by Phil Maxey
“Sun’s coming up,” said Cal.
Zach sat up, looking dreary eyed and shook his head. He let go of the blanket that he had over him. “Yup, see anything yet.”
“Still too dark, but I reckon twenty to thirty mins and we will start to have some kind of visibility.”
“You better get some shut-eye, I’ll wake you if there’s any drama,” said Zach, taking the old telescope from Cal, who didn’t need any persuading to fall onto the reclined garden chair and pull the light green blanket over him. Rubbing his eyes Zach walked over to the east wall, and looked to the where the sky was now an intense peach orange. He then grabbed an already opened carton of orange juice and drunk down a few gulps. It had been many years since he had tasted fruit juice and it tasted every bit as good as he remembered it, even if this particular carton was somewhat out of date. He looked up at the sky. Ever since their encounter with the bird creature he had a distrust of the skies above him. Creatures that run and jump are one thing, but things that can swoop down from the heavens and pick you right up, that was something else. The streets and buildings of the city could now be clearly seen if there details could not. Zach raised the old telescope to his eye and scoured the gloomy scene in front of him. He could make out the gas station some way off, but no creatures. He then checked the other three directions before returning to the east wall. The door to the penthouse opened, and Fiona appeared with a packet of chips.
“Hope you like BBQ flavor,” said Fiona trying to walk quietly across the roof. Avoiding bottles and glasses scattered around she handed Zach the packet who took it gratefully.
“You should take the opportunity to get more sleep,” he said.
“Prison routine is hard to break, this is when I would usually wake, anyway who says it’s the men that have to do all the hard stuff,” said Fiona, snacking on her own packet of chips.
“Amen to that.”
“No sign of our furry friends?”
“No, but they must be out there somewhere.”
“You think they are waiting for us to leave here?”
“Could be. I know dogs, grew up with two German shepherds, but what we saw yesterday once you had hit one of them, it wasn’t dog like, it was like they were considering their options.”
“If these things are evolved from dogs, then maybe they are more intelligent?” said Fiona. Cal grumbled something in his sleep, and turned over. Fiona looked over to him.
“He doesn’t seem to sleep very well. Bad dreams by the looks of it. We don’t know much about these evolved creatures, maybe they are intelligent as us, maybe more,” said Zach.
“We need more intel, we need to know what we are up against,” said Fiona.
“Question is how to get that without ending up as their next meal. Abbey was up until the early hours she’s probably learned a lot more, once everyone’s awake in a few hours we need to discuss plans.”
“I can keep you company if you want?”
Zach smiled. “I’m good, even if it was your routine waking up now, we’re not in prison anymore, maybe more rest would be good”.
Fiona walked away still facing Zach. “Enjoy the chips.”
“Best breakfast I’ve had in years.”
The roof was now bathed in an orange hue and the streets could be seen clearly. Zach swept across the scene with the telescope, intently looking for movement but there was none.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“Man, that smells good,” said Fiona. The fragrance of newly made coffee drifted from the kitchen to the living room. The group was now sitting around the marble table. Michael was in the kitchen putting together breakfast but still within earshot of the conversation that was happening. Dee was reading a comic on the floor. Spread out over the table were various print outs, copies of newspapers and articles from what was once the world wide web. Abbey stood up and walked around the table to face everyone else.
“Okay so we now have some idea of what happened. The servers here kept backups of websites the operators visited. Luckily they visited a lot of sites, I’ve printed out some of them, what you see on the table.” Fiona and Jacob leaned forward and picked up some of the articles.
“Zach mentioned something about the ‘Cascade’, what exactly is it?” said Jacob.
Abbey picked up one of the sheets. “It’s probably better I just read this out.” Abbey cleared her throat and started to read out the article in her hand.
“ANIMAL SPECIES EVOLVING AT ALARMING RATE
Scientists across the globe are in Geneva today for an emergency conference on what some have termed the ‘Cascade’. Due to the growing number of deaths caused by E.L.F’s (Evolved Life Forms) and scientists lack of any explanation as to the cause of their exponential change, governments have brought the best and brightest in the fields of micro-biology, chemistry, physics, and zoology to try and slow down the speed at which various species appear to be evolving. Doctor Markus Stewart of the Scottish laboratory of microbiology has been quoted as saying that what is happening could be part of this planet’s natural Darwinian cycles. When asked what that means for the human race, he replied.
‘We still don’t know the true evolutionary history of this planet, maybe this is just the natural course of things. Perhaps this is what happened to the hominids at a distant point in history and what led to us dominating the other species, we really don’t know but obviously if the human race is to stay dominant on this planet we must find a way to stop this from happening again.’
The group sat quiet silently digesting the information. “From what I can piece together, animal species across the globe evolved into something else. The first to evolve were the most genetically simple organisms so insects were first, then fish, amphibians, lizards, birds, small mammals and finally larger mammals and primates,” said Abbey.
“Okay so if all the animals evolved where are they all? We have seen some, but wouldn’t we of seen like a lot more?” said Ray. Michael walked out of the kitchen with coffee, toast and a few bowls of cereal on a tray.
“Breakfast,” said Michael, placing the tray on the table in the only gap not covered with paper, “Choose toast or cereal.” Ray, Cal, and Dee grabbed a slice of toast, Jacob, and Fiona a bowl of cereal. There was none left for Zach and Abbey but that didn’t bother them.
“Oh I didn’t make enough, okay hold on,” said Michael.
Abbey returned her attention to Ray. “That’s a good point, I have no idea, the only thing I can think of is survival of the fittest, what’s left is what dominated all the other evolved species.”
“So what’s out there are the biggest and the baddest of these new super animals? Great,” said Fiona.
“Not necessarily the biggest, just the most effective at surviving and killing,” said Abbey.
“Even better,” replied Fiona sarcastically.
“So where’s our comrades, where’s the friggin military?” said Ray.
“Gone, most were overwhelmed before they even managed to put up a fight. In the early days, there were many more evolved species, all fighting each other and us, and it seems we didn’t come out too well,” said Abbey.
“So if we had been released a few months ago we wouldn’t have survived?” said Cal.
“I don’t think so, but that brings us on to the nukes,” said Abbey, “Two tactical nukes were dropped on ‘hotspots’ around the country.”
“I can’t believe we are discussing the end of the world over coffee and super loopy flakes,” said Fiona.
“One was dropped on California and another just outside Chicago. Each of these locations was picked due to the high concentration of E.L.F’s or evolved life forms. And it looks like it helped, but by then it was too late.”
Michael came to a halt between the kitchen and the living room, with more toast on the plate. “It has to be too late to drop a nuke on your own country. So monsters and nukes? That’s our life now?”
“We don’t know if we are what’s left but there’s probably mo
re people out there, right now I’ll priority has to be find others and survival, maybe it’s time we all told what our jobs were when we were formally part of the military, we need to know our specialties. I’ll go first. Zach Felton, Military Police,” Zach looked around the group for whom to go next.
“So you and Jacob here are practically the same,” said Ray. Jacob grinned.
“Okay I guess I’ll go next, I served in the EOD.” Dee looked up at Ray. ‘I stop things going boom.” That seemed enough of an explanation for Dee who continued reading his comic.
“My role was to protect the countries networking infrastructure and when required infiltrate the same in enemy countries,” said Abbey.
“So you were a hacker?” said Jacob.
“Yes.”
“Marines corps, scout sniper,” said Cal.
“I guess there’s no such thing as national security anymore,” said Fiona looking down at her fingers. “I joined the marines, but it wasn’t long before I got drafted into the CIA and used by other agencies.”
“That just leaves you Michael,” said Zach, all eyes fell upon Michael, wearing oven mitts.
“Culinary specialist, Navy,” said Michael the words more falling out his mouth than being spoken.
“You’re a cook?” said Fiona.
“Yeah, hey we all gotta eat right?” Fiona and Ray burst out laughing. The others smiled.
“So, we have a specialist in security, computers, covert warfare, a long-range marksman, explosives, and food,” said Jacob. “If you guys can’t survive this no one can.”
“But we got to work together,” said Zach, the others agreed. “And I think we all know what each of us need to do moving forward. Cal, your job is to monitor our surroundings, basically let us know if drama is moving our way, Michael you need to keep us fed, but you also got to make sure we don’t run out of supplies.”
“That I can do,” said Michael.
Zach turned to Ray. “You think you can build some devices to use against whatever’s out there?”
“I’ll need to go on a supply run but yeah.”
“Fiona, you and I need to go over our strategies going forward, how we are going to survive. Abbey keep on doing what you’re doing, the more intel you gather the more prepared we will be.”
“So what’s on today’s agenda?” said Fiona.
“The problem is we don’t know what else is out there, we are probably not as safe as we think up here. These glass windows would have been great before, but now won’t offer any protection if one of the flying creature’s attacks us. The UFO guy, he seems to know a lot, and if he’s still alive he could be useful, Dee how far away is Westside Avenue?”
Dee looked up from his comic. “Not far, maybe ten minutes from here.”
“Is it close to where you live?” said Zach.
“Yeah but…” Replied Dee.
“I know your dad said you should stay, but we should check out your home as well,” said Zach.
“Okay,” said Dee looking down.
“You up for a ride Ray?” said Zach.
“Reckon I am.”
“Me, Ray and Dee will take the pickup and check out Dee’s house, then see if the UFO guy is still around. After I grab some food, we will head out, Fiona maybe have a look at all the info Abbey’s come up with and piece together survival strategies?” said Zach walking into the kitchen.
Fiona picked up more pieces of paper. “Sure thing.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Ray went to open the passenger’s door of the pickup.
“It’s probably better if Dee rides up front,” said Zach.
“Fine, I’ve written out a list of things I need to make some small ordinance, kind of thing you can ignite and throw, maybe also set up some trip wires. We’ll need to stop at a hardware store,” said Ray, climbing into the back of the pickup.
The pickup seemed big to Dee standing next to it, and he had to hop onto the passenger’s seat.
“You know where there’s a hardware store, one that’s not on Main Street?” Zach said to Dee as he was putting his seatbelt on.
“Yeah there’s one a few streets over, sells all kinds of things.”
“You all set back there?” said Zach to Ray, who grumbled something in response. “Keep your eyes open for anything following us.” Zach put his belt on, looked down Main Street and around him via the truck’s mirrors and turned the key to the engine. “Okay Dee, which way?”
“Right for about a minute then left then straight for a bit.”
Zach resisted driving too fast as he wanted to be able to react quickly, without losing control of the truck. They drove along pleasant tree-lined streets with deserted single story homes on both sides, until they got to the large forecourt with a few shops on both sides. One of the stores was ‘Al’s Hardware’.
A few cars sat at odd angles to where they should have been parked, some of them also had their doors open. There were more dark red splurges here and there on the concrete floor, Zach tried hard not to weave around them. He parked the pickup up on the sidewalk close to the already open entrance to the hardware store. A stained red American flag attached to the front of the store window fluttered in the wind. Turning around he could see Ray was getting agitated sitting in the back of the pickup.
“Dee, stay in the pickup. Do not get out unless I say so, okay? If you see anything coming our way, bang on the horn,” said Zach, Dee nodded. Zach got out and looked around. Ray awkwardly climbed out the back then took out his small notebook. Zach walked ahead and they both headed into the store.
The inside of the store was quite large with a high ceiling, but natural light still had a hard time penetrating the aisles. Trolleys and baskets lay scattered around. Zach and Ray stood at the entrance waiting for their eyes to adjust.
“Looks like most things are still here. I expected we would find empty shelves,” said Ray picking up a basket and walking down one of the aisles.
“By time people realized they needed stuff it was already too late,” said Zach. He watched where Ray went then took a quick look at Dee in the truck to make sure he was okay. Walking along the ends of the aisle looking at the cans of paint and fixtures he smiled. It reminded him of his time as a teenager working in his parent’s hardware store back in Maine. Hammers He loved hammers as a kid. His father would take him with him when he did building work in the local area, and one of his favourite tasks was any kind of hammering. His old claw hammer was one of his favourite objects as a child. His mum used to scold him for sleeping with it under his pillow. As Zach stood there, admiring the rack of hammers a noise came from the back of the store. Grabbing one of them from the rack he slowly walked up the aisle trying to ascertain from where the noise came from.
“Ray?” he said in a hushed voice, but no response came.
A sound of metal items clattering against each other caused Zach to instantly raise the hammer. It appeared to come from out back of the shop in whatever rooms were there.
“Ray!” This time Zach spoke a bit louder, he didn’t want to accidently end Ray because the old guy was hard of hearing. Still silence. Zach took in a deep breath and looked back down one of the aisles to the light at the front of the store. He could just about see the back of the truck. Everything looked okay down there, it looked like the direction to go in. Turning back to the gloom at the back of the store Zach regretted not picking up one of the many pocket torches on special offer. As he stepped forward towards an open door at the back of the store he strained his hearing for any other noises or even the sound of breathing but he couldn’t detect either. Why would Ray be back here?
“Had to go into the room out back to get some parts,” said Ray bursting out of the darkness then raising his hand when he saw Zach had his arm raised. “Hey steady!”
Zach let out a breath and lowered his arm. “You got what you need?” he said looking at basket full of wires, plastic tubes and various tins with skull and crossbones symbols on them.
; “I’ll know later when I’m trying to put it together, but yeah I think so. Also found these out back thought they might come in handy.” Ray lifted up a box of four transceivers.
“Walkie Talkies, nice going,” said Zach, taking the box from Ray.
“And you got… a hammer?”
“We can get some more…”
The sound of the pickup’s horn bellowed from outside the store.
“Dee!” Zach ran down the aisle. Straight away he could see Dee pointing off into the distance. As Zach exited the store and stood on the sidewalk he looked to where Dee was pointing. A middle-aged man with glasses was running towards them down the center of the street adjourning the forecourt, but Zach realized that’s not what Dee was pointing at for behind the man was a large wolf like creature chasing and bounding from obstacle to obstacle.
Ray appeared behind Zach breathing heavily.
“How quickly can you make one of the devices?” said Zach.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Cal studied the roads around the building. He followed the pickup with the telescope as far as he could, eventually seeing it disappear behind some trees. As far as he could tell nothing had followed them. It felt good telling the group what he used to be before the incident that got him thrown into a hole in New Mexico. For most of the time he was in there he had tried to forget his military past, but doing that also meant he forgot the good times. He was also glad Zach didn’t ask him to recite his crimes. They all have done something bad he thought otherwise they wouldn’t have been in there. No reason going over the past. The early morning sun warmed his arms as he stood scouring the streets and buildings around him and for the first time in years he felt free.
“It’s a fine view up here,” said Jacob. Cal was a bit startled, as he never heard him approach, but did not show it.
“Yup.”