Jason nodded. “We didn’t run into a soul until we got near here. They tell us there are other communities.” He took a step back and pointed to the townspeople waiting a few blocks down the road in a line. “They’re dying to meet you.”
John cleared his throat. “That may be an understatement.”
“What?” Jason asked with a confused chuckle.
John shook his head.
“Why don’t you come meet them,” Nora said. “They are really nice people. You can’t be that shy.”
Meredith asked. “How long have you two been here?”
“A couple days,” Nora replied.
Meredith looked at John. “A couple days. They’re all healthy enough to bear arms. So… Nora and Jason are not.”
Jason asked. “We are not, what?”
John didn’t answer, instead spoke to Meredith. “But it doesn’t mean we’re not.”
“We’re not,” Meredith stated.
Again, Jason asked, “we’re not, you’re not… what?”
John shook his head. “We are. I believe it.”
“It was Grant, he was,” Meredith said.
Nora shifted her eyes. “Grant was what? And we aren’t? What are you two…?”
“I’ll give you that. But we don’t know if we are,” said John.
“We’re not. They aren’t.”
Nora whistled. “Hey. Stop. What are you two talking about?”
Meredith explained. “We found another Genesis lab.”
Eyes wide, Jason sounded excited. “That’s great.”
“No,” Meredith said. “They all didn’t make it and one of them was sick. Or got sick with the virus. We have reason to believe that we could be carriers. But I say we aren’t because that virus shows symptoms in twenty-four hours. None of these people are sick.”
John continued, but again, directed his comments to Meredith. “The DC person yes, he brought the virus and infected the Wreckers. But what about Rusty?”
“His son said he found the sick Wrecker and then he got sick. That Wrecker was a bad one, one of the ones that probably killed Grant. Grant infected him.”
“All right. Ok!” Jason shouted. “Enough. What is a Wrecker?”
John and Meredith looked at each other.
“Yeah,” Jason cleared this throat looking at Hunter. “Okay.” To him, it wasn’t an understatement when he conveyed to Marilee that John and Meredith had found someone that may not be welcome in Rantoul. Jason wasn’t so sure the big, visually different man would be warmly welcomed at first. Rantoul was pretty sheltered.
Jason should have been prepared. After asking what a Wrecker was, John responded, ‘Ever seen The Goonies?’ And especially after finding out they left Hunter a half a mile outside of Rantoul sitting on a duffel bag waiting.
Meredith scolded John on his Goonies comment. But in a sense, John was right, it was a good way to warn Jason of Hunter’s appearance.
Nora seemed more amazed than frightened, or taken aback. “He’s different. Seems nice though.”
“Very sweet,” Meredith said.
Hunter was spellbound by Nora for some reason. He stared at her, then reached out and lifted her arm. “Uh…” He grunted. “It will break with ease.”
Nora smiled. “Oh my God, he is insinuating I’m thin. No one has called me thin since seventh grade. Thank you, Hunter.”
He touched her hair then cheek. “Soft.”
Meredith quickly commented. “She’s young, that will change.”
“My,” John walked up behind Meredith. “Has someone been bit with the jealousy bug? Perhaps our Hunter is really the Wrecker equivalent of Casanova.”
Hunter spun to John. “No Wrecker.”
“Whoops. Sorry.” John lifted his hand.
Jason asked. “Why do they call them Wreckers?”
“They…” John pointed to Hunter. “Do not call themselves Wreckers. The other population of survivors do. Because the ones we ran into… wreck. They wreck, rape and kill. Hunter’s people do not.”
“No Wrecker,” Hunter repeated.
“You know,” Jason said. “If you all just give me a few minutes to go talk to the folks in Rantoul, I am positive they’d be very interested in meeting Hunter.”
John shook his head. “I can’t with a clear conscience do that. I’m not sure I’m not a carrier.”
Meredith stepped forward. “I’m sure you’re not.”
“It’s a big area,” Nora explained. “You don’t need to go around anyone. You can stay in the church with us.”
“Church?” John asked snidely. “Why doesn’t that surprise me? But before we go in there, or even close, you need to let them know of my uncertainty.”
“Absolutely,” Jason said. “Nora and I will be right back.”
They asked to borrow the buggy to make the short jaunt back to Rantoul easier and faster. Nora and Jason were pretty excited about sharing the town of Rantoul with them and they left enthusiastically.
John watched until they were out of sight.
“You surprise me,” Meredith spoke softly, standing next to him. “You just never struck me as the type of person who would care so much about strangers.”
“It’s not care. It’s selfish. Thirty years in deep freeze, whether it is a blink of an eye or not, can do something to you. We were saved to ensure the continuity of mankind,” John said. “So you can say I just want to make sure that I am not the reason we don’t ensure the continuity.”
That night John made his jokes and comments about the home Jason and Nora recently made at the church. He called the bedroom very ‘Ricky and Lucy’ like with the twin beds.
The people of Rantoul were friendly, they fed them and even got Hunter to consume grain alcohol. Their all too ready protector was out like a light on the first pew of the church.
Meredith settled comfortably on a couch and John read a book. It had been a while since he got to sit down and read, and he was enjoying the secular story by the light of the lantern.
He understood the comfortableness that Jason and Nora instantly found.
It was all too evident that very quickly Jason had made claim to the town of Rantoul and wanted to stay there more than anything. In the new world John wanted to enjoy the charms of an established town. But he knew that would never be possible. It wasn’t their world anymore, or their time. John and the others, no matter how much they wanted to deny it, were different. They didn’t belong and had no place in this new society. Just like they disappeared from the face of the earth thirty years early, John had a gut feeling, for the sake of everyone, more than likely, they’d have to disappear again.
“Hey,” Nora returned back into the bedroom. “I thought you were with John.”
“He’s reading,” Jason lay on his side on the bed, the bible before him, an open journal beside it with a pen in his hand.
“Like you?”
“No, I’m working on a sermon.”
“We won’t be here next week.”
“We’ll be back. But this is for Doug to deliver. So are you staying in the room, or going back out to peek?”
“I’m done.” Nora sat on her bed. “I’m intrigued.”
“I gathered.”
“He’s kind of hot in an apocalyptic way.”
Jason peered up. “Really?”
Nora shrugged.
“He’s kind of a mutant.”
“That’s terrible. He’s a human being. God made him.”
Jason set down his pen. “God made man in his own image. Hunter is made in his image of the horrors of what man can do.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“To me it does.”
“It was very preacher sounding. Do you think because you said to accept him that was why everyone here did?”