by Phil Maxey
The heat was more intense than before, more stifling. Turning around she looked back at the lobby she just came from to see nothing but just a mass of bright green leaves and branches. Trunks covered with lichen reached skywards into a canopy so thick no sky could be seen, but yet there was light enough for her to see a path crawling through the undergrowth ahead of her. Feeling worse she looked down at her left arm. There was no hand, not even a tentacle. She screamed.
“Abbey!” Daisy tried to hold her hand over Abbey’s mouth, trying to stifle her scream. “Abbey, it’s a dream.”
Abbey flicked her head left and right, and then intense pain shot up her arm from her hand, forcing her eyes open wide. “Where am I…”
“In a warehouse, I’m Daisy, remember? From earlier?”
Abbey breathed heavily. “Yes, sorry, I remember. Do you have any water?”
Daisy opened the bottle, and held it up to her mouth so she wouldn’t need to lift her hands. She drunk a little. “Thank you,” she then realised Daisy’s hands and feet were not tied anymore.
Daisy anxiously looked at the office door. “You began to scream, I think I woke you before anyone heard.”
“Sorry. It’s just I keep having this dream, a dream where I’m someone…or something I’m not, and I’m in this weird stadium, or theatre, and then there was a jungle…”
A noise echoed around the large open area beyond the office and they both froze. Only silence followed.
“Okay I think we’re alone,” Daisy sat back against the filing cabinet. Something just outside their room provided just enough light for them to see each other and the furniture but not much else. “That sounds like the kind of dream you might have if you had been kidnapped by crazy freaks.”
Abbey smiled, and even though it was hard to see, thought Daisy was as well. “I hope that’s what it is…have you thought about a plan to get us out of here? What if they find you untied? What time it is? How long was I asleep?”
“In reverse order. About four hours. I think it’s around ten, I can put the cord back on quickly if I need to and yes I have.” Daisy moved close to Abbey. “The windows in the room outside the office, they are only ten or so feet from the sidewalk.”
“Okay?”
“We’re going to open one, and then I’m going to lower you down, with this.”
Daisy picked up plastic cabling, it looked twisted and was wrapped around into loops.
“You’ve been busy.”
“I’m going to help you free your legs and hands. It’s going to hurt, but you have to not scream out, if you do no ones going anywhere.”
“Any idea what way to go when we touchdown? This is my first time in Atlanta for many years.”
“We just get as far away as we can, as quickly as we can,” Daisy pulled her shirt off, twisting it tight, then placed it near her mouth. “Bite down on this.”
Abbey did so, then Daisy set about untying her hands. It took longer than she wished, and on more than one occasion Abbey thought she would bite right through her friends shirt, but eventually her hands were free. The throbbing though had intensified, and made her feel light headed.
“I…I don’t know if I can do this, the pain in my wrist…”
Daisy continued untying her feet. “That’s why I’m lowering you down, we will tie the cord around under your shoulders. You shouldn’t have to use your left hand at all. Right, are you ready? Let’s see if you can stand.”
Abbey blinked but didn’t respond. She started to put pressure on her thighs, then calfs then ankles, all of which hurt, but compared to her wrist it was manageable. Eventually she was sitting on the nearby chair and could see into the large empty space just beyond the thin walls of the room they were in. Daisy quickly put her shirt back on, picked up the rope she created and walked to the door, crouching. She then slowly put her hand on the cold rusted metal door handle, and turned. There was a loud click, and both of their hearts missed a beat, but she continued turning and then pulled the door open a few inches.
A waft of cool air brushed over them, and along with it came the sound of distance voices.
“They’re not far away!” said Abbey disturbed by the new sounds.
Daisy put her hand up. They both sat waiting for the distant din of chatter to quieten. After what seemed like hours but was in fact only a few minutes, only silence came from the rooms neighbouring them. The light coming from the room with the noises also disappeared, plunging them both into complete darkness.
“Fuck. Okay I think they’re gone or asleep.” she whispered.
“I can’t see my hand in front of my face!“ whispered Abbey in reply.
Abbey gingerly got to her aching feet, and walked, keeping herself low and stopped just behind Daisy. Abbey knew that at any moment someone could enter the room, walk across the open space to the office and they wouldn’t be able to tie themselves up quickly enough in the darkness. But she didn’t care, if there was a chance to escape she was going to take it.
Daisy pulled the door open a few feet and waited. Still no sounds. She then moved out of the room trying to remember which direction she needed to move in. Luckily the night sky though the windows was slightly less dark than the space around her and her eyes begun to adjust. She was soon below the window.
“Come on,” she threw her voice best she could while keeping it low in the direction she just came from. She felt a presence behind her.
“I’m here.”
They both crouched below the window and looked in the direction they thought the door was, the same door which many times during the previous day people had come through.
Daisy stood up slowly and looked out the window. Light from somewhere behind the clouds above, gave just enough light for her to make out the sidewalk below. “I think it’s about ten feet, but I can’t be sure,” she then felt around the window frame until her fingers caught on a latch, which she pulled on. There was a creak, and the window opened a few inches. She then pushed it further. She then ducked back down and pushed her hands out until they came into contact with Abbey.
“I’m going to wrap the cord around you, under your shoulders and tie it in a knot, then you climb and out. Try to use your good hand and your feet to support your weight if you can.”
Abbey for the first time since she entered prison, thought about her weight and tried not to giggle at the absurd notion of doing so in this moment.
It wasn’t long before the cord was secure around her, and she grabbed the window rim, pushing the window further open, and climbed onto the ledge, she then looked back at Daisy who she could now make out. “Are you ready?”
“Yes, quick.”
Abbey swung both legs around so they were dangling off the edge, then pivoted around, holding onto the frame of the window with her good hand.
“Go on,” Daisy’s voice came from inside, just a few feet away but she wasn’t sure from exactly where in the pervading dark.
Getting a good grip with her right hand, she prodded the brickwork with her boots trying to find a foothold but there weren’t any. She took a deep breath, and let herself down, just hanging from one hand. She instantly dropped a few inches and her heart leapt into her mouth. The ground might as well of been fifty feet below her because she couldn’t see it, and she would be falling not knowing when it would stop.
The cord tightened under shoulders, and she was dangling beside the wall. She then started to lower, a few inches at a time. She kicked out desperately hoping that her boots would hit the hardness of the alleyway ground, but instead she kept being lowered. Where’s this damn sidewalk!
Suddenly she dropped a foot and hit the ground, making sure she fell backwards against the wall.
“Hey I’m down…” She looked up and hope drained from her. The window above her head she had just been lowered from had the faintest of light coming from it. There must be someone in the room next door.
She quickly tried to untie the knot Daisy had tied, but it was too tight for her to
loosen with one hand. Fuck. Come on.
She looked up at the window. Daisy was leaning out of it, but not pleading for the rope to be freed so she could climb down, instead her expression was sad. “Go!” Daisy’s voice echoed around the alleyway.
“No, I won’t leave you, come on! I just need to get this damn cord off,” just as Abbey finished her words, the rest of the cable fell from above, landing on the sidewalk. Abbey looked up, waiting for her friend to climb out, and jump, she now knew it wasn’t that far. The light from the window above intensified and Daisy was gone.
Abbey looked around herself. She was in an alleyway but she had no idea which way to go. A man shouted from the large room above her, and Daisy screamed. Abbey ran into the darkness.
CHAPTER 16
Cal and Fiona lay on the tiled floor of the pharmacy huddled together in a double sleeping bag. Around them was a similar scene, but with single bags. A few candles produced flickering shadows against empty rows where pills would have been. After checking out the entire store, and the warehouse area outback, the pharmacy was chosen as the best place to bed down for the night, as it was enclosed on most sides, apart from the counter, but even that provided some cover if something attacked them from the front entrance direction.
Cal lay with his eyes open, trying to sleep.
Fiona’s eyes were closed but she was equally awake. “I can’t sleep.”
“You should try to get some, it’s a long journey tomorrow and at the end we will have to fight.”
“I know, I’m trying. What’s your excuse?”
“That…sensation I had earlier. I can’t shake how it made me feel.”
Fiona opened her eyes and blinked. “How did it make you feel?”
Cal swallowed. “Usually there’s not much of a pattern to what I feel. Different patterns sure, but the patterns themselves are chaotic, there’s no structure to them. But this was structured. Similar to what I felt with the guy from the bike gang, but different, richer.”
“Right.”
Cal smiled. “I know it must sound crazy.”
Fiona smiled and put her arm across his. “This world is crazy,” she paused as if deciding something. “Maybe talk to Raj about it in the morning.”
“Maybe.”
After doing a perimeter sweep Zach walked up to the two soldiers who’s job it was to guard the entrance at the back of the warehouse. Over his shoulder was his sleeping bag and in his hand his flashlight. During the journey to Portland, some of the troops with him had died, men who he was hardly on a first name basis with. Since being back at the camp and meeting the grieving families, he had come to regret that.
“Private Brown is it?”
The young, blonde haired man, got quickly to his feet and saluted, the other young man to his right, did the same. “At ease.”
“Yes, sir. My name I mean, it’s Brown.”
“What’s your first names?”
“I’m Randall, and this is Zane Sanders”
Zach stretched out his hand to both soldiers, which they awkwardly shook. “How did you end up in the camp?”
“Well I used to fix cars, and Zane here used to sell insurance,” he sniggered when talking about his friend.
“Oh hell, so you were drafted in the camp?”
“Sure was. We wanted to do something that would really help, and there wasn’t much call for insurance anymore,” said private Sanders.
“Well it’s appreciated. If you keep your wits about you out here, then you’ll do fine,” it was a lie, but one that had to be told. “And anyway we got a secret weapon, we got Corporal Rodriguez.”
Both the soldiers looked away uneasily.
“What is it? Speak up.”
Private Brown, shifted on his feet. “Some of the guys, they’re not sure about him. Like can we trust him?”
Zach resisted the anger that started to boil way down deep inside him, and smiled. “I trust him. The reason we have had so few run-ins with E.L.F’s is because of him, because of his abilities. We are all lucky to have him with us.”
“Oh, yeah, sure…we understand, sir, but it’s just there’s rumours.”
“Rumours?”
The young soldier’s eyes widened, like a child that just realised they had said too much.
“Look, All you need to know, is that he’s saved my ass more times than I can remember.”
Both the soldiers, nodded and smiled.
“Anyway, you’ll both be relieved by privates Reyes and Scott at zero four hundred hours.”
“Thank you, sir.”
As Zach walked away down one of the many aisles with empty floor to ceiling shelves, he heard the soldiers quietly arguing.
Soon he was alone, lost somewhere amongst the featureless rows of the warehouse. Throwing down the bag on the floor, alongside some cardboard boxes, he placed his flashlight close by, pushed his boots off, and crept inside the bright red soft interior. Even with the sleep he had in the Humvee, he still felt drained. Since Abbey was taken, he felt like a piece of him was missing. A piece tomorrow, he was determined to get back.
* * * * *
Running. At least that’s what Abbey was trying to do, but instead it was a mild stagger at best in the intense blackness around her. She kept to the far right on the sidewalk and allowed her good hand to drag along any wall or window she could find there to help guide her. Every now and again her hand would flounder into emptiness and she would push forward into it, using it as a momentary shelter so she could look back at the way she had just come from. Not following.
After fifteen minutes, her eyes had adjusted enough to allow the weak light that must have come from the moon beyond the cloud cover, to show her the difference between road, walls, trees, buildings and other large objects. Anything smaller though was lost to her and she kept running into things which were sometimes soft. She avoided the temptation to prod them with her good hand, instead walking around and moving onwards.
Soon she could see the ground fell away in front of her. Using her hand out in front, she found herself on the start of what looked like a bridge covered in what felt to her touch to be vehicles. Some were smashed into others, crumpled and rusting. Carefully picking her way through them and trying to keep to the bridges walls she moved across and into what she hoped was the heart of the city. More buildings, more cover.
She crept along the sidewalk and came to a junction. The taller black shapes seemed to be to her left, but something didn’t feel right about that direction. A tingling sensation started to accumulate at the base of her neck and creep up into her skull. The more she looked into the dark uniformity to her left, the greater the sensation became. Forward.
Moving around what she presumed were more cars she staggered forward across the street and rejoined the sidewalk once again. She had been running for thirty minutes now and the fatigue was beginning to slow her down. It was also starting to rain.
More junctions, more sensations led her away from the left or right. Finally the buildings on both sides grew large and closer together. Their windows reflected more of the light. Stores.
Moving into the door-well of one, she tried it’s door. Locked. She tried a few others but got the same result. She thought about smashing the windows but the noise would alert anyone or thing within a mile of her. It was then she noticed the dark gray parking garage behind her from it’s reflection in a nearby store.
Quickly moving across the street, she slowed as she looked into the void that was the entrance. No tingles. Walking forward slowly, she moved into the parking garage, her hand immediately finding the smooth concrete walls allowing her some semblance of navigation.
She bumped into the back of what felt like a truck, and moved around to try it’s door. Locked.
After trying all the vehicles she could find in the dark, she felt around to find a slope, knowing that would be the way up to the second floor. It wasn’t long before she did and was repeating the same procedure, sliding from the back of the car to t
he front, trying the door handles as she went.
Finally she found what she was looking for. Parked in a corner was a large modern sedan and its drivers door was partially already open.
She half expected to find the remains of a corpse hanging out, which would be more than she could cope with, but instead, there was only a suitcase on the ground which she accidentally trod on.
Quickly moving inside, she sat in the drivers seat and closed the door as quietly as she could. She shivered, but as soon as the door was closed, in her mind at least it felt warmer.
Feeling for the door lock, she slid it over and a clunk sound came from the door. She took in a deep breath. She then turned and noticed the dark humanoid shape laying in the backseat.
“Fuck!” she yelped, and hit her head on the roof, trying to move away from whatever had taken up residence there.
Her heart beat more than it did when she was running through the streets, and she was just about to jump out of the vehicle, when she realised the two arms and torso actually belonged to some clothes that had been left in the backseat.
Quickly moving into the back, she started to put the clothes on. It didn’t matter what they were, or what size they were, they were going to help keep her warm.
Taking one final look out of the cars windows, she lay down, and tried to control her shivering. She didn’t understand why she had seen no one come after her, but tomorrow she would find water and food.
CHAPTER 17
Corporal Gregg’s walked slowly along the snacks aisle, not knowing what to choose for breakfast.
“It’s a good selection,” said Bass appearing at the end of the row.
Gregg’s smiled and then looked confused. “I don’t understand how any of this is still here. A lot of the shops I’ve come across outside the camp were looted to within an inch of their lives, but this place…it’s like I’ve walked in on my Saturday shopping trip.”
