Gaia Dreams (Gaiaverse Book 1) (75 page)

Jessica gasped.

John's brow furrowed as he considered it. They
were making their own rules here, he thought. Setting up a new society, as
Alexandra had reminded him, a culture for the changed future. Did he want to
see it start with them killing a survivor? After so many deaths around the
world? He thought if he had to, to protect his family--or now, maybe even to
protect this community--he could kill someone in defense. But to cold-bloodedly
pass a sentence of death onto another human being. He found his head was
shaking 'no' even before his thoughts caught up to his actions.

Jessica struggled with a mix of emotions she
didn't understand. At first, intellectually, her response was--yes! Kill her the
way she caused my Mom to die. Except that her gut response, the one that caused
her to gasp, was the complete denial of any more death. So, so, so much death
visited upon the world lately. How could it be right for them to actively
choose to kill someone? No matter how awful she was. But to leave her
alive--Jessica's feelings about Sam were very clear as she recognized how
dangerous Margaret was to Sam. As Sam's Guardian--that odd yet fitting title
bestowed upon her in the past weeks--in that role, she knew she had to think of
what was best for Samantha. No matter what. If the only way to deal with
Margaret was to kill her, then, so be it.

Mrs. Philpott watched them, watched their faces,
as Perceval tuned in more directly. What he saw in them didn't surprise him.
Not at all. They were thinking as the people they needed to become. And there
was another way. He turned to the door as Samantha walked into her parent's
bedroom.

Still dressed in her pale yellow cotton pajamas,
she walked over to her parents and stood next to the coffee table. Her eyes
looked bruised, and her blonde hair hung limply on her shoulders. But Mrs.
Philpott marveled at the contrast in her dark brown eyes. They were filled with
purpose and determination.

Samantha announced quietly, "There is another
way."

Perceval meowed once in agreement. Mrs. Philpott
nodded. And John and Jessica just looked startled yet again that their daughter
knew all about this conversation.

Sam went on, "We have to," she glanced at
Perceval, and continued, "we have to shun her. We have to send her away from
us, away from Cape Fair, away from the Gaians. It's the only way we can be safe
from her."

Jessica looked puzzled as she asked, "But,
honey, how on earth are we going to keep her away? We can't be sure she won't
come back somehow."

"Mom," Sam said in an exasperated tone. "The
animals? The trees? The birds? The earth? All those guys will know what to
watch for. Will know to watch for her. I've already been talking to them about
it. I can't watch for her all the time--if I did, I'd never have time to learn
how to ride Sunny, my horse." She paused and grinned at her father. "You did
say I could learn to ride him someday, didn't you?"

John laughed and said, "Yes, Sam, I think we can
agree that you've learned a lot about using good judgment lately with your new
abilities. But, honey, even if we get all that help to watch and make sure she
doesn't return--" He stopped as he tried to decide how much to go into with his
still very young daughter.

Jessica voiced the concern. "Is it right for us
to let her loose on an unsuspecting world?"

The Hospital

Zack woke up to the smell of rubbing alcohol and
something else--ah, a hospital, he thought groggily. Then, more alertly, his
mind began to question, what am I doing in a hospital? He kept his eyes closed
as he sniffed the air again. A hospital and Maria's perfume. Opening his eyes
he found her curled up next to him, her head on his chest. His eyes darkened to
a smoky blue-gray as he thought about that perfume. She'd kept it tucked away
in the one bag she'd carried through all their travels. Carefully wrapped up
against breakage. He'd noticed it in Boston, kidding her about how she had
grabbed perfume the day they left Atlanta. Then he felt awful when she admitted
it was the last gift from her mother. He wondered now if someday he could find
that scent for her again, maybe scavenging somewhere.

A banging on the door interrupted his musings on
perfume.

"Hey, you two, up and at 'em," he heard the
mayor calling from outside the door.

Zack double-checked to be sure he and Maria were
both decently clothed, and then chuckled as he recalled how they'd fallen into
the hospital bed together exhausted, too tired to even undress. Nudging Maria
to wake her up, he said loudly, "Come in, Dusty, come in. We're awake."

He heard Maria grumble, "Sort of."

As the mayor walked in, Zack sat up and ran his
fingers through his hair, pulling it back into a ponytail. "Okay," he said, "what's
so important that we have to be up now?"

Mayor Dubois walked in and perched on the edge
of the other hospital bed. "Our presence has been requested. Up at the Samuels'
house. Which is what they seem to be calling the headquarters for this safe
zone. It's time to deal with Margaret."

"Oh," Zack said darkly. "Margaret."

Maria was looking blearily at the mayor and
asked, "Why do you say 'they' are calling it the Samuels' house? Aren't we a
part of 'them' now? You sound like you're keeping us separate from them. I know
we've only been here for less than twenty-four hours, but this is going to be
our new home."

Dusty glanced from one to the other of them and
sighed. "Ah, such naiveté. Listen up, we may not be staying here. When that
fellow Black came by to let me know we were wanted at the Samuels' house, it
wasn't a request. It was a command. I'm not sure just what our fate will be
this morning. We may not be allowed to stay here."

Zack frowned. "What? Why wouldn't they let us
stay--oh. Margaret. We brought her here into their nice safe little, well, safe
zone. And suddenly people and animals are dying, wounded, damage done to the
Power Station, oh, shit. They may not want us here at all."

Maria groaned. From what she'd seen of Cape
Fair, of the inhabitants, she felt this was a place she could settle down, a
place to start over. The thought of leaving, of going back out into the chaos
of the rest of the world was utterly frightening.

Phoebe and Alan walked in with bottles of juice.
Alan said, "I found a machine with drinks, but no real food. This will have to
do."

As the mayor caught Phoebe and Alan up on the
discussion, Phoebe's face fell.

"I want to stay here," she said firmly. "I'm
tired of running from one place to another. And," she paused and then continued
in a slightly shakier voice, "things are much cleaner here than anywhere we've
been in a long time."

Alan patted her on the shoulder and said, "I
agree, this is where we should stay. Do you really think they'll kick us out,
Dusty?"

She shrugged and said, "I don't know. I think
they might, but the fact that they summoned us there so early today--something
is going on, that's for sure."

A knock on the door was followed by the sight of
a woman, short, curly hair and a cute friendly face--and wearing a shoulder
holster which contained a gun. No hiding it, Dusty saw.

"Hey guys, my name is Rachel and I'm part of
Cape Fair Security. I've got a car outside to run you up to the Samuels' house,"
the young woman told them.

Phoebe asked in a trembling voice, "Are we under
arrest?"

Rachel looked startled. "Arrest? I'm not sure
yet how I'd go about arresting someone, so no, you aren't. John just told me to
get you there pronto. Now if my big brother wanted you under arrest, I'm sure
he would have sent Black along to help me out."

It was the mayor's turn to look surprised. "Your
brother is the leader we met yesterday? John?"

Rachel grinned. "Oh, yeah, that's him. He's a
good guy even if he does drive me crazy. So, no arrest, okay?" she asked,
turning to Phoebe.

Phoebe nodded, relief spreading over her face.

As they walked out of the hospital, Rachel said
in an amused voice. "Although, we maybe could question John's judgment a bit.
After all, a month ago I was in New York, working in advertising on a
commercial for deodorant. Now I'm second-in-command of the police." She laughed
and as they reached the SUV, patted the gun and said, "Guess it's good I know
how to shoot this thing, huh?"

Zack chuckled a bit uneasily and said, "Uh...yeah."

The mayor just said, "I like the cowboy boots,
Rachel."

The Samuels' House

In the large den, John sat at his desk in his
leather chair. Next to him stood Samantha, hand resting lightly on Harry's head
as he sat beside her. Jessica stood behind Samantha, watching the five people
get settled on the couches. Mrs. Philpott and Perceval sat to one side. Out of
the way, yet keenly observing.

"We need to discuss Margaret," John began. "Before
we decide what to do with her, we want to know why you brought her here--especially
if you knew how disturbed she was becoming. You, Zack, mentioned yesterday that
she had gotten strange, and you, Maria, agreed with him."

Zack nodded. "Yes, we did know she'd gotten more
and more out there. She and I were having arguments almost every day about what
the dreams meant, what all the disasters meant. But we had no idea, none, that
she would lose it like this."

"It was the whales," Mayor Dubois said firmly.

John, nonplussed, asked, "The whales?"

The mayor said, "When we went to see the whales,
up in the Northwest, she communicated with them. Actually, Zack and even Alan
did as well. Up until then, Zack had the dreams, but Alan didn't. After the
whales, Alan got bits of the dreams. But anyway, it was after talking to the
whales that she seemed to get so much more certain, so much more fanatical
about her beliefs. I don't know what those damn whales told her, but up until
then she was still into the idea of warning people, getting them out of harm's
way. After that, she...changed."

Samantha waved a hand out to the side in
negation. "No, no, the whales didn't make her that way. The whales tried to
stop her. She was already going the wrong way. Thinking all mixed-up about what
was going on. They told her she was wrong. Then--" She stopped looking
frustrated at not completely understanding what she needed to convey. As she
looked to Perceval for help, Maria spoke up.

"Oh, I get it," the reporter said. "They
confronted her. She couldn't handle being wrong, so she just went even more
strongly in the direction she wanted to go--she had to be right and the whales
had to be wrong, because if she was wrong, then she'd have to ask herself if
she could have done more to warn people. But how--how do you know what the
whales told her, Samantha?"

Sam smiled at her. She liked the reporter and
thought it was pretty cool she got to meet someone she'd seen on TV. She
thought it would be fun to be on TV. Of course, maybe there wouldn't be any
more TV.

"Do you know everything about TV?" she asked. "Like,
could you and Zack put me on TV some day?"

"Samantha!" Jessica said, "I don't think now is
the time--"

"Okay, Mommy. But it's just that I know about
the whales like they know about TV. They know lots of stuff about how TV works
without even thinking about it. 'Cause they worked there for years and years
prob'ly. And I know lots of stuff without even thinking about it. I had heard
the whales before when I started hearing all the different animals and stuff.
And I knew something was upsetting the whales. Their voices were different for
a while. But I didn't
know
know until finally when I talked to Margaret.
Then I knew what they said to her. If I'd known ahead of time, I coulda maybe
listened to them when they talked to her, but I didn't know very much about
Margaret then, so I didn't know to listen. I just knew something upset the
whales and that it was one of you who were coming here. If I'da just known...."

John said quietly, "Remember what Alex told you?
You can't fix everything, kiddo, you just can't."

The mayor spoke up then, surprise in her voice. "You
knew one of our group was trouble and you still let us in here? Why didn't you
just refuse to let any of us into Cape Fair?"

"Oh, we couldn't do that, Mayor," Sam answered. "That
woulda been prejudice and that's wrong. Mommy and Daddy told me that a long
time ago."

Alan Beakman chuckled. "Glad to hear that."

The mayor looked shrewdly at John. "You knew
some of this already, didn't you? From your daughter here, and from," she said,
turning to Mrs. Philpott and Perceval, "from him." She pointed at the cat.

John nodded. "Yes, we did. But we wanted to hear
you tell us, see what you'd say. We were pretty sure we wanted you to stay in
Cape Fair, but I felt it would be good to meet and discuss the Margaret
situation. And so now," he said decisively, leaning forward with palms on his
knees, "we'd like to know what you'd do with Margaret. Specifically, we want to
know your thoughts, Mayor."

"Ahh," she replied, thoughtfully. "If we were
back in Texas and if it was a few decades ago, people would say string her up
and be done with it. But I don't think you want this community to start off by
executing someone, even if you may end up having to do that someday. No...and she
can't stay here. Too dangerous. Only solution--get her away from Cape Fair. Get
those security folks of yours--that man Black and your sister Rachel--and send
them off with Margaret. Take her as far as they reasonably can and dump her.
She's all into being one with nature, well then, let her go do just that. Don't
drop her near any people if you can help it. But like you said to your daughter
just now--you can't fix everything. And then keep some kind of watch to be sure
she doesn't try to come back here." The mayor leaned back in the couch and
said, "There--did I pass?"