Gaia Dreams (Gaiaverse Book 1) (72 page)

Harmony held the radio up as they heard static, "Wait
a sec, Jessica, maybe this is something."

Janine's voice came over the radio. "The horses
can't find her. Something else is happening, dunno if its earthquakes or what,
but it's all confused," she finished in a frustrated tone. "Janine out."

"Dad, if you'd known she was this bad off, why
didn't you tell me?" Jessica demanded.

Clay replied, "None of us knew, Jess. She seemed
okay earlier, she really did."

Jessica immediately regretted the question. "Sorry.
I'm sorry, Dad, I just can't believe she ran off like this. Okay, okay, I'm
going to sit down here and focus on Sam and see if I can get her help."

None of them thought to use the two-way radio.
Clay and Harmony watched Jessica sit down on a boulder and close her eyes, as
if it were perfectly normal for a mother to call out to her daughter in this
way.

Power Station, Table Rock Lake Dam

As the car stopped and they scrambled out, John
picked up Samantha to carry her toward the building. Suddenly her eyes opened
wide, staring at nothing. Then she said calmly, "Put me down, Daddy, let me be
next to Harry."

He did as she asked, alarmed by how pale she
was, but knowing she knew more of what was happening than he did at the time.
Softly, he queried, "What is it, Sam?"

"Mommy. She needs help--Grandma Abby--if I just
find her fast, I think maybe--"

John jumped when he heard a gunshot ring out
from the main building. "What the hell?" he said, running to the building with
Zack following him.

Samantha looked terrified, Maria thought. She
heard the little girl saying, "I can't find her yet, and Margaret--Margaret has
the gun." And suddenly Sam was off running to the open door of the power plant,
Harry at her side. Maria took off after her, calling out, "Sam--wait!"

John and Zack dashed through the open door to
slide to a sudden stop in the vestibule. Margaret was walking toward them, a
gun in her hands. John heard Maria calling out Sam's name, and heard her
running footsteps. No, he thought, I can't let her near Margaret. He backed
slowly out the door, hands in the air.

Zack was talking calmly, backing up with John. "Oh,
Margaret, this isn't like you. You don't need that here. Why don't you just put
the gun down and let's talk?"

Margaret stood straight, looking very tall and
very pale. Her emerald eyes seemed to blaze out of a face white as paper as a
line of bright red blood oozed from a scratch across her cheekbone. "It's too
late. It's all too late. I can see that now. We are just too contaminated. No
wonder she wants to destroy us. We are like a virus, a plague upon the Earth.
Too damaged, too twisted."

Standing in the glow of the light on the outside
of the building, John heard Sam run up next to him. He turned swiftly to thrust
her behind him, but the little girl pulled away from him. Behind Margaret, John
saw a shadowy figure moving, and then realized it was Waldo, but an injured
Waldo. The dog was limping slowly, almost creeping. What the hell had happened
here?

Samantha's voice rang out, a high childish
voice, but filled with a maturity and a certainty that was utterly resolute. "Margaret,
no--it has to stop. Stop here. No more."

Even as Margaret shook her head and raised the
gun to point it at Samantha, John felt something, some awareness, some sense.
It was a drawing of strength, mental strength. He started to panic,and then
recognized his daughter in that feeling. She needed him. So he'd be there for
her. He opened his mind and heart fully to Samantha.

Zack and then Maria both felt a sensation of
intrusion, but, for Zack, it was almost recognizable, ah yes, he thought. Just
like the whales, but this time it was the little girl. What power! He opened up
his mind to her, trusting that the dreams had been right.

Samantha reached out, expanding the circle
around her, expanding her awareness, connecting to the rocks, trees, plants,
animals, people...stretching, reaching, gathering threads until she could look
in Margaret's eyes and say calmly, "It's over, Margaret. The planet doesn't
hate us. It loves us. You've had it wrong, very, very wrong. The whales tried
to tell you, but you didn't listen. This has never been about punishment, or
even about humans at all. We are all connected, Margaret, every living thing.
But you've done something very bad now. You can't keep doing this."

And then as a twisting grimace appeared on
Margaret's face as she struggled against the power of Samantha and all she was
connected to, Margaret realized she had no feeling in her hands--the gun
clattered to the ground. "No!" she said weakly--then felt a severing of
connections inside her mind. "No, don't!" she tried to say, but it was all
going dark

John watched with relief as she collapsed in a
heap on the ground. Waldo reached her right as she fell, and grabbed her wrist
in his mouth, beginning to bite down.

"No, Waldo, no," Sam said sternly. He yelped, a
whining, pleading bark, but Sam just shook her head. "She can't hurt us
anymore, if we're careful. So you can't hurt her now...it wouldn't be right." The
dog regretfully let go of Margaret.

It was abruptly dead quiet. Everything was
still. Then two things happened--John heard a voice calling for help from
inside the power station--Lisanne! And Samantha, with all her expanded senses,
found her grandmother.

"No! No! Grandma..." Sam burst into tears and
the others felt their connections break with her. "She's dead, Grandma Abby's
dead, and it's all my fault, oh, Grandma!" John gathered his sobbing daughter
into his arms and rocked her gently.

"Go," he requested of Zack and Maria. "Help
Lisanne, find out what happened--and here--use the radio to get the doc over
right away." He paused and said sadly, "He won't be needed for Abby after all."

Power Station, Table Rock Lake Dam

The tears flowed down Lisanne's face, even as
her mind sought refuge, sought a denial of what she saw before her across the
room. Not Andy, not him, he couldn't be dead. Lisanne felt like she couldn't
breathe. So much blood--was he still alive? He had to be alive, she decided.
There was no other option. He was everything to her; he was the future, so he
couldn't be dead. Her insides felt all quivery, shaky with dread, as she slowly
crawled across the floor--it was taking forever to get there. But trying to
stand up had not been a good move before. Best to just stay down here. How,
how, how had this happened? He had the gun before, how could he be lying there
so still? Vaguely in the distance she heard voices raised--why didn't they come
in here and help her? She took a deep, shaky breath and tried to scream for
help. But all that came out was a croak. She really had to stop this ridiculous
crying. Had to. And Merlin--he was so quiet in her head, barely there at all
now. Finally, finally she was at Andy's side. She saw a gunshot wound, but was
he breathing? Oh, please, please--yes! But barely, barely breathing. And where
was Waldo? Waldo would never have left Andy, would he? Then she heard a yelping
bark outside. Waldo. Suddenly it was all very quiet, and Lisanne could hear her
own raspy breaths. "Help," she said tentatively. "Help!" louder now, and
finally very loud, even though it hurt her head to take such a deep breath, "Help
us, please! Help!" And then the sound of running footsteps. Oh good, she
thought blankly as she fell across Andy's body, passing out.

Jessica sat in Abby's bedroom at the Farm,
waiting. She stared at the cut-glass crystal vase on the nightstand. Stared at
the brightly colored zinnias with their separate, distinct, perfectly formed
petals. Mom probably liked those flowers, she thought. Why had she left things
like bringing flowers to her mother for another day? Why had she let Harmony
take over a duty that should have been hers? Why hadn't she spent more time with
her own mother? Mom must have been so scared to have run off into the woods.
There had just been so much going on, so much happening all at once. It always
felt like there would be time to deal with her mother's problems. Plenty of
time once things settled down. And somehow, even with all the deaths all over
the world, here in their little cocoon of safety, it had felt like they couldn't
be touched by it, by all the death. Now, however, now they knew. Death had
found them here.

Jessica knew she should feel more concern and
worry over Andy and Lisanne and Merlin and Waldo. But, she felt numb inside.
She knew many of the other Gaians were at the hospital, helping as they could,
while Doc Shapiro and Penny Perkins did surgery to try and save Andy. She'd heard
the report from Gracie about the chaos at the Power Station, how Lisanne had a
bad concussion and possibly a broken rib. That Clay, their veterinarian, was
needed to look at Merlin, but nobody would think of asking that of him so soon
after the shock of finding his wife's body. She knew others were caring for
Waldo, the dog hero who probably, hopefully, saved Andy's life, and ended with
a bullet in his hip. She was aware that Black and Rachel and Max stood guard
over a still-unconscious Margaret. None of it seemed to matter very much to
Jessica. It was all just a swirl of activity, voices heard in the distance, as
she stared at the flowers, alone and waiting. She thought rather vaguely that
somewhere inside she should hate Margaret for the distraction she had caused
them in finding Abby in time. But she felt nothing. Just waiting. Waiting for
them to finish hauling Abby's body up from the crevice she had fallen into, in
the caves where she'd stumbled and been lost and had, Clay said after climbing
down there, broken her neck. So Jessica waited.

The Hospital, Cape Fair

Maria and Zack watched in fascination as
Perceval typed on his laptop computer. Zack found himself reaching for a camera
that wasn't there, thinking they had to get this recorded. Maria was forming
interview questions, only to look at Zack and smile sheepishly. She saw they'd
both been on the same wavelength and shrugged her shoulders. Time to get a new
job.

BRING MERLIN TO LISANNE

SHE CAN HELP HIM HEAL

NOT SO BADLY INJURED AS HIM

CAN STABILIZE HIM

"Healing abilities?" Maria asked skeptically. "Nobody
said anything about healing. All I've heard of are dreamers and what do you
call them? Animal talkers? You're saying they can heal also?"

Mrs. Philpott was frowning slightly. She'd
brought Perceval to the Farm to help with the search for Abby, only to rush
back out and head for the hospital once events there became clear. She started
to say something, and then stopped as Perceval continued.

NO NOT ALL CAN DO IT

NOT YET

BUT MERLIN-LISANNE DID IT

BEFORE

MIGHT WORK

Their little group was in the white-tiled
corridor of the hospital where Lisanne had been placed in a room. Merlin and
Waldo were being examined in the emergency room by a paramedic who had arrived
earlier in the day. No one knew when or if Clay would be up to handling vet
duties in the near future.

Mayor Dubois marched briskly up to them, Alan
and Phoebe trailing behind her. Phoebe seemed brighter looking and more
together than Maria had seen her look in ages. Then she got it. A hospital. All
clean and white--no mess. She had visions of Phoebe asking to live at the
hospital.

"So this is the smart cat--can I read this?"
Mayor Dubois asked. Mrs. Philpott turned the screen to her. "Ahh. You haven't
any experience with this healing thing?"

"No," Mrs. Philpott replied wearily. "But I
guess it's worth a try. Merlin's in bad shape--internal injuries, we think.
Lisanne will recover, just needs watching mainly for the next twenty-four hours
or so. But the one thing none of us knows about is their connection."

She stopped and looked as though she was trying
to decide what to say. Perceval growled a bit and swatted at the computer.
Turning it back to him, they all peered over his shoulder at the screen.

IF STRONG CONNECTION

NOT KNOWN WHAT HAPPENS IF ONE DIES

DOES THE OTHER ONE DIE

"What?" Mayor Dubois asked. "You mean, if a
person is strongly connected to an animal, they might die if the animal dies?
But that's--that's---"

"That's bad," Alan Beakman said slowly, "because
a lot of animals don't live as long as humans."

"Surely not," Maria said. "It can't be they
would die!"

Silence reigned in their hallway as they all
contemplated the implications of the problem. Finally Mayor Dubois shook
herself, (really, Perceval thought, much like a terrier) and said, "Well, we
can't worry about that now. I say you get Merlin in to see that girl there and
find out what she can do. And while you're at it, shouldn't that dog,
whathisname? Wally? Willy?"

"Waldo," Phoebe supplied.

"Right, get that Waldo into the operating room.
Maybe if he's close to Andy he can help him."

Perceval typed into the computer.

SLAPS SELF IN HEAD

OF COURSE

SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT

Mayor Dubois pointed to Maria and Zack. "You two--go
find the dog and get him moved to the O.R. Alan, you and Phoebe go find the cat
and bring him here to the girl."

Mrs. Philpott and Perceval watched as all four
took off running to do the mayor's bidding. Perceval thought to himself that
this mayor person was going to be a big help. Like a short, dumpy little
general, she was. Definitely would be a help to John--if she didn't take over
outright. He heard Mrs. Philpott chuckle discreetly as she picked up his
thoughts.

"Now then," Mayor Dubois said, turning to them
with her hands on her hips. "Where the hell have they put that nutjob,
Margaret? I'd like a word or two with her."

Mrs. Philpott just pointed down the hall and
managed to contain her giggles until the mayor was out of sight. Oh, my, she
thought, bemused. It just might be worth it to miss seeing the whole healing
thing in order to hear the mayor flay Margaret verbally. Her thoughts soon
sobered, however, as she wondered just what they were going to do with
Margaret. She heard the clicking of the mouse and looked down at the screen.