Uprising (6 page)

Later, as the credits rolled, Merrick takes Lily from me as even with her small weight it’s nearly impossible for me to lift myself off the floor with her. She had fallen asleep at the very end.

He held her, his arm under her bottom and the other hand behind her head on his shoulder. Swaying back and forth. Calvin attempts to help me up in true gentlemanly fashion with a hand out. I swing my arm over his shoulders as we retreat to the commons room. Clock says 8:45pm.

Calvin heads to go find Frank after thanking me for watching a movie with him. I watch Merrick as he eases back carefully out of the Lily’s room after laying her down, slightly leaving the door cracked.

I sit by Danny who is rubbing his neck as Merrick went to grab another cup of coffee.

I turn Danny by his shoulders and he already knows what I’m doing and smiles gratefully. As I begin to squeeze my hands on his neck and massage his shoulder he drops his head forward. It’s been too long since I’ve done this for him. Danny was always my biggest customer, or mooch. Whatever. He was my biggest bragger too.

As I worked my thumbs into his neck tendons, I listened to their, not my, plans for the grocery trip the next morning. They were going to go to several different stop and shops and the grocery store, the regular joes. The Keepers are gonna go with them and be van packers and lookouts, maybe do one more call out to other Keepers since we’re getting short on time. Merrick, of course, is staying behind as our bodyguard along with Ryan.

Later, Trudy and I made a list of the can foods we could think of getting the most of, for the best and more plentiful recipes, along with non food items such as toilet paper. I put on there to get children’s Tylenol and Band-Aids not remembering seeing any in the medicine cabinet, just in case.

We have little ones to think of now.

When It Rains It Pours

The next day, everyone that is supposed to leave leaves and I clean and do laundry and play Spoons and War with Ryan and Calvin and snuggle with Lily and snuggle with Merrick.

I made grilled cheese sandwiches for everyone and endured more of Ryan’s doting on my cooking. I tried to explain there was no way to mess up grilled cheese but he wouldn’t concede.

Merrick, Lily and I even took a nap together that early afternoon, all spooned together on the big bed in the second room. It was a sweet perfect normal day.

While we were still sleeping they arrived back home and must have called Merrick in his mind to help them. He pushed my hair back and kissed my neck, whispered that they were back and he was going to help but for me to stay and rest with Lily. Before I knew it I was out again, waking later to the smell of fried chicken and mashed potatoes.

When I stirred on the bed Lily immediately shot up, feeling my movement, reaching for me. I grabbed her up and we went to see Mrs. Trudy, cooking up a storm and everyone else happily and safely sitting in the commons room. Lana signed me a ‘good afternoon’ greeting in sign language, your flat palm to your mouth and then out, then a hand to your elbow with your other hands straight up, and smiled, which I smiled and returned the sign.

Lily and I walked side by side into the commons room. To my surprise and delight, as soon as he spotted us Merrick reached for Lily and she went happily to his arms outstretched for her. Giggling as he tickled her. My heart flipped.

I saw Jeff looking on them too with a fascinated and understanding smile on his face. He caught my gaze and our smiles broadened. I shake my head to throw it off.

Sherry?

I freeze for a second, not knowing this voice in my mind. The mind voice is different than the Keepers bodies voice. I look around, praying beyond prayers that it wasn’t Phillip. I see Ryan giving me a knowing wave. Ryan has never spoken to me in my mind before so of course I wouldn’t know what his voice sounded like. I exhale and smile.

It’s just me. Sorry I scared you. Uh...you think you might could...give my shoulder a rub? It’s bothering me pretty bad after all that unloading and stacking. I’ve already taken something, a couple white pills Mrs. Trudy gave me but it doesn’t seem to be working.

I nod and motion my head toward the kitchen and he follows me in. Must be pretty bad for a Keeper to ask for something for pain. Mrs. Trudy continues her cooking as Kay helps, looking over her shoulder and listens to the explanation of what she’s doing, step by step.

I rub his shoulder for a few minutes, working some of the stiffness out. He wasn’t kidding. I could feel all his muscles bunched and twitching. He groaned when I pressed in my thumbs and it didn’t sound like a good groan.

I grabbed a sock and filled it with rice, throw it in the microwave for half a minute and place it lightly on Ryan’s shoulder, over his shirt. He winces.

“Sorry. Keep this here, on your shoulder like that for about twenty minutes, then I’ll rub it some more for you in a bit, ok? That’s not too hot is it?” I ask pressing my hand to it making him wince again.

“It’s fine. Thanks, Sherry. I feel like such a whiner.”

“No, you’re not! This body is breakable, Ryan. It takes time to heal. Rest is the best thing for it. You’ll feel better in no time, if you’ll let me help you. Just don’t wait to ask if you need something, ok?”

He nods and heads back to the commons room. Mrs. Trudy is dishing out portions on plates and Kay is putting ice in glasses. I help with silverware and everyone lines up. We eat and then people start to head into their own rooms.

After checking on Ryan and giving him another quick but deep massage, for which he swore worked wonders, and then replacing the heating rice sock with an ice pack, I catch Jeff to see how things went today.

“It went great. No problems or hitches. We got everything on the list and then some. We’ll do the same thing next week. It was pretty cold out though. Really cold.”

Jeff also explained who went with who and where before turning in for the night.

Later that night, I had a steamy encounter with Merrick, which he totally instigated by continually kissing and nipping the nape of my neck. He knows how it drives me crazy.

He is sound asleep now and snoring that little barely there wisp of a snore he does. I can’t sleep. I slept too long on my nap and am now wide awake. I try to creep easily out of the covers, Merrick’s arm tightening protectively over me. I pat his arm and manage to slide out. I grab his shirt and throw it on along with my sleep pants and pad my bare feet to the kitchen.

Cain is already there and makes me jump as I see him move in the shadows, leaning against the counter with his hip. He looked restless. His hair was tousled from a fit with a pillow and his t-shirt and flannel pants were wrinkled.

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you,” he said, drinking what looks to be a glass of milk.

“It’s ok. Can’t sleep?” I ask grabbing a glass for myself.

“Nah. I haven’t really slept good in years. You either?”

“Well some of us had nothing to do today so, I slept the day away with Lily,” I said laughing.

“Well, that’s makes it ok then,” he said smiling widely.

“I guess. It just doesn’t seem fair that I’m always stuck here being useless.”

“The men are supposed to go out and bring home the bacon, right?” he said with a wispy laugh.

“Yeah, but this isn’t about women, Kay and Laura went. It’s about me. I’m short and have a tendency to get into trouble so people think I’m gonna break or something and won’t let me do anything.”

“You should be happy about that,” he said softly. “You have people to take care of you, who look after you. A lot of people don’t these days.”

“True.” I sighed. “You’re right. How did it go today?”

“Great. This crew you got here is a hoot, for sure. Especially Jeff and Miguel. Bunch of characters. But they’re great.”

“Yeah, they are. I love them like my own family,” I have no idea why I admitted it to him but I did.

“I can see that. I’m really glad I met you.”

His eyes were so sincere I looked away.

“Yeah. Me too,” I answered softly and fumbled for something else to say.

“Thanks for inviting us to come down here. It’ll be good for Pap and Maggie to be around other people. I was beginning to wonder who was gonna shoot who first,” he said laughing and I did too.

“No problem. We love it when new people come. It’s like Christmas. We spend half our efforts trying to work it out for others to be able to come live with us. I’m sure Jeff showed you the halls. Those are his babies.” I laugh but we both still at a noise.

This scratching noise. Cain must hear it too because he cocks his head to the side. Then a whimpering. It’s muffled but seems to be coming from outside. We normally don’t hear much from outside. We look at each other.

“What is that?” I ask, setting my glass down.

“You hear it too? Good. I’m not crazy with sleep deprivation. Sounds like...somebody crying.”

“Yeah it does. Let’s go check it out,” I say but before I can leave the kitchen he grabs my arm.

“Hey, hold on. You’re not going outside to check out anything.”

Before I can argue it get’s louder. More desperate. And then we hear the word that sets both our feet to motion.

“Help.”

Cain releases me and runs past me to the staircase. I follow and slip on my tennis shoes by the wall as he unlatches the door. I wanted to run and get Merrick but thought it might be too late and whoever it was would be gone or worse so I just ran.

Once topside we venture cautiously to the back door of the store and he eases it open to peek outside. The cold blast of wind hurts my face but I push him forward in anticipation. Our clothing option wasn’t a good choice. Both wearing pajama pants and t-shirts with tennis shoes. Jeff was right, it was freezing.

The whimpering continues and we look across the back yard and somehow in the darkness see a man standing out in the middle, stiff.

It was then I realized that Cain had grabbed the gun by the door, up over the doorway so the kids can’t reach. He points it at the figure and yells for them to say something as we continue to make a slow inching path toward him. Further and further away from the store and closer to the unmoving and unspeaking figure.

“Wait, wait. Something’s not right, Cain,” I whisper, grabbing his arm to halt him.

“I know. It looks like a trap. Run back, Sherry. Run to the-” he was cut off by something hitting him to the ground from behind. Before I could turn a horrible pain ran through the front of my leg, my shin. Stabbing, forceful and knocking me over to the ground next to Cain.

We landed hard in the sand and rocks and I immediately turned over to see the man standing over us. How had he gotten behind us so fast? No. There was someone else with him. A Lighter. They were both Lighters.

He continued to stand there, looking down at us. Cain put his arm protectively over top me and tried to sit up but the Lighter put his foot in Cain’s chest to pushed him back down.

“Stupid humans,” was the figures first words to us. He cocked his head before starting again. “So gullible. That was all it took to get you out here?” he said almost sounding as if he wanted to laugh. “I knew there were resisting humans in there. I could smell your stupidity.”

All of a sudden he seemed to glow, emitting enough light for us to see his face and him to see ours. He gasped.

“You!” he yelled, looking right at me and pointing a glowing finger. “You belong to Crandle!”

Then his head jerked and he flew backward into the sand. My ears were ringing and muffled sounds of Cain yelling at me to get up were coming to me. I realized Cain had shot the Lighter and was now pulling me up to run.

We turned to see the other Lighter, glowing as well, and Cain gasped and squinted his eyes before making a distressed grunt, hesitating. I’d have to ask him about that later.

“Cain. How nice to see you again,” the Lighter said, dripping with sarcasm.

How did he know Cain’s name?

Cain lifted the shotgun steadily and pointed at the Lighter’s face, right as he ascended with inhuman speed to stop in front of us.

The trigger pulled and the Lighter flung backward and twisted to land hard with a disgusting thud in the sand. We turned to run back to the store but I couldn’t. The pain in my leg made me collapse and then the arm pain took over me even more so than before.

The familiar pin prickles.

I knew what was coming but had to see for myself. As I looked up to the sky towards home I hear the beating of wings and then the familiar screech. Though I couldn’t see them in the dark, it sounded like dozens of them.

The more the merrier, the more of them the more intense the pain was and it literally took my breath. I tried again to get up but at once dropped to my knees, shaking and crying, grabbing my shoulder, writhing in intense spasms. Cain didn’t waste time arguing or asking questions, thankfully. He lifted me with ease and threw me over his shoulder as he ran the opposite way of the store, the opposite way of the massive amount of Markers headed for us.

I must have blacked out. I woke up lying on the ground with Cain huddled behind me, rubbing his hand up and down my bare arm to warm me. It was musky, humid and pitch black. My whole body ached and stung and I was so cold, my teeth were chattering and my lips and fingers felt numb.