Cascade Collection

by Phil Maxey

  Trow went to respond when the door opened again, and a soldier entered. “General Trow, councilor Sawyer is asking for you in central op’s.”

  Trow sighed. “I need to take care of some things, Sergeant Bass and General Garland will be in here to help plan things soon. I’ll get you those photos.”

  As soon as the General left, Fiona hugged Zach who was still sitting. He winced a little. “Oh, sorry, the shoulder still hurts?”

  “A little.”

  “We’ll get her back Zach, and this time, how about we finish that S.O.B off once and for all?”

  “That’s the plan.”

  Again the door opened, Bass and Garland both came in.

  Garland moved closer to Zach. “We’ll get her back Zach, you have my word.”

  Zach took a quick glance at her as a thank you, then focused on the map. “Let’s get to work.”

  *****

  Nathan Miller played with the frayed part of his worn denim jacket trying to ignore the hunger pains in his stomach. He was used to going without eating for long stretches, but by his counts this was nearing twenty hours without a bite and he needed his grub. Didn’t matter what it was, some roots, some seeds, a three years out of date can of prunes, he wasn’t fussy. Dreams of roast beef drifted through his mind, and he swallowed, closing his eyes to picture the feast more clearly. He never heard his cell door open nor the swish through the air of Zach’s fist slamming into the side of his head, knocking his momentarily unconscious.

  Zach lifted him up, and against the damp wall of hewn rock. “Wake up Nathan, time for me and you to talk some more.”

  Nathan eyes fluttered open. “Wha… why did you hit me?”

  Still holding him with one hand, Zach pulled his Glock handgun from its holster and held it near his head. “Nathan! Do you see I’m holding a gun?”

  “Yes, yes! Don’t shoot!”

  “Don’t worry Nathan I’m not going to shoot you in your head.” Nathan calmed slightly. Zach then moved the gun lower and placed it against Nathan’s thigh. “I’m going to shoot you in your leg, Nathan.”

  The middle-aged man tried to struggle free, but Zach’s grip was vice like.

  Nathan looked beyond Zach to the still open cell door. “Help!, he’s going to kill me!”

  “You might die from this wound Nathan, you might not. Shall we find out?”

  “No, no… Okay! I’ll tell you what I know!”

  Zach pulled him off the wall like a rag doll and slung him onto the bench. “Start talking.”

  Nathan breathed quickly and heavily. “I don’t know much okay?” Zach started to raise the gun towards his leg again. “But! There was talk that something was going down in this camp, something big.”

  Zach lurched towards him. “What talk? Who told you this?”

  “Some Hell Fire members that I came across some days ago.”

  Zach stood stunned as the unclaimed thoughts of the previous day fell into a coherent idea. Tinley and the Hell Fire gang working together?

  “Tha… That’s all I know!”

  Zach stepped back and fell silent, lost in his thoughts. They must have had people in the camp already, maybe some are still here?

  Nathan stood up slowly, keeping his back close to the wall, and half slid, half walked against it in the doors direction. “I helped, so I’m going to leave now, okay? Yeah I helped you good.”

  “You’re not leaving yet Nathan.”

  Nathan sighed and sat back down on the bench. “Can I get some food then?”

  Zach ignored the request and left slamming the door behind him.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  The sound of an eighties rock band seeped into Abbey’s mind. In front of her a man with long black hair in tight black leather pants, danced while on a dark stage, around him strange creatures played instruments. Abbey smiled and laughed at the strange scene in front of her. She was sitting alone in a huge stadium, when she looked up she could see three eclipses in the sky. Dark circular shapes that looked like they had been cut from the night above her. The singing man continued to cry out, screaming more than singing. “Wake up bitch, wake up bitch!”

  Sound and sensation flooded Abbey’s ears and nose, but not her eyes as she could only see a blue hessian cloth in front of them.

  “Finally, she’s awake, I really thought Clovis had hit her just a bit too hard,” the mans southern accent was close but her head was spinning and she couldn’t tell if she was even upright, let alone the direction he was from her.

  Abbey opened her mouth, with the intention of requesting some water, but instead, only rasping sounds emitted from her throat. She tried swallowing but it made no difference.

  “I think she’s trying to say something,” the man’s voice was louder as he finished talking, and she was sure he was only a few feet away. “Hey, did Shane give her any water?” the man paused as if someone was talking to him, but Abbey couldn’t hear any other person. “Well, she ain’t gonna live for long, without any water is she?”

  Abbey heard some shuffling and then shortly afterwards, the feeling of something plastic pressed against her dry lips. The cool liquid started to pour out and she gratefully gulped it down.

  “Whe…” she cleared her throat, and tried again. “Where am I? Why did you take me?”

  “Shhh… don’t talk, it will only go worse for you if you do, here have some more,” the stuttered voice of a young man, was followed with more water from the bottle.

  “But…”

  Again the young man shooed her. “They will be back soon. I don’t want to get in trouble.”

  “You’re already in trouble!”

  Abbey’s words came out more angrily than she meant, and footsteps moved away from her, followed by a cool blast of air hitting her face.

  Fuck. She felt that whoever the young man was, she was getting through to him. Maybe he felt sorry for her, hell maybe he even was attracted to her, who knew, who cared, it was something she would use to her advantage if she got another chance.

  Now her mind wasn’t preoccupied with the dryness in her mouth, her other senses started to form an impression of where she was. Damp wood? Metal? Dust? She sniffed at the air around her, trying to form a mental image of where she might be. Warehouse?

  Her hands were tied behind her back, but now she was alone she started to pull and twist her hands against the plastic straps that held them. While at the DOD she had been given some basic training in what to do in precisely this situation, and she knew getting out of these straps might mean a dislocated thumb, but if it kept her alive it would be worth it.

  As she was struggling, her mind drifted to Zach, and she felt tears well up in her eyes, so much so that she had to stop trying to escape to calm down. The emotion wasn’t because she felt bad for her own situation, but because of what Zach must be going through. That was not acceptable. She pushed the world outside the room she was in away and concentrated on the tiny bit of slack she started to feel in the strap. Moving and rotating her hands left and right, the strap started to loosen just as the cool air from before washed over her again, and she froze.

  The sound of heavy boots came towards her, then stopped.

  “Who’s there?” she exclaimed to the space in front of her. A kind of grunt responded, then the boots moved closer still.

  *****

  Zach sat in the passenger’s seat of the Humvee looking at drone footage. The last vestiges of daylight, were gone and a gloom permeated the air around them. Ethan and his team back at the Core spent hours flying over east of the camp, and Zach sat just a few hundred yards away from the west gate watching what they had found. He zoomed in on video of a convoy of vehicles moving east, then the clip stopped.

  “Shame they couldn’t get anymore,” said Cal sitting in the back.

  “The drone was at the end of its fuel, they had to ditch it out there,” Zach nodded towards the wall in front of them, “It’s something though, it looks like they kept on going east, so that’s were w
e head.”

  “Bit convenient, that the drone just happened to catch the convoy?” said Michael in the driver’s seat.

  “They wanted to be seen,” said Zach, as his radio crackled then came to life with Fiona’s voice.

  “Few minutes out, brought some friends. Over.”

  Zach caught Michael glancing in the rear mirror at Cal sitting behind. Since they had returned from the Portland mission, not many words had passed between them.

  A silence descended upon the interior of the Humvee, Michael was the first to break. “Seems like the E.L.F’s have decided to stay away from attacking the camp.”

  “Maybe they felt sorry for us, decided to leave us alone,” said Cal.

  In the rear mirror, vehicle headlights appeared in the distance.

  “More than a few friends, by the looks of it,” said Cal stepping out of the Humvee.

  Soon a Humvee with top mounted gun, an army truck and a light tank which doubled as an armored personnel carrier approached.

  Fiona got out of the Humvee, while Bass jumped down from the top of the light tank.

  Bass saluted as he neared Zach, who was now standing with Cal and Michael. “Complements of the General. We also have a small platoon of fine soldiers. Six in the light tank, and fourteen in the truck, along with weapons and ammo.”

  “Enough to fight a small a war,” chimed in Fiona.

  Bass smiled, while rubbing his hands together to shake off the evening cold. “If that’s what it takes.”

  Zach smiled back at Bass, but inside he had to fight the emotion of the gift the General had given him. The camp had lots of military resources, but well, this was a tank he was looking at.

  The rear door of the Humvee opened, and a familiar face appeared lit by the vehicle’s interior lights.

  “I see you have brought less luggage than before doctor,” said Zach as Raj approached him.

  Raj smiled. “Actually I have just as much, but it’s already packed in the truck,” his smile than receded. “I’m sorry about what happened to Abbey, I will do all I can to help get her back.”

  “I’m surprised the council were okay with you going on this trip?”

  Raj smiled. “Well they don’t really know I’m here.”

  Zach held out his hand, which Raj gladly shook. “Thank you,” he then turned to Bass and Fiona. “Are we all ready to move out?”

  “Sure are,” said Fiona.

  Zach walked a few steps forward looking at the light tank. “Maybe this should be up front.”

  Bass nodded, and returned to his spot at the top of the tank, ducking down to say something to the people inside. The vehicle then rumbled forward passing everyone else, and stopped some yards in front of the first Humvee.

  Fiona walked closer to Zach. “There’s been some light E.L.F activity ten miles east of the wall, but nothing major.”

  “Good…”

  Fiona looked at the quickly approaching night. “I wish we were doing this in the daylight… but I know we can’t wait.”

  “If we leave now, maybe we slip out without too many people noticing, even with the tank. Let’s do a quick comms check then move out.”

  Fiona nodded, and messages quickly passed between the radios the group had.

  Zach then returned to the first Humvee, and clicked on his radio. “This is Rescue squad one, we are ready to move through the east gate. Over.”

  A large rumbling started to shake the vehicles as the large steel gates, slowly begun moving sidewards.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Not again. This time Abbey was sitting further back in the stadium, and around her were E.L.F’s. Not ones she had seen before, these were more human sized, but they were just as strange. Some had tentacles for arms, others had multiple heads. She froze in her seat, frightened any of them would soon notice her, but instead they seemed to be enjoying the show the angry rock star she had seen before was putting on for all of them. He was screaming his lyrics as before, and jumping with his mike, and all around the creatures waved and made noises which seemed to be of happiness and enthusiasm. Then it stopped. The man on the stage had gone, and all the strange beings around her were looking at her, thousands of them. Their faces were emotionless, just staring. Abbey wanted to scream, but she realized she had no mouth, or nose, or ears. She looked down and saw that her arms were tentacles, as were her legs, which writhed against the plastic smoothness of the floor. Wake up Abbey. Wake up!

  Abbey awoke into even greater darkness than before. Earlier in the day, when she had woken from the first dream, there was light around her, which flooded all the gaps her blindfold afforded her. She had been sure it was daylight and not artificial. But now, there was only intense black, and she was lost in the center. The smells were the same though, rust, mixed with the sodden moist damp smell of wood or cardboard, she wasn’t sure which, but she was sure it was a warehouse, and she was still in it.

  She was glad of the water she drunk before, but she was also aware that she was dangerously dehydrated, and if she didn’t get more inside her, whatever fate awaited her from those that took her would be the least of her problems.

  Suddenly she remembered her hands and how one of them was almost loose. Her skin felt rough and sore against the plastic straps as she pulled and twisted her hands. Just a bit more. One hand broke loose and pain shot up her arm dissipating into her shoulder. She stifled the sound she wanted to make in response and immediately brought her hand around and pushed the blindfold up to her forehead. At first, even with her eyes already adjusted all she could see was a wall of black around her, but then she noticed a faint glow ahead.

  She reached down to her ankles and pulled at the rope that was holding them together. Soon her feet were free as well and just as painful to move. She pivoted onto her knees and winced in pain. Blood flooded into the parts of her legs where it had been lacking and she sat waiting for her body to feel normal again. She then moved as quietly as possible into a crouching position and again tried to focus on her surroundings, which were beginning to make more sense to her.

  The walls were a lot closer than she had originally thought, being only seven feet from her on most sides. She was in a kind of back office, with multi-paneled windows to her front, and a hole where a door should have been to her left. Furniture was behind and to her right, but she wasn’t unable to make out what any of it was. Getting to her feet she immediately hit her head on something solid and ducked back down, rubbing the spot which stung.

  She then reached up, and tentatively felt the flaky smoothness of an old pipe which had fallen down from the ceiling. Weapon. Crouching back down, she shuffled forward, cautiously feeling into the dark until she found something which felt long, metallic and heavy. She slid her hand over the top. It was a cylinder, probably another pipe. Walking forward, she put her other hand out in front of her, and moved towards the doorway. Soon she was outside the office, standing in what looked like a large open area, with walls which were a combination of brick and plaster. Various dark shapes surrounded her, but they were not moving, or making a noise so she continued past them, towards the glow. As she got within thirty feet of it, she could see it was due to light seeping under a shut door. She could also now hear talking. Two men were discussing something, but she couldn’t make out exactly what and she wasn’t going to get closer and risk making a noise to find out. Instead she looked around, desperately trying to see if there were any other exits.

  Her mind briefly returned to the time she was taken, and the hail of bullets which rained down on the young people at the computer centre. She began to feel faint, and swayed back and forth on her feet, until steadying herself. Not now.

  She moved towards the closest wall when gunfire broke out, outside. It was then she realized she was on a second floor of the building, as neon red streaks flew into the night sky, which she could see through windows not far from her. Quickly moving forward and avoiding kicking anything on the dusty floor, she looked out of the closest window and saw
a large winged E.L.F unlike any she had seen before, flapping large bat like wings over the heads of a small group of men with guns.

  As she watched the creature hovered and swooped, while its large reptilian tail swiped at the figures below. Looking like a scene from a fantasy novel, more gunfire rang out, and the creature shifted to the left and right, trying to avoid the lines of death which was aimed at it. Abbey felt momentarily transfixed by this mini battle of man versus beast, when something strange happened. The creature flapped quicker to gain some height, and moved in her direction. She felt for sure it was going to crash into the window in front of her, when the clatter of automatic fire was followed by the creature screeching and falling to the ground.

  The area outside fell once again back into darkness.

  “You know, a lot of people died for you to be here.”

  Abbey immediately recognized Tinley’s voice. She was so engrossed in the scene outside the window that she hadn’t realized the light that she was now bathed in from the door behind her.

  “Just so you know, this door is the only way in and out of this floor, and I don’t suggest you trying to climb down. I need you in mostly good condition for when your beau arrives.”

  Abbey was frozen and did not want to turn around and face the person standing just twelve feet from her. But she did anyway.

  “Hmm you’re less attractive than I remember, but then this world will do that to a girl, I guess. Not like the old days, so many beautiful girls…” For a moment, Tinley’s eyes looked beyond Abbey to a place she did not want to think about.

  “He’s going to kill you, you know that don’t you?” Abbey’s voice was full of indignation, and it took all of her will to pull it off.

  Tinley smiled. “Well I hope he tries, that’s the whole point you are here!”