by Phil Maxey
“Okay,” she said reluctantly and the three of them ran across the concrete and into an office-building lobby.
She leaned on an impressive rectangular stone pillar, with a plaque detailing various companies.
The man looked back at her. “We have to hide further in, on one of the floors above or the basement!”
“Where is this? What part of the camp are we in?”
“Southern part of the capital,” said the woman just visible in the dwindling light.
“Isn’t there a bunker around here?”
A scraping noise made them all turn and look to the street outside.
“We have to go!” whispered the man.
Abbey lurched forward and they ran into a narrow stairwell and up three flights until they came out into a corridor. A sign on the wall mentioned something to do with life insurance.
The man tried a few doors until one opened. “In here!”
They all piled into darkness, until the old woman produced a flashlight and shone its beam around. They were standing amongst a few desks with old-fashioned typewriters on them, along with chairs and whiteboards. Another door was half open. Abbey walked to it and looked inside. It was a small kitchen with a sink, one table and chair.
“In here!”
They all moved into the small space and closed the door.
“Look under the sink there might be some candles,” said Abbey leaning back against the door out of breath.
The man looked, throwing out plastic containers until he found two candles covered in dust. “How we gonna light them?”
Abbey went to say something, when a thought struck her. She looked to her left then flicked the light switch upwards. The florescent light stuttered then came on. She smiled.
“Oh,” said the man. “I thought the power was gone.”
“Throw me that hand towel,” said Abbey. He did and she laid it across the bottom of the door stopping the light from escaping.
The woman stepped forward. “Come here, let me wash some of the blood off you.”
Abbey looked down at her once dark blue top and realized her hands were covered in drying blood. Reaching up to her face it felt the same. “We were flying, only a few minutes out from landing, when something happened and then I woke up outside.”
“You were attacked by a flock of something, we saw it happen. Watched you come all the way down. Including you being thrown free. We were sure you were dead,” said the woman as she washed away the blood from Abbey’s face.
“Why aren’t you in the bunkers or further away?”
The man listened to the door. “We tried, we were turned away, they were all full,” he briefly looked down. “Many didn’t make it in. I’m Irwin this is my mother Daphne.”
“I’m Abbey. I can’t stay here. I need to get to the—”
The room they were in shuddered and the light above them blinked on and off.
“Are you crazy? It’s completely black out there, and the whole place is full of E.L.F’s roaming looking for their next dinner!” Said the man.
The screams of the people left on the helicopter forced its way into Abbey’s mind. “I have to find a radio or something to let them know at the Core that I’m safe. Otherwise…” Tears started to roll down her cheek. “If…If I don’t let him know, he will come and…” She started to slide down the wall as she leaned on it, unable to control her sobs until she was on the floor, her knees up against her chest. “I can’t keep doing this,” her words fell between her crying.
Daphne knelt in front of her. “Abbey, we will find a way to get a message to the Core, okay?”
Abbey looked up at her and nodded.
CHAPTER 41
“Are the bunkers holding in the capital?” Said Zach to a soldier in front of him.
“Yes, sir. There has not been any breaches yet.”
“If we stay hidden there’s nothing for the E.L.F’s to attack,” said General Trow. They were both standing in the main operations hall at the Core.
“We can’t stay hidden forever,” said Elijah sanding nearby.
“Sir, we have Major Telford for you,” said the comms soldier.
Zach nodded to the soldier.
Screeching and the clatter of automatic fire was the first thing Zach heard in his headset. “Brigadier General, we are taking heavy loses, we can’t hold the capital much longer. Please advise. Over.”
Zach looked at the camera feeds on the large screen from various building vantage points. Flares of light from explosions lit up the night. In streets and buildings soldiers shuffled behind tanks, while masses of E.L.F’s ran amok, scrambling over the bodies of human and creature to attack those running for their lives.
“Pull your forces back to the south Major. Protect the people that are fleeing from the city. Over.”
“Yes, sir. Over.”
Fiona appeared from a side door and walked over to him. “Most of the roads leading south from the city and around here are jammed with vehicles. We already have about a thousand people here, but we still got space for maybe another few thousand.”
“Just let everyone in, even if people end up sleeping in the corridors.”
Zach noticed Trow talking vigorously into her headset’s microphone. She then looked at him with an expression that told him she had news he didn’t want to hear. “What is it?”
“We can’t reach Abbey’s helicopter. And we have reports of a twin engine chopper going down at the southern edge of the capital.”
Zach refused to accept the possibilities of what he was just told. “General you’re in charge while I’m gone.”
Trow went to say something, but instead just nodded.
“I’ll go with you,” said Fiona standing behind him.
Zach turned to the soldier in front of him. “I want an exact location as possible on where the helicopter could of crashed.”
She nodded.
Michael appeared from the side door and slowly walked over to them. “Thanks for letting my family—”
The soldier turned back to Zach. “Sir, around Crown Avenue.”
“That’s close enough,” he then turned to Michael. “You busy?”
“Not really, why?” said Michael.
Zach and Fiona rushed past him.
“Get your gear and meet us here in ten,” said Zach.
Soon they were all running past queues of people in the lobby that were waiting for the elevator to the lower depths.
Zach almost ran into a woman. “Please have you seen my son? He’s name is Jay—”
“Sorry, ma’am the soldier over there will help you,” he said pointing to one of the soldiers nearby.
They than ran across the sidewalk outside and jumped into a waiting Humvee. Fiona took the drivers seat, with Zach in the passenger’s seat and Michael on the main gun.
She pulled out with a jolt and zigzagged around trucks, cars and people coming the other way across the parking lot until they moved through the main gate and onto the road outside the entrance.
Both lanes were almost completely blocked. She hit the horn hard. “Get out of the way!” Cars slowly started to part. “This is going to take—”
The sound of the big gun perched on top of the Humvee opened up, and cars started scattering.
“Good going Michael!” She shouted.
Soon a clear path lay ahead of them, and she accelerated into it. Two Apache helicopters roared overhead, heading west.
She briefly looked at the man next to her who was holding his M4 rifle in one hand and a map of the capital in the other. “We’ll find her Zach.”
He looked intently at the piece of paper in his hand, while trying to balance a flashlight at it. “I know. Head south on this road, then take the first right. It doesn’t look like much of a road, but it should get us to the capital quicker.”
* * * * *
Abbey crept along the carpeted office aisle surrounded by desks. Outside the only light was the occasional burst of gunfire from a lone
tank or soldier still resisting the onslaught.
She grimaced as the wax from the candle she managed to get lit, burnt and quickly dried on her hand.
Using it’s flickering light she opened a drawer and rummaged through its contents looking for something she could use to communicate to the outside world. Pushing it shut in frustration, she looked back at the dozen or other drawers and cupboards she had already opened. Turning back to the front of the large room she was in, she looked at the large glass broken window just ten yards from her. The smell of smoke and other things drifted through the splintered hole. She walked towards it, towards the absolute blackness on the other side and stood just a foot away trying to make out anything of the city which she knew existed out there.
A small flare of light appeared a few miles off and was quickly distinguished. A noise came from behind her and she turned around.
Irwin was walking towards her. “You find anything? There’s nothing in the other—”
“What?” she noticed he was looking past her. She turned back to the window with her candle in hand, and immediately jumped back. Just a few feet away, behind the shards of glass was a floating head made up of glowing red eyes, and teeth which belonged in a shark. Abbey froze. The head bobbled up and down slightly and she realized it belonged to something that was hovering with massive wings just outside the window.
“Back up slowly,” said Irwin.
Abbey’s instincts were to do exactly that, and she took one tentative step back, but then stopped. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and felt outwards with her mind to the creature in front of her, five storys up. What are you doing? Raj told us we couldn’t control the ones that have already been controlled!
“It’s gone!” said Irwin.
Abbey opened her eyes to the same rich darkness again. She let out a breath.
“It just took off, strange. Hey, are you one of those Cascaders? I watched the documentary about them on TV.”
Abbey looked down at the streets below. A small fire was still burning in the building near the crashed helicopter. She turned around and walked back towards Irwin. “I have to get to the helicopter. There might be a radio there.”
He grabbed her arm. “What part of, lots of monsters running around, killing everyone do you not understand?”
She shrugged him off. “You stay here, but I have to go out there.”
CHAPTER 42
Zach looked at the flames and smoke rising high into the night sky of the once proud looking new capital of Camp Bravo. Intermingled with the buildings and occasionally lit by the fires were the winged E.L.F’s still searching for their prey. The road they were on was barely a dirt track, but it was the only way to the west as all the major roads were full of vehicles desperately trying to get away from what was hunting them.
Just a mile off in a field a row of tanks fired off a volley of shells which exploded seconds later, illuminating huge creatures which roared with pain.
Fiona slammed on the breaks as their headlights lit up a bear looking creature but with a more pronounced snout, and a large spear like tail. It looked at them and snarled.
“Ba—” was all Zach could say when Michael let loose with the main gun above their heads. A stream of red tore into the creature which howled then turned and ran through the undergrowth. Fiona drove forward quickly passing the spot where the creature was.
Soon they left the track and bumped up and down onto an empty main wide road, just south of the city. Single story homes and stores passed by, while the tallest buildings loomed just a few miles away. At this distance they could see a creature almost as high as one of the skyscrapers lumbering between the towering structures.
Zach looked back down at his map. “Stay on this road, it should take us to the right area.”
“It might be hard to find the helicopter if its gone down behind some buildings, Zach,” said Fiona.
“Just keep driving, we’ll find it.”
Suddenly she veered to the right to avoid something in the road.
“Stop!” shouted Michael above them.
The Humvee slowed to a halt.
“What?” shouted Fiona.
“We passed two soldiers, one looked injured,” said Michael.
She reversed up the road they just came down, eventually stopping beside two men in combat fatigues, one holding the other up.
“Get in!” shouted Michael.
The two soldiers obliged bundling into the back.
“Thanks, we got separated from out platoon when they pulled out. I’m private Ross and this is private Wood. He’s got a wound that won’t stop bleeding.”
“We’re looking for a downed chopper, you see any around here?” said Zach looking into the back.
Ross looked at his friend, whose eyes were fluttering. “Stay with me Gil! Gil!” The young shoulder shook his friend, but private Wood just lay limp in his arms.
“I’m sorry private, but have you see any do—”
“Yes! Okay, yes! Just a block from here, a twin engine went down, but it was right in the middle of some fierce fighting, I doubt anyone survived.”
“We’re looking anyway,” said Fiona. “Where about? Up here?” Fiona weaved around a huge dark mass in the center of the road, while pointing into the night ahead of her.
“Yeah, take the next right.”
She did and soon they were driving down a slight incline. The wreckage of the chopper was obvious even from a few hundred feet away.
“We can’t stay here for long, your lights will attract them!” said the soldier.
They screeched to a halt in the road, alongside the wreckage.
Zach opened his door.
“Zach! Wait!” said Fiona, but it was too late and he was already running across to the front of the store.
Somewhere inside a fire burned, and it gave just enough light for everyone to see the wreckage beyond the broken windows.
Zach raised his rifle and stepped over broken glass and scattered parts of televisions and old computers.
“Abbey!” he shouted into the shadows.
The smell of death and burning plastic filled the air as he walked forward and shone his flashlight into the large opening at the back of the helicopter. Two bodies lay like rag dolls just beyond the ramp, but most of the others were still in their seats. It was obvious the E.L.F’s had gotten to them before they had a chance to escape.
He flashed his beam at each new horror inside the aluminum coffin confirming none were the woman he loved.
A noise made him turn around.
“Zach, there’s things coming this way, we can’t stay here,” said Fiona.
“Yeah okay, I’m coming out,” he walked down the ramp. “She’s not here, she must have got away or something.”
As they neared the stores broken front windows, the ground shook and the remaining panes of glass fell to the ground.
Ducking through the opening, they ran back onto the sidewalk and looked up into the sky around them. The ground shook again, this time with such ferocity that it knocked both of them almost off their feet.
Zach shone his flashlights beam at the other stores and buildings. Abbey where are you?
“Zach we have to go!”
An almighty crash made them all look a few hundred yards towards one of the skyscrapers and a wave of dust washed past them. Then they saw it. A shadow five storys high, rising even higher against the night sky.
They both started to run back to the Humvee, when the ground around them shook again and cracks opened up in the road. This time they couldn’t stay on their feet and they were sent sprawling to the ground.
“Zach!”
“Abbey?” Zach scrambled to his feet, trying to understand from where his name was called.
He then saw three shadows running towards them, about a hundred yards in front of the creature that would soon be on them. Zach started running forward.
“Can you drive?” shouted Michael to the solder in the back seat.
“Yes!”
“Then get in the front, we need to lead—”
A hand the size of a bus slammed into the Humvee flicking it over and through the air, finally slamming it into a wall of a building.
Zach looked back momentarily, then kept running towards the people running towards him.
As he got to Abbey and the two others, the creature above them roared, a noise so intense that it was almost strong enough to knock them backwards. It then rose up higher, blocking out the sky above their heads. Zach grabbed Abbey close to him. “I love you,” he said, as their entire world became a dark void.
He felt her breath on his face, and they both held each other waiting.
The creature roared in pain and the sky reappeared. Fur and anger ran past them and tore into the huge creature. Squawks and growls filled the air.
“It’s other creatures, they’re attacking the big one,” said Daphne cowering close by.
The ground shook once more, while what seemed a never-ending stream of creatures clawed and jumped at the huge shadow just tens of yards from them, sending it staggering backwards against a small building, which crumpled under the weight.
Zach pulled Abbey away. “Run!”
They and the two others both ran with every part of their being away from the onslaught that was bearing down around them.
The huge creature then fell completely backwards onto a skyscraper, crushing a huge segment of the lower floors. Dust and Masonry flew up into the night air.
Soon they were running across the street to the wreckage of the Humvee.
“Michael!” Shouted Zach. There was no reply.
“Over here!” shouted Irwin who was knelt near a body with an arm at an impossible angle.
Zach and Abbey ran to him and immediately recognized Michael.
Zach knelt and felt his pulse. “He’s alive,” he then looked inside the remains of the Humvee. “Only Michael.”
