“We’re not aliens,” Jason reiterated. “We’re human.”
“If you aren’t from Salvation, you’re awfully well kept for being out here.”
“We’re from somewhere else,” Jason said.
“Please,” Nora said. “We mean no harm. You’re the first person we have seen at all in a long time.”
“How is that?” the woman asked. “If you come from another place, you’re all cleaned up, and you aren’t aliens, and not from Salvation, how come you haven’t seen anyone?”
Nora asked. “Because the place we came from was an experimental lab that had us in a deep freeze for decades, we woke up to a dead world.”
“Okay now that makes sense.” She lowered her weapon.
Jason leaned to Nora and said sarcastically. “That makes sense?”
“Hey,” the woman snapped. “Yeah, makes more sense than aliens taking the form of a long dead preacher.”
“I’m… I’m sorry,” Jason said. “Long dead preacher?”
She shook her head as if she were irritated and refused to even acknowledge Jason asked her about the preacher. “You sure you’re immune?” She asked.
“That’s what they told us,” Nora replied.
She shouldered her shotgun and extended her hand. “Then come on in. My name is Grace.”
“Champaign,” Grace said as she poured a cup of tea for Nora and Jason. “About twelve miles from here. You’re close.” She joined them at the little kitchen table. “Nice place to visit, I wouldn’t want to live there.”
“Why?” Nora asked. “I mean why corner yourself here.”
“Because I don’t want to infect them.” Grace said the statement more as a question.
“Wait. Wait.” Jason held up his hand. “There are people there.”
“Isn’t that why you’re going?”
Nora shook her head. “No we just picked it on a map as a central meeting place for our group. We split up to look for our families.”
“Well you lucked out picking Champaign. They’re good folks. They drop off supplies to me every two weeks. They’ve done well. Tea leaves are from them.”
Nora smiled. “Other people. That’s great. We haven’t seen a soul.”
“Well, you’re trekking in the first wave area. Most died or left. I call it nomad land.”
Nora laughed.
“Why is that funny?” Grace asked.
“Well, I just had been trying to come up with jokes and one of them was what do you call a happy survivor walking in the wasteland. A nomad.”
There was a silent pause, the Grace slammed her hand on the table and roared with laughter as if it were the funniest thing. “That’s good. That’s funny. You almost made me pee myself.”
Jason curled the corner of his lip. “It’s not funny.”
“Yes, it is,” Grace argued. “I haven’t heard a joke in decades. That was funny. Got anymore?”
“As a matter of fact…”
“Wait.” Jason stopped Nora. “Before she starts telling her jokes. You said you’re infected.”
“I am.”
“You don’t look sick.”
“I’m not right now. But had you been here four weeks ago…” Grace whistled. “I was down and out. Kept thinking, ‘Yep, this is the bout that kills me’, but it didn’t.”
“And it’s the virus that wiped out everyone?” Nora asked.
“Same one. The one that was deliberately released.” Grace nodded. “I went to one of those aid places, they put me in a red tent. Meaning I was gonna die. I was bleeding from my eyes. Glands so swollen I was choking. But I didn’t die. That was the worst bout. The last one was a dozy. They said I didn’t get immunities from catching it. That I could also be a carrier. Sure enough, I got it the next year and beat it. After the third time, I was set up here. And for about ten years maybe more, they came, they took blood, they said I was gonna be the secret to beating it. They even said my application was rejected to Salvation, but my husband could go. He didn’t want to.” She shrugged.
“So you know where it is?” Jason asked.
“No. Not at all. My husband thought it’s in Iowa. He was pretty certain it was. He said the folks that came here mentioned it or something. Then when Salvation was done, they just stopped coming. No more Salvation, no news of it.”
“That’s sad,” Nora said, reaching over and grabbing her hand. “It has to be terrible for you.”
“It wasn’t at first, I had my husband and the doctors came. But when they stopped it got bad. My husband started a little farm, I keep at it. We had to. Supplies started dwindling. Luckily, Bruce from Champaign knew we were here. He helped. Then after my husband passed, Bruce came out about once a week. Sits outside my fence and we chat. They keep me going. They keep me alive.”
Jason asked. ‘Ever think of going there if you’re not sick.”
“Nope. I had no problem being locked up here. It was my duty. If I could stop one person from getting sick, I was doing my part. I’d rather never take that chance of leaving. Don’t want a repeat of history.”
It was when Jason passed on a polite smile, that Grace snapped her finger and pointed.
“Goodness,” she said. “You look like… hold on.” She stood up and walked into the other room. She came back with a stack of CDs. “Not quite as polished as him. He had nicer skin.” She unloaded the CD’s on the table. “Preacher Rudolph. I loved him. Poor man was killed decades ago. Good singer. Good looking.”
Nora laughed. “Nicer skin.”
“It’s called make up and air brushing,” Jason quipped.
“Oh, no,” Grace said. “Don’t go disrespecting my preacher. He was my link to a good Christian life and my wild fantasy.”
Nora coughed to cover a laugh.
“Don’t you think he looks like him?” Grace showed Nora the CD.
“A little,” Nora replied.
“You think you look like him?” Grace asked Jason.
“I am him.”
Grace stared for a second. “Um, yeah. Sure.” She gathered up the CDs. “Okay, let me put these back and we’ll chat a little more before you head to Champaign. If you don’t mind visiting.”
“No, not at all,” Nora said.
“And you can tell me more of those jokes.” Grace walked out.
After she was gone, Jason looked at Nora. “It’s not funny.”
“Yeah it is. I’ll tell her it’s you.”
“No. She’s been alone for decades, with me being her fantasy, I’d rather not.”
Nora laughed. “That was funny.”
“What was?” Grace asked as she returned.
“He told a joke,” Nora pointed. “About a Priest, Rabbi and a Monk in the Rapture.”
“Oh, let me get more tea. I want to hear this one.”
Grace turned from the table and Nora gave a smug look to Jason. He didn’t look it, but Nora knew he was glad, like she was, to have met Grace. It gave them hope about people and knowledge they needed.
There was still more to learn and Grace would be a great guide. They weren’t far from Champaign, and at the very least, even if the others never returned, Jason and Nora knew they weren’t alone in the world.
EIGHT – PAST REPEATS
The first thought that ran through Meredith’s mind as she placed on the dungarees was, ‘Good Lord, I am wearing the pants of a sixty year old’. Rusty had given them to her. They were comfortable. Baggy in the rear and legs, snug in the waist. Despite being asleep for thirty years, Meredith hadn’t lost an inch off of her middle age bulge. But she figured at the rate she was eating or lack of eating, she would finally shed those pounds.
They had been with the Wrecker village for over two days. Every few hours it seemed someone else was getting sick. They needed healthy hands to help.