Darkness on a Pale Blue Stone (10 page)

"Can you talk, Marie?" Gresson asked.

"Yeah," she said softly. "It burns pretty bad. Am I gonna be okay?"

Gresson nodded. "Yeah, you'll be fine. We just need to get something to patch this up. For now, just hold this against it." He handed her Adam's shirt.

The Cases cheerfully talked among each other, relieved that Marie was alright. Gresson walked over to Jake and Sean.

"How are you doing?" he asked Jake.

"It hurts like hell. But I can breath, so it can't be my lungs, right? And I'm alive, so it can't be my heart either?" he replied, wincing in pain.

"You are a lucky son of a bitch," Gresson said. He lifted Jake up, who moaned, and saw a blood stained hole in the back of his rain-soaked shirt. The bullet had apparently passed just outside his heart, and from the looks of it, had hit nothing but the flesh on the side of his chest. "Very lucky. It passed right through you. We still need to get you patched up. Where's the nearest hospital?"

"Hell if I know. I'm not from around here. Besides, I don't think the doctor is gonna be on call today."

"We don't need one. Just supplies. I can do the rest," Gresson said.

"Great. I still don't know where to get any, though."

The red face-tattooed women spoke. "If we go into the city, I'm sure we can at least find what we need at a house, or maybe a pharmacy."

"Let's go," Gresson said. "Michael, how is Marie?"

"She's alright. The bleeding isn't so bad anymore," Michael replied. He and his wife helped their daughter to her feet.

"Good. We need to go find medical supplies for her and Jake."

"Okay."

Gresson and Sean helped Jake up, but froze when they saw the blood on the ground. There was a large puddle of it and now that Jake was standing, they could see it running down his side. Gresson immediately tore off Jake's shirt. The wound on his back was much larger than he previously thought. Jake was loosing a lot of blood, fast. Gresson began to tie the shirt around Jake. Sean reached in a small bag he had taken from the gas station and handed Gresson a roll of paper towels. Gresson tied it tight against Jake's wound with the shirt.

"Gresson..." Sean said. Gresson followed Sean's gaze and saw that some of his own blood was on the shirt. He wiped away the blood on his left hand that had drained from his arm.

"Are you alright?" Sean asked.

"We need to go. Now," Gresson commanded the group. Gresson went to put Jake over his shoulder, but the tattooed woman pushed him away.

"I've got this. Fix yourself up," she said. Gresson paid no attention to his own wounds, but did not resist the woman's help. She put Jake over her shoulder and began to walk toward the city, followed by the others.

Chapter 13

Baltimore - August 8, 2072

It was only a few minutes until they had arrived at the edge of the city, but Jake was running out of time. The paper towel roll on his back was dark red, no longer able to soak up any more blood. Now drenched in both blood and rain, the towel roll was also failing to keep pressure on the wound. Seeing this, Sean contributed his shirt and replaced the roll. Seeing two others bare-chested besides himself, Jake softly commented, "This is a weird place for that kind of party, guys."

There were few others on the street. Those that were braving the rain showed no intention to stop and help, most too focused on reaching their own destination, if they even had one.

The ragged group soon reached a stretch of houses. Nearby was a small church and a hardware store. Everything appeared abandoned.

"Okay, everyone split up and search a different house," Gresson said. Michael and Marie headed for one of the houses and Adam, Alice, Sean, and Gresson each went for the others. The tattooed woman put down Jake.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"My chest feels like it's on fire, I'm bleeding to death, and it's raining. 'Super-dooper' is probably the best way to say how I'm feeling," Jake grunted.

"To be honest, I don't give a damn about your comfort. I'm asking to see if you're still conscious, to see if you still remember who you are."

"Ah. Yeah, I'm still all here."

The two of them silently waited for several minutes as the rain continued to pour. Jake made an attempt to lay down, but the woman forced him to sit up.

"Fine," he groaned. "So while we're sitting here, I might as well ask. What's your name?"

"Lashira," she replied. "People usually call me Lash, though."

"Lash, huh? Is it fair to assume with a name like that, your hardcore get-up, and that nice big tattoo, that you weren't exactly a white-collar worker before all this went down?"

"I gave it a try once. It didn't take."

"Tell me about it," Jake replied, shaking his head. He gritted his teeth as the movement flared up more pain in his chest.

"You seemed kind of friendly with Mr. Damien back there. Were you two buddies? Before he gave you that, I mean," Lash said, pointing to Jake's wound.

"Heh. Yeah, something like that," Jake replied.

They both turned as Marie and Michael stepped out of the house.

"Nothing in there," Michael called out.

"Not here either," Sean said, coming outside as well.

Alice soon followed with towels. "We should be able to control the bleeding with these," she said. She ran over to Jake and used the towels to apply pressure.

Everyone else soon left their respective houses, Adam being the only one to report that his house had been occupied. Those inside, however, had given him directions to a nearby pharmacy.

As everyone prepared to move again, a man dressed in torn formal attire stepped out of the nearby church. He was bald, tall and dark skinned, with bright blue eyes. "Can I help?" he called.

"Not unless you have medical supplies," Alice replied.

"Then come on in," he said, waving the group inside. Lash carried Jake as everyone followed the man to the church and through the large doors. The sign above them read 'Williams Street Baptist,' named after the adjacent roadway.

The man from the church led them inside to the sanctuary, past the pews, and up to the altar. With one hand, he brushed several miscellaneous objects off of it. They clattered onto the carpet floor.

"Lay him here," he said. Lash did as asked. The man took a second to examine Jake's wound, then ran out of the sanctuary, saying "I'll be right back with what we need."

"Don't... don't let him sacrifice me on this thing," Jake moaned.

Gresson wondered if he was merely being funny or if his mind was slipping. Jake began to chuckle to himself, making neither an obvious answer.

A few seconds later the man returned, carrying a first aid kit and a duffle bag. He opened the bag and presented it to the group. It was packed with medical supplies. Gresson immediately got to work. As he patched and stitched Jake's wounds with incredibly fast fingers, Michael stood alongside him, occasionally wiping away the blood.

Seconds into the process, Jake let out a howl and said, "Hey! Something... for... the pain." Gresson obliged with a numbing spray and a few minutes later had disinfected and closed up both sides of Jake's wound. Michael was impressed with Gresson's handiwork. Besides the need to heal and some minor pain, Jake would be fine. Once Marie's neck had also been dealt with, everyone took a seat on the pews in relief, except for Jake, who stayed resting on the altar.

"Thank you," Alice said to the man who had provided the aid.

"Don't mention it. My name's Lucas. I'm the pastor here. You folks look like you've been through a lot," he said. He motioned toward Gresson's arm and said, "You should get that taken care of, Mr. Gresson." The others looked with surprise at Lucas's calm recognition of the supposed dead man.

"You don't seem to have much trouble accepting that I'm alive," Gresson said.

Lucas shook his head. "I've seen stranger things in my life. And considering what's been happening the last few days, I'm sure you all have yourselves."

"That's an understatement," Sean said.

Gresson took a few of the medical supplies and left the sanctuary. He returned a few minutes later with his arm neatly bandaged.

"A bit shy, Mr Gresson?" Lucas asked.

"Something like that," he replied.

After a while, attention turned to Lash. Michael thanked her for her help and asked for her name.

"Lashira," she said.

"But her friends call her Lash," Jake interjected, now attempting to stand.

Gresson stood up and went to stop him. "You need to rest, Jake."

"Yeah, yeah. Just let me rest where I can hear you all at least." He sat down on the floor in front of everyone.

Continuing the conversation, Lash said, "Well, 'friends' might be an exaggeration, but yeah, people call me Lash."

"Where are you from, Lash?" Alice asked.

"Chicago, but I was in Philly when the blackout happened. Considering that you have a dead president with you, I was hoping you might tell me what's going on."

"To be honest, we don't know much either. Unless you're finally willing to share, Gresson?" Michael asked. Gresson's lack of reply was his answer. Michael continued, "Well, we are currently heading for Charleston. The company I worked for, Gimbal Systems, has..."

"You worked for Gimbal?" Jake and Lash interrupted in unison.

"Yeah, both me and Alice."

"They make some scary stuff," Jake said. Michael shrugged.

"So I assume these two are your kids?" Lash asked, nodding at Adam and Marie. Michael then introduced them, along with Sean.

Once everyone had said hello, Lash asked, "So, what about Charleston?"

Michael cleared his throat, then continued, "Right. Gimbal has a building there that Gresson says has something that can help us. Not sure how, considering that everything electronic is destroyed."

"Not just destroyed. I was with a mechanic friend of mine in Philly after the blackout. He said even things he builds from scratch don't work," Lash said.

Michael sat back for a moment. "Don't work how?"

"Everything just fried as soon as he tried to put it together. He said it's like there is some kind of interference or something. Like an 'E.N.P.' or something, just that it keeps going. Does that make any sense?" Lash asked.

"An E.M.P., actually. But, I doubt that's what this is. It must be some kind of interference field, though. And something must be emitting it." Michael turned to Gresson and said, "And we're going to Charleston to get what we need to turn it off, aren't we?" He said it more as a statement than a question.

Gresson didn't answer. He was now checking through the medical supplies to see what Lucas had managed to procure.

"Why all the secrets?" Jake asked Gresson.

While Gresson did not reply, Michael said, "He told us there are others he works with. People who he apparently needs permission from to do much of anything."

The group continued to make small talk into the night, recalling their past few days in the brave new world the Earth had become. Jake only vaguely mentioned his relationship with the men who now lay dead on I-95. Lash recalled how she had spent those days wandering the streets of Philadelphia, talking to only her mechanic friend and a few others in a hopeless attempt to find out what was going on. She had followed a crowd to Cherry Hill where she eventually met Gresson and the others. After they had refused her aid, she followed them, certain they would eventually need it. Gresson realized it had been her outside the gas station which had kept him up the night before.

Jake was beginning to get tired, eventually laying down on the carpet floor. Lucas brought out more than enough pillows and blankets for the group. The church had a few in storage, but Lucas explained that everything else, along with the medical supplies, had been scavenged from further downtown.

"I hope to turn this place into a shelter of sorts. The Lord can comfort their souls, but it's my job to comfort their weary bodies," he explained. The formal way he spoke was either endearing or off-putting to the others.

Once everyone was preparing to sleep, Gresson told the Cases and Sean that they would head out in the morning. Before Lash could protest, Gresson extended her an invitation to join, which she gladly accepted.

"Hey, you can't just leave me. I'm coming along too," Jake said.

"We don't have the time to take care of you," Gresson replied.

"Just be ready in the morning," Michael told Jake.

"Michael, he is injured. Extended walks everyday is not what he needs. And a group any larger than what we already have is not what we need," Gresson said.

"Look, we all need the longer breaks anyway. And we can't just..." Michael started.

"We can. We don't owe him anything. We already saved his life," Gresson said.

"Hey, you're bringing Lash along because she can handle a gun. I can too. Just let me heal, and then we'll all be able to protect each other," Jake said desperately.

"I'm sorry, Jake. But you'll be a liability..." Lash said.

"If you all end up in another showdown like you did today, and you know you will, you'll want as many barrels aiming away from you as you can get. You're walking with a dead president, for god's sake. Trouble is definitely coming, and I can help," Jake said.

After a moment of silence, Gresson said, "If you don't keep the pace, we are not slowing down."

Jake sighed in relief and nodded. "Better get some rest, then," he said. He grabbed a pillow and blankets, putting together a feasible bed.

Everyone else soon returned to their own bedding arrangements. As they began to fall asleep one by one, the rain outside slowly began to fade.

Chapter 14

Baltimore - August 9, 2072

The stained glass image of Jesus Christ was brightly illuminated by the sunlight the next morning. Alice was the first to rise, except for Lucas, who was on his knees praying with clasped hands, basking in the light.
Has he been there all night?
Alice wondered. There was something shiny between his hands, but Alice couldn't quite see what it was. Before this week, Alice hadn't prayed in years. For her, being back in a church was met with a mix of nostalgia and guilt. She had fond memories of her religious childhood. The songs and lines she had memorized, the smiling faces every Sunday morning, and the strong sense of community all flooded her mind. She couldn't help but feel sorry for ditching it all so many years ago. She and Michael hadn't gone to a single service together, not even for holidays, and they weren't in the minority. America's public was following the trend already set by many other developed countries in abandoning religion en masse. Yet Alice couldn't shake the feeling that some presence was out there somewhere, watching out for her and her family.