by Maxey, Phil
“What’s their military strength?”
“One hundred and twenty-five men, five LPC’s, seven Humvee’s, two battle tanks, two Huey’s and supply trucks for all of that. Sir.”
“Find Raj, all of you plan routes, divide up the evacuee’s into three groups, with the majority of the very young and very old in a group that takes the safest route, that’s also the group which get’s the most protection, so in other words it get’s one of the tanks. The other tank goes with the group that takes the least safe route. You got twenty minutes to get that information to Portland before we move out, so they can be prepared.”
While Zach was talking Raj appeared from his cell on hearing his name, and joined Bass and Fiona. They disappeared into his cell with maps, and appeared fifteen minutes later running to the radio room in the other cell. Zach took the time to check the supplies they already had with Abbey and Dr. Tanner.
“They’re probably going to have a number of wounded, liaise with the Portland medical team before we get there, so you are up to speed on how their wounded need to be transported.” Dr. Tanner acknowledged.
After a short while, everyone was loaded back onto the bus, with Fiona and Cal in the truck. Robert, Dex and Zach stood in the morning heat of the sun.
Zach held out his hand to Dex. “Good meeting you,” Dex was surprised but briefly shook it. Zach then turned to Robert. “Good luck with everything, there’s a chance one of the convoys will need to sweep back past on their way to Bravo. So we might be seeing each other again in a few days.”
“I’ll make sure there’s plenty soup ready!” Said Robert smiling.
Zach jumped on the bus and closed the door. Slowly they drove through the white slush back out onto the highway.
CHAPTER 28
Dusty snow created a cloud behind the bus and truck as they forged onwards along the highway. After an hour a small bridge appeared a mile ahead and it was obvious there were E.L.F’s congregating around it. Rob stopped the bus. Raj looked through his binoculars at the creatures that consisted of large thick reddish tentacles and not much else.
“What do you think?” said Zach, kneeling next to him in the buses aisle.
“I’ve not seen them before, but they look to be some kind of amphibious creature that looks like a giant octopus. The bridge looks pretty clear, if we move through at speed, we should be ok.”
“You’re sure of that?”
“No.”
Zach sighed, stood up, then walked to just behind Rob. “We’re going to drive right past them, keep up a…”
“Wait, I’ve an idea,” said Raj joining him. “Let’s cover the hoods of both vehicles with snow, might hide the heat we’re giving off just long enough for them to not notice us.” Zach nodded, and Bass ordered a few soldiers to throw snow and ice onto the hoods of both vehicles. A few short minutes later they were moving again towards the bridge and creatures.
As they approached the bridge the true size of the creatures became apparent. Each one was as large as the school bus and consisted of eight large tentacles, which they manipulated more akin to an elephants trunk. Most of the river to the east and west was frozen but around the bridge it had been broken up into hundreds of smaller pieces by the thrashing around of the creatures.
Rob increased their speed and they moved onto the bridge. Everyone was looking out the side windows at these other worldly things, including Raj who was still looking at them through his binoculars.
“Remarkable, quite remarkable,” said Raj, alternating between looking at them and trying to sketch them in his notebook.
Soon the bridge was growing small in their rear view, the creatures not changing their behavior at all by their passing.
Zach stood up at the front of the bus. “Everyone try to get as much rest as you can over the next seven hours, most of the possible danger will be at the end of our journey so I want you all to be fresh and ready. If all goes to plan, when we make it to the camp, there will be little time to get any rest there.” Some of the soldiers placed clothes or their backpacks behind their heads and closed their eyes, other flicked open books.
Zach went and knelt close to Raj. “I’ll need you to let us know about high activity E.L.F areas before we move into them.” Raj nodded.
Hours passed, mostly driving alongside mountains. There were no direct signs of any E.L.F’s other than the occasional suspicious cloud of disturbed snow in the distance. After four hours Bass whispered to Zach that they were roughly at the halfway point in the journey. The sun shone directly above them, but the roads were still covered in snow.
Raj moved to where Zach was sitting. “In about an hours time we will be running close to the national forests of Oregon, where there are many reports of E.L.F’s residing, an hour after that we will be moving into and through one of those forests,” He swallowed before continuing. “The light will be fading at that point as well.” Zach nodded and Raj returned to his seat. Zach put his head back.
“Are we ready?” said Abbey who was sitting next to him, near the steamed up windows.
“As we will ever be.”
After an hour, on cue Raj knelt down alongside Zach. “We need to start being ready from here on.” Zach nodded then clicked on his radio.
“Fiona, we need to be alert for E.L.F’s from here on. Over.” Fiona acknowledged.
Raj continued. “We’re soon going to be passing through the town of Pensal, from the reports it was one of the first towns to be completely destroyed so it’s hard to say what we will find there.”
“How long is soon?”
“Thirty minutes.”
Zach stood up. “Listen up everyone, we are now in E.L.F territory, there could be anything out here. In about thirty we’re moving through a town that was destroyed by E.L.F’s, and then thirty after that we’re be moving into the national forest which is not a place we want to be for too long, once we get through that it’s not long until we make it to the Portland camp.” He paused then continued. “This is it folks, this is what the last few days and the sacrifices have been about. We survive the next few hours and we can actually start to save the people in Portland. Be weapon ready at all times, and keep a close watch on our surroundings, if you see anything which shouldn’t be there sound off.”
Everyone put books and anything else that was keeping their attention for the previous few hours in their backpacks. The soldiers checked the condition of their guns, and put their helmets on.
Zach’s radio came to life with Fiona’s voice. “Me and Cal were thinking, maybe it’s a good idea to have a few soldiers in the back of the truck, covering our rear, maybe with some heavy guns. Over.” Zach agreed, and the small convoy momentarily stopped to allow two soldiers to run and jump in the back of the truck.
As they continued snow covered hills and trees surrounded them on all sides as the highway weaved it’s way between them. There was still plenty of daylight but the sun was on the downward path to the horizon. The signs of civilization started to increase as they neared the town of Pensal with electricity pylons leaning at angles and cars off the side of the highway, all covered in a white frosty blanket of snow blunting their sharp edges. As they entered the town splintered trunks where trees should have been lay dotted across fields and gardens. Homes that were two story were now single or less, with their insides strewn around them, shattered into a mixture of planks, pipes and bricks. Occasionally you would see the dark red splatter of blood stains on the sidewalk or against a wall, but never would you see bones, or anything resembling a human body. The whole town looked like it has been flattened by something heavy that had been determined to make it just a memory.
“Any sign of anything? Over,” said Zach into his radio, his voice quiet and respectful of the unknown just outside the buses windows. Fiona’s voice started to respond when they heard the sound of bricks and mortar falling just ahead of them. A mound of bricks and plaster started to rise up where a house used to be, and something dark shivered in the dust.
Rob changed lanes to be as far from the movement as possible.
“Keep on as this road, Rob,” said Zach. “We don’t know what the hell that is yet.” Zach then looked at Raj, sitting just behind with a questioning expression.
“I have no idea what that is,” replied Raj.
As the remains of the house fall back to the ground, a large dark grey form sat quivering.
“Guns at the ready, and get ready to floor it Rob,” said Zach.
The bus passed the creature, with everyone holding their breath. From the distance they were from it, it was hard to see many details, but they could just make out two dark eyes set inside a dark leathery hide. When the bus was a hundred yards away and the thing still hadn’t moved everyone let out a breath.
“Okay everyone let’s keep scanning the landscape around us.”
Towards the center of town, the buildings were even move close to the road and equally more destroyed, most being just a small spread out pile of rubble. It looked like a demolition team had decided the interior of the town needed to be remodeled and everything was wiped from the map before proceeding. The convoy approached a junction, carefully weaving around abandoned cars, then turned north. It wasn’t long before the road widened and they were back on the highway heading out of the town. As the shadows started to lengthen, the forest edge moved closer to the sides of the road. The convoy climbed higher into the hills as the light started to fade as Raj predicted.
Zach clicked on his radio. “Fiona, keep your headlights off for as long as you can.”
Huge evergreens caked in blue-grey snow crowded the road on both sides. The bus fought against the slippery surface, climbing higher and higher until they had to stop. A number of large pine tree’s lay across the road, their trunks at one end showing claw marks.
“Now what,” said Rob. “They’re too big to push out of the way.”
“Can we go another way?” said Dr. Tanner.
“This is the quickest route, everything else is country lanes, and would take us a lot longer to get out of the forest,” said Zach.
“Yes, but what other…” Before Dr. Tanner could finish, the sound of wood cracking echoed through the forest, and the inhabitants of the bus froze.
“What the fuck was that.” said Jenkins.
Most eyes inside the bus looked out the side windows searching for the source of the sound, then it happened again. A creaking noise far off to the east.
“Fiona, do you see anything on our left side. Over,” said Zach.
“Nothing yet. Over.”
Zach swore under his breath, then quickly moved to the front of the bus and opened the door, leaping out onto the compacted snow. He then ran towards the first fallen tree, and climbed on top of it. Three of the tree’s lay across the road, but the remaining were more on one side than another, with only small branches crossing into the other lane. “Ok, this might work.” He said to himself, then jumped off the trunk. As he went to run back to the bus, there was a loud cracking sound about a few hundred yards off into the forest, which was increasingly becoming a mass of dark green and brown shapes due to the setting sun. He changed his course and instead ran to the left side of the road, peering over the metal barrier and straining his eyes best he could to see down the steep slope. It was hard to make anything out in the gloom. Turning he ran back to the bus. Raj and Cal were standing outside.
“It’s so quiet, I thought this place would be packed with those things,” said Rob.
“It should be…” Replied Raj.
They both stood in the chilled air looking up at the cathedral of trees around them. There was no wind and no sound.
Zach climbed back onto the bus. “Jack’s you need to lay charges on those tree’s, we need enough explosive power to blow the trees into splinters but not so much that we leave big craters, can you do that?”
“Absolutely, the charges are in the truck,” said Jacks, getting out of his seat and running off the bus.
“Bass, he’s going to need covering fire, watch our left.”
Bass quickly ordered men to move a few yards up the slope on their right, and some more men to go to the barrier, and look down the slope at whatever could be made of those noises. One of the men had a rocket launcher ready to fire. The soldiers near the barrier looked over, their guns pointing downwards. Bass walked up behind them.
“Anyone see anything?”
“No, Sir.” Came all the responses. More creaking came from down in the valley, this time it was accompanied by a distant rustling noise.
“Everyone switch to night scopes.” The soldiers one by one slid a switch over on their guns scopes and looked again, the first soldier’s mouth fell open. “What is it private?”
“There’s thing’s…down there.” The solder lowered the gun from his face, and examined the scope, then put it back to his eye. “They look like, people or something I don’t understand what I’m looking at sir.”
Bass stood at the barrier and looked down into the mass of shadows with his own night scope and instantly saw what made no sense to the soldiers. Humanoid forms lit as bright green in the night scope were at the bottom of the valley, seemingly looking up at them, no details could be seen other than florescent eyes blinking.
“All of you watch those things, if they move let me know but don’t fire until I say so.” Bass then turned and ordered the other soldiers on the right to watch the woods around them.
Jacks ran back to the bus with a backpack, where Zach was now standing with Rob and Raj. “How long do you want for the timer?”
“Sixty seconds should do it,” said Zach.
Jacks then ran up to the first group of trees and positioned one pack of C4 on the middle trunk, and set the timer to sixty seconds. “Everyone pull back! In sixty seconds it will blow.”
Bass took cover with the soldiers, while everyone else got back on the bus. Rob reversed some tens of yards back down the hill and the creaking of trees in the valley stopped like something was waiting.
An explosion ripped through the fallen tree’s sending branches and splinters flying in all directions, some of which were alight. Bass and the soldiers immediately came back out from their positions, some inspecting the remains of the trees and others running to the metal barrier. The bus and truck drove up to the soldiers and Zach got out.
“How’s it looking?” shouted Zach to Bass.
“I think it’s done it, we will…” Before Bass could continue a noise came from their right where the soldiers were still standing near the forest edge. It wasn’t much of a noise, something part rustling of material and part exhaling of air. Bass walked up to the soldiers.
“Where’s Baker?” The soldiers looked around themselves.
“He was just standing behind me,” said one of the soldiers.
“What is it?” said Zach walking up to Bass, who held his hand up so as to listen into the darkness around him.
“There!” A soldier near the metal barrier shouted as he was looking upwards into the trees. A humanoid shape looking intensely black against the dark blue of the evening sky clung to a trunk of a tree. The sound of crumpling of something containing air happened again and everyone spun back around to face the right, there was one less soldier.
“Everyone back in the bus now!” shouted Bass. “And everyone fire into the tree’s!”
The soldiers started to run back to the bus, while trying to fire at the trees around them. Red streaks extended out into the gloom, sending splinters flying everywhere. Shadows shifted from tree to tree, until one was hit and a screeching noise joined the melee of gunfire. The last soldier made it onto the bus, just as the creatures descended from the trees landing with a thud onto the frosted road.
“What the fuck are they?” said Rob as everyone looked at the impossibly dark creatures surrounding them.
“They don’t seem to reflect any light, they just absorb,” said Raj looking at the closest creature. “That’s why they’re so dark.”
“Like
living shadows,” said Abbey.
“Rob, switch your headlights on,” said Zach.
The beam stretched out creating a tunnel of light. Each of the creatures in the path of the light screeched and leapt away into the blackness of the forest.
“Fiona, put your headlights on, full beam, tell the guys in the back to shine as much light out as they can. Over.” Zach then faced everyone in the bus. “I want all lights we have shining out of the buses windows.”
Everyone scrambled through backpacks and boxes, pulling out flashlights of various sizes, then holding them up to the windows. In the complete darkness which was now surrounding them, the bus lit up like a Christmas decoration, sending out beams of different sizes into the night. The shadowy creatures screeched and darted left and right to avoid the yellow shards coming from gaps between the buses armor. More and more of the creatures flooded onto the road, from the woods, some making it to the bus. A shearing metallic noise came from near Abbey’s seat causing the metal panel to crumple. She jumped away from it, pushing up against Raj who was sitting next to her.
“We need to move, now!” shouted Fiona into the radio, while she waved a flashlight towards the window and Cal did the same on his side. A loud thump came from behind them. “Cal, check on them back there.”
Cal looked out the rear cabin windows into where the two soldiers were, “They’re gone.” He then shone his light through the small glass pane, and a shadow immediately screamed and dived from the back of the truck.
Rob revved up the engine and pressed down on the accelerator, at first the wheels spun freely, the bus not moving but slowly they gained traction and the bus jerked forward. Like fluttering moths the creatures tried to get in front of the bus but quickly leapt away when the beam hit them.
The bus and truck weaved left and right to avoid fallen trees, sometimes driving over branches making everyone jump in their seats.
“On the roof!” said Fiona looking at two shadows clinging to the roof of the bus. “Zach, there’s two on your roof. Over.”
