Read Online Ever Onward by Wayne Mee - Free Book Online Page B

large,
white letters:
    TO ANY
SURVIVORS!
    GENERAL MEETING EVERY DAY
    AT NOON IN THE TOWN SQUARE.
    EVERYONE
WELCOME!
    Similar signs had already been painted
outside the Sear’s building and the hardware store.
    All three were startled when Princess
suddenly turned and growled. Behind them, an old woman and a girl
of about fifteen stood staring at them. The woman, gray hair half
covering her Asiatic features, held the girl’s hand.
    “Do you think many will come?”, she
asked casually. Her voice was heavily accented, with a pleasant,
sing-song quality. The girl said nothing.
    Josh found his own voice. “We hope so.
I’m Josh Williams. Who are you?”
    The old lady bowed. The girl kept her
large dark eyes on the dogs. “I am Kay-loon Wang. This is my
granddaughter, Mai-ling.”
    Doc made the rest of the introductions
and offered the old lady a seat in the open side door of the van.
She hesitated, smiled and then shuffled forward. Josh saw that she
moved stiffly. Probably arthritis. The girl stayed by her side,
silent and wide-eyed. She looked to be fourteen or fifteen. Her
hair was long and black and glistened like a raven’s
wing.
    Josh hunkered down beside her and
asked it she’d like to play with the dogs. The pup Og came up and
sniffed her, causing a bright smile to light up her
face.
    “Mai-Ling is mute,”, her grandmother
said. “She can neither hear nor speak. Been that way since birth.
But she can read lips.”
    Josh was about to repeat his question,
but saw there was no need; Og was already licking her face. After
stocking up on food, all five of them went back to Doc’s for
supper.
    Later that night Doc joined Josh on
the back porch. The old man had a bottle of brandy and two glasses.
The stars were burning brightly in the summer sky.
    “Peaceful out here, isn’t it?”, Doc
said as he eased himself into a lawn chair. “My wife Martha and I
used to sit and listen to the crickets. Too noisy in town she used
to say.”
    Josh nodded and accepted a half filled
glass. The amber liquid slid down his throat like rough velvet,
igniting a small, fierce fire in his stomach that made him
shudder.
    “Hits the spot, don’t it?”, Doc
grinned.
    Josh managed a nod.
    The old man took a sip, then reached
his pipe. “I’ve been thinking again. Old coots like me do a lot of
that.”
    “Keep it up,” Josh smiled. “Your sign
idea was brilliant. What’s next?”
    Doc leaned forward, his eyes bright.
“What kind of blood type are you?”
    Josh looked surprised.
“Why?”
    Doc grinned. “Humor me.”
    “RH negative. It caused a lot of
problems when my wife was pregnant with Jess. She is... was
positive.”
    “And what about the boy?”
    Josh stiffened. “Same as me, negative.
Why?”
    Doc sat back, filled his ancient Briar
and smiled. “I’m RH negative too. Out of the five of us, we know
three of us have the same rare kind of blood. Now, I’m just a
country vet, and an old one at that, but that seems mighty strange
to me. My bet is that Mrs. Wang and her granddaughter have it too.
Come morning I intend to test them both and find out.”
    “Just how rare is it?”
    Doc struck a match. “Somewhere around
five or six percent of the population.”
    Josh sat perfectly still, his glass
forgotten in his hand. “You think that’s it? Whatever the hell they
let loose passed us by because of our rare blood?!”
    “Christ, Josh, I told you I was just a
country vet. We’d need one of those big-city Harvard boys to be
sure. But if I’m right, then we can look up the records at Crown
Point Hospital and start phoning. Most people have those
thing-a-ma-jigs that leave a message. Cell phones may not work any
longer, but the old line-phones still do --- for a while at least.
We can just call them up and see who’s still home.”
    Josh suddenly stood up, his eyes wide.
“Brad Westgate! He’s my cousin. Lives over in North Conway, New
Hampshire. The two of us practically grew up together!”
    “This cousin of yours