“The clothes were on the bed, the video played, telling us to shower,” Cole said. “Janice was the first to wake up. She said Mark wasn’t ill at first, not at all. At least not physically, of all of us he was the most mentally unstable. In his panic he left.”
Janice spoke up. “None of us knew what happened, how we got there. Nothing. We were still sorting it out, we urged Mark to stay but he left.”
John asked, “How long after he came out of Stasis did he leave?”
Janice shrugged, “Hours. He found supplies and a way out. Went up there, came back down, and said he had to find help. We were still trying to help those who were choking.”
“Hours?” Meredith questioned. “So you folks only woke up four days ago? Was there no countdown clock on a door?”
Cole shook his head. “No. There was a door that led to an elevator but it was partially open. We thought at first Mark caught something up here, because within an hour of coming back down he started showing symptoms.”
Meredith explained. “When we came out of Stasis, it activated a countdown clock, after five days the door opened and an elevator was there. It was during that five days our memories started to return.”
“Not all,” John added. “Some still didn’t remember things. I’m thinking that it is a decompression period, possibly even when immunity to the virus builds up.”
“Last couple days we looked for him,” Cole said. “No luck. Nearest we can figure is we are by Washington, DC. And that a lot of time has passed. Do we know why we were chosen?”
“We learned,” Meredith said, “to preserve the human race in case things got out of control with a virus that was released to cull the population.”
Cole sighed heavily and sat back. “Apparently it did.”
Meredith nodded.
“So a virus wiped man to near extinction?” Cole asked. “Is that what happened?”
“And some,” Meredith said. She knew it was going to be hard, difficult to understand, and so easy to want to deny, but Meredith and John, did their best to explain to the newly awakened, what all had happened and what they had learned thus far.
“I want to sleep in a bed,” Jason said as he placed the sleeping roll over a small couch in the Rantoul library.
“Considering the circumstances, I’m thinking that may never be a possibility.” Nora finished her bedding and adjusted the light on the lantern.
“Nah, I find that hard to believe. Bet the people in this town are tucked away in their beds.”
“It’s their town. Once we find a home, then maybe we’ll get the beds.”
“If I recall correctly, there were dorm rooms and visiting pastor quarters at the church,” Jason said. “We’ll check that out tomorrow.”
“That sounds good. It’ll be something to do. They aren’t party people. They go to bed early around here. It’s not even eight o’clock.”
“What else is there to do? Yeah, and they kind of looked at us like we were nuts going back to put up notes for the others.” Jason paused to laugh. “They acted as if we were gonna be out all hours of the nights. They’re nice people.”
“Yes, they are. Are you amazed by them?” Nora asked. “I mean, half of them weren’t even out of grade school when the virus hit, another big section were young adults. Yet, they survived.”
“I think that amazes me most is in this world they could have turned bad. Instead they learned. They read, they learned. Hell the woman doctor is self taught.”
“Would you want to settle here?”
“We need to find your family. Find Salvation first, see what that holds for you.”
Nora huffed out a little in sarcasm. “Rick would be seventy now if he is still alive and Lilly is pushing forty. I wonder if my return will be worse on them.”
“You need to find them. We… will find them. Then after, whatever you want to do, I’m game.”
“Thank you. So if I said, let’s get some land with the others and make our own town, you’d be fine with that.”
Jason smiled. “Nora, you and the others are all I have. I’m golden with whatever you want.”
“You can be the town preacher.”
Jason laughed. “Yeah and you can be the town comedian.”
“Hey, these people laughed at my jokes. You laughed at the new one.”
“I laughed because it was so unbelievably dumb, how could I not?”
Nora shrugged. “It got a laugh. I do want to grow corn like these people. Wasn’t it good corn? It reminded me of the Sweet Corn festival from Lodi, Ohio.”
“Did Lodi make moonshine?” Jason lifted a flask, took a drink and handed it to Nora. “These people make great moonshine.”
She was hesitant at first, but Nora took the flask. She sipped it. “Taste like popcorn.” She hit her chest when it burned all the way down.
“Yep. It does.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“You will anyway.”
“What’s up with the drinking?” Nora asked. “Since we woke up, since you found that wine, you drink a lot.”
Jason lifted his eyes with concern to her. “Am I being a danger? Getting in the way?”
“No. No.” She waved her hand. “I was just wondering. Is it your way of coping?”
“I like to drink. I always did.”
“So you were the preacher that downed a few?” she asked.
Jason lifted a finger. “No. It was one of my conditions.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I was a hot mess, Nora. I mean, when the network scouted me, I was… I was bad.”
“Was this before the facial peels?”
Jason chuckled. “Yeah. I drank a lot. Did drugs. Before that, I battled addiction. My parents… I don’t know what I told you about them, but I can guarantee it wasn’t the truth. My parents in their exercising of tough love, disowned me because I kept stealing from them.”
It was hard for Nora to believe. The man he presented wasn’t the man he told her about. Yet, it oddly made sense. “How old were you?”
“Nineteen. And it was the best thing they did. When you have an addiction, you need to want to clean up. I had been using for years. When they tossed me out, I took my guitar and hit the road. Played on street corners. Eventually I got off the hard stuff. Started drinking a lot, smoking weed. Never to the point that I was a slobbering idiot. I don’t think. So… after the network discovered me playing in a bar, in short they cleaned me up, got me a wife, and fixed my teeth… made me a poster child for Christ.”
“Did your addiction ever come up?”
“It was a selling point,” Jason said. “Don’t get me wrong. I was grateful. I loved my wife. I stopped the party life for the church, and stayed clean for my family. But you know, being sober made me see how much pain I caused my parents and I’ll never forgive myself for that.”
“You know they did, right? They forgave you. They did. They loved you enough to let you go. It wasn’t because they hated you.”
Jason nodded.
“Did you ever make amends?”
“Eventually, but it was never the same. They were never really part of my life. So that’s it.” Jason lifted the flask. “That’s my story that you haven’t heard.”
“So you drink because you like it and not because you want to hide the pain.”
“I like to drink. Hide the pain? There’s no real hiding it, Nora. But it does help to ease the pain. And there’s no audience or perfect wife to say I can’t.”
“Then I won’t either,” Nora said. “I apologize for judging.”