by Phil Maxey
The psychologists couldn’t get anything out of him, and with all the evidence that pointed at him, that’s the direction the prosecution went in. He didn’t care what happened to him and it was only after two years that he started to think about the serial killer case he was working on at the time of his family’s murder. Over the years following he went over every piece of the case that he was building against a high-ranking officer before his family were murdered. The conclusion he came to was that his suspect had framed him. The net was tightening around them and he felt he was just one piece of evidence away from trapping the individual that had been killing local girls. Eventually after four years he gave up thinking about it completely, knowing that whoever it was he was never going to be the one that caught them. Today lying next to Abbey, those thoughts started to flood back in, but he pushed them away feeling it was unfair on Abbey to let them affect his life now.
Fiona lay, wrapped up, in the comfy bed looking at the room around her. It was a female student’s room, probably someone not that much older than her daughter. There’s that word again she thought, “daughter.” Emotion suddenly overwhelmed her and she wanted to be with her, not here. It was Christmas soon and she started to regret leaving. Turning over in the bed she took in a sharp breath because of the pain in her calf. A small bedside table covered in worn stickers, with a single top drawer sat next to the bed. In the flickering light of the candle, she reached over and pulled the top drawer open. Inside was a calculator, a pocket mirror and a small purple plastic notebook, with the title “My journal” on the front. She took out the pocket mirror and journal, placing both on top of the table next to the candle. She then went to open the journal, maybe reading about the life of a young girl at college would give her some insight into the mind of her own daughter? But before opening it she stopped and put it back down. If it had been her own daughter who had written about her days in this university, she wouldn’t of wanted a stranger reading it. This girl’s innermost thoughts will stay forever secret. Instead she picked up the pocket mirror and opened it. Wow I look rough She thought and gave out a brief laugh. She examined the lines and wrinkles that now resided on her face. They weren’t allowed mirrors in their cells and that was fine by her as she wouldn’t of wanted to see herself anyway. This was the first time in years she had seen her reflection and the woman looking back at her was a ten year older version of the one she remembered.
CHAPTER FOUR
“Zach, wake up.” Zach’s eyes felt heavy and resisted opening. “Wake up, there’s a light.”
Zach opened his eyes into darkness and blinked a few times. He could vaguely make out a form to the side of the bed, which he presumed was Abbey.
“Abbey? What time is it?” The form moved to the window and the distant glow of either the moon or stars just gave him enough light to recognize her standing next to the window and waving him to get up.
“I don’t know, 4 am maybe. But there’s a light off in the distance to the north.”
Zach sat up in the bed, his arm resting on the spot where Abbey was sleeping, that was now cold. “How long you been up?” He said, his mind still not fully awake. Abbey came over to him and pulled him up by his arm, almost dragging him over to the window, she then handed him his rifle.
“Look, just off the horizon, north north-east.”
Zach lifted the rifle slowly up to his eye line and slid the view across the horizon, until he saw it. A tiny speck of light, glistening behind the drops of water on the window glass. Zach took the scope away, rubbed his eyes, then looked again, it was still there. “Go wake the others, we move out in twenty.”
After informing Ops, they all gathered in the hallway outside their rooms to check their supplies and ammo. Cal had also taken a look at the light and told them that it seems to be on top of some kind of tower, probably a few klicks from where they were. They quickly moved the sofa and descended the stairs into the gloom, the sound of their boots echoing around the halls until they made it back onto the carpet of the communal room. Zach moved along the corridor to the outside door and looked through the glass.
“Looks clear outside. Everyone’s flashlights off, just follow mine till you get to your vehicles.” And with that Zach moved quickly to the truck, making sure to keep his beam pointing at the ground. He waited until the others were in their vehicles then started the truck’s engine, leaving the parking lot at a good pace and rejoining the road. They retraced their steps from the afternoon before passing the fire station and storage units, and were soon moving along the ever-widening road towards the light. “Cal, can you make out anything. Over.”
“It’s some kind of fire on top of a brick tower. Over.”
“Hey did you see that?” said Michael.
“See what?” said Fiona who was driving.
“As we came around the last bend, there were eyes glistening in the headlights, seemed to be around some cars back there.”
“Just make sure nothing is following us,” said Fiona, who then got on the radio and told the others what Michael had seen.
Soon they were approaching the tower, which stood proud as a large dark form against the cloudy gray of the night sky. The fire on top of it seemingly dying, but its embers still floating upwards. Pulling down a small dirt road they arrived at the base of the tower, their headlights illuminating its red brickwork and a small wooden door with something attached to it.
“Keep the engines running, Cal and I will investigate, Jacks, keep the Humvees gun ready to go if we get company. Over,” said Zach. Affirmatives came back and Zach jumped down from the truck and joined Cal as they walked forward towards the door. Cal scoured the area around them with his gun’s night scope as they walked up to the door. Nailed to it was a piece of a wood with words written in marker pen. “Food and shelter at the Frederick’s Church three-hundred yards up the main road.” With an arrow pointing to the northwest.
“I think we might have found our survivors,” said Zach. They both returned to their vehicles. “There’s a church northwest of here on the main road we were just on, we’re going to check it out, keep eyes out for creatures. Over.”
The convoy turned around and returned to the main road. As they continued it became a slight incline and their destination became obvious. Ahead of them, off to the right a wall of compacted and twisted metal rose up twenty or so feet.
“Are those cars?” said Abbey.
The truck pulled up alongside what seemed to be large makeshift gates. Just as Zach started to get out, beams of light illuminated the convoy.
Zach told everyone to stay in their vehicles, slung his gun over his back then slowly walked around the front of the truck and stood ten-feet from the gates. He tried looking up at the source of the light but they were too blinding.
“We are from the camp near Austin, we are here to help,” shouted Zach towards the gates. Some hushed voices could be heard on the other side and then one of the gates started to open, dragging across the damp dirt. A man in his thirties with short dark hair, covered in a rain mac appeared from the small gap holding a hunting rifle.
“What’s your name?” The man said with an English accent.
“Name’s Zach. I’m a Captain out of Camp Bravo, near Austin. They picked up some radio signals from Brownstone and we’re here to take survivors back to the camp.”
“My name’s Alex. Alex Watson” He then walked forward and held out his hand, which Zach shook. “We didn’t think our home made radio getup was working, we never heard anything back.”
“It was enough,” said Zach smiling. “Probably best if we come inside, we’re bit exposed out here, and we might of seen some E.L.F’s a few klicks back.”
“Of course.” Alex then waved his hand above his shoulder and the rust plated gates started opening.
Zach jumped back in the truck. “We’re going inside. Over.”
The small convoy drove through the gates and stopped a short distance inside, the Humvee and the pickup pulling up alon
gside the truck. In front of them was a large single story church with boarded up windows and side buildings on both sides. Alex waved the group from the convoy inside past the open doors. They entered a medium-sized room lit by lanterns. With Alex was a tall heavy built man with a straggly graying beard and cap, wearing jeans and a grease stained jacket.
“This is Rob Harris, he’s responsible for the wall out there,” said Alex.
“Nice work,” said Zach holding out his hand. Rob just stared back at him and then looked over the group.
“If you have come from Austin you must all be hungry, we have some food in the main hall,” said Alex opening a set of doors into the church. There were a few pews at the front but mostly it was full of boxes, wooden and cardboard, filled with supplies. The candles at the front provided light as they passed down the central aisle and through a side door eventually coming out into a large room full of chairs and tables. A slim middle-aged woman with graying blonde hair was standing near one of the tables. “This is Aileen, she keeps us all fed.”
“Excuse my appearance, I was sleeping just twenty minutes ago!” Aileen said in a strong Texan accent. “We got some coffee and I think we got some stew left over from last night if you’ll want some.” Most of the group accepted the invitation and sat down, taking their backpacks off and resting their guns on the floor. Zach still stood.
“Could we talk somewhere?” said Zach to Alex.
“Sure, I have a small office back here.” Zach followed Alex into the office and Alex closed the door. The room looked smaller than it actually was due to the maps and books fighting for space on shelves and on the floor. An equally paper covered desk was alongside one wall, with a single bed on the opposite side. A large candle burned on the desk.
“So you got our messages? Please take a seat,” said Alex pointing at a well-worn armchair in one of the corners, as he sat near his desk.
“Austin did yeah, we got into Brownstone yesterday but didn’t have much time to search the town, so we holed up in the University. Good thinking lighting that fire on top of the water tower.”
Alex pulled off his rain mac, revealing a black and white collar. “Good to know it worked. I guess I should have given my full title, it’s Father Alex Watson.”
“How did a Brit priest end up in Texas?”
“It’s a bit of a long story, the short version is I was here with my wife at the behest of previous priest of this church, Father Garcia. When the animals changed, I couldn’t get back to England, so we made the best of it here.”
“How many people do you have here?”
“Not including myself, and Rob’s family, forty seven, of all ages.”
Zach sat back in his chair. “That’s a lot of people to keep alive.”
“It is, but we started with one hundred and ninety-two…” His voice trailed off and Zach could see his gaze was towards a small-framed picture of a woman on his desk.
“What’s been the situation with the E.L.F’s?” said Zach.
“Three to four months back the attacks were daily, luckily most attacked from the ground, we only had one attack from the air, although that took its toil. Recently the attacks have been much less, until a week ago when these new creatures that look like giant cheetahs but with the heads of a tiger started attacking. Some made it over the wall and we lost three more. We knew we wouldn’t last here, so we increased our efforts to make contact with the outside world and it seems our prayers have been answered.” That last part sounded sarcastic Zach thought.
“You got transport? We won’t be able to take all of you in ours,” said Zach.
“That’s not a problem, we have some working vehicles on the compound, and if we need more Rob and his brother can get some of the other ones going, actually we have an old school bus, which we could use to ferry the old and the children. The camp near Austin, what’s it like?”
“It’s pretty much what you would expect from a city that’s sprung up over six short months containing over ten million people.”
“We heard about the camps of course, but the military never made it out to us, and with the old people we have, traveling unescorted was never an option.”
“You said you had a wife?”
“Jessica, yes we were married for five years…” Zach went to say something, but Alex responded before he could. “We have one child, Emily, we lost touch with her after she was evacuated to the camp in southern England. If she’s still alive, she will be ten years old.”
“Why do you say if?”
“The nuclear bombs that were dropped in the US were not the only ones, one was dropped on the southern English Camp as well, and some in other spots across the globe. There was talk that some people made it out before it happened, but…well I hope she’s safe if she’s still out there. Maybe in your camp I can make contact with the other camps in mainland Europe.” Alex took a deep sigh before continuing. “But Zach, what’s your story, how did you end up in your camp?”
Zach hesitated, unsure how to answer. “That’s actually a complicated story, which is maybe for another time, but when we get back to Bravo I’ll put in a word with the commanding officer there to see if you can get in touch with the European camps.”
Alex smiled. “That would be… well thank you.”
“It’s not going to be an easy journey from here back to the camp, we know there are some of those E.L.F’s in brownstone, some of my group ran into them yesterday, and we think we might have seen some on the way up here.”
“We also have to keep an eye out for the Hellfire gang.” Alex could see Zach looked confused so continued. “They’re a motorcycle gang, came through here few days back, tried to extort food from us, we gave them some then sent them on their way.”
“I’m surprised they are surviving out here.”
“They were packing some heavy armaments from what I could see, some looked military. They are led by a man who calls himself “Geneva”. Strange name, but that’s what he wanted to be called.”
“Geneva? Right well, we will deal with them if his gang makes an appearance. How soon can your people be ready to travel?”
“To pack everything up, get the vehicles ready, I would say a day maybe, we should be ready to go the day after tomorrow.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Zach stood. “What’s the deal with that Rob guy, he didn’t seem too pleased we were here?”
“He had a sister that was taken by one of the flying creatures that attacked us in the early days, he blames the military for not being here to protect us.”
“I see. Well I better check in with Op’s.”
“I’m afraid that’s probably not going to be possible, we are in a radio dead zone. We were lucky you picked up our previous attempts.”
“Okay, food?”
“That I can do,” said Alex smiling and standing.
Michael tucked into the stew with enthusiasm. “Aileen, good stew! I want the recipe!” shouted Michael towards the slightly embarrassed looking Aileen sitting away from the group. Abbey and Fiona sat next to him while Jacob, Jacks and Cal sat opposite. “When all this is done, I’m going to open a restaurant at the camp.”
“I could do with a good Chinese takeaway,” said Jacks.
“Nah brother, not just Chinese, just good food in general, Chinese, American, French.”
“I’ll eat there,” said Abbey smiling. “What about you Jacob, you got any plans as to what to do after? Didn’t the general talk to you about resuming your police role?”
Jacob stared back at Abbey at first without talking. “Yes, maybe, but I think more of a backroom position, getting a bit long in the tooth for anything else.” Abbey nodded while sipping on the meaty broth.
“So what part of South Africa you from?” said Fiona to Jacks.
“Ah, so you don’t think I’m an Australian then? I get a lot of that in the camp. My family hails from Alberton in Gauteng province. Where you from?”
“Just a small town in the mid-west.”
<
br /> Alex and Zach appeared from the office.
“There’s a bowl for you too…” Aileen paused not knowing Zach’s name.
“I’m Zach and thanks.” Zach sat down on the end of the bench and started eating.
CHAPTER FIVE
After getting some sleep on a makeshift bed in a side room from the church, Zach and the others woke to the sound of people having breakfast in the main hall. He looked at the time on his radio and it was 7:20 am. The room they were in doubled as storage space and had shelves containing rows of cans of beans and fish. Michael was busy putting one of the cans in his backpack when he realized Zach was looking at him.
“For the road,” said Michael guiltily. Zach raised his hand to say something when his thoughts were broken by the sound of a bell ringing outside. The door to their small space burst open, and a young boy stood looking out of breath.
“Father Alex wants you. There’s creature’s moving this way.”
“Tell him I’ll be right there,” Zach was already half clothed. Standing he quickly put the rest on. “Cal, Michael scout the perimeter, I want to know what’s coming this way and how many. Abbey, Jacob get a fix on the people in the compound, I want to know their readiness to move out. Fiona and Jacks you’re with me.” Zach opened the door and walked along the small passage linking to the main hall, suddenly powerful arms slammed into him, knocking him against the sidewall. Rob then grabbed him by the jacket.
“You brought them here! They are all around us! We’re all gonna die because of you people!”
A few feet behind Cal appeared, and instantly raised his gun towards Rob. Zach put his hand up towards Cal, who slowly lowered the rifle. “These are new creatures, they were probably heading this way anyway drawn by whatever draws them to people, we are here to help you survive!” Robs shaking hands seemed to reverberate though his whole body and his eyes stayed locked onto Zach. “We can fight about this, or you can let me do my job and save the people in this compound, your call.”
