all god's orphans
Chapter 42

Millie sat in one of the booths at a chain restaurant they had decided to use as a camp for the night. They hadn’t made it very far from the location of the abandoned camp and Millie felt uneasy, but driving at night was like putting a giant sign on yourself. She’d just as soon stay invisible. Before her on the table lay the contents of the bag she had packed at the baseball diamond. There were maps with locations marked down, GPS coordinates, and what appeared to be notes related to the strange transmission.

From what Millie could tell, the general was heading out west, but nothing in the materials told her why that might be. She wasn’t even sure that was correct, but she knew that they had come from somewhere in the northeast, possibly New Jersey, and had been steadily making their way west, so it seemed a safe assumption. Sarah plopped herself down across from her by way of announcing her presence and it made Millie jump.

“Sorry.” Offered Sarah. “I keep forgetting you can’t hear.” Millie retrieved her machine from under the table.

“It’s okay.” She typed.

“What’s all this?” Sarah waved her hand over the papers.

“Information on where the general might be headed next.”

“And they have this letter we need to get into the government safe house?” Millie thought about it for a second and decided that was as good a way of putting it as any.

“Basically.”

“How are you planning on getting the letter?” Sarah was really starting to annoy Millie with her well thought out questions.

“I don’t know.” She typed and really wished she could add some heat to her inflection. As it was, Sarah had no idea she was irritating Millie.

“Were you always deaf?” People always got around to asking Millie that question, and it didn’t really bother her except that the story wasn’t very cool.

“No.” She was going to leave it at that, but Sarah was staring at her. Millie sighed then continued. “My parents didn’t believe in things like doctors, medicine, or vaccinations. I got really sick when I was a kid and all they did was pray. When I got better, I couldn’t hear anymore.” Sarah rolled her eyes.

“Your parents too, huh?” Millie wasn’t quite sure what she meant. “My parents were really into religion, too. They talked all the time about God and church and praying. It drove my sister nuts. Not literally, but maybe a little literally. When my mom got cancer, she didn’t take any treatment for a long time and when she finally started, it was basically too late. She died not long after.”

“I’m sorry.” Millie tried to look sincere but she wasn’t sure what the right reaction was in this case. To her mind, not seeking treatment had resulted in the loss of her hearing, and that wasn’t her choice. If someone believed that God could save them, and in the end it turned out they were wrong, then fuck ’em. They got what they wanted, didn’t they? She tried not to let that show on her face.

“Yeah it sucks.” Sighed Sarah. Millie just nodded. She supposed it did, indeed, suck.

“Where is your sister now?” Asked Millie and Sarah’s face shifted dramatically before she caught herself and reined her emotions in.

“She’s dead.” Millie couldn’t think of anything to say.

“That sucks.” She finally typed. Sarah smiled, and then let the smile become a laugh. It had been so long since she had been able to talk to someone, really talk to them. Her dad was no help at all.

“We used to come to this restaurant for my birthday.” Said Sarah after a while. “Not this one, obviously. The one by my house.”

“My parents wouldn’t let me choose for my birthday.” Admitted Millie.

“That’s bullshit.” Said Sarah.

“Was this place any good?” Asked Millie.

“No.” Said Sarah and a grin spread across her face. “It sucked.” The two girls fell apart in hysterics. It was the kind of joke that was only funny because of how horrible everything else was and only funny in that moment. Trying to describe it to anyone else would fail to accurately convey the sense of camaraderie, the feeling of connection that came from the two of them replaceing the same dumb joke hilarious. They laughed for a solid minute and when they finally stopped, simply sat in silence, luxuriating in the fleeting joy of the moment.

“Did your parents let you listen to good music?” Sarah asked and then laughed. “Sorry, that was stupid.” Millie grinned.

“No, it’s fine.” She typed. “They didn’t let us listen to anything that wasn’t Christian. And we weren’t allowed to watch most movies that were made after 1955, with the exception of Arnold Schwarzenegger movies.”

“What?” Sarah laughed.

“My dad was obsessed with Schwarzenegger.”

“Mine too!” Sarah exclaimed. “Did you have a favorite?”

"Terminator 2.” Millie admitted sheepishly. “Because it had a badass chick fighter.”

“It’s a good one, but I preferred Conan the Barbarian.”

“Another good one.” Millie agreed. “Also with a badass chick fighter.”

“A lot of weird similarities, huh?” Sarah asked. Millie nodded.

“Yup.” She said. “Weird similarities, indeed.” They smiled across the table at each other.

“I need to pee.” Sarah stood up after a moment.

“Don’t use the bathrooms.” Observed Millie. “They’re not working. Just go outside.”

“Okay.” Sarah bounced away, happy for a moment. Millie watched her go and wondered if she might ever recapture that feeling of being young and carefree. She doubted it. That part of her life was over forever, but she might be able to safeguard it for Sarah, if only for a moment. She put it out of her mind and focused her attention on the maps in front of her.

On the other side of the restaurant, Kite and Grey had invented their own game. They were trying to figure out just what the Hell all this junk on the walls actually was. It seemed very premeditated, but at the same time, disjointed. They could replace neither rhyme nor reason to the objects and so they were assigning their own. It was silly, but it was making them laugh.

“What did you call it again?” Chuckled Kite.

“Swat thingy.”

“Swat?” Kite laughed. “What is ‘swat’?”

“What is what?” Grey teased her. He liked to hear her pronounce different words and this was too funny.

“Swat.” She repeated. “What is it?”

“You know.” Grey made a motion with his hand. “You swat things. Like this.” He demonstrated for her. “Kinda like a spanking.”

“Ah.” She grinned through blushing cheeks. “I see.” Grey pointed at a boiling pin.

“And what is that?” He asked her.

“This,” She said, affecting the demeanor of a professor, “Is a very famous object called a ‘man-bonker’.” Grey stifled a smile.

“And what is the primary use of the man-bonker?”

“When a man is doing something stupid, you gently bonk him on the head with it.” They laughed together. It felt good to be silly.

“And does that work?” Asked Grey.

“You just keep bonking him until it works.” She laughed. “For you it might take many, many bonks to work.” The sight of her smiling face brought a deep peace to Grey’s mind. If he could still feel like this, in spite of everything that had happened, then there was hope.

“I would actually like to know what some of these are, though.” Grey said after a while.

“We could ask Millie.” Observed Kite.

“I was trying to let her work, but I think she could use a break.” Kite agreed and they wended their way through the tables to the other side of the space where Millie was still poring over the documents. Grey tapped on the table to get her attention. Millie snapped out of her reveries. Grey looked around for a moment.

“Where’s Sarah?” He asked. Millie blinked.

“She’s not with you?” She asked. Grey shook his head. “She said she needed the bathroom, but that was a while ago.” Millie seemed worried all of a sudden. She slid out of the booth and made her way to the back door. The sky was very nearly black and fading fast. Their SUV was still there and seemed to be untouched. The restaurant was situated near the highway and there weren’t many places to hide, though she couldn’t understand why Sarah would want to hide. Panic rose in Millie’s heart.

“Call for her.” She told Grey. “I can’t.”

“Sarah!” Shouted Grey at the top of his lungs, but no answer came. He tried again and again, but only his echo answered. Millie’s eyes screamed out as she looked at Grey. He shook his head. Sarah was gone.