by Maxey, Phil
Anna appeared with Barry, both with full backpacks on.
The rope snapped. In a blur Joel grabbed it with one hand, and the iron pole the other, the force of the boat almost pulling his arm from his socket. Seeing the danger, Dalton leaped to his side, both men now fighting against the might of the sea to hold the vessel close.
Copeland grabbed two more kids, one in each arm, leaping to the top of the ramp, then back to the boat which in a sudden rush of waves surged forward, smashing up against the ramp, momentarily beaching on the concrete. Seizing the chance Hector picked up the other kids, lowering them to Joel and Dalton while Anna did the same for Barry.
Kizzy and Amos jumped down, and just as the waves started to pull the damaged boat back into the ocean, Nelson ran from the cockpit and leaped onto the shore.
As the bedraggled individuals walked away from the sea, Copeland looked out, panic in his eyes. “Where is it!” He moved towards Joel with fury in his eyes, but Anna stepped in front.
“I’ve got it!” she said to the Drak, then placed her pack on the floor, lifting the flap, and pulled out the wooden box stashed inside. Relief washed over the taller creature. She handed it to him. “We wouldn’t leave it behind.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Marina sat in the high-backed chair in front of the flames from the basement fire. Jess and Jasper were asleep on a sofa opposite and being almost noon she felt the same, but her mind wasn’t letting go. She wondered if the days of running from vamps, and then the corporation were about to come to an end, and what life would be like being… human. Joel’s blood had given her a thirst the like of which she had never experienced before. She imagined it similar to an addict jonsing for another hit. A chemical pull so powerful that she would literally kill to have someone else’s blood cascading through her mouth then throat. She wouldn’t miss that. But the strength, agility, speed, she would, and she wasn’t sure if she was ready for them to be gone.
Footsteps reverberated through the metal door and it opened to Alfredo entering the room. He smiled on seeing her as she did him. He looked at the sleeping children then nodded for her to follow him.
They were soon on the other side of the large room, where the banks of screens showed trees on the grounds being bent and pulled, while debris mingled with blankets of rain.
“Looks pretty bad out there,” she said.
He nodded. “It is, but it will get worse. We no longer have satellites of course, but from the years I have spent on the island, this feels like it will become something more dangerous. Perhaps a hurricane.”
She looked at the ceiling.
He smiled. “Don’t worry we are quite safe here.”
“Did they let you see the tablets?”
He sat in the single chair, as she sat on the edge of the desk. “Yes. The third tablet is on track to be fully useable by sunrise. I have set the Alkron bomb to detonate at the same time.”
She let that idea settle for a moment. “You trust her?”
He scoffed. “Not one bit. But I convinced her the kings will be coming, and this is the best way to defeat them. Once the tablets detonate, there will just be two human brothers, with no power over anyone.”
“What if those that follow them, still do?”
He stood, moving close to her. “Then we defeat them the old fashioned way.”
*****
The wind howled outside a school hall, while a piece of roof on the single-story building clattered in reply. Neither sound was enough to wake the eight children who were sleeping on bundles of clothes on the tiled floor. The two that remained awake, the two changed by the scourge sat in a corner, laughing at a book that Layla had brought with her.
Joel sat with his back against a wall, watching Anna move from child to child checking they were sleeping okay, and then to the adults doing the same. As he felt the depth of feeling for the woman who always put others ahead of herself, he realized that despite the world ending, he was in a new relationship. He had allowed some hope to build within him during the perilous journey across the ocean, but all of that had been washed away on seeing that the corporation had beaten them to the island. Was the military base in San Juan even there still? Had the kings already removed it from the map?
Anna sat by his side and let out a deep breath.
“How is everyone?”
“All things considered, pretty good. We’re low on blood though. Got maybe a day and a half left if we ration. So expect everyone to start getting grouchy.”
He nodded towards the two kids still awake. “Good to see Barry’s got a friend… I didn’t think she spoke English?”
Anna smiled. “She knows a few words. Seems like it’s enough.”
“I’ve been thinking—”
“That’s never a good thing.”
He smiled. “Hey, I have good ideas sometimes!”
She laughed, grabbing his arm and briefly shaking it. “Yes, I can remember at least two times!”
He nodded, still with a grin. “At least two times… umm, but I think, we need to split into two groups…”
Any humor she had quickly left, for she knew what his comment would mean for them. “We should stick together. All of us. Head east to San Juan.”
He looked down then back to her. “I need to know what’s happening with the corporation in that town.”
“Why does it have to be you!” Her voice was louder than she wanted, and some of the children stirred. Barry and Layla looked across then continued with their discussion.
Joel held her hand. “Because we need to know. The world may have ended but some of us still have a job to do… if we can. You, Dalton, Hector, the kids, Amos, Kizzy—”
A side door opened and the young man appeared, looking briefly around the room and then walked over and sat with them. “Actually, I want to go with you,” said Amos.
Joel’s surprise only lasted a second when he realized the Amos’s ability had returned. “Are you sure?”
“This island is the last stop. If we can’t stop the corporation here, we might as well all jump in the ocean. I’m sure.”
“Does Kizzy know?” said Anna.
The young man let out a breath, then got to his feet. “No…” He moved back through the way he had just entered by.
“So the people I mentioned, and Corine and Barry will be the group that goes directly to San Juan. Myself, Nelson and Amos will head north and learn what we can, before moving east to the base.” Joel looked around the drawings from children still on the walls, then stood. “Get some more rest, but I want us to be leaving by the end of the hour. Dalton and Nelson are out looking for vehicles. If they find some, you could be at San Juan by nightfall.”
“Where you going?”
“To chat to a winged demon.”
Joel made his way along the street, fighting against the constant barrage of wind and rain, the strength of which would have pushed a normal man to the ground. He jogged past an abandoned silver coupe, half on the sidewalk, past homes fast deteriorating, and kept moving towards where his senses were telling him to go.
A two-story high auto-repair shop sat on the corner, its large metal shutter down, but rippling against the storm. Joel ran around the side of the building, pulling open a door and made his way past the back office and into where a Drak was sitting on the oil sodden floor, besides an old truck raised on bricks.
He tossed him a half-used bag of blood. “Thought you might be needing this.”
Copeland looked up at him, picked up the bag and finished the contents in seconds. “Thank you… Are you always aware of where I am?”
“Pretty much.”
“The king’s must have had the same ability.”
“So what happened between you and them? How you end up in jail?”
Copeland sighed and looked straight ahead. “I thought they would be willing to work with me. Turns out they do not work with anyone other than themselves.”
“Yeah well, there’s one less to be bothe
red about now.”
Copeland smiled, nodding.
“We’re splitting into two groups. The largest heading for the base, and myself, Nelson and Amos heading north—”
“To find out what they are up too.”
“Yup. I know you want to see your—”
“I’ll come with you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Anna threw her arms around Joel, not wanting to let go. They pulled apart then kissed, making some of the children giggle and Hector frown. They were standing with others inside the school hall, while the sound of splintering branches and shattering tiles filled the air just a few feet away behind the double doors of the entrance. Almost lost within the noise was the sound of three engines running.
“Take a look, then head east. Okay?”
Joel nodded. “I’ve got no intention of being caught by the corporation again. We’ll get some intel then get out of there.” He briefly looked up. “Hopefully they will be more concerned with this storm than spies.”
“I mean it, Joel. We need—” She looked at Amos standing near the door. “— All of you to make it to the base.” The young man nodded. Kizzy sniffed, her eyes red, while Corine stood impatient to leave.
“You just concentrate on getting there yourselves,” said Joel.
She nodded then looked back at the ten children. “Is everyone ready to go on a journey?” Most couldn’t understand her words, but nodded anyway.
“Come on, let’s go,” said Hector to them in Spanish.
Amos pulled on the door handle with some effort, the wind not wanting it open, then falling back, as in a rush it did. He held it as the group going directly east ran outside, huddled together and holding hands and jumped into the back of a green SUV and a brown minivan.
Joel waved to Dalton upfront in the van, while Anna kissed his cheek once again and ran outside, jumping into the driver’s seat of the SUV. The minivan pulled off then the SUV, with Anna giving a brief final wave, Joel doing the same.
He let out a breath. A part of him was disappearing into the gloom of the storm. He turned to Amos. “Ready?”
The young man nodded and they moved outside, closing the hall door, and ran to the pickup, which Copeland was seated in the bed at the back of. They both climbed inside.
“I’m thinking the coastal road is going to be pretty flooded,” said Nelson in the driver’s seat. “Which is exactly why we’re going to try and take it. If there’s corporation further in, we should hopefully avoid them.”
Joel nodded. “Lets try.”
They drove west, past brightly colored single-story brick built homes, with flat roofs, some of which were flapping against the wind, and weaved around fallen trees and scattered mail boxes, arriving at a junction. It was one they had walked past on their way from the shore hours earlier, but this time it was as if the beachside homes were stranded in a lake, their supports and posts submerged.
Nelson nodded to the route that headed north. “That’s us.” He looked at Joel in the passenger’s seat. “What you want to do?”
“Try it.”
Nelson eased forward, the wind battering the side of the vehicle and they moved into the few feet of seawater. The pickup kept moving, its clearance just enough for the engine to not get waterlogged and they followed the two-lane road as it moved past holiday homes and apartment complexes, with parking lost beneath the ocean waves. As they moved away from the coast, the newly formed river becoming shallower, and each man breathed a sigh of relief, but it was short lived for their route soon veered back towards the ocean, their vehicle working harder to not be swept away.
“How much further we got to go?” said Amos.
“Not far, we should see the bay soon… Look,” he gestured up ahead as they left the last line of trees which blocked their view of the ocean.
“Fuck…” was what Nelson said on seeing what the sea contained, but it was echoed in the others’ minds.
The bay was full of cargo ships. The kinds of vessels that were once the reserve of the oceans, ferrying cargo from one far-flung location to another, were now lined up, their decks full of containers, from one side of the bay to the other. Those trying to absorb the scene hadn’t realized that the road had raised up out of the water and they were stopped on a bridge.
“It’s got to be to shallow,” said Nelson. “How they getting them offloaded?” He looked at Joel for an answer, who had none.
Joel looked along the road, which looked dry compared to what they had traveled through. “Park up ahead, we’re on foot from here on.”
Nelson drove up a driveway to a luxury villa and parked outside its white stone entrance. Immediately the back of the pickup lifted, and a shadow briefly fell across the hood as Copeland took to the windswept sky.
Joel looked at the other two. “From here on, there’s a chance we could be—” He winced, touching his forehead, then looked back out to the bay, and the plethora of shipping fighting the huge waves. “I know what’s in the containers…. vamps.”
Nelson and Amos joined him counting the numbers of containers that filled the decks of the enormous ships.
“If they all make it to land, that’s tens of thousands…” said Nelson.
“We need to get closer,” said Joel, then grabbed his backpack and rifle and pushed the door open to the storm.
They tried to keep to the road, but where it was too deep they headed inland, climbing over walls, running across saturated squares of long grass and then across huge swathes of standing water that hid parking lots.
Joel drew closer to the other two, then pointed at a three-story apartment block. They nodded and moved onto the grounds, splashing through a foot of water until running up steps to the nearest entrance and bundling through the door to the hallway and relative silence.
“If we get to the top,” said Joel, rubbing his temple again. “Maybe the roof, we should be able to see the town.”
They both agreed and all three quickly ascended to the topmost landing, then with Joel breaking the lock, pushed open the door and forced themselves out into the gales, but it wasn’t the wind that drew their breath but what had become of the shoreline and part of the town. The towering seafaring leviathans had beached, crushing everything beneath them. Homes, restaurants, parks and sea front stores all now rubble beneath the five-story steel hulks, and at the side of their hulls a beehive of activity. Transport helicopters struggled against the winds to offload the containers, dumping them on the ground which was a mass movement. Thousands of humanoid figures were wading through waves and across what was left of the coastal town.
“Shit,” said Amos.
“That’s a lot of vamps,” said Nelson.
There was a thud, making them turn around to Copeland retracting his wings. He walked forward. “It’s not just vamps. They got some military vehicles. Look like missile launchers, and there’s something else.”
“What?” said Nelson.
“The king’s are here…”
Joel nodded. “I can feel them. Which means if we stay here any longer they’ll be able to do the same to us. We need to get to the base and warn them what’s coming their way.”
*****
Winds were a distant howl outside the windows of the smart apartment. Marina smiled as the old man and woman behind him walked tentatively inside, both of their eyes wide. He looked at her with a bemused expression. “You sure this ours?”
Marina smiled. “Two bedrooms, a shiny kitchen with modern appliances. All yours for free.”
“Free?” The woman said, then continued before Marina could respond. “Nothing in this life is free.” She walked into the bedroom. “I bet they will still want our blood!”
“Only if you want to give it and they will pay you for it.”
The old men raised his eyebrows in approval.
“My apartment is just across the street, so if you ever want anything let me know. Oh I almost forgot. There are two food packages in the kitchen, with stuff you might w
ant to get in the refrigerator.”
The old man smiled, while cupboards closed and opened wherever the old woman was.
“I have to go. But remember I’m just across the way.”
The old man nodded and Marina quickly made her way down the stairs to coaches, and a street full of people, which despite the storm force winds were trying to find their own new homes.
She ran forward and helped a child back up that had fallen, her mother thanking Marina. The family quickly made their way into a ground-floor apartment.
She was about to cross the street to her own home, when through the sea of people she picked up her voice being shouted and turned around to a humvee and captain Ayers standing beside it waving. Pushing through the people stepping off school buses with what little possessions they had, she approached the captain.
“Why are you here?” said Marina.
“You have to come with me immediately. There are some new arrivals at the west gate of the camp, saying they know you.”
Marina looked confused. “Who?”
“She says her name is Anna Faraday.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Layla said something in Spanish to Hector who replied in kind, both sitting in the back of the SUV with two other children, the rest being with Dalton in the minivan. Both vehicles were parked outside an impressive steel gate, with a humvee on the other side and a gaggle of soldiers, some of which were talking on their radios.
“How long do we have to stay here?” said Hector to Anna in the driving seat. The wind howled just outside, rocking their vehicle.
