Sunshine (11 page)

             
I opened the confessional and I could tell Marcus was surprised I was still alive. It was now his turn to play doctor as he cleaned my cuts and stitched up my finger. I didn’t want any pain medicine, because as soon as he finished I headed up towards the bell tower. I had been stupid to think I could sleep.

Chapter 24

Bathing, My New Favorite Activity

              In the morning I came down to find the body gone. I didn’t want to know where it was or how Marcus had moved it. There was a large amount of blood stain on the floor. I loaded everyone into the car and we set off towards the ocean. I am tired of only dreaming of living on the sea. I was going to make it happen. It’s what’s best for my family.

Marcus hasn’t said a word since he woke up except for groans and moans. He is very sore and I every time I look at him I see a new bruise. I drive the entire day only stopping to take care of Sunny. As night falls we pull into an auto garage. I figured it’s the best we can do. We don’t make it out of the car.  We take turns at watch and in the morning we are off again.

The roads are becoming more and more congested as we get closer to the ocean. We probably could have made it to the ocean in a couple of hours back in the day. The air smells of salt and fish, which only lightens my spirit. I see water on the horizon, but I soon realize it must be a bay. However, a few short minutes later I see it, the ocean, we finally made it.

Sunny is babbling away in the back seat. He now says
Mamam, but I’m not sure if he’s talking about me or Marcus. I beat he will think my name is Sugar, Pumpkin, or Honey.

There is a slight chill to the air and I know we made it right in time. I park as close to the beach as I can. It must be a residential area as I only see houses.
Spectacular houses that must have cost a fortune. Marcus doesn’t want to get out, but I force him to come. I take a quick look for danger and see nothing.

I set Marcu
s down on a blanket in the sand; he’s cradling his gun, and I then carry Sunny over to the waves. He is elated. I can’t help, but shed a tear at the perfection of the moment. Of course, it doesn’t last long because Marcus is begging to get under shelter. There seems to be a storm brewing.

We pick
the smallest house on the strip. I do a once through and see no sign of Jacks or other people. I give Sunny a well needed bath and a bottle. He cuddles up with a teddy bear. Marcus is my next victim.

“You know you really smell. I need to change your dressings.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“Ha, very funny.”

              His shirt is filthy so I simply cut it off, instead of torturing him getting it off. I don’t know why he put it on this morning. His pants, however, are the opposite. They are stuck to him from the dried on blood so instead I have to slowly peel them off. This couldn’t be more awkward.             

             
I’ve been with one guy and he was my high school sweet heart. This was different. Marcus was my friend, well kind of. I didn’t know what we were. I didn’t like seeing him in pain, but seeing him nearly naked was exciting. I knew I was blushing and I didn’t care.

             
“Alright you can take your boxers off and clean yourself, umm there, I’ll be back to clean your wounds.” Holy hell I got that out without laughing. I had really matured. However, his next line threw me over the edge.

             
“Aww man I was really looking forward to your face when you took them off. What if I can’t clean it well enough? Wouldn’t want it to fall off due to poor hygiene.”

             
I threw him a pair of clean undies and ran out of the room laughing uncontrollably.

             
When I came in later they were on and he had a huge smirk on his face. He knew that I had imagined him naked. Again I felt like slapping him.

             
I set down the new bucket of water next to him and began to wipe his cuts. His legs were bad they seemed a bit infected, I dabbed on some peroxide. I removed the gauze from his arm and it looked a hundred times better then I suspected. It looked like a bad burn, but the color looked good and after a quick clean I wrapped it up again. Now came his chest.

             
I wiped it and then applied peroxide to the cuts. He has a lot of chest hair so there was a lot of dried on blood. His face was in better shape as well. Overall I was quite surprised by his recovery.

             
“Alright you look pretty good, ready for a little prick?”

             
“Huh?”

             
“You’re shot, Dummy.”

             
After helping him into new clothes I headed towards the bathroom to clean myself up. The house had had a women around my size and age. I used all the beauty products I could find and put on a very pretty pink sundress. Why not dress up, while I could?

             
I walked in as Marcus’s eyes lit up.

             
“Well look at you Daisy, you look stunning.”

             
“Thank you.” I awkwardly sat beside him on the couch. I could take this two different ways. I could keep going with the flirting and see what could happen or I could make it informative seeing as he was in such a good mood. I went with the latter.

             
“Marcus, will you please tell me what happened when they took you?”

             
“You don’t want to know. It will ruin your dream view of people.”

             
“Please, I want to know.”

             
“Fine, but if you have nightmares it’s not my fault.”

Chapter 25

The Dark Side

              “The reason that Baltimore was Jack free was because of them. They act as if they own the town. Any outsiders are treated like they are just as dangerous as Jacks, if not more. After receiving a beating of a lifetime they threw me into the Hummer where they knocked me out with the butt of a rifle. I later awoke and vaguely remember being in a basement. I passed out again and woke up chained to a tree. I remained there throughout the night and into the next day.

I was being watch
ed by everyone, they all had their guns on me, but they were all on the top floors of buildings or on roofs. It all seemed very odd. Finally in the morning they took me back into the basement and brought me food. A woman came in and wrapped my arm.

Later I overheard them talking. “Don’t take pity on him. I don’t care how much he reminds you of your brother. He is nothing more than a worm on a hook to us.”

It all made sense now. I was their bait. They had tied me to the tree hoping my moans would attract any Jacks in the area, and then they would shoot them from the roof tops. I’ve never seen anything like it. There was no way I was going to survive this place.  I tried to escape the room, but there was no way out.

Finally I gave up and they took me out to the tree. I remained there again for a long time. I could
not see nor hear any Jacks, but the people were getting restless. I could hear them yelling at each other in frustration. Finally a man came out and after breaking my nose the son of a bitch led me back into the basement.

I slept that night hoping to build up some strength. Again in the morning they retrieved me, but this time I fought back. I knocked out t
he two guys that pulled me out and ran for it. I expected to be shot in the back, but when I looked back I saw why I had been brought out. This time there was a pack of Jacks and they were causing pure chaos.

I climbed the fence getting cut up pretty badly on the top barbed wire. I followed the hospital signs here and thankfully you were still here, just as I had told you.
Good job Peaches.”

I couldn’t believe what I had just heard
. “I’m so sorry I made you go down there. I didn’t know. “

“I forgive you. You didn’t know.
There’s something else. It wasn’t all bad, I also learned some information.”

“Huh, what did you learn?”

“The night before I escaped the girl who saw her brother in me came to bring me dinner, but she didn’t leave right away. She said, “You remind me a lot of my brother. I’m sorry they are using you. I can’t convince them to save you.” I asked why she would want me to be saved. “Because I couldn’t save him, so at least I could save you. He turned just like everyone else. The virus killed everyone I loved; now I have to live with murderers.” “What do you mean virus?” “You don’t know the virus that caused the Jacks?” “What do mean virus? It was the implants.” “Yes, it was the implants. The government was experimenting wanted to boost the testosterone in our soldiers. Thought it would improve their strength, it was only an experiment. Something went horribly wrong though and the virus went worldwide. They tried to reverse it, but it was too late. Once the signal was released it took only a week for the levels in the body to reach critical and the symptoms started to show; five days later they are a full on Jack. “”What government did this, Iraq, Russia, or Korea?” “No ours, the good old red, white, and blue.”

I don’t know if this is true or not. I never got to ask her again, but I can’t get it out of my head. It feels right to me. I can’t believe I finally found out why the world is such shit
and it’s our government’s fault.”

This couldn’t be true, yet it was the only information I have ever heard. I never found anything those first few months when I went searching for answers.

“I’m tired, now how about you pay me back for my troubles with a back rub?”

“Ha, Fine.” I had to be very gentle, but I could soon hear him snoring.

In the silence I continue to contemplate the information I just heard. I hope it isn’t true. I’ve always thought it was some sort of terrorist attack, not an experiment.

I
slowly get up and gently picked up Sunny and placed him next to Marcus. He had missed his father. I quietly opened up the porch and set up camp for the night. Whether created by mistake or intentionally the Jacks still wanted to eat my guts, so I would have to keep my eyes and ears open.

Chapter 26

Ding, Ding

             
The next day I spent some well needed time with my son. He was adorable and his every move was melting my heart. He was sitting all by himself and his crawl wasn’t exactly what I would call crawling. It was more like squirming around. We headed out to the beach again. The storm had blown over and it was now a very sunny warm day. I dangled his feet in the waves and we even build a small sand castle.

             
Marcus thought I was being ridiculous and kept a constant watch on everything. After dinner we laid out the map and decided on places to look for boats. There was a private marina a short walk down the beach, so we took a quick stroll. The boats were incredible. All were huge and required a motor. I wanted a sailboat. I was tired of having to find fuel all the time.

             
Finally at the last dock there was a beautiful boat. I felt very smug with myself. I went underneath and found a couple of books on sailing. I quickly read through; bear reach, alee, luff up what the hell?

             
“Reading up sweetheart? Good, because I have no idea how to sail. You can do all the work and I’ll just steer.”

             
“Umm, Marcus, I don’t understand any of these words. Damn I really wanted to sail. I’m sick of looking for fuel, but I think we are going to have to get a boat with an engine.”             

             
“That has to be the smartest thing you have ever said, honeybuns.”

              The conditions in the morning seemed perfect. The sky was nearly clear the current would soon be heading out. We loaded up the boat with our remaining supplies and I sat on the bow taking in our last minutes near land. We will have to dock again of course, but I hoped that wouldn’t be until we were in paradise. Who knows, maybe we will find an uninhabited island that doesn’t have Jacks, people, or even polar bears. Or we might end up getting attacked by killer whales or somehow end up in the arctic. God I have no idea what I’m getting myself into.

             
I put Sunny down in the hull. I had set up a sort of playpen to keep him contained, while I helped Marcus get out of the dock. It took quite a while, but finally we made it out to open sea. I watch as the beach faded father and father from view. We had done it. I had done it. Sunny would be safe now. No I don’t know that for sure, but I feel it.

             
Marcus is even lightening up. “Well, we did it. Good job, Buttercup.”

             
He leaned in and lightly pressed his lips against mine. It’s not enough for me so I grab him, wrapping my arms around his neck, and melt into him. Suddenly I hear a beeping noise. I try to ignore it, but it is really freaking loud.

             
“Do you hear that noise? It’s a very loud beeping. What could it be coming from?”

             
“I don’t hear anything.”

             
“Seriously how do you not hear that? It’s like an alarm is going off in my skull.”

             
“Emma, I don’t hear anything. Are you ok?”

             
“Yeah, it’s nothing.”

             
I kiss him again, yet the beeping is still going strong. I won’t let it ruin this moment.