by Phil Maxey
Across the slope the other two creatures, waved their claws and roared in the direction of the bullets raining down on them. One of them sprung forward and swiped at a soldier near the bus, shearing his arm from his shoulder and causing him to fall to the ground, screaming in pain. The creature then descended on him and his screams turned to a gargling and then silence. The other creature charged at the bus, slamming into it causing the left side paneling to wilt and some of the windows to shatter.
Bass jumped into the Humvee, revved the engine and reversed it at speed into the creature near Fiona and Cal. The car crashed into it like it had hit a wall, but the creature was knocked backwards onto the slope. Its legs scrambled against the loose ice and rock, and its head flailed around seemingly disorientated. It slowly slid towards the edge still dazed and then started to frantically claw at the snow and ice around it, but it was too late and it fell off the edge into the valley. The other creature was still slamming into the bus. Everyone onboard had ducked down and was on the other side. The kids screamed, while Mary tried to keep them calm.
The creature near Zach continued to swipe at the front of the truck, while he shot at it. The engine block was now exposed and sparks flew up with each thrust of the creature’s claws. Zach continued firing at it, but the creature changed its focus and charged at the drivers door, causing it to buckle inwards on impact and the whole truck to tilt on two wheel’s before crashing back down. When is this thing going to go down? Zach kept firing, and finally the creature staggered backwards, turned and leapt into the now dark expanse of trees.
Bass went to reverse the Humvee into the remaining creature, but as he got close to it, it leapt up on top of the bus and started slicing through the roof, like it was made of paper. All fire was now directed on this last beast and after a few seconds it roared and slumped onto the roof dead.
For a moment everyone caught their breath, the only sound being the children still crying.
Zach clicked on his radio. “Bass, you there. Over.”
A few seconds passed, then an out of breath Bass replied. “Here.”
“Casualties?”
“I think just Ashcroft. Hold on, I’m checking on the bus.” Zach watched as Bass went into the bus. Bass continued not realizing he was still holding his transmit button. The sound of crying children emanated from Zach’s radio. “Injuries? Is anyone injured?” Mary was heard pleading to those around her. Bass then continued. “I think we’re all fine. Over.”
Zach sighed in relief, and tried not to think about the dead soldier, lying at the side of the bus.
Abbey’s voice then came through his radio. “Zach? Are you ok? I can’t see from here.”
Zach looked up and Abbey was standing, with her hand near her eyes at the far edge of the slope.
“I’m here, I’m ok, you?”
“Few scrapes as I fell back in the bus, but I’m ok.”
Zach sighed for the second time. He looked to his left at the driver’s door with a huge indent, and swiveled in the seat, kicking his boot into it, to push it open. Instead it swung out on one hinge and dangled, banging against the side of the truck. He hadn’t realized until now but there was blood on his hands, but he could only see small cuts that were causing it.
Slowly climbing down from his seat, he kept his eyes on Abbey as she waved to him. Straining his eyes, he could see more people walking up to her, all looking at him, some also waving. Something’s wrong.
He went to click on his radio, when Abbey’s voice burst from it. “Behind you! Zach, the road!”
He slowly turned around, his arm slowly dropping to his side at the sight that was three hundred yards away, in the direction they came in. Waves of the creatures they had just encountered, reaching across all four lanes where bounding towards him.
Zach stood frozen. The creatures, each one the size of large car, where scampering and scraping against the frost and snow towards them. These weren’t just a few, this was a multitude of claws and fury. Get across the slope. His instinct was to turn and run. He stood hesitating what to do, when he heard the rear shutter slide up and a yelp from Morgan. This was then followed by screams from others in the back, behind her. Two hundred yards.
He ran to the back of the truck, Morgan was frantically trying to help some of the sick to sit up. If we run now we might survive. He pushed the thought out of his mind.
“Morgan! Who can walk?”
She looked back at him, her face pleading for a different answer to what was bearing down on them. He then heard footsteps outside. Bass, Sam, Isaiah and three other solders appeared, some instantly taking a kneeling position and looking down their scopes.
Bass and the other started firing into the oncoming creatures. “We got this. Get everyone out and across!”
Without looking back at the creatures, Zach jumped up into the back of the truck, and started helping people to their feet. An explosion joined the incessant automatic firing, and some of the creatures screamed in pain, limping on for a few more yards before collapsing. The rest of the crowd ran towards them. Zach looked back, they were now merely fifty yards away, close enough to see the saliva dripping from their teeth. The small defensive group, fired and threw new clips to each other to make sure they would not run out of ammunition, but it was only enough to drop a few at the front, the other creatures just climbed over them.
A few of the patients were slowly walking back to the slope, but half were still in the back of the truck. Zach looked at the impossible number of creatures almost upon them and felt a resignation descend upon him. This is it.
Then a roar echoed around the cliffs, and a gush of wind shook the truck and those outside, causing them to lose their footing. Everyone looked up to see what new nightmare this was. Instead a loud deep staggered boom rang out. At first Zach wasn’t sure what was happening, but then he realized the creatures that were now just yards away were being torn apart. Blood, fur and creature parts flew into the air, and splattered against the trees. The grey, beige road slowly began to turn red as the creature’s progress had been stopped. Roars and anguished screams of pain rang out, mixing with the sound of rotor blades from above.
Abbey’s voice, just audible from the sound of mayhem exploding around him came from Zach’s radio. “Zach, you there? There are people here, they are helping.”
Zach wanted to reply but instead stood transfixed by the scene in front of him. At least twenty of the creatures were already dead, and the others behind were leaping upwards, but just met a wall of metal death and fell back to the snow-covered road, dead. Some of the creatures were already retreating back into the black of the woods. He clicked on his radio. “The creatures are retreating.”
Within a few more seconds, the rest of the creatures scattered into the tree’s leaving a scene reminiscent of a battle. The gust from the helicopter above dissipated. Zach jumped down from the truck, and watched it fly over the slope and down the road in the direction they had planned to originally go. Standing there were at least an extra twenty to thirty people, most armed. That was when he noticed that there were more people kneeling with guns around the truck.
Bass stood up, and shook the hand of the strangers next to him. “Thank you.”
One of them, a man in his sixties, wearing a plaid checkered jacket and winter hat stepped forward and shook Bass’s hand. “I’m Brandon…” before he could finish, Zach did for him.
“Burford?”
The man looked surprised “We know each other?”
Zach held out his hand. “I’m Captain Zach Felton. Brad told me about a couple that had a preppers shop in the Oregon area, but I thought that was hundreds of miles from here.”
Brandon’s face lit up as he shook Zach’s hand. “You know Brad? That old coot still alive? That will make Alyssa’s day.” A voice came from a radio in Brandon’s pocket. “Excuse me,” he then stepped away and exchanged some words to the person on the radio and came back. “Best we get back to the fort, once the sun drops behin
d that mountain, all kinds of critters will come out.”
CHAPTER 8
Brandon and his group, created a makeshift rope bridge across the slope, and also dug out a more level path. After thirty or so minutes everyone from the white truck was carefully taken over the slope and placed into waiting vans provided by Brandon. The bus, even though heavily damaged on one side was still running fine. They drove a few miles up the winding highway until what Brandon described as the ‘fort’ came into view. Even in the gloom it was an impressive sight. Looking like a nineteenth century frontier outpost, a row of spiked chiseled logs stretched for a few hundred yards north and south, with the southern end overlapping the highway. Each of the wooden pillars were three-quarters the height of the surrounding trees, and at each corner was a watchtower.
Brandon sat alongside Zach as they approached the thirty-foot high wooden gate. “We haven’t lit them yet, but on each tower and a few intervals between, we light torches, we don’t have much in the way of electricity so we can’t waste any on external lighting!”
The heavy looking gate swung inwards, revealing a snow-covered road which veered to the left around a small brick built building.
Brandon waved at the two men who’s job it was to open and close the gate. “This is our first line of defense. Took over a hundred people, three months while being attacked to build it around our community. We lost good people making it happen. It’s still not finished. The next step is to build a moat or at least a ditch around the outside of it. The whole thing was Hectors idea, but you’ll meet him later.”
“How many are you?” said Abbey from the back of the Humvee.
“Four hundred and seventy-one souls.”
“That’s a lot of people.”
“The number has gone up and down over the past few months, but that’s how many there are as of right now.”
Abbey spoke up again. “Why didn’t you go to one of the camps?”
Brandon looked over his shoulder to Abbey and smiled. “Not our style, young lady.”
Driving past a plain two-story building, they pulled up in front of a large building of at least four floors, with a high front entrance. Icicles hung from its slopping roof and windowsills, and some of the wooden paneling was broken and splinted exposing the brickwork underneath.
Standing under the entrance canopy next to a brick pillar were a number of people, the first of which was a middle-aged woman, with white pony-tailed hair. Brandon directed Zach to pull up near them. Once they stopped Brandon got out and was immediately hugged by the woman.
He smiled. “Okay, I’m fine, stop fussing,” he then turned to Zach and Abbey who had joined them. “This is my wife Alyssa.”
“We would have gotten to you sooner but we had no idea you were stuck at the landslide,” said Alyssa.
“You saved our lives, so I would say you got there in time,” said Zach with a smile. He then watched the vans with the sick people keep on going up the road, passing some two-story homes and then out of sight. Rob had parked up behind the Humvee and the children started to get off, with Mary corralling them together.
Brandon noticed Zach watching the vans. “We have a medical center in town, we will do what we can for your people, but our medical supplies are limited.”
“We have some medical supplies in the boxes you salvaged for us, take what you need.”
Alyssa turned slightly in the direction of the entrance door. “There’s hot food waiting for everyone.”
They all moved into a large, high-ceilinged lobby, with boarded up windows that were framed by a variety of colored tinsel. Occupied chairs and tables sat on one side, while boxes and racks of supplies sat on the other. At the far end a small staircase ran up to a landing, and to the left of that a roaring fire, which warmed the group as soon as they entered. On the fire sat a large pot, with liquid bubbling and steam rising from it. Along the left wall ran cupboards and a counter with baskets of bread and bottles of water on it. A natural Christmas tree covered in ornaments stood proudly a safe distance from the fire.
Alyssa stood in front of the children, who looked at her like they were about to hear from their principle. “There’s some bread for you to eat over there, share one between a few of you, and the same for the bottled water. Sit near the fire if you’re cold.”
The children’s expressions relaxed and they moved eagerly to get their piece of food and then some warmth.
“This was an Inn before the Cascade, now it serves the same kind of purpose. People who are new, stay here first,” said Brandon to Zach.
“We understand.”
Brandon then turned enthusiastically to Alyssa. “They are friends of Brad’s!”
“Brad Crenshaw?”
“Yup”
“Well, I…well I’m not surprised he survived, he was always one step ahead of all of us when it came to the spooky stuff! Anyway, please everyone, follow me and I will take you to your rooms.”
Alyssa then led the group to the small landing, as Zach went to follow, Brandon leaned closer to him.
“We should probably talk. Get some rest, and then I’ll be back in a few hours.”
Zach nodded, and followed the rest to the landing and then up some stairs and then onto another landing.
Alyssa and the group stood in a candle lit corridor. Abstract paintings of sun bathed wheat fields and historical scenes covered the walls. “A few of the rooms are taken, but most are empty, so find yourself somewhere. You can go up another floor as well if you want.”
The kids went to run off, when Mary called them back. “No, no we stick together,” she then looked at Alyssa. “Is there a large room with a few large beds?”
Alyssa smiled. “We have a large family room on the floor above, it’s the last door in the corridor.”
Mary thanked her, and led the children up the stairs, Irene carefully followed.
Zach and Abbey walked into the closest room, while everyone else flowed into the others. Abbey threw her backpack on the bed, while Zach took off his helmet and dropped that and the backpack on the floor.
Abbey sat on the double bed. “Considering it’s the end of the world, this is a pretty nice room.”
Zach walked over to the window, and looked out the front of the building towards the wooden wall protecting them. As he did, the torches Brandon mentioned were lit and he felt like he had been transported into a Saturday morning TV show, about the early settlers. His mind then threw images at him of the certain death he was facing just an hour earlier. He slid his hand over his face trying to wipe away the scene and sighed.
He then realized Abbey was standing directly behind him. “I’m fine. Just, things got hairy for a moment there,” he paused and then started laughing. Abbey wasn’t sure what he was laughing at for a moment, and then started giggling. He then turned and kissed her in one movement, but quickly pulled back, scrunching his face up. “I keep thinking it’s a lot more healed than it is.”
Abbey looked concerned, and gently touched his eye. “It’s a lot better than it was. And you can see out of it now.”
He sat heavily on the bed. “Yeah, all things considered, I’ll take a bruised eye. Did the children see what happened to the soldier, outside of the bus?”
“I can’t be a hundred-percent sure, but Mary did her best to keep them looking the other way.”
“Good,” he paused then continued. “Once, this shit show settles down, they are going to be who has to take things forward. The less traumatized they are, the better.”
“They also need to know what they are facing.”
“I don’t think there’s anyone, kids or adults who doesn’t know that by now.”
Zach smiled, and held out his arm. Abbey came and sat next to him.
Fiona followed Cal into a room with two single unmade beds. He leant his rifle against a small bedside unit, his backpack on the floor and sat zombie like on the bed. He then laid back, staring upwards at the ceiling.
Fiona dropped her stuff and
did the same on the other bed, all the while keeping an eye on him. “That was a close one back there.”
“They always are.”
Fiona turned on her side to face him. “How you doing?”
“What you mean?”
“For a moment there, when the truck was at the point of tipping, I thought you wasn’t going to jump out.”
“I’m here aren’t I.”
“Cal, I know there’s something going on with you, you haven’t been the same since those crazy fucks, back at the base.”
Cal turned over, facing away from her. “I just need to get some sleep.”
Sam stood looking out the partially boarded up window, onto the snow and rocks that formed the area at the back of the Inn. “There’s another wall. These folks have been busy.”
Isaiah leaned back on the single bed. “What’s that?”
“They built another tree wall out the back here, must be another line of defense…smart.”
“I just want to know where their food is, I’m mighty hungry. You stick one of those six-legged furry freaks in front of me right now? I’ll eat it.”
“And here’s me thinking the world had turned vegan.”
Sam sat on the other bed, and inspected his prosthetic leg.
Isaiah looked across. “Any damage?”
“It’s a bit scuffed up, but nope, you?”
Isaiah held up his prosthetic hand. “Still capable of giving you the finger.”
Sam smiled. “All is right with the world.”
Michael rolled painfully on his side. He rolled his t-shirt up and inspected the pink-red three-inch serrated line. It was still painful, but now it was a dull ache rather than a tearing sensation when he moved. A woman with her kid was talking in a foreign language to each other in a hushed tone, just a few feet away in a single bed. At first he thought he had gotten the short straw ending up in this room with them, but after a while, the sound of happiness, even in whispers and unrecognizable words, was something that made him feel good inside. Her name was Hanna and seemed a nice enough girl. As he lay on the bed, looking up at the ceiling and vertical striped wallpaper, he tried not to think about the last few days. He also tried not to think about Cal. The man he escaped with, was not the man in the room a few doors along.
