by Phil Maxey
Soldiers ran to their sides, some of which had heavier weapons.
“Okay screw this,” said Bower as the bird like E.L.F’s were only twenty yards away. “Light them up!”
The soldiers started firing. Multiple streams of red tore through the creatures knocking them off into the roadside ditches. Wyatt and Diaz fell back onto the Humvee’s hood breathing heavily.
Bower did a circle motion with his hand above his head. “Let’s move forward slowly until these other things are dead or moving away!”
Diaz and Wyatt took their rifles off their shoulders and joined the others as the convoy of soldiers and vehicles slowly rolled forward.
A rocket propelled grenade landed close to the larger creatures making them squeal and turn away. The soldiers continued firing until ahead of them was only broken trees and empty road.
“Everyone back in the vehicles!” shouted Bower.
Everyone did as ordered.
As Bower stepped back to the Humvee, he looked at the dark shadow of the walls of the camp, and the explosions and tracer fire illuminating them. Shaking his head he jumped back into the drivers seat.
Diaz and Wyatt next to him were both silent.
“You did your best,” said Bower as he revved the Humvee’s engine and pulled away.
* * * * *
A cool breeze momentarily dissipated the heat which Abbey felt on her face and arms. She looked at the vines that were covering the cars and buildings and smiled. She was back in her dream world of a Boston that had become something else.
Making her way along the path she remembered from last time, she was soon at the same stone arch entrance. She looked up at the skyscraper that had now become a kind of artificial tree reaching into the clouds and pushed forward ducking under branches with vibrant blue flowers hanging from them.
The air inside the large hall was cooler, and as always the creatures that inhabited the space scattered back to their holes as she emerged.
She looked to her right and propped up by branches and trunks of newly grown trees, were the two crystal sarcophagi she had seen before and knew contained her parents. Stepping over the twisted rope like vines that lay across the floor she walked to them and this time noticed inscriptions at their base.
“Adam and Eliana R.I.P”
What?
These were her grandparent names. She grabbed hold of the closest vine and pulled herself up so she could see the faces of those inside. Looking back at her with peaceful expressions were her grandpa and grandma. Although these weren’t the elderly people she knew from her childhood, these were an attractive couple maybe in their late thirties.
A noise behind her made her turn around. The tall demonic looking blue skinned creature was standing there.
“Why are you showing me this? I thought my parents were here? In Boston?”
“Ssarccchlight…sccascaderss…” said the horned creature, it’s head tipping to one side when it finished as if it was curious.
“Yes, I’m a Cascader, I know this—”
A boom rang out around the domed ceiling above her and masonry started falling. The creature had gone and the ground all around her was shaking.
Abbey awoke with Mo squawking just outside the window.
With her hair covering half her face Abbey walked across to the window. “Mo stop your noise, I have—” As she looked out over and beyond the lake, bursts of color lit the skyscrapers. For a moment she was transfixed by the beauty of the scene and then something caught her attention out the corner of her eye.
Mo was squawking and swooping close to the back of the house.
What is that?
She pulled the curtain back to try and see better into the darkness. At first she thought she was looking at the dark shadow of a row of bushes that ran down to the lake, but then she realized there shouldn’t be any there. Stepping back from the window she could hear the water in the lake undulating and splashing and fear started to stiffen her body. Mo was still filling the air with his warnings as she turned and quickly grabbed her pants and got dressed.
She picked up her radio and ran downstairs. Walking into the kitchen she picked up her pickup’s keys, a flashlight and the shotgun they kept stored in a cupboard. By now, her mind was clear enough to realize the back of her neck was tingling and that Mo wasn’t the only E.L.F that was close by.
She opened the rear door to the backyard carefully hoping it wouldn’t make its usual creaking noise and stepped out into the chilled night air. Mo landed a few feet from her and continued to squawk but at a lower volume.
“Sshh…” she said to the creature next to her, who obliged and went quiet.
Walking forward a few yards, she could see the dark shape ahead of her. It stood at least half the height of the house. She swept her flashlight across the muddy ground towards the shape almost not wanting the light beam to touch what was out there. Slowly she drew it further upwards.
The oily black hide of the creature she had seen a few times before reflected the light due to it still being wet with water from the lake.
Abbey gulped. If this was what she thought it was, then this was literally the tip of the iceberg, and the much larger part of it was still submerged within the lake.
She quickly pulled the flashlight beam away and stepped back slowly, until she was at the rear door to the house again.
Zach had already told her how the E.L.F’s weren’t responding to the Cascaders, and this was not the time she wanted to find that out for herself. Turning she walked quickly to her pickup ushering Mo to follow her. She jumped in while Mo jumped up into the open back.
She went to turn the ignition then stopped. What if the noise alerts it?
The fear she had felt for a lot of the last four months of the creatures that had destroyed the world was returning.
Steadying herself, she turned the ignition and pulled away slowly, waiting for the thing in the lake to start rising up, but there was no movement from behind her as she drove out onto the road.
CHAPTER 34
“Is the thing in the lake subdued?” said Zach to Hannigan, as a chorus of anxious voices busily working created a wall of sound around them.
“Yes. Well we think so. There are five Cascaders doing their best to keep it that way.”
“Miss Reisner had just arrived, sir,” said a young female soldier at her console in front of Zach.
“Good, I want her brought straight down here to me.”
The soldier nodded and continued talking into the mike on her headset.
Zach turned back to Hannigan. “How did it get there?”
“We’re getting reports that the barriers at the south side of the river, south of Granite Falls has failed, sir.“
Another soldier turned from her workstation to look towards Zach. “Sir, we have the hydro plant on the line, they are saying that if the camp keeps at these levels of power usage there’s a good chance that the generators will burn out.”
“Okay, tell them I want estimates on how much longer we got.” The soldier nodded and returned to her conversation with the hydro plant people.
“Sir, we have officer Acker on the line,” said another soldier.
Zach nodded, and held his earpiece. “Go ahead Fiona. Over.”
“We got gangs roaming the street in downtown. They’re looting. We are doing what we can, but I don’t have the manpower to stop them. Over.”
“We can’t do anything about that, just keep your people focused on the storage centers. Over.”
“Will do…do you know what the situation is in southern quadrants? Over.”
“Still pretty quiet down there…” He then realized why she was asking. “I can have Stephanie and her family brought to the Core if you want? Over.”
There was a slight pause. “No, it’s okay, I’ll check in on them myself. Over.”
“Stay safe. Over.”
Trow appeared with a piece of paper in her hand. “Our ground based radar have just picked up mo
vement on the main highway to the west of the camp. From the way it’s moving, I’m told it’s vehicles.”
“This could be them. What’s the level of E.L.F’s at our west walls?”
Trow looked at Hannigan who quickly brought up some details on his console screen. “Same as the other walls, lots.”
“I want one of the Cascade squads sent to the west wall, closest to where the gang’s convoy is heading, and see if they can get the creatures there to attack them.”
“The doctor said that once the E.L.F’s are imprinted by a Cascader it’s almost impossible to get them to do anything else?” said Trow.
“I know, but we need to try. Also send a platoon out there to back them up.”
“Maybe we should send the Apaches as well? They can do a lot of damage on that convoy,” said Trow.
“No, we keep our birds on the ground protected for now.”
Trow nodded and walked to one of the rows of stations and started talking to the soldier there.
Zach took a deep breath. Just as he was about to ask something of another soldier, one of the side doors opened, and Abbey appeared. She ran over and hugged him. The soldiers nearby tried not to notice.
“We got the creature in the lake under control for now,” said Zach as he stepped back.
“I didn’t know what to do, whether I should try and control it or—”
“You did the right thing. Where’s Mo?”
“He’s outside. What’s happening elsewhere?”
“It’s pretty chaotic out there. It’s good you’re here,” he gave a forlorn smile. “I better get back to it.”
Abbey wanted to say more, but just nodded.
Zach turned away to face a nearby soldier. “Get me Sergeant Bass.”
After a few moments the soldier nodded at Zach.
“How are the walls looking Bass? Over,” said Zach into his headset.
The noise of battle seeped through Zach’s earpiece before the sergeant started talking. “I’m on the east wall, it’s holding, but I’m getting reports that there is a breech on the north wall, around section one two two. I’ve sent soldiers there. Over.”
“Okay, keep me informed. Over.”
Abbey sat at the back of the hall and watched the fury of people running and barking important orders at each other, with Zach in the middle of it.
* * * * *
Isaiah looked out of the windscreen of his pickup and sighed. “Look at these fools.”
He and Sam sat in their vehicle parked in a side street, in what was once a small town but now resided within the walls. Ahead of them was a large warehouse that previously hadn’t seen usage since the 1990s but now was one of the hundred or so food storage centers that kept people alive.
The sunrise to the east was just providing enough light for them to make out the shapes of men and women filing out of a large van and through the open gate. A few moments before one of these shuffling figures had just broken it open with bolt cutters.
“Core, we have a quite large group of people breaking into food storage unit ninety two. Over,” said Sam.
Isaiah grabbed his M4 assault rifle from the backseat.
“Go ahead and do what you need to do to stop them. Over,” said the voice from the Core.
“Affirmative. Over.”
Isaiah sniggered. “Affirmative? You think you’re in some kind of cop drama!”
Sam frowned then reached back and picked up his own rifle. “We going with the carrot or the stick.”
“We going with you leave shit alone which ain’t yours or we shoot your ass.”
“Works for me.” Sam patted his body armor then stepped out into the early morning air. Isaiah did the same, and they both started walking across to the parked van.
As they got to the back of it they looked inside. It was empty.
“I guess the plan is to fill this up,” said Sam.
“Let’s—”
The clatter of automatic fire rang out, and Sam ducked down. He then noticed Isaiah was lying on the ground hardly moving. “Isaiah!”
Sam quickly scrambled forward grabbing hold of his friend and pulled him backwards so they would be covered by the rear of the van.
“Aw man! Just when I get me a new hand!”
Sam looked at Isaiah’s prosthetic hand with a chunk of fingers missing and sighed in relief. “You scared me dude,” he then looked around them. “Where the hell did that come from?”
Automatic gunfire echoed around the road and sidewalks once again, some of it flicking off the axel and wheel rims of the vehicle they were cowering next to.
Isaiah laid on the floor and looked out from under the van to the building they were about to investigate. “Yeah I see them. They’re at the door of the building, I can see what looks like an AK47 poking out,” he then brought his rifle up and aimed and fired off a volley of shots. “Ha, yeah take that fools. They have gone back inside.”
Sam clicked on his radio. “This is officer Sam Coleman, we are taking fire at food storage unit ninety two. Over.”
There was no reply.
“Core, we are taking fire. Do we engage or pull back? Over.”
Still nothing came from his radio.
“We saw a lot of them go in there. If they all got AK’s we got a problem,” said Sam.
They both sat thinking what they should do, while a hush fell on the streets around them.
“Sam—”
“Hell!” Sam and Isaiah both jumped when Sam’s radio came to life. “I’m here Fiona. Over,” said Sam taking a deep breath.
“We’re stretched pretty thin. What you up against? Over.”
Before he could reply, Isaiah got to his feet and started walking towards the darkness of the buildings open door.
Sam reached out to stop him. “What you doing?” Sam half whispered. He then raised his gun in the direction Isaiah was walking and followed behind.
As Isaiah walked across the forecourt the world turned white, then black.
“Sam? You there? What are you up against? Over,” came from Sam’s partially melted radio as it lay on the blackened concrete.
CHAPTER 35
A little girl stood silent clutching her teddy bear. As she went to walk towards Mary’s bed, the window on the two story 1930s home rattled with the impact of the explosion at the nearby food storage unit.
Mary sat up with a jolt. “What?” she looked at the little girl then followed the six year olds gaze to the window. Mary jumped out of bed and looked out at a plume of black smoke rising into the early morning sky.
It’s happening again.
Her mind flashed back to similar scenes at the Portland camp many months earlier and when she was offered a new house for herself and the young people she was looking after she insisted she was given one with a basement.
“Mary?” said the little girl.
Mary was busy putting her pants and other clothes on. “Yes?”
“There is a bad monster in our back garden.”
Mary froze mid button. “What? Where?” she then lifted the little girl off the floor into her arms and raced into the hallway. As she did the noises of snorting and wooden posts twisting and breaking came from the back of the house.
Doors on the hallway opened and young faces looked out.
“Everyone get dressed!” Mary half shouted. They all disappeared backside.
Tyler appeared at the bottom of the stairs looking down the hall towards the kitchen at the back of the house. He was fully dressed and had a shotgun in his hand.
“Tyler! What’s going on?” said Mary down the stairs to him.
“There’s an E.L.F in the back yard. It’s just sitting there.”
“Don’t go near it! Stay in the house,” she then moved into the spare room which overlooked the yard and carefully stepped closer to the curtains and looked out.
A creature which looked like a dark giant mole, but covered in spikes, and had four legs which belonged to a lion was sniffing the air. It mom
entarily looked upwards and Mary pulled back. Jess went to say something and she instinctively placed her hand over the child's mouth.
“Ssh,” said Mary moving her hand. “We have to be quiet,” she then walked back to the hallway. Anxious young voices came from the various rooms, while a few youngsters were already standing in the hallway not quiet knowing what to do with themselves.
Mary looked down at Tyler still standing at the bottom of the stairs. “We need to get into the basement. Where’s Addison?”
“I’m here,” came from behind her. The teenager with newly dyed black hair was standing fully dressed with her backpack slung over her shoulder. “Do we have to hide again?”
“Yes. I need you to help Tyler get Jess and everyone into the basement, can you do that?”
The young girl nodded, and started corralling everyone down the stairs to the now open door under the stairs.
Mary ran back to her room, pulling out a set of keys from a drawer, then up to a cupboard which had multiple locks on it. She quickly unlocked each by finding the correct combination, and opened the doors to reveal packs of ammo and a rack with a number of guns held securely. At the bottom was a large holdall which she shoved the ammo into, and then pulled off two M4 rifles and one shotgun.
Tyler appeared at the bedroom door. “They’re in the basement.”
“Good, help me with these,” she said struggling to hold them all. Tyler grabbed the bag putting it over his shoulder and took one of the rifles.
They then both crept down the stairs quickly as they could, and as Tyler disappeared down the basement steps Mary stopped and looked to the kitchen and through the windows. The creature was investigating the sheds they had at the back of the garden, pushing into the wood making it break then jumping back when it looked like the structure would collapse. It then quickly whipped its head around making Mary jump. She ran into the stairwell and pulled the upper door closed. Then ran down the steps and ran into the reinforced space, closing the bottom door as well.
