by Phil Maxey
“It’s Cal! Help me shut him up. He’s going to bring down whatever’s out there on top of us.”
Fiona dropped to the floor and held his head, while placing her hand across his mouth causing his rants to become muffled. Abbey still shaken watched from the bottom of the stairs.
“Where’s this blood from? What’s wrong with his forehead?”
“Hold him still!” shouted Zach as quietly as he could, while holding the radio’s light up to Cal’s face.
Across Cal’s forehead was the word “Arclight.”
“Arclight?” whispered Fiona, looking up to Zach. “What the fuck is Arclight?”
Zach went to reply, but before he could Abbey, now standing did.
“Did you say Arclight?”
They couldn’t see her expression, as she was just a dark shape amongst the intense darkness around them, but they could sense something in her voice, recognition.
“Yes, he has the word ‘Arclight’ scratched into his skin on his forehead, why?” said Zach.
Abbey knelt down next to them, and leaned over Cal who had now become very still. She mumbled something to herself.
Zach put his hand on Abbey’s shoulder. “What, was that?”
“Arclight.”
Fiona went to respond, when Cal suddenly grabbed Abbey by the shoulders and leaned close to her face. “Tell the Arclight we accepted.”
Before anyone could respond Cal fell back to the floor seeming unconscious. Abbey sat stunned.
Fiona checked Cal’s pulse. “He’s breathing, he seems to have passed out.”
“Must be a coincidence,” Abbey said the words in a hushed tone, more to herself then those around her.
“What’s a coincidence?” responded Zach, almost pleading for her to be more forthcoming.
Abbey looked at Zach and then Fiona, looking bewildered. “Arclight, used to be my hacker name.”
CHAPTER 13
They all sat against the kitchen cupboards, their faces lit by the neon blue glow from the stove. After Cal passed out earlier, they moved him into the kitchen, thinking the same as him, that it would be a good defensive position. Fiona also spotted the open cupboard door below the stove, and was similarly surprised when she turned the nob and it lit up. Abbey was pretty shook up, and Zach didn’t want to leave her alone with Cal, so Fiona stayed with both of them, while he explored the rest of the house. He almost fired at a large cardboard cut out of a Sasquatch that stood at the end of one of the corridors, but apart from that just found plain rooms. He grabbed as much bedding as he could and brought it to the kitchen.
Cal’s head rested in Fiona’s lap. “I think he’s sleeping.”
“He looks better,” said Zach.
Abbey sat close to both of them, but was not looking at Cal, seemingly lost in her own thoughts.
Fiona looked at Abbey. “So your hacker name was Arclight? And Cal just happens to have it carved into his skin? By I suspect, himself?”
“I don’t know why that name is…on him,” Abbey’s words came out as if she didn’t want to speak them.
“Yes, but…”
“I don’t know!”
Zach went to touch her, but she pulled back. “Abbey, whatever reason he did this to himself, I’m sure it’s not your fault. Maybe he heard you say the name, at some point and it became wrapped up in his mind with other things.”
“What kind of hacking did you do for the government?” Fiona’s tone was inquisitorial.
Zach looked at Fiona, with a stern expression. “What difference does that make?”
Abbey turned slightly towards Zach. “It’s ok. I was part of a team that investigated corporations and wealthy individuals.”
Fiona frowned, her mind rolling over what Abbey just told her, but not being able to make sense of how that was connected in any way to what was on Cal’s forehead. She then looked down at Cal. “He’s been off since we encountered those crazies at the base, maybe even before that. I should have said something, maybe if I had we wouldn’t be sitting here now, and that young guy...”
“What’s happened is going to effect each of us differently, and you can’t discount our lives inside, or our lives before that, it’s all there waiting to fuck us up,” said Zach.
Fiona nodded.
“Anyway, he seems to be better, maybe coming out here was something he needed to do, for whatever reason.”
“They still won’t accept him back at the fort,” said Abbey looking sad.
“I never planned on staying there anyway.”
Zach went to talk again, when Fiona put her hand up. Zach put his hand on his gun, and Abbey instinctively did the same with her handgun.
“I thought I heard something,” said Fiona.
Zach slowly got to his feet, and crept to the passage door pushing it open a few inches. He listened into the gap. A distant thudding noise came from somewhere in the house above him.
“Wait here,” said Zach, as Fiona lifted Cal’s head and placed it gently down on some crumpled up sheets.
He pushed the door open more and looked into the intense black of the passageway and listened. The padding thudding noise continued and seemed to be coming from far above him. Taking his radio out, he angled it forward to light his path and walked into the passage. The orange glow just had enough strength to make it to the far wall where the front door was, but Zach still had to strain his eyes to make out any details. On the roof? He got to the bottom of the stairs and pointed the radios LCD screen upwards. The carpeted staircase rose upwards to a small landing, and then turned to a second flight. The thudding had stopped. Resisting the urge to look out of the front windows of the house again, he walked gradually up the stairs arriving at the first landing, and then turned and continued until he was at the top. This time he knew what to expect when looking to the left and the radios light gave enough light to make out the bright lettering on the Sasquatch advertising board. He then turned to the right and lifted the radio. At the end of the right corridor another dark shadow stood in the shape of a man. What’s that? Another cardboard cutout? But then he saw it. A small plume of white mist emanating from the head shaped area. Fuck. Stepping backwards as slowly as he could he raised his gun, while trying to keep the light from the radio focused down the right corridor to give him some kind of indication of movement. The thudding started again, but this time it wasn’t high above him, it was just a few yards away.
Turning he ran, leaping best he could down the stairs in the dark and crashing into the bottom most stair rail. He sensed something behind him coming down the stairs, but kept moving, punching the kitchen door open. He then pushed it shut, just as he did something heavy slammed into it, scratching at the veneered wood.
“Quick, the fridge, you need to get it over here, in front of the door!” said Zach, desperately trying to resist being pushed away from the door, by the thing on the other side.
Fiona jumped up and ran to the large fridge, and struggled to move it. “What the fuck is it?” said Abbey joining her, the fridge beginning to slide across the floor, making a scratching noise as it moved.
“I…don’t…know,” said Zach straining to keep their only exit closed.
No noise came from the creature, other than snorting and the sound of wood breaking and splintering and an intermittent thud of it slamming into the door and Zach pushing it back closed again.
After what seemed like minutes, but was much quicker Fiona and Abbey managed to get the fridge close to Zach.
He swiveled around replacing his back with his legs and shoulder at the door. “Get me the torch from the backpack.”
Abbey quickly got it and gave it to him. The creature slammed against the door again, it opened a few inches before Zach pushed it closed. “ I’m going to flash this in it’s eyes, hopefully it will become disorientated, and then we all push the fridge against the door, ready?”
They all nodded. He then tore the door open and pushed the now lit torch into the gap. The creature let out a soun
d half scream half gurgled cry and fell back and for a moment Zach saw a dark green humanoid form, with thousands of squirming, wiggling worm like creatures all over it. Lost in the sea of movement that was its head, were at least two dark eyes. Zach slammed the door closed and they all heaved the fridge into place. A few seconds passed before the creature slammed up against the door again, but this time it hardly moved. After a few more weakening attempts, the area beyond the door fell silent.
They all sat with their backs against the fridge, breathing heavily in the flashlights beam. Cal continued sleeping.
CHAPTER 14
Zach woke, his eyes opening to a bluish light coming from the snow-laden window. He was warm, buried under a good few sheets with Abbey next to him, but he could feel the ice cool of the air in the kitchen on his face. After the creature attacked, they pushed more objects up against the fridge, and then each made a comfortable position to sleep in, and tried to get some rest. For Zach sleep came quick, even though he tried to resist, being unsure if the thing he stumbled into had truly gone.
He sat up. Cal and Fiona were sitting at a small table at the other end of the kitchen. Cal was smiling.
Zach quietly removed himself from under the sheets and walked over to the table. Cal went to talk, but Zach talked first. “What’s done is done. How you feeling now?”
Cal smiled and sighed. “I slept, it’s been a while since that happened.”
“Do you remember last night? How you ended up with that?” Zach pointed to Cal’s forehead.
“I remember being in the room, and I vaguely remember putting the kid down, Fiona told me he was still alive when you left.”
Zach sat on the bench next to Fiona and opposite Cal. “Tanners working on him, I know she will do her best to save him. What about the rest? Why did you leave the fort?”
Cal sighed again. Fiona put her hand on his. “Early on in the journey to the Portland camp, I started having these dreams. At first I thought it was because of the crash in the Humvee, either the hit to the head or the drugs the doc gave me. But even after my wounds healed, the dreams kept on coming. And then I started getting a drumming in my head, like something was inside my skull trying to break out.”
“And now?” Abbey startled them all by her question, from her makeshift bed across the other side of the kitchen.
“That was the first sleep I’ve had for a long while and no dream. The drumming seems to have stopped as well. As for this…” he felt the dried blood and flayed skin on his forehead. “I don’t remember doing it, but the word is from my dreams. There was this figure.”
Abbey walked up, clutching a blanket around her and sat down next to Cal. “Who was the figure?”
Cal shook his head. “I don’t know, but he talked in this strange voice, like it was coming from under water.”
“What did he say?” said Fiona.
“Tell the Arclight we accepted.”
“You said that to Abbey last night, before you passed out, you remember?”
Cal looked at Abbey. “No. Fiona told me, you used to use that name when you were a hacker?”
She nodded.
“I must have heard you say it sometime.”
“No.”
“What do you mean ‘no’, how else would he of heard it?” said Fiona angrily.
“I don’t know. But the last time I used that name was almost seven years ago.”
Fiona stood up frustrated. “As if this shit needed to get any crazier,” she took a breath then continued. “So what we doing? What if we get back to the fort and the kids dead? Then what? We can’t take Cal back there.”
Cal put his head down. “When I left, I think I had no plans of going back.”
“This ski camp is on a road that comes from the fort. Cal, you stay here, we will go back, get the vehicles and supplies then be back here within a few hours. We then get the hell out of this forest.” Zach looked around him. “Agreed?”
They all nodded.
After sharing out the noodles, which they heated in a pan with snow melted on the stove, they packed up their supplies, and Zach, and Abbey headed back. Fiona wanted to stay behind to keep an eye on Cal.
Walking along the road, after an hour they were within radio range of the fort.
Zach clicked on his radio. “Bass, come in. Over.”
A few seconds passed before Bass’s voice came through. “Zach! Did you find him? Over.”
“Yes, but tell no one else. What’s the status on Jason? Over.”
“He didn’t make it. Over.”
Zach swore under breath, shaking his head. “What’s been Brandon’s reaction? Over.”
“They are having a meeting today about whether they should kick us all out, some want to go further than that. Zach…”
“Yes. Over.”
“A lot of the people we rescued from the Portland camp, want to stay. Including some of my people. Over.”
“When’s the meeting? Over.”
“Fourteen hundred hours, roughly four hours from now. Over.”
Over the next thirty minutes, Zach explained that he wanted to leave the fort, pick up Cal and Fiona and be leaving the forest, he wasn’t going to wait for the meeting. If people wanted to stay that was up to them. He also told him to start getting the supplies together for leaving.
They approached the eastern gate. A young woman was standing high above it, looking down on them.
She waved a rifle in their direction. “Stop!”
“It’s Captain Felton, tell Brandon we have returned.”
After a few minutes, a car could be heard pulling up on the other side of the gate, and the large wooden poles that made up the gate started to shift, and swing backwards. Zach and Abbey moved through the widening gap. Brandon and another man were standing next to their pickup. Both of them had rifles slung over their shoulders.
“I heard about Jason, I’m sorry that he died,” said Zach.
Brandon’s stern expression did not waver. “Did you find him?”
“No. He covered his tracks too well.”
“Where’s the other girl?”
“We and our people need to be moving out today, she’s waiting nearby.”
Brandon looked ruefully at Zach. “What about your sick?”
“I was hoping we could work something out in regards to the people that are sick, my second in command has told me there are also some soldiers that would want to stay. I imagine military trained people would be of great use to you here.”
The other man stepped forward. “We don’t need what’s left of the government sticking…” before he could finish Brandon raised his hand, while still looking at Zach, and the other man stopped, his face contorting into frustrated silence.
“And most of you will be out of here by sun down?”
“Yes.”
“Okay then, I’ll give you and your friend a ride back to the Inn.”
“I need to see Dr. Tanner. She’s at the medical center?”
“I’ll get a message to her to come to the Inn.”
Zach nodded, and he and Abbey got into the pickup.
A short ride later, Zach and Abbey were dropped off by Brandon, and then entered the lobby of the Inn. Michael, Bass, Jacob, Rob, Mary, Irene and Tyler were sitting on the chairs. When they saw Zach they all started talking at once. Zach held up his hand and approached Bass. Abbey walked straight to Michael and Jacob and they walked up the small staircase and out of sight.
“How many want to stay?” said Zach to Bass.
Before Bass had a chance to respond, Mary spoke up. “You can’t just leave us all here! You said you would get us to the Austin camp.”
Zach faced her. “We only have the bus and the Humvee, some people will have to stay but it seems some want to anyway.”
“Well, I expect myself, Morgan, Irene and the children to be on that bus.”
Zach nodded then turned his attention back to Bass who answered his earlier question. “There’s a number from the Portlan
d camp that want to, they don’t figure our chances for making it all the way back to Austin…” he then paused, his expression looking frustrated. “Including some of my remaining platoon.”
“McClain will have them court martialed if they don’t return.”
“I was thinking, we’ll tell Bravo that we left a few soldiers here on purpose, if the higher-ups think they are here as an outpost they will probably let it go.”
“Good plan. Have we got enough room to take everyone that wants to leave?”
“Depends on how many of the sick want to leave. But presuming it’s all of us in this room, the kids upstairs, and a few others, we possibly got enough room for another four adults.”
Morgan came in through the semi-glass doors and ran up to her sister, giving her a hug.
“We’re leaving already?” she said to her sister and Zach.
“Yes, as soon as possible,” replied Zach.
“But the sick at the medical center, they have just settled in, also I can do a lot of good here.”
“I’m sure Brandon would be happy to have a doctor here of your abilities.”
Morgan anxiously looked at her sister, who gave her a similar reaction.
“We should talk,” said Morgan to her sister. They both left the lobby, walking up to the small landing.
Rob walked over to Zach. “We’re going to need fuel. Not sure if they’re going to give us any.”
“Go with Bass, see if you can find some, barter some of our supplies if you have to. Try and find some maps as well. Then have the bus and the Humvee at the eastern gate on the hour,” Zach paused then continued. “Is the bus road worthy? It took a beating.”
“She’ll be fine,” said Rob defiantly.
“If she’s not, let me know as soon as possible, as we will have to find something similar.”
They all agreed the current time, with watch or radio, and Rob and Bass left. Zach walked up the first floor where Abbey, Jacob and Michael were talking in their room. Zach closed the door behind him.
Michael looked off into the distance. “So he cracked, but you think he’s okay now?”
