Faded Borders (The Convergence Saga Book 4)

by Rick Kueber

  “You hear it?” She grinned even wider.

  Straining my ears and remaining silent I began to hear the dull, rumbling roar. “Is that the ocean?” I, like Daniel, had never actually been to the coast. I had only seen it in books and on the television and internet, but even those memories were fuzzy at best.

  “Yes!” She turned back and gave her cart a good shove and began almost jogging behind it.

  The three of us hoofed it quickly down the empty street and I was surprised by the lack of death in our path, especially since the stench of it was growing greater with every step. It was just then that I heard something that I recognized. A sound filled the air like a haunting memory or a blurry bit of some nightmare that made my heart race before I even knew what it was. A low, deep tone resonated through the streets and distracted us from our quest, slowing us to a crawling pace.

  “What the hell is that?” Daniel cussed which was unlike him.

  “We’ve been spotted. That is the call of a Taker alerting others that we are here.” I explained.

  “Oh. My. God!” Mariah drew the 9mm from her waistband and pointed it between Daniel and I.

  We both stepped back away from each other and turned to see, not one, but several Takers behind us in the street, and several more appearing from side streets and alleyways. They began to moan their disturbing tone in unison and as the low key grew louder, so did our desperate need to find the marina. A sudden and unexpected ‘CRACK’ rang out from the handgun, and the closest Taker crumpled to the blistery blacktop road. The call of the Takers did not waver, but instead, grew louder.

  “Bad move.” Daniel shook his head at Mariah and rubbed his still ringing ear. “But... Great shot.”

  “GO! GO! GO!” I yelled out and once again we were off toward the sound of the sea like some homeless, vagrant NASCAR(T) death-race.

  We were running out of road and a ‘T’ intersection made Mariah pause. Putting her hand to her forehead, she looked left and right, but wasn’t sure which way the marina was. The ocean was directly ahead of us and even though I could see it, we couldn’t push our carts of supplies across the grass or sand. We had to stick to the roads, or abandon our supplies. Our time was running out and the distance between us and the Takers was shrinking quickly.

  “Come on!” My temper was beginning to flare. “We’ve gotta go somewhere.”

  “This way!” She shouted as if she’d had a sudden recollection and darted off to the right down the narrow paved road.

  Takers appeared ahead of us and behind us. We were trapped, but not completely surrounded. I knew that if we had no other choice, we could make a dash for the beach that was now only a few hundred feet to our left, but we stayed our course and watched as the number of Takers ahead of us increased by the second. Fight or flight? Fight, definitely fight!

  Chapter 6

  On Distant Shores

  We marched head first into the crowd of takers and I was astonished by the new found bravery of Mariah. Only a few feet from the first of the Takers, She gave her cart a hard shove and smashed it into them. The crash did not deter them, but it did give Mariah an extra few seconds to take aim and with a swift ‘pop-pop-pop-pop-pop’ she cleared a path in front of us. Pushing our way through the zombie-like army, we found ourselves greatly outnumbered as more and more of them began to pour from every open alley, between every structure and from places we didn’t even notice. The odds seemed insurmountable. When a Taker was close enough to touch us, Daniel and I grunted or growled out loud and with barbaric attitudes and brute strength, we snapped their necks. Their flesh seemed thicker, harder than ours, but they were just as fragile and though we could never expect to slay them all, we did manage to drop enough of them with lead and brawn to avoid being taken right away.

  “THERE!!!” Mariah screamed as she fired the last rounds from the 9mm. Just ahead to our left we could see the masts of sailboats rising over the overgrown brush, shrubs and small trees.

  I wrung another neck and tossed the disgusting, lifeless corpse into the crowd of alien troops. “TAKE ‘EM!” I shouted to Mariah who was only arms length away and handed her the last two loaded clips. The ground rumbled underfoot and we all knew what that meant. “Use ‘em up! Clear the way!” I instructed our femme fatale companion.

  “You got it!” Her voice had grown gruff from shouting. “Call me ‘The Liberator’ ‘cause I’m about to set a bunch of you fuckers free!”

  She shouted at the Takers as if they understood her while she dropped the empty clip from the pistol to the ground and slipped the second into its place with a metallic snap. One sharp clap at a time, filling the air with the smell of spent gunpowder and the Takers with flattened lead, the irony unfolded. The lives, as despicable and loathsome as they were, were ‘taken’ from every foul being that stood in our way until the bodies of almost all ahead of us littered the street. Daniel and I continued in our hand to hand, barbaric slaying of our ‘would-be’ captors, and the crackling sound of vertebrae snapping became a welcome sound.

  Our way was cleared as we neared the marina. We helped each other lift our carts up onto the concrete walkway and then again onto the boardwalk. They made a rattling, clippity-clop sound as we pushed them along. We searched the boats for a sailboat of manageable size and kept an eye on the approaching Takers, who were only a few dozen paces behind us.

  “What about that one?” I pointed to a small, but sturdy looking boat of about fifteen feet in length.

  “Too small!” Mariah huffed. She was winded but persisted. “That one.” She pointed to the last sailboat slip where a much larger vessel was docked.

  It was white with red trim and accents and was at least twenty-five or thirty feet long. When we reached it, the first of the takers were stepping up onto the concrete sidewalk. We unloaded the cart full of drinks first with some care, but the other two carts were tipped up and their contents spilled out onto the deck in messy, yet essential piles. While Daniel and Mariah untied our new transportation, I pushed the carts a few feet back down the dock and turned them on their sides, hoping to slow the Takers. The Titan and the Takers were closing the distance between us. I knew that even a few seconds might make all the difference.

  “How do we get away from the dock?” I nervously asked after dropping the last cart.

  “Normally, we’d use a small motor, but this time... We’ll literally shove off.” She answered.

  Placing a foot at the edge of the dock for leverage, we found the boat moved fairly easily, though slowly. Daniel and I continued to push. Jumping aboard, Mariah once again drew the 9mm from its nesting spot and fired a few shots over us, dropping a couple of Takers who had pushed past the carts. Looking back I saw the boardwalk filled with Takers, and a multitude more flowing onto the grass and beach. I felt the urgency to redouble my efforts, especially when I noticed the Titan towering in the distance just beyond the city.

  When we ran out of dock, we jumped on board and joined our new traveling companion. The boat inched away from the dock just as the Takers filled the wooden planks. Two of them reached the stern of the craft and grabbed hold just as we escaped, dragging them off of the dock. I nodded to Daniel and while they attempted to pull themselves onto our sailboat, we simultaneously twisted their heads with a quick jerk and they fell into the salty sea. The two dead Takers bobbed in the water like discarded plastic water bottles and the others crowded the docks and the beaches, only yards away, calling out their low and endless alert.

  “Now what?” Daniel asked. “I guess they can’t swim, huh?”

  “Or at least they don’t know they can swim.” I gave him a thought to ponder. “Maybe, somewhere down deep inside, they’re still some humanity left in them.” The Titan’s steps were louder than before, but on the open waters, we could not feel them.

  “We’ve got to get some wind in the sails pretty quick, or that thing is going to be on top of us!” Mariah was truly overwhelmed by her first look at a Titan. “Help me get the mainsail up f
irst. Tanner, you take the winch. Daniel, come help me.”

  While the two of them unfastened the mainsail from the boom, I started to crank the winch handle, raising the sail, bit by bit until it was fully extended. We moved onto the jib next and I kept an eye on the Titan. It found the shoreline and followed it north as our boat slowly moved in the same direction. We had drifted a good distance from land, but I had no idea of how deep the water was beneath us. It was probably just me projecting, but if it was possible for a mechanical beast of gargantuan proportions to exhibit emotions, this Titan was frustrated. Then it did what we feared most of all. It took a step forward into the rolling waters.

  “Look!” I shouted to my friends. “It’s coming.”

  “Well shit!” was the reaction of Mariah when she saw the Titan take a step out into the sapphire waters. It seemed to tower over us due to its massive size, even though we were a good distance from it.

  “Can you turn us out to sea, away from shore?” Daniel seemed more that a bit worried. Without knowing what horrors he had been through and for exactly how long, I didn’t blame him for not wanting to be recaptured by the aliens and taken back on board of the Titan.

  “I can try, but we aren’t going anywhere fast until we finish with the rigging.” Mariah was equally concerned, probably because her fear was all in her own imagination and based on the Hollywood alien abduction movies. She had every right to be terrified. “I’m still trying to figure this all out. It’s a little different from the one I learned how to sail on.”

  While I fought with ropes and canvas, block pulleys and running rigging, I kept a constant watch on the Titan. Its first step had thrown it slightly off balance and it seemed to be hesitant, but never the less, it took a second step towards our sloop. The distance between the Titan and our sail boat shrank quickly. When the ‘foot’ of its left front appendage slammed into the water, it was close enough to send a wave crashing over the sidewall of the boat.

  “Dear God, help us!” Mariah cried out loud. “It’s going to crush us!”

  The stadium sized machine loomed over us and its quivering, stuttered movements stung our ears with shrill, metallic screeches. The three of us worked frantically to get a wind in our sails, but our lack of knowledge and experience only created frustration and mistakes. What little breeze did catch the mainsail propelled us slowly out to sea while the Titans rear ‘legs’ caught up to its forward movement. I could tell that the depth of the salty water was well over twenty feet, by the amount of the Titans ‘foot’ that was submerged, but that was little consolation, considering the overall height of these robotic beasts.

  Another half-step forward and the unthinkable happened. Screams abounded as the front appendage raked against the boat as it raised and moved forward, slinging the mid-sized sloop airborne, sideways off of a giant wave. I wrapped my arm in a rope and was pummeled about like a yo-yo as we spun out of control. Our vessel slammed hard on its side and then waved side to side, bobbing and weaving in the tumultuous wake. While we flew through the air, the giant beast groaned out a loud dull roar and when its left front appendage slipped into a deep, underwater channel, the right one collapsed and folded in on itself. The incredible craft that filled us with terror by merely standing over us, now had us praying for our lives by simply falling off kilter. It seemed that these monsters were a horror no matter what they did.

  The front of the Titan and its control room that resembled a mechanical, egg-shaped head, crashed into the ocean missing our sailboat by only a few yards. The micro-tsunami that it created pushed us half sideways, half backwards, across the surface of the water. The keel of the boat caught the peak of a coral reef and laid us completely on our side. The mainsail and mast completely touched the water and I heard Daniel and Mariah screaming bloody murder as they landed hard against the side railings and then spilled into the deep blue unknown. Again the boat bobbed and weaved as it stood itself upright. It was then that the Titan made a hissing buzz and seemed to short circuit. The mighty metallic beast and the multitude of Takers went silent.

  Releasing the rope, I crawled across the rocking bow and searched the waters for my friends. I quickly spotted Mariah, calling out and waving to me. I tossed the life preserver out to her and then untied the rope I had held onto and flung it in her direction. It took a few tries for me to reach her, but once she had the rope, hand over hand, I pulled her to safety. Dragging her on board, we fell backwards onto the deck and she landed squarely on top of me. The salt water stung the rope burns on my arm, but I paid it little attention. The sea water dripped from her hair and nose, spattering my face and neck. We were both out of breath and I couldn’t help but notice her chest heaving under the soaking wet shirt that clung tightly to her breasts. Water beaded on her face and her sparkling eyes were fixed on mine. Her chapped, but beautiful lips opened and they pressed hard against my mouth. Everything was a whirlwind, happening in seconds, and I did not resist...at first.

  “Daniel!” I broke free from her passionate ‘thank you’. “We gotta help Daniel.”

  “Yes.” She agreed, halfheartedly but scrambled to her feet and helped me to scour the water’s surface.

  The waters still churned, lapping and smacking against our boat’s painted wooden sides. I screamed out his name until my voice was in shreds, but he was nowhere to be seen. Calling out one last time with my voice so hoarse it pained me to even speak, Mariah wrapped her dripping arms around my torso.

  “He’s gone.” She whispered with sincere sadness. “It’s been almost ten minutes.”

  “I’m not giving up.” I refused to admit that the odds were stacked against his survival.

  I walked the circumference of the deck, lap after lap, searching the waters for Daniel’s dingy gray shirt and I began to hear a sound that caught my attention. It wasn’t the sound of my young friend Daniel, but instead I heard the distant roar of the Takers. Perhaps it was my mind grasping for any positive hope, but I would have sworn those mindless, zombie, alien slaves were cheering. Plopping my butt onto the deck, I hung my legs over the side, my arms over the middle railing and leaned my head against the upright post. Depression overtook my optimism and I picked at the peeling, white, hand rail paint and decided that the cheers I heard from so far away were more likely cries of anger over the toppled Titan.

  “Come on.” Mariah ran her fingers through my straggly, wet hair. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, but we can keep watch for Daniel while we’re trying to fix this wreck and get it ready to sail.”

  I said nothing, but looked into her eyes and nodded solemnly, knowing it was a heartfelt ploy to distract me from our loss. It was thoughtful and it actually worked. Our own survival needed our nearly undivided attention and I was only guessing, but it looked like we had lost most of our supplies overboard.

  In all, it took a few hours for her to remember what she had learned however many years ago, and I was not only unfamiliar with sailing, but I had never even been on a boat without a motor (unless you count the rubber raft Daniel and I had braved the rapids on). Once the rigging was repaired and set, and we were on our way, I decided to explore our rather spacious vessel and followed the open steps below.

  “Hey! You’ll never believe what’s down here!” I called out from below deck.

  “Oh, I don’t know... A kitchenette? Ooooor... A bedroom?” She answered back, thinking she already knew my answer.

  “No. Well... yeah, but not what I meant.” I was tongue tied, thinking about her insinuation. “A bunch of our groceries and the drinks are down here. They must have slid down here in all the ruckus.” I spent the next half an hour sorting through the mess and stowing it away into the cupboards that were empty. When I had it all cleaned up and put away, I went topside with a couple of water bottles and candy bars.

  “Snack?” I asked popping my head above the edge of the deck.

  I was surprised to find Mariah at the helm with the wheel in her hand, looking like she was born on the sea. She was in her own w
orld of solitude and hadn’t even reacted to my offer. The blistering sun was finally sinking towards the western horizon. Looking in every direction, an uneasy feeling came over me.

  “Water.” I swallowed hard. “Only water.”

  “Isn’t is beautiful? Isn’t it peaceful?” Her voice was mesmerizing, soft and sultry.

  “I suppose it is.” I agreed. “I’ve never been on the water like this, only small lakes and rivers.” I watched as the setting sun danced on the waters, creating a billion multicolored diamonds.

  “When I was a teen I took sailing lessons... My dad had a sailboat, but we rarely went out. I thought it would give us something in common.” She pondered her past, the harsh reality of her present and the unsurety of her future. “It didn’t.”

  “I’m sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say. I had recently relived my entire life, but I still had few memories of my parents.

  “Anyway...” She exhaled strongly, as if she were blowing out a candle and wiped her eyes. “I never had a chance to captain my own boat, and now, thanks to you, I’m not only a captain, I’m a pirate.” She winked at me but I knew it was only for show.