by Maxey, Phil
“Abbey?” he kept his voice low to try and not surprise her.
“Oh hey Zach boy…” she said turning around, with a small glass bottle in one hand, while the other only just about gripped the edge of the roof.
He could tell whatever was in that bottle was not water.
“Hey, you okay? Probably best if you came inside,” he said trying to plot a course across the roof which didn’t involve him falling to his death.
“Nah, I’m good. Too many people in there, out there, everywhere! Ha.”
Zach pushed one leg across the window frame, and felt for something solid to put his weight on, on the other side.
Abbey turned back to facing the area outside the front of the house. Mo sat on the roof of a nearby window arch. “Did you know they say that Stalin killed around nine million people?”
Zach stopped climbing out of the window to look up. “What?”
She tried to take a sip from the bottle. “Ugh, I knew I should have brought up two!” She then tossed it into the dark. The sound of a thud quickly followed. She looked over the edge. “Hmm didn’t break.”
Voices came from below.
“Where was I. Right, yeah he killed a lot. And there was that other guy, you know the Nazi that killed millions, but none on my scale. No one truly global until I came along. Cheers to me!”
Zach inched along the top of the roof. Almost with her. “Why don’t we go back inside—”
“My friggin boss. If he had just not done what he did, then I wouldn’t have done what I did and the satellites wouldn’t have done what they did…”
Zach was just a lunge away from her. Keep her talking. “Satellites?”
“Yes!” She whipped around with such speed that she slipped from her position and began falling over the side. Zach dived forward, while screams from the ground below rose into the sky.
Scrambling to the edge, he looked over not wanting to see. Relief washed over him. Mo had her arm gripped within one of his clawed hands, and was slowly descending to the ground.
Abbey landed gently and looked angrily at the small crowd that was around her. “What you all looking at!” she then staggered forward a few feet and picked up her bottle. “Anyone got a refill?”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Clovis and Lilly strolled confidently down the middle of main street in the town of Marlin, Colorado. Shadows were long as the sun was about to make its first appearance for the day, and the sky was clear.
Small apartment blocks and homes sat on both sides of the four lane road. Soon they arrived at a junction. Lilly spun around looking in all four directions. “Which way boss?”
Clovis briefly closed his eyes. “Forward,” he growled through his hair that now hung down around his face and neck, free of its usual piece of string that kept it together.
They came up to a row of stores, on both sides of the street. Clovis stopped.
Lilly turned around. “Why we stopping?”
“Wait.”
She then heard a noise which made her whip her head around, and reach into the rear of her pants where her handgun was located. A spark flew up near her feet, followed by the sound of a gunshot. She crouched down looking for the source.
“Don’t try reaching for any weapon girl!” shouted a voice from somewhere around them. “You! The big fella, if you got a gun, put it on the ground and kick it forward, you do the same girl!”
“You just said don’t reach for—”
“Just do it!”
Lilly frowned and went to pull her gun from her pants.
“Don’t,” said Clovis, making her freeze. He then looked around him. There was movement on some of the roofs. Up ahead a vehicle was approaching.
“We’re a bit exposed out here,” said Lilly.
Clovis stood tall and motionless.
A green pickup pulled up twenty feet from them. Two men jumped out of the back both with rifles, while two more got out of the front. The driver, a man with a white beard, walked forward towards them slowly with his shotgun aimed squarely at Clovis’s chest.
“I reckon you took a wrong turn son.”
“You have guns? Food? Water?”
The man frowned. “It don’t matter—”
A blood-curdling scream came from somewhere on one of the roofs. The men’s guns swung towards the right. Another scream came from the left together with a gunshot. The men flipped their attention to that direction.
“What the hell…” said the man.
“Look!” said one of the other men.
Rising up on the roofs on both sides of the street, were beasts. Each one the size of a large car, with bear like heads and bodies, but with six legs.
“He’s one of them!” said another of the now panicking men.
The man with the beard raised his gun. “Look we don’t want any trouble, we got some supplies you can have, then you leave us be, yeah?”
“Where is your base?”
“Just umm, just a few streets over.”
Clovis grinned.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Abbey’s eyes opened into the gloom of the bedroom, but even that was too bright and she promptly shut them again. A pain in her head coordinated with her heartbeat as she laid, trying to remember what happened fourteen hours earlier.
Flashes of being up high and then falling entered and left her mind, although maybe that last part was a dream, she wasn’t sure. A knock came at the door, causing her to duck down slightly under the covers.
“You awake?” said Brad through the door.
She wasn’t sure if she wanted to reply. “Yes,” she said. Just the single word causing an extra throb in her head.
The door opened, and Brad walked in with a tray, which he put down on the end of the bed.
“There are some painkillers there with some water, and some cookies.”
She pushed herself up. “Thanks.”
“How are you?”
She picked up the pills, and swallowed them quickly with the water. “Fine.”
“I meant, how are you in other ways? If it weren’t for your E.L.F you might not be here with us right now.”
She looked at him surprised. “What did I do?”
Brad got to his feet. “Maybe you should talk to Zach.”
“Do you know where he is?”
“Getting ready to go to the airport, the medical team from Bravo arrives in a few hours. Zach, Bower and his squad need to get there early and secure the runway.” He walked to the door before stopping and turning back around. “Do you really need to go to Boston?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation.
Brad nodded, then left closing the door behind him.
Abbey picked up a slice of toast and put it back down. Words, sights and sounds moved through her mind from the night before, each one accompanied by a pulse of pain.
She threw the covers back and swung her legs around until they rested on the rug on the floor. She looked at the world outside through the window. Fluffy clouds mixed with blue sky.
Walking to it, she looked out. Hundreds of people milled around, most with purpose. Wooden frames were already vertical for the buildings being constructed. She spotted Zach walking to a Humvee.
Quickly she got dressed, trying to ignore the pain in her head and ran down to the hallway, and then outside. She briefly looked up at the high window arch, and then back towards the Humvee. Zach was waving. As she walked towards him whispers and strange looks came from those around her.
“How you feeling?” he said.
“How you would expect I guess. You’re heading out to the airfield?”
Zach looked at Bower who nodded and got into the other Humvee. “Yeah. Need to get these people better medical supplies and help. There’s also a convoy that’s left the camp with a lot of serious hardware that’s going to make a real difference around here.”
“That’s good.”
“Yeah, umm… we should talk later.”
He knows. He k
nows what I did.
“Sure.”
Zach briefly kissed her on the cheek and got into the Humvee next to Fiona.
Abbey watched as the two vehicles along with a truck carrying troops moved out.
*****
Zach looked out at the largely flat landscape with warehouses and the occasional clump of trees. “There’s plenty of room for expansion around here.”
Fiona nodded.
As they skirted the outskirts of the town, small pleasant looking homes passed by, until they turned off between a row of trees, and drove up a narrow road to a small arch roofed building.
Zach and Fiona got out, as did the others. Troops fanned out from the truck and kneeled looking at the landscape around them.
Large aircraft hangers sat in the distance as well as a number of single-engine planes that laid like scattered toys across the runway.
“We need to get those planes moved,” said Zach. He looked at the time on his radio. 11: 20 am, an hour before the transport plane from Texas was scheduled to land. “There should be ropes and chains in the truck, we’ll use them to move what we can’t shift by hand.”
Bower nodded, and set about giving the troops different tasks to get the airfield cleared.
Diaz approached Zach scratching the back of her neck.
“What is it?”
She scrunched up her face. “Hmm, dunno.”
“E.L.F’s?”
“Nah. Well I dunno, I don’t think so. Maybe something way, way off in the distance.”
“Let me know if it becomes more than an itch.”
She nodded.
Zach walked towards a small building that would have been the check in point for pilots and passengers. The inside was largely untouched, with flight school brochures spread out over a wooden counter. In the corner a large dead plant sat with brown dry leaves. He walked back out and followed were he saw Bower go, which was into one of the large hangers.
The huge doors were raised and inside sat a small passenger jet, the type which magazines aimed at the super rich usually had on their covers. The stairs to gain entry were down, and all around the ground at the base were dark red stains.
Bower appeared from the plane. “You don’t mind if I take this back with me do you?” he shouted to Zach, who smiled.
The roar of engines came from outside, together with the sound of men and women straining. It wasn’t long before the wreckages were moved off to the grassy verge, and the landing strip was clear.
Bower, Diaz and Zach stood outside the front of the small building.
Zach looked at his radio, then the cloudy sky. “It’s just gone noon, we should pick them up on the radios soon.”
“This is Brigadier General Felton at the airfield near the Kentucky outpost for the transport plane outbound from Camp Bravo. Over.”
Only static came from the radio’s speaker. He noticed Diaz was rubbing her neck again. “You sensing something?”
“Yeah I think.” She walked forward onto the airfield and looked around, while pulling her cap off and putting it back on her head, the opposite way around. “From the—”
Zach’s radio came to life. “This is Captain Carver on route from Camp Bravo, of the transport plane Whiskey Alfa Two Nine Nine, we are roughly… twenty minutes out from your destination. Over.”
“Hear you loud and clear Captain. How’s the flight been? Over.”
“Had some trouble near Dallas but we have a Cascader onboard that helped out. Over.”
“Is your Cascader sensing anything now? Over.”
“Hold on. Over.”
A few moments of silence passed before the Captain came back. “She said there might be something some miles to the north-east. Over.”
“Our Cascader is saying the same. Okay, stay sharp we will try to find out what we’re dealing with and get back to you. Over.”
“Yes, Sir. Over.”
Zach looked at Diaz who was now further away, looking down the sight of her rifle. “Anything?” he shouted.
“Something’s coming, but I ain’t seeing it yet.”
Zach looked at Bower. “We need to protect the landing strip so they can at least get down.”
Bower nodded, then clicked on his radio. “Freeman, position troops at intervals along the edge of the landing strip, I also want a concentration of people at the end of the strip to the north. Take one of the Humvees up there. Over.”
Zach looked up at the sky towards the north. Only small glimpses of blue were now visible and a gentle wind blew.
Troops ran across the light gray concrete seemingly in all directions, while the Humvee drove away.
Zach walked out and joined Diaz, but looked in the opposite direction with the scope on his rifle. He then clicked on his radio. “Captain, I think I see you. Can you see anything of what might be coming from the north? Over.”
“We see something, but can’t make out exactly what yet. Our Cascader is telling me that there’s more than one E.L.F on the way. We’re only a few minutes out, should be able to get down before whatever it is, gets here. Just need cover while we deploy, and getting back up again. Over.”
“We have troops around the runway. We’ll do our best. Over.”
Zach turned and looked at Diaz. “What you think they are?”
“Nothing I’ve encountered before. But there’s a lot of them, look.”
Zach shook his head. We can’t get a break. He then looked down his scope to the north.
A dark mass of something was moving towards them.
“I’m not going to be able to affect more than just a few,” said Diaz, her voice sounding tight.
“Get yourself to cover,” he pointed. “That Hanger might be the best bet.”
She looked at him concerned.
“I’ll be right behind you.”
She ran off.
He clicked on his radio. “Bower, what you see from where you are? Over.”
“Winged crocodiles is about as close as I can get it. Maybe fifty, sixty. Going to be a problem if they want to drop down for a visit. Over.”
Zach whipped around to face the south. The transport plane was now clearly visible, and was descending. This is going to be close.
His radio crackled once again and he held it to his ear. “Brigadier General, we can see the winged creatures. They are on the same route as ourselves, are you sure you got things covered? It’s now or never, sir. Over.”
Zach looked at the creatures growing closer. He could now see their large bat like wings flapping. It looked like they were going to continue their path over them. “You have a go ahead, Captain bring her—”
He then sensed something out of the corner of his eye. He turned toward the hanger. Diaz was running towards him, while trying to click on her radio.
“What is it Diaz? Over.”
The twin-engine plane roared and the wheels screeched as it touched down a few hundred yards to Zach’s right.
“Something—coming—east,” said Diaz from his radio.
He looked ahead across the runway, but trees blocked his view of more than a few hundred yards. He clicked on his radio. “I can’t see—”
The trees fell like matchsticks and creatures standing twice as high as them, with glossy amphibian like skin piled onto the runway, immediately jumping hundreds of feet up into the air trying to snatch at the flying creatures.
Zach could see what was about to transpire but was powerless to stop it. The large creature landed back on the runway with one of the winged creatures within its jaws, directly in the path of the plane. It turned violently to one side, causing the wing to touch the ground.
Sparks flew up and the plane started to spin around as the giant newt like creature thrashed its head from side to side, trying to render lifeless the winged thing that was still clawing at its attacker.
Solders started to fire at the large creatures, but quickly gave up and started running.
One of the plane’s landing gear crumpled and the pla
ne slammed onto the concrete while spinning relentless across the ground.
“Give the plane covering fire!” shouted Zach into his radio, as he ran towards the plane that still hadn’t come to a standstill. Diaz and Bower with his squad did the same, as the sky above them became swamped with the flying creatures that started to fight back. Wings with talons attached, swooped down and sliced across the much larger creatures, causing them to swipe at the air around them.
Solders darted left and right trying to avoid being caught up in the melee around them.
One of the large creatures fell backwards onto the wing of the plane, snapping it clean off, then fell further back causing the body of the plane to slide backwards. As Zach ran towards the smoking fuselage he saw soldiers being picked up and flown high into the sky, screaming and firing their guns into the creatures above them.
The two Humvees skidded to a halt near the rear exit of the plane which was already open. Both of the main guns started to open fire, at anything that came close. Some of the flying creatures were hit and came tumbling onto the runway, which the larger creatures quickly pounced on and devoured.
Zach looked at Diaz. Her eyes were closed and her hands were out in front of her. One of the large creatures lifted the winged beast it had in its hands, and immediately started swatting others with it that came near the plane.
People and equipment started pouring out of the back. The troops that were left and Bowers squad started escorting them into the Humvees and truck which had now also arrived.
As soon as the truck was filled to overflowing, it pulled away with a start heading back towards the buildings.
“Let’s get the hell out of here!” shouted Zach, as roars and screeches filled the air.
