The infant Other watched all of this with childish pleasure. It could feel all of the heartbeats of what it now felt to be extensions of its own self, its children, and reveled in the sensation of one of those heartbeats suddenly coming to a stop, the victim of one of the Fresh One’s blades. It stretched its long hocked lower limbs and directed its mother to step forward. The infant would enter the minds of the Fresh Ones and make them stop, make them come to it so that all of the Others could feast.
The Other who hated the infant with every cell in its body, watched the female leader step forward while holding Its nemesis tight. Both of them were distracted. It could smell its chance.
A helicopter’s thumping blades echoed faintly across the water and then the sound grew louder until it eclipsed the shouts and growls of the Fiends.
Storm and McNeil had followed the Canada Road south directly toward Moscow. What they saw at the dam sent their hearts to pounding.
“Holy shit! Look at those people!” Kelly put her binoculars to her eyes. “If it’s them, there’s more than just the scientists.”
Sam swung the AStar off the line of the road and aimed straight for the dam. “Kel, grab the shotgun and open the side door.”
Kelly unbuckled herself and climbed into the rear. “I count ten healthy.”
The AStar could only hold six, including the two of them, maybe seven with one kid. Both women thought, how are we going to deal with that?
Sam put the bird into a hover while Kelly slid open the door, cocked and shouldered the shotgun, and fired over and over into the crowd of Fiends. Sam brought the helicopter lower, hovering inches above the water and then slowly side slipped until she was close to the group that was swimming.
The group was collectively stunned at this last-second rescue, and watched in wonder as the helicopter lowered itself toward them. Nikki was the only one who knew the truth of the situation. That it would be only a partial rescue. It was obvious to her that the helicopter couldn’t take them all.
The infant Other put its great muddy brown eyes on the fleeing Fresh Ones and gathered as many of them into its mind as it could.
A collective buzzing entered the refugee’s heads. Those that weren’t looking toward shore saw their comrades do so and followed their gaze. Upon seeing the infant, they were also sucked into its mental grasp. Nikki felt a sense of calm take over her whole being. She could smell the comfort of mother’s milk and she was faintly aware of her heart rate falling. This was true for all of them. A part of Nikki knew exactly what was going on. She’d been in this place before – the memory of it faint, familiar, water all around, a foreboding presence, doom. She knew it meant the death of her, but there was nothing to be done. There was only the entity that filled her mind and the smell of the mother’s milk.
The people in the deeper water found it difficult to swim and they turned as one back to shore. Even Sam and Kelly were mesmerized; Sam keeping the bird mindlessly steady while Kelly laid down her gun and simply stared. The Fiends stopped attacking, instead, slowly waded back toward the shore, inviting their feast to come join them on dry land.
That’s when It, the tormented Other, the Other that had been treated like a plaything for the amusement of the little one with big ears and eyes, the sharp pointy teeth - that’s when It felt the hold of the little fucker let go – just enough, just enough to raise its blade… The tormented Fiend hacked down on its insufferable nemesis with fiendish glee, plunging the butcher’s knife into the mother for good measure….
The spell was gone. Friend and foe looked upon each other with startled recognition. The Fiend nearest Nikki lunged forward, tackling her into the water. Jon, who had only just snapped out of it enough to remember he was holding a sword, was also tackled. Suddenly they were engulfed in a melee of punches, kicks, head-butts and bites. The only thing they could do was to try to swim down, but the water was too shallow for escape. Robert Tran stepped in, swinging his sword with furious intent. “NO YOU FUCKING DON’T!” He brought the legendary sharpness of the Japanese blade across one screaming Fiend’s face, rendering its lower jaw to flapping skin and teeth. He hacked at the monsters with only one thought in mind – these people are not going to die!
Kelly yelled out, “Are you the CDC folks!” The swimmers nodded affirmative as they dog-paddled. She went with cold logic and continued, “One kid can come! Then four of you!”
The swimmers pushed Amanda onto the hovering landing skid and she quickly climbed aboard, turned and screamed with her arms out, “Daddy!”
Kelly held the girl, “Four more. Only four!”
Steven held on to Teddy and they looked at each other with understanding. They would sacrifice themselves for the baby girl.
Aaron, who didn’t give a single thought to another scenario, jumped aboard next.
Decker looked at his two female companions and said, “Go!”
Susan said, “We should both stay. Nikki is the priority.”
“Get on the fucking helicopter, Susan!”
She looked at the others holding back the horde with their swords, closed her eyes for a moment, then gave him a kiss on the cheek and followed Christy onboard. Decker shoved the pack with the hard drives into Susan’s hands.
Kelly yelled, “One more!”
Decker looked at Steven who nodded with a smile and they shoved Teddy on board.
The boy screamed and reached out to his dad while Kelly held him to her chest. She yelled, “We’ll be back as soon as we can!”
Sam pulled on the collective and the helicopter rose back up. With a twist of the cyclic, the bird banked away from the battle below.
Nikki had broken free, gasped for air, then hacked at the Fiends above Jon until he too got his head back above water. He took in a huge lungful of air and then screamed out a bellow of rage, lacerating anything in front of him with the saber. Nikki and Tran continued to hack and stab as they all back pedaled into deeper water, finally freeing themselves enough to swim away and move out with Decker and Steven.
Nikki said, “Robert, are you bit?”
“Don’t think so.”
“No blood in the mouth? No bloody water?”
“No, Ma’am.”
Jon said, “Well I’m fucking bit and I can’t swim with this fucking leather on and this fucking sword.”
They paused and dog-paddled as they dropped their weapons and struggled out of their jackets. Jon had a nasty bite on his forearm and his head bandage had come off revealing the red bite-shaped wound. The Fiends watched from the shore to see which way they would go. There weren’t a lot of options. The lake had no islands. The right shore hugged the Canada Road. The left shore hugged the burned forest. The group slowly swam north, trying to conserve their energy. To their frustration, the infected split their forces, with half walking up the road and the other half crossing the dam to follow them from the other side.
After fifteen minutes of hopeless swimming, Jon and Nikki had somewhat separated themselves from Decker, Tran and Steven.
Jon said, “I think we’re finally done.” He got closer to her, getting her attention, then nodded at the Fiends on the shore.
She said, “It doesn’t look good.”
“Thank you anyway.”
“For what?”
“Saving my life for a few more hours. Keeping me human. Besides, I’d rather drown with you than shoot my brains out.”
“That might be the craziest statement I’ve ever heard. What a world we’ve found ourselves in.”
“How did you figure you were immune?”
“When you kissed that cut on my finger a few days ago, I was afraid for you… Infected blood... I swallowed a lot in that river. I couldn’t admit it to myself. I’m so sorry.”
“No reason to be.”
“I almost didn’t. Something in me didn’t want to own up to it. That I’d gotten sick, that I had gotten the disease.”
“I wouldn’t have wanted to admit it either.”
The effort to
swim was becoming exhausting. Their breath was getting labored and it was becoming a struggle to keep even their mouths above water. They swam for a while, just breathing through their noses.
She finally spoke again. “Before he died, Ben said I was an Archangel.”
“Ben was a fundamentalist wacko.”
“That’s true, but it doesn’t negate that something special happened to me, and because of that, to you too.”
“That’s true, it doesn’t. I’m cold. Aren’t you cold? This water’s fucking freezing.”
“Yes, but listen. What if we have a higher purpose? You know because of this?”
He looked around them and nodded at the teeming shore, “I think our purpose now, is to finally be done, Nik.”
“No. I don’t believe that. All of this didn’t happen so we could drown.”
“So you’re getting religion on me, now?”
She slowed her swimming and looked at him square in the eyes. “I’m going to tell you something that I’ve never told anyone, not even my own parents.”
He looked at her with curious anticipation.
Her words came from someplace deep, had to break through a lifetime of fear, finally coming out strong, and full of courage. “Jon… I love you.”
He was taken aback. Hadn’t expected this. He glanced at the three other swimmers. They seemed to be in a world apart. His mind swayed with this knowledge and he almost forgot how to dog paddle. Then he smiled. “Really?”
“Really.”
“But when you left me for dead, you were so… mean to me…”
“It hurt too much to be any other way.”
He tried to look deeply in her eyes, preparing himself to say the words back.
She laughed at him, pushing him away. “Stop. Don’t even think of saying it back with that goofy grin on your face.”
“What grin?”
“Just… keep it to yourself. When you’re ready, maybe you’ll say it. Not like this. Not now.” She smiled and gave him a quick kiss.
“Well shoot. Now I don’t know what to say.”
She looked at the sky and then briefly closed her eyes. “Say you want to live.”
“I do. I very much want to live.”
Just then, Storm and McNeil’s AStar swooped around a hilltop and down over the lake.
“And so you will.”
They watched the logo-splattered chopper come down into a hover. The three men behind them let out loud whoops of joy, waving and splashing each other in celebration.
Jon pulled Nikki to him and gave her a quick deep kiss. Then he looked into her eyes, and with deep sincerity, said, “I love you too.”
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The second installment in the Of Sudden Origin universe is titled - Children Of Fiends. Buy it here or at one of your favorite retailers: www.cchaseharwood.com
An excerpt from the book follows this page.
I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride. Please don’t hesitate to add a review at your favorite retailer. I’ve provided the soil and the seed, reviews are the sun and water to make it grow.
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Cheers,
C. Chase Harwood
Thank you to my B-Readers, Mom, Leslie, Jane, and many others who don’t necessarily seek out genre fiction for the beach. Having the opinions of people who aren’t beholden to the genre helps make the work that much stronger. Richard Pine at Inkwell, gets a shout out for timeless and thoughtful advice that has helped make me a better writer. I am most especially grateful to my copy editors, Chance, Peter, Robert and Tony. Your insight is invaluable. You keep me from looking the fool.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
C. Chase Harwood made a career in Hollywood, decorating sets for film and television before turning his passion for story telling into clicks on a keyboard. While scaling the walls of the screenwriting world, he chose to experiment with prose and found a fondness for Scifi-action-adventure. Within that framework he gets to explore the countless ways that humans interact while under duress. "Life is all the more lived when the consequences are high. When told as a tale it can be quite a page turner," says Harwood. He lives in Los Angeles with his costume designer wife and young boy girl twins.
The following are some other storytellers with whom the author finds a kindred spirit: HUGH HOWIE, STEPHEN KING, SCOTT SIGLER, DJ MOLLES, RHIANNON FRATER, SEAN PLATT, JUSTIN CRONIN, JAMES S.A. COREY, PETER CLINES, SUZANNE COLLINS, ERNEST CLINE, MAX BROOKS, VERONICA ROTH, LOIS MCMASTER BUJOLD, ORSON SCOTT CARD
"Pretty big shoes…”
AN EXCERPT FROM CHILDREN OF FIENDS
THE BOY AND THE KID
The boy had found the map in the attic among the boxes that his father had never sent for. His old man had been a collector of souvenirs during his time in the Navy, and the boy had spent hours and hours over the years sifting through the collection, imagining adventures and playacting battles. There were trinkets and bits of clothing, and all manner of small artifacts stuffed in with the uniforms, letters, and photos. His father had been to places in the world that, as far as the boy’s teachers knew, no longer existed – at least as far as human populations were concerned. There were photos of his dad wearing a turban; standing among dangerous looking turban-wearing bearded men. There were also photos of Dad with men on ships and assault boats – rugged looking men in black fatigues or scuba gear, a surplus of weapons, their eyes a mixture of mirth and deadly intent. The insignia on an old uniform indicated that the father soldier had been a Navy Seal Captain. There were many medals, and the boy’s imagination would fill with wonder as he gazed upon the three Purple Hearts. Omega had happened when he was two and he had no memories of his father who had never come home. He knew he was still alive. After all, way back, Dad had sent for some things, or so his mother had said. They had never spoken.
His mother had lived with Roy until the bad day. Roy had been okay, but he wasn’t a dad. Never considered himself one. He made feeble attempts to discipline the boy, but it was more about keeping the boy out of his hair. The boy was his mother’s responsibility. Roy provided shelter and food. Roy was more like a brother – a mean one – like when he’d make fun of the boy’s slight lisp – copycatting him when the boy back-talked in protest. Mom had never come to the boy’s defense, saying instead, “Roy’s your Daddy now. You best listen to him”. No, Roy had been no daddy. Roy had been good for one thing; he’d taught the boy how to camp. He hadn’t exactly been a survivalist type, but he knew his way around a campfire, could set up a tent. The boy and Roy had gone several times into the deep woods that abutted their home. Once, they even camped at the edge of the Terminus Zone and the fifteen-foot high double fence that insured that they could walk no further.
As the boy grew older and his lisp faded away, he would stare for hours across the great icy expanse that began on the other side. As far as he knew, he was the only kid in his town that had ever seen it. The other kids weren’t interested – most had been brought up to believe scary stories of the boogeyman out beyond. Besides, who would want to walk in the great dead frozen forest when there where so many lush virtual worlds to explore? Multigenerational shock over a lost planet made life as an avatar the choice for so many of the survivors.
His best buddy was the one other kid who had seen the fence, and that was only because the boy had taken him out there one day. The kid had been scared half out of his wits until he saw that it was just a stopping place marked by a huge sign, repeated every forty feet or so and bearing a single bold word – FORBIDDEN. As preschoolers they had been told that the fence went on forever. The boy knew of course that that was impossible, but he and the kid had walked along it for a long way. As far as they could tell
, it went farther than their own town of Pawling and probably past Webatuck and South Dover as well.
For the last two of his twelve years, the boy had been studying his dad’s Seal Team Field Manual and any other book on survival that he could get his hands on. He loved adventure tales; downloading them as fast as he could read them…until his mother found out, saw the credit card that he had taken out in her name, and the bill for online purchases. Roy had whipped him good for that one. Then the bad day happened. A typical Friday; they’d left the boy with a meager dinner to tie one on at the local tavern. As they had stumbled home in a stupor, one of the unpredictable blizzards that made the very long winters so very hard took them. Roy was found a hundred yards closer to the house, clearly leaving the boy’s mom behind to fend for herself. Or, that’s how the boy figured it.
The boy lived with the kid now, the kid’s daddy having died during Omega, his single mom working two jobs, leaving the boys pretty much to themselves. The boy still had access to his now abandoned house and they’d begun stashing their gear there. It was their hideout, their sanctuary. They’d been plotting their trip for six months, soon after the boy had found the map. They had slowly built up their supplies while occasionally doing test camps in the woods right near the house. Tomorrow would be the first day of August: D-Day for the boy and the kid.
They had set an alarm for 4am, but neither of them could really sleep. At ten ‘til they got up and snuck quietly down the bedroom hall of the single story house, listening to the kid’s mom snoring away, making sure she didn’t stir. When they got to the kitchen they grabbed the apple juice and the last bag of cereal. The kid’s mom would be angry (apple juice was really expensive) but they would need the energy. They went over to the boy’s house and got their packs. Knowing that they would be heading out in the dark and not wanting to forget anything, they had double-checked it all the day before. Their wind-up flashlights, which they had cranked to the max before dinnertime, were cranked again. Then they quietly marched into the backyard, ducking into the woods.
Of Sudden Origin Page 31
