The Jab - Chapter 7

"Baby! Baby! Wake up!"

My eyes were half awake as Sarah danced over me in bed. It had been a long time since I had seen her this happy. But I noticed something strange was in her hand. She was waving it around as soldiers waved their flags on top of a conquered hilltop in the midst of a battle that had turned course in their favor.

"I'm PREGNANT!!!" she gleefully screamed.

My eyes shot open and my mouth went agape. Tears were rolling down both of our faces. We had tried for what seemed like forever to have a child. It had been well over a year now, and we had all but given up. We couldn't afford to go to a fertility clinic without our bookstore in operation, so we were full of despair on top of our already sullen demeanor. This was a turning point for us to be sure.

In that moment, I suddenly found purpose for my life, and that purpose was my child. My child. My child, who had to be protected at all costs.

***

The tone of the articles had shifted as of late. There was a bit of chatter about geocaching. For some reason, all the previous posts had been purged. But just as I was about to give up on the site, I received a text on my phone.

"If you haven't figured it out yet, we're organizing. We'll need your help because you'll be at the next round of 'vaccinations." Read a text from an unknown number.

"Who is this?" I instinctively started typing, only to delete the message. I knew, and there was no use in forcing them to out themselves. I instead replied with the message, "I'll do what I can, but I can't do it alone."

"Indeed. There will be another with you at the event who you have met before. First thing's first, we need to find out where that farm is."

"How are we going to do that?" I replied.

"The owner of our VPN service is a contributor. That's why we've trusted their company for this long. She has narrowed it down to five farms within an hour drive of where you are. It was serendipity that the targeted contributor happened to live in the same city as you."

I received a list of the farms and was told to play a bit of reconnaissance. There would be others doing the same, but we had to be smart about it. Luckily, one of the farms was near a lake that my friends and I had gone fishing at several times in the past few years. With our fridge stock running low, it made a good excuse for a fishing trip where I can do a drive by of the farm.

"What should I be looking for?"

"The contributor made one more post, but set it as a draft so that it would not be public. He had said that the most notable landmark on the farm was an old windmill that only had one blade left. It was mostly rotted through, but it didn't seem like anyone had taken interest in removing it."

***

It wasn't hard putting together the fishing party. All of us were low on food, and, at this point, fishing licenses were cheaper than even a single meal's worth of food bought at the grocery store. We picked a day, and set on our way.

We made our way to Heyburn Lake, and drove past the farm. To my dismay there was no windmill. We would have to rely on more than luck to survive.

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