When the rains may come (Science Fiction)

57. Not a dream

"Cathy, wake up, dear. You are gonna be late for school."

Cathy groaned. "I'm already up, mom!"

"Then come down for breakfast. What are you doing in your room anyway? The bus will be here soon."

There was a loud honking from outside the window.

"Cat, the bus is already here!"

Cathy groaned again and grabbed her book bag. "I heard it, dad!" She rushed downstairs and through the living room and towards the door.

"Cat." Her dad's voice was stern.

Cathy stopped and turned around. Mom and dad stood at the head of the hallway. Their faces were grave with their expression hovering somewhere between concern and disappointment. Cathy was quick to understand what that look meant. She rushed up to her parents and wrapped her arms around them at once. "I love you," she whispered.

She felt her mother's hand on her back. "I'm glad you remembered."

"I'm glad you stopped to think about it, Cathy," dad said.

Cathy tightened her embrace. "You gotta be kidding me." She scoffed. "I'd never forget this. Never..."

#

Cathy opened her eyes. She was alone in the bed again. Ana was still asleep in her crib. Dawn hadn't cracked yet. Cathy was feeling lightheaded from her dream. The thing didn't quite feel like a dream. It was too lucid.

It wasn't like any of her nightmares where she kept shooting her dad again and again. No, what she saw in her sleep wasn't surreal like that. It was just...real.

She climbed out of the bed and padded over to the closet. She opened it and retrieved Milo's skull from the pile of neatly folded clothes. She threaded the cranium through the chain around her neck again and carefully lifted Ana out of the crib. She carried her out of the room and headed downstairs.

Lisa was probably in the garage right now, probably going through the operating manual of the truck, probably trying to work out a new sequence or something. And as far as she knew, Erik wasn't asleep either. He'd hardly slept since Germaine had left.

And he'd been even more active since the Eli Hodges knock down had worked so well. Cathy wasn't surprised. This just meant they were going to be moving into the next step of their mission. Possibly the most dangerous step yet.

She looked down at the baby sleeping soundly in her arms. What were they even going to do about Ana once they start with the next step? Who was supposed to be looking after her? It certainly didn't seem like Lisa was going to go for a maternity leave at this stage. The way she had been pushing herself suggested anything but that.

Cathy let out a soft sigh. These worries were all valid and important but she really didn't want to think about them just yet. Something else was occupying her mind at the moment. She went into the library. Maps, diagrams, lists and notes scrawled in barely legible handwriting were strewn across the large desk at the center. An empty bottle of gin lay stinking in the middle of the mess. But Erik was nowhere around.

So she walked over to the pantry. The trapdoor in the ground was open. She descended underground. Erik was hunched over the desk by the wall on the left. The telegraph jack was plugged in and he was wearing a headset connected to the telegraph. This was the machine they used to communicate with Watcher who was in the unsectorized state. It was old tech by now so it was a lot safer to use it than any other form of machine that involved a radio.

Erik noticed her as she came and stood by him. He gave her the slightest nod. His face was sober, almost grim. He was transcribing the signals he received from his headset and onto a sheet of paper. His face became a lot grimmer as he kept scribbling dots and dashes across the page.