“I know. I’ve been praying for all of you.”
Goose took a deep breath, struggling to keep himself centered. “Bill—” His voice broke. “Something happened to Bill.”
“Is he hurt?”
Fatigue muddled Goose’s thoughts. He didn’t know how to explain what had happened. “He’s not hurt. At least, I don’t think he’s hurt. He—he disappeared, Meg. I was right there beside him. He was there, then he wasn’t. Nobody here knows what happened.”
“I know,” Megan said. “It happened over here, too.”
Goose tried to focus on what she had just said. “What happened?”
“The disappearances,” Megan said. “The news is full of it.”
The horror of a worldwide epidemic of disappearances surged through Goose. They still didn’t even know who had taken the missing men—or how. He’d heard pieces and fragments of conversations about people missing back in the United States, but he’d been too busy to follow up on the scuttlebutt. He did know that DEFCON-2 had been pushed back due to something that had happened in Washington, D.C., and for that he was grateful.
“We haven’t got much access to the news here,” Goose said. “The disappearances have happened over there, too?”
“Yes.”
Goose thought about his dad and Megan’s parents. “Have you heard from your mom and dad?”
“Yes. They’re fine. Just scared. The way most of us are. Nobody really understands what has been going on.”
“It’s okay,” Goose said with more confidence than he felt. “We’ll find out. The captain tells me the military intelligence teams are working on it. They’ll find an answer. Maybe we can get those people back.”
“I don’t think so, Goose. Really, I don’t.” Her voice broke again.
“We’ll get through it, Meg,” Goose said. “I promise.”
“We don’t have a choice. I know that. I just don’t understand why all the children had to be taken.” Her breath rattled as she inhaled deeply. “Well, I mean I do understand, but it’s just so hard to accept.”
“What?” Panic exploded Goose’s heart. “What about the children?”
Megan cried for a moment, then got herself together. “The children, Goose. All of the children are gone. Didn’t you know?”
“Meg.” Goose’s voice faltered and he thought for a moment he was going to go insane. None of this made any sense. “Meg, there aren’t any children in the 75th.” Then he realized that he hadn’t seen any children in the city streets either. But that hadn’t been too surprising. Parents would keep their kids inside, especially with a foreign army occupying the city. “Where are Joey and Chris? Are they all right?”
She was quiet too long.
“Meg?” Asking again hurt him. Pain welled in his throat. Tears blurred his vision.
“Joey’s here,” Meg answered. “It’s Chris, Goose. Chris is gone. Our baby is gone!”
To Goose, it seemed like all the air in the room suddenly went away. Then his injured leg went out from under him. All of his reserves seemed to collapse and dwindle into the cold, hard center of himself that manifested.
“Goose? Goose!”
Hurt took away Goose’s voice. And even if he could have spoken, he didn’t know what he would have said. All he could think about was Chris, how he might never hold his son or speak to him again. Bill’s disappearance had seemed so grim, so final.
And now Chris. God, what have You done? What have You done?
United States of America
Ft. Benning, Georgia
Local Time 9:46 A.M.
Megan dumped the dirty clothes into the washer, added detergent, then closed the lid and started the cycle. Doing ordinary things—cooking, cleaning, getting kids to bathe—all felt reassuring. While she was doing those things, she could pretend everything was all right in the world, that the stories of the mysterious disappearances and all the tragic deaths that had happened the night before were all fantasies and lies. Propaganda, even.
Except that she knew it wasn’t.
Even more upsetting, Joey hadn’t come home last night. Megan had no idea where her eldest son was. He’d talked with Jenny—argued actually, Megan knew, because she’d heard them—yesterday morning. He hadn’t come back since.
She’d tried to find him. Megan had gone through the list of acquaintances she’d had for Joey. For the most part, she’d discovered that her son no longer hung out with the same kids. And how had she not known that? Guilt washed over her as she listened to the washer’s agitator kick to life and start whacking the laundry.
“Megan?”
Hearing Jenny’s voice, Megan looked up and saw the young woman standing in the utility room doorway. “Yes.”
“Bathroom’s free,” Jenny said. “Your turn in the shower.”
Jenny had stayed last night to help out with the kids that had had nowhere else on base to go. Megan had been in touch with some of the other counselors and the volunteer staff to establish a system to start taking care of all the kids that had been left bereft of parents, either through the disappearances or because their parents were away on military assignments and the guardians they’d had had disappeared. Keeping enough hot water in her household to meet the needs of all the kids she’d taken in was impossible. She’d set the washer for cold.
“A shower, huh? Do we still have hot water?” Megan asked. She wanted a shower more than anything. She’d missed taking one last night with all the extra kids to care for.
“Some,” Jenny answered. “If you make it quick, it might last.”
Megan sighed and nodded. “I’ve got Kelly and Regan’s things about to come out of the dryer.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Jenny said.
Megan nodded thanks, then headed back through the house. Kids were clustered around the table with Monopoly and Life. Board games helped give the younger teens focus. Others crowded around the television in the living room, watching the news from around the country.
She wanted to pull them back from the television, because she knew the images of downed planes, wrecked cars, burning buildings, and riots in the larger metropolitan areas would live
