by Maxey, Phil
Joel nodded. “Yeah. HRT. You?”
The older man raised his eyebrows again, while nodding.
Joel smiled. “You could smell that too, eh?”
Nelson laughed.
“You?”
“Did a stint in the military… Infantry, then when I got out, became a fireman. Eventually ended up as fire chief in Hullstop.”
Joel cleared his throat. “Hullstop?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I’ve been through there a few times.”
Nelson placed his glass on the table, leaning forward. “Recently?”
“A few days ago.”
“What was it like there? Did you speak to any of the folks there?”
Joel’s mind pushed memories before him, which he didn’t want to see. “No. Stayed on the outside, was purely reconnaissance.”
“The corporation still in charge?”
Amos replied before Joel could. The young man could tell how uncomfortable Joel had just become. “They are in charge of every town.”
Nelson sat back, sighing. “They’re were good people…” He looked at the hybrid next to him. “So where do we go? We can’t stay in this bar forever.”
Joel looked at the bottle which was mostly empty, then at the old man. “We’re going to need another bottle. There’s a lot you need to know.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Anna woke and immediately realized the bed was empty to her side. She frowned, but knew Joel hadn’t been able to sleep, it had been night after all. She just hoped he would have returned when he got done what he needed too. It was still dark behind the plush drapes, but she could feel the threat of the sun waiting to emerge on the eastern horizon. Her mouth felt dry, her limbs heavy. She needed blood. They all did. She got up, put on her pants, top and boots and walked out onto the landing, hearing the sound of voices wafting up from the nearby building.
She went to move down the stairs but then stopped outside the door she was fairly sure Dalton had disappeared behind, hours earlier.
“Keep on moving, doctor,” he said from inside the room.
She sighed. “Just wanted to see how your wounds are healing?” There was no reply. She hadn’t known him long or well, but she knew he wasn’t the kind of guy to languish inside a small room. She also knew the reason had nothing to do with his physical pain. She carried on down the stairs and walked the short distance to the bar.
Barry was reading a book on a bar stool at the counter. Corine stood up from behind it with a bottle of beer in her hand.
“Hey!” The young woman shouted, making Barry scrunch his face up.
“Your breath smells.”
She waved her hand. “Meh. Smells good to me.”
Barry looked at Anna, who had a slight smile on her face. “She’s drunk a lot.”
Anna went to reply then realized the old man’s body was no longer on the floor. “Where is—”
“Oh, he’s awake. He’s like me!”
“What?”
“He can move things with his mind,” said Barry. “Like Corine.”
Anna walked forward. “Where is he now?”
“He, Joel and Amos went outside. Think they’re looking for blood… I dunno.” Corine wavered a bit, her hand resting on the countertop. “I don’t feel so good.”
In a blur Anna was standing beside her, then put her hand around her to hold her up. “Why don’t we go sit down.”
A mile away, at a much higher altitude Joel surveyed the expanse of woods below him. Amos was leaned up against a tree behind him, while Nelson was further down the valley. They hadn’t found any animals large or small.
“Strange how there’s nothing out here,” said Amos.
“Yeah… I think the wolf pack has something to do with that. They probably ate everything for tens of miles in all directions.” He looked at the rockier terrain and the snow-covered peaks higher up. “Going to be too hard trying to get up there.”
Amos nodded.
“So what happened with the wolves?”
The young man kept his eyes fixed on the ground.
“I saw the blood. I know you tried to stop them.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Amos. If something is happening to you, I need to know.”
Amos’s head flicked towards Joel. “So I can save everyone like how I didn’t do when Geri died? So my brains broken. Who cares!” He turned and walked down the path they had just trekked up, passing Nelson moving the other way, slightly out of breath.
The old man walked into the clearing where Joel was. “He alright?”
Joel let out a breath. “No. You find anything down there?”
Nelson shook his head. “Nothing’s alive around here. Reckon it’s those wolves you mentioned.”
“Yeah…”
A short while later they were walking along the route to the back of the boarding house. Joel picked up the scent of blood and broke into a sprint. Nelson tried to keep up, but quickly gave up. Joel claws started to grow. He burst in through the rear gate, moved across a small stone yard and then through the hallway and finally into the bar, from where the smell was coming from. He stopped inside, his eyes returning to more human versions.
Corine waved a blood pack at him from her slouched position on one of the chairs. “Hey Joel, my man. You want some blood?”
*****
Anna and Joel looked at a box with blood bags in it, on a table in the bar.
“He just left them outside then took off again,” she said.
Joel picked up the plastic sack and squeezed the crimson liquid within between his fingers. “There’s no way of knowing where he got these from, or who…”
Anna swallowed. “We need this Joel, if we’re going to make it out of here. Make it to the island to join the others. We need to heal. Be strong.”
He nodded then pulled the cap from the bag and drunk. She picked up a bag and did the same. Their eyes black, they both wallowed in the wave of almost kinetic energy flowing through their bodies. Once the bags were empty they looked at each other, returned to normal selfs, out of breath.
“Well… I didn’t realize how…” she said.
“Worn down we were?”
“Yeah…”
Joel felt Nelson standing in the doorway behind. He took a bag and tossed it to the old man. “Drink up.”
“I’ll see if Dalton wants some,” said Anna.
“How is he?”
Her expression gave her his answer. She took a bag and moved past Nelson who was already drinking.
In the yard behind the main building Barry laughed. Kizzy was around ten feet tall, twice as slim as she usually was, and dancing to a tune only she could hear. She had no idea where Amos had gotten off to and felt her time was better off keeping the kid entertained, but then Amos opened the rear gate to the property. She shrunk back to her original size. “Hey, we got some blood.”
He looked at her surprised. “Where from?”
“The big lizard guy got it.”
“Copeland?”
“Yup. It’s inside.”
He continued across the dirt and concrete, she trying to keep up.
“How are you?”
He pushed the rear door open. “Fine.”
Anna reappeared in the bar area, as Amos came in behind her. He walked to the box of blood, took one then pulled it open, gulping it down.
“Might want to go easy on that,” said Joel seated next to Nelson.
Amos continued until the bag was empty. He then looked down as if searching for something lost. After a pause he shook his head in anger and stormed back the way he came. Passing Kizzy. She started to go after him.
“Maybe he needs more time alone…” said Anna to her.
Kizzy frowned and followed her boyfriend regardless.
A heavy creaking on the floorboards above them, heralded heavier footsteps growing close. The door to the bar swung open and in walked Dalton. He kept on going to the box, grabbed an
other bag, then left.
“So that’s the wolf,” said Nelson.
“Yup…” said Joel.
Anna looked in the box. “Three bags left. We should keep them for the journey east.”
Joel got up. “There are some vehicles in the lot next to us. We should see if we can get them running.”
CHAPTER SIX
A calm sea swept below Marina as she held onto the guardrail on the bow of the ship. Jess stood on tiptoes by her side to see the tiny points of light sparkling against the coming night, just above the horizon.
“Is that the island?” she said looking up at her mother.
“It is.”
Salvation.
The pain of loss had subdued somewhat within the last few days, partly because she needed it too, and partly because of her growing friendship with Carla. It was slow going at first, neither of them wanting to discuss the past few months, but Jess took a liking to her, the young girl bringing a smile to the lieutenant’s face, and from that came late night conversations of their shared military experiences. Marina now counted her as something she never had much of in her previous life. A friend.
From what she had heard the capital of the island had been hit hard from the virus, but those stationed on the base had managed to put the vamps down, and quarantining those that had gotten infected. From then on, nobody was allowed in or out without express permission from the base commander, Colonel Winston Travers, an old friend of the generals. There were also rumors that the other tablets had been sent there months earlier, in a desperate attempt to keep them from Copeland’s grasp.
The door behind opened. Both dogs ran ahead of Jasper and Carla although Flint limped a little.
“Don’t go far!” Carla said to the animals who ignored her, disappearing around the side of shipping containers.
“Jasper, come look,” said Jess. “You can see our new home!”
The boy trotted forward but couldn’t see over the steel wall. Marina picked him up. “Look. That’s where we’re going.”
He smiled.
Carla stood alongside. “I’ve been talking to the general. There’s been reports of the corporation’s forces taking the remaining camps across the mainland. The only resistance now is small bands of people, keeping mobile.”
“Can they come here?”
Carla nodded. “There’s talk of that, but first we need to secure the island as much as we can. It won’t be long before the king’s turn their attention to our new home.”
As the ship glided into a channel between two peninsulas, others joined them until every space was full with people, and the air was filled with excitement and hope.
“Is that a castle?” said Jess looking at a fort with a lighthouse sat on a pinch of land to their left.
“I don’t know. Maybe,” said Marina.
Ahead of them the more modern multi-storey buildings of a port city stood dark against the sky. A row of lights highlighted the dock the ship was heading towards, with equally lit cranes.
“You know anything about the man in charge?” said Marina to Carla.
“Not much. Galloway just said they went through the academy together, and that he’s probably the reason the island has survived this long.”
As night completely fell, the ship eased in along the dock.
Marina looked and listened to the tired but enthusiastic faces and voices around her. She hoped their optimism was justified.
“That’s the base,” said Carla nodding to a glow that was just visible on the other side of a series of hills to the southwest.
They both looked down to a parade of military vehicles parked on the concrete lot around the cranes, which were already in use.
Marina looked down to Jess. “Time to go. Lets get our stuff.”
A short while later they, with Evan, Sasha and Shannon, were all stepping off a steep set of stairs to the concrete, joining a few hundred that had already gathered, and were being loaded into the backs of trucks. Shipping containers glided through the air above them, being deposited on top of others.
Galloway’s voice was just audible over the throng, and they moved through the crowd to waiting humvees. She was standing near one.
“No need to go with the others. Get in the back of these. We’re going straight to the base.”
Carla, Marina, the kids and the two dogs squeezed into one humvee, while the others got in the back of another, with the general and Clement in the third.
Marina’s eyes penetrated the darkness as they drove past five and six-story buildings, which looked as if the world had stayed the same. She imagined holidaying tourists shopping in the luxury stores at their base, but then they drove past walls of sandbags and abandoned vehicles.
“How was it here?” Carla said to the male driver to her left.
“In the early days bad. But after a few battles we got on top of things. Now the islands clear of vamps, but we still have some other problems.”
“Like?”
“Not for me to say ma’am.”
The lights from the base filled the night sky, and they drove past office buildings and warehouses, until finally arriving at a main entrance with two guard towers on both sides, bordered by more sandbags. Without pause they kept going, through the already open gate, and into an industrial area until large structures gave way to smaller buildings sat across concrete lots full of tanks, and other military vehicles.
“They look brand new,” said Carla.
“Most are,” said the driver. “As the situation on the mainland got worse the army stockpiled what they could here, with a view to fighting back…”
Carla sighed. “But they never got a chance to use it…” Flickers of remorse swept through her.
“No.”
More gates came and went, the area becoming dense with forest until finally the trees thinned out and they approached a five-story monolithic structure with a large glass entrance and a parking lot out front, which is where they eventually stopped. A small group of two men and one woman were waiting out front, with one of the men, the oldest standing slightly in front of the others.
Marina and the others watched as Galloway got out and briefly hugged the colonel before he could fully salute. Those behind him though held their posture, until she waved them to relax. The hybrids got out.
Galloway and the three officers walked up to them.
“Everyone, this is Colonel Winston Travers, and as you can see he’s about as attractive as his namesake!” The general and the colonel laughed, while everyone else stood awkwardly. “And these are our special friends I’ve been telling you about. Marina—” Marina smiled. “— Carla, who is a damn fine soldier. And the three young people, but equally impressive Evan, Sasha and Shannon.” They stood not knowing where to put their gaze but smiling as well.
The colonel who was slightly shorter than Marina, and about twenty pounds heavier, smiled in return at her. “The generals told me a lot about all of you. It’s a shame it’s come to this. But I’m glad you are all here. We could certainly do with more boots on the ground. We err… lost a lot of good people keeping this place scourge free.”
As the colonel continued Marina noticed a man standing behind the glass door entrance, which the colonel saw, gesturing behind him. “And that would be our local indigenous expert, Alfredo Narvaez. The guy has almost as many PHDs as I got ex-girlfriends and is the reason the other tablets ended up here. He’s something of an expert on ancient things.”
The dark-haired man stood silent in the shadows, watching the newcomers.
“I’m tired…” said Jess.
Winston bent down a little. “And you must be Jessica.”
She nodded sticking close to her mother.
“I’ve heard you have been brave too…” He looked for Jasper who was hiding behind Carla. “And you!” He looked at the adults. “We have accommodation in the officers’ section of the base. Captain Ayers here—” The female officer with shoulder-length brown hair, stepped forw
ard. “— will take all of you to where you need to go. I would like to say take the evening off, get some rest and we’ll talk in the morning, but times as they are I’m going to need all of you to give your side of what you have been through to the Captain within the hour. For now though go with Ayers, store your belongings and maybe eat…” He laughed to himself. “Ha, well maybe not do that.” Marina stifled a laugh. “But you will find what you need in your apartments.” He nodded and with Galloway walked back inside, where he introduced the man to the general that Marina couldn’t take her eyes from.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The engine of an 80s metallic-blue van with silver painted stripes along the side, roared. Nelson stood up from beneath the hood with a smile. “She’s an olden,” he said to Joel sitting on a tool box at the back of the small garage. “But they don’t make them like this anymore. With the gas in the tank, she’ll get you to Tahoe and a few more miles if you need it.”
There was a slight breeze and Anna poked her head around the open front of the structure. “You did it!”
Joel nodded to the older man. “I had nothing to do with it, it was all Nelson.”
“So we’re leaving?”
“Yes, tell the others to get bags packed. I want to be on the road with in twenty.”
Not long after, the van was driving along the two-lane highway, the twin-beams splitting the dark, with Joel driving, Anna in the passenger’s seat and the six others in the back.
Amos looked at Dalton seated near the front, in the corner, his eyes closed. He wondered what the big guy was thinking. Now he wasn’t able to pry, he found himself wondering what everyone was thinking, and had to pull his eyes away from them before the staring became too intrusive. Luckily his girlfriend was easier to read, her emotions being continually on display. But even though he knew her cheery bravado was just a front to hide deeper feelings, he hadn’t the energy to delve into them with her. She was still an Alkron. Still ’special.’ He was anything but. He hoped the influx of blood would fix him. And he did feel stronger after digesting it, but his ability still stubbornly remained switched off, showing no sign of coming back and facing the world, no better than a human, terrified him.
