Cascade Collection

by Phil Maxey

  As the car Fiona was in pulled up outside her daughter’s house she was nervous. A plastic Santa and reindeer sat somewhat uneasily on the front lawn, and tiny lights stretched across the front of the house just under the roof. It looked liked the kind of house she always wanted to live in as a kid. She felt her eyes moisten, then cleared her throat.

  “Are you going inside? Do you want me to wait here? Or come back and pick you up?” The driver asked while warming his hands.

  “What? Oh, I won’t be long, twenty minutes maybe.”

  “I’ll wait here, but if I get a call from the Core I’ll have to leave.”

  “No problem, I understand,” said Fiona getting out of the car. She stood for a moment, trying to ascertain if anyone was home, but then saw movement in the living room. Walking across the road, trying not to slip on the morning ice she arrived at a light wooden front door. She raised her hand to ring the doorbell when the door opened. The young boy on the other side of the entrance looked nonplussed.

  “You’re not the delivery person?”

  “No, I’m…” Fiona hesitated not knowing how to end the sentence. A blonde woman in her thirties appeared from along the hallway, and approached Fiona.

  “Can I help you?”

  “I’m here to see Stephanie. Is she available?”

  The blonde woman suddenly realized who was standing in front of her. “You’re Fiona? Yes she’s just in her bedroom right now, she’s meant to be doing homework but I suspect she’s just trying to find Christmas presents!”

  Fiona smiled. These are good people, don’t mess it up for her.

  Stephanie appeared from a door down the hall, and walked slowly forward smiling meekly.

  “Please come in, I’m Sarah. My husband James is at work right now.”

  Fiona stepped inside, the warmth of the house immediately making her feel at home. Sarah brought Fiona and Stephanie into the living room, telling a young girl and boy to go play in their rooms.

  “Tea? Once upon a time I would have offered you coffee, but that’s not something most of us can afford these days,” said Sarah.

  Fiona declined. Stephanie sat with her hands in her lap, her eyes looking everywhere but at Fiona.

  “You have a nice home here,” said Fiona to Stephanie.

  “Thank you… It’s not really mine though…” Stephanie attempted a smile that quickly faded back into awkwardness.

  Fiona suddenly felt too warm, and unbuttoned her jacket. “Boy this is difficult,” she said, puffing out her cheeks and half smiling. Stephanie’s eyes widened.

  “Sorry I didn’t mean you’re difficult. It’s just well, the last time I saw you, you were about a foot long.” Fiona placed her hands apart demonstrating Stephanie’s size as a baby. Stephanie smiled. “But even then I could tell you were going to be a good kid. You used to have a scar…” Fiona reached forward towards Stephanie’s forehead, but Stephanie pulled back. “Well you used to have a scar on your forehead, I just wondered if it had disappeared over the years.”

  Stephanie pulled her fringe back, revealing a slight blemish that was hardly noticeable. Fiona sighed in relief.

  “Look, I might be…” said Fiona as her daughter started to talk as well. “No, please, what did you want to say?”

  “I, just, I really need to get back to my homework. Sorry.”

  “Oh, no that’s okay. It’s good that you do it.”

  Stephanie stood up and held out her hand. “Thank you for coming.”

  Fiona stood too. “You’re welcome. Maybe I can come back some other time?” Fiona shook her daughter’s hand.

  “Sure, if Sarah is okay with it. Okay I should get back now then.” Fiona reluctantly let go of her daughter’s hand and watched her walk away. As she got to the door, Fiona suddenly remembered.

  “Merry Christmas!” she shouted. Stephanie replied in kind and was gone. Sarah reappeared, and spoke in a hushed voice.

  “Everything okay?”

  “Everything’s fine. I will be leaving the camp for a while… I have a job, but I expect to be back. Please take care of her.” Fiona felt wrong saying those last few words, but couldn’t help it.

  “Of course, she’s a great kid.”

  Fiona walked over the threshold of the house, turned and waved. She knew this might be the last time she would see her daughter but knowing Stephanie was happy made her feel like the world had purpose, that she had purpose. Looking across the road, the car had gone.

  “Shit,” she said under her breath, and hugged her arms around herself. She looked back at the house, but pressing that doorbell again was not an option, so she started walking. The late winter sun was almost directly above, and took the chill from the air unless she walked in the shade. Fiona had memorized the route all the way from the makeshift hospital to their apartment block on the first day so she had a fairly good idea of which way to go. Orientation was something her government trainers always told her she was particularly good at.

  Walking down the street with trees on both sides, she started to feel anxious. She knew nothing was on this side of the wall, but it was hard to shake the feeling that there was always something out there.

  The worst that can get me out here is an angry chipmunk She went to laugh then realized there are no chipmunks anymore. A world with no animals? Walking down the newly tarmacked road, that realization fully struck her for the first time and she felt sad. Can humanity even survive without animals? These thoughts started to percolate around her mind, are we all vegetarians now?

  A car beeped behind her making her jump, she hadn’t released she had been walking down the center of the road. Turning around, a guy in his forties wearing a hard hat and looking too big for his car, was leaning out of the window.

  “You need a lift? It’s a long way before you get to any of the apartments if that’s where you’re going.”

  “That would be great thanks.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  The sound of Christmas tunes together with the smell of baking filled the air as Zach and Abbey walked up the stairs to their apartment’s floor. Jacob was hanging tinsel around the hall.

  “I never saw you as the tinsel kind of guy,” said Zach, trying not to laugh.

  “I so do love Christmas,” said Janice, coming out of the other apartment. “Hello, you two, did you have fun?”

  Zach held up a bag. “Spent some of our rations on things we don’t need but that’s Christmas,” he said as he and Abbey went into their apartment. Zach took the contents of their time at the market and placed them on the table, one of which was a many-branched candleholder.

  “Thank you for letting me get this,” said Abbey holding the candleholder. “I’ve never been the religious type but my parents were and I just felt…” Her throat felt tight and her eyes started to moisten.

  “No need to explain,” said Zach.

  The apartment door opened and Jacob appeared holding a plate of cookies. “That woman sure does like Christmas.”

  “It’s good that there are still people in the world that do,” said Abbey. Jacob nodded. “Hope you like vegetable lasagne because tonight that is what we are having. Soon even that won't be on anyone's menu once the last of the cheese has gone.”

  “We figured we might as well have one last good meal before leaving here,” said Zach.

  “Sounds good to me,” replied Jacob.

  The evening became a blur of good food, laughter, and a locally made spirit which also doubled as something to run gasoline generators on. Once the time neared midnight they were all tired.

  “I think that’s me done for tonight, I bid you both goodnight,” said Jacob, getting up from his chair. “What do you think Fiona will choose to do?”

  Zach paused for a moment. “Whatever she thinks is best for her daughter.”

  “Hmm, night then.” Jacob closed the door to his room.

  The flames from the candles created shadows, which danced on the ceiling of the small apartment.

&nbs
p; “I think I best be getting sleep as well, I suspect tomorrow will be a long day,” said Zach, sitting down on the Sofa. Abbey stood up, walked halfway to the main bedroom and held out her hand.

  *****

  Most of the night Zach and Abbey just held each other, after all the years without any human intimacy it was enough. An hour after sunrise the old phone in the living room started to ring again. Zach got to it quickly due to lying awake for the last few hours, feeling free for the first time since he left his cell. The officer on the other end told them they needed to come in for a briefing. The phone had woken Jacob too and it wasn't long before they were standing in a briefing room at the Core, Cal, Michael and Fiona was also there. Zach handed Fiona the reinstatement forms without saying anything.

  General Trow, Major McCain and a man in his late twenties wearing a white shirt were standing at the front of the room in front of a few computer screens.

  “As I understand it, all but one of you have agreed to forming a new recon unit,” said the general.

  “Actually, all of us have agreed. Anyone have a pen?” said Fiona. McCain threw her a pen and she set about putting her signature where needed.

  “Good. Right then. After some persuasion, the council signed off on this, they thought your talents would be best served out there,” said the general with a smile. “Major McCain will be taking point on this operation. You will be the first dedicated recon team that we have sent beyond the walls to operate in-country. Captain Felton will be in command, but beyond that we leave how you designate your roles within the team up to you. You came a long way to get here and I don't see any point in changing that up. You will be allowed to operate autonomously but there are certain protocols you will be expected to follow and due to the fluid nature of the situation, there will be times when there will be specific missions which you will be expected to carry out. And with that I’ll leave you in the capable hands of Major McCain. Be safe and bring our people home.” The major saluted again and the general left the room.

  “How all of you pulled this off I don’t know but let's see if you bunch of misfits can actually do some good beyond the walls,” said McCain, pointing to one of the screens. “We have had reports of survivors held up here in the town of Brownstone, fifty klicks north-west of the camp. Your mission will be to find and retrieve anyone there. There has been reported E.L.F. activity at these points, of what type we don’t know. I was told some of you were packing M4s, well now all of you get them with the day and night scope upgrades, together with a full supplement of supplies in your backpacks, including field comms. Considering you lost your munitions expert, Sargent Jacks will also be joining your team.”

  The team stirred and looked around at a blonde-haired man in his thirties sitting at the back of the room, with his hands in his lap. When everyone looked at him he raised his hand.

  “Hi, that would be me. Accept my condolences on the previous guy,” said Jacks.

  “His name was Ray,” said Abbey.

  “Right yeah, that was a tough situation.”

  “You will be given one Humvee with a top mounted gun, and a smaller four by four which we have adapted for military use. You move out in one hour, but before you do, Dr. Joshi here wants to show you some things in the lab.”

  “One hour? I thought this was just a briefing?” said Michael.

  “Technically you have been on the military pay roll since the moment you signed those forms yesterday,” McCain paused then continued. “We can get a message through to someone if needed.”

  The man in the shirt stepped forward. “My name is Dr. Raj Joshi. I work in the labs here trying to find ways to combat the E.L.F’s. If you would all please follow me.”

  They all followed Joshi down some corridors and into the elevator. After dropping a few floors the door opened into a bland corridor, with three doors. Guards were posted at all of them. The group moved along to the far door where Joshi placed his hand on a flat vertical device causing a secure door to open. The room they entered was almost like another corridor and had low lighting. On both sides were five clear fronted cells, each containing a live E.L.F.

  “As you can see, we have a number of live specimens here, which we use for study purposes.”

  “I imagine if we were to take creatures from alien planets and put them in a zoo it would look something like this,” said Abbey.

  Michael moved up close to one of the creatures then stepped back as it seemed to notice him. It looked like one of those fish that live at the bottom of oceans with countless spindly teeth and soulless eyes. The difference with this creature though was the small legs and arms that it used to move around the cell with.

  “They cannot see you,” said Joshi, walking up to Michael.

  “Oh, yeah I knew that.” As Michael stepped back closer to the glass, the creature’s scales changed from a silvery green to a vibrant blue then back to green. “Whoa.”

  “It has the ability to change the pigmentation in its scales, gives it a kind of camouflage capability,” said Joshi.

  Another of the cells contained a black form of hundreds of creatures moving as one around the cell. It would take shape one moment then lose cohesion and flow off to another corner.

  “We have seen this thing before,” said Zach.

  “We actually have a good idea what they were before they changed, Rattus norvegicus, otherwise known as the brown rat,” said Joshi, walking up to the cell’s window. “They seemed to have evolved into a kind of hive like creature, giving up their individuality for more advanced emergent behavior, they really are extraordinary. We have had them even solving simple logical problems.”

  Jacob walked up to a cell, which contained a tan colored large insect, covered in bony looking spikes, which flew from one wall to the next.

  “We think these were locusts before, they were one of the first reported cases of E.L.F’s and were probably some of the first to evolve. They attack in a swarm.”

  “What’s the point of the spikes?”

  “They contain a toxin which momentarily paralyses their targets, which they then as a group devour. They were among some of the most successful early predators, which is why there were not wiped out by the more advanced E.L.F’s that came along afterwards.”

  “Have you seen any spider human looking creatures?” said Abbey.

  “We have had reports of arachnids evolving into a more humanoid form, perhaps that is what you refer too, but we have not been able to capture any as they tend to prefer living underground,” Joshi paused as if aggrieved “The council will not sign off on any missions to retrieve creatures. All of these have attacked the walls. Anyway we don’t have long so I need to brief you on some things we have learned.” Joshi walked to the far door and repeated the hand scan.

  The door opened into a large lab area, the brightness of which almost being a strain on their eyes. An abundance of lab worktops, vials, screens and scientific equipment stretched many yards in all directions, with people in white coats intently working. On some of the worktops were dead specimens of E.L.F’s and along the far wall were more cells with clear fronts containing live E.L.F’s. None of which the group had seen before.

  Joshi led them past rows of worktops to a section which contained chairs, a table, and some computer screens. He held up a small ringed booklet. “Each page in this contains a description of each E.L.F. that we know of as well as any weaknesses we have discovered. The pages are color coded according to the categories we feel they fall into, so amphibious, flying etc. Each of your packs contains one. Take care of it. It might well save your life. A lot of the creatures fare better at night, so try to travel in the daytime.” Putting the booklet down, he picked up a small black plastic tube. “They also have exceptional hearing and smell, but this can also be a weakness for them, because it means they are also very sensitive to high frequency sounds, and pungent smells. So your packs also contain a high frequency sound generator, and a few spray bottles of something you really don’t
want to spray on yourselves unless you have too.”

  “So why did it happen?” said Fiona to Raj.

  “Why did what happen?” said Raj as someone in a white coat came up to him whispered something in his ear then walked away.

  “This! Everything!”

  “Oh you mean the Cascade?”

  Fiona nodded.

  “There are a number of different theories…but our current best guess is it was due to unnatural environmental factors.”

  Abbey went to respond but Fiona spoke first. “He means pollution.”

  “Not necessarily, but perhaps yes.” He was about to continue when a soldier walked up to the group and an alarm started sounding.

  “The camp is being attacked. Dr. Joshi you are needed in the operations room. The rest of you, dispatch is in thirty minutes, you all need to follow me upstairs and change into your new gear.”

  “Okay, I hope to see you all again, perhaps you could capture some specimens at some point,” said Joshi as the group were led away and back up to the briefing room.

  Jacks was still there, but this time his backpack was on.

  “Let’s get acquainted with our supplies and what we are going into, Fiona you got the planning covered?” She nodded and picked up a printout of the route. Jacks walked forward.

  “It’s okay I got the route covered,” said Jacks to Fiona.

  “I’m going to go over it anyway,” replied Fiona.

  After a short amount of time they had changed into their military uniforms, had looked over the maps of the town of Brownstone and were waiting outside the facility. The air-raid siren was sounding across all four quadrants of the camp and military personal were running everywhere. Major McCain stood close to Humvee and a pickup truck both painted in yellow and black.

  “What's the deal with the paint jobs?” shouted Michael.

  “Our enemies are animals not humans. Animals generally know to avoid those colors, it’s clever thinking,” said Abbey.

  McCain waved them all to form a group. “Listen up, we’re currently experiencing a fierce attack on two sides of the camp wall, first time that’s happened. You lot are going to creep out the southern side across the bridge. So far it looks quiet down there. I’ll be expecting you to make it to Brownstone by nightfall. Report in every hour. You got that people?”