by Phil Maxey
Zach felt the blood draining from his legs. No. He can’t know.
“You see, I know, that you know that Jacks is one of mine. That you were feeding him information, to get me here, at this time and place. To kill me. You’re probably wondering how I know. Well Jacks is very good at what he does, oh he’s not an explosives expert, he was actually in the south African secret service, and that little heart to heart you had with your girly back in the museum, he heard all of it. But anyway, where was I, oh right, how many.”
Tinley rubbed his chin. “Oh far more than the authorities ever knew about. The ones they found? I left them there, like calling cards. I mean, what’s the point of being a serial killer if the newsboys don’t know about you? Anyway, soon you’ll be able to be with your sweet wife and children again, that’s my gift to you. You should be thanking me,” Tinley got to his feet. “Sitting or standing what would you prefer?”
Zach took a long deep breath and got to his feet. He moved to his left and stood directly in front of the killer of his family.
“Well you were right about two things. We did know Jacks was one of yours, and that we did want to get you here.” Zach then smiled. “Brad, I really hope you got all that.”
Tinley looked confused, which quickly changed to a smile, and then a chuckle. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a radio. “Ha, you think this is all being recorded on one of these? Feel your pocket, you’ll find it’s empty, like I say, Jacks knows his stuff. Now where were we?”
But Zach continued smiling, and then a fraction of a second later charged forward, and Tinley shot.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Bright white light flooded into Zach’s vision, followed by five vaguely human forms.
The words “Where am I?” scratched for life from his throat.
Abbey ran forward and put a glass of water to his lips. “Easy.”
“Where?”
“You’re at Brad’s.”
He arms pushed at the bed, trying to sit up. “Tinley?”
“He’s in custody.”
“How? We fought, he shot. I don’t remember much after that.”
“You didn’t think we were going to let you go alone, did you?” said Fiona, stepping forward from the blurs at the back of the room. “Abbey told us the plan after you left, we followed shortly after.”
Zach’s eyes grew wide. “He’s in custody? Brad’s mike system picked up what he said?”
“Loud and clear.” Zach recognized Brad’s voice. Brad got up and walked over to Zach’s bed. “Now you’re awake we can all breathe a sigh of relief. I’ve got some soup on the stove downstairs, wife’s recipe, but don’t’ let that put you off.” A ripple of laugher went around the room. “We’ll talk again later. Now I believe a certain General wants to talk to you.” Brad opened the door, and in walked the confident figure of General Trow.
Abbey leaned in and gently hugged Zach, who winced. “You did it,” she said with tears in her eyes, and then left the room with the others, only leaving Zach and the General.
Pulling up a chair she sat next to Zach’s bed. She had a printed piece of paper in her hand. “This is a signed pardon, from myself and the members of the council. I know we said you would get full pardons when you rejoined the service, but I thought an extra something was needed in your case,” she smiled and put it on an old looking wooden nightstand.
Her smile quickly fell away and was replaced with a look of despair. “If only I had known, maybe all those lives would have been saved.”
Zach reached out and put his hand on her arm. “You weren’t to know he was a monster.”
“So many swore that he was the reason the Portland camp survived as long as it did. When he pushed to be in charge of the convoy, I went with it.”
“How many made it here?”
“Around eleven thousand, they lost seven thousand getting here, and that’s on me. I would have sent out another rescue mission to try to help, but he kept the numbers from me. We only gleaned the true scale of the horror after he and a number of his followers were relieved of command.”
“What will happen to him now?”
“If I have anything to do with it, he will be executed for genocide, but it’s up to the council, they decide on matters such as this.”
“Isn’t it a military matter?”
“I’ve been told that he has to be tried for the murders of the girls first.”
Even though the idea of a short trial followed by execution appealed to Zach, justice for the girls and his family felt like the kind of closure he never thought he would receive. He then thought about Raj.
“Raj, is he okay?”
“He’s a bit banged up. Evidently, he tried getting a message to us about what Tinley was up to, but they got to him and stopped him. He’s recovering in a mobile hospital we have setup nearby.”
“Have you been told about the outpost at Rockwall?”
“We have. Tragedy brought about by more human monsters. We can’t send anyone out after them right now, but we won’t forget. We have sent out warnings to the other outposts.”
“Any E.L.F’s? We were attacked last time we were here.”
“We have fended off some attack’s, nothing major so far,” she then took a breath. “There’s another matter I need to talk to you about?”
“How has Cal been?”
Her question took him by surprise. “He’s fine, why?”
“There’s something I need to tell you.”
“Okay.”
“When we took your blood when you first arrived at the camp, searching for blood relatives was not the only reason we did that.”
“Okay…”
“Dr. Joshi, had put forward a theory for a possible further complication due to the Cascade, and that’s if humans have been effected by it.”
“Humans? I thought only animals mutated?”
“Yes, whatever the cause of the Cascade it did seem that only animals were changed, but we now think that’s not the case.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s taken a while, and we needed to get samples from a number of E.L.F’s, but it does seem that DNA in a tiny minority of humans has been effected.”
“But… people haven’t changed, only animals did.”
“The change in DNA doesn’t seem to affect humans physically, only mentally, there seems to be extra growth in the neo-cortex of people who have been effected.”
“Okay and what does that mean?”
“Honestly, we have no idea. Now we have Dr. Joshi back we can start to get some answers to that, but the reason I’m contacting you is because, we found the extra DNA in Cal’s blood sample.”
The past few days flashed through Zach’s mind in such a fury that he had to put his hand under the sheet to hide his reaction.
“Are you saying he’s a danger to those around him?”
“You have been with him, and you just told me he has been okay, so for now I would say not.”
“Okay,” the word crawled out of his mouth, as noise came from the landing outside his bedroom door.”
“Zach, there’s one other thing.”
“Yes?”
“Cal’s blood wasn’t the only one with the extra DNA.”
The End.
BOOK FOUR
CHAPTER ONE
“I see him.” Cal kneeled, silently tracking his target with his night-scope across the sandy forecourt, his breath rising as mist into the night. “He’s gone inside. Over.”
They always run. Zach crouched down behind the remains of a burned out truck. “We saw him. Keep a lookout for any unwelcome guests. Over,” Zach clenched his fist but left a finger pointing, and Bass ran off to the far right of the old brick built building, common to this frontier town near the Mexican border. “He should be close to you Fiona, Over.”
A click came from Zach’s radio, indicating that Fiona heard the message but couldn’t speak. “Abbey, how’s things looking on the infrared? Over.
”
Abbey adjusted her position against a small crumbling wall, and looked again through her infrared scope. “Just seeing two heat signatures, apart from our target I presume the other is Fiona, she’s a few rooms away from him. He seems to have stopped moving, he’s kneeling. Over.”
Zach moved out from behind the vehicle and crept forward, keeping low, he then clicked on his radio. “Michael you ready with the Humvee, if things go south. Over.”
“Yup, Over.”
Zach waved towards Bass, and they both moved either side of the rotten wooden door, which clattered slightly in the wind against its paint chipped frame.
Abbey looked on from a hundred yards away, Zach’s and Bass’s light signatures fused due to being so close, but she could still see the glow from the man they had been tracking during the day. Sweeping her scope across the landscape she looked for any other bright areas, indicating anything alive nearby, but all appeared dark in the small forgotten town. As she then swept back towards Zach and Bass, two shots rang out from inside the building and the two men quickly moved inside.
“I ain’t being taken to the capital! You’re going to have to shoot me!” a gruff voice of a middle-aged man, echoed around the paint confused interior walls of the single story former office building.
Zach crouched down against a broken desk. “We know you are part of the Hell Fire gang, we just want to talk, whether you get hurt while we do that, is up to you!”
Another shot rang out, this time splintering a doorframe a few feet from Zach and Bass, causing them to cover their faces.
“I don’t know anything about no gang, I’m Nathan, Nathan Miller, I’m just traveling through on my way south, I got no business with you, and you got none with me, just leave me be!”
Zach looked around the shadow infested room, with his small flashlight. Computer monitors lay dormant, together with chairs waiting for workers that would never return. There were two other windows, but no other doors, the splintered frame was the only other way further into the building. He looked back to the way they came in, when the click he had heard a few moments before, happened again. He glanced at Bass.
“Nathan, nobody needs to get hurt, we are not here to take you anywhere, we just need to have a friendly chat.”
“You don’t look friendly, with your automatics, and body armor, more like a hit squad! Back out of here slowly and I won’t…”
The shouting man let out a grunt, then something collapsed onto a wooden floor.
“He’s out cold,” shouted Fiona from the same direction.
Zach and Bass stood up, and walked through the hallway to another room a few yards further on. Fiona was standing over a bearded dishevelled figure unconscious on the floor.
Bass leaned down to look at him closer. “You sure he’s just sleeping?”
“Quite sure, I know how to do a stranglehold,” said Fiona smiling.
Zach clicked on his radio. “We got him, bringing him out now, how’s everything looking? Over.”
Cal replied saying how it all looked quiet around the building from his position on the water tower, while Abbey took her scope away from her eyes, taking the chance to rub them. She then placed it back to her face, and swept once again left and right, but this time she hesitated while looking towards the south of the town.
“Zach, we got a problem, multiple heat signatures approaching from the south. Over.”
“Human or not? Over,” replied Zach.
“Too hard to tell from this distance… no… wait… they’re not human. Over.”
Zach grabbed the forlorn figure on the floor and threw him over his shoulder, wincing while he did.
Bass reached out. “I can take him.”
“No, I got him, let’s move out. Fiona, keep a watch on our six.” He then clicked the radio back on. “Micheal bring the Humvee to the front, there’s E.L.F’s approaching from the south. And Abbey get yourself over here. Over.”
As they scrambled over the grime laden floor, through the doors and out into the chilling night air, Cal had one last look from his elevated position towards the south. In the intense desert blackness, only small puffs of gray could be seen about a few miles from their position. He then stood and walked towards the metal ladder, when something slammed into the base of the tower, knocking him over the rail, which he just about managed to hold onto with one hand. His rifle spiraled downwards, clanging against the side of the tower, until it hit something near the ground with a thud.
Grabbing the rail with both hands, he pulled himself onto the metal grating, first with one knee, then rolling against the back wall. Taking a breath he stood up and looked down. Without his night scope it was hard to tell what was below him, but he could hear the sound of sliding, and branches cracking together with rocks tumbling along the ground. He clicked on his radio. “Zach, there’s something large coming your way, can’t see what it is, but it almost knocked me clean off the tower, I’m coming towards you now. Over.”
Abbey ran across the street, skipping over mounds of rubble, while putting the scope to her eye every now and again to see if the heat signatures were getting closer. They were. Even though she could see the Humvee ahead of her, she clicked on the radio anyway. “I think the…” her hand dropped to her side as she stood mouth agape at what was rising up caught in the Humvee’s headlight beams. “Sna… snake…” She realized nobody could hear her, so clicked on her radio. “There’s a giant snake thing fifty yards in front of the Humvee, it’s raised up, maybe standing two story’s high. Over.”
Zach, Bass and Fiona approached the rear of the Humvee, they could clearly see the large creature swaying back and forth in front of the vehicle. Zach lowered his human cargo to the floor. “Michael, how you holding up in there?”
There was a pause, then Zach’s radio came to life. “Oh, I’m just great, got a real good view of this thirty foot high snake that looks like he wants to eat the Humvee… Over.”
“Bass, take up a position across the street, if that thing moves within twenty yards of us, start shooting with all you got. If it doesn’t go down, we’ll have to take shelter in one of these buildings.” Zach then clicked on his radio. “Abbey you close?” there was a noise behind them, and she appeared running out from an alleyway and crouching down with them. Zach sighed in relief. “How far out are the other things?”
“Maybe a minute, maybe more.”
“Michael, slowly reverse up to us. Over.”
The Humvee’s engine picked up slightly, and the heavy vehicle started rolling slowly backwards in the small groups direction. The large snake like creature, which looked like a dragon but without wings slithered forward, keeping its head raised above the ground.
Michael kept creeping the Humvee backwards, but the creature in front was closing the gap slowly. A forked tongue a few feet long, flashed out of it’s mouth and back in. Now the creature was only forty yards away from them. Each time it slid forward the ground shook.
“Cal, this is not working, if that thing decides to attack we got a problem, can you distract it away? Over.”
Fiona lurched forward, grabbing Zach’s arm. “He’s not tried it on anything that big before, He’s going to get himself killed!”
Before Zach could reply, Cal’s voice came from Zach’s radio. “Fiona, I got this, get everyone in the Humvee.”
Cal watched momentarily with his scope as Fiona protested once again and then helped Zach with the man they had been tracking. He slung his rifle over his back and slowly walked towards the back of the E.L.F.
From the moment in the truck-stop diner he knew the animals of the world weren’t the only creatures to have been affected by the Cascade. When Zach informed him of the blood test, it just confirmed what he already knew. But it wasn’t until they ran into a beast which managed to get over the wall at the camp, that they all realized that the affect the Cascade had on Cal could be put to good use.
“Hey! Over here you big lizard! This way!” Cal stood twenty feet be
hind the creatures flailing tail which was jumping and waving. It still faced towards the Humvee, its head darting left and right as if it was ready to lurch forward.
Cal steadied himself and took a deep breath. The bitter cold stung his cheeks as he cleared his mind and the outside world fell away. This would be the third time he would try this, and he was now learning how he had to attune his thoughts to be able to link somehow with the E.L.F’s. He took a few steps forward and closed his eyes. He then relaxed and a strange tingling sensation started to rise up from his feet, over his legs, and finally stopping in his eyes. The large creature in front, stopped swaying. And slowly swung its large upper body and head around to face him. He kept his eyes closed. He could feel the creature looking at him, but he had no idea how far away it was, only that it was closer than before. In his mind, he could feel the presence just in front of him, and he opened his eyes. The creature’s head was ten feet from his. Its tongue flicked out and struck him on the side of the face, almost knocking him out of the state of mind he was doing his damnedest to stay in. It was hard to see much detail on the creatures scaly head, as it was turned towards him and the Humvee’s lights were lighting the back of it, but he was sure its eyes was examining him.
He then heard the Humvee's engine get louder, and saw it pull up out of the corner of his eye. Stepping to his side, but keeping his eyes on the creature, he reached out and felt the cold steel of the door, he then quickly jumped in.
“Go!” shouted Zach.
CHAPTER TWO
Zach stretched out in the bed, being careful not to wake Abbey who laid peacefully next to him. They had returned to the camp by daybreak, deposited their prisoner, and then returned to the large double story house that they had been awarded by the council for capturing Tinley.
A Month had passed since Tinley’s madness was brought to an end, and his trial started in two days.
The daylight fought for any gap to seep through and thin shafts of light divided up the main bedroom. Zach was hesitant to accept the gift, thinking it could be put to better use for a family with kids, but once he saw the look on Abbey’s face he knew this was going to be where he would be living. He sat up, and rubbed his arms around himself. It may have been a modern building, but the winter winds from Buchanan lake invaded the air around him. Getting up he grabbed his pants, socks and a shirt and left the room, then descended the stairs into a sparsely furnished hallway. Sitting on the bottom step he pulled his socks on and got dressed, then went into the living room. He stood and looked around at the space which was twice the size of the cell he spent all those years in and sighed. He had lived here almost four weeks with the woman he loved, but he still felt incomplete.
