by Phil Maxey
“Hold on,” Zach shouted, revving the truck’s engine and pulling off as fast as the truck could manage. Fiona did the same behind him. A second howl boomed out, the sounds somehow even more evasive because of the lack of other noise. Zach looked in his wing mirror and saw not one of these creatures but three.
The truck careered straight into the side of a green sedan. Luckily it proved of little resistance, but the inhabitants of the cabin were thrown forward. Michael slammed into the side cupboard, while Jacob and Ray hit the back of the front seats.
“You all okay back there?” said Zach.
“We’re fine, don’t stop.” shouted Jacob. Zach looked again in the side mirrors and his heart missed a beat as the first of these creatures had jumped down from the roof, and was now pursuing them, being only twenty yards from the pickup.
“Did you see it? It looked like a…” said Fiona.
“Werewolf?” replied Cal, looking over his shoulder.
“Is it gaining on us, I’m already doing fifty,” said Fiona, as she moved alongside the truck. Various UFO related buildings flashed by.
“It’s right behind us!” said Cal, just as the snarling gothic form leaped forward swiping and catching the back of the pickup.
Fiona fought with the wheel and managed to keep their direction straight. “Is your seatbelt on?” she shouted.
“Yes.”
“Then hold on.” Fiona looked in her rear mirror, the creature was thirty-feet away. Slowing slightly to let it catch up, she slammed on the brakes. Both of their bodies pushed forward, straining the fabric of the seatbelts to their maximum. The rear wheels of the pickup lifted, throwing some of their supplies out onto the street. The creature slammed into the back of the truck, howling in pain. Fiona slammed the pickup into reverse, trying to roll back over the creature, but there was no bump, just the creature screeching.
“I think we’re just pushing it backwards. Let’s get the hell out of here,” Cal shouted. Fiona floored the gas pedal and the pickup roared forward, leaving the creature snarling and whimpering behind them. In the distance its companions ran towards it.
“Where are they?” said Cal, looking for the truck.
Fiona pointed. “There.”
The truck was parked, outside a six-story office building.
Zach was beckoning them to pull up in front. “Inside,” he shouted.
Cal and Fiona jumped out of the pickup. Looking back they could see the creatures three hundred or so yards away, they seemed to be standing around the injured one, but looking in their direction. Cal grabbed some of the supplies from the pickup, including torches, and they all ran into the office’s foyer.
The office’s entrance had strong glass doors, laced with steel bars.
Zach grabbed one of the chairs. “The others have gone up to the next floor, follow me.”
They all filed into the stairwell.
Zach closed the door behind, then jammed the chair against the handle. “Small entrance, small hallways, we can defend this place,” he said, moving up the stairs. They came out to a smart looking landing, with three doors. Following the sound of voices they walked into a large open plan office area with cubicles and chairs. The others were standing and sitting. Abbey was close to the window looking in the direction from where they came.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The afternoon sun made the glass windows warm to the touch. Once they made it to the first floor they could see the creatures in the distance, sniffing the air around them. Whatever these things were they saw the direction the group went in but did not pursue them, instead after thirty or so minutes they dragged the body of the injured one behind a building and out of site. There had been no more signs of the creatures. The group had spent the time since then making quick runs to the truck and pickup pausing every thirty minutes, but grabbing as much as each of them could. One person would carry while the other would be look-out with Ray and Jacob watching from the first story windows, which gave them a good view in three directions. They had decided soon after entering the building that they would hole up there for at least a few nights, if for no other reason than to find the source of the CB message they received at the gas station. The last thing Zach grabbed was the CB radio, before pulling the pickup and truck up even closer to the front entrance.
Finally after some hours they all sat on various desks and chairs, tired out, with boxes and other supplies scattered across the floor.
“We should see what’s on the other floors, maybe we are not alone in here,” said Jacob.
“If there’s anyone or anything in here it’s kept very quiet,” said Cal.
“Either way we need to be sure, three groups of two, me and Abbey will take the next floor, Cal and Michael the next, Ray and Fiona the next, Jacob you hang back here and take stock of what we have. What’s the situation with your charge batons?” said Zach clicking his own baton, which promptly came to life. The others tested theirs too.
Cal’s refused to spark. “I’ll be fine.”
They all walked to the stairwell, and ascended. Jacob sat rubbing his leg, looking at the CB radio.
Zach opened the stairwell door onto another bright open plan space filled with cubicles. He thought this is how it must look early morning before work starts, like a hive without its bee’s. Abbey appeared behind him. There were a few chairs slightly out of place, but there was nothing that said panic about the arrangement. The last time workers were here they must have left, like it was any other day. Just to be sure they both moved along the rows and checked each cubicle, cautiously but also half in hope that maybe someone was hiding and needed saving.
Cal’s and Michael’s floor had cubicles with higher partitions and it was also obviously the floor of a gaming company. Large posters of space ships and brightly coloured furry animals adorned the walls.
“Hey do think one of these things came to life?” Michael pointed to one of the posters. Cal gave a wry smile. “Wow graphics certainly have come on in the last ten years.”
“Let’s keep looking, might be some useful tech here,” replied Cal. They wandered past the small foyer and into a recreation area, with a table tennis and pool table. Michael immediately rolled one of the balls across the pool table making it clatter into the rest. Cal gave him an angry look.
“Look, we’re definitely alone in this pl…” said Michael as a rustling noise came from across the room. Cal immediately picked up a pool stick. Michael raised his charge baton.
“Don’t use it until we know there’s a threat,” said Cal.
They both looked to the far corner of the room, but something else caught Cal’s eye. Empty food packets and soft drink bottles were strewn across the stone-colored carpet. Cal pointed for Michael to move around the right side of the room, back past the stairwell entrance while Cal moved up the left channel between cubicles. He noticed at the end of the row, cushions lying on the floor sticking out from one of the cubicles. A suspicion, which started with seeing the soft drink bottles, crystalized in his mind.
“Hey, we’re not here to hurt you,” he said. Just as he finished speaking a young boy of around ten years wearing jeans, and a hooded top, sprang out from the cubicle and fled down the end row, knocking over a box of bottled water. Looking behind himself the boy ran straight into Michael.
“Let me go,” said the boy, struggling.
“Chill kid, I’m not going to hurt you,” said Michael, struggling to hold him.
“Let him go,” said Cal. Michael let go and the boy backed up against a desk shifting his gaze between both of them.
“What’s your name?” Cal asked.
“Darian,” said the boy cautiously. “People call me Dee.”
“I’m Cal, this is Michael. We didn’t know this was your place,” said Cal.
“That’s okay…” said Dee, looking nervous.
“How long you been here?” said Michael, sitting on one of the desks. Dee was about to answer when Abbey and Zach emerged from the stairwell.
“Who are they?”
“They’re with us,” replied Cal. Abbey and Zach walked up to them.
“Looks like we were not alone in this place, Hi I’m Zach, this is Abbey.” Abbey smiled as best she could.
“We were just finding out how long he’s been here,” said Michael.
“Do you need any food? We got plenty downstairs,” said Zach.
“Yeah, what you got?”
“Why don’t you go down and have a look, but tell me is there anyone else in here?” said Zach.
“Nah, only me.”
Zach gestured to Abbey. Dee appeared to relax slightly, and pulled his hood down. He and Abbey walked away then left the floor.
“Three more floors to check, maybe we should check them together,” Zach suggested, and they all walked to the stairwell.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Ray and Fiona stood looking at walls lined with important headlines from the past. Alongside these carefully framed newspapers was metal lettering.
“ROSWELL TRIBUNE”.
“If anyone knew what was going on it would be journalists right?” said Ray. Fiona rolled her eyes and walked forward onto a scene of paper carnage.
“I guess they must have been old school,” said Ray following. Sheets of printed-paper, typed articles and hand written notes lay strewn across the floor and desks. Fiona picked one up, it was an editorial from September first.
“Roswell Editorial. By Jeff Holden.
This will be the last edition of our great paper, and my last editorial. Please excuse the briefness of it, but the army will be here soon to take us to the camps. It pains me to type these words, but I fear newspapers will be a thing of the past all too soon. For thirty-five years I have worked for this newspaper in one form or another, starting with delivering the paper in my teens to becoming chief editor seven years ago. This town became famous for a kooky story to do with ships from another planet, but nobody thought humanity’s end would come about the way it has. But I’m not going to talk about the animals, or what they became. That’s for others to discuss in the days ahead, if there are any days ahead. Instead I would just like to say, thank you. Thank you for reading the Tribune, we all did our best to inform this town of ours and hopefully make it a better place to live. I wish you and yours safe passage in the days ahead.”
Fiona dropped the piece of paper back onto the floor.
“Learn anything?” Ray asked.
“Nope.”
“There’s got to be more here for us to go on.”
“Keep looking,” Fiona suggested, while walking among the paper sheets, like walking amongst autumn leaves.
“Think I might have something, look at this.” Ray was holding a list.
“EVACUATION CAMPS IN THE USA
CAMP ALPHA - BOSTON
CAMP BRAVO – NEAR AUSTIN
CAMP CHARLIE - PORTLAND
CAMP DELTA – SAN DIEGO
CAMP ECHO – NEAR CHICAGO”
They both looked over the list. Apart from the camps it went onto say that each camp is well fortified and could hold off an attack from E.L.F’s.
“Elves ended the world?” said Ray.
“It’s obviously an acronym, but doesn’t say of what. But at least we now have a reason for what happened.”
“Yeah, elves,” said Ray.
“Bravo Looks like it’s the closest camp, near Austin, and it’s sort of in the direction we are going in. Anyway, this floors clear and I’m not going through every scrap of paper, let’s move on,” said Fiona. As they entered the stairwell, Cal, Michael and Zach came up the stairs. Fiona handed the piece of paper to Zach and continued up the stairs. Zach read silently, then passed the paper to Cal. Michael leaned into read as well.
“I’m heading back down. My legs aren’t too compatible with going up and down, I’m sure you got this,” said Ray who was already descending.
“Hey wait up,” shouted Zach in the direction Fiona went in.
“So that’s where everyone is, in these camps? What are E.L.F’s? apart from, you know, pointy-eared Santa’s helpers?” said Michael.
Cal played with the acronym in his mind, but nothing made any sense, he folded the paper and pushed it into his pocket.
“Let’s get these floors checked then get some food.”
Fiona and Zach stood amongst a completely empty open floor, no desks or chairs, just a large open space and a thick layer of dust on the medium gray carpet. Fiona walked over to the windows. The sun was setting.
“Must be later in the year than I thought, the sun’s gone down pretty quickly, maybe November, I wouldn’t get too close to those windows,” said Zach.
“I know what I’m doing, the angle of the sun on this side means all anyone from the outside is going to see is blinding reflection,” said Fiona, who looked out over the city. This wasn’t the highest point of the building, there were still two more floors above them but the setting sun over the desert in the distance made most of the buildings look pink which made her smile. She was always more of a sunset than sunrise kind of girl her abusive husband used to tell her.
“You know, I didn’t notice when we drove in, but from up here the road and sidewalk look wrong,” said Fiona.
“What do you mean?” said Zach, walking over to her then following her gaze down to the streets below. At first he wasn’t sure what he was looking at, like a graffiti artist had been let loose with an obsession for the color red, dark red. But then the realization started growing in his mind to what he was seeing. Splashes and dark patches of crimson lay scattered everywhere.
“That much blood, there must have been a lot of people,” said Fiona breaking the silence.
Zach looked away. “I’ll check out the floors above.” He ignored where his own mind wanted to go. Entering the stairwell Cal and Michael were coming up the stairs.
“This one’s clear. What’s your thoughts on that piece of paper,” said Zach.
“The camp near Austin is the closest, the chances are no ones looking for us, not even the military, we could go take a look on the way to Boston,” said Cal.
Zach nodded. “I was thinking the same.”
“We shouldn’t try and stay completely off the grid?” said Michael, as they all walked up to the next floor.
“I don’t think there’s a grid anymore,” replied Zach, opening the stairwell door to the floor. A rush of warm air hit them.
“Well this is different,” said Michael.
Instead of the usual open plan arrangement of cubicles they were confronted with a corridor going left and right of them. To the right were three doors all closed and to the left the corridor continued around to the right.
Cal cautiously moved to the left and looked around the corridor. “More doors, ones open down the end.”
Sprawled across the wall in front of them were the words. ‘RIVERSIDE SECURITY’.
“All these doors have keycard access, let’s check the open one first,” said Zach, as they all walked down the corridor and towards the open door. Straight away a voice could be heard and they all backed up against the walls. Zach made a hand sign to Cal, which he understood. Zach crouched down, while Cal and Michael pushed themselves up against the left side wall to be as hard to see from inside the room as possible, and Zach pushed the door open. The room was quite large with banks of computer screens on the left sidewall. Ahead of them and to the right, were a number of computer desks and computers, but apart from that there were no people inside. On the far wall, under a desk were some blankets on top of what looked like cushions from a sofa. Zach stood up.
“Where did the voice come from? Sounded like a man’s voice,” said Michael. They all walked into room, their faces being lit up by flicking images on the screens.
“We need Abbey up here,” said Zach, but before he could say anything else the male voice coming from one of the speakers stopped him.
“This is Brad Crenshaw broadcasting from Roswell New Mexico, the date is September
twenty-fifth and this message will continuously loop. Friends, I don’t know if there’s anyone else left alive in this area, but I’m holed up at Westside Avenue. I have enough provisions for over a year, and you’re welcome to stop on by. I’ve seen two types of E.L.F’s since the cascade, both land-based. No idea what they were before… not that it matters, but those alone took out most of the town’s defense forces and its inhabitants, I’ve only survived by staying here. One more thing, they seem to be nested around Main Street so stay away from that area. I’ll be broadcasting on different frequencies and the internet for as long as it still exists.”
“That’s the guy! It’s him!” Michael said excitedly. On one of the screens a small photo of a guy in his fifties with glasses was positioned next to the text “RECENT EMERGENCY BROADCASTS”.
“Cascade?” Cal said looking at Zach, who stood stony faced.
Fiona appeared behind Michael making him jump. “Jesus, you a ninja or something?”
“Looks like this floor might be useful, it also has better protection by being sectioned off into rooms and being higher. We should probably bring the supplies up here, but first we need to get into those other rooms, I don’t want any surprises,” said Zach. The recorded message started to play again. Zach walked over to the speaker it was coming from, and turned the volume down.
“I’ll get Abbey,” said Michael. Cal walked closer to one of the screens that had a map of the USA. Various cities were flashing red, while two white circles pulsed.
“This floor must run off its own power supply,” said Zach, looking around. “No windows and well insulated, probably why the light in here didn’t attract any attention from the things outside.”
Cal nodded. “I’ll tell the others we are moving everything up here.” He then disappeared off down the corridor.
Zach turned to Fiona. “We better check the remaining floor.” They left the computer room and moved up to the floor above, this time though they came out onto a very small landing, with only one door. It also had a keycard access.