Survive (Cascade Book 1)

by Maxey, Phil

  Zach drove them onto the main road to the bridge crossing and the south exit. The wall stretched east and west in front of them, as flying creatures crossed the sky above.

  “Ops, we are nearing the south wall, is it clear to cross. Over.” Said Zach. A hurried voice responded.

  “Yes, south wall exit clear. Over.”

  The road they were on was wide, with motels and buildings that were previous stores on both sides. Within a few minutes the wall reared up in front of them, and ahead stood a large steel gate with more Humvee’s and soldiers. The siren still wailed but their hearing had almost become adjusted to it.

  As they neared the wall the grand steel gate was already opening revealing a short tunnel and a bridge on the other side. It was a good-sized bridge with multiple lanes and a view of the river that in other times you would of admired.

  The vehicles drove through slowly but without stopping. As they cleared the second gate, Zach stopped the Humvee to survey the scene ahead. The gate behind them slowly closed while making a grinding metallic clanging sound.

  “Across the bridge then it’s the first major road on the right, which takes us along the wall. Once we hit the south west corner of the camp we head north.” Said Jacks to Fiona. “You might want to tell the Captain.”

  “We know which way we are going.” Said Fiona.

  In the Humvee, Zach leaned over his shoulder. “Cal, any sign of those flying E.L.F’s ?”

  Cal spun the gun around. “Nope, nothing I can see close to us, they seem to be concentrating on the camp.”

  Zach moved forward across the bridge.

  “Really not a fan of bridges anymore.” Said Michael.

  From this height it was hard to see any details below them, but they watched the river closely anyway. It wasn’t long before they were across the river and on the other side. As they moved away from the walls and the wailing of the air raid sirens softened, a silence fell upon the inhabitants of each vehicle.

  Fiona’s thoughts were of her daughter. Driving away she could feel the pull of her child in the camp behind her, a feeling she had not felt for over a decade. A part of her wanted to stop and go back, but she felt that would be betraying her new family.

  Cal intently watched the area around them as buildings and trees flashed by. His bad dreams had stopped over the past few days. He now woke wondering what the day would bring.

  Michael’s thoughts were of his parents. After he was sentenced they disowned him and the shame was almost too much for him to bear, but then the world ended and his parents forgot about all that. When he saw them again he was shocked by how old they looked, and he wondered if they would still be there if he ever made it back to the camp.

  Jacob thought about possibilities, the political situation in the camp. When he got back he would look into what this ‘council’ was and perhaps get to know who the players were.

  Abbey thought about her parents as well, and whether there was any chance they would still be alive. She knew she shouldn’t think about them, that there was no real chance they were out there, but the nagging feeling that she should be looking kept creeping into her mind.

  Zach thought about Ray. He thought about how Dee wouldn’t of ever got to see his father if it wasn’t for him. He was a grumpy old so and so but Ray stepped up when it mattered. He knew the others missed him too but their world had turned upside down so quickly that most of them felt that they were on borrowed time anyway. Still, as Zach clenched the steering wheel and looked out at the urban landscape around him, he couldn’t help but feel that Ray was owed a debt.

  “I think it’s been roughly an hour, I’ll check in with Ops.” Said Zach, picking up the mike.

  “Ops, this is recon-1. Come in. Over.”

  “Recon-1, what’s your status? Over.”

  “We are about to move west of the west wall, what’s it like over here? Over”

  “West wall still being attacked, but we have cleared all E.L.F’s from inside the camp. Over.”

  Fiona then interjected.

  “Ops, did any of the creatures hurt anyone? Over.”

  “Light injuries to a few people in the western quadrants, but that’s all. Over.”

  Zach carried on. “Ok, we will let you know if we see anyone over here, otherwise we will check in again one hour from now. Over and Out.”

  As they drove away from the camp, they could see a few streams of tracer fire, fly out from the turrets towards unknown targets, the air-raid sirens had also stopped. The roads shrunk in size and the ground became more uneven as they drove from east to west, until eventually coming back out to a highway, which headed north. After another hour and another check in with Ops, they moved through a small deserted town and to a junction, which led north and west. Zach stopped the Humvee.

  “Why we stopping?” Said Jacks.

  “No, idea.” said Fiona.

  Zach took his hands off the wheel and sighed. Michael and Abbey looked at each. Abbey was about to say something when Zach started to talk.

  “We’re going back to Crow Lake.”

  “Ok…” Said Abbey.

  “Ops might not be too happy about that.” Said Michael.

  “Screw-em. We got unfinished back there.”

  Abbey wanted to ask what unfinished business but she felt the same without really knowing why.

  “Fiona, change of plans, we’re going back to Crow Lake.” Said Zach. He waited wondering what the reply would be.

  Back in the pickup they heard the message.

  “What the fuck is he talking about, that’s not our orders.” Said Jacks.

  Ignoring Jacks protestations Fiona replied. “Good idea. Are we telling Ops. Over.”

  “We still have another hour before checking in again, we will be almost there by then. Over.” Said Zach.

  Fiona leaned over her shoulder. “Look, when we get back to the camp you are welcome to file a complaint, but Crow Lake is where we are going. That ok?”

  Jacks sat back in his seat. “Sure, let’s go to Crow Lake.”

  After thirty minutes of driving they approached the small town of Crow Lake from the south and slowed their movement.

  “I think the rivers to our north, keep a watch out for those frog like things.” Zach shouted to Cal. The windows of all the vehicles were down in the afternoon sun, and a chill wind blew as they all pointed their guns in the directions of the trees around them.

  The last time they had seen this scenery it was all a blur below them. As they drove closer to the point where they had to fight their way out, their stomachs tightened.

  “Any movement. Over.” Said Zach.

  “None that we can see. But that was the same as last time, until…” Fiona’s voice trailed off.

  “I know. The warehouse is just up ahead. Over.” Said Zach.

  Zach drove at a good pace over a small bridge and along a tree lined road. In the distance piles of dark shapeless bodies lay across the roads and sidewalks. The truck and pickup stood out amongst a ring of charred wood.

  As the Humvee pulled on to the forecourt near the burnt wood, Abbey breathed in hard. They stopped.

  “Anything, Cal?” Said Zach. Cal replied in the negative and Zach, Abbey and Michael got out. Zach waved to the others in the pickup to stay where they were.

  He stepped over charcoal black planks of wood and looked towards the truck. He didn’t know what to expect to see. Maybe Ray would still be there, maybe not. Ray’s body was not there, but the jacket he was wearing was, covered in blood. Zach bent down and picked it up. Abbey walked up slowly and stood near Zach. He looked through the pockets, which were empty apart from a small notebook and pen.

  “Here,” Said Zach handing them to Abbey.

  “Cal, keep a close eye on those trees. Everyone else, move the supplies from the old pickup into the other pickup. We are taking the semi-truck with us.” Said Zach.

  After twenty minutes all the supplies had been moved across and they were leaving Crow Lake by the
north. As they moved onto a northeast highway, Abbey took the bloodstained notebook out of her pocket and opened it. At first it was just random thoughts and some surprisingly good sketches of some of the creatures they had come across, but then the entries started to talk about Jacob more and more.

  “2nd Day of freedom.

  Came across a cop called Jacob, strangest feeling I’ve met him before, but couldn’t be.”

  Finally she got to the last entry.

  “When I was in the Nam, there were rumors of a young guy working for higher ups who would be used to take out enemy officers. They called him the ‘Architect’, the story goes that he grew up in the projects during the 50 and 60s, joined the army in the early days of the draft and was at the top of every class he was in, something of a prodigy, I.Q. off the charts. The army knew he was special so they took him into some kind of black ops team specializing in assignation, the weird thing is, or so the story goes was that he never actually killed anyone directly, he somehow managed to get them to kill themselves unknowingly. Nobody knew his real identity but one day I saw this guy coming out of the HQ tent, and my buddy whispered to me, ‘That’s the ‘Architect’”, I just laughed, I mean, this kid coming of the tent looked more like science nerd than a military genius. I wasn’t sure at first, memories a bit flaky these days, but that kid? Add on forty or so years and that Jacob guy looks a lot like him.”

  The End.

  * * * * *

  Thank you for taking the time to read Survive. As it’s my debut novel it would be greatly appreciated if you could leave me a review on Amazon. If you would like to know about the 2nd book in the series you can sign up to my mailing list at www.digiterium.com/newsletter. Thank you again. Phil.

  About the Author

  Phil Maxey is a new author and who resides in the UK. Formally a game developer he now spends his time putting his love of sci-fi and the paranormal into words.

  Acknowledgements

  Thank you to Lindsey O’Neill, my wonderful girlfriend for doing editing and proof reading. Book cover design by www.starbookcovers.com.

  And a final thank you to all the creators, artists, filmmakers and writers who have inspired me from a young age. I finally wrote a book.