by Maxey, Phil
Tinley went to point his M4 at the octopus type beast, when Grant leaned forward and grabbed the officers soldier.
“Get the fuck off me!” Tinley shouted.
In the seconds it took for both men to finish their struggle, the Humvee had passed to the other side of the bridge and then back to the road on the other bank.
The commotion continued behind. Tinley’s eyes were filled with hate but Grant turned away, pushing his door slightly open and looked back from where they had come. The creatures were tearing away at each other, seemingly oblivious to what just passed by them.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Grant looked down at his son. Ben had fallen asleep on his arm and each bump he felt ten fold, but he wasn’t about to wake him. If he had a choice, he probably would have had Ben sleep through the entire journey. Each time he thought about what his son had been through, his emotions started to get the better of him. So instead he steeled himself against the past few days and only thought about the future.
Roswell. See Brad. Rest for a few days and then try and get to the camp in Austin.
He looked at the man in the passenger’s seat, who also appeared to be sleeping. He didn’t like him. As a detective it was his job to quickly assess people. It should have been only suspects but the longer he was in the job, the more he applied the same techniques to everyone he came into contact with. And there was definitely something off about the colonel. At first he just put it down to what Tinley had been through. Whatever transpired back at the army headquarters would have been enough to mess anyone up, but after having spent more time with him, he started to suspect there was something else going on behind those blue eyes. A rage hidden by a calculating charm. Grant had come across others like that during his time on the force and more often than not they ended up being convicted of a violent crime.
He looked at his watch. It was noon and the heat inside the cab confirmed it. Sweat was dripping off his forehead, which he awkwardly wiped with his left hand. He looked down at the roadmap. They were about to move into a town and green pastures and trees started to appear more frequently.
A short while later buildings replaced the fields and they stopped at a junction. Carrie went to turn right when Tinley suddenly raised his hand. “Go straight on. I need to take a leak.”
She looked over to him. “I’m sure there’s a bush somewhere with your name on it.”
“I want a real restroom. Just go straight, if we see any signs of E.L.F’s we’ll just back up.”
Carrie paused then pushed down on the gas and they moved across the junction. They passed convenience stores and restaurants and then a police station. Grant noticed Tinley looked away at that particular building.
“Looks like this place got off better than the last one,” said Carrie observing the unbroken windows and telephone poles that were still vertical.
They arrived at another junction. The far left corner had a two-story building from another century, and a sign outside mentioning a newspaper. Opposite that was another gas station and behind that a large residence.
“Hmm… now we got some choices,” said Tinley. He looked at Carrie with a big grin. “I bet that newspaper building has a fine restroom. Marble and brass! Just what I want. Park out front of it.”
Carrie frowned then drove forward and stopped where he indicated. Tinley pushed the door open, smiled over his shoulder then got out, closing the door behind him.
Those in the car watched him run across the sidewalk then the small square of grass and finally up a small set of steps, his rifle leading the way. He then disappeared from view.
“I don’t like him,” said Carrie.
“Hmm,” replied Grant.
She turned around in her seat. “There’s something not right about him. He’s just…”
“Off.”
“Yeah. I thought it was what he had been through. PTSD or something, but…” She looked directly at Grant. “What do you think?”
“I—”
Gunfire came from somewhere in the building and Carries radio burst into life. “There are friggin monsters in here! I need some help! Over,” said Tinley.
Carrie fumbled with the talk button while trying to look at the buildings around them. “Where in the building are you? Can you make it to the entrance or a window? Over.”
More gunfire echoed around the desolate streets. “I’m trapped in some back room. Over.”
“Shit,” said Carrie.
Ben mumbled something in his sleep.
She looked back at Grant. “I gotta go in and see what the situation is.”
He wanted to push his own door open, but what good was he going to be? He could hardly stand up straight. He reluctantly nodded and she pushed her own door open, grabbed her rifle, slid her radio onto her belt and climbed out, then set off running the same route Tinley had.
Grant watched her lift her radio to her mouth then move inside the building.
Silence returned to the streets but inside the Humvee Ben was speaking louder and louder, his eyes still closed.
“The demon… He…. We….” Each word came out breathlessly. Just as Grant went to wake his son, Ben started to scream.
Grant held him. “Ben! Wake up!”
He did, then sat up, moving away to the other seat while his eyes darted around. “What’s going on?”
“Tinley’s got into some trouble inside that building. Carries gone to help him out. Are you okay? You were having a bad dream?”
Ben shook his head as if he did not want to recall what he had just seen. “There was a monster… not like the others… this one talked to me…” He looked up at his father. “He said we have to go…”
Grant’s hand crept to his own radio. His heart was pounding in his ears at the same rate the pain in his skull was. Somewhere lost within his thoughts a voice was crying out. He had heard it a number of times on call outs before he made detective and it saved his ass. He shook his head then looked back at the building. Nothing stirred behind the shadows of the windows. He held his radio to his mouth. “Carrie? Come in. Over.”
The radio speaker crackled but no voice came from it.
“Carrie?” he said louder. Changing tack he tried again. “Tinley? Are you there? Over.”
There was no reply from either. He looked at Ben. “I have to go look…”
Ben shook his head. “Don’t leave me.”
“I’ll just go look down the side of the building. You’ll be able to see me the whole time. Okay? But I have to go.”
Ben nodded.
Grant pushed the door open, grabbed his rifle and used it as a walking stick to help climb out. “I’ll be back.” He closed the door and looked at the building. The silence around him was oppressive. He still hadn’t got used to the complete lack of noises from wildlife, but there was something about the old building that made it worse.
At the side of it were a series of ground floor windows. He would start with those. He jogged onto the sidewalk, wincing with each bounce and slowed to a walk, then moved to the first large window, which he had to stand on his toes to see into. An empty office looked back at him. No different to a hundred thousand across the country.
“Carrie? Tinley? If you can’t talk, just click the talk button. Over.” He held the radio close to his ear for the slightest confirmation he had been heard, but the static was unbroken. He looked back at the Humvee. Ben was looking at him from the window. He then turned back to the wall and jogged along it, looking in each of the other windows, but not seeing a sign of anyone. He arrived at a side door and looked back once again to Ben then pointed with his hand, showing his attention to go inside. Ben shook his head but Grant had no choice. If Carrie and Tinley had both been attacked by creatures he had to know. His instincts were telling him otherwise though. He pulled the handle down and pulled it open. Inside was a gloom laden small corridor with wood paneling and a series of framed photos of men and women grinning. He stepped inside, closing the door quietly and list
ened.
There was movement up ahead, but he couldn’t pinpoint exactly where. Raising his rifle with his one hand he walked forward slowly, honing in on the noise. It was coming from the left of a junction he was walking too. The floor was clean and tiled. He crept to the corner, peered around and fired his weapon.
Carrie was on the floor of a brightly lit room a hunting knife in her chest, her eyes large and without life. Grant’s target was the man standing over her. The first bullet from his M4 completely missed Tinley, so he went to fire again, but the colonel had already raised his own weapon and Grant had no choice but to duck back into the corridor as bullets smashed into the wall near his head taking with them chunks of brick.
He pushed the rifle around the corner and fired without knowing what he was hitting.
Laughter broke out, echoing off the smooth vanished walls. “For a detective, you sure are as dumb as shit.”
Grant felt sick. Carrie’s shocked expression tried to wipe all other thoughts from his mind.
“And now I’m going to kill your boy!”
Grant roared and fired his weapon again.
‘You have to leave…’
The words from Ben’s dream thundered back to him. He turned and staggered down the corridor, pushing the door open then ran, almost not being aware of the pain in his arm. He aimed for the driver’s door. Just as he reached it his hand pulling on the handle a new pain struck his lower back. The force pushed him into the truck, where for a moment he stood gripping onto it, shocked by the lack of feeling in his left leg. More bullets seared the air. He fumbled for the handle, pulled it open and collapsed into the drivers seat.
“Stay down!” he shouted to Ben as a burning pain started to spread over his back. More pings rang out on the body of the Humvee, and he crouched as low as he could, his head resting on the wheel. He turned the key that Carrie had left and pressed down on the gas.
The driver’s door window shattered, covering him with small fragments of glass, but he peered over the dashboard trying to keep the car moving in the right direction. At the back of his mind, mixed in with Ben’s crying was a thunderous chopping noise, coming from all around. He was in no state to fight more creatures. He wanted to press down harder on the pedal, but the strength had gone from his foot, and instead they slowed, careering into a parked white van.
“Dad!”
Ben’s voice was distant then loud.
“Stay—”
The ground was shaking, making more loose bits of glass fall on to him. “We… have… to find shelter…” Each word was an effort, but if a monster was about to bear down on them, they needed to get into one of the nearby buildings.
A great wind blasted through the inside of the cabin, making him close his eyes. Instinctively he tried to reach back for Ben, but then realized the back side door was open.
“You okay buddy?” came a male voice from where the driver’s window used to be.
In a daze, Grant looked back into the face of a young soldier. “My… son?”
The soldier nodded. “We got him. My partner is taking him back to the helicopter.” The soldier pulled the door open and Grant fell out being caught by him.
“Been…”
“Yeah, I can see you have been shot.” The soldier looked at the street around them. “Who shot you?”
Grant wanted to talk, but instead the world was turning dark and cold. He then felt arms carrying him. More than one person. He mumbled words, asking his rescuers where they were going.
“We’re taking you to a base up north.”
He felt the cold hard surface of a helicopter’s cabin, and then young arms hugging him.
The End.
That’s the end of Grant and Ben’s story for now, but the story of the Cascade continues in ‘Survive’ the first of 8 books about a group of ex-military who escape from an underground facility into a world devastated by unknown monsters…
Cascade book 1: Survive on Amazon
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Thank you again.
Phil.
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About the Author
Phil Maxey is an author 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.
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Acknowledgements
Book cover design by www.starbookcovers.com.
