But the Children Survived (31 page)

She would begin to stiffen up soon.  He would have to make a decision.  Once again, he picked up his phone and dialed 911.  Again, no one answered.  That's when the tears began to roll down Jason's face. 

Jason felt embarrassed to be crying.  He would be eighteen in two weeks and to be crying at his age was just humiliating.  He hated feeling so weak.  Then he thought of Justin.  Maybe he could find someone over there to help him.

Jason, with Ricky at his heels walked over to Justin's house.  It was one house over near the convenience store.  As Jason passed the house next door, he saw the lady who lived there lying on the front porch with a newspaper in her hand as if she had just picked it up when she fell over. 

He jogged past while Ricky trotted.  Before he got to Justin's house, he could see Justin's little sister Caitlyn lying in the driveway.  He walked over to her and could see the blood coming from her nose.  He saw the family dog, Nora, lying in the grass.  He looked at Nora and she, too, had blood coming from her nose. 

“What the hell happened, Ricky?”  Jason said.

He walked to the front door, and it was open.  He entered the house and saw Justin's mother, Janice, dead on the sofa with the TV still running.  He walked into the kitchen and there was Justin's father, David, with his face in a plate of eggs.  Justin was on the floor with the phone in his hand.  Jason turned and ran out of the house. 

He threw up on the lawn, just missing Nora's body.  He fell onto his knees and threw up again.  His body was shaking all over and he couldn’t stop it.  What the hell was he going to do now?  And why were he and Ricky still alive when everyone else had died?

Jason walked back to his house.  He had to take care of his mother.  He went to the shed and looked around to see if he could find something waterproof to wrap her in.  He found an old tarpaulin from when the house had been painted.  He picked up the tarpaulin and then looked around for something to tie it with. 

He found an old dog tie-out they had kept Ricky on until it became apparent that this dog would never run away.  He took that in his other hand and went back into the house. 

Jason laid the tarpaulin out in the living room.  He then gently lifted Teresa's body up and carried her to the living room.  He laid her on the tarpaulin and then stood back.  He knelt down next to her and took her hand.  She looked like she was asleep.  The blood under her nose had dried and darkened.  He broke down again and sobbed uncontrollably. 

Jason willed himself to stop crying.  He pulled the tarpaulin around Teresa's body.  He thought about putting something inside the wrapping to help it sink to the bottom of the ocean.  He walked outside and found some decorative rocks Teresa had put there a few years ago.  They were heavy enough to do the job.

Jason continued to wrap Teresa in the tarpaulin.  There were rivets on the sides of the tarpaulin and Jason wove the dog tie through the holes.  Just before he finished weaving, he slipped the rocks into the tarpaulin.  He took the dog tie and wrapped part of it around the bottom by her feet to close it.  Then he turned to do the same to the other end. 

He looked at Teresa's face.  It would be the last time he ever looked upon his mother's beautiful face.  He had to close his eyes as he wrapped the ends of the tarpaulin around her head and then wrapped the rest of the dog tie around it, pulling it closed.  He made sure the knots were secure before he tried to move her.

The rocks made her body heavier so he had to drag her to the deck.  He was going to use David's 20 foot sailboat to take her out to sea.  Jason and Justin had taken the boat out alone several times, and Jason felt well able to handle it. 

He pulled Teresa's body out to the deck.  He was careful when he got to the lip of the sliding glass doors to lift her head over the bump.  He did the same when he got her to the end of the dock. 

The sand was soft and it took him a while to get her to the Carsons’ dock.  When he got there, Jason had to lift Teresa's body up to the dock, about four feet off the ground.  He was able to sit her up, grab her arms through the tarpaulin and hoist her up onto the dock.  The rocks were all at her feet. 

Jason then dragged her to the boat, which was docked on the right hand side of the dock.  Again he had to lift and hoist to get her onto the boat.  Once she was aboard, Jason cast off the lines and unfurled one of the sails.  The wind was picking up and the boat easily sailed away from the dock.  Jason tried not to think of what he had to do next.

When he was out about a mile, he lowered the sail and waited until the boat slowed down.  He threw the small anchor over the side to stop the boat. 

Jason tried to remember something from the Sunday school classes his mother had taken him to before his father died.  After Antonio died, Teresa had lost her faith and stopped going to church.  Jason wasn’t sure what to do when suddenly he remembered an old song they had taught him.  He hummed it quietly and then sang the first line.  “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”  He couldn’t remember anymore, so he just started to talk to his mother.

“I'm sorry, Mom.  I'm so sorry I couldn't save you.  I know I didn't tell you enough but I love you.  I will always remember you and ...” He started to cry.  Then he started to shout. “What the hell, God?  What were you thinking?  WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?!” 

He sat down on the deck of the boat and felt the waves gently rock him, like a mother rocking her baby.  He looked at his mother wrapped for burial.  He knew he couldn’t stay here forever and that sooner or later he would have to go back to the shore.  He couldn’t leave Ricky alone. 

Jason put his arms around Teresa and held her, clinging to these last few seconds with his very life.  He cried so hard his stomach began to hurt. 

“I can't.”  He whispered.  “I can't do this.”  Jason shook his head. 

Teresa’s body felt hard, not like his mother at all.  He sat up and let go of her.  His shoulders went up and down.

 “But I have to because there isn't anybody else, is there?” 

His grief had suddenly turned to something deeper, a depression that would enable him to do what he had to and not feel.  He put his hand out and touched Teresa.  “Bye, mom.” 

He got up off the deck and lifted Teresa up.  He put her over the side and after one second of hesitation, he let her go.  Jason watched as she disappeared feet first into the ocean.  The rocks would ground her to the bottom so she wouldn’t wash up on the beach. 

Jason didn’t want to linger.  He pulled up the anchor and unfurled the sail.  He took hold of the wheel and turned the boat around, careful not to get hit by the boom.  He steered the boat towards Justin's dock and just before he reached it, he lowered the sail and gently guided the boat next to the dock.  He was glad Justin had taught him to sail.  He would use those skills many times over in the next three weeks.

Chapter 39

Jason heard Ricky's nails on the stairs.  He must have smelled food cooking. 

“Hey, buddy, you woke up.” 

Jason smiled at Ricky.  He had put some pet stairs by one of the kitchen chairs so Ricky could climb up and sit while Jason ate.  Sometimes Jason would give him some of his food one piece at a time. 

Ricky had a sweet little face that Jason found comical.  When he opened his mouth to pant he looked like he was smiling.  His bug eyes made him look skeptical, especially when he was looking up at Jason from the floor. 

“Guess what, Rick, we can go shopping today.  I cleaned the streets off and now we can walk the neighborhood without looking at zombies all day.  Right, fella?” 

Jason reached over and ruffled Ricky's head.  He had filled his cabinets with paper plates so he wouldn't have to do dishes.  He did have to wash any pans he used, and silverware, but that wasn’t so bad.  Anytime he could get away with just using a paper plate and the microwave, he did. 

He put the plate in the garbage bag he had by the sliding glass door and then went upstairs to shower and get dressed.  When he came back down, he gave Ricky a small can of dog food.  While the dog ate, he went back upstairs to do his daily check of the neighborhood with Justin's binoculars. 

He grabbed the binoculars and went up one more flight of stairs to the roof.  There was a modern version of a widow's walk up there and he perched himself on it while he used the binoculars to scan the area. 

Where he stood, he could see them but they couldn’t see him, so to speak.  As usual, there were no living people in sight.  A week or so ago he had thought he heard a truck drive past his house, but he was just waking up and decided it was his imagination. 

He went downstairs three at a time this time and told Ricky to get a move on.  He opened the door and he and Ricky walked the two blocks into the shopping center of town.  They walked past the stores that Jason had cleared of bodies and rotting food. 

“Buddy, I think I need some new shoes.  Let's hit the shoe store.” 

Jason opened the door of a small surf shop and held the door for Ricky.  There was plenty of light from the sun today so he was able to see the racks of clothes and shoes.  He picked out a pair of Converse Pro Leather Sneakers, cargo shorts, and some graphic tees. 

Jason looked at the underwear and grabbed those too.  Most of his clothes were getting too small.  Dragging and lifting bodies for two weeks had pumped him up and he continued to lift weights over at Justin's.  His chest was getting bigger, as were his arms and thighs.

“You see anything you like, Ricky?”  Ricky made a sound that greatly resembled a harrumph.  “Guess not.”  Jason threw the clothes in a bag, left the store and headed home. 

When he got back to the house he was hungry again.  He popped a frozen pizza into the oven and set the timer so he wouldn't forget.  He had 15 minutes to kill and now that he had finished cleaning up the neighborhood, he was finding it hard to fill time. 

Last week he had entered his mother's office.  He had been avoiding that room for fear it, too, might smell like her.  But while he was throwing bones into the sea the day before, he had the strangest memory.  It hit him out of the blue. 

He was listening to his mother talking to her friend a few days after his father died.  Her friend made a strange remark about how his father and Teresa had created a purple baby and how it was too bad Antonio had never been able to make that drug.  Teresa had nodded her head.  When Jason asked what they meant by a purple baby, Teresa told him they had been talking about a movie. 

Jason had forgotten all about it until that moment.  He knew his father had been a biochemist who grew these weird plants in the basement.  He knew that his dad had given them to an old man named Vinnie. 

Jason and his mother used to visit Vinnie until the old man died.  Jason had been about 12 years old then.  He remembered seeing the plants at Vinnie's greenhouse.  He knew they were poisonous.  Then he remembered they were also very purple. 

When he got back home from clearing the bodies that day, he stripped off his clothes before entering the house.  He went inside and looked around the greenhouse to see if any remnants of his father's lab still remained.  There was nothing left.  Teresa must have had it all removed at some time. 

He then went upstairs and took a shower.  After he ate, he reluctantly went into Teresa's office.  The scent was different in there.  There was an old air freshener on the table by the air conditioner vent.  There was an ebony desk with very little on top.  Teresa had been neat.  There was a small safe in one corner and a file cabinet next to the desk.  Teresa's laptop sat on the file cabinet. 

Jason sat on the chair behind the desk.  He tried the drawers and they all opened.  Inside he found the usual office stuff, paper clips, etc.  He opened the file cabinet and flipped through the files.  Here again were the usual things like utility bills and bank statements.  In the second file drawer he found a filed marked “Jason.”  He pulled out the file and opened it on the desk.

The file contained his birth certificate.  He had been born in St. Petersburg General Hospital.  There were no pictures in this file.  He had been delivered by a Dr. Michael Tomlinson.  Jason looked at the rest of the file but found nothing else about his birth.  His mother had photo albums in her bedroom.  He might
have
to look in there someday. 

Jason then turned to look at the safe.  It was a small boxy thing with a combination lock.  Not the most secure thing in the world.  Jason bet he could figure out the combination.  He tried all the birthdays he knew and they didn't work.  He then tried names.  Finally, he tried his mother's cell phone number.  It worked, and the safe door swung open. 

Inside the safe was a small box.  Inside the box was a gold chain with a key.  The key had the number “27” on it.  It looked like a post office box key.  Or maybe a safe deposit box?  Jason went back to the file cabinet and opened the top drawer. 

He looked at the bank statements until he found one from Farlands bank, which had debited the rent on a safe deposit box every month.  Jason looked at the key.  Now that he knew what it was for, he had to figure out how to get into the box.  When he finished moving bodies, then he would work on cracking the bank vault.  He put the chain around his neck and closed the safe. 

*****

Jason's pizza was ready.  He ate fast and decided to go to the bank to see just how hard it would be to get into the vault.  If he succeeded at all, he would have to be careful about getting locked in there. 

“Ricky, I have to leave you home for now.  Don't whine - I'll be back.” 

He filled the dog's bowl with kibble and refilled his water.  He left a window open with just a screen in case the dog had to get out of the house if something happened to Jason.  Jason believed Ricky could break through that screen if he got desperate.  He grabbed his backpack and left the house.