by Maxey, Phil
She looked upwards mouth agape. Vines amassed over everything, making most things look like they were part of the landscape, but she could recognize cars and buildings under it all. She felt faint. The heat was too much. Something was telling her to wake up, but she didn’t understand as she wasn’t asleep. She fell to her knees, and started to strip off her clothes to get some air to her skin, it was then she realized she wasn’t wearing any, and her skin, was made of scales.
Abbey woke with a shudder. She couldn’t feel any of her limbs, but felt strangely warm, at least her neck and head did. Hypothermia? Don’t panic. Her breath was barely visible leaving her mouth as she looked around her. She then tried wiggling her toes, her fingers on her good hand, anything she could do to get sensation back. She also started moving her head from side to side. Gradually feeling returned to her thighs, then her calfs, then her feet inside her boots. She sat up, and wiped away the condensation from the closest window to her. The morning light was shining onto the concrete floor illuminating a patch of ice. She then quickly wiped the other windows to give her an all round view. Alone. She looked at her wrist on her left hand and tried moving some of her fingers. Some of them twitched. Guess I’ll learn to type with one hand. She giggled, and then a wave of emotion flooded over her which she let pass.
She awkwardly swallowed. Need water. Leaning forward, she unlocked the doors, and opened the back one. Instantly the chilled air flooded in, and she realized how much warmer it had been inside. She stood up outside and stretched, which was hard because of the amount of extra clothing she had on. She then walked over and picked up the ice that had formed. Placing chunks in her mouth she bit down on it, moving it around as it stung her tongue and gums, until it melted. Right, food.
Moving back to the car, she removed a few layers, which weren’t providing her much warmth and were just restricting her movement. She thought about using them to tie her left arm to her chest but thought she would rather have it free, even if the pain from it was so painful it made her feel sick if she hit something with it.
Taking one last look at the back seat, she went to move off then stopped. Opening the front door, she pulled open the glove box, and instantly smiled. She slowly pulled out a candy bar in a navy blue wrapper. It’s sell by date was six months ago, but she didn’t care. Tearing the packet gently, she sniffed at it, and absorbed the smell of chocolate. She then pulled some out and started eating.
It was only a small bar and was devoured within a minute, but the boost it gave her went beyond just the calories she just injected. Standing outside the car, she closed the door quietly, and looked around. There were still car doors to try on this level, but before she did any of that, she wanted to see what was around her. Turning, she headed up the slope, round and around until she came out onto the wind swept roof.
The sky was large and blue above her, and for a moment she felt free from the situation she was in, but then she saw it. A collection of furniture, broken trees, various clothes and what looked like bones, were all gathered together in a ring formation. Nest? It had to be, and she instinctively crouched down, and looked all around her. Nothing. She also wasn’t getting any tingling in her neck, which she had learned to trust even if she had no idea why it was happening. Standing, she moved closer to the pile of forgotten objects and looked into its center. It was empty. She then rushed to the closest wall and looked over. The street she came in from was just about visible below, but any hope of seeing far was dashed due to the high buildings which surrounded her. Only on one side could she see more than a mile and that was further inwards towards even taller structures. Think Abbey, think. What would Zach be doing right now? How can I help?
She knew he would be coming to Atlanta to rescue her. She felt it. She also knew he would probably be coming into the city from the west. But then Tinley would know that too. Zach would also probably get to a high point so he could see where Tinley was, and he would probably enter the city at night. If I could only get him a message somehow.
Her thoughts were then interrupted by the sound of a vehicle. It was some streets away, but it was definitely an engine noise of some kind. She ducked down. The vehicle noise grew, and then it stopped somewhere in the street below. Zach? She had to know. Slowly rising, she looked over the top of the wall. It wasn’t Zach. Instead a light green pickup, with a hastily welded light machine gun on the back sat with its engine idling. There were two men inside the truck, neither Abbey recognized. One was talking on a radio. Keep going, keep going. The last time she prayed to a higher power she was in her teens, but she found herself instinctively doing so now. Unfortunately her prayers were not answered and the truck drove into the parking garage.
The sound of its engine echoed around the walls below her. It’s coming up here. Damn. She looked around desperately for somewhere to hide, but there was only one place. The nest. She glanced up at the sky, and ran towards the twisted metal and wood, climbing over chairs and roots until she was inside it. She then crouched down. The pickup’s engine roared and it came onto the top floor, stopping twenty feet from her. One of its doors opened, and she could hear a man’s voice carried on the wind.
“We have covered most of south of the city. Over,” there was a pause. “She could be in any of these buildings. I’m going to need more men. Over.”
As the man continued to talk, Abbey looked up into the sky and saw it. It was small at first, a dark shape rapidly growing in size. No. No. She felt the back of her neck it was tingling. The man had stopped talking on the radio. Fuck. She rose slightly and glimpsed through the broken twigs and furniture parts. Where is he?
“I found her!” the man was on the other side of the creature made barricade. “Don’t make me come in there and get you!”
Abbey crouched even lower, touching her neck. Then everything around her got swept away as a gust of wind descended from above.
“Shit!” shouted the man and the sound of gunfire mingled with shrieking.
Despite her instincts not to, Abbey looked up. A huge feathered creature, similar to the ones she had seen months before was hovering above her, its attention split between her and the man. The creature, at least forty foot across, came lower, its talons only a few feet away from her head. She scowled. The tingling intensified, and ran across her head like bolts of electricity. No! She waited for the claws to tear into her. But they didn’t come. Looking up, the creature hovered and looked straight at her, it then swooped down over her and grabbed the man.
The creatures sharp nails sunk into his shoulder and he was lifted off the ground. The other man ran to the back of the pickup, scrambling to get up into it and onto the large gun they had there, but he wasn’t quick enough, the creature grabbed him with its beak.
Abbey watched mesmerized as the creature struggled to gain height as the two men screamed and grabbed at the vice like grip which was holding them aloft. The creature gave one last shriek and dropped in height, its wing crashing against the outer wall, and then together with its cargo dropped over the side.
There was a distant thump. She shook her head to break free of the scene she just witnessed and ducked and looked upwards again. There was nothing there, and the tingling that had been eating at her had gone.
Carefully she stepped through the broken parts of the nest and stepped back onto the concrete.
“Reese? You there Reese? Over.” The mans radio sat on the ground. For a moment Abbey was almost afraid of it, like whoever was on the other end would see her somehow, but she then quickly grabbed it. The pickup sat with its engine idling. She dared not look, but moving past the pickup, she looked over the wall towards the street below. Only the creature with its huge wings strewn across the sidewalk could be seen.
Turning around, she ran back to the pickup, threw the radio on the seat next to her, and turned it around. Taking a deep breath, she drove down the numerous slopes until she reached the ground floor. Creeping out of the building, she had a quick look left and right, and then headed so
uth.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Martin Long sat studying his face in the large mirror on the dressing table. He did this every morning before he applied his makeup. The room around him was exuberant in its decor. Purple and pink velvet cushions fought for space amongst lush antique pieces of furniture and the other things. The things he cherished above all else.
The morning light bathed the side of his face. Looking closer to the mirror he studied every line on his middle-aged face. Am I old? It was a question he often wondered, especially before his mask was applied. Carefully opening his jar of white face paint, he plunged his fingers into it, got a small amount and started dabbing it on his face, being careful to avoid his lips and eyebrows.
After a few minutes, he was transformed. Not old anymore. He smiled. For his stage act he also used to wear a wig, but why now bother? The face would have to suffice. He then picked up his brush, dabbed it into the black powder and brushed it over his eyebrows. Finally, he picked up his purple lipstick and applied it thickly to his lips. Done.
He looked upon his face, the face of a magician. A man that for thirty years toured the backwater parts of America with his partners in crime, Jack Russell dogs.
Getting up, he turned around and walked to the first of them. Rocky. He was the first and the reason he had an act at all. He started out as the run of mill magician. Rabbits and doves would appear from places they shouldn’t, and he was good at it, one of the best he used to tell himself. But it wasn’t enough to earn him anything more than a motel room to live out of. Then one night walking home from another half drunk audience, a Jack Russell started following him.
He tried to shoo it off, even shouting obscenities at it multiple times, but this dog wouldn’t leave. Finally he made it back to his room, and the dog looked so sad he had no choice but to let him stay the night. And another night. After a week, with no sight of anyone looking for a dog, he decided he would take him as his own, and so named him Rocky.
He didn’t become part of the act for months though. The motel owners started to get antsy about their furniture being chewed when Martin was out doing his act, so to keep the peace and his room, he took the dog with him. And one night, while doing another of his perfectly rehearsed acts, the dog somehow got loose from the room he was in and charged onto the stage, barking, and jumping and thoroughly messing up his trick. But the audience loved it. Right there and then Martin realized fate had handed him a gift in the shape of a yappy, brown and white dog. The money started to increase, and he had a specially designed cart made for Rocky to travel in, which connected to the back of his motorbike.
Ultimately the day came though, twelves year later when Rocky was too old to go on stage, and jump and bark.
“Morning Rocky,” he said patting the stuffed animal on its soft head. He then moved to the next, “Morning Eno,” and finally he picked up a small collar which sat on a bright red pillow, embodied with the name “Ollie”. Holding the collar to his chest, he smiled and thought of how bright and fun his last stage partner used to be. A tear started to well in his left eye. He tried not to think of what Ollie turned into. What all the animals became. Devils and monsters.
Putting the collar carefully back down. He pulled on his leather pants, white shirt, thick jumper, denim jacket and boots. Not the old uniform he used to wear, but now he had a different audience, he had to play a new role.
He took one last look at his latest motel room, then left. The large gold framed poster which traveled with him wherever he went rattled on the wall. “TONIGHT IN LAS VEGAS THE ASTOUNDING GENEVA AND THE AMAZING OLLIE!”
CHAPTER TWENTY
After the close call in the national forest the scenery hardly changed, only broken by the occasional view over distance cities and factories. But almost always the thicket of leafless trees, some covered in snow, some frost, kept them walled in.
On a few occasions, usually when they were passing through a built up area Cal would get his tingling sensation, but it was always mild and quickly faded. Even when their route took them over bridges which repeatedly covered large areas of water, and they would see E.L.F’s way off in the distance, the creatures kept far away.
But as the convoy got to about forty miles from Atlanta the tingling returned and this time it wasn’t going away.
“Umm I think there’s something coming our way,” said Cal.
“Can you tell where it’s coming from?” said Raj.
Cal shook his head. He knew if he concentrated he would be back in the strange realm where he would see E.L.F’s as bright dots on a three dimensional radar screen, but he really didn’t want to visit that place again, so he just tried to feel where it was probably coming from.
“I think from the east.”
“That’s directly on the route we are on. Still coming?”
“Yup.”
Zach clicked on his radio. “Bass, Michael, we might have an E.L.F coming at us on this highway, slow down for a moment. Over.”
The vehicles all slowed in unison.
“Now?”
“Still coming.”
“Damn,” he clicked on the radio again. “Bass, Michael, we need to stop. Stay close together, but make sure the guns are pointing east, and get ready for anything.”
The convoy stopped. Soldiers jumped down from the truck, and moved into the nearby woods. Bass emerged from the top of the tank, and looked east with a scope.
Zach’s radio came to life with his voice. “Zach, it’s a vehicle about three miles out coming fast. Could be Tinley’s people sent out a greeting party, shall I blast it with the cannon? Over.”
“If it gets within half a mile, light it up. Over.”
Cal’s tingling was of a type he had felt before.
“I got to see this for myself, wait here. If things go south watch the sides of the highway, this could be an ambush,” said Zach as he got out. Cal went to say something, but Zach was already jumping up on top of the tank.
Bass glanced at Zach who stood next to him. “Looks like one driver, and they seem to have some heavy weaponry on the back,” he crouched down to address someone inside. “Ready the big gun, don’t waste too much of ammo, it’s only a pickup driven by a crazy person.”
“Can I get a quick look with the scope?”
Bass handed him the device, and Zach looked, focusing best he could. His eye had healed, but his vision had decreased. Things at too far a distance were a bit of a blur. Abbey teased him that he needed glasses.
A pale green pickup came into view. “Yeah I see them, what the fuck are they doing, can’t they see we have a tank? Get ready to fire on my mark,” Zach watched, trying to get a good view of who the driver was, but from this distance all he could make out was a dark shadow and reflections on the windscreen. “Get ready… Fire!”
A stream of red glows spat from the end of the tank’s turret and hit the highway in front of the pickup which swerved, and then came to a halt.
“Missed! At least they stopped,” said Bass. “Same again?”
Zach heard the Humvee’s door open and close behind him. “Zach, the person in the pickup, they are like me, they are effected,” said Cal.
Zach glanced down at him, not really absorbing what was being said, he then focused again with the scope at the person who was now waving at them, alongside the pickup. “It’s… a woman, I think… she’s… Oh god, everyone stand down! It’s Abbey!”
Bass looked shocked. “What the hell.”
Zach jumped down from the tank, and started running. Abbey was running too. One hundred yards. Sixty. Thirty. Ten… they embraced and Zach lifted her clear off her feet.
“Ow.” She winced in pain and held her arm to her chest.
Zach pulled away. “Sorry, how are you? Did he hurt you? Are you hurt?”
Abbey smiled while tears rolled down her face. “I’m fine, well my wrist is broken, but apart from that I’m fine Zach, I’m okay.”
Zach’s emotions tore at him, pulling him from rage f
or Tinley hurting the woman he loved to relief that she was standing in front of him, alive. He hugged her again being careful not to touch her left arm. The Humvee with Fiona driving pulled up behind them, and they all got out. Fiona ran up to Abbey and hugged her. Abbey winced once more.
“Sorry, you’re hurt?”
Abbey showed everyone her wrist. “Yeah, he broke my wrist, but that doesn’t matter, I’m here now.”
“Where is he?” Zach looked anxiously around. “Is he chasing you?”
Abbey went to reply in the negative when in the distance, almost unnoticeable a sound was coming from the pickup she had just left. A male voice. They all ran back to her pickup, where a voice they all recognized was coming from the radio on the passenger’s seat.
“Abbey… Abbey Abbey Abbey… I know you can hear me.”
Zach went to lurch for the radio, when Abbey put her hand up. “He might be triangulating where we are, from the radio.”
“Good let him come,” said Zach.
“Screw it, let’s just leave him there, what do we care what he does out here?” said Fiona.
An awkward silence moved around the group.
“We can’t leave, he has Daisy, I can’t leave her with him,” Every part of Abbey wanted to jump in the pickup and drive as fast as she could back to the camp with the others, and there was every chance that Daisy was dead, but what if she wasn’t? What if he was torturing her because she escaped?
Zach picked up the radio. “You have a woman, we want her back. You leave her for us to pick up and we leave you alone, that’s the deal. Over.”
A few seconds passed. “So the two lovebirds are back together. How do you think your ex-wife would feel about you starting again Zach? You obviously didn’t love her that much.”
Zach closed his eyes to try and control the rage inside him. Then he felt Abbey’s hand on his shoulder and calmed. “I need proof of life. Over.”
