by Maxey, Phil
“What happened to Joan?” asked Brad.
“She died… trying to help me escape.”
Brad let out a breath, looking back to Jess and Landon who was standing close by. “So what’s our next move? How do we take on an army of these things and whatever this soldier is?”
It was a question everyone had been asking themselves, without any good answer.
“What if they come back?” said Esther.
“That’s not impossible,” said Landon. “He doesn’t know what happened at Biochron. This soldier, whoever he is, thinks Rackham’s still there and think’s he’s taking Josh to him.”
“So we get ahead of him, get to Denver first,” continued Esther.
“And then what?” said Vance. “You got a few dozen tanks and marines to take on those things?”
Almost everyone else let out a breath trying to not admit defeat, but Jess noticed Scott’s eyes betrayed plans being made. “What is it?” she said to him.
He nodded to himself then looked at her. “Remember what Lucas, or whatever that thing was, said about Galveston?”
“Umm… that there’s a boat which picks up survivors and takes them to a navy ship off the coast. Some kind of government offshore facility?”
“Yeah, well I forgot about it after the thing pretending to be Lucas started killing people, but then I found Luci and Miller, and turns out it’s real. They were actually on their way down there when we found each other. They said a number of divisions upped and left, moving to the sea. If we need tanks and soldiers, that’s where we’ll find them…”
“That’s got to be a thousand miles,” said Sanchez. “Even if you make it that far, why would they help you?”
Scott looked angrily at him. “I’ll make them believe. Trust me, they’re going to want these things gone as much as we do.” He looked back to Jess. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but if you go after your son alone, against those things, you’ll never get him back, but maybe if I can convince the general’s that this shitshow’s not over, that there are a few hundred of these things still walking around and they’re being controlled by this crazy soldier guy…”
All Jess wanted to do was jump in a car and head west. It was the same plan she had to get Sam back and it worked… but then she had help. And this time a few soldiers and some plastic explosive were not going to be enough. She nodded.
“I’ll need Luci and Miller with me,” said Scott. “I’ll head back to Newgrove. Pick them up then get to southern Texas.”
“There’s a train,” said Landon. “They got it working. Owen, the guy in charge said it goes all the way to Texas.”
“Then that’s our way there. I’m sure the generals are going to want to know about it too. Could be useful moving supplies north.”
“I… don’t know if I can just leave my son to be taken to Denver,” said Jess. A question as much to herself as the others. “What happens when the soldier finds what we did at Biochron?”
Scott lacked a good answer, words failing him.
“We head west,” said Sanchez. “Go after your son, but wait for the army to show up. Maybe we can give them intel on where these things are? And if we get a chance…”
A tinge of hope threatened to build inside Jess. She took a deep breath, doing her best to subdue it. But as she looked at the small group around her, she felt pride. They were what was left. They had made it to the final day and each one was still willing to go the extra mile for her and her family. She looked across their faces. “Thank you for being willing to do this for me.” She glanced at Landon and Sam. “For us.”
*****
10: 51 a.m. Central Kansas. Highway 70.
A rough, foul smelling rag mostly held the world outside at bay for Josh. He would catch shadows and movement through the tiny gaps in the material, but worse were the sounds. Grunts, growls, roars were a constant reminder of where he was, and what had happened. If he could close his ears as he could his eyes he would have done so.
His last memories of the early hours were running into a flurry of falling ice, Daryl’s words to run fading into the night behind him and then nothing until the noise of the vehicle and the creatures woke him. At first he thought it was a nightmare. He had fallen asleep in the library at the school and somehow he was still sleeping. A super real dream where he could feel and smell and taste the world he was in. His hands and feet were also restricted in movement, just part of the bad dream, he thought. But no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t wake up. It was when he started to scream and shout and the man responded with not so nice words for him to quieten, that Josh contemplated that it was real.
From that moment on he stayed quiet and still. It was a common pray animal response to not be noticed and it came to him instinctively, but he knew deep down the time would come when—
He jolted forward then back, then forward again. The man in the front swore which was quickly followed by the sound of the car door opening, a rush of wind filling the cabin then the door closing.
Josh was alone. He shuffled forward, leaning towards where he hoped the headrest was and on feeling the leather hide, nodded, moving his head up and down, rubbing the blindfold until after a few attempts he managed to catch a ridge which pulled on the fabric and pulled it lower.
Momentarily, a blast of yellow-white light removed his ability to see. Blinking the tears away he strained to make out details and soon the black leather seats and dashboard came into view, then the highway, and…
An angular head, perched on a long brown neck coiled around to look at him with dark inset eyes. The thing was just feet away from the car, on the left side. Josh froze, hoping the creature couldn’t see him. Maybe the car had darkened windows like he had seen on some city cars, maybe…
He jumped back in his seat as the thing turned the rest of its humanoid body in his direction.
“No… no…”
Appendages where arms should have been emerged from the remains of a blazer, that being the only piece of clothing the thing wore. It staggered forward, towards the window.
“No… please… no…” Josh looked at the door beside him. Maybe he could open it, maybe he could…
The right side of the highway was akin to an African savanna of grazing animals. Creatures sat and stood, swaying and staggering in the morning sun amongst the few inches of snow. It made no sense. The man at the school said that—
Josh yelped as a clump came from the left door window, making him whip his head back in that direction. The door opened and Finn sat heavily in the driver’s seat, dropping a radio onto the passenger’s seat. He looked in the rear mirror catching Josh’s eyes, then snorted.
“You gonna be quiet?”
Josh nodded.
“Good.” Finn turned the key in the ignition, firing up the engine then pushed down on the gas, causing the wheels to spin slightly, then grip.
Josh fell back in the seat as the car rapidly took off.
CHAPTER THREE
11: 53 a.m. Heavercroft School.
The heat from the noonday sun was doing its best to eat away at what the blizzard left behind. The frozen carcasses of twisted, warped chunks of metal sat across the school’s parking lot, the remains of vehicles brought there just days before but the two newcomers sat unaffected in the road. Jess and some others stood near the school entrance.
Sam walked forward and hugged her father, being careful not to squeeze too tight. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” He looked at his wife, his expression betraying his opinion that his daughter should be going with him to Newgrove, but as he pulled back it was a smile Sam saw.
“Make sure to get your hand fixed up,” she said.
“I will… Stay close to your mother. Don’t do anything dumb, okay?”
She rolled her eyes then nodded and walked towards the pickup.
The Keller’s watched their daughter climb in the backseats where Sanchez was already seated. Vance being in the driver’s.
&n
bsp; Jess looked back at the shattered doors of the entrance, resisting shaking her head.
Landon held her hand, pulling her attention back to him. “The virus is dying or dead. We’re almost through this thing.” He moved closer, embracing her, she doing the same. “Don’t try and fight when you find the things. I know you’ll want to. I would feel the same, but you have to wait for us to find the military and bring them to you.”
They separated. Jess briefly, awkwardly smiling.
“I mean it Jess. We’re so close. I’ll catch up with you and we’ll get our son back, together.”
“I’ll do what is best for Josh.”
He smiled. “I know.”
They both looked at the four graves just tens of feet away. “I want to return here once it’s over. They deserve… more,” she said.
He nodded. “Strange we never found Arlo’s… body.” He snorted. “He’s probably out there somewhere in a new van, scavenging old computer games or something…” He started to speak again but the horn from the truck bellowed out. “Guess we better get this journey started.” They walked forward through the snow. “The radio at the Newgrove station has quite some coverage. Should be able to reach you when you find them in Denver.”
They both reached the end of the lot. “I’ll keep in touch.”
“Find him, Jess.”
She nodded and walked to the pickup, he the same to the truck.
*****
1: 22 p.m. Western Missiouri.
It had only been five some days but sprouts of green were already breaking free from cracks in the highway. There was scant sign of the storm which hit the eastern part of the state, but snow was beginning to fall from a largely gray sky as the pickup and truck hurtled down the four-lane road.
Jess glanced in the rear mirror. First at the truck behind and then to her daughter, her face reflecting the pale light from outside, her features more youthful than before. An image of death flickered in Jess’s mind, trying to take root, trying to take her back to the hell that was the secret labs beneath her former workplace. Since their escape she had pushed what she and Scott had discovered to the back of her mind as well as what her daughter had become. A thing being experimented on in a glass cylinder. A scene from a horror movie.
She wondered if she survived the next twenty-four hours, whether in years to come she would put what she saw down to an overactive imagination, that her mind was exaggerating the insanity of it all. That she wouldn’t be kept awake by the fear of nightmares.
She could hope…
Sam couldn’t remember much of her time with Joan or Rackham, just particular moments and feelings of what must have been and Jess didn’t want to push it. She had got her daughter back, that’s what mattered and if those memories remained buried that wasn’t a bad thing.
Landon argued for Sam to go with him, but she refused without giving a good reason why and both parents lacked the energy or authority to force her to do anything she didn’t want to. Jess also suspected something else, that even though her own abilities had waned with the dying of the virus, perhaps her daughter’s had sustained, and if that were true she might be crucial to helping get her brother back. The trick was to keep Sam out of harm’s way. Jess wasn’t going to get one kid back just to lose another… again.
Not again…
The convoy slowed somewhat to weave around abandoned vehicles. She must have passed them a few times before, having traveled this highway over the past few days but she couldn’t remember them. Couldn’t remember much of the previous week other than wanting it to be over.
“Look over there,” said Sanchez, looking to the right of the highway.
Jess had already noticed the lack of winter trees and shrubs, the ground having been hacked into deep ruts but presumed it was part of land clearing for building work. But as the convoy slowed she then noticed the electricity and phone pylons laying like matchsticks across the ground. A tangle of metal cables and splintered wooden posts. The piles of rubble and masonry, former single-story buildings, confirmed what was obvious.
“At least we know we’re going the right way,” said Sanchez.
She glanced in the mirror again. Sam wasn’t paying attention to the trail of destruction, her eyes were closed.
CHAPTER FOUR
1: 53 p.m. Central Kansas. Highway 70.
“Please be gas… Please be gas…”
Arlo’s eyes flicked between the truck stop, gas station and the fuel gauge which had been showing empty for twenty minutes. At the edge of the almost flat horizon sat a brown haze, the mark of what had recently torn through that part of the landscape, but he wasn’t bothered about the things, they were long gone. He was bothered about being marooned in the middle of nowhere and he really didn’t want to rely upon the remaining ten bottles of beer to stop him from dying of thirst. The buzz from the first two was just beginning to wear off, the alcohol playing a part no doubt in why he got into this madcap idea of following the monsters in the first place.
The engine coughed, the car jolting.
“Shit… no… no…” He tapped the plastic fuel gauge, hoping fumes would be enough to propel the car along the exit off the highway, but instead the engine responded by cutting out, the vehicle shuddering then gliding gently forward.
“Come on, come on!” He rocked back and forth in the leather seat, hoping his motion would get him a few inches closer to the small road which ran up to the station’s entrance.
The car hit a slight incline and promptly stopped bringing forth an eruption of expletives from the driver.
Arlo sat with his head on the steering wheel, then lifted it, looking at the station’s forecourt and the lot behind the store which was surprisingly full of other vehicles.
“Okay… this is okay. I get a can. I fill it with gas. Easy. No things around here.” He looked to the horizon. The cloud of dust was dissipating but it would be easy to pick up the trail. He pushed open his door, immediately regretting not taking his jacket with him the night before and stood on the concrete and closed the door. Rubbing his upper arms he trekked forward, over the muddy, faded grass then onto the concrete of the forecourt, taking a direct route to the nearest of the gas pumps.
Stopping, he scoured the store, looking into the gloom beyond the glass door and windows then slid his view across the ice machine, car wash, soda dispensers and the cafe to the left and the cars parked in front of it. All was quiet. No wind blew as he gently picked up the pump then pulled the trigger. A drip fell from the nozzle. He shook it and tried again with the same result then quickly walked to the other seven.
He swore under his breath on not finding what he needed. “Looks like I’m going to have to siphon some.”
A white pickup, red sedan and gray van were close by options, but he needed something to put the gas in and quickly made his way to the store, pausing at the entrance to look inside. On not seeing any danger, he slowly pushed the door open, watching and listening for anything to jump from behind the aisles and when nothing did, ran to what he needed, a plastic fuel canister, pulling it off the shelf, unscrewing the cap then turning back…
A new cloud of dust caught his attention. This one was further to the right of the first. Smaller, more compact. He walked closer to the large window. Maybe three, four miles out?
A rack of candy bars sat above a row of bottled water.
“Ah, perfect.”
He grabbed a bottle, broke the seal and took a good few mouthfuls…
He leaned into the glass again, straining to better see across the fields to the north. The dust cloud now contained streaks and darker patches, almost as if it were—
He stuffed the candy in his pocket along with the water bottle and barged the exterior door open, taking the fuel canister with him, all the time tracking the cloud of mud and rock that was growing in size.
Running to the van, he realized he had no tubing and pivoted, running back into the store, grabbing some off the far wall and running back outside while
glancing at what was hurtling across the beige fields. As the brown cloud passed a tall white structure, it tilted to one side. Possibly a water tower.
“Shit.”
He ran to the van, pulling the fuel cap off and pushed the tubing into the hole and immediately sucked on the opposite end. Nothing emerged within the clear plastic tube. He tried again while leaning back around the van to try and see…
The creature was now visible within the muck it was sending into the sky around it. A mass of legs were propelling a heavyset, dark brown body with a lizard-like head which swayed as the thing sprinted. It was as if an alligator had grown to the size of a horse and gained similar height. Nothing about it was even remotely human. For a fraction of a moment he was captured by the fury of the thing bearing down on him.
“No… no…”
He pulled the tube and ran to the sedan but the cap was already open and ran to the last vehicle, the white pickup, flicking the cap free and… It was obvious he didn’t have time to grab the gasoline, get to his car, refuel and leave before the thing would be at the forecourt. A new plan was needed. He pulled his shirt over his arms then shoulders, twisting it into a strip, then pushed it into the opening, the fumes rising from the hole confirming this vehicle did indeed have gasoline. The thing was now scampering over the nearby fields, only a few hundred yards out. He turned and ran back to the store, scrambling across the tiled floor, knocking chips and soda bottles from their stands, grabbed a pocket lighter from the counter and ran back to the pickup. Without hesitation he thumbed the small plastic latch, igniting a flame then set his shirt alight.
The thunder of hoofs or claws, he wasn’t sure which was now filling the air. Whatever concoction of mismatched genetics was about to reach the truck stop wanted him dead. A straggler from the main group that had somehow detected him. As the flame grew across his piece of clothing, he backed away. Timing was going to be crucial. If he turned and ran, the creature would detour and the explosion wouldn’t be enough to put it down, but if he stayed too long near the pickup…
