Gaia Dreams (Gaiaverse Book 1) (37 page)

"I think you need a hole in the head before you
need a drink," he replied, exasperated. "But actually, we could use that Scotch
to disinfect the cut on your arm. Give me the keys."

"Oh, shit!" she moaned. "I forgot to bring the
keys with me. I can be such an idiot!"

"I'm not going to comment on that. This rain and
wind is getting ridiculous. Can you walk?"

"Yeah, I think so," Lisanne said shakily.

As he helped her up, Andy heard loud noises.
Looking up he saw hail coming out of the sky. And not just any hail, he
thought, hurrying Lisanne along. The hail was golf-ball sized and larger. "Hurry,
Lisanne!" he yelled. And practically carrying her, he ran to the cave.

A shattering sound could be heard over the roar
of wind. "That's glass!" Lisanne shouted, twisting around to look back. "My
car!" she wailed.

"Come on! We'll worry about that later." Andy
dragged her through the cave entrance.

Cape Fair, the Samuels' House

"Jessica! You're here!" Nathan picked up his
sister in a bear hug and whirled her around.

"Put me down, you maniac!" Jessica was laughing
and at the same time couldn't believe her eyes. "Of course I'm here--I live
here! What on earth are you doing here? You're supposed to be in Africa...."

Taking a deep breath, Nathan began, "Jess, I
know you may not believe me right away, but I came to warn you. Alex and I
came," and he motioned to Alex standing by one of the U-Haul trucks. "You
remember Alex? She's the other grad student who was with me in the Kalahari?
Well, we have some rather unbelievable things to tell you--gosh, I'm glad you're
safe! Alex kept saying this would be a safe zone," Jessica gave a start of
surprise and glanced at Sam. "But," Nathan continued, "the closer we got I
started to wonder. You guys didn't answer the phone this afternoon when we
called so I wasn't sure you were okay. But you are!"

"Uh, yes, we're okay. You said you came to warn
us?"

"Right." Motioning Alex over, he nodded in her
direction. "Alex and I figured it out in New York. But a woman in the tribe in
Africa was the one who warned us. Then we had the dreams and we finally put it
all together, but I guess this isn't making much sense!" he said, slowing down.

Alex punched in him the arm. "Of course it isn't
making sense to them--you're rambling and talking too fast and they're going to
think we're nuts." Sticking out her hand, she said, "Hi, Jessica. I feel I know
you after talking with Nate. I'm Alexandra Hobson." Turning to the little blond
girl with the big golden retriever she continued, "And you have to be Sam. That's
a nice looking dog you have there."

Harry woofed.

"Harry says thank you," Sam replied.

Grinning, Alex said, "Well, you are welcome,
Harry. And does your dog always have such nice manners, Sam?"

"Well, not always. But he likes you and he says
you did real good at listening to the cat about all the supplies we need. He
was just wonderin' if you remembered to get his favorite dog food."

Nathan and Alex stared at the little girl. Alex's
mouth had fallen open and Nathan's eyes were open wide. "How--how--what--what did
you say?" Nathan sputtered.

"You been having the dreams, right?" Sam asked. "And,
Alex, didn't you get told about a list of supplies? Since you got two trucks
there, I figure Harry's right and you did a good job on that. Oh!" She started
giggling. "You didn't know it was Perceval, the cat, who was talking to you?
Yeah, Grandma Abby was pretty surprised by that too. But Grandpa thinks it's
cool."

Nathan looked dazed. "Mom and Dad are here?"

Sam frowned at him. "Well, we couldn't leave 'em
in San Francisco with the earthquake coming!"

Alex had finally closed her mouth and now just
looked at them. "Are you telling me," she began, and then stopped. Taking a
deep breath she tried again. "Are you telling me you know about the dreams? Are
you telling me a
cat
has been talking to me?"

Sam looked up at Nathan, saying, "I think Alex
is smarter than you, Uncle Nathan. Sounds like she's getting it."

Nathan said slowly, "We came to warn you--about
the flood--about the disasters. But, but, but--you know already? You know about
the dreams? What is all this about a talking cat?"

Jessica grabbed his hand and said, "Come on, let's
go inside and we can compare notes. And yes, Mom and Dad are here now, and John's
mother and his sister Rachel. Mom will be so relieved to see you! And I can't
wait to go through those trucks and see what you brought us."

As they walked up to the front door, Alex kept
glancing down at her side to Sam and the dog. "I never dreamed about an
earthquake in San Francisco," she said hesitantly.

"Perceval--that's the cat--he knew about it first.
Nobody is having dreams of it yet. I like your braid," Sam replied.

"My braid?" Alex glanced around wildly. "Oh! My
hair, my braid. Why do I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone here?"

"No, Alex, not twilight zone, it's a
safe
zone,
you're in a safe zone," Sam corrected her.

"Sam, I'm beginning to think they are one and
the same," Alex said forcefully.

Outside the Cave in Southwest Missouri

Andy and Lisanne stood in front of her car. He
didn't know her well enough to know if he should make a joke about it or
commiserate and offer condolences.

"My beautiful car. My dad gave me this car. A '67
Mustang in perfect condition. The only good thing he ever did for me. Now look
at it!"

Andy was looking. The windshield was completely
cracked with a hole in the center. Dents pockmarked the hood and roof. The
paint was scratched all along the sides. He turned to his Range Rover and
discovered it was in much better shape, probably because it was partially under
an overhang of rock. "I guess we could move your stuff into my car. We may not
be able to get all of it in there, but there's a little room left for some of
it," he suggested.

"Forget about it!" she snapped. "If this car
still runs, I'm driving it out of here."

"But, Lisanne--"

"Come help me clear the branches and ice off it,
and just shut up about leaving it here. This stupid weather, or maybe the
goddamned planet, whatever it is, it's taken my home already. I'm not giving it
my car!"

Yanking at the dented car door and cursing, she
finally got it to open. Sliding into the driver's seat, brushing glass onto the
floor, she shoved the key into the ignition and turned it. The engine turned
over, hiccupped, and then roared to life. "Yes!" she shouted.

"Lisanne, there's a hole in the windshield. You
are barely able to see out with the cracks. It's probably dangerous to--"

"Are you going to help or are you just going to
stand there babbling nonsense like an idiot?" she demanded.

"Fine! Fine, go right ahead and get yourself
killed," Andy retorted.

"Come on, Merlin, get in the car and let's go,"
Lisanne called out the window to the cat, who'd been sitting there staring at
them both.

Merlin meowed and looked back and forth between
the two travel options. Yes, he'd be safer with Andy. But that dumb dog would
probably slobber all over him. And if he left Lisanne alone on the road, no telling
what trouble she would get into. He meowed angrily. How did I end up being her
keeper, he thought. Well, after all, how bad could it really be inside the car?
And they didn't have that far to go. He jumped in.

Twenty miles and an hour later, Merlin huddled
in the passenger side foot well, growling. A blast of wind blew continuously
through the hole in the windshield, and Lisanne's stream of curses--at the
weather, at Andy, at the broken headlights, at life in general--never stopped as
they drove slowly along the winding road. The carpeting on the floor of the car
was soaking wet from the rain that had poured in during the storm, but sitting
on the seat was torturous. Without Andy behind them, his headlights on bright,
illuminating parts of the road, they would never have made it.

"Cape Fair!" Lisanne shouted. "We made it!"
Pulling off the road, she opened up the laptop. "Now do you want to just type
in the directions or do I need to go all trance-like and get it from you
psychically?"

Merlin just stared hard at her.

"Hey! I heard that!" she replied. "Look, I
couldn't just leave my car there, could I? Now just hop on up here and start
typing. I don't think I need to hear your thoughts just now."

As Merlin typed, he thought furiously. When all
this over and I get her settled somewhere, I'm taking a week off. A month off.
I'll turn her over to Andy and Waldo. Let them deal with her.

But even as he thought it, he knew he'd stay by
her side. They were connected. He sighed.

Sonoran Desert, Arizona

Margaret was looking at maps again. Zack and
Maria watched as she traced a route to the northwestern part of the U.S. Zack
spoke up. "Washington? Washington State? Why do you need to go there?"

"Because that's where the whales are, the San
Juan Islands off the coast of Washington."

"Whales?" Maria questioned.

"Yes, whales. There's something I need to figure
out, something I've been hearing, sort of, getting glimpses of, and I can't
understand it. But I think the whales will know."

"But, but," Phoebe spluttered, "why whales? Why
not--something else? You said animals could talk to you--why do you have to go
that far away? Couldn't you just talk to a cat or something?"

Margaret smiled. "I already tried. I've been
hearing a very low, deep-sounding kind of thought--oh, I don't know how to
explain it exactly. But finally I pinpointed this location, and if I'm right,
it's the whales, but I can't quite get a clear picture of what they are saying."

"But shouldn't we try to get back on TV and warn
more people?" Maria asked.

"I don't think they're going to let you back on
the air, Maria, not until after the flood begins," Zack answered. "We might as
well go with Margaret and film what we can. Then when they're ready to listen
to you again at headquarters, we'll be ready to go and have tape ready for
them."

Phoebe interjected hesitantly, "But I thought
you said there were safe zones, Margaret. Shouldn't we be going to one of those
places?"

Margaret thrust her hands through her hair and
leaned back in her chair. "Yes, I said there are safe zones. But we don't need
to go there yet. We still have time and it's more important to gather
information."

"You mentioned before you thought maybe we could
fix things," Zack observed. "Is this part of that?"

"Yes. If the crop circles that started all this
are right, then they were warnings. Like, if we stop doing certain things, the
planet will settle back down. I'm trying to find out what those things are,
what steps we need to take to make things better."

"Do you think it's possible?" Maria asked,
skeptical, but feeling an undercurrent of hope at the thought.

"It's all I have to go on at the moment,"
Margaret replied. "And travel is going to get harder and harder as things break
down." She stood up and told them, "You all should head back to your motel and
get ready to leave in the morning." She paused and then announced, "Maria, you
and Zack need to talk to Mayor Dubois--we might as well bring her with us. She
could be useful later."

"Wait a minute," Maria replied. "How are we
supposed to explain all this to her? She hardly knows us! She'll never believe
it!"

"Since Houston is now a watery spot on the map,
I think she might be willing to hear you out," Margaret said dryly.

"Oh, yeah," Zack replied. "But what do you mean,
she could be useful? What are you up to?"

Margaret just smiled and headed out the door.

"Sometimes Margaret scares me," Phoebe said
quietly.

"You're not the only one," Maria and Zack both
replied at the same time.

Cape Fair, the Samuels' House

John woke to sound of hoof beats. For a minute
he thought he was dreaming, but then realized he was hearing hoof beats, lots
of them, outside the house. It sounded like a stampede. "What the hell?" He
mumbled.

Jessica stirred and awoke to see John staring
out their bedroom window. "Honey? What is it?"

John murmured quietly without turning around, "Jess,
you are not going to believe this. Come here and tell me if you see a
lot
of horses out there on the road."

Jessica threw off the pale green sheets and
padded across the hardwood floor in bare feet. Peering out, she blinked a few
times to be sure she was actually seeing what was out there. "Uh, yes, I see a
lot of horses. Are we dreaming?" Then she jumped as they heard a banging on the
door downstairs.

Grabbing a t-shirt and pulling it on to wear
with his pajama bottoms, John hurried out of their room and down the stairs.
Jessica frantically yanked open her closet door to find her big fluffy robe to
go over the pajama top of John's that she'd worn to bed.

As John reached out to open the door, he heard
Jessica running down the stairs. "John, wait, we don't know who it is--" She
stopped talking as she saw Samantha sitting on the little bench in the foyer,
Harry at her feet.

"Sam--what are you doing up?"

"More company, Mom. And I had to see the horses!"
Sam exclaimed happily.

"Oh! Well, I still think you should be in bed,"
she said, "More company? The house is already full!"

John pulled open the door to witness a bickering
couple on his doorstep.

"And I'm telling you for the last time, I'm not
checking into any motel--" A bedraggled looking young woman was saying.

"You can't just walk up to someone's house and--"
The young man stopped, realizing the door had opened. He turned to John and
said, "Hello! Sorry to bother you. We should have called first."