by Maxey, Phil
Tears came from the young woman, who fell back to her knees, her hands touching the dense concrete block below. “She… she can’t be dead… why did they do… this…”
“No!” came a guttural scream from the street. Anna looked down at Evan, soot and blood in patches across what was left of his clothes. He scrambled upwards, leaping from one jagged piece of masonry to another until he was by their side, then looked at the ruin beneath his feet, falling to his knees and starting to pull pieces away. “She might still be alive! Sometimes there are air pockets!”
Anna placed her hand lightly on his shoulder. “Quieten your thoughts Evan… and listen for heart beats… tell me what you hear…”
He didn’t want to. He wanted to dig. Shannon wanted to go with him, but he left her. He wouldn’t accept she died because of that, but as his hands, then claws became red and sore from the rough cement and steel he was tearing apart, a small voice was working to confirm what Anna was hinting at. There was no heartbeat below them. There were just their own, and then others far away in the street. There was nobody alive in the crushed building. She was gone.
He looked up to Anna and started to sob. She kneeled next to him. Another to help grieve.
A few miles away in what used to be a full warehouse of the people from Jankle, but was now half exposed to the continuous rain, Dalton, Kizzy and Corine pushed away the pieces of sheet metal and wooden palettes that they had dived beneath, and walked out to a drenched floor. The whole other side of the building which they were standing beneath when the first explosion deafened them was now a crumpled heap of iron and steel.
Roughly thirty minutes before, some of them wanted to see the base for themselves and Shannon was tired of being the one to take the dogs out for a walk, so Kizzy volunteered and with the other two, she ended up in the industrial region when the sky lit up.
“It’s okay boy,” said Dalton to Flint, both leashes in his grasp, the canines subdued.
Corine waved her hand and the girders and beams creaked and moaned, becoming untangled. The metal which was once a building, parted, creating a path to the street outside. They jogged forward then abruptly stopped at the edge of a crater.
Fires roared on the other side, reducing many of the other warehouses to raging infernos. Waves of heat radiated across those watching, despite the rain hitting their faces.
“We need to get back to the apartments,” said Dalton. He tilted skyward looking at the roof of the building behind them, then handed the leashes to Kizzy. “Wait here.” Leaping up at the side of the wall, he smashed a clawed fist into the scarred concrete, then grabbed hold of a pipe and climbed until he reached the roof some twenty-feet above.
“What can you see?” shouted Kizzy.
Dalton looked out a landscape of orange glows amongst the night. The black plumes that consumed the horizon in all directions threw off his senses but he was just able to pick up the smell of hybrid and blood, from the direction they had originally come from. He jumped back down. “We gotta get back.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Anna pulled a few hundred pounds of concrete block free from where it was lodged and listened again. She was across the street from her own apartment. Shouts, chatter and the howling winds made it almost impossible for her to hear what she thought she had. She turned around angrily. “Everyone quiet!”
Those in the street at the bottom of the mound hushed. Even the wind almost fell silent.
She focused her senses, placing her ear next to the rain socked debris. As if it was coming from across the far reaches of space, she picked up the sound of a heartbeat.
She grabbed another piece of masonry and slid it to the side then dug again, but with only one hand it was tough going.
Crunching came from behind. She looked back at Evan grabbing an exposed iron pipe, pulling it free then tossing it away. She thought about saying something, but no words settled in her mind, so she returned to the debris, reaching for another piece of the apartment that used to belong to the old man and woman.
“Can you hear something?” said Sasha, now wearing pants and a zipped up jacket, a few yards below them on the scorched sidewalk.
“I think so,” said Anna. “But it’s some way…” She looked back to the young woman. “Sasha, if there’s someone down there, you can get to them. See how they’re doing.”
“I… I… Don’t know if I can do that…”
“And I wouldn’t want you to do it either, but you might be the only chance they have of getting out…”
Evan looked back at Sasha with an expression that evaporated any reluctance for her to go where she had before. “Okay…” she said, then walked forward, stopping near a small gap amongst a compacted wall. She quickly looked around at those tending to their own families, then pulled her jacket and pants off, becoming a whisper of air, and streamed through the one inch crack in the brick, then into a larger space, expanding and filling each gap she could find and when possible listening for the vibrations which would indicate the sound of a heart beating. She didn’t need to search for long though as a voice echoed around the shards of concrete. An old man was shouting for help. She followed his calls, until coming out into a space of a small car, formerly a corner of the basement. Part of the ceiling was lying on top of a washing machine, and beneath were two elderly people, one holding the other in his arms.
He immediately saw the strange mist shaped person, then with tears in his eyes looked down at his wife. “Look Rose, the angels have come to take you.”
Sasha reformed, crouching nearby. “Hello? My name is—”
“You are an angel…”
She shook her head. “Sorry… I’m not that…”
The old man looked confused. “Then what…” His eyes widened. “You’re one of them? An otherhuman…”
She nodded. “I am. My name is Sasha. Your wife is—”
He nodded, swallowing, then looked back down, caressing the gray hair of the woman in his lap. “Yes. She… has left me.”
“I’m going to go back up top and tell them you are down here. We’re going to dig you out. Okay?”
He nodded and she was back in her gaseous form and making her way to the surface. As she reformed in front of the expectant eyes of the two looking down from above, the sound of an engine came from the other end of the street.
“Someone’s coming,” said Evan watching the humvee weave around fallen trees, cracks in the road surface and desperate people.
Sasha quickly reclaimed her clothes. “He’s down there!” she said to Anna. “Maybe ten feet further in, and the same beneath street level. He’s in a corner in the basement…” She swallowed. “His wife is dead…”
Anna let out a breath then looked down at the pile of destruction that they were going to have to clear, to get to him. The humvee pulled up, and even before the passenger’s door was open she could hear Joel’s heart beat. She ran and jumped from block to slab and threw her arms around him just as he stepped out. “I knew you’ll make it here!”
Marina and Amos got out the other side of the humvee.
He briefly smiled. “Are you okay? Everyone else?” He looked at where the apartments used to be.
She looked down. “Shannon…”
Within him a wave of shock only lasted as long as his anger needed to overcome it. He looked past her to the young man at the top of the ruins and let out a breath, then back to Anna. “These people can’t stay here. The main headquarters building is still standing. There’s shelter there, and Alfredo’s took a near hit, but it’s still standing as well.”
Anna looked back to the collapsed building. “There’s an old man in—”
A bark rang out at the opposite end of the street. Marina grinned then ran forward, kneeling as Flint and Shadow bounded towards her, almost knocking her over.
From the dark came three figures, Amos already knowing who they were. Kizzy ran forward embracing then kissed him. She looked around. “This place took a pounding… Where�
��s Shannon?” Amos’s reaction gave her the answer and a tear flowed from her eye.
Anna looked to the newcomers, then back to Joel. “There’s an old man under the rubble behind me. In the basement.”
Joel put his hand on her shoulder. “Then lets get him out.”
*****
A convoy of trucks and one humvee drove through driving rain, then parted ways, the smaller vehicle moving deeper into the forest.
Joel looked out at smoldering embers appearing as lanterns in the void. They slowed, steering left and right around or over the fallen branches.
His mind kept returning to the usually frowning, but sometimes smiling face of Shannon. An awkward, angry young woman he felt he had met a hundred years ago, and Mary, whose journey started in Bellweather and ended in the bowls of a ship. Both deserved better, and both were following the path he had laid down. One of hope, that ended in their deaths. That was on him.
Servare Vitas.
Despite the world being brought to its knees by the scourge virus, the motto that he learned on his first day in HRT training was what he had held on to. Human words that applied to a monster. He had spent every waking moment trying to live up to them, but his friends still died. The sadness of their loss was only slightly subduing his anger for what he had learned about the general.
He knew Amos in the seat behind knew how he felt, but then you didn’t have to be a mind reader to figure it out.
As the vehicle pulled up outside the bunker where the tablets were being kept it was still fifty fifty whether he would lose control and kill the woman that had been responsible for the trap they walked into trying to rescue Anna. But he had made a promise to a certain wolf-man, who still didn’t know the truth. Once he learned of Galloway’s betrayal, he asked to be the one to tell Dalton, as for now they needed the base commander alive. At least long enough to help get them through the next twelve hours, and maybe to the end of the nightmare.
They got out with Ayers. The captain approached the two guards at the entrance, and the three of them quickly moved inside with a flash of an ID, and then deeper into the facility which looked untouched by the bombardment.
They walked into a chaos of sound and movement. Nearby two soldiers argued, while others listened to their headsets and monitored screens which were only showing static. Joel spotted the general before she him, his growing disgust close to exploding into murderous anger, when Carla stepped through a nearby doorway and his rage was replaced with sadness. He stepped towards her, but she talked before he did.
“Anna told me about Keller...”
“I’m—”
She shook her head. “This is not the time. We can talk more after this is over.”
Joel nodded and they both looked at the general who turned, seeing the newcomers, her face full of fear. In front of her was a table full of maps, with red circles and crosses drawn across them. Joel and the others walked forward, while she took a step back.
“Are the tablets okay?” he said.
Her mouth fell open but no words emerged.
“Yes, they are in the vault,” said Carla. “Alfredo is with them.”
Galloway’s eyes flicked between those she had betrayed.
Joel could hear her heart thundering in her chest, while Amos saw a combination of dread and shame in her mind.
Joel looked down at the contents on top of the table. “How much damage have you taken?”
This time she started to talk but Gus looked up from a nearby desk, beating her to an answer. “Nearly all the fixed-wing aircraft and Apaches are toast. We have two C-130’s, a few drones and that’s it.”
“Tanks? APC’s?”
“Half the M1 Abrams were taken out, leaving us with twelve, but we lost most of the heavy munitions stores. So unless the enemy lies down for us to run over them, they won’t be much use. They missed most of the Bradleys. Still got twenty-three of those, and about the same in APCs.”
“You got ammo for the secondary armaments?”
“Lost about twenty percent,” said Carla. “But we’re good on that front.”
Joel looked back at the general. “What happened was just the first attack. They got tens of thousands of vamps being offloaded from ships, all about to reduce this island to a wasteland.”
She looked down at the map and surrounding areas, her trembling hand falling upon the paper. “I thought they would let us live…”
Joel gritted his teeth and clenched his fists to stop his rage from overwhelming his mind, then flicked a hand out as Amos took a step towards her. She noticed and moved further around the table. Joel looked back to Gus. “How many of these bunkers are there?”
“Umm…”
Winston emerged from the nearby conference room just catching Joel’s question. He handed off a piece of paper to an officer. “Eighteen more. But most have been falling apart for forty years.”
“How many people are on the base? Can you fit everyone into them?”
The two colonels looked at each other, with Winston nodding, then looked back to Joel. “It will be a tight fit, but yeah, reckon we could.” Winston immediately issued orders to those around him.
“Spread any Alkrons you have between each of the bunkers, we can use them to protect who’s inside.”
Winston nodded.
Galloway cleared her throat. “Get the C-130’s and drones airborne.” She looked at those around her. “We need to know how much time we got left.”
The colonels and Carla disappeared into the throng around them, while Joel stepped closer to the general. She leaned back slightly.
“Make it right by keeping this base alive.”
She went to reply, but he turned and walked away towards the vault. A guard went to stand in his way but Galloway shook her head, and he kept on going, into a corridor.
“You don’t want to go with him?” she said to Amos who was leaned back against the wall.
He shook his head. “I’m good where I am.”
Joel descended a small set of stairs, pushing open another gray door and came out to a large room with desks manned by mostly civilian dressed individuals. Alfredo looked up. “Joel! This way, I will show you the tablets.”
A door, which wouldn’t have looked out of a place in a heist movie, was unlocked then pulled open. Immediately light streamed out and Alfredo handed Joel a set of darkened goggles, then put on a pair himself. Joel did the same and they stepped inside the small room. On a plain looking desk the three tablets were immersed within a cloud of blue-white luminescence, which swirled and danced between each of the otherwise dark objects. Across their surfaces the symbols which he had been able to activate scrolled past, as if they really were modern examples of their ancient names.
“Eleven hours, Thirty-nine minutes, forty-two seconds, left,” said Alfredo.
“You can read that stuff?”
“I can. Do we have that long before they get here?”
Joel let out a breath. “No.” His mind flicked to the maps he had just seen on the table upstairs. Looking away from the magical scene in front of him, he rubbed his bristling chin, then turned and walked outside.
“Where are you going?”
“We’re going to need explosives.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Marina could feel the heartbeats of her children despite them being across the room on the sofa. She looked at Jasper. He was hers. She couldn’t imagine anything different. The idea of handing him back to someone who was a monster long before the scourge ever took grip of the world, was something she couldn’t stomach, and yet… the creature she and Alfredo fought was defeated before they inflicted their blows. He was not there to fight. He actually appeared to want to make amends for what he had done to his son.
If that were possible.
Joel and Anna had told her of what Copeland had done to help them get to the island, and if she hadn’t seen the look of despair in his eyes after what Jasper had shouted, she would never have believed it. But she did
see it. And now the hate she had for the man that plunged the world into hell, was tinged with doubt. And she hated that.
Most of the floor of Alfredo’s large basement was full of sleeping children lost within a sea of pillows and blankets. Hector, despite being a creature of the night was also asleep. His back was up against the door. His head on his chest, and snoring.
She looked at the large fireplace, and the dying embers that were consuming the last log she had placed there, and thought about what Joel had told her of what was coming for everyone on the base. The blood thirsty would level the island, and running, even trying to escape again on the ship that brought them wouldn’t be enough this time. For those that still lived, the scourge had run its course. The coming day would bring death… or a new life.
A floor above in the smaller study, the sheets covering the blown out window, bellowed and strained against the old pieces of furniture that were holding them in place. But everyone in the room still felt as if they were outside in the wind and rain.
Kizzy paced up and down on an ornate rug, covered in some books and a broken vase. She leaned down picking up two pieces and seeing if they still fit. They didn’t, but she placed them gently on the shelf anyway.
Dalton was seated behind the desk, Corine at the piano, Sasha standing near the covered window, and Anna and Nelson on the sofa with the dogs lying beneath them.
“Amos can take care of himself,” said Dalton to the young women who had trouble standing still.
Kizzy bent down again, this time picking up a book, then looking at its title but not absorbing anything it said. “Maybe. He’s only just got his powers back.”
“What if there’s another bombardment,” said Sasha.
A single piano note stung the air, making Anna looked back at the young woman behind. Corine frowned.
