by Phil Maxey
Zach’s radio came to life with Fiona’s voice. “Me and Cal were thinking, maybe it’s a good idea to have a few soldiers in the back of the truck, covering our rear, maybe with some heavy guns. Over.” Zach agreed, and the small convoy momentarily stopped to allow two soldiers to run and jump in the back of the truck.
As they continued snow covered hills and trees surrounded them on all sides as the highway weaved its way between them. There was still plenty of daylight but the sun was on the downward path to the horizon. The signs of civilization started to increase as they neared the town of Pensal with electricity pylons leaning at angles and cars off the side of the highway, all covered in a white frosty blanket of snow blunting their sharp edges. As they entered the town splintered trunks where trees should have been lay dotted across fields and gardens. Homes that were two stories were now single or less, with their insides strewn around them, shattered into a mixture of planks, pipes and bricks. Occasionally you would see the dark red splatter of bloodstains on the sidewalk or against a wall, but never would you see bones, or anything resembling a human body. The whole town looked like it had been flattened by something heavy that had been determined to make it just a memory.
“Any sign of anything? Over,” said Zach into his radio, his voice quiet and respectful of the unknown just outside the bus’s windows. Fiona’s voice started to respond when they heard the sound of bricks and mortar falling just ahead of them. A mound of bricks and plaster started to rise up where a house used to be, and something dark shivered in the dust. Rob changed lanes to be as far from the movement as possible.
“Keep on as this road, Rob,” said Zach. “We don’t know what the hell that is yet.” Zach then looked at Raj, sitting just behind with a questioning expression.
“I have no idea what that is,” replied Raj.
As the remains of the house fall back to the ground, a large dark gray form sat quivering.
“Guns at the ready, and get ready to floor it Rob,” said Zach.
The bus passed the creature, with everyone holding their breath. From the distance they were from it, it was hard to see many details, but they could just make out two dark eyes set inside a dark leathery hide. When the bus was a hundred yards away and the thing still hadn’t moved everyone let out a breath.
“Okay everyone let’s keep scanning the landscape around us.”
Towards the center of town, the buildings were even move close to the road and equally more destroyed, most being just a small spread out pile of rubble. It looked like a demolition team had decided the interior of the town needed to be remodeled and everything was wiped from the map before proceeding. The convoy approached a junction, carefully weaving around abandoned cars, then turned north. It wasn’t long before the road widened and they were back on the highway heading out of the town. As the shadows started to lengthen, the forest edge moved closer to the sides of the road. The convoy climbed higher into the hills as the light started to fade as Raj predicted.
Zach clicked on his radio. “Fiona, keep your headlights off for as long as you can.”
Huge evergreens caked in blue-gray snow crowded the road on both sides. The bus fought against the slippery surface, climbing higher and higher until they had to stop. A number of large pine trees lay across the road, their trunks at one end showing claw marks.
“Now what,” said Rob. “They’re too big to push out of the way.”
“Can we go another way?” said Dr. Tanner.
“This is the quickest route, everything else is country lanes, and would take us a lot longer to get out of the forest,” said Zach.
“Yes, but what other…” Before Dr. Tanner could finish, the sound of wood cracking echoed through the forest, and the inhabitants of the bus froze.
“What the fuck was that.” said Jenkins.
Most eyes inside the bus looked out the side windows searching for the source of the sound, then it happened again. A creaking noise far off to the east.
“Fiona, do you see anything on our left side? Over,” said Zach.
“Nothing yet. Over.”
Zach swore under his breath, then quickly moved to the front of the bus and opened the door, leaping out onto the compacted snow. He then ran towards the first fallen tree, and climbed on top of it. Three of the trees lay across the road, but the remaining were more on one side than another, with only small branches crossing into the other lane. “Okay, this might work.” He said to himself, then jumped off the trunk. As he went to run back to the bus, there was a loud cracking sound about a few hundred yards off into the forest, which was increasingly becoming a mass of dark green and brown shapes due to the setting sun. He changed his course and instead ran to the left side of the road, peering over the metal barrier and straining his eyes best he could to see down the steep slope. It was hard to make anything out in the gloom. Turning he ran back to the bus. Raj and Cal were standing outside.
“It’s so quiet, I thought this place would be packed with those things,” said Rob.
“It should be…” Replied Raj.
They both stood in the chilled air looking up at the cathedral of trees around them. There was no wind and no sound.
Zach climbed back onto the bus. “Jack’s you need to lay charges on those tree’s, we need enough explosive power to blow the trees into splinters but not so much that we leave big craters, can you do that?”
“Absolutely, the charges are in the truck,” said Jacks, getting out of his seat and running off the bus.
“Bass, he’s going to need covering fire, watch our left.”
Bass quickly ordered men to move a few yards up the slope on their right, and some more men to go to the barrier, and look down the slope at whatever could be made of those noises. One of the men had a rocket launcher ready to fire. The soldiers near the barrier looked over, their guns pointing downwards. Bass walked up behind them.
“Anyone see anything?”
“No, Sir.” Came all the responses. More creaking came from down in the valley, this time it was accompanied by a distant rustling noise.
“Everyone switch to night scopes.” The soldiers one by one slid a switch over on their guns scopes and looked again, the first soldier’s mouth fell open. “What is it private?”
“There’s thing’s…down there.” The solder lowered the gun from his face, and examined the scope, then put it back to his eye. “They look like, people or something I don’t understand what I’m looking at sir.”
Bass stood at the barrier and looked down into the mass of shadows with his own night scope and instantly saw what made no sense to the soldiers. Humanoid forms lit as bright green in the night scope were at the bottom of the valley, seemingly looking up at them, no details could be seen other than florescent eyes blinking.
“All of you watch those things, if they move let me know but don’t fire until I say so.” Bass then turned and ordered the other soldiers on the right to watch the woods around them.
Jacks ran back to the bus with a backpack, where Zach was now standing with Rob and Raj. “How long do you want for the timer?”
“Sixty seconds should do it,” said Zach.
Jacks then ran up to the first group of trees and positioned one pack of C4 on the middle trunk, and set the timer to sixty seconds. “Everyone pull back! In sixty seconds it will blow.”
Bass took cover with the soldiers, while everyone else got back on the bus. Rob reversed some tens of yards back down the hill and the creaking of trees in the valley stopped like something was waiting.
An explosion ripped through the fallen tree’s sending branches and splinters flying in all directions, some of which were alight. Bass and the soldiers immediately came back out from their positions, some inspecting the remains of the trees and others running to the metal barrier. The bus and truck drove up to the soldiers and Zach got out.
“How’s it looking?” shouted Zach to Bass.
“I think it’s done it, we will…” Before Bass could continue a noise came from their
right where the soldiers were still standing near the forest edge. It wasn’t much of a noise, something part rustling of material and part exhaling of air. Bass walked up to the soldiers.
“Where’s Baker?” The soldiers looked around themselves.
“He was just standing behind me,” said one of the soldiers.
“What is it?” said Zach walking up to Bass, who held his hand up so as to listen into the darkness around him.
“There!” A soldier near the metal barrier shouted as he was looking upwards into the trees. A humanoid shape looking intensely black against the dark blue of the evening sky clung to a trunk of a tree. The sound of crumpling of something containing air happened again and everyone spun back around to face the right, there was one less soldier.
“Everyone back in the bus now!” shouted Bass. “And everyone fire into the tree’s!”
The soldiers started to run back to the bus, while trying to fire at the trees around them. Red streaks extended out into the gloom, sending splinters flying everywhere. Shadows shifted from tree to tree, until one was hit and a screeching noise joined the melee of gunfire. The last soldier made it onto the bus, just as the creatures descended from the trees landing with a thud onto the frosted road.
“What the fuck are they?” said Rob as everyone looked at the impossibly dark creatures surrounding them.
“They don’t seem to reflect any light, they just absorb,” said Raj looking at the closest creature. “That’s why they’re so dark.”
“Like living shadows,” said Abbey.
“Rob, switch your headlights on,” said Zach.
The beam stretched out creating a tunnel of light. Each of the creatures in the path of the light screeched and leaped away into the blackness of the forest.
“Fiona, put your headlights on, full beam, tell the guys in the back to shine as much light out as they can. Over.” Zach then faced everyone in the bus. “I want all lights we have shining out of the bus’s windows.”
Everyone scrambled through backpacks and boxes, pulling out flashlights of various sizes, then holding them up to the windows. In the complete darkness which was now surrounding them, the bus lit up like a Christmas decoration, sending out beams of different sizes into the night. The shadowy creatures screeched and darted left and right to avoid the yellow shards coming from gaps between the buses armor. More and more of the creatures flooded onto the road, from the woods, some making it to the bus. A shearing metallic noise came from near Abbey’s seat causing the metal panel to crumple. She jumped away from it, pushing up against Raj who was sitting next to her.
“We need to move, now!” shouted Fiona into the radio, while she waved a flashlight towards the window and Cal did the same on his side. A loud thump came from behind them. “Cal, check on them back there.”
Cal looked out the rear cabin windows into where the two soldiers were, “They’re gone.” He then shone his light through the small glass pane, and a shadow immediately screamed and dived from the back of the truck.
Rob revved up the engine and pressed down on the accelerator, at first the wheels spun freely, the bus not moving but slowly they gained traction and the bus jerked forward. Like fluttering moths the creatures tried to get in front of the bus but quickly leaped away when the beam hit them.
The bus and truck weaved left and right to avoid fallen trees, sometimes driving over branches making everyone jump in their seats.
“On the roof!” said Fiona looking at two shadows clinging to the roof of the bus. “Zach, there’s two on your roof. Over.”
Zach moved unsteadily to the middle of the aisle, handgun in one hand, radio in the other. “Whereabouts, we can’t hear them up there. Over.”
“They’re on the left side, about halfway down!” Fiona then turned to Cal. “Cal, can you get some light on them?” Just as Cal went to lift his light one of the creatures on the bus turned towards them, then ran and sprang from the bus’s roof, landing with a heavy clump on the hood of the truck.
“Get that thing off us I can’t see the road!” shouted Fiona, trying to remember which direction she last saw the bus drive.
Cal thrust his light towards the windshield, the beam catching the creature full in its eyes, causing it to fall off the side of the hood. Looking at the bus the other creature that was on top of it had gone as well.
“Fiona? Come in. Over.” shouted Zach into his radio.
“They’ve gone, can’t see any up there. Over.”
Zach sat on the nearest empty seat and took in a deep breath, “How’s things looking ahead?” He shouted towards the front of the bus.
“They seem to be falling away, looks pretty clear ahead.” shouted Bass, who was alongside Rob.
Zach’s radio came alive again with Fiona’s voice. “Zach, the two soldiers who were in the back, they are not there anymore. Over.”
Everyone on the bus heard Fiona’s words as the bus and truck plunged deeper into the snow-covered roads of the national forest.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
“This is Captain Felton, from camp Bravo. Calling out to the Portland camp, come in. Over.” Zach sat next to Abbey waiting for a response. “Still nothing.”
“The mountains are probably blocking the signal.”
“Can you keep trying them on your radio, every twenty minutes should do it.” Abbey nodded and Zach got up, joining Rob and Bass at the front. “How’s it looking out there?”
“Haven’t seen anymore of those things, man they were creepy,” said Rob.
“How long until we are out of the national forest?” said Zach.
“Maybe another hour, and then another hour to get onto the main highway north to the camp. Once we are on that maybe thirty minutes to the camp,” replied Bass.
Zach removed his helmet, slid his hand through his hair then put it back on. “Keep watching out, and drive steady, not too fast, we can’t afford to slide off the road.”
The beams of the vehicles waved and juddered through the mountain roads, shining light onto a world previously untouched since the Cascade began.
“Sometimes I see them,” said Rob, keeping his voice low, to Bass.
“See what?”
“At the side of the road, things.”
“As before?”
“No, all kinds of eyes, large, small, multiple, the headlights catch them, and then they are gone, so far they seem to be scared of us.”
“Let’s hope that continues.”
Towards the back of the bus, Raj and Dr. Tanner sat silent.
“Did you put those things in your notebook?” said Dr. Tanner.
“What?” Replied Raj seemingly coming out of a dream.
“Those dark E.L.F’s, did you note them down in your notebook?”
“Oh, umm yes, briefly, I didn’t really get a good look at them.”
“Have you heard previous reports of them?”
“No, nobody who lived near here, or who came through here has…well, no that’s the first time they have been recorded.”
“It’s good that you are recording everything, someone needs to.”
Raj gave a brief smile. “Were you ordered to come on this journey?”
“No, I volunteered.”
Raj raised his eyebrows.
“No, it’s not about being brave, my sister is in Portland.”
“I would say that’s still brave,” Raj smiled. “What’s her name?”
“Mary, she used to be an attorney before all of this started, now she works for the Portland authority, looking after orphans.”
“She sounds like a good person.”
Dr. Tanner smiled. “She is.”
The bus jumped up and down slightly, making everyone do the same. A number of soldiers tightened their grips on their guns. After a few seconds it happened again.
Zach leaned forward and shouted down the aisle towards the front. “What’s causing the bumping?”
“Not sure, but something don’t feel right, we might have a flat.”
“Can we keep going with it?” said Bass, next to Rob.
“We can, but I’ll have to slow right down, and if we hit any rough roads, we might damage the wheel. With a few extra hands, I can change the tire, will take about thirty minutes.”
Zach got up and kneeled near Bass “Are there any stops on this road that we can use as shelter? Houses, motels anything?”
Bass, got out the map of the area, and examined the route ahead. “Looks like there might be a lodge about ten klicks along this road, it’s just before a bridge.”
“Can we make it there?” said Zach to Rob.
“Look’s like we’re going to have too,” said Rob, slowing slightly making the bumpiness less.
After a few minutes the lodge appeared in the distant glow of the headlights. The two story classic looking lodge with two wrap round decks, one upper and one lower looked in good condition considering where it was. Snow smothered it, laying a few feet thick and icicles hung from its window frames like gaping teeth. Rob pulled the bus up in front of the entrance, with Fiona pulling in close behind.
“The lodge will be a good defensive position, if we get attacked,” said Zach to Bass, who agreed and stood up facing everyone on the bus.
“I need three on that upper deck of the lodge, two behind the truck, two in front of the bus, and Jenkins help Rob get that tire changed. Everyone else stay on the bus. Let’s move out people.” Bass opened the door and jumped down, the other soldiers filed out. Tyler went to follow but Rob waved him back.
“Cal, can you cover the bus. Over,” said Zach stepping off the bus.
Bass disappeared into the lodge, while Rob pulled out a large jack from the storage compartment, followed by a wrench.
“First thing we need to do is find the flat,” said Rob to Jenkins, inspecting the tires with his torch.
Jacks jumped off the bus, walking past Zach. “I’m joining the others in the lodge.” Zach nodded. Abbey, Michael and Raj then appeared from the bus.
“It’s probably best you all stay on the bus.” said Zach.
“I need to stretch my legs,” said Michael ignoring Zach’s request. “Damn, it’s quiet out there.” They all stood and looked into the pitch black of the void around the lodge, expecting the sound of creatures, but none came back to them.
