Cascade (Book 3): Mutant

by Phil Maxey

Despite a lot of protest from sleepy children, they were back on the road just as the sun peeked over the distant mist covered mountains. Irene walked up the bus aisle confidently knowing where the handholds were, handing out chips, nuts and pieces of bread for a ‘breakfast on the go’ as Zach put it.

  She got level with the seat where Sam and Isaiah where sitting. “Nuts, Chips or piece of bread?”

  “Hmmm” Sam sat looking at the items in a small bag Irene was carrying, she reached in, grabbing a small bag of nuts and tossed them at him, hitting him in the nose, they then fell in his lap. Isaiah laughed.

  “Hey,” exclaimed Sam.

  “Do you not see, I’m walking up the aisle of a moving vehicle, with one hand carrying a bag, and the other holding onto what I can.”

  “Okay…” said Sam looking like a scolded child.

  Isaiah leaned forward. “I’ll take some of the bread.”

  Irene handed Isaiah the bread and continued her walk to the end of the bus, smiling.

  After moving for an hour along nondescript highways, they approached another large lake. This one was not as frozen as the last, but still had a number of large E.L.F’s thrashing around in it.

  Fiona looked closely at the map. “The road goes pretty close to it. If whatever those things are, find us attractive, they could be across that water onto the road quicker than we can pass.”

  Zach looked to his left.

  “What is it?” asked Abbey.

  He clicked on the radio. “Rob, Gregg’s, you’re sat higher than I am, what’s the terrain look like on the left of us? Over.”

  A moment of silence was replaced with Rob’s voice. “There’s some small desert bushes, and the occasional ice patch, but apart from that looks pretty flat. Over.” Gregg’s agreed.

  Zach slowed the convoy down. “Okay let’s try getting off the road, we’ll move about two hundred yards away from it, and once we are passed the lake, move back on. Over.”

  Rob and Gregg’s agreed, and Zach slowly drove the Humvee onto the uneven desert surface. The inhabitants of all vehicles jumped in their seats as the convoy moved away from the lake.

  Michael waved as he was shunted up and down in his seat behind Abbey. “Sayonara, weird lake creatures.”

  Soon they were back on the highway, passing through small towns and eventually onto a three-lane highway heading southeast. The distant mountains grew ever closer as the hours progressed, until the highway was cutting through them.

  A silence had descended inside the Humvee, as Zach, Abbey, Fiona and Michael were each lost in their own thoughts.

  “Are we going to have a conversation about Cal?” said Fiona to no one in particular.

  No one replied, and Michael slid his hand across the back of his neck.

  “I don’t know what it is, but something’s changed in him,” said Fiona.

  Michael frowned and adjusted where his rifle was sitting next to him. “He killed a man, of course he’s changed.”

  “No, that was just a symptom of what was already happening to him. That guy was just a wrong place wrong time kind of thing,” she looked at Zach and Abbey who remained silent in the front. “You two don’t have an opinion?”

  Zach sighed. “None of us really know what being in the hole in New Mexico did to us, how it changed us. And then…everything out here, how that changed.” Zach struggled to find the right words. “We just need to keep an eye on him, but beyond that…”

  “So we just give up on him?” responded Fiona suppressing her anger.

  “He didn’t say that,” said Abbey. “But what do you want us to do?”

  “There’s something going on with him, something more than just him being locked up for all these years...something connected with how the world changed.”

  Abbey knew what was about to be said, but tried to ignore the obvious direction the conversation was going in anyway.

  “I mean, how…why did he have your hacker name, carved into his forehead? That’s got to mean something. And the weird ass space picture he painted in the old warehouse.”

  Michael looked at Fiona. “What now?”

  “Fiona, is talking about this stuff really going to help us or him?”

  Ignoring Michael’s question, she continued answering Zach. “Who knows but we owe him to try, he’s one of us. There’s something, here, something we need to try and understand. It goes beyond our own bullshit.”

  Silence returned to the cab of the Humvee.

  Thoughts of Abbey’s past life danced in her mind. That night when the air was thick and the heavens angry at the earth. As they sped along, weaving left and right past sandy cliffs, she could taste the anger she had as she signed back into her government account with the computer in her apartment, and used passwords that she shouldn’t have had. And the lines of code she needed to write on the fly, to circumvent security that even the best of her colleagues would have had trouble breaking. And the tiny message she encrypted into the malware that she installed in the National Security agencies network of secret satellites.

  “The earth needs a reset.”

  In her mind, she saw her fingers typing the words, and then after a deep breath and a final gulp of a head-dizzying beverage, hitting the enter key to send her revenge on its way into the myriad of networked systems.

  All the time that she was incarcerated she never gave her actions a second thought, she was glad she did what she did. But after Cal grabbed her in the dark lobby of the ski lodge and told her a name she knew all too well, she started to feel an emotion that was new to her. Guilt.

  As the sun reached a point directly overhead, they passed through a pleasant town, with broadly laid out stores with welcoming signs that promised adventure.

  On the bus, Jacob flicked through the pages of his notebook, until he stopped on the quick sketch he did back at the warehouse a few days before. He then went forward a few pages and looked at the notes he took when he overheard Travis and Corey talking about what their astronomical instrument had captured, and that one of their group was responsible for repositioning the telescope. He then skipped back a number of pages. On the small lined paper was a rough sketch Jacob did of Cal’s forehead and the words “Arclight” scratched into it. Each sketch, each scrawled passage of text he had been writing down over the past week was a piece of a large puzzle, he was sure of that. And he was fairly certain of what the answer was, even if it did veer into the realm of science fiction. He then moved to the last page he had written something. The word ‘Aliens’ underlined twice, with a question mark looked back at him. It was an odd conclusion he thought, that he had come too, but one that he was finding it harder to deny with each day. Closing the notebook, he looked out onto the cliffs and desert that had become daily routine and wondered what he would be writing by the end of the day.

  After three hours of crossing the Arizona and then the New Mexican border, they were getting close to the city of Rockwall and within radio range of Jim Nez’s outpost.

  Zach clicked on the radio. “This is Zach, Captain Felton from Camp Bravo, calling out to Jim Nez. Over.” A few seconds of static passed, and he tried again. Still no response. Everyone in the cab around him seemed asleep. He changed the frequency on the radio and tried again. Crisp white noise came from the radio’s speaker. He thought about waking up Abbey, or telling Bass that he was not hearing anything from the outpost, but it must just be a radio problem he thought.

  CHAPTER 27

  The sky screamed in orange and mauve as the sun dissolved into the horizon. They had passed San Moore’s hospital they investigated a week before and were now passing the water tower where they first met Jim and his son James. Zach had tried a few more times to reach Jim, but only silence met his requests. As the convoy followed the same path they had been led up last time they were here, Zach took a breath and clicked on his radio. “Bass, I’ve not been able to get Jim on the radio, something feel’s off, have your people stay alert. Over.” Bass acknowledged and agreed.

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nbsp; Soon they were in the hills outside the city, and at the junction with the large steel tower covered in communication dishes. Turning left, they drove the short distance along the dirt-frosted road, until they came up to the entrance to the manufacturing building that Jim and his friends had made their home.

  “That’s odd,” said Zach, looking at the open gate. “They don’t have a guard on the gate,” he looked over to the large metal shutter, and could see no sign of movement. Something’s wrong.

  Zach led the convoy along the track and stopped a few yards from the large entrance they entered the building through last time. No light came from any of the few boarded up windows that the building had.

  “Maybe they are just busy and don’t know we’re here,” said Abbey not truly believing her own words.

  “Stay in the Humvee until I give the signal to come inside,” said Zach, opening the Humvee’s door and getting out. A cold wind blew, as night started to take hold.

  Bass and a few soldiers ran up to him. “Let’s see if we can get this metal shutter open.”

  They all moved to the large pleated metal shutter, grabbing the bottom and pulled upwards. It slid upwards without much effort and they were all immediately hit by the smell, which escaped out into the darkness.

  Abbey watched them put their arms across their noses, and swallowed hard.

  “Fuck this,” said Fiona getting out. Michael followed. Abbey sat there, knowing she should get out and see what the others were seeing but she felt rooted to the seat.

  The first body that they came across was a teenage boy. He was laying on his front, with his arms tangled up with the rope from one of their tents. The next was an elderly woman, maybe in her seventies, she was slumped on the floor with her head up against a rotting box of cabbages. Zach and the others around him slid their flashlight beams from one corpse to the next. All were blue in color and had been dead for a few days, some had slash marks across them, but most had small dark red holes in their heads of torsos.

  Abbey walked zombie like up to Zach, and put her hand to her mouth, she then started crying. He held her, but kept his eyes on the dead.

  Bass walked to him. “What we going to do?”

  “We have to stay here for the night, it’s too late to try for anywhere else.”

  Abbey leaned back from her embrace. “But the kids?”

  “We will move all the bodies into the other part of the building, beyond the far door. We’ll tell them the smell is due to rotting food.”

  Abbey pulled away, and looked at the closest body to her. At first she wasn’t sure if she was seeing right as the tears were stinging her eyes, but she leaned forward slightly and even in the gloom it was obvious the person had been shot. “They…they were shot…”

  “Sir?” a young soldier just visible in the gloom, was waving for Zach to walk to where he was.

  Zach and Abbey walked to the far wall, avoiding the black stickiness on the concrete floor. The soldier’s flashlight beam was initially pointing to them as they approached, but then swung around to the wall. On it written in dark red was the word “Geneva”.

  “What does that mean?” said Abbey.

  For a moment Zach was about to answer that he had no idea, and then he remembered the conversation with the priest, Alex, about a motorcycle gang headed up by someone going by the name that was smeared in blood on the wall.

  Zach walked back to Bass who was directing the operation to move all the bodies into the far room. “We need to post lookout’s outside, incase they come back. Let me know when all the bodies are out back.” Bass nodded, and two soldiers who were still on the bus, jumped off, with one running back to the gate and another disappearing around the back of the building.

  Zach then walked slowly back into James, radio room. A number of the plastic and metal boxes that he was impressed with just a week before were gone, and what was left was smashed into parts unknown. He stood there for a moment trying to absorb what must have had happened. People did this.

  “Zach?” Bass stood in the doorway.

  “Yes.”

  “They are all moved into the back room. Shall we start moving everyone off the bus?”

  “Make sure any pools of blood on the floors are covered with something, but after that, yes. Thanks,” Zach wasn’t sure why he thanked him, but it felt right. Bass left, and Zach followed him out, but then walked to the end of the building. He opened the door to the room that Abbey had told him about after they had left this place of life and hope. The long room that was going to be an area for growing, had now become a morgue for the very same people that were going to plant there.

  Carefully, moving solemnly from person to person, he shone his flashlight beam on ashen faces. Eventually he found, Jim and his wife Jen. Both shot in the head. He felt emotion swelling up inside him, but then he realized, he had not found Jim’s son, James. Escaped? Taken with them? He clicked on his radio. “Bass, have your people found any bodies outside? Over,” the response came back negative. Zach stepped outside, and closed the door. He then found a nearby upturned chair, and placed it against it.

  * * * * *

  Caroline sat with her legs mostly inside the blue sleeping bag that she had found. She couldn’t bring herself to completely climb inside due to it belonging to someone who had died just a few hours earlier. She also knew that as the temperature dropped, the discomfort would leave her the colder it became and she would soon be zipping it up to her chin. But for now, just keeping her feet warm would suffice. She looked around at the large chamber like room. She hadn’t asked, but she picked up bits of conversation that led her to believe that a large number of people died in this room, people that were making a go of it, who had survived. What she couldn’t understand was how things went so wrong that they would let in an E.L.F that would then go on to kill all of them. Maybe they lost hope and killed themselves? She wasn’t sure, but for now she was glad to be a good way into her journey to the camp near Austin and the chance of a new life.

  She felt bad not having talked to Esther much, but they had been living in the same cramped space for over three months and now they were outside, there seemed to be a kind of repulsive force that meant they kept their distance from each other. A new life. She lowered herself a few inches more into the sleeping bag, and smiled.

  Zach stood just outside the large metal shutter, and rubbed his hands together. Bass, Cal and Fiona stood with him.

  “We’re going to need to have patrols throughout the night, two people at a time, doing four hour shifts,” said Zach, looking up at the stars above their heads.

  “Do we have any idea who did it?” said Fiona.

  Zach sighed, and then told them the same story that the priest had told him.

  “Fucks.”

  “They must have grown in number, because a small motorcycle gang, even with a lot of firepower wouldn’t have been able to take down Jim and his people.”

  “They probably talked their way in, then killed everyone,” said Cal. Fiona was pleased to hear him talk in a clear and concise way for the first time in days, even if it was about something so horrible.

  “That’s my thinking too.”

  Bass looked around into the darkness. “They could still be in the area.”

  “Yup, that’s why we won’t be getting much sleep tonight. We also need to leave on time at sunrise. Lots of road to eat up tomorrow.”

  They all agreed on how the shifts would work between them, and then those that weren’t on patrol straightaway made their way back inside, back into the concrete box that smelled of death.

  CHAPTER 28

  Zach stood, his head lowered in front of the bodies of Jim’s outpost. Inside he said a few words to a higher power he wasn’t sure existed but words he felt those in front of him were owed. As he finished his silent tribute he took one last look at Jim’s face. “I’ll find your son,” then left, and closed the door behind him. Pulling out a marker that was found amongst one of the body’s belongings, h
e scrawled the words “Dead inside.” On the door and dropped the pen to the ground. He then walked to the entrance, where Bass was waiting for him. Icy rain fell like silent needles and the sun was a few minutes away from making its first appearance of the day.

  “Next stop, Roswell,” said Zach, as he and Bass pulled the shutter down.

  Soon the convoy was back on the road, moving with speed along highway 60. The planned route back to Roswell, would take them a different way than their journey to Portland. They wanted to avoid Albuquerque so that meant going to the east of that city, and passing through Santa Fe instead. As a watery sun rose, they turned right and headed south.

  Zach watched the road ahead and thought about what he needed to do in Roswell. To accomplish his task, to make Tinley pay, he had to stay detached from his emotions. If he couldn’t it might go bad.

  Fiona looked out into the gloomy morning sky, aware of Cal to her right, but not wanting to look at him incase he noticed her. He had changed again. His eyes seemed alert and he seemed to want to be part of their team. The old Cal was back. So why wasn’t she happy? Why did something still feel wrong? She looked to her right, and smiled at him. He smiled back. He’s healed. Stop worrying.

  “What’s the plan when we get to Brads?” said Michael, sitting right of Cal and behind Abbey.

  “We should be joining up with the larger convoy,” said Zach.

  “What’s left of it,” said Abbey.

  “I’m not looking forward to taking any commands from that asshole in command, what’s his name? Rimley?”

  “Tinley,” said Zach, trying to hide the tension in his voice.

  Cal cleared his throat. “There’s some stuff I need to say.”

  The space inside the Humvee went so quiet, Fiona thought she could hear her own and everyone else’s heartbeat.

  “You all must have thought I’d gone crazy. And truth be told I did. I’m not making excuses for what I did back at the fort. There’s no making that right, but I just want you to know that I’m thinking clearly again. You don’t need to sideline me anymore.”