by Maxey, Phil
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Even in the early morning mist Zach could see the large crowd of people some with placards as he drove up the dirt track towards the security gate. He was in the north eastern quadrant of the camp, in a largely unpopulated area. Ahead an old large aircraft hanger sized building stood out amongst the trees and surrounding low hills.
There were a high number of troops, and military vehicles. No breaking them out today. Even if he could, he wasn’t sure what the next part of the plan would be. In the current situation they were safer inside the walls than outside, and the camp wasn’t so huge that eventually they couldn’t be found anyway.
“Cascaders are not like us!”, “We are all human beings, Free the Cascaders!” People shouting and holding banners which were for and against those inside the large building pushed and shoved along the fifteen foot high metal fence. Amongst them Zach spotted people crying and pleading with the guards to let them in.
Fiona sat in silence.
He drove up to the gate and stopped. He showed his security card to the man at the gate who radioed someone. The entrance then opened and he drove forward. They were soon parking next to a number of Humvees that were already there. He noticed Raj walking quickly towards him as he and Fiona got out.
The sounds of distant gun batteries on the wall firing, boomed on the horizon. Raj handed them more security cards, which were white with the words “Visitor” on them. “Trow had to do a lot of convincing to let you see them. Follow me.”
As they walked to the closest door, the pot marked and fire stained walls of the old building loomed above them. Large multi-paneled windows from a different era reflected what there was, of the morning light. They all showed the guard their credentials, he then swiped his own card and they walked into a corridor with bare concrete walls.
“Remember, don’t be fooled by how old this place looks, everywhere you are on this compound you are being watched.” His eyes flicked upwards to a camera discretely placed in the corner near another door. “I only have access to internal doors, even I can’t leave the building without someone letting me out.” He swiped his card, and a wall of noise hit them.
For a moment Zach’s focus was lost amongst a sea of people sitting, standing and laying on the multitude of bundles of blankets, but then he saw her. Abbey was sitting on a small wall talking to a small group of people, next to her was Cal.
“You only have fifteen minutes, make it count,” said Raj looking guilty. Fiona gave him a stern look, then she and Zach ran over to Abby and Cal.
Each couple immediately hugged, causing Cal and Abbey to both smile and wince in pain.
An elderly man in his early seventies, a woman of similar age, and a young boy who Zach and Fiona immediately recognized were all sitting and standing nearby.
“We don’t have long, how are you?” said Zach, kneeling down in front of Abbey.
“Everything considered, I’m doing okay.”
“They haven’t started any weird experiments on you yet?” said Fiona. The elderly woman hugged the young boy to her.
Abbey looked at the young boy. “No need to worry Ant, it will just be a few tests, then we can all go home.” She looked at the elderly woman. “Maybe Ant might want to see the rest of the factory?” the lady nodded and walked off with the young boy. Abbey then turned to Zach and Fiona.
“They said they will start today, but we have no idea what kind of tests they are going to do.”
“Damn brown-coats the lot of them, I know my history, this is how it begins,” said the elderly man.
“I’m going to talk to Raj and find out what exactly they are planning to do, if anything don’t sound right, we will get you and Cal out of here, I promise,” said Zach leaning into Abbey so not to have to talk too loud.
“And then what? Where will we go? And there seems to be more attacks on the walls nearby? We have been hearing it for most of the night.” said Abbey.
“We can survive outside these walls if we need too,” replied Fiona.
“Where in the camp are we?” said Abbey.
“North eastern quadrant. There are multiple layers of security. Two sets of security cards by the looks of it, and then there are guards, and then an exterior fence about half a mile out,” replied Zach.
“We need to cause a fuss, if we all refuse to cooperate, what they going to do, shoot us all?” said the old man.
“This is Gerik,” said Abbey.
Zach smiled and shook Gerik's hand.
“He might have a point,” said Cal.
One of a number of armed guards who was standing along the walls, started walking towards them.
Zach and Fiona both hugged Abbey and Cal respectively once more, this time for a little longer.
“The boy, he’s name is Anthony? Anthony Trow?”
Abbey went to say something then changed track as she realized the significance of his surname. “He’s related to the General?”
“Yes, he’s her grandson. Tell him, his grandmother is thinking of him, and he will be home soon. Abbey, get some rest, and I’ll see you soon,” said Zach walking away with Fiona. He then approached the soldier that was walking in their direction. “I want to see Doctor Joshi.” The soldier looked nonchalantly at Zach, and then clicked on his radio. After a few moments he got a reply. “Follow me.”
The soldier took them through a different corridor, which led into a large white room, filled with desks, people wearing lab coats and large standalone cells partitioned in the middle by a clear wall.
Raj quickly walked up to them. “That will be all soldier.”
Fiona walked up to one of the cells. “So this is where you will be keeping them? In cages like animals?”
Raj looked anxiously at the scientists around him. “These chambers are designed to keep everyone safe, us, them and the E.L.F’s.”
“What! You’re putting them in with E.L.F’s?” Fiona’s raised voice caught the attention of those nearby.
Raj walked over to her. “Not in with them, there is a partition. The safety of the Cascaders is our highest concern.”
“So you’re calling them that now as well?” said Zach.
Raj sighed. “The soldier said there was something you wanted to talk to me about? I’m very busy, if you hadn’t noticed the camp is being attacked on a daily basis now, and we think it’s connected somehow to the Cascaders,” Raj looked away tired. “At least that’s the only reason we can think of.”
“Abbey said there will be experiments done, what kind?”
“We want to know the extent of their abilities, and if possible what connection they have to the E.L.F’s. If we can learn what that is, maybe we can subdue it somehow, so the effected can lead a normal life and maybe the creatures on the outside will stop attacking.”
“She’s already a normal person Raj, you just spent the last few days traveling with her! You know that!” said Zach, not truly being honest about his own feelings.
“I’m sorry, I really do need to get back to the work, the soldier will see you out. Hand your cards back to him when you leave the building.” Raj disappeared back into the hive of activity around them.
Soon they were getting back into the Humvee. Fiona looked at Zach and smiled. “Can’t believe it worked, I really thought they would search us.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Elijah Drake turned over his final cards and pulled all the chips towards him.
A man in a bright yellow shirt stood up knocking his chair to the ground. “You’re a goddamn cheat! There’s no way you can be that lucky.”
“It’s not luck son, I’m just good at cards.”
“Maybe you and me have a chat and we find out just how old you really are,” the other two men at the table stood up and started putting their jackets on. The noise in the smokey den slightly dipped but was still enough to eclipse the sound of the air raid sirens outside.
“Yeah we could do that, but then someone in this room around us would wait fo
r you to leave, maybe in one of the areas where it’s really dark around here, and beat the living crap out of you.”
“Yeah? And why do they care what I do to you?”
“Because I’ve already paid them to do to someone whatever they might do to me. I’ve been winning at cards longer than you been taking a leak standing up. I always take the same precaution.”
The man looked around him unsure of what to do next.
“I tell you what, you be back here same time next Wednesday and I’ll give you a chance to win your money back, what you say?”
The man angrily put his jacket back on, grabbing his bottle of beer from the table. “You better be here old man.” He then left.
Elijah got up uneasily, put his coat on, and scooped up his chips. He then walked slowly over to the bar, avoiding eye contact with those that were watching him. “I’ll take the usual May.”
A young woman wearing an obvious fake bright red wig, placed a number of canned goods, and bottled drinks into a small box and slid it to him.
Taking the box under one arm he left the chips on the counter and left the underground gambling establishment, walking into the winter night and the sirens and heavy gunfire from the gun emplacements above his head. He walked along the sidewalk of the new city he had grown to call home, watching the ground so not to fall over something in the dark around him. With his leg the way it was, falling might mean not getting up for a while. The few lights from buildings that he passed flickered as the generator at the dam struggled to provide enough electricity for homes and defensive purposes. As he walked into the growing shadows, he felt the presence of someone waiting ahead.
The man with the yellow shirt stepped forward. “You think I believed that bullshit about someone coming to get me?” he said the words mockingly, and with a swift movement, kicked Elijah square in the mid-drift knocking him to the floor and scattering the contents of the box into the road.
He tried to get up but the wind was gone from inside him, so he sat back down and watched the man who just kicked him busily picking the items up and putting them back inside the box.
“I’d rather have the chips, but fuck it, this shit will do.” The man then looked around and started walking away. When he reached the end of the street, he stopped and turned. “See you around, old man!” He then disappeared around the corner.
Elijah slowly got to his feet, just as the large man in a dark jacket walked past him, moving fast towards the end of the street.
“They never learn,” said Elijah under his breath.
Twenty minutes later he walked into his building, up the creaking stairs and into his small apartment. The light from the one street lamp in the area dissipated the gloom just enough as he walked into his modest kitchen and put the slightly scuffed box of canned goods and bottled drinks down on a small table.
It had been another long night and he just wanted to sink into his bed, when he spotted something on the floor near the door he just closed. Walking over the naked floorboards, he bent down, groaning doing so and picked up the white envelope, with “For Elijah Drake,” on the front.
Opening it revealed a letter, with the Central Operations address and stamp at the top.
“Your presence is required at Central Operations tomorrow at 10 am.”
Elijah sighed. Hand delivered. He then turned it over, the other side was blank. It felt good to leave behind the Jacob persona even if it meant losing the few friends he gained during his escape from the prison in New Mexico and he had no intention of working for the military ever again. But then, they also provided him with his apartment which even though it had damp and he could hear his neighbors like they were in the same room with him, was still his. For a man of his age, who was still around after the world had ended, his lot wasn’t too bad. As he put the letter down next to the box, the street lamp outside flickered one last time and went out.
*****
Elijah sat in one of five smart but simple chairs along the glossy wall in the main entrance lobby at the Core. Men and woman in uniform busily ran about him. He had been waiting twenty-four minutes and his patience was just about gone when a soldier walked up to him.
“This way Major Drake.”
“I’m long retired son, Mr. Drake will do.”
Elijah followed the soldier into the elevator. Soon he was sitting again, this time in a cramped waiting area outside Amanda Holland’s council office. Luckily he didn’t have to wait as long, and a young man showed him inside.
“Take a seat Major.”
“Mr. Drake, or Elijah, either will do.”
“With your pardon, you still get to use Major if you want.”
Elijah smiled.
“How’s the leg?”
“As expected.”
“And how’s the apartment? I understand you have been using those maths skills of yours to earn extra money.”
Elijah expected they were keeping an eye on him and wasn’t surprised by her admission. “Man’s gotta make a living, and manual labor is no longer an option.”
Holland poured herself some water. “Water? Or maybe you would like some coffee? Tea?”
“I would rather just know what you want to ask of me, so I can say no and be on my way.”
Holland smiled and sat back down in her chair.
“I presume you heard of Colonels escape a few days ago.”
“I don’t watch the news, but yeah I heard.”
“Well, he’s now dead.”
“Good, what’s that got to do with me?”
“A small squad went after him, and with some help he was killed. But they also came up against a much larger group that are based in Atlanta. A group you may have heard of called the Hell Fire gang.”
“Still not seeing what this has to do with me.”
Holland breathed out with a little frustration. “This gang numbers at least six hundred, and is well armed. They are also responsible we think for the deaths of people at a number of our stations.”
Elijah looked down. “Yeah I remember.”
“This gang, has a leader by the name of…”
“Geneva, I know.”
“Now we could send a force out to Atlanta, but between the new attacks from the E.L.F’s and not knowing how many people he really does have, we think there’s another way to solve the problem.”
Elijah looked confused for a moment and then realized why he was there. “You want me to cut the head off the snake.”
She opened a folder in front of her. “Most of your record is redacted, but there’s enough still here that tells me you were once very good at that.”
Elijah leaned forward. “Councilor Holland. I’m seventy-six years old, if you hadn’t guessed that means I’m not exactly in my prime, what use can I be for you?”
“If you can win every time at Texas Hold 'em you got all I need, and that’s that mind of yours. I think General Trow was premature in benching you.”
Elijah looked reluctant. “It ain’t much, but I like my life. I get to play some cards, take money from young fools, I sleep when I want and do what I want.”
Holland leaned forward. “Elijah, I’m sure you have been hearing what has been happening these past few weeks. This whole camp is constantly hanging from a thread. Every day something happens which eats away at us, and each day we try to repair the damage. If this Geneva comes at us, or even if he tours the country taking out all the stations we have, it makes it more likely that one day that thread will snap, and then there’s no going back. We are it, the last camp on this continent. That life of yours that isn’t much? It’s still better than being out there, beyond the walls.”
He sighed. “I want a better apartment, and an income.”
“Done and done.”
“Okay, tell me what you know about him.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Abbey sat in the small enclosed space, with the electrodes strapped to her skull and other places over her body. The smell of bleach still invaded her s
enses, but on this third day of visiting the cell she had gotten used to it. On the other side of the clear partition sat a thing. That’s about as good of a description as she could give to it. It was about four feet high and consisted of hundreds of inch long white spikes, spread out over an oval shaped torso. If it had eyes or a nose or anything she had she didn’t know, and she had long stopped caring.
“Just tell me what you want me to do and I’ll get on with it,” she said quietly.
A neutral male voice emanated from a speaker somewhere in the wall behind her. “As before Abbey, try to command the creature to do something.”
Each session was an hour, and consisted of her using her special abilities to make an E.L.F do something. Sometimes it would and sometimes it wouldn’t. She didn’t understand what the difference was, and after talking to some other others in the detention centre, found she wasn’t alone in that. Sometimes she would get a glimpse of Raj, looking agitated and talking angrily to those around him, but never would he acknowledge her presence.
This time the creature reacted to her closing her eyes, and sinking inside herself. She found that if she let the tingling build it became something else, a feeling of being released from her own mind. And when she was in that state, sometimes, but not always, commanding the creatures in front of her would make them do just such a command.
The things spikes all protracted and it shrunk a few inches in size. It then moved away from her, slumping in the corner. It was then she noticed its eyes, which looked cat like and sorrowful.
“Good, Abbey, very good. That will be all for today, the guard will be in shortly to take you back.”
As she walked back, limping and barefoot over the cold concrete, she held onto the one good thing she still had, something which got her through each day, the short conversation she would have with Zach on the radio. He and Fiona smuggled it in three days earlier along with a handgun which Cal kept hidden in a rusty pipe in the main hall, where they slept. It might not be enough to allow them to escape but it was nice knowing it was there.
