But the Children Survived (39 page)

Chapter 48

They had been riding for three hours following the “E” in the mirror.  They hadn’t passed a town or bathroom for a long time, and the kids were starting to squirm.

“I think we better let them out to pee,” Dani said.

Joe pulled over and the kids climbed over Jenny's seat and opened the car door.  They ran to the side of the road and pulled their pants down.  When they were done, they got back into the car and into the third row.  Joe had to go, too, and went to the other side of the road.

“We might as well, Jenny.  I have some paper in the back.”

The women got out and Dani went to the back of the car and pulled out the toilet paper.  They went a little ways away from the car where there was a large bush.  They both went behind it and squatted.  As they were pulling their pants up, they heard a faint yell coming from behind them. 

“HELP!”

Dani turned towards the sound.

“Don't go.  Maybe it's a trick.”  Jenny was holding onto Dani's arm. 

“What if it's another kid?” 

Dani shook off Jenny's hand and walked in the direction of the sound.  She looked ahead and saw a line of trees that you couldn't see from the road.  Out of the trees came a little girl running towards her.

“Please help,” the girl was saying.  Dani began to run towards her.  They met and the little girl grabbed Dani's hand.  Jenny ran back to the car to get Joe.

“I saw you.  I saw you over the hill.  I saw the car and I ran.  I took the shortcut.  I just kept running hoping I could catch you.”  The girl had to be around 10 years old.  She was out of breath.  She looked very thin.

“What's your name honey?”  Dani asked her.

“Rebecca.  Becky.  Please, come with me.  We need help.” 

“How many of you are there?”  Dani didn’t know what to do.  She could see the distress the child was in, but what if it
was
a trap? 

“There are twenty of us left.  We grew up together.  Please, we have no food.”

The little girl was pulling Dani's hand.  Dani turned to see if Joe could see her.  She waved that she was going with the girl.  Joe looked mad.

“You kids stay here with Jenny,” Joe said and he ran to catch up with Dani.  When he caught up to her, he grabbed her arm.  “What's going on?”

“She says there are twenty of them.  She says they have no food.” 

“Twenty of what?  Maybe they're cannibals and we’re tonight's dinner.” 

“And maybe they're the children of the corn, or maybe zombies.”  Dani was still following the girl.

“Of course not,” Joe said, even though he had thought about that.

They reached the woods and the girl walked right into it.  They followed her.  Joe was determined to protect Dani.  The girl kept walking and soon they could see a clearing in the woods where a small town had been built.  The road into the town was probably just down the highway from where they were traveling. 

There were several houses and a school.  They also had a church and a library.  The sign in front of the library indicated there was a post office inside.  Someone had planned this town for its privacy. 

In the center of the town was a small playground and a gazebo, and playing on the playground were several half-starved kids, all around 10 years old.  Dani looked at Joe.  She had many questions in her eyes.  Why were all the children they’d found the same age? 

“Hey, kids,” Dani said.

The kids looked at her and tried to smile.  They were dirty, just like the triplets. 

“Where are your parents?”  Dani thought that maybe, by some miracle, the poison had not made it this far from Vegas. 

“Our parents didn't wake up.  After a couple of days, we buried them,” Becky said.

“All by yourselves?”  Dani couldn’t imagine what these kids had been through. 

“We helped each other,” a boy said. 

“I'm sorry.  I guess you're all hungry,” Dani said. 

In unison, the kids nodded their heads.  Dani looked at Joe.  There were several bags of groceries in the back of the car.  Joe looked at her as if to say, “We can't save everybody” but he turned around and walked back to the car.  Dani asked Becky to show her around the town.  Becky took her to the library.

“This has the story,” Becky said, “of how we were born.”

In the middle of the library, there was a small plaque dedicating the town to the Fetura Babies of Dr. Tomlinson.  Dani thought that was very strange.  The doctor who delivered Mindy was named Tomlinson.  Dani had taken Fetura when she was pregnant with Mindy.  Becky then took her to the back of the library where there were photos of all the children, from birth to just a month or so ago. 

“See, this one's of me.”  Becky was pointing at a picture of a little purple newborn in the arms of a pretty young woman.  “That's my mom.”  Dani noticed that the women in the pictures were all dressed in very nice clothing.  Their hair and makeup were perfect.

As she looked at the pictures of the newborns, Dani remembered the first time she had laid eyes on Mindy.  They all looked like she had for the first few days of her life.  There was a book on a pedestal similar to a church altar.  Dani opened it and read about how the town was founded. 

The founding mothers of this town had been patients of Dr. Michael Tomlinson. They had joined together to raise their children in a “safe harbor of love and respect.”  They had come from different parts of the country with their husbands.  These couples had money. 

They had met on a website sponsored by Dr. Tomlinson. He had created it so that they could share their experiences with miscarriage and with Fetura, purple concoction that allowed them to carry their babies to term. 

Dani remembered Tomlinson trying to get her to go onto the website.  She was working at the time and it just seemed like one more thing to do.  She never went on it.  Apparently these women had decided to raise their kids in some type of utopia, away from the dangers of the modern world.

Oh well, thought Dani, you had too much money for your own good.  You should have lived in a cavern.

Dani began to think about the triplets.  She wondered if they too were Fetura babies.  If they were, then they had some kind of immunity from whatever had killed everyone else.  That also meant Mindy would be immune! 

Dani's heart beat faster.  She’d been so scared to think about Mindy dying.  Now Dani had hope that her little Fetura baby would be waiting back home when she got there.

Joe arrived with the bags.  He enlisted Jenny and the triplets to help.  The triplets at first refused, believing these kids were zombies luring them in.  But Jenny said they were live children and for some reason they believed her.  They carried the bags into the middle of the playground and the kids descended on the bags like vultures. 

“Wait, wait, I know you’re hungry, but we have to divide it up fairly.  I’ll do it,” Dani said. 

Dani walked towards them and they parted like the Red Sea.  She opened the bags and started handing out toaster pastries and bags of snack chips.  There were also cans of tuna and chicken, which required a can opener.  Becky ran to her house and got one. 

Dani opened can after can while the kids used their fingers to dig out the meat.  Soon the feeding frenzy died down and they all sat on the ground.  They looked at Dani to find out what they would do next.  Dani took Joe's arm and pulled him to the side.

“What are we going to do with them?” She looked at him.

“You're really asking me?”  Joe wasn’t used to her asking him for advice when it came to something so important.  Dani usually had the last word.  “Well, I would say we have to get a bigger car.” 

“For sure, but not a car, we need a bus.  A school bus maybe.  That road leads to the highway.  Maybe there's a real town there with a public school.  We have to go and find out.”

They asked Jenny to stay with the kids while they drove to town to look for a bus.  Jenny asked them to bring her some chocolate if there was a store.  She said she needed it after the last two days. 

As they were heading back to the car, Joe stopped walking. 

“I don't think I can do this Dani.  I can't do this.” He was shaking his head. 

“Do what?  You don't have a choice, Joe.  You can't leave.  These are kids.  They need adults, and tag we're it.” 

“I’m not kidding.  I really don't think I can handle this.” 

“I know you’re not kidding, Joe.  But what you don't get is that it doesn't matter whether or not you can handle it.  You have to do it.  I have to do it.  You won the lottery again, Joe, only this time the prize is kids.  Lots and lots of kids!” 

Dani continued to walk to the car.  Every nerve in Joe's body was trembling.  Though he wouldn’t admit it, he was scared to death and this time he couldn’t run away.

Dani was in the driver's seat when he got to the car.  He slid into the passenger seat and they drove down the highway. 

The center of the next town was three miles away.  It had the usual convenience store with gas pump, a small doctor's office, a hospital, a Big Mart, etc.  Dani kept driving through the town until she spotted a row of yellow buses.  They had found the school.

She parked the car and they both got out.  They walked up to the first bus.  Joe had trained once to drive a school bus, but at the last minute decided he couldn’t handle the kids.  These buses looked kind of old.  Joe pulled on the door and it opened.  He climbed up the stairs and looked to see if the key was in the ignition.  YES!  It was. 

“The keys are here, Dani.” 

Dani smiled.  There was one less thing to worry about.  She was glad they’d found the buses. 

Joe sat in the seat and looked at the gauges.  He looked for the yellow knob that signified it had air brakes.  It was there.  He would have to teach Dani how to use them.  He put the bus in neutral.  He then pulled out the yellow knob, stepped on the brakes, and turned on the bus.  He put the bus in drive and pushed the yellow knob back in.  He was ready to go.  When it came time to stop, he would reverse the process.  It had all come back to him.  Dani was impressed.

“You look good up there, hon,” she said.  Joe smiled. 

“Why thank you ma’am.”  Joe pretended to tip his imaginary cowboy hat.  “I guess I have to drive this back.  It's got gas in it, so I'll see you there.” 

Joe closed the doors and drove the bus out of the parking lot.  He would have to practice wide turns.  He made the turn onto the highway.  He was doing pretty well.  He wanted to practice a little before putting kids in the bus.  He drove up and down the highway a few times, turning and reversing.  He then drove to the little road that led to the kids’ town. 

Dani was there with the car parked in the driveway of one of the houses.  He parked on the road.  He jumped down from the bus and walked over to Dani and Jenny.  Dani must have stopped at the convenience store because everyone was eating chocolate.

“So, what's the plan and where's mine?” 

Dani handed him a chocolate bar.

“We want to clean them up.  We're checking the houses to see if there’s running water all around and then we’ll give them baths.  We need your help.” 

Joe took a deep breath. “Yeah, I'll help with the boys.  Mindy is too self-conscious in front of me.  Boys don't care.”  He stood up and went to the middle of the playground.

“Hey, guys, can I have your attention?”  The kids turned to look at Joe.  “Can I have all the boys line up over here?”  Seven little boys walked over to the imaginary line Joe pointed to.  “All right, fellas, it's bath time.  I want you to go over to that lady over there and she’ll tell you what house to go to for your bath.” 

The boys complained but they did as they were told.  It was nice to have someone in charge.  Dani lined them up again and waited for Jenny.  Jenny ran out to her and said the house they had parked at had two full baths and running water, but it was cold. 

“Guys, we have to give you cold baths.  I promise to make it shallow and we’ll just use it to rinse you off.  Okay?” Dani said.

The boys made faces but followed Jenny into the house with Joe bringing up the rear.  Then Dani had the girls line up and follow her into the house next door.  She’d found two baths in there, too, and she would get the girls washed up in that one.  They should have some clean clothes in their respective houses.

It would be a long evening, but once they were clean, they could sleep and be on the road first thing in the morning.  She and Jenny would stop at a store and fill the car with food while Joe waited with the kids in the bus.  He would then follow Dani as she followed the “E” in the rearview mirror.

*****

The school bus was quiet.  By some quirk of fate, all the kids had fallen asleep, and Joe was enjoying the peace and quiet.  The road ahead was empty of cars and bodies.  It was a rural highway, with a farm here and there.  The lack of distractions gave Joe a chance to reflect on the moment that changed his life, and how you never really know what’s around the next bend in the road.

Chapter 49

St. Petersburg, Florida

Gladys Stemple was putting her prescriptions in the car when the latch on her purse opened.  The lottery ticket she had placed in it was sitting on her wallet.  She had taken it out of her wallet so it would be easier to find when she went to Granger's to check the winning lottery numbers. 

Gladys had been buying lottery tickets for years, always using the same numbers.  She knew her odds of winning were low, but watching those numbers come up every week gave her a small thrill, which at her age was all she could handle.

 Gladys didn’t have the internet and had stopped the paper coming to the house when Fred died.  She had fallen asleep in the chair last night and missed the drawing, so now she had to go to Granger's to check them.