by Phil Maxey
“Shall I tie her up again?” the same gruff voice from earlier, that was talking to the invisible other person came from behind Tinley.
“No, just make sure this door is secure, she’s not getting off this floor. Not without a climb down the side, and that would be entertaining to see,” he then started to walk into the brightly lit room behind. “Oh, almost forgot,” he tossed a plastic bottle onto the floor. “Make sure you drink, it’s good to stay hydrated,” he then disappeared into the room closing the door behind him. The sound of more than one lock then followed.
Abbey let out a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding in. She then walked over to the bottle which was now only just visible in the gloom, and opened it. It was only half full but it was enough.
After quenching her thirst, she crept towards the door and pressed her ear up against it. There was no sound on the other side. Gone. When he said this was the only way off of this floor, her hope silently waned, but the moment he left, another idea replaced the despair. She looked again at the large room around her, it was full of lots of heavy items, machine parts, large blocks of wood, old barrels. Walking to a long heavy looking plank of wood, she picked one side up and started sliding it as quietly as she could to the door.
CHAPTER TEN
“What was that?” Michael glanced quickly to his right, trying to see with his night scope through the Humvee's side window.
Zach continued focusing on the road, having taken over driving duties for the next few hours. “Anything?” he said to his two occupants.
Cal joined Michael by looking out the rear window. “If it was something, it doesn't seem to be following. How long until we reach the point the drone saw the convoy?”
“Few hours yet.” Zach clicked on the radio. “Fiona, Bass, anything moving around us? Over.” Answers came back in the negative.
Michael looked guiltily to the road in front. “Haven't really been out here at night, puts my E.L.F radar alert up to eleven.”
“You be as twitchy as you want, I would prefer not to miss anything out here.” Zach then turned his head slightly to his rear passenger. “You feeling…” he wasn't sure how to finish the sentence.
“You want to know if I'm doing any weird mind stuff and feel if any of the E.L.F's are tracking us?”
“Yup.”
“No, I don't think so.” It wasn't a totally true answer as he still didn't know how his abilities worked, other than they seemed to when he most needed them, but he still couldn't switch them off and on when he liked. He thought better the others had confidence that he could. “If I er… feel anything you'll know.”
Michael shifted uncomfortably in his seat which Cal pretended not to notice, and the small convoy rolled along the central highway towards the east of Texas.
In the second Humvee Fiona’s thoughts drifted back to the morning, and the vote in the council on segregation. When she was back at the Core she found out that the vote had been postponed. The council were in too much of a state trying to understand how Tinley escaped to decide upon something so important. At least we have more time. Although she still didn't know what they had more time for, perhaps to leave the camp.
Raj sat in the back and tried to sleep, although every bump they drove over knocked him out of his drowsiness and made him look around to see if the soldiers that were beside him were readying their weapons. Luckily so far they were not. This time he was equipped with his own M4 rifle, body armor and a helmet, which he found was not good for trying to get some sleep in. He was also equipped with a more advanced version of his audio device that had a greater range in distance and frequency. Mostly though, as his thoughts started to merge and scatter as sleep took over him, he was equipped with the knowledge that some of those that were traveling with him were different to the rest of them, and he hoped that would prove to be their biggest protection.
“I see them. Over.” Fiona clicked off the radio, as the soldier next to Raj raised his gun. An hour had passed and the headlights from the convoy lit a mile long abandoned freight train to their right. Also caught in the vehicle’s glare were creatures sleeping on top of the carriages.
“Any idea what they are doctor?”
Raj quickly put his helmet back on, and leaned forward to get a better view. “No idea, but if they were nocturnal they wouldn't all be lying there like that. As long as we keep driving we should be okay.”
Fiona clicked on her radio. “The doc thinks they won't be a problem…”
Raj interrupted. “What does Cal think?”
Fiona sighed. “He wants to know what Cal thinks. Over.” A few moments passed, then Fiona put the radio down and turned slightly to Raj. “He doesn't sense anything.”
Raj sat back.
Fiona sighed more heavily. “He's not an experiment to be prodded and tested, you know that right?”
Raj was a bit taken aback by the comment. "Of course, I never meant anything by asking. I'm just collecting data."
Fiona never replied.
They plowed further into the winter night, the temperature confirmed by the mass of twinkling stars above them. After another hour, they were approaching the town of Catacomb.
Zach clicked on his radio. “Listen up everyone, I know you all must be tired, but we are approaching the town of Catacomb, which the drone saw the convoy enter before it went down. We still got the signal from the drone, so that's where we will go to first, but everyone be on alert from here on out. There could be E.L.F's or Tinley's people, or a combination of both. Over.”
Broken buildings and abandoned structures appeared with greater frequency on both sides of the highway, until they were driving through a medium sized forgotten town.
Michael looked nervously around as the convoy slowed to avoid the increasing number of vehicles blocking their way. "I wonder why we haven't been bothered by any E.L.F's."
“The cold. Many of them are warm blooded. It must be minus five outside. They don't care about a few strange lights passing them by, at least not enough to expend energy on,” said Cal. Zach and Michael exchanged the briefest of glances. It was an answer that made both of them uncomfortable in its level of knowledge.
Bass's voice came on the radio informing them to take the next left turn, then right then left again. The convoys headlights caught windows of single story homes.
“Doesn’t look like the owners planned on coming on back,” said Michael looking at the houses with open front doors.
Cal looked in the same direction to Michael. “That, or E.L.F’s got inside.”
“Just stay alert,” replied Zach, who then raised his radio. “How far are we from the signal, Bass. Over.”
“A few hundred yards up this road. Over.”
The convoy trundled along, slowing when it got to a junction that stretched, left and right of them.
Bass’s voice came through once again. “Signals coming from the opposite side of this property in front of us, looks like it’s in the woods at the back. Over.”
“Lets take the left track, looks wider. Over.”
A few moments later, they stopped behind a large wooden single story property to their right, and woods which fell sharply away from the road on their left.
“Signals coming from down the slope to our left. Over.”
Zach looked at the plunging tree line just a few yards from them and sighed. Yeah it would be down there.
Cal sat slightly forward, but without looking in Zach’s direction. “Zach?”
“Yes?”
“We’re not alone.”
“Which direction?”
Cal closed his eyes, he found this helped sometimes. “Mmm… maybe behind us, about eight o’clock,” he then paused, and his brow tightened. “There’s something… something different, about what I’m sensing.”
“Meaning what?”
Cal nodded his head. “I can’t tell, just that there’s an E.L.F behind us, not too far off, maybe few hundred yards.”
“Bass, we mig
ht have E.L.F’s on our tail, maybe eight o’clock, keep the big gun in that direction. I’m going with Cal and Michael to check out the state of the drone. Over.”
Before Zach finished the tank’s turret slowly rotated around to face behind them.
The secure door at the back of the tank opened, and Bass emerged, his breath quickly creating a pool of mist around him. Zach, Cal and Michael got out of the Humvee and joined him.
Bass held a small black device with a large protruding aerial and mini LCD display. “It’s thirty yards away,” he pointed to their left. “In that direction, shouldn’t be hard to spot, even now.”
“If anything comes out of these woods, open up on it, but save the ammo unless it’s a real threat. I’ll let you know the condition of the drone, whether it’s a lost cause.” Zach and the two others, then walked to the partially collapsed wooden fence, and looked down into a sea of darkness. Cal stepped over the splinted wood first, then pulled his night sight goggles down over his face, Zach and Michael did the same.
Cal slipped a little before regaining his footing. Slinging his rifle over his shoulder, he spread both of his hands out to his side and slid down the steep embankment. His gloves caught leaves, sticks and ice but managed to keep his fingers protected until the ground evened out, and he could stand upright. He then looked behind him and Zach and Michael were both there anxiously looking all around.
Zach pointed, keeping his voice low. “Just over there.”
Just as they were about to move off, Bass’s voice came from Zach’s radio. “We got some kind of movement up here, maybe a hundred yards away from the west. Can’t tell what it is in this darkness, but there’s something down there.”
Zach went to reply when the sound of gunfire split open the silence of the forest. They all crouched down instinctively.
“Bass, what’s happening? Over.”
“We’re being shot at! Over.”
Even in the weird green glow of the night-scopes their faces were expressions of confusion.
“Bass, who’s shooting? Over.”
A second layer of gunfire opened, and a third, it sounded like a war was being fought just a few yards above them.
Cal went to climb back up the slope, but Zach grabbed his arm. “No, whoever shooting probably doesn’t know we’re down here, we’ll follow the track through the forest see if we can come at them from the side.”
Cal and Michael nodded, and they all set off, running as fast as they could, while trying to stop from falling on the uneven ground.
Zach tried Bass gain. “What’s the situation? Bass. Over.”
“Second Humvee is shot up. One of our people has got minor injuries. Looks like they have taken casualties. We’re moving down towards them now, where about are you? Over.”
“We’re coming at them from the side, your north, don’t shoot as we come out of the woods. Over.”
Zach, Cal and Michael crept up the embankment. It wasn’t long before they could hear voices.
“He never told us they would have a tank! How the fuck are we meant to capture him? when they got that!”
An older voice then spoke. “Harry’s dead, took one straight in the chest, Grady’s probably a gonna as well, we gotta back the hell out of this shit storm.”
“Geneva’s not going to be happy.”
“Yeah, well that’s on Tinley. We need to go now!”
Just as the two men were about to leave their position behind the torn up wreck of what was a red pickup, Zach, Micheal and Cal appeared from the tree line with their guns raised.
The younger bearded man, went to raise his own gun, but the older man put his hand on the barrel, pushing it downwards. A man in his thirties, lay dead on the ground, his body laying across the curb, to his side a man in his forties, with a scarf around his neck, lay mortally wounded, breathing heavily.
The older man spoke first. “Okay you got us, we surrender.”
Michael ran towards him. “Who the fuck are you?”
“We live around here, we thought you came to steal out shit.”
Zach frowned, as Cal walked past the two surrendering men, instead kneeling down next to the man with the scarf.
Zach joined him. “What is it?”
“He’s…”
“He’s what?”
“It’s him, he’s the E.L.F I sensed.”
Before Zach could reply, some motorbikes started up in the distance, Michael, Bass and other soldiers went to move off in that direction, before Zach put his hand up. “Let them go, we can’t chance walking into another trap, and I don’t want to hang around here for too long in case we attract unwanted attention from E.L.F’s.”
Michael stepped closing to the man with the scarf. “He doesn’t look like a monster.”
“No, he’s not. He’s like me.”
“Wait. What? You can sense Cascaders? I didn’t know you could do that.”
Cal stood up. “Nor did I. I couldn’t before, at least I don’t think I could.”
“There’s nothing we can do for him. Cal, Michael, take these two back to our vehicles, make sure they are well secured,” said Zach.
Cal walked backwards for a few steps keeping his gaze on the dying man, before turning, grabbing the two others and walking them back to the Humvees with Michael. Zach watched Cal walk away.
Bass noticed Zach’s focused attention on Cal. “Anything I should be concerned about?”
“Not exactly.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think we have a way of tracking Abbey.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
By the time Abbey laid the last steel beam across the pile of rusting machine parts, bricks and planks of wood near the door, she was so tired she couldn’t think straight. She took one last look at the job that had taken her the past few hours, smiled and then receded into a corner with a pipe in her hand for company. The next thing she knew someone was banging at the door which was thoroughly barricaded shut.
“Open the damn door!” the gruff voice from yesterday was followed by an impact on the door, which barely made the pile Abbey had erected move an inch.
She scampered to her feet, blinking, then leaned back down and grabbed the pipe.
The door was slammed once more, again the pile of heavy items from the world before, didn’t budge. Abbey almost wanted to laugh, and then released she needed to be thinking of another way out before they came back with something that would blast the barricade out of the way. She ran to the window, and stopped her mouth agape.
“Where…”
Glinting in the morning sun were broken glass windows stretching high into the clear morning sky, the kind you only find on buildings in a large city. It was a place she partially knew from a trip she took as a child, the city of Atlanta.
But how? From her calculations they could have only been three or so hours from the camp, which would have taken them to perhaps the eastern edge of Texas, but this wasn’t Texas, it was Georgia. She was sure she had only been unconscious for a few hours, but maybe it had been more? She shook her head in discussion with herself. Flown here? It still made no sense how Tinley had been so well prepared considering he lost all of his fighting force when he was captured in Roswell.
She then realized the attack on the door behind the barricade had grown quiet, which worried her more than discovering where she was. She looked closer to the window, but they were not made to open more than a few inches, she would have to smash them, but then what? Peering downwards, there was nothing but a sheer drop to the sidewalk below, and she couldn’t see any pipes to cling onto outside. Climbing down wasn’t an option from here. She went to run back to the office she first woke up in, when the sound of boots, along with something that was being dragged drifted through what gaps there were in the door, followed by a voice she hated.
“Abbey, Abbey, I was eating my breakfast, when Emmet breaks my time alone, all sweating and agitated, saying that you have put a barricade up behind this door. But I told him,
that can’t be true, because if it were. If I were to try to open this door now, and I found I couldn’t, then that would mean I would have to kill this beautiful Hispanic woman, I have bound and gagged just behind me. Anyway, I’m going to go and finish my breakfast, and then I’m going to come back and open this door. I’ll be back real soon.”
Abbey swallowed best she could with what little moisture she had left in her throat. If I remove the things from the door, he’s going to be able to get to me, him and the others. The thought made her shudder and feel sick. But that poor woman, he will kill her, it will be my fault! She dropped the pipe and started frantically pulling away the only wall between her and the serial killer.
*****
Zach emerged from the back of the smart single story residence. The sun had been up for an hour and most of the convoy personnel were sleeping. He wanted intel from the two men they captured, and he wasn’t resting until he had it.
He opened the screen door that led to the garden, and picked up some ice that was covering what was left of the former residents lawn, and rubbed it over his hands. Blood and other organic matter ran with the melting ice to the ground, and Zach took a deep breath. He had learned that Abbey was taken by air west to Atlanta.
It was all planned, I was a fool for thinking we had him. He was in a prison again, one that Tinley had carefully crafted for him. He could feel panic deep down in his mind wanting to rise up and overwhelm him, but he knew if it did, he would never see her again. A noise made him turn around. It was Fiona with a blanket over her and a mug of something which was quickly evaporating in the morning air.
“Thought you might want some coffee.”
Zach forced a smile and took the mug. Its heat stung some of the flayed flesh on his knuckles.
Fiona looked at his hands. “Did you get what you needed? Do we know where they took her?”
“Atlanta,” Fiona went to say something but Zach continued. “But they don’t know if it was by plane of chopper.”
