Sleepers (Book 7): Sleepers 7 Read online

  A PERMUTED PRESS BOOK

  ISBN: 978-1-68261-839-4

  ISBN (eBook): 978-1-68261-840-0

  Sleepers VII

  © 2018 by Jacqueline Druga

  All Rights Reserved

  Cover art by Christian Bentulan

  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.

  Permuted Press, LLC

  New York • Nashville

  permutedpress.com

  Published in the United States of America

  Also by Jacqueline Druga

  The Flu Series

  The Flu

  The Flu 2: Healing

  Sleepers Series

  Sleepers 1

  Sleepers 2

  Sleepers 3

  Sleepers 4

  Sleepers 5

  Sleepers 6

  The Fall of Man Series

  Awakening the Mare (Book 1)

  Rise of the Mare (Book 2)

  War for the Mare (Book 3)

  The Violet Letters

  THIRTY YEARS POST EVENT

  PHOENIX

  There is a wish within every one of us that somewhere in the past we could relive a memory, to walk that path again, or simply to recapture those lost feelings. Like many young people I wanted to change the world and make it better, but unlike my ancestors before me, my world needed change.

  Yes, although I found happiness in the circumstances of my life, it hadn’t been without loss. Could I? Could my brother, knowing we had the ability, could we change the course of mankind?

  In my arrogant mind I could kill two birds with one stone. Visit a memory and change the world.

  My desire was to be there when I was a child, a time I couldn’t remember, and in doing so change events that would take so much from my brother and me.

  The plan was to go back to a point in time when I was a child, two years old.

  A point in time that we determined was a crossroads. We, meaning me and my brother Keller. Alex Sans, however, hated the thought.

  “Phoenix,” he said to me, “time has a way of taking its due. Understand. You think you’re ahead, but instead something else goes missing.”

  “So you’re saying man’s path is predetermined and we are all supposed to end up human cattle a thousand years from now?”

  “I’m not saying that. I’m saying for all you take, something gives.” Alex was adamant about it. “Like playing the slot machines. Sure, you can walk away with a hundred bucks, but you’re gonna lose it eventually.”

  “I’m going to assume that was a good analogy. I wouldn’t know, seeing as I haven’t a clue what a slot machine is.”

  Alex and I didn’t argue much. He hated time travel and wanted it to stop. He wanted no more of it in his lifetime. He didn’t understand it, and therefore it bugged the hell out of him.

  Against his wishes, Keller and I planned the trip. I was only supposed to go back for a short time, but I ended up staying for nearly six months.

  I left the past confident I had done all that I could. My mother did not lose the baby and Javier did not die. That was very important, as he was the key to beating the Sleeper virus for all time.

  I believed it was successful until I walked through the time door and returned to my present day.

  Things were not different.

  What went wrong?

  The only thing the trip determined was that we vowed we would never again try to change things.

  We would let fate handle the way. Whether we liked or hated the hand fate dealt, it was the one we had to live with. It was how it had to be.

  1. Sonny Wilson

  Six Weeks Before Phoenix Left

  It was called the event so horrendous that we never mentioned exactly what occurred. All we knew was that it happened on the first of March, and whatever it was, we packed up and left Haven. All of us, including Beck, who was supposed to follow through on the grand plan of Sleeper genocide. That was what we were told by Ed, or rather future baby Phoenix. The sole reason Ed came back was to save Mera and Javier.

  Javier is our top virus and DNA guy. Javier and many others were supposed to die on that day.

  We planned on something bad happening. We actually believed we could change it, and in a sense we did, although it didn’t go down as we imagined and not on the first of March.

  Beck was gone as part of the Reckoning. He was on his way home. Meanwhile, Javier had done something amazing. He hadn’t cured the Sleeper virus, but he invented a cloaking serum that made us sort of invisible to the Sleepers.

  Totally believing we were going to be slaughtered in a massive Sleeper attack, this cloaking agent couldn’t have come at a better time. As an inoculation to the upcoming deadly event, we dosed everyone in our camp with this serum. In doing so we created a small epidemic and everyone was down for the count for a few days.

  No sweat; it wasn’t the first of March yet. We were going to move Mera and Javier out, Beck was on his way back, and there weren’t many Sleepers around.

  It wasn’t Sleepers that did it.

  Trying to wrap my head around what happened was nearly impossible. It was crazy because we didn’t see it coming. We should have. Believing we needed more people to fight off Sleepers, we started calling out for survivors the way we did back at Grace. Little did we realize, not only would survivors come, they would invade our camp to take all we had built.

  A caravan of trucks, buses, and semis invaded us. Nearly three hundred people, not wanting to hurt us, but rather just take everything we had. Like locusts, their leader Hank ordered them to take and go.

  After a struggle and hostage situation we prevailed. It was the one time I believed I was grateful for the Sleepers. Michael used his ability to call them and they ascended in masses on our camp. Those of us from Haven were cloaked, our intruders were not, and it was a bloodbath. Most of the invaders were slaughtered.

  In the midst of it all, Mera was hurt. Nearly five weeks from giving birth, she was injured, a slice to her abdomen, and was rushed into emergency surgery.

  I wanted to be in the waiting room, I needed to hear how it would all pan out, but Beck and Alex were there, and they were a mess.

  I had to step up. Plus, when I heard that the baby probably wasn’t going to make it, I just couldn’t be there to watch. My own wife was pregnant when the Sleeper virus took her and our unborn baby. This would be another loss I just couldn’t bear to face.

  So I did what I had to do, I took charge. There were so many bodies, thankfully not ours. When the Sleepers attacked, hundreds of the marauders were targets. They weren’t armed heavily and their only true defense would be help from us.

  Help we didn’t offer.

  That wasn’t like me, I was the humanitarian of the group. I believed we should protect all life, even the Sleepers. Knowing what these people did, I felt no pity for them.

  I let them die.

  All they had to do was ask for our help with food and other items and we would have gladly shared. They didn’t, they wanted to take everything, leaving us with nothing.

  Immediately, I sent some of Beck’s soldiers out looking for the ones that got away, who fled with loaded trucks. I didn’t put much hope into them finding them, and focused on cl
eaning up and getting rid of the bodies, Sleepers and marauders alike.

  There were so many. I hadn’t a clue what to do with them until the soldiers returned six hours later with the semi. Not only did they recover a lot of our supplies, they had four of the men who made their escape.

  That semi served two purposes. A return of some of our supplies and a means to carry out the bodies.

  We still lost a lot. More than I wanted to admit. After cleaning up I would need to gather everything and do a count.

  Facing the captured men was difficult because I had so much anger.

  “Why?” I asked them. “Why do this?”

  One shrugged. Shrugged? For real?

  “We needed food. You had it,” said another.

  The other added, “We had too many people. We had to come up with something. Besides, if you were stupid enough to tell us where you were and all you had, then…oh well.”

  It was that casual ‘Oh well’ that made me want to deck the guy. I wasn’t a violent person, the closest thing I got to violence in the last few years was when Beck beat up Alex and I had to put the big man in a chokehold.

  Totally disgusted, I threw up a hand in dismissal and turned to walk away.

  “What do you want me to do with them?” one soldier asked.

  Before I could answer, Beck did. “Shoot them,” he said calmly.

  “What?” I barked. “Beck, come on.”

  “Now’s not the time to be a humanitarian, Sonny,” Beck said. “A lot of them escaped…with our supplies. Now we not only have to worry about Sleepers, we have to worry about them?”

  I wasn’t being the humanitarian. Typically, I would be, but I couldn’t care less about the men. They destroyed our home, ransacked it, robbed us, and hurt Mera, not to mention hog tied me to the point I could barely move.

  “Beck, I’m not being a peacekeeper here,” I said. “You just got back, you came mid-battle, Mera’s hurt, maybe you aren’t thinking clearly?”

  “Want us to lock them up?” Beck asked sarcastically. “I’m sure we can do that. After all, this is a detention center. But do we want to feed them, care for—”

  “No,” I cut in. “I’m just saying think about it. These men, these soldiers, serve our country. They have enough on their shoulders. It’s not right to ask them to do something like this.”

  “You’re right.”

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “I thought about it.”

  “Good.” I turned to leave. “I’m gonna go—whoa, hey!”

  Before I could stop him, Beck calmly pulled out his pistol, extended it, and without hesitation went down the line of men, shooting each one.

  Four shots.

  I stood in complete shock. Where had that come from? When did that side of Beck emerge?

  “And so you don’t have to worry about it,” Beck said, replacing the pistol in his holster, “I’ll clean the mess up myself too.” He reached down and grabbed one of the bodies by the shirt.

  Okay, I saw enough and I had things to do.

  One of them should have been checking on Mera. But I couldn’t do it, not yet. Making my way to the main building to check on how the kitchen was doing getting things back in order, I was nearly knocked over by Randy when the giant man barreled out of the main door the same time I reached for it.

  “Hey. What’s wrong?”

  “I heard shots.”

  “Beck,” I pointed back. “His guys brought back one of the semi trucks and four of the people that came in here.”

  “Was there more trouble with them?” Randy asked.

  “No.”

  “I heard shots.”

  “Beck executed them.”

  “Oh. Okay. Whew,” Randy said. “I thought there was more trouble.” He opened the door. “You coming in?”

  I was dumbfounded. It wasn’t the reaction I expected from Randy. Usually he sided with me on the humanity and compassionate issues. Granted, I wasn’t distraught over the death of those men. Hell, we just used the Sleepers as the ultimate weapon on them. Shooting those men was far more humane.

  I think I was more baffled over what we had become, even if it was short lived in the aftermath of all that transpired.

  In a single instant, we were judge, jury, and executioner. While it worked in that moment, it couldn’t always be that way. It dawned on me that we had no rules, no law and order. As ridiculous as that sounded, we needed it. We had to hold on to our humanity no matter how hard it would be. If we didn’t we were no different than the people who stole from us, or worse, no different than the Sleepers.

  2. Alex Sans

  My daughter. I always wanted a kid, and granted, I inherited a ton of them when everything went to hell. A lot of future kids. I hate that time travel shit. I don’t hate the kids, they’re great, just the ripple this, ripple that. I wanted to put it all behind us, but as long as grown up Phoenix was still hanging around, that was gonna be impossible.

  Back to my daughter…Hope. I never did I think I would have a child of my own. Of course, I didn’t think Mera could have any more kids. She told me she was medically sterilized. That wasn’t the term she used. “Tubes tied.” I remember the conversation at the church. We barely knew each other, but we talked one night about having kids. Shortly after I found out she was pregnant, I asked her about it.

  “Alex, I never said my tubes were tied. I said I couldn’t have any more kids. My tubes were blocked.”

  “Tied. Blocked. Same difference.”

  Apparently they weren’t all that blocked, nor was she in some sort of early menopause like we thought.

  She was pregnant all right. How it happened was complicated. I was having a second chance at life. A miracle baby.

  There she was in Mera’s arms, the tiniest thing, rough start to life. Early too. Hanging on to her new life by a thread, but by God she was hanging tight.

  I believed with every inch of my being that she was going to be all right, despite what Javier told us. If she made it through the night, he said, her chances increased.

  I was certain she would. Certain without a doubt. Even if it were only to make everyone feel foolish. She didn’t know, but she was my kid. People rush to judge, rush to act. Like the few times everyone was convinced the world was gonna end. My survival shop was the busiest place and I’d nod my head, sympathizing and conveying my worry about the apocalypse, all while ringing in the credit card knowing full well they’d be kicking themselves for buying that two thousand dollar solar generator.

  People rushed to say goodbye to the baby they believed was gonna die. At first I feared it as well, but as the hours rolled on and her color got better, I knew.

  Hope was going nowhere.

  Poor kid had to deal with all of us and all our shit.

  Everyone came…except Sonny. I kinda had a feeling why he didn’t. His wife was pregnant and lost the baby. It was personal on lots of levels. But it pissed me off because Mera knew it and she wouldn’t let it go.

  Why the hell it bothered her so much I didn’t know. I certainly didn’t want to remind her about Sonny’s loss, not when she held our own delicate situation in her arms.

  “Where is he?” she asked.

  “Probably busy.”

  “You can tell me, Alex. Is he dead?”

  “No!” I roared. “Sonny isn’t dead.”

  “I’m sure he’s dead and you guys aren’t telling me.”

  “He’s not dead.”

  “Then why isn’t he here?”

  “I don’t know, Mera. We’ll ask when he gets here.”

  She’d let it go, then as soon as someone else popped in she’d start another round of Sonny questions.

  “Is he mad?”

  “No, he’s not mad.”

  “I don’t understand, Alex, it isn’t like Sonny. I
know he’s dead.”

  “Goddamn it, fine. I’m gonna go get his ass and pull him in here.” I stood.

  “No, it’s okay,” she said.

  As soon as I sat back down she looked at me.

  “But…” Mera said softly, “it would make me feel better if I saw him.”

  “Fine. Fine.” I stood, kissed the baby, then Mera on the forehead. I hated to leave because I vowed to stay there with her until Hope was out of danger, but Sonny was part of us, part of our family, and Mera needed him.

  With Mera, I was almost a hundred percent happy, although we hadn’t cemented any relationship yet. Hell, we hadn’t kissed other than a peck here and there. I was cautious, not because of my feelings, but rather I knew Beck would eventually return. They had a history. She had this dedication to him. Even though he rushed to judgment on his breakup with her, blaming it on needing a clear mind, part of me kept my distance. Mera said I was being silly about it. Nah, I was being smart. I knew for a fact, straight from Beck, he had changed his mind.

  Time would tell.

  Hey…time did tell. According to the grown up version of my son, Mera and I end up together. Then again, he said it didn’t happen for nearly a decade.

  That told me to save and protect my heart. If she wasn’t with me, it had to be Beck. That made sense. Even if we didn’t progress for a while, we had a bond, we had a child. It would hurt like hell, but I’d deal. As long as it was Beck. Who else would it be?

  Goddamn Sonny.

  I cursed as I searched for him. Last I heard through the visitor grapevine he was overseeing the clean up phase. Where the hell was he? Obviously, he wasn’t in the yard. They had to stop because it was dark. Plus, it stunk. Even though they had cleaned a lot of the carnage it still smelled horrible. An attempt to put lime on the remaining bodies didn’t help.

  It was like Where’s Waldo, only where the hell is Sonny? Everyone thought they saw him ‘just over there.’ Haven was not that big, and after about thirty minutes of searching I noticed the lone light on the first floor of the administrative building.