Cascade Box Set [Books 1-8]

by Maxey, Phil

  A strange notion starting to form in Zach’s mind.

  Could the bomb have been an attempt to kill Erin?

  “Is Erin alive? Over.”

  “Yeah, Mitchell was pretty pissed that he was injured. But there’s more bad news. Mitchell is sending a squad of her people including Cascaders after them. Over.”

  “What?”

  The soldier appeared with the tablets and a plastic cup with water in it.

  “Mitchell say’s Abbey’s a threat to all Cascaders everywhere, and she must be stopped. Over.”

  “What about the toxin? We need it down here!” He tried to stop his emotion from being obvious.

  “There was no mention of that.”

  Zach swore under his breath. “Can you patch me through to the general? Over.”

  “She has cut all communication. I tried getting her back on the radio, but there’s no response from up there. What do you want us to do? Over.”

  Zach snatched the pills and water from the soldier and swallowed them, then handed the cup back to him.

  The pain coursing through his head was stopping most thoughts from forming. He sat heavily on the desk and took a deep breath.

  “Zach?”

  “I need to talk to Trow and think this through. Abbey’s probably on her way to you, but I’ll get back to you. Over.”

  Brad acknowledged, but Zach was already straining his mind to understand what could have happened.

  I can’t help her now. I need to help the people in the camp. We need that toxin.

  He took another breath trying to calm his heart and head, trying to think of any way of out the mess they were in, but each time he did his mind returned to Abbey.

  She’s out there again. Out there with him.

  One of the side doors opened and Fiona walked over to him.

  “There’s news from Brad?”

  Zach looked up. “Yeah. Things just got a whole lot more complicated.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  Mounds of rubble just visible through the thick dust loomed above Abbey as she walked the silent streets of the camp. Blocks of steel and cement, each one large enough to crush a car, sat at awkward angles threatening to collapse even further.

  Where is everyone?

  One of the shapes was out of place. Running forward, across the street, she saw it wasn’t a part of a building, but instead a clawed hoof, as big as she was tall, but completely opaque due to the thick layers of dust it was covered in.

  I’m too late.

  She felt them before her other five senses told her she was not alone. Turning around to look along the street, she shuddered. Purple lights, hundreds, each a vague humanoid form, but giant in size. The Hulathen.

  No… I need to find Zach, he will be here, in a bunker. I need to…

  Abbey abruptly opened her eyes from her dream. A faint glow that heralded the sun had already moved above the horizon, lit the floor in front of her. She had managed to find a back entrance via a loading dock, to a huge superstore, and then snuck into the first vaguely comfortable looking room she could find, an employee’s common room.

  Plant shaped blurs swayed through frosted glass windows. She went to reach into her bag for her water when she realized in front of her was a fully stocked vending machine, complete with bottles of water, candy bars and some sandwiches which had become something else.

  She then felt a presence to her left. Clovis was sitting on one of three chairs which surrounded a small round table. She quickly reached down to the floor, from the sofa she was on.

  “You looking for this?” He held up her Glock, with his finger on the trigger.

  She froze.

  He sneered. “Never liked the fancy guns.” He placed it on the table.

  “How you find me?” She was too angry with herself to allow the fear in her throat to affect her speech.

  “I’m like you remember. I know where our kind are.” He got up suddenly, grabbed a chair, walked to the vending machine, and with one swipe smashed the glass with the metal legs.

  Abbey saw the distance between him and the gun and sprang up, lunged then grabbed the weapon for herself, pointing it towards his back.

  He leaned into the machine and pulled out two bottles. “I did think about killing you. As you slept. Really thought about it.” He sighed then without turning around twisted the top off one of the bottles and gulped half of its contents down.

  Abbey’s hand wavered on the gun.

  “If you’re going to kill me, best you do it. Otherwise we need to find a new truck.”

  “They’re isn’t any ‘we’.” She said still pointing the weapon at his back.

  He reached through the splinted pieces of glass once more and pulled down a handful of chocolate bars, then walked over the broken shards towards the door. “Me and Tiger will be outside when you’re ready.” He left.

  For a second Abbey remained pointing the gun at the door, and then let out a breath and let her hand drop to the side. Her eyes then grew wide and she quickly turned and rummaged under one of the sofa cushions. Finding the white box that Raj gave her. She relaxed slightly.

  She walked to the broken machine with her pack, and held it open inside, pulling down what bottles and food she could, until she knew the weight would be too much to carry.

  She looked at the window, specifically at the latch which held it shut. Shaking her head she turned and walked to the door, opening it then leaving.

  The small corridor which she only got an impression of some hours before, had a number of posters hanging from the walls, and a billboard detailing the weeks ‘employee events’. She kept looking behind herself expecting Clovis to suddenly be there. He was nearby, she could feel it.

  Opening the door at the end of the confined space, revealed cathedral high ceilings just visible in the gloom and a scene of opulence. Shelves and racks a hundred feet high, spanned out in front of her, each full of produce and products of some kind.

  Mindful of the presence of Clovis, she switched on her flashlight and walked along the aisles in awe of what was on offer. She felt as if she was having one of those dreams where you are surrounded by the things you want the most, and then realize you can’t take them with you when you wake.

  Arriving at a shelf that held particularly attractive items, she shoveled out the candy bars that were filling her backpack, opened one and starting chewing on it. She then walked along the aisle placing cans of soup, tinned pies, tinned fruit and any other thing nutritious she could carry. When the weight of her pack got to the point where it was going to slow her down, she stopped.

  She whipped around. Clovis was leaning on one of the steel posts which reached fifty feet up towards the ceiling. He had an axe hanging down from his hand which he was gently swaying back and forth.

  “Man could live like a king here,” he said.

  She turned away from him, reexamining the rest of the shelves, and to give him the impression she wasn’t afraid of him. “Then stay, be a king.”

  “Nah. To be a king you need people to rule. And—” He looked around. “—I ain’t seeing many of them around here.”

  Abbey went to reply when a sensation hit her, like a swarm of bees had suddenly invaded her body and flowed from her toes to the top of her head. She slowly turned back to Clovis, he had stopped swinging the axe.

  “They’re coming,” he growled.

  “Did you find a truck?”

  He walked forward, throwing her a set of keys. “Yeah. It’s out front.”

  They both ran towards the front of the store. Abbey glanced at the goods flashing by. She almost didn’t want to leave.

  The closer they got to the large glass windows of the entrance, the lighter it got around them, and the greater the feeling that the other Cascaders weren’t far off. They both bundled through the already open door, and out into the cold morning air.

  Abbey looked up into the clear sky, and quickly caught sight of a cross shape shadow high above gliding effortlessly. Know
ing her friend and pet was up there took some of the fear from her, but again she was being chased and it was a feeling she thought she had left in the past.

  As she got into the driver’s seat of the relatively new looking dark gray pickup, an idea jumped into her head.

  What if I shoot him? Not dead, but wound him. Then the others would find him, and I would be able to get further away.

  It was a sound plan, and as he got into the driver’s seat throwing the axe onto the back seat, she pulled the Glock from a pocket in her backpack and held it ready to fire into his thigh. As soon as he sat, she pulled the trigger. A dull click came from her gun.

  Clovis continued looking forward. “To kill a man with a gun, you need bullets. Good thing I picked up some more boxes of them—” He slowly turned to her. “—Now we going to sit here and wait for Erin and his people to catch us, or we getting back on the road?”

  Stupid. I should have checked the magazine.

  She sat frozen for a moment then turned the keys in the ignition and the pickup pulled away.

  *****

  As the pickup passed over the Connecticut river and through Hartford the feeling that they were being followed began to fade. Abbey kept her hand on the Glock even though as a projectile weapon it was useless to her. Maybe if he attacked her she could hit him with it.

  She had spent the first few minutes after leaving the parking lot of the superstore chastising herself for not knowing the obvious, that Clovis was not going to let her have a loaded gun. Once she had gotten that misgiving out of the way, she concentrated on just what the hell she was going to do next. She was traveling with a man that had tried to kill her numerous times, being chased by a group of super-powered humans that thought she tried to blow them up. Who knows what they would do if they caught up with her. She was sure Erin was with them and his was a face she never wanted to see again.

  “I’ve been thinking about why we couldn’t sense the giant critter last night,” said Clovis. His statement pulled her out of her own head.

  “Okay…”

  “Maybe those things from space, took most of the critters that were easy to find. So—”

  “What’s left is what they or we find hard to find…” It was a plausible explanation and one that left her somewhat confused as to how stupid she thought the man next to her was. The phrase ‘street smarts’ flashed through her mind.

  “Yeah.”

  “That means there could be more E.L.F’s out here, and we won’t know they are there until we run into them.”

  “Yup.”

  Great.

  The towns of Waterbury and Danbury came and went, and they kept to highway eighty-four moving in a south-westerly direction and passing into New York state. Soon after they passed over another of the great rivers, the Hudson. They both sensed some creatures in the watery depths, which was accompanied with a splash or two upsetting the calm waters.

  Least there are still some normal E.L.F’s out there.

  As they approached Harrisburg the sun was at its zenith, and both front windows of the pickup were open to allow the cool spring air to blow through the cabin.

  More vehicles started to block the highway and Abbey weaved the pickup through them, her mind caught between her actions, and a hundred other things, all screaming for attention.

  A clattering sound echoed off the dry road surface. At first she wasn’t sure she was hearing it right, so she slowed leaning out of the driver’s window slightly.

  “I hear it too,” said Clovis.

  The repetitive noise was getting louder and she knew what it was. Her eyes darted around looking for a turn off, but there were only steep grassy banks and walls on both sides. “We need to get off the highway.”

  Clovis turned around trying to see out of the rear window. “What you reckon it is?”

  “It’s a helicopter. Erin’s sending humans after us, so we can’t detect them coming.”

  Clever.

  She pushed the gas pedal down, increasing their speed, but the vehicles lying scattered all around made any linear movement hazardous.

  “I see it,” said Clovis. “It’s still a few miles off, but coming this way.”

  Abbey spotted the exit, but it was a few miles ahead of them and there were numerous rotting wrecks in front of them before they could get to it. She then had an idea and slowed to a crawl, then violently turned the steering wheel. Clovis slammed into the passenger’s door, grabbing hold of his seat. Their pickup lightly crashed into a yellow sedan, crumping its front bumper and they sat at a right angle across the highway.

  She then pushed her driver’s door open and hunched down in the footwell, pulling her backpack over her. “Get down!” She shouted as the sound of the helicopter’s engine began to be heard.

  Clovis did as ordered and they both got as much as they could under the dashboard.

  While she was in the dark confined space, she mentally told Mo to keep his distance. She wondered if Clovis was doing the same for his creature, which she had seen glimpses of during the previous few hours, bounding behind them.

  The pickup started to rattle as the helicopter drew close, the thunderous rhythmic chopping of the blades filling the air.

  Abbey held her breath as they were momentarily bathed in shadow.

  After what seemed like minutes, but was just seconds the deafening sound started to fade.

  Abbey lifted her head and peered above the dashboard. The military chopper was already a few miles off, keeping low to the highway.

  “We have to stay off the highway from now on, or as much as possible and we should try and travel mostly at night,” she said getting back into her seat, Clovis did the same. As she glanced at him, he nodded.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Isaiah lay on the medical bed with the bottom half of his leg encased in white plaster, and raised slightly. He looked around him at others, most of which seemed far worse off than he was.

  Sam appeared at the end of the ward and approached looking glum. Isaiah looked concerned.

  Sam placed his hand on Isaiah’s plastered leg. “Got some bad news buddy, Doc says they are going to have to take your leg!”

  “What?” Isaiah started to push himself up in the bed. “They told me it was just a break!”

  Sam shook his head. “You got some weird alien shit inside it—”

  Isaiah’s eyes widened. “What?!”

  Sam started laughing.

  Isaiah frowned shaking his head then relaxed back in the bed. “I can’t be doing with losing any more body parts.”

  Sam saw his friend looking around the ward. Each bed a vision of horror. He sighed and sat on a small chair at the side of the bed.

  Isaiah looked at his friend. “I didn’t know those alien fucks had put some drone thing in the building below us. If I had—”

  “I know… It’s not your fault. That tech could have taken any of us out. It was just Boe’s bad luck he was the first to get hit.”

  Isaiah nodded. “They probably put those things everywhere. Going to make moving about on the surface real interesting.”

  “Yeah, you got to give it to them, they ain’t stupid. They drop those drones, then leave and wait for us to come out and get taken out. Like reverse guerrilla warfare.”

  “Maybe there be a way we can detect them?”

  “I’m sure the people at the Core are working on that.”

  “How are Mary and the kids?”

  “I talked to them just thirty minutes ago. They’re okay…”

  “It’s a strong bunker we built at the house. As long as they stay down inside it, they gonna be fine.”

  “I’ll be happier if they were here, or in any of the other camp’s bunkers.”

  “They’re better where they are, less of a target. None of them are Cascaders right?”

  “No, but you know with kids, the test is sometimes inconclusive…”

  “They’ll be fine. Did you see if the bar is damaged?”

  “Never got a
chance to go near that area, but unless the aliens have a problem with warm beer I’d say it’s still standing. From what I saw, it was mostly the gun towers that they took out, and then they targeted buildings that were being used for cover.”

  “Me and a few others got cut off from the rest of the squad, made a run for it into that skyscraper that’s being built…” Isaiah swallowed. “Briggs took one in the back. I thought it just clipped him but by time we carried him into the ground floor of the building, he was already dead. Me and Kyle headed upwards to the next floor, then sat and waited for those Hulathen's to come after us. Luckily for us they didn’t.”

  “I heard Kyle’s gonna make it?”

  Isaiah nodded silently, his eyes glistening. He breathed in then looked at Sam directly. “How do we fight these things? They ain’t no stupid animal.”

  Sam sighed. “Maybe those ‘stupid animals’ can be what we use to kick their asses.”

  Isaiah nodded.

  “If there’s any left. The aliens seem set on hoovering them all up for whatever reason. But I saw a little girl control Mr. Teeth—” Isaiah looked at him confused. “— Just think, T-Rex crossed with an elephant, but three times as big as either of them.” Isaiah raised his eyebrows. “Anyway that thing took down a Hulathen, squashed it like a bug and that was even after the alien got in a few licks.”

  “Where’s Mr. ‘teeth’ now?”

  “As far as I know inside a loading bay for the new sports arena that was going up.”

  “Ha yeah, going to be strange to be cheering…” He paused lost in old memories. “Well if these aliens leave us to ourselves.”

  Sam got up. “By time you’re back on your feet I’m sure all will be well in the world.”

  “Just stick an M4 in my hand, I can still shoot!”

  Sam smiled. “Get some rest.”

  *****

  Zach walked through the maze like corridors, stepping over ragged and exhausted people. Some were sitting up, some were sleeping, all were wondering when they could return to the surface.