The Harvest (Book 1)

by Ferretti, Anne

  Luke turned red. “Not at all.”

  She stepped up to Luke wrapping her arms around him the best she could with all her winter gear on. “You’re like a brother to me and I… well damn it I love you Luke, so please be careful.” She stepped back from him. There she said it and so what. She did love him as if he’d been family from the get go.

  “I love you to Madison. You know like if you were my big sister. My mean big sister.” He added to lighten the mood.

  “Very funny twerp.” She laughed. “Seriously Luke. Come back. You know, don’t do anything foolish. I mean, I know you think there’s nothing here for you, but I’m here and I need you to come back. Ok?”

  “Ok.”

  “Promise?”

  “I promise.” Luke replied in earnest, crossing his heart for emphasis. They hugged again as Austin walked up on them clearing his throat.

  “Mind if I cut in?”

  “No sir.” Luke released Madison and excused himself.

  Madison and Austin stared at each other. All of her practiced words sounding silly in her mind and her tongue refusing to obey her command to speak them out loud.

  “You feel good about the trip?” Austin asked. His question sounding more like small talk than something he was concerned over.

  “We’ll be fine. Should take less than an hour to get to the bunker.”

  Again silence filled the gap between them. Madison stared down the winding road leading away from the mountain. She needed to say something before it was too late, before he left and never knew how she felt.

  “Madison.” He took her arm turning her towards him. “Whatever happens I want you to know I’m glad are paths crossed. And I’m sorry if I’ve been an asshole, but I do care a lot about you.”

  With her heart in her throat, Madison could only stare at Austin. He wasn’t supposed to say those things, she was. This wasn’t at all how she’d planned for their goodbye to go.

  “You and Luke are my family. And Ed. And as long as I’m able, I’ll protect all of you. When I return with Roxi and my boy, that’s not going to change. You’ll still be my family.”

  Madison felt her insides twist into a knot and her tongue turn to sandpaper against the roof of her mouth. “Of course Austin.” She managed to say without choking.

  He gave her a quick hug. “You better get going.”

  Nodding her head, Madison turned and walked away from him without saying a word of what she felt. Dumbfounded and once again feeling like a total fool she forced her feet to walk not run. No you’re not a fool Mad. Her mom’s voice chided. You’re a first class idiot for thinking that man cared about you as anything more than what he does.

  Madison climbed in the vehicle, instructing Jeremy to head out. She kept her eyes straight ahead, not looking back as they drove away from the mountain.

  ***

  With no time to spare Zack pressed the gas pedal to the floor. In the distance he could see a sand colored vehicle approaching and knew it was coming from the mountain. He lifted the binoculars hanging around his neck. Relief washed over him when he saw Madison sitting in the vehicle’s passenger seat.

  Flashing his lights to gain their attention, Zack rolled down the window and waved like mad. The rover came to a stop alongside the Monster. Jeremy rolled down the window, but Madison had jumped out and run around to talk to Zack.

  “Zack what are you doing out here? Is everyone ok?”

  “We’re all fine. Where’s Austin?” He pressed. There was no time to explain what he’d discovered.

  “Back at the mountain. He’s going through the portal.”

  “When?”

  “Chase is taking him and Luke there right now. I don’t know how long it takes, but Austin’s going as soon as he can.”

  “I’ve got to stop him.” Zack shifted into gear.

  “Wait.” Madison shouted over the rumble of the engine. “What’s wrong?”

  “No time to explain. Ed will tell you when you get to the bunker, but I gotta go.”

  “Here. Take this.” She reached up giving Zack her radio. “Austin still has his, but I don’t know if it’s on.”

  Madison stepped back and waved Zack to go. Her mind screamed for her to go with him, but her feet remained planted. She watched the truck disappear around the bend before getting back in the rover.

  ***

  The corridor leading to the portal was black as pitch with only Austin’s battery powered lantern to cut through the darkness. Luke followed close on the captain’s heels, feeling the dark grasping at him, trying to pull him back into its nothingness.

  Up ahead of the trio, Eve walked without the lantern’s aide. She would get ahead of them and stop, waiting in the dark which was not in the least to her eyes. As soon as the edge of the lantern’s halo touched her skin she would move on again into the darkness.

  “How much farther Chase?” Austin paused, waving the lantern in Chase’s face.

  “We’re almost there.” Chase grumbled, only moving forward when the captain shoved him. This situation was entirely unacceptable. The captain would pay dearly for subjecting him to such pain and discomfort.

  But Chase’s current state of unhappiness wasn’t caused by his situation or perceived mistreatment by the captain. The cause of his consternation was his inability to sway Reynolds, to manipulate him in even the slightest bit. Never before had Chase encountered a person he could not bend to his will, someone that left him with no options to consider.

  Chase liked having options and, had he been able to choose, he would have kept up his lie about the portal being closed off. But he didn’t get to choose. The captain had called his bluff, threatening to cut out his tongue and Chase knew he would follow through on that threat.

  Smiling to himself, Chase hadn’t given up hope all together. The others might worship Reynolds as their savior, their protector, but Chase knew evil when he saw it. He knew the captain held secrets, dirty little secrets and Chase hoped he could be the one to reveal the captain’s dark side. He almost chuckled out loud as he envisioned their expressions upon learning the truth about their precious Captain Reynolds. In Chase’s mind they weren’t all that different. After all they’d both taken human lives and he bet Reynolds enjoyed doing so as much as he did.

  Fifty yards in front of them they could see the dim yellow glow and knew they were close. Upon reaching the source of light, the corridor opened up into an empty square room. Three walls were plain stone with the fourth being a massive metal door that encumbered the entire wall.

  “Get to it.” Austin nudged Chase over to the doors.

  “It’s been a while.” Chase stalled.

  “No bull shit today Chase. You’re on your last breath.” Austin warned. He’d reached his limit with this waste of a human being.

  “Of course not. No bull shit Captain Reynolds.” Chase mimicked, feeling he had nothing to lose by riling the captain a bit.

  Austin grabbed Chase by the hair and slammed his cheek into the door. “Open it now.”

  Chase nodded. “You need me Captain Reynolds.” Chase stated with an air of indignation.

  “I need your retina and your thumb. The rest is useless.” Austin retorted, taking some of the air out of Chase’s self inflated ego.

  “The combination…” Chase started, but stopped when Austin stepped up to the door and punched in the correct code. “How did you…?”

  “Don’t worry about it. Now do the rest.” Austin wasn’t going to share he’d found the code on a slip of paper taped on the underside of a drawer in Roth’s desk. Nor would Chase ever know he’d gambled that the code was still valid given standard protocol required top secret codes to be changed every twenty four hours. However, he’d felt good about the odds and placed his bet on Roth ignoring protocol. The house lost this round.

  Grumbling under his breath, Chase completed the retinal and thumb print scans. The hydraulic gears clicked and turned in response. Encased within the eighteen inch thick door the five solid me
tal pistons, each nine inches in diameter, and extending the entire length of the door, retracted one by one, sliding into open position with a solid thud. As the last piston locked into place, powerful hydraulics pulled the door sideways into the mountain.

  Chase waited, arms crossed, wearing an expression of satisfaction on his mealy face. Captain Reynolds may have pulled a rabbit from the hat on the first door, but Chase had to believe not even the captain was so good he knew the combination to the second door as well.

  It was to Chase’s utmost pleasure when he heard Reynolds curse under his breath upon seeing the second door, giving Chase more than satisfaction, but sheer pleasure realizing the captain not only didn’t have the combination, but had been taken by utter surprise at the door’s existence. Biting his cheek to keep from smiling, Chase stood his ground.

  “Open it.” Austin ordered.

  He glanced sideways, his eyes wicked. “What? You don’t have the combination? A shame captain.”

  Austin turned on Chase, who held up his arms in a defensive position, cowering behind them. But he wasn’t afraid. He felt exalted. Glee raced through his veins. He had a bargaining tool. He had an edge. The captain couldn’t kill him. Not yet.

  Undeterred Austin lowered his rifle and pulled out his k-bar. “Do you know how long it takes to bleed a man to death?”

  “No. I can’t say that I do.” Chase never liked a slow kill, preferring to dole out his punishments swiftly, so that he could take care of his own needs without being disturbed. Only once had he taken his time, on Anthony Fertolli, the dolt who’d humiliated him in the boy’s locker room back in the tenth grade. Chase smiled at the image of poor ole Anthony crawling on the ground, covered in blood, begging Chase not to kill him.

  “I can make that smile permanent.” Austin touched the corner of Chase’s mouth with the tip of his knife.

  Chase moved the blade away from his face using the tip of his finger. “That won’t be necessary my dear captain.”

  Austin raised a brow at Chase’s tone, which was heavy with arrogant superiority. What was the man up to now, he wondered as Chase pranced about in front of the door. Austin was reminded of a peacock with its tail feathers fanned in full display.

  “I’m going to count to three. If you aren’t at that door punching in the code I’m going to start cutting.”

  “You’re bluffing. If you kill me you’ll never get in.” Chase scoffed. “I’m the only one left with the code.”

  “If I kill you, I’ll blow the door open with c-four.” Austin, tired of arguing and to the point of pulling the trigger on Chase, thought c-four might just be the way to go.

  “Oh really. Oh you go right ahead and do that captain.” He giggled. “But be careful. C-four tends to be unpredictable. You might damage the portal.”

  Shaking his head, Austin weighed his options. Chase was right about the dangers of the explosives, but if Austin couldn’t get Chase to cooperate then he would have to bargain with him. This was what Chase was after, what he was holding out for, which rankled Austin to no end thinking he might have to give in.

  “Fuck it.” Austin muttered and raised his rifle. He’d take his chances with the c-four. Chases eyes bugged out and he fell to the floor in prayer form.

  “Captain.” Luke spoke up from behind him. “Captain.” He said louder when Austin didn’t respond.

  “What?” Austin glanced over his shoulder and slowly turned. Eve stood at the door, her hand hovering above the key pad. A series of numbers typed into the keypad, but her fingers never moved. A computer voice announced access code accepted and requested the retinal scan.

  Moving with uncanny swiftness, Eve snatched Chase by the collar, pulling him over to the retinal scanner kicking and screaming. Eve shoved his head down and propped his eyelid open with her fingers. When the scan was accepted, she shoved Chase aside exerting little effort, but the force sent him tumbling across the room.

  Landing in a heap on the opposite side of the room, Chase seethed in his hate and humiliation, too arrogant to realize he was fortunate to be alive. His arrogance perpetuated his ignorance, allowing him to go on believing Eve to be inferior. Chase couldn’t fathom that a creature surviving off of human blood could be an intelligent species let alone smarter than he.

  Austin pulled Chase to his feet and shoved him through the opening. Unsure what to expect, Austin kept his rifle raised and ready, instructing Luke to do the same. These precautions turned out to be unnecessary.

  Inside the room was a scene straight from a science fiction movie. The room was cavernous, measuring at least a football field long and about half as wide. In the middle of the room, beginning about thirty feet in from the entrance was a track similar in structure to a mono rail. The track extended to the back of the room. Sitting on the track were two pod shaped carriers, each painted to resemble the American flag.

  The walls and ceiling were painted a flat gray. On each side of the rail, half way up the wall, a string of lights ran parallel to the floor. Positioned on the ceiling were five rows of lights, also running the length of the room.

  Following the track, the group walked towards the opposite end of the room. It was here they came upon the portal suspended in mid air, supported by nothing. Although the structure was a simple oval made of sand colored stone it was an amazing sight to the eyes and boggling to the mind.

  The portal was the height of a doorway, but wider. The outer edges were three feet deep and two feet wide, and in the middle a black substance shimmered like water, only denser, and giving the impression it might spill over at any moment.

  “Makes you wonder.” Luke said.

  “About what?” Austin asked.

  “How it is the portal in that old sci-fi movie looked almost exactly like this one. I mean exactly. And that movie was made like forty years ago.” Luke turned on Chase.

  “What are you implying young man?” Chase demanded.

  “That you lied about how long the government’s had this thing. That someone must have leaked your secret and maybe they had to shut down for a while. Or maybe you never had permission to start up again.”

  Chase snorted. “What does it matter now?”

  “What does it matter?” Luke couldn’t believe this guy. “You and that psychopath Roth are responsible for killing millions of people.”

  Chase shrugged. “Sometimes people must die for the greater good of mankind.”

  Luke bristled. “My parents were some of those people you sick fucker.”

  “You’re wasting your time Luke. Chase ain’t got a soul. He sold it to the devil.” Austin replied from the backside of the portal, which looked the same as the front. Upon closer inspection he found the surface of the stone was covered in intricate carvings unlike anything he’d seen before, and he knew, without a doubt, they weren’t put there by human hands.

  “What are these carvings Chase?” Austin came back around.

  “How should I know?”

  “Right. What was I thinking?” Chase’s lack of knowledge came as no surprise to Austin, who after reading Roth’s journals and finding little information in them about the portal, suspected no one had the answers. No human anyway. No human, he repeated, and his eyes automatically sought out Eve.

  “Hey, what are you doing?” Austin hurried over to where she crouched on top of the tracks only inches from the murky insides of the portal. “What are you doing up there?” Austin asked again when she ignored him.

  She looked down into Austin’s eyes and then pointed to the carvings on the portal. Reaching out, she ran her index finger over the grooves in the stone. Austin was reminded of Madison speed reading Roth’s journals. She’d used her index finger in the same manner.

  Eve sprung up, her hand moved rapidly across the stones. She motioned to Austin, pointing at the stone and then back at herself.

  “You can read it? Is that what you’re telling me?”

  She nodded yes and went back to tracing the carvings. She covered every inch of
the front before jumping down and doing the same to the sides and the back. When she finished, she leapt back onto the track and stood facing the portal. With one last glance at Austin, she stepped forward into the shimmering substance.

  “Wait!” Austin yelled, reaching for her foot, but coming up empty. She was gone. He couldn’t believe what his eyes were telling him.

  “Good riddance.” Chase exclaimed, never being so relieved to see someone go as he was that thing.

  “How do we operate the portal? How do we travel?” Austin demanded.

  “You get in the pod and press the green button.” Chase replied.

  “That’s it? That’s all?” Austin watched the portal, waiting for Eve to step back through.

  “That’s it. That’s all.”

  “Then let’s go.”

  “Me go? What for?”

  Out of time, Austin took Chase by the collar and pulled him across the room to where the first pod sat on the rail. “Open it.”

  Still protesting under his breath, Chase ran his hand over the shell of the pod. A section opened and a keypad was exposed. Chase punched in a code and the pod’s canopy opened. Inside was room enough for two passengers.

  “What’s the combination?” Austin shoved him back to the second pod. Chase gave him the numbers as he punched them in. “Now get in.” Austin forced Chase into the first pod.

  “Luke you go with him. I’ll be right behind you.”

  Luke climbed in the first pod with Chase. “You sure about this captain?”

  “It’ll be ok. If he gives you any trouble, shoot him.”

  “Right.” The lid lowered down on them. Austin gave the thumbs up to Luke, who pressed the green button. The lights lit up, pulsating up and down the walls. Overhead the ceiling put on a similar show of illumination.

  Like a rocket launched into space the pod shot forward at lightning speed down the track. In less than three seconds they were gone. Not wasting any time, Austin climbed into the second pod and in doing so the radio fell off his front pocket onto his lap. The flashing red light caught his attention. The radio was on, but the volume had been turned all the way down. He cranked the volume on high and Zack’s voice blared into the pod.