Strauss had a guard bring another prisoner. The guy was dressed in strange leather garments and sandals as if he’d been plucked from ancient Roman times. His face was a bloody mess; possibly he’d struggled one too many times against his captors.
Not knowing a thing about him but acknowledging what she’d said about the value of every person, Faith was compelled to save the guy.
“I have everything covered, Doctor.” Strauss sneered. “You can give up trying to butt your way back into the Alpha Site. As a professional courtesy, I’ll let you walk up those stairs and out into the world as a free woman. Just watch out for the birds. I hear they grow big in these parts.”
Strauss yanked the man closer to the light.
There was nothing she could do. She needed backup.
“You’re really letting me go?”
“Sure. We don’t have the resources for prisoners. After your little speech, I feel obligated to let you go free so you can procreate and save our species. You said that so I’d let you go, right?”
“That’s not it at all,” Faith insisted.
“Then I don’t know what you want from me. You don’t want to be a prisoner, and you don’t want to go out and procreate. Would you rather I simply shoot you? That would waste a bullet and a human.” She chuckled. “As an environmentalist, I like to conserve where I can.”
“That won’t be necessary.”
“Don’t come back.” Strauss pointed at the stairwell’s EXIT sign on the other side of the chamber, past the scientists’ table and several of the gigantic pillars holding up the roof. It would take her to the surface, where she most wanted to be at that moment. She couldn’t save the Roman soldier, and she’d missed her chance with Garth and Lydia, but she still had a few tricks up her sleeves. Strauss thought she was sending her into a bird-infested forest as a death sentence, and she decided to play along.
“I won’t,” she lied.
Alpha Site
Phil had been left near the science tent with one guard to look after him. Four other members of the security detail watched over the prisoners and protected the general at the border of the blue energy tunnel, including the two lieutenants. He’d already watched three of the time nomads walk into the light with their rattle cans until they vanished.
Garth had volunteered to go next.
“What the hell, kid?” he said out loud.
His overseer gave Phil a distasteful glance. He had his pistol in hand, though he didn’t know Phil and Garth were working together. As far as the guy knew, Phil was a dumb soldier who’d accidentally discharged his weapon into the back of a fellow traveler. Being dumb and being an enemy of the operation were two entirely different beasts.
“I’m cool,” he said to the guard.
The man glared at him for a second before turning back toward Strauss.
Phil caught on that the man was one of those who didn’t speak English. The female soldier, Hana, had mentioned that the 130th was staffed by the sons and daughters of important US citizens, but it also contained VIPs from overseas. The only skill needed to endure the end of the world for those people was the ability to hold a gun. Talking was optional.
Garth hurried into the light and disappeared before Phil had time to formulate a rescue plan. He was there one second, gone an instant later.
“Shit,” Phil whispered.
“We saw that one,” a science guy called to his colleague. “We saw movement on the plane of travel to the east. It was stronger than any of the others.”
“Tell the general,” the female scientist instructed.
The first guy picked up a radio and conveyed his report. The general tapped her ear as if picking up the message with an earpiece. As soon as the message was passed on, the general grabbed Lydia, wheeled her around, and threw her into the same spot as Garth had drawn his line. She slipped on the wet paint, seemed to head into a fall, then blinked into nothing.
“Fuck!” he yelled.
He was failing left and right to protect the two people he’d gone there to save.
“That one showed up too. They are definitely in the system.” The scientist was happy like they’d struck gold at the dig site.
“Excellent,” Female Asshole Scientist Number Two replied. “Let me know if they come back.”
Phil took a deep breath, unable to believe his luck. If both of them were somehow still alive in the light, he could salvage his mission and keep his promise to Garth’s dad. If the kids had entered the same teleporter he’d experienced coming from Switzerland, maybe they’d be all right after all.
In his head, he began working on an actionable plan to prepare the battlespace for when Garth and Lydia came back. The nearest guard would be easy. He was sure he could get the drop on him and grab his weapon. He’d avoid the scientists if he could, though if they tried to stop him, they would have to be eliminated.
He’d eliminate them all to save his two friends.
A lone person caught his attention out on the floor of the giant hangar. Strauss was talking to her. Whoever it was, the stranger would give him a chance to take matters into his own hands.
I’ve got to be ready when they come back.
If they came back…
Road to Alpha Site
Buck put both feet on the brakes.
A huge spray of water rose on each side of Lorraine.
His speed run up until that moment had been flawless, and he was on track to reach SNAKE well before the hour he thought it would take, but the rising water had caught him off-guard.
Mac tumbled off the bed and hit the dashboard between him and Connie.
Buck had failed to put on his seat belt, so he slammed into the steering wheel.
Connie had been smarter and was held to the seat by her belt.
He flicked on the wipers to see what he was dealing with.
“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath.
He went to the lowest gear and gave it some throttle. They were halfway through the water passage through sheer momentum, but the water was now deeper than it had been in Utah. The line was a murky yellow on the sunken pavement ahead of them.
“Don’t fail me now,” he said to his truck.
“Can we make it?” Connie asked.
“Ask me again in about sixty seconds,” he told her.
The first thing he did was veer left toward the high side of the roadway. It might only give him a few inches, but every inch was important. He also kept the speed low to prevent pushing more water into his engine compartment. It was a testament to Cummins that he’d swamped the big diesel motor and it had kept going. If he did stall out, it was game over.
“It’s the tide, isn’t it?” Connie asked as she reached for Mac.
He chanced a look at the ocean. The fence water had gone to the middle strand of barbed wire along the side of the road, confirming it was the water that had risen rather than the road that had fallen. After the weird tremors they’d experienced not long ago, it was a detail he was pleased to confirm.
“I think so.”
Mac sat on his haunches and pawed Buck’s shifter.
He looked at his friend. “I know, boy. I’m getting us out of here.”
The truck rattled and shifted a bit to the left.
“A wave?” she whispered. The swell of water had picked them up and moved the massive Peterbilt to the side.
“Yep.”
He stayed in first gear and went to the left shoulder of the road. The radiator fan slapped the froth each time waves hit the side, suggesting he needed to hurry. He would have driven into the field of grass on that side of the highway, but it had been soaking in water and might be as soft as ice cream.
Every decision held the possibility of losing his truck forever.
“Hold it together, baby,” he told Lorraine, caressing her dashboard.
“Should I give you two some space?” Connie asked.
Buck glanced at her, glad to see her wry grin.
It was stupid, b
ut he held his breath for the last twenty yards. Large waves crashed against their right side two or three times, and the water got deeper, but the fan kept on spinning, which meant they had power.
He cranked on the horn when he finally saw the yellow lines.
“Three…two…we’re out!” he cheered.
His foot smashed the gas pedal, he rocked the shifter, and they rolled onto dry pavement. Mac did a few twirls between them, sensing the mood swing. As soon as they were clear, Buck stopped the truck and flung open his door.
He pulled his CB cord far enough that he could see the other truck. “Eve, you okay?”
She’d stopped on the far side like a sensible person.
“I should be asking you that question.” She waved. “Do you think it’s safe for me?”
He laughed before keying the mic. “No way in hell. Hold on a second.”
Buck sat back in his seat but looked out the window at the fields.
“What are you thinking?” Connie asked.
He glanced at her. Mac now sat in her lap.
“I’m thinking this guy needs some lovings!” He took a minute to scratch the hell out of his furry friend to say he was sorry for letting him fall on the floor as well as celebrate that they were all alive and currently safe. That was more than could be said for Sparky and Mel.
Which brought him back to Eve and Haley, plus their injured passenger.
“I’m really thinking that we can’t wait here and help the girls through the water. It would make more sense for them to stay on the safe side until the tide goes back out or until we come back with Garth and the others.”
“But?” she asked, knowing he was about to use the word.
“But I don’t like the idea of leaving anyone behind.” He turned to the field again. “So, maybe we can have them drive around the water?”
Connie leaned forward to look at the terrain. The water had crossed the road to the west and covered the low point of the field on that side, but higher up, there were trees and rocks that might provide a path to go around the blockage. Maybe the owner of the field needed a maintenance path to maintain his barbed wire fencing. There was no way to know without driving there and looking it over.
He didn’t have time for that.
He keyed the mic. “Eve, we think the tide is coming in. You won’t make it across unless you act like a clueless jackass and hydroplane the first half of it like I did. I do not recommend that.”
“You’ve got to get to your son, Buck. We’ll wait for you here.”
“No, I’ve got a better idea.” He pointed across the field at the brush, trees, and rocks on the far side, which were a good five feet above the spreading water. “Drive up there and see if you can find a path around this low point. When we come back through here, we’re going to need a way around this spot.”
Eve conferred with those inside her cabin before responding. “We agree that is the logical move. Sergeant Varriss suggested we let him out so he could wade through the water and hurry to Alpha with you, but he changed his mind when we told him we would rather blow our heads off than swim in that shit.”
“Me too.” He laughed.
“When we get around this,” Eve went on, “we’ll get to the refugees as soon as possible. I’ll hook up my trailer to give them a way to travel. We’ll be ready by the time you find Garth.”
“You’re amazing,” he said.
“I know.” Eve chuckled. “Hey, before you go, can you recreate that giant splash so I can get a better video of it? The one I have is blurry since I didn’t expect you to turn into a submarine.”
“I tell you what. Next time you can go into the water, and I’ll hold the camera.”
“Deal,” she replied.
He flopped back in his chair and pulled the door shut.
“Next stop, SNAKE.”
Location Unknown, Pacific Ocean
Destiny had originally grabbed a metal bar for a weapon, but having all of civilization in a pile of garbage made her cast a wider net for defensive implements. They found a fire engine twisted into a U-shape that had two usable axes. She took one and gave the other to Zandre since the captain didn’t look like he was in any condition to fight.
“Are you all right, sir?” she asked him.
They were resting in a rail car that had its top sheared off. Barlow sat with his leg in the aisle, which gave her an immediate explanation why he was running on low batteries. His leg was a mess.
“I’m fine,” he lied.
“You’re bleeding,” she objected.
“One of those things poked me while I was taking a leak on the other side of that beached…sea monster. I thought it only nicked me, and I got the hell out of there before it could finish the job, but when I came back around and saw my men fall victim to the same thing, I had no idea what to do for them. I didn’t even have a pocketknife to fight back.”
“There’s nothing you could have done,” she explained. “If we’d have run to them, we’d have gotten caught in the trap along with poor Bert.”
“What the hell were those things?” Zandre asked. “I’ve never seen anything like it. The animals had themselves dug into the sand to lie in wait for anything that came to eat the carcass. I should have known better than let us get close to it.”
She felt like the two men should know there was nothing they could have done, but she supposed they felt responsible due to their age and being leaders. With the captain injured and Zandre looking almost as worn out, it was up to her to keep them going.
“It’s water under the bridge, guys. We have to get out of here.” She stood up to look for the inflatable motorboat. When she saw it, her heart sank like a lead weight.
Zandre picked up her change of expression. “What’s back there?”
He stood up to see. “Well, I reckon we’re fucked now.”
“Tell me,” Barlow wheezed.
“Captain,” she began, “I don’t think we’re going back to your little boat. It’s been overrun by bunches of those tube feeders.”
A wide area surrounding the beached animal looked like someone had switched on the electricity to make the carnivorous tubes stick two feet out of the ground and sway from side to side. They were spaced apart almost perfectly so they could not touch each other as they danced, but any arriving animal would be caught by one of the appendages. And there were animals arriving.
Aside from more of those silver things pouring from a growing number of holes in the corpse, larger animals were coming out of the water too. They were low to the ground like turtles or stingrays, though she had no idea what their designation was inside the known list of animals. Whenever one got close to the tubes, they fought, but the larger guys somehow knew how to avoid getting tagged. The few that did get through chewed on parts of the deceased crewmen.
“My God,” Barlow said when he finally saw it.
“I mean, the boat is fine if someone wants to run over there and get it in the water.” She said it tongue-in-cheek. It had taken Barlow and his two strong crewmen to get it in and out of the water earlier. She figured she and Zandre could drag it if their lives were on the line, but there was no way they could even try it while all those bloodsuckers were out there. She didn’t even want to guess what those things coming out of the surf were.
“I guess we wait until they clean up all the meat,” Zandre joked. “Then they’ll move to a different part of the beach, I’d assume.”
“See you in six months,” she said to add to the sarcastic thread.
Inside, she knew there had to be a better solution.
The captain was being heroic by minimizing the rip going up to his knee. He didn’t have six hours, much less six months.
“Ow!” Barlow yelped.
She looked at his knee.
A two-foot-tall bug-eyed monkey stood on its hind legs as it eyed the tasty legbone juice leaking onto the blue carpet of the train car. It nipped at Barlow a second time as she watched.
A second on
e snuck down the aisle a few rows behind the first.
More sat on the trash outside the damaged frame of the back door.
“We’ve got to move,” she said with all the calm left in her.
Twenty-Three
Alpha Site
“I still don’t like leaving anyone behind,” Buck remarked while driving. Once beyond the water, he’d risked traveling the damaged road at seventy to make up the lost time.
“You did the right thing,” Connie comforted him. “Those are two strong women back there. They’ll be fine.”
He gave her a sideways glance.
“Well,” she continued, “Haley has a few issues, but these are things she has to learn if she’s going to survive in this new world. It’s only been days since you and I first met. There is no way you could have predicted I would be the badass I am today, right?”
Buck laughed with her.
“I’ll give you that,” he replied. “And I hope you’re right. She’s got initiative, and I’ll give her credit for asking to come with us in the first place, but I hope she picks things up as fast as you did. Dealing with the gun-toting bikers is a lot different than being stomped and rolled to death by farm animals that belong to the giant who lives up at the top of Jack’s beanstalk. We all have to up our survival instincts.”
“I have faith,” Connie told him. “Besides, they’ve got an ally in their cab with that Army guy, Varriss. He probably knows a few tricks to keep them safe.”
“Yeah, he turned out all right, I guess.” Buck chuckled.
They traveled in silence until they caught sight of the refugees at Buck’s Rock. As they approached the fence line where some of them were waiting, he threw on the Jake brakes and rode the growling engine until the truck stopped.
He rolled his window down.
“Hey, guys,” he called to those close by. “Did they tell you we’ve got to leave this place?”
A man in a cowboy hat stepped up. “Some soldiers came down around lunchtime and said we had until sunset to clear out. We don’t have anything to pack, obviously, but truth be told, we thought they were bullshitting us. We really have to leave?”
End of Days | Book 5 | Beyond Alpha Page 20
