Primal Shift: Volume 1 (A Post Apocalyptic Thriller)

by Griffin Hayes

  The fact that he could speak didn’t mean this stranger was safe, it only meant he was probably safer than the Wipers.

  Without wasting another moment, Carole hurried through the opening right before he slammed the magic door shut.

  It was only after she was inside that she saw it wasn’t magic at all. Just a white seamless door that lead into the storage area of the Victoria’s Secret store. A peephole allowed her to look outside. A handful of Wipers stood outside, out of breath and looking decidedly confused. Their prey had been trapped only moments before, and somehow it had disappeared. One of them banged on the wall with a lead pipe and it made a dull thudding sound. He was cursing, at least as much as a Wiper was able to curse, but his body language spoke volumes. He was pissed off. Another bang, and this one made Carole jerk her head away from the peep hole. The sound was different because the Wiper’s weapon had connected with the door and not the concrete wall, and when she looked back, she could practically see the light bulb going off above his head.

  Another bang against the door and then a kick.

  Carole turned to the man with the dirty face. He was already half way across the store, leaving her.

  “Where are you going?”

  “Russell, you idiot,” the man said, berating himself in the third person. “I knew we should never have opened that door.”

  “Who are you talking to?”

  But he had already retreated around the corner.

  Another kick against the door, and this time it nearly gave way. They were using the bikes as battering rams. One more shot like that, and they would be inside.

  Larry Nowak

  Funeral procession, Rainbowland, UT

  The funeral procession marched out from the gymnasium where All Father’s body had been prepared by a handful of cult members. Not surprisingly, for a people who shunned

  the complications of a mechanical world, the preparation had been simple and surprisingly fast. All Father’s body had been undressed and wrapped in a white sheet so that he bore a striking resemblance to an Egyptian mummy.

  At the head of the line was Timothy, followed by All Father’s wife and his son, Simon. Behind them were Larry and Dana.

  Out where the orchard cleared into a now-fallow wheat field, a hasty funeral pyre had been erected.

  These people sure as hell don’t waste any time, was Larry’s first thought. The old guy’s heart had barely stopped beating, and already they were making ready to burn him up. Then came Larry’s second thought: Don’t forget you’re one of them now, Buddy!

  Word had spread quickly that All Father had died of a heart attack. He was old enough to make that a distinct possibility, and from what Larry had seen, the man was frail and not exactly the picture of health, but something wasn’t setting right. And judging by the look of suspicion he’d seen on Dana’s face, he might not be the only one who suspected foul play. Larry knew he’d probably be suspect number one, since he and All Father had argued shortly before the old bastard had keeled over. The thought of murdering the prick had occurred to Larry, he wasn’t going to lie, but getting a man to go against the very principles he lived by, well, that was so much more fun. Killing All Father would have been too easy. Torturing him with the knowledge that he would soon be giving the orders to turn his utopian compound into an armed camp brought a tear of joy to Larry’s eyes.

  The procession formed a circle around the pyre as All Father’s body was placed inside.

  Word had come back quickly after All Father was found, that he’d been frothing at the mouth. Reminded Larry of his bitch-of-an-aunt, Glenda. In ‘89, she’d decided to mix Bourbon and cyanide. The next day, she was discovered lying on the kitchen floor with a thick coating of foam around her lips. Doctors said it was a brain aneurism at first, till they found the bottle of poison in her cupboard.

  And it was that little tidbit that got Larry thinking. Had the moral strain on All Father been so great he’d decided to check out early? Taken some kind of hippy concoction so he could finally be one with the cosmos? Or could someone have slipped it into his drink?

  Timothy, dressed all in white, his cheeks flushed with grief, lit a torch and ignited the twigs and brush at the base of the pyre. Slowly, the flames fought their way up, before engulfing the entire structure. Larry was watching the dancing yellow light in an almost hypnotic state, dimly aware of the heat pressing against his face, when he heard the faint sound of car tires cutting through the gravel along Rainbowland’s main thoroughfare.

  It came right up to the place where all the other cars were parked and stopped. Two people emerged, and it took Larry a moment to recognize them. The first was one of the young girls who’d been kidnapped by the slave traders. Nikki was her name, and even from a distance, Larry could see she looked weary and shaken by the ordeal. Next to her was a man with short blonde hair and a young face, and the sight of him made the breath catch in Larry’s throat.

  Bud.

  Larry hadn’t counted on the death of All Father but, truth be told, it couldn’t have come at a better time. The compound needed fortifying. Needed a strong leader, and Larry could be that man if they let him. Likewise, leaving Bud on the side of the highway had been a necessary evil. Larry told the young buck you never stop for strangers. He’d made it oh so clear and still the kid had gotten out of the car, leaving him to his fate. That wasn’t Larry’s fault. If a kid skates on thin ice, sooner or later he’s gonna fall through. Only Bud hadn’t fallen through. He was back, and the animosity he no doubt held for Larry would surely plague him at every turn.

  Bud was scanning the cars in the parking area when Larry noticed his eyes settle on the Escalade they’d driven in together. That’s when Larry’s heart really began to gallop.

  He knows I’m here. He’s come looking for me, and now I need to do something – quick – before he single-handedly destroys everything I’ve worked so hard to accomplish.

  “What’s the matter?” Dana asked him. A handful of cult members around them were doing a bad rendition of a Gregorian chant.

  “The man over by the car, you see him?”

  Squinting, Dana nodded. “The one with the white doctor’s coat on? Never seen him before. He must be new.”

  “Not to me.”

  “You know him?”

  “Damned right I do. That asshole tried to kill me,” Larry said. He might have sounded angry, but it was the fear bubbling up within him.

  “What? Are you sure Lar – ”

  “Positive. Met him in New Jersey. Offered him a lift out of the kindness of my heart. Seemed like a nice enough guy, till I stopped to help a family being attacked along Interstate 80. That’s when the asshole hopped behind the wheel and drove off on me. Practically left me for dead. He’s a pathological liar, Dana. You can’t believe a word he says. He’s probably already convinced himself that I was the one to leave him. All I know is that he’s the last person we need stirring up trouble in Rainbowland.”

  Larry glanced over at Dana, whose gaze was locked on Bud the way a lion locks on a gazelle. He wanted to make sure there wasn’t a hint of doubt on her face, make sure she hadn’t seen through Larry’s feeble attempts to hide the truth. But the expression on Dana’s face was too hard to read.

  Finn

  Funeral pyre, Rainbowland, UT

  Finn left All Father’s funeral as soon as he saw Nikki coming their way. The girl’s face crumpled, and tears flowed down her cheeks when she saw him approach. He took her in his arms and hugged her as she sobbed. She’d probably held it together throughout what must have been a trying ordeal, and now, seeing familiar faces, she’d been unable to hold it back any longer. Others left the roaring fire that was once All Father’s body, drawn by the sight of a face they hadn’t expect to ever see again.

  Nikki lifted her head from Finn’s chest and searched the crowd.

  “Where’s Carole?” she asked.

  Finn followed her eyes, realizing for the first time that he hadn’t seen Nikki’s m
other since ... well, since the body of Lou’s wife was discovered floating in the Green River.

  “I’m sure she’s around here somewhere,” Finn replied, trying to hide his own rising concern.

  A cult member handed her a cup of water, and Nikki tilted it back till it was empty.

  “How did you escape?” Finn asked.

  She motioned to the man approaching slowly from the parking lot. Short blonde hair, white lab coat. “His name’s Bud. He saved my life.”

  Just then, Tanner and Johnson struggled through the group that was amassing around her.

  Bud was quickly lost in the shuffle.

  Desperate questions rang out from a number of weary onlookers.

  “Is Marissa with you? My daughter, she was taken by those men.”

  “Tom, he’s a little shorter with brown hair. He’s got diabetes.”

  Even cult members where chiming in, peppering Nikki with questions about loved ones who were taken by the slavers.

  The girl recoiled slightly, as though a gaggle of reporters were digging after a hot scoop, and out of nowhere an image suddenly popped into Finn’s mind. He was on the steps of a large white building. Somehow he knew it was a courthouse, and a sea of men and women where shoving microphones into his face.

  “Did you do it, Francis?” The reporters kept asking. “Did you do it?”

  Do what?

  It felt so real, as though he were watching a movie with himself in the starring role. But he knew this wasn’t some movie he’d once seen. It was a memory. A tantalizing morsel from a past he thought he might never know.

  The people around Nikki were becoming more aggressive, reaching out, pulling at her clothes to get her attention. Finn snapped back from those courthouse steps, wrapped an arm around Nikki’s shoulder and shuffled her through the crowd.

  They retreated to the medical tent. Finn stood at the door and let Johnson, Tanner, and Bud enter and then held out his hand to ward off the others struggling to enter.

  “No one else right now. She's been through a lot. Write down the name of your missing loved one, add a picture if you have one, and I'll see that Nikki takes a look.”

  Finn closed the flaps and tied them shut, perfectly willing to endure the stifling heat if it meant giving Nikki some breathing room and getting to the bottom of what happened.

  Lou was by Ethan's side, feeding his son from a can of corn. He removed his ball cap as soon as the others entered and wiped a thin layer of sweat from his forehead.

  “I'm so sorry about Patty Mae,” Finn offered, knowing mere words would never make up for his loss.

  Lou grunted in response. He seemed detached and morose, understandably so under the circumstances.

  Changing the subject abruptly, Lou nodded to Nikki. “Good to have you back in one piece, Kiddo. I see you've become quite the celebrity.”

  The smile on Nikki's face was thin and a touch forced.

  “Your mother must be beside herself with joy, I'd say.”

  “I wouldn't know,” Nikki replied. “I can't find her.”

  “Carol's car is missing,” Finn added, careful not to add to Nikki’s already acute distress.

  The muscles on Lou's face seemed to drop.

  “What is it?” Finn asked.

  “Carol came in here not long ago asking if anyone got a good look at the men who attacked us. I’m starting to wonder if she hasn’t gone and done something stupid.”

  Johnson was sitting beside Nikki on one of the medical cots. “What was she told?”

  Lou swiped his hat back on. “Kid named Christopher told her he'd seen two of those assholes with uniforms from the Grand America. ‘Pardon my French, Ladies.”

  Finn scratched his head. “Grand-a-what?”

  “That’s the hotel where they were holding us.” It was Bud who spoke, and all eyes turned on him with stony silence. Finn got his first real look at the guy, but it was the emblem on the breast pocket of his tattered lab coat that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. The same Tevatron logo he sported on his overalls.

  “I thought the hotel was the rendezvous point I’d heard about on the shortwave,” Bud said.

  “But when I got there, a bunch of crazy assholes jumped me.”

  “They aren’t crazy,” Johnson answered, still unaware of Bud’s connection to Tevatron. “Their minds have been wiped clean.”

  Finn approached Bud, who rose to his feet. “Where did you get this lab coat?”

  Bud didn’t budge. “Why should I tell you a damned thing? I don't even know who you – ”

  “Where?” Finn shouted.

  “Ease up, Friend,” Bud replied coolly, sounding suddenly less defiant.

  Nikki moved between them. “He saved my life, Finn. Without him, I’d still be there.”

  “Look, if you worked for Tevatron, I need to know, so does Johnson.” He nodded to the black woman as she left the cot and stood next to him. Rolling up his sleeve, Finn revealed the numerical tattoo on his wrist and held it up so Bud could see. “This mean anything to you?”

  Bud studied it, and Finn couldn't tell if the expression on the man's face was one of shock or delight.

  Bud pulled back the sleeve of his lab coat and showed a nearly identical eight-digit tattoo, except the numbers on his were different from both Finn’s and Johnson's.

  “So you were ... ”

  “In a vat of pink shit?” Bud asked, finishing Finn’s question. “I can still taste it.”

  “What did they do to us?” Johnson wondered out loud.

  “That,” Bud replied, “is exactly what I've been trying to figure out.”

  Finn pulled out the paper he found at Tevatron’s office in Las Vegas and scanned the short list of names written there. There were only three. Finn’s, Johnson’s, and a woman named Joanne Blackwood. “Unless you’ve had a sex change, I don’t see you here,” he said and handed the list to Bud who read it over more than once.

  “Tevatron was messing with people, and we're not quite sure how, just yet,” Johnson said.

  “Maybe I'm on another list,” Bud offered. “How would I know? I'm just as much in the dark as you guys. Listen, there's some kind of lab of in the Nevada desert I'm heading to.”

  “Don't waste your time,” Finn cut in. “I was there already.”

  “And?”

  “And nothing, the place is trashed from the quake. I even headed to their regional office in Vegas, and all I got was this paper.”

  “Yes, but when you were at the lab, did you check the database?”

  Finn shook his head. “The place was running on emergency power. I was more worried about getting out of there in one piece.”

  “The lab,” Bud asked, “was it surrounded by mirrors?”

  Finn nodded slowly, trying not to get his hopes up. He’d already encountered one dead end after another.

  The change on Bud’s face was immediate. “The batteries they use for backup storage can stay charged for weeks.”

  Johnson was all smiles, too. “So you’re saying those computers might still work?”

  “No,” Bud replied. “But I may be able to get them back online.”

  “Sold,” Johnson said. “When do we leave?”

  Finn looked at Nikki. “Right away. Except, there is one thing we need to do first.”

  “What’s that?” Bud asked.

  “Look for Carole at the Grand America Hotel.”

  Larry Nowak

  Rainbowland, UT

  The funeral pyre had collapsed into a heap of ash by the time Timothy and Larry began heading back to the compound. The civilians, as Larry now referred to anyone who was not a member of the cult, along with some of its followers, continued to camp outside the tent where that Nikki girl was holed up, desperate for word on the status of their loved ones. She would need to be debriefed, Larry knew, and soon, if the people here wanted any hope of knowing what they were up against. The attack the other day hadn’t come from a group of what had become known as
Wipers. The Wipers were only a diversion for the real mission, snatching Rainbowites. But why?

  Much closer to home, Larry was trying to figure out how the power vacuum created by All Father’s sudden death would be filled. Clearly, Timothy had taken the reigns, but would he remain sympathetic to Larry’s goals of preventing another attack?

  They were approaching the gymnasium entrance when Timothy stopped and placed a hand on Larry’s shoulder. “Brother Larry, you seem so deep in thought.”

  “I hadn’t known All Father long at all,” Larry said, “but already I feel as though I’ll miss him a great deal.” The lie was so smooth even Larry believed it.

  You Machiavellian bastard, you!

  “Leading others was never a strength of mine. Peter had a natural ability to inspire people to do as he said. Seems whenever I gave an order, all I heard back was: Why? I was happy letting him run Rainbowland and supporting him from the shadows.”

  “But you’re not in the shadows anymore,” Larry said.

  Timothy’s gaze dropped to a patch of dried grass. “That’s what has me worried. I don’t feel equipped to run the compound. Not from the tip of the spear, so to speak. But from the moment I laid eyes on you, Larry, I knew you were different. Knew you had it in you.”

  “It?”

  “You’re a leader, Larry. More than I could ever hope to be. Maybe when things get back to normal I’d manage, but you were right when you said we were at war. During the Republic, the Romans had two consuls who would rule together. Not sure how well you know your history, but they were terrified of anything that smacked of a monarchy. In times of great strife, however, both consuls would step aside and nominate a single man to lead them through whatever challenge they faced. That man had to be decisive and battle hardened, and once he’d done his job and the threat was conquered, he would step down, and the consuls would resume their former roles. You know what they called this temporary position?”

  Larry shook his head. He wasn’t going to pretend he knew Jack about history.

  “Dictator, was what they called it. This isn’t the time for second-guessing and decisions by committee, Larry. This is the time for action, and I’m willing to make you that man. All I ask is that once Rainbowland is safe, that you relinquish control. Do you think you can do that?”