But the Children Survived (43 page)

Julius found the other three residents dead in their beds. They, too, had a distinct odor.  Julius had to decide what to do.  He knew he needed to get them all out of the house or it would be unbearable. 

One by one he pulled them out of their beds on their sheets and then pushed them down the stairs.  He had to follow the bodies down the stairs, kicking them if they stopped.  He then pulled them on their sheets out the back door, kicked them down the stairs, and rolled them into the yard. That's where he left them, wrapped in their bed sheets. 

Then Julius picked up Miss Jackson’s legs and slowly pulled her out into the yard with the other residents.

Now that he had taken care of the bodies, all Julius wanted was a shower and a good night's sleep.  It was daylight, but that didn't matter.  He climbed back up the stairs, pausing at each step, went into the bathroom and turned on the shower. 

There was no hot water.  He had to use a wash cloth to clean himself so he wouldn’t have to stand under the cold water.  When he was done, he changed his clothes and got into bed.  After many hours of sleeping on a pallet in the walk-in, he felt so happy to be in his own bed. 

Julius wasn't very fond of the other residents.  In fact, he barely knew their names.  But he would really miss Miss Jackson's homemade pies.

Chapter 52

During the next couple of weeks, Julius would drive around town in Miss Jackson's car looking for other people.  He began spotting kids wandering around town, all kinds of kids.  There were Asian kids, black kids, brown kids, and white kids.  They all looked to be around the same age. 

Julius would ask them if they wanted some help.  Some would shy away while others would run to him.  Julius decided the best place for them was the new Granger's store across the street from his house.  It hadn’t been opened yet, it didn't smell bad, and there was plenty of food. 

He asked the kids where they lived.  He would take them by their houses and have them grab some kind of bedding or sleeping bags if they had them.  If their houses smelled, he would find a clean store and the kids would grab something to use for a bed.  He showed the kids how to set up a bunk on the grocery store shelving.  He liked this arrangement because the store was so close to his house that he could check on the kids every day.

“I'm not sure, but I think there are about eighteen kids in there,” Julius said. 

“Wow, eighteen!  That must be really hard for you, taking care of them I mean.”  Joe was thinking of how hard it was for him, and he had Dani and Jenny.  “Listen, I have to go back to my family.  We’re taking a bus load of kids to Florida.  That's where we live.  Do you want to come with us?” Joe couldn't believe he was saying this.  But he couldn't leave this poor old man with all these kids to care for.

“And the kids?” Julius asked.

“Yeah, of course, all of you.”

“You go and I'll think on it,” Julius said. 

“We'll stop by Granger's on the way out of town,” Joe said. 

Joe walked back to the car.  The kids had gotten up and were out in the parking lot.  They watched Joe as he got in the car and drove away.  When he got back to the hotel, he noticed that his kids were up and he asked some of them to help him bring in the food.  Dani was sitting on the sofa like she had just woken up. 

“You're not gonna believe this, Dani,” Joe said.

“Where were you?”  She yawned.

“I went into town to find food and I found something else.”

“What?” 

“Eighteen kids and an old man.” 

Dani was speechless.  She sat on the sofa thinking about eighteen more children.  Then it registered in her brain that Joe had said “old man.” 

“An old man, how?” 

“I'll tell you over breakfast.  Anyway, I asked the old guy if he and the kids wanted to come with us.”

Dani's eyebrows shot up.  “
You
asked him?” 

“Yeah, I surprised myself.  He said he would think on it.” 

“I don't know if I can do it, Joe.  Eighteen more kids.  We'd have to get more name tags and another bus.” 

Dani got up and headed for a bathroom.  Joe sat looking at the kids as they grabbed something to eat from the pile of toaster pastries and fruit snacks he’d picked up at Granger’s.  He tried to imagine 18 more of them milling around the hotel lobby.  It blew his mind.

When Dani came back, she was cleaned up and looked pretty good.  It was amazing what clean hair would do for you.  She looked at Joe and sighed. 

“You know, we never even counted the kids we have now,” she said to Joe.

“Maybe we should.  Why don't we take a head count?” 

Dani told the kids to go outside and line up.  They groaned at having their breakfast interrupted. 

“Take your food with you.  We just want to count you.”  Dani said as she followed them out the door.

The kids lined up in the parking lot.  Dani told the first girl to count out “one” and then the next “two” and so on.  The kids were counting well and when they finished the last little boy shouted “sixty-two”.

“Joe, we have sixty-two kids here.  I never imagined there were so many.”

“They do take up the whole bus,” Joe said.

“But with the others it would be...eighty.  Eighty kids.” 

Dani felt overwhelmed.  Before she knew the actual number, she’d been able to think that maybe there were forty.  Forty seemed like a doable number.  But sixty-two!  She didn't know how they’d been handling that many kids.  Now Joe was talking about adding another eighteen.  She didn't think she could do it. 

“Julius should know where the school is, so we can get another bus.”  Joe said.  He didn’t seem to mind the idea of that many kids.  What was wrong with him?

“Joe, I can't do it.  It's enough.  There has to be someone else.  I can't do it.” 

Dani got up and ran.  She went up to the second floor and found an empty room.  She closed the door and locked it.  She didn't know Jenny was in the bathroom.

Dani sat on the bed and started to cry.  Jenny came out and saw her. 

“Dani, what's wrong?” she asked.

“Joe found eighteen more kids.  I can't do it.”  She put her face in the pillow. 

“Jeez, eighteen more kids.” 

Jenny sat down next to Dani.  Dani thought about Jenny.  The young woman had been so helpful throughout the entire trip.  She never complained and she had even befriended one of the little girls.  Dani began to feel guilty about her outburst.

“Dani, we can do it together.”  Jenny put her hand on Dani's shoulder.  Dani felt her hand and turned to her.  She held onto Jenny and cried into her shoulder.  “We can do it.  We'll be all right.” 

Jenny was remarkably calm.  This trip had to have been just as hard for her, but she was ready to take on more kids.  Was Dani the only one who saw just how crazy that was?

“What else can we do?” Jenny asked.

Dani sat up and hand-brushed her hair.  She looked at Jenny.  Jenny smiled, and made a face, causing Dani to laugh. 

“I will need to get away and scream every now and then,” Dani said.  “But you’re right, what else can we do?  Joe said they had an old man taking care of them.  He’s all alone.  So if he could do it…I guess we can.”

Dani and Jenny walked back downstairs and saw that Joe had gotten the kids on the bus.  Jenny and Dani packed up the leftover food and carried it outside.  Joe said he would drive the bus to give the women a break. 

“You'll have to follow me to the Granger's,” he said as he climbed into the bus. 

Dani and Jenny got into the car and they all turned onto the highway.  When they got to Granger's, Julius was standing in the parking lot with the eighteen Atlanta kids.  Each kid had their bedding neatly wrapped and ready for travel, and Julius had packed his satchel. 

Chapter 53

Wilmer Biosphere, Palm Harbor, Florida

Calvin had to wait until the hurricane passed before heading to St. Petersburg to check on Mark and Mindy.  The biosphere had suffered no ill effects from the storm.  It had actually benefited from it. 

The pasture had been almost completely cleared of all traces of the poor animals that had died there.  The storm had been over for two days when Calvin decided to make the trip to St. Pete.  He got up early and donned his hazmat suit.  He climbed out of the hatchway and walked over to the Mercedes he had decided to keep. 

He’d taken quite a bit of heat from the team when they found out he’d taken Mindy and Mark back to Mark's house.  Gerald had been absolutely apoplectic.  But Calvin said he’d had enough and if the kids wanted to go, then he would help them.  He told the team that the kids were still suffering no ill effects from breathing the air and they had everything they needed at home. 

Gerald still wanted to study the kids and had Andrew program all the locks.  Andrew had given Calvin the code for the back hatchway so Calvin could come and go as he pleased.  There was a general mutiny afoot, and the team no longer regarded Gerald as the commander in chief.  Gerald continually took his frustrations out on Christie, and she was reaching the end of her patience.

Since Mark and Mindy had left, the kids of the biosphere were asking when they, too, could leave.  They all missed the outdoors and were tired of the mall-like atmosphere of the biosphere.  Christie kept putting them off, and when one would ask, it would prompt her to go to Gerald to beg him to test the air quality.

“It has to be cleared by now, whatever it was that killed those animals, it must be gone, Gerald.”

Whenever the animals were mentioned, Gerald would feel the sting of pain and guilt that always rose up whenever he thought of Martha.  Martha had been a sweet, tan little heifer when she was brought into the biosphere with the rest of the cattle and sheep.  When Gerald saw Martha, he immediately took a liking to her. 

Gerald would visit her daily, spending time brushing her and talking to her by the hour.  Calvin would joke with the others that Gerald seemed to be in love with the cow.  Gerald did indeed love the cow as he had never loved any animal before.  His attachment surprised even him. 

The other animals were just patients to Gerald, but Martha, whom he named after his grandmother, was special.  She seemed to have affection for Gerald as well.  When Gerald would visit her in the animal room, Martha would nudge his hand to make him pet her.  Then he would brush her soft tan coat and give her special little treats.

Gerald had been awake the night before the tragedy, working with a pregnant cow who was suffering from uterine torsion.  He had been trying to untwist the cow's uterus.  He and Calvin had to rock the cow until they were able to flip the uterus.  By the time they were done, they were both exhausted.  Calvin had eaten his breakfast and gone to bed.

That day the sun came out for the first time in a week and Gerald decided to let the animals outside for some fresh air and grass.  He pushed the button that raised the big door leading out to the pasture.  He then started waving his hands at the animals, pushing them towards the door and into the fresh air.  As Martha walked by he gave her backside an affectionate pat.  He watched her walk outside, admiring her graceful exit.  Once the animals were all outside, Gerald closed the door because the air conditioning was going full blast. 

He went back to his lab and set his alarm for two hours just in case he dozed off.  He sat at his computer to enter the notes regarding the pregnant cow from the night before.  He put his head down for just a minute and fell fast asleep.

The loud, piercing alarm that woke Gerald meant that some major event had taken place outside the biosphere.  At first, no one knew what it meant as they had never heard it before.  They had been in the biosphere preparing it for some as yet unnamed calamity, but had never imagined it would really happen.  Some of them thought it was Andrew testing the doors and locks. 

No one reacted very quickly until someone began shouting that the locks had engaged by themselves and Andrew couldn’t get them open.  Calvin, aroused from his sleep by the noise, came out of his room remembered the animals.  He ran to the animal room and looked at the screen showing the pasture.  

He saw that all the animals were down and not moving.  He pushed the button to open the door but a warning sign came up instructing him that until the air quality returned to normal, the doors would stay locked.  Gerald began frantically banging on the door.  

“You can't open it, Gerry,” Calvin was saying, but Gerald wasn't listening.  His only thoughts were of his beloved Martha.  He looked at the screen, but he couldn't see Martha's soft tan coat. 

“Hold on, Martha!” he was shouting as he tried to pry the door open with his hands.  Calvin grabbed Gerald's arms and tried to pull him back.

“Gerry, I told you, you can't open the doors!” 

Calvin was still holding onto Gerald when Gerald pulled away from him, turned around and punched Calvin in the face.  He ran to the stairs and climbed them as fast as he could.  The whole time he was running, he was yelling for Martha to hold on.  He burst into the field and ran towards the hatchway door.  As he ran he passed Christie, she asked him what was wrong.

“Martha's out there.  I have to save her.” 

Christie followed him to the hatchway door.  She had heard the alarm but still didn't know the doors were sealed.  She watched Gerald push the buttons to open the three entryways and climb the ladder to the hatchway.