Cascade Collection

by Phil Maxey

  Just as he realized his heart was beating out of his chest, the alarm he set in the living room went off and he almost fired the gun off again. Fuck.

  Quickly turning the alarm off, he grabbed his keys, left the house and jumped in his pickup.

  As he turned on his pickup’s main beams, he thought he saw something scurrying behind the trees near the lake, but chose to ignore it. Soon he was on the road towards the Core. He clicked on his radio. “This is Captain Felton. What’s going on? Over.”

  There was a short pause, before an anxious voice replied. “We have multiple breaches of the walls. Both ground and air based E.L.F’s are inside the camp at various locations. Evacuations have begun in most of the major towns. Over.”

  Dark shapes became more visibly lit by the explosions and bullets strafing the night sky as Zach drove into the Core’s parking lot. On his way he had seen a number of E.L.F’s on the ground, some without wings, and various platoons of soldiers fighting them. He quickly ran from the pickup, into the Core’s lobby, past people also running and entered the elevator with a number of others. The conversation was of creatures, and the walls being breached.

  Soon he was entering the noise of the central operations hall. He half expected to see the red hair of the General, but instead Amanda Holland waved him over. Standing next to her was Raj, and a number of other people he didn’t recognize. Most looked afraid.

  “Captain, as you may have noticed the camp is experiencing an onslaught, and a number of E.L.F’s have made it over the walls. Our rail guns are only partially working due to the generator at the dam malfunctioning. Dr. Joshi thinks you might be of some use in stopping the creatures.”

  Zach’s instinct was to tell her to go to hell, but his better judgement stopped him. “How can I help?” She looked at Raj.

  “A lot of the units out there, don’t have much experience fighting E.L.F’s especially not in open terrain as in the camp. I suggested to Ms Holland that you should be put in charge of the defensive operations within the camp.”

  “Show me the current situation.”

  Holland briefly said something to someone nearby, and the large screens at the front of the hall changed, one showing a plan view and hundreds of red dots and another a similar top down perspective but this time showing the four walls of the camp. The dots were clearly in higher number around the detention centre.

  Zach took a few steps towards the screens. “Raj, do you have any idea yet as to why they are drawn to the people affected?”

  “There’s a link between them obviously, but the information carrier is not of any type of radiation that we know of. It must be form of subatomic particle we haven’t discovered yet.”

  “Well whatever is causing it, we might be able to use it to our advantage.”

  “What do you mean?” said Holland.

  “I have a plan of how we’re going to save the camp, but you’re not going to like it.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Abbey stood on the north wall, the wind buffeting her face. The smell of burning oil and metal wafted through the air, as the closest gun turret had to stop from firing due to overheating. Amongst the automatic gunfire, she could hear them out there, a multitude of shadows moving in the darkness. Things that crawled, slithered and flew.

  She spotted a dark form rise up from the tree line and fly straight towards a group of soldiers desperately trying to stop anything from breaching their part of the wall. In their panic their bullets mostly missed the creature, which bore down on them, talons stretched out in front. Abbey squinted thrusting her hand out in front of her towards the creature, concentrating her mind. Stop. Stop. The creature continued surging forward, grabbing one of the soldiers and taking itself and the soldier off the camp side of the wall. The soldier screamed in agony.

  “No…” She closed her eyes and forced her will outwards. “Stop!” when she opened them, the large monkey-bird hybrid was hovering just past the wall, clenching the terrified soldier who was looking down at the drop to the ground below. Keeping her concentration focused, she moved her hand back across to the wall. The flying creature duly followed her direction, moving to just above the wall. The other soldiers had stopped firing, and were now watching in amazement.

  “Leave.” Abbey almost whispered the command, but it was enough for the creature to drop the soldier, and fly off into the night. She took a deep breath. The soldier lay on the ground, clutching his shoulder as a medic ran up to him. The other soldiers looked at Abbey eyes wide, then as if coming out of a dream, switched their attention back to the things that were still attacking.

  Her radio came to life and she could just about hear Zach’s voice through the melee around her. “How’s it looking? Over.”

  “We’re just holding this part of the wall. How are the others doing? Over.”

  “They’re learning on the job. I’ll be with you as soon as I can. Over.”

  On a part of the eastern wall siblings Gerik and Martha Jankowski both held hands, and closed their eyes. The tingling surged up their necks into their heads making their minds stretch out into the fury of noise and motion a few hundred yards in front of them. They had already done this countless times at the detention center, and were now used to the weird sensations and the feeling of otherness when linking their minds to each other and E.L.F’s. Slowly the orgy of creatures staggering towards the wall came to a stop. The soldiers on the wall stopped firing into the dark and raised their barrels, then turned their attention to the elderly brother and sister who were both smiling.

  For a moment the creatures all looked upwards as in awe and then turned and moved away.

  On the southern wall, overlooking the river Cal fired off his snipers rifle nailing a flying lizard-like creature which had already dragged three soldiers to their deaths off the side of the wall. Fiona stood beside him, firing best she could with her M4 into the ice covered waters a few hundred feet below.

  Cal knew why he and the others were released, but he couldn’t bring himself to use his abilities, doing so just gave the council a reason to keep him imprisoned for longer. If he could do his part without using his powers, maybe they would realize he was just like everyone else and would leave him and Fiona alone. So far he had racked up eight kills, and he hadn’t needed to use his mind creature connection thing once. He glanced at Fiona as the battle raged around him, even in the middle of this madness he was glad she was with him.

  A loud noise of cracking and bending steel emanated from the east of the river, followed by the sound of rushing water. All lights from the wall swung down to the river, and a mini tsunami of water smashed up against the cliffs below the wall.

  “One of the river barriers is down, be ready for anything!” shouted a soldier just a few yards from them.

  The splashing and the cracking noise grew closer to the wall, and then they saw it. A large oily black tentacle as big as a house rose out of the water, and then splashed back down, the spray rising above the eighty foot high cliffs and hitting the lower part of the wall.

  Bullets strafed the water where the beast had appeared but it was like firing into the air, no impact could be seen. One of the camps apache helicopters flew over the wall and dropped a search light down onto the rushing water, which just ebbed and flowed with no sign of anything else.

  “I’m sure it’s the same creature we saw in the river near Atlanta!” shouted Fiona anxiously.

  Cal readied his rifle, and looked down the night scope at the now calmer river. “I can’t see much of…”

  With an alright roar, whatever the creature was rose up out of the river, its former tentacle just being the end of a larger part which rose higher and higher. Water splashed against the wall as they were all now looking up at this thing that was standing twenty story’s high and was still rising. The Apache flew backwards, but it was too late and one of the creatures tentacles whipped around smashing the tail rotor and sending the chopper spiraling into the dark waters. All gunfire focused on
this creature that ignored all attempts to stop it.

  “It’s too big Cal, it’s going to crash through the wall!” shouted Fiona, “Cal, you must do something!” her voice pleaded with him.

  Momentarily Cal was dazed by the spectacle in front of him, but he dropped his gun and closed his eyes and let the world around him fall away, until all he could see again was bright specks of light inside a dark void. The creature threatening them was bright and clear to him, he could also see all of it, not just the part above the water. It had more tentacles below the surface and was sitting on the bottom of the river bed. He could also feel the other E.L.F’s around him, and he quickly swung his view around. Thousands of glowing particles both near and far moved and jostled. He turned back to the huge leviathan which was now leaning over the wall, and focused his mind towards it.

  Fiona and those around her looked straight up as the creature lurched over them. “Anytime now Cal!”

  Straining his mind to reach the thing in front of him, he raised his hands above his head. The creature’s skyscraper like tentacle stopped, as if frozen in mid-gesture high above the wall. Those on the wall stood mouth agape, as water slid off the creature and splashed down around them. He then lowered his arms backdown towards the river, and the creature did the same, retreating away from the wall and finally disappearing into the frothy river surface. The world around him returned, and Fiona hugged him.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Zach looked down over the wall, near the dam that had kept the camp supplied with electricity for months. The clouds had cleared above, and the noon sun beamed down from patches of blue. The wall holding the water back was smashed near the top, and water was gushing through various holes. Teams of men, some hanging off the end of ropes were looking closely at the damage.

  “That’s not the worse of it,” said a man in his forties, wearing a hardhat mostly hiding short dark hair. “Follow me.”

  Jared led Zach down damp concrete stairs, though narrow corridors and into the bowels of the dam. He opened a red metal door with warning signs on it, and they walked into a cavernous room housing the dams generators.

  Walking down past the large brown-red turbines, they eventually walked up a small staircase and faced a row of eight foot high pale green metal boxes.

  “I don’t think I need to tell you what the problem is…” A number of the panels, buttons, dials were smashed, revealing the wires inside which looked burned.

  “An E.L.F got in here?” Zach looked around for any other signs of damage.

  “No one in my team saw any. It’s not impossible but this is the only thing we can find damaged.”

  Zach knew what the chief engineer was getting at, but didn’t want to say it out loud.

  “Were there not guards here?”

  “There were some at the start of the attack, but as things got worse elsewhere in the camp they well pulled away.”

  Zach looked at the walls around him. “Any cameras?”

  Jared gave a short laugh. “No cameras.”

  “How long we talking until the things here are back to normal?”

  “We are running at about 20 percent of our output, what with the reduced water flow and some of the generators being completely out of commission due to this damage, I would say at least a month before we are back up to one hundred percent.”

  “I want cameras installed down here, don’t make them too obvious, and I’ll have guards back here patrolling twenty-four seven from tonight onwards. If there’s anything you need to make the repair work go quicker let me know.”

  “Just keep the creatures off our backs, and we’ll be fine.”

  Zach smiled and went to walk away.

  “Er, rumor has it that, it was your idea to use the Cascaders to help defend the walls?”

  Zach turned. “Yeah.”

  “To be honest, when we heard people were changing, becoming like those things outside, I supported them being put away, at least for a while. But after last night, I think maybe that was mistake.” Zach smiled again, and left.

  As Zach drove back to the Core, his mind pondered at why someone would want to sabotage the dam. One of Tinley's men carrying out revenge for their boss? Or maybe the Hell Fire gang wanting to cause problems? Either way it meant there were people inside the walls who were actively trying to destroy the camp and harm those inside. At least Abbey’s back home.

  As he stopped the pickup in the parking lot of the Core his radio came to life. “Captain Felton, on your return to the Core, can you go to Amanda Holland’s office. Over.”

  Zach sighed. What part of the wall is she going to post me too now. He acknowledged the request and begrudgingly made his way to her office, after a short wait he was sitting opposite her.

  She went to talk but he stopped her. “Before I get posted back to whatever part of the wall you want me at, I’ve just come back from the dam.”

  “Go on.”

  “Well apart from it taking a beating from the E.L.F’s, it appears that some of the electronics that control the generators were deliberately destroyed.”

  Hollands expression changed. “Sabotage? Are you sure?”

  “The chief engineer didn’t come right out and say it, but yeah I’m pretty sure.”

  She shook her head, then reached forward and poured some water into a glass. “Want some?”

  “I’m fine thanks.”

  “As if we didn’t have enough problems. Do you have any idea who is responsible?”

  “Maybe Tinley’s people who are still loyal to him or members of the Hell Fire gang, could be either, or a combination working together. I doubt anyone else in the camp would have a reason to make life harder for themselves. What is the situation within the camp?”

  “That’s actually what I called you here for.”

  Zach looked at her, not sure by what she meant.

  “The council was impressed by how you handled things last night. And they want to make the position you had permanent.”

  “What position?”

  “In control of the camps defense. We would still have jurisdiction on what goes on outside, but inside the walls, that would be yours.”

  Zach sat surprised. “I’m not sure what to say.”

  “Say you’ll do it.”

  “And those affected by the Cascade will be left alone?”

  “Actually I was thinking, some of them could be drafted into our military forces, and we would still need to run tests of course, but apart from that, yes they would be left alone.”

  “Okay.”

  “Good, I’m glad that’s out of the way. Oh with it comes a promotion to O-4, which they tell me is the rank of Major. I hope you will understand if we leave all the hoopla of a ceremony to another day as there’s much to discuss.”

  Zach’s surprise continued. Abbey’s not going to believe any of this.

  “So, the situation in the camp. Come with me.”

  Soon they were in the central operations hall. She and Zach walked up to a man in his mid-thirties with medium length light brown hair, and glasses. Just behind him was a woman in her mid-thirties, with tied back dark wavy hair. She was also smartly dressed.

  “This is Jason, he’s my right hand man when it comes to what’s going on in the camp. You’ll be working with him closely I presume, going forward.”

  Jason leaned forward and held his hand out. “Umm, hi. Good to meet you Captain… no sorry Major,” Zach smiled and shook it.

  “And this is Jennifer Grove, my political advisor.” Jennifer gave a throwaway smile at Zach, and whispered in Holland’s ear.

  “I know, yes. Sorry gentleman, but I have matters to attend to. Jason, get Zach up to speed on the camp’s situation.” She and her political advisor walked quickly off and disappeared through some doors.

  “Er, well the situations not good. We lost three hundred and twenty one soldiers. So, there’s that.”

  Zach felt the weight of that news. “What exactly are our troop levels now?”
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br />   “Before last night we had around ten thousand troops, that also included squads such as the one you were part of. There were sixteen battalions, and…”

  “So in this camp we have over fourteen million people but yet only around ten thousand troops to defend them all?”

  Jason looked anxiously. “Well the council felt it would cause civil unrest if they introduced a draft, and especially during…”

  “I get it. So how many of the walls were breached? And what’s the status with the remaining E.L.F’s outside the walls?”

  Jason moved forward to a computer keyboard, typed a few commands, and one of the large screens changed to a plan view of the walls. “The red markers are where the walls have been breached. Repair crews are on sight, but they say it could be months before all the holes are plugged. Sir.”

  “You don’t have to call me Sir, you’re a civilian.”

  “Umm okay, Major.”

  “Just call me Zach. How many civilians did we lose last night?”

  Jason picked up a piece of paper. “Early estimates are around eighteen hundred.”

  Zach swept his hand over his hair.

  “There’s also…”

  “Yes?”

  “There are E.L.F’s still in the camp.”

  “What? And they are being dealt with?”