by Maxey, Phil
The older woman briefly frowned then smiled, nodding at her younger passenger. “Be a piece of cake!”
After checking out the cabin and finding it empty of anything useful, they moved through the forest, Shirl’s breath becoming increasingly visible as white mist the higher they climbed.
A communication tower became visible through gaps in the trees, towering into the monotone sky.
Shirl stopped, leaning on a tree. “You three go on, I need to take a short break.”
Anna looked at Joel.
He nodded. “Everyone stay here. I’ll go on ahead and scout the area.”
Before anyone could respond there was a light breeze and he was gone through the undergrowth. Before he got to the edge of the tree line though, he skidded to a stop on hearing an engine and distant voices.
He crept forward keeping low until he was at the edge of another overgrown field that stretched up to the concrete base of the tower. Nearby was a black truck, and military dressed individuals standing nearby. Another, a middle-aged man in a plaid shirt had a hardhat on and was working on a part of the steel structure that Joel couldn’t make out. All were too far to hear conversations though. He scanned along the trees to his right which moved around the back of the tower. The light gray of a building was just visible through them.
He clicked on his black handset and held it close to his mouth. “Theres enemy at the base of tower. I’m getting closer. Stay where you are. Stay hidden. Over.”
“Okay,” said Anna. “Don’t do anything stupid. Over.”
Joel smiled and placed the radio back in his jacket pocket. Then quickly ran past the damp bark, and through piles of leaves always keeping alert to what was happening at the top of the hill, until he emerged alongside a small footpath which ran to a large bland building. It seemed connected to the functioning of the tower.
The voices were still distant, but now he could hear hammering. Ignoring the building he kept inside the tree line, having a clearer view of the vehicle and soldiers, and the civilian working for them, and moved even closer until if he concentrated and blocked out the wind he could hear the conversation.
“With all the action in the town earlier, and we’re stuck up here,” said one male soldier.
“Comms is important. You’re not too young not to know that, Colins.”
“I’m just saying, when are we going to fight werewolves?”
Werewolves?
Joel crept closer, there now being only a few trunks and small bushes between him and being seen.
“That was just some crazy Alkron who wanted revenge.”
“He killed twelve before they took him down! If I’d been there, I would have taken him out before he had a chance.”
“If you’d been there you would be—” There was a pause. “We’ll being called back down…” The second voice then became too quiet to hear, but Joel could see the soldier talking to the man doing the work on the tower, who nodded in return. Both soldiers got in the SUV, which then drove out of sight. The man continued working. Joel sprung from the cover of the trees, sprinted through the long grass and grabbed the man, covering his mouth so he couldn’t shout and dragged him back into the forest, before letting him go.
The older man’s eyes were wide, his head flicking left and right for a chance to escape.
Joel raised one hand. “I’m not going to hurt you!”
“You… you’re one of those half vamps… you going to kill me?”
“I’m not going to hurt you.”
“You just want to drink some of my blood?” The man pulled his shirt collar from his neck. “Take what you need, but leave me conscious, I got a family.”
“I’m not going to hurt you, and I don’t need your blood.” The last part was only half true, it had been a while since he got what he needed.
“Then…” The man looked around once more. “What do you want? If they know I’m talking to you, I’m dead! My family too!”
“The soldiers were talking about a werewolf that attacked earlier. Is he still alive?”
“How you know it was a ‘he’?”
“Just answer the question.”
“Yeah, they got him locked up in the school somewhere. Waiting shipment east. Why?”
“You know about any others waiting shipment east? What’s east?”
“They take the Alkrons they find to the east coast. Some kind of re-education facility, where they turn them into soldiers for the kings. But that’s all I know. Okay? I’m going to go now…” He started walking past Joel, crunching leaves, back towards the field.
Joel closed his eyes, his breathing slowing. “I don’t want to do it,” he whispered.
I’m not a murderer anymore.
The man was now almost out of the forest.
You have to.
*****
“How you feel?” said Anna to Shirl who was seated on a moss covered log. Corine was twirling a white flower around in her fingers, leaning on a tree.
“Didn’t really plan on spending my final years running from vampires, but apart from that, I’m dikity good.”
Anna smiled.
“How you doing…” Shirl nodded towards Anna’s lack of hand.
Anna held the stump up. “I still go to grab things, then realize…”
“You should get a hook attached… you know, like a pirate!” Shirl made a pirate sound, and Corine giggled.
Anna laughed. “You know what? I might just do that.” A rustling came from the woods, and she could smell the blood on Joel lips before he emerged.
“They got Dalton,” he said a little out of breath.
“What?” said Anna looking confused. “How?”
“He must have been ahead of us. Attacked them this morning. They got him ready for transportation east to some kind of facility on the coast.”
“Why he come here?” said Corine.
“Same reasons we did, this is the last place we saw the corporation.”
Anna went to speak but the young woman beat her to it. “We have to rescue him.”
The two hybrids looked surprised but Shirl frowned, looking away.
“That’s exactly what we’re going to do,” said Joel.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Dalton pulled on the chain that held him to the large rusting pipe, but the result was the same as the first ten times he tried to get free. His arm, which felt like one continuous bruise fell back to the concrete floor.
A day before, back at the small town, as they neared the back of the school where the corporation was keeping Anna, he smelled the enemy before they appeared, but for a few seconds he was as shocked as everyone else. A few hundred black fatigued soldiers appeared as if pulled from a magician’s hat. The only thing missing was a puff of white smoke.
After Kizzy, Joel was the next to be put down, a high velocity projectile shattering the back of his skull, which dropped him like a stone.
But he managed to throw himself behind a nearby wall, as more bullets from snipers sent pieces of masonry skyward. As he peered over the top he caught glimpses of Amos holding his head as if in pain, while more bullets singed the air. The humans only lasted a bit longer, trying to return fire, running back to the previous wall they had just climbed over, but all of them were dropped before making it.
He watched as Pachmayer crawled on all fours, desperate to get out of the line of fire before a crack filled the air, and he slumped forward. This was followed by cheers echoing off the buildings’ walls.
As he crouched behind the wall, trying to think of an escape route, an odor of wolf drifted by and he looked up to the roof. Before he could react Geri let out a roar, her form already transformed and she dived forward into a group of soldiers. Human screams were cut short as blood flowed freely. He surged forward but only made it a few yards before the sound of a slice brought silence. He stopped, frozen, and surrounded by guns which were slowly moving towards him.
Some of the soldiers parted ways, revealing a scene whi
ch almost made him double over in pain. A hybrid from the smell, madness in his eyes, held a silver sword, and below him was the still warm wolf form of Geri, her head separated from her body.
He didn’t remember much after that for blind rage took his mind, only slightly relieving when the cars started flying and he had a chance to escape. The last part still didn’t make any sense.
Without taking a pause for his wounds to heal he found a vehicle and headed north, to the one place where he knew he would find more of the bastards that took the one reason he gave a shit.
When he entered the town, what he really wanted was to kill Alkrons. Those like himself. Kill as many as he could before they ended him. Maybe that would give some help to those that still fought against the corporation. He wasn’t sure if Geri would care, but it didn’t matter. They needed to pay. Instead it was just humans, and he didn’t even get to kill many before he got hit with a number of tasers. They were well trained with dealing with his kind.
A door opening echoed off the low ceiling, pipes and machinery.
Finally they going to end it.
He wondered if he would go to the same place Geri went.
Nah.
The sound of boots heralded a group of five soldiers, each with rifles, which were aimed squarely at his chest and head.
He smiled. “You think these little pop guns gonna take—”
Five small explosions rattled his ear drums. He looked down to a series of darts sticking from his skin, then back to the young men and women, and sneered, falling unconscious against the wall.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The SUV sat behind a single story motel, its engine turned off.
“This is a dumb idea,” grumbled Shirl.
Outside, daylight was dwindling. On the other side of the motel, a wreckage of vehicles, some latched onto others, cast long shadows across the two-lane road.
“It’s a good plan,” said Joel. “This is the main route east out of town. If they leave. This will be the way they come.”
“We don’t even know how many soldiers they going to have guarding him. What if it’s like… a lot! With guns!”
“It’ll be dark. They will think its vamps attacking. They won’t know what’s happening, and during that confusion we will get him out. It’s a good plan.” He looked at Anna.
“If I see men running at me with rifles, I’m leaving.” Shirl looked at Corine. “We’re leaving!”
“That’s up to you. But if we do get him out, it would be good if you’re still here.”
“Ain’t guaranteeing nothing.”
Joel subdued his sigh.
“I think there’s something coming,” said Corine, although how she knew before he did, Joel wasn’t sure, but he then picked up the vibrations in the ground, and the chugging engine.
“Sounds like one vehicle, that’s good,” he said. “Okay this is it. Be ready.” He pushed his door open, Anna doing the same.
“Yeah, yeah,” said Shirl.
Joel ran close to the motel, then sprang up the seven or so feet, landing a bit unsteadily on the tiled roof. Anna did the same, he helping her balance, and they both moved up the sloped roof, keeping low.
The top gave them a good view of the collection of gas stations, stores and homes nestled amongst tree lined gardens and to the east, the road which rose to a small hill about a mile off. They both got on their stomachs, so only their eyes could see over the ridge. A canvass roof came over the crest of the hill first, followed by the engine cab of the army truck, the chugging sound filling the air even from distance.
“At most they got around fifteen soldiers in the…”
The truck started to slow, hundreds of yards from the makeshift barricade.
“No, no…” said Joel. “They’re too far still.”
The truck began to back up. He got to his feet and wavered a bit.
“What you—”
Before Anna could finish he had ran towards the edge of the roof. “This is our only chance,” he shouted then jumped down. She shook her head then followed. They both became blurs vaulting over fences, across lots and were behind the truck just as it was almost completely turned one-hundred and eighty degrees, facing the way it came.
They sprinted behind the vehicle, which was now picking up speed, Anna slightly ahead of Joel.
“I’m going for it!” she shouted as she sped forward and leaped up onto the back.
“Wait!” he shouted trying to keep up, pushing his arms and legs as much as he could, but the truck was still pulling away. His senses picked up scuffling behind the tarpaulin.
Got to get to it…
He surged forward, pushing his body to produce more speed, when suddenly the two flaps at the back flew open and Dalton, heavily bound with rope and chain fell out and landed hard on the concrete. Anna quickly followed.
Joel skidded to a stop near both of them as the truck continued on its way. Her face was one of joy.
“There was only one soldier!” she said excitedly, then looked down at Dalton who was groaning. “Oh shit, did I hurt him. I kind of had to throw him out.”
*****
Twin cones of light bobbed and weaved in an absolute black.
Joel had seen Corine look into the rear mirror at the sleeping guy on the right of the rear seats so many times he was beginning to get worried she would drive them into a tree.
Anna leaned into him closer. “We should find somewhere to rest up.”
He nodded. It had been two hours since their heist, and had not seen or heard any corporation activity coming after them, but Anna was right. The longer they stayed on the road, even the abandoned tracks they had tried to keep to, the greater the chance that the pinpricks of light the SUV was creating would be spotted. In the dark he glimpsed some rectangular dark shapes against the sky. “Take the next right. I think there’s a small town nearby.”
He suspicions were soon confirmed as they drove down a Main Street. A church slid by in the darkness, then single story homes and forgotten boarded up stores.
“What’s that over there?” said Anna. “I can just see it through the trees.”
“Drive towards that,” said Joel.
Driving down a road with pleasant homes bordering it, they moved onto a smaller track and columns and cylinders rising into the night sky at the end.
Corine drove onto the gas station lot, with a small refinery located behind.
“This is perfect,” said Joel. He looked towards a small building off the side of the concrete square. “Park near that house.”
Dalton grumbled something, turning his head.
Corine stopped near the light gray building and looked in the rear mirror again. “He’s not going to wake up mad is he?”
Shirl pushed open her passenger’s door, then slowly stood outside, stretching.
“Probably,” said Joel. “But don’t worry about it. He’s no threat you.”
“Okay…” She got out and joined Shirl trying to open the front door.
Anna held up the empty blood bag. “He drunk all we had when he woke earlier. We’re going to need some more real soon.”
Joel pushed his door open. “One problem at a time.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Joel looked up at the steel cylinder that rose at least four stories into the sky. His senses were telling him that Dalton was at the top of it. An hour earlier the big man had awoken on the sofa of the small home they found. It must have belonged to whoever owned the gas station before the scourge, but was now empty of its previous owner. The wolf man, without speaking, had got up and left. Joel wanted to go after him, but then stopped at the door, closing it.
Joel placed his hand on the cold ladder and climbed. He hoped that Dalton wouldn’t be too angry about the intrusion into his space, and only heard a sigh once he cleared the top and stepped onto the gantry.
Dalton was sat with his back against a post.
Despite the darkness, it was possible to see for miles in all dir
ections, with the tower being the highest point.
Joel leaned forward on the handrail. “See any lights in the sky?”
“No…” A brisk wind picked up then faded. “I know why you’re up here.”
“What happened is on—”
Dalton let out a disgruntled growl and flicked his head towards Joel. “Don’t you do that! I saw what happened. You… didn’t see! I saw! And that king… him and everyone who works for him, gonna pay! This…” He swallowed. “This is not on you!”
Joel let out a breath. “Okay…”
Dalton looked back out to the darkness. “So what’s the plan. I know you got a plan.”
“We find and rescue the others. There’s some kind of re-education place, way out—“
Dalton was now looking at the metal surface in front of him. “There are only two to rescue.”
Joel looked at him shocked. “Who? The others—”
“Are dead. Only Amos and Kizzy survived. Because they’re like us, Alkrons. Keller and the others, they killed. Had no use for the humans.”
Pain was returning to Joel, but not because of the injury to his skull. And this was worse. He gripped the handrail harder, making it creak. “They probably took Amos and Kizzy to that place on the east coast. That’s where we are heading. That’s the plan.” He didn’t need to ask the man next to him if he wanted to come along.
Dalton nodded. “Good.”
*****
Dalton drove. He insisted and no one was going to argue different. Corine had wanted to find her own vehicle to follow on behind with, but after a short search in the dark without finding any working, she reluctantly got in the back of the SUV. Joel was now in the front passenger’s seat with Shirl behind him sleeping, and Anna and Corine near her.
It was now Daltons turn to look in the rear mirror, noticing the young woman in the back watching him. “How you do what you do?” he said.
