Ed. Having just been in the clinic, for sure his blood was checked. I wished he was Ph
oenix. I would at least take some comfort in knowing Phoenix loves his mother and would do nothing to hurt her.

  More than likely Ed was just plain psychotic. He was always hanging around them. Perhaps he had some sort of delusion that they’d all be one big happy family. In addition to that, Ed was entrusted with distributing boxes to families. He had access to the supplies and could be responsible for the missing items.

  I removed the chain from the fence and stepped out. It was then I discovered another missing item: our hidden SUV.

  I wasted all that time when I could have been outside our fences looking. My head dropped.

  “Alex?” Sonny called.

  “Truck’s gone. So not only do we not know what time they left, they got a hell of a head start with plenty of gas to go with them.”

  “How long do you think they planned this?” he asked.

  “They didn’t plan it. Ed did.” I pointed to the ground. “Look at the lock, Sonny. It’s cut. If they planned this, Danny wouldn’t cut that lock.”

  “It doesn’t make sense. Why would he take them?”

  “Because he’s a fucking piece of shit. He had us fooled. He took them. Drugged them, carried them out and took off. For all we know, he has some people out here.” I surveyed the area beyond the fence.

  “Are you sure Mera didn’t leave on her own?”

  “I’m positive.”

  “How do you know?” Sonny asked. “I’m not being an ass, I’m looking at all angles. How do you know?”

  I spun around and faced him, my insides raging with anger. “Because she wouldn’t do that. She wouldn’t leave me and not say a word. She wouldn’t!” I turned back around and started to walk.

  “Where are you going?”

  “Gonna get a direction,” I said. “They left tracks. I’m gonna try to figure out which way they went.”

  “Then what? What’s the plan?”

  “Then I pack up and I go out looking for them. I know it’s a big dead world out there, but that won’t stop me.” I glanced back at Sonny. “If it’s the last thing I do, I will find them.”

  32. Mera

  Everything was weather worn. Unlike a lot of things we saw on the west side of the country, things on the east weren’t destroyed by Sleeper activity. It may have been, however, the weather appeared to have determined what happened to the land. Trees were strewn about the road and on the side as if a twister had ripped through. Leaves and high grass covered everything. Any buildings we saw looked as if they had taken a horrendous winter beating and never recovered.

  Very little talk took place in the vehicle. It was as if Danny was waiting to arrive at our destination, waiting to see if Ed held true to his word to tell him everything.

  I, too, was curious about a lot of things.

  Just off the turnpike exit that would take us near our neighborhood, we ran into the first Sleepers we had seen all day.

  The turnpike was pretty removed from populated areas, so not seeing a Sleeper wasn’t a surprise. I was shocked to see how many were wandering about the side of the road and how many had massed on the street, blocking us from being able to move forward.

  It was Sleeper dinner time. They were dining on the carcass of several deer. Fresh red blood splattered across their faces and deer guts dangled from their chins and hands.

  Ed slowed down. The ones in the center of the road didn’t move.

  “Dude, where are the weapons?” Danny asked. “We have to take them out!”

  Ed stopped the SUV.

  “What are you doing?” Danny screeched.

  It was then I noticed, they didn’t come for us. Even the ones not eating just kept moving in circles. “Why aren’t they attacking the truck?” I asked.

  “I told you, we’re cloaked. We do need to get through though.” Ed opened the door, got out, and closed it. A few seconds later the back hatch opened. Ed grabbed something and closed it.

  “What is he doing?” I asked aloud in the car.

  “Mom, untie me. Now is not the time for me to be tied up. Ed never fought a Sleeper. He told us that.”

  I had to agree. Of all times for Ed to decide to be brave. I turned around to untie Danny’s hand and I saw the look on my son’s face. “What?”

  I stopped untying and followed his gaze the windshield, where I discovered what Ed had grabbed from the back.

  He stepped before the SUV yielding two swords. They were neither big nor exceptionally long. But they were swords. He crossed the swords in front of him, almost ritualistically, lowered his head in a prayer fashion, then after he raised his head, he stepped calmly to the Sleepers that were blocking the road.

  Not once did the Sleepers acknowledge his presence. They didn’t come for him, or stop eating.

  Ed moved about them with orchestrated eloquence. He stepped to the Sleepers and swung the swords up and through the air. Each swoop was smooth and precise. Each stroke cut down a Sleeper.

  The Sleepers looked helpless. They looked like unknowing victims to an invisible prey. A slaughter took place within a blink of an eye. Ed walked through them, taking them down, one and two at a time. He only took out the ones on the road. He didn’t bother with the ones on the side, and they didn’t come for him.

  When he was finished, he moved several to clear the road, returned to the SUV, replaced his swords in the back hatch, then got back in the driver’s seat.

  Neither Danny nor I said anything. Both of us were too shocked.

  Ed’s demeanor didn’t change. It was if his clearing a path was as routine as going to the bathroom. He drove on.

  I never did get to finish untying my son.

  *

  Just before we arrived at the housing plan of what once was quintessential suburban living, we drove through the small business district of our borough. I remember that district was one of the reasons I liked that suburb. It reminded me of a small town.

  The world ended so fast there wasn’t time for people to run out and panic shop. No time for looting and scavenging. Only survivors would take what they needed and by the look of our town, things were barely touched. The grocery store had almost all of its windows intact. The hardware store was still the same.

  There were, however, a lot of abandoned cars on the main road, and I had to direct Ed to a different route. I know why those cars were there. They had been there since everyone rushed out to get their children help.

  Before we turned on our street, Ed instructed me to untie Danny. I did so with minimal hesitation. My son had calmed down. If he still planned on killing Ed, I was certain he would wait until after we got to our house and after he heard what Ed had to say.

  Danny really was calm after I freed his hands.

  We turned onto Hawthorn Street. Our street had taken a beating from nature. There were downed power lines and trees. A couple of houses had burned to the ground for some reason.

  Ed slowed down.

  My heart raced out of control. Even though buried beneath leaves, grass, dirt, and scattered debris, it was a familiar place that I missed. I was grateful that the autumn sun was shining so brightly and that the house didn’t look that gloomy.

  Still, I was in a state of shock.

  Ed pulled the SUV into the driveway of my house. A part of me didn’t want to move. When I turned around to tell Danny to unbuckle the babies, I spotted Bill Logan’s home. In his driveway was the massive grill, the one he brought out to feed the grieving neighbors. Everything, even the lawn chairs, was still there.

  “Ready?” Ed asked. “I can unload.”

  I nodded and Danny handed me Keller, while he carried Phoenix. I opened the door and slowly stepped out.

  I barely could hold Keller, in fact, he slid down my hip and I set him on the ground, grabbing his hand. Lying on the lawn, were my husband Daniel’s remains. My hand shot to my mouth and a peep of emotion seeped from me.

  He was a mere skeleton, wearing that Philadelphia Eagles tee shirt. His head showed signs that a bullet took a portion o
f his skull. He was still there, right where I remembered last seeing him.

  “Mom,” Danny’s voice cracked. “This is so surreal.”

  “I know.”

  Ed walked up behind me. “Go, ahead, Mera. Go in. We will bury Daniel later.”

  Keller tugged my hand and I took that as my sign to move forward. As we crossed the lawn, Keller stopped at what was once a flower bed in front of our house. A flower bed now overgrown with brown, dried out weeds.

  “Keller says that is Jerry,” Phoenix said.

  I gasped. As if he could see, Keller was staring down. It was where we buried my son Jeremy.

  I lifted Keller to my hip and stepped up to the porch, pausing by the glider. The wooden planks had cracked. It was the last place I heard Daniel speak. He fell asleep on the glider swing and lapsed into the Sleeper virus.

  Danny was behind me and Ed was removing things from the SUV. Danny nodded as if to give me permission. He had to be feeling the same way as me. He had to be.

  I opened the screen door and paused as I reached for the door handle. Anxiously, I turned the knob and pushed open the door. I was both nervous and excited. But I also felt a sense of peace.

  We had come full circle. Back to where we started.

  I was finally home.

  33. Sonny

  Alex had been gone beyond our fence for almost an hour. I did my best calculating while he was out there. According to Javier, the reason I was so hard to wake up was because I had been under the influence of the sedative less than eight hours.

  Not only did the cut lock tell us that Danny was taken against his will, we also found a syringe under his bunk.

  Three of us were knocked out.

  Apparently Ed had done it. My best calculation, including when this occurred, told me that Mera and the others were gone at least five hours before we even knew. That was a hell of a head start, and with each hour that passed they moved farther away. That is, if they didn’t stop. Which was a possibility.