by Phil Maxey
Jacob smiled. “You’re a man of few words, me too, although it can make conversation a bit hard going.”
Cal looked away from the telescope and smiled back. Jacob sat in the garden chair, pulling the back up. “How’s it looking out there?”
“Haven’t seen any movement. Whatever those things were they don’t seem to be bothering with us.”
“Nosce hostem tuum,” replied Jacob, before drinking the remaining fruit juice. “You know what that means son?”
“Yes, I’m not sure it applies to evolved super animals though.”
“Heck it applies to everything on Gods green earth. We learn what makes them tick, we learn how to defeat them.”
“Hopefully they are not thinking the same about us.”
“So what’s your view on Zach, everyone seems to be okay with him being in charge.”
“He’s got us this far,” said Cal still looking out with the telescope.
“That he has.”
Michael appeared from the stairwell, with a pen and paper in his hand. “I’m doing an inventory of all the food and liquid we got, just need to have a look in the storage they got up here.” He opened the first of the fridges they had on the roof. “Any sign of those wolfmen?”
“Nothing,” said Cal.
“I’ll be happy not to see them again, right that’s all that listed, from now on food, drinks and electricity will need to be rationed. Enjoy that fruit juice, Jacob, it might be the last for a while,” said Michael, disappearing off down the stairwell.
“Happy guy that one, I wonder what landed him inside,” said Jacob.
“Does it matter?” said Cal.
“I guess not.”
Fiona looked over the pieces of paper that were strewn across the living room floor as well as the table. Paper versions of their digital counterparts each telling the same story in a different way. She started to arrange them in chronological order, trying to decipher how things got so bad. Doing this helped. Things had changed so much over the past few days that there were times she wasn’t sure what was real and what wasn’t. As it turned out it was all real.
Michael appeared in the kitchen. “Rations from now on,” said Michael leaving the penthouse by the front entrance.
“Figures,” said Fiona looking down at the paper, the first of which was a report dated April first.
“STRANGE SPECIES OF BEE DISCOVERED IN AUSTRLIA
A twelve-year-old boy today was stung by a bee. Nothing strange in that you might think, except the bee that that injured the young boy was very strange indeed. Apart from being slightly larger than its brethren this bee had what appeared to be plates of armor across its back.
‘I thought it was a beetle at first, but then I saw it was a Bee with armor!’ said Garry Pome. Local apiarists are baffled by this new creature with some calling it a new species altogether.”
The timing of the article was unfortunate Fiona thought, as well as its being posted on a well-known conspiracy theory site. Most of the early news stories about evolving creatures were from conspiracy websites and that must have been why they weren’t taken seriously by the mass media. Even though, she knew from her intelligence days that all news regardless of source is at least looked at by the various government agencies, so they must have known something was going on. The other news pieces showed the growing realization amongst the world’s population that something very serious was happening, but by time they truly got organized to try and stop it the ‘Cascade’ as it was termed was irreversible. Still the question of what the intelligence services knew of the event bugged her, as the world’s secret services were conspicuously absent from most news stories.
Were they responsible and wanted to try and put the genie back in the bottle before it went mainstream? And if so, might have they had some kind of fix but couldn’t implement it before it was too late? It was an intriguing thought, not that she was in any position to act on it. Right now the most important thing was to find out if there were survivors and where was the most likely place for them to be. She pulled forward a large map of America that was once in a silver frame on the wall, and looked at the piece of paper from the newspaper office downstairs with the bases on it. Abbey had told her only two bases were sending back a message, Austin and Portland. She wondered if there was any method to contact them. She had done rudimentary radio electronics as part of her communications training and wondered if she could rig something from what they already had. Maybe with Abbey’s help She pondered.
She stood up and stretched, pushing her arms out and arching her back. Walking forward to stand in front of the large glass window something caught her eye far off in the distance. She moved her face close to the glass window and squinted best she could to try to increase her focus. In another time and place something moving in the distance on rooftops would have been birds, but Fiona knew different. Whatever they were there were more than one and they were moving towards the building. Need to tell the others. She turned around and saw Cal and Jacob appear from the kitchen.
“We see them,” said Cal rushing past.
“What are they?” said Fiona. Cal tossed her the telescope. Placing it to her eye she looked again. Her arm dropped down her side still holding the telescope. Those things again. Putting the scope back to her eye she could see at least eleven of the wolf creatures jumping from rooftop to rooftop heading in their direction, at the speed they were moving they might have a few minutes max before they reached them. Fiona ran down the stairs to the floor below where she found Jacob and Abbey in the computer room.
“I’ve found how to lock the doors of the building remotely, the main doors are now electronically sealed, as well as the doors to the bottom stairwell. I’ll seal all the lower floors doors once Cal and Michael are up here,” said Abbey.
“What about Zach and the others getting back in?” said Fiona.
“Right now they are better off outside if these creatures are intent in getting in here, once it’s clear I’ll unlock the doors. Cal and Michael are making sure there’s no supplies left on the lower floors then piling as much furniture as they can into the stairwell.”
“If we just had some weapons,” said Fiona.
Jacob reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his handgun. “I’ve got this, it’s got ten rounds left.”
“If we can barricade ourselves on the top floors, and they can’t get in maybe they will give up and leave, they might be evolved, but they’re still animals. The cameras on the outside of the building work so we can see where they plan to get in,” said Abbey, bringing up the outside camera feeds.
Fiona ran down the corridor to the stairwell. “I’ll see if Cal and Michael need any help.”
Michael and Cal were dragging desks and chairs into the bottom stairwell as Fiona appeared above them.
“Grab anything of any weight on this floor and throw it down this stairwell against the ground floor door,” said Cal. Fiona grabbed two chairs and threw them down the stairwell. She then moved over to the windows and looked out onto the street. She couldn’t see the wolf creatures yet, but she felt unnerved by how close this floor was to the ground.
“I’ve seen those things leap twenty to thirty-foot, they could jump off the roof of the truck and through these windows,” said Fiona.
“We are working our way up, barricading as many as we can before they get outside,” said Michael.
“They are just a few streets away!” shouted Abbey down the stairwell.
“We need to get up to the next floor, now!” shouted Cal. He, Michael and Fiona ran up to the floor above, and manically started pulling and heaving as much furniture down the stairs as possible.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Ray frantically stuffed various components into a piece of the plastic piping he took from the hardware store. “He’s not going to make it.”
“He’ll make it,” said Zach, who was driving the pickup in reverse towards the middle-aged guy. They had opened the back so whoever this
guy was could jump in. Dee was in a huddle in the foot space around Ray’s feet. “You okay down there, Dee?”
“Yes, sir,” replied Dee nervously.
“Don’t worry it will be okay, just going to pick this guy up and we are going to be off, which direction is it to your dads,” said Zach intently, steering the pickup the best he could while watching the middle age man stagger forward in their direction. The snarling vision of canine anger was only a few hundred yards behind him and gaining fast.
“Err, straight then do a left, then straight for a few mins,” said Dee.
“Hold on everyone.” Zach slammed on the brakes, making them all lurch forward. The middle-aged guy collapsed onto the flat bed at the back of the pickup and grabbed hold of the sides. Zach hit the gas pedal and the truck roared forward. The wolf creature bounded towards them for a few yards then skidded to halt. It then raised its head to the sky like something had called it, and turned and bounded off. They lost site of it when they turned the corner at the end of the street.
“Has it gone?” said Ray.
“Looks that way,” said Zach. Ray let out a sigh of relief and his arms collapsed in his lap while still holding the device.
“That thing is not live yet is it?” said Zach.
“No.”
A bang came on the cabin window, the middle-aged man with glasses breathing heavily, gave the thumbs up.
“Dee, can you sit up a bit I need directions of where to go.” Dee sat up just enough to see the surroundings.
“Hey watch it kid, I’m holding explosives here,” said Ray.
“Right, yes, oh I know where we are. Go down Malvern Avenue, then do a left and second right and you will be in my street.”
Zach caught sight of the road sign and proceeded down the Avenue as instructed. He kept looking around where they were driving as much as possible while still keeping his eyes on the road in case one of the wolf things jumped out in front of them.
After a few minutes they were in Dee’s street. “Fifth house on the right, it’s the one with the green door.” Dee’s head was still just high enough to see the houses, but Zach could tell he didn’t want to look. Zach rolled up to a decently sized single story house, with a fifties era red pickup in the carport.
“Now that’s my kind of pickup, not like these modern things,” said Ray.
“My dad rebuilt it,” said Dee in a subdued tone.
Zach drove onto the drive. “Dee stay here, I’m going to say hello to our guest and check things out, okay? Same as before you see something hit the horn.” Dee nodded. “Ray, you reckon you can finish that device outside of the truck? Maybe in Dee’s dad’s car port?”
“I’ll try,” said Ray, getting out of the truck carefully taking his components and the backpack full of other important items with him. The guy in the back climbed out the back of the truck, and approached Zach with his hand out.
“Names Brad T Crenshaw. Thanks for the rescue back there.”
Zach got out of the truck and shook his hand. “No problem, glad we were there when we were. I’m Zach, that there in the carport is Ray, Dee’s in the truck.”
“Actually, I knew you were there, my microphones picked up your truck moving down Shrove Drive, unfortunately so did one of the canine E.L.F’s as well, they have exceptional hearing and smell,” said Brad.
Microphones? Zach thought. “Great, well I have to check out this building, you can wait here if you want or you can come inside with me,” said Zach, backing up towards the front of Dee’s house, then turning and looking through the front window.
“Happy to help,” said Brad who was following, “Why are you here?”
“This is Dee’s house. He hasn’t been back here for a while, and he’s not seen his dad since it all went down.”
“This whole area was cleared out by the army in the evacuation, I doubt anyone’s in this house, and if the kid’s dad never found him then the news is probably not good,” said Brad.
“Yeah well, I gotta look anyway.”
“Of course.”
Zach cupped his hands over his eyes and pressed his face up against the glass of the living room, inside it looked messy, but there was no sign of anyone. Turning back to the truck he gestured to Dee that he was going to go around the back. Moving through the carport, and past Ray who was sitting on an upside down bucket near a small worktop, Zach arrived at a shut gate to the backyard, which he opened slowly. Zach and Brad walked past a small empty pool.
“The canines drink the water from the pools. Here in Roswell we have a lot of them,” said Brad.
The patio doors at the back of the property were closed and locked.
“Going to have to break in,” said Zach, looking around for something to break the glass. Brad handed him a small boulder, “we want to try and do this as quiet as possible.” In one of the corners of the yard was a dog kennel and just inside of it Zach could see a blanket. He grabbed it, then placed it up against the part of the glass door near the inside latch, and hit it with the boulder, a small circular piece of glass fell onto the linoleum inside, Zach then reached through and opened the door.
“Hello?” said Zach and swore to himself that he never asked Dee’s what his dad’s name was. “Anyone home? I’m here with Dee.”
Brad stepped through the door and stood for a moment cleaning his glasses. He was wearing a light gray t-shirt with a hunter’s jacket on top, each pocket seemingly containing something. His combat pants pockets the same.
The interior of Dee’s father’s home was well decorated. Film posters adjourned the walls, and a large flat screen TV hung proudly on another. Zach picked up a picture of Dee and his dad that was on the floor and smiled, he then took the photo out of the frame and put it in his pocket.
Brad went into the kitchen and opened the fridge. “Still a few bottles in here, hope the young man doesn’t mind me taking them.”
“It’s fine,” said Zach as he walked into the hallway, then into a large bedroom. Various clothes were scattered around the floor, and some drawers were left open. Brad appeared behind him in the hallway.
“What’s crazy about this whole situation is how most places I’ve seen don’t look that disturbed, it’s like there wasn’t a panic, which considering what was happening don’t make sense,” said Zach.
“People had no idea what was happening until it was too late, well apart from the ones that listened to my show. The government gave some bullshit story to everyone about how everything was under control and they all should grab some belongings and move out to camps.”
“Yes but people must of seen the changed animals?”
“The people that saw changed animals didn’t get a chance to tell the story. The number one driving force of all the E.L.F’s is to kill and dominate their surroundings. When the government brought large numbers of people together for evacuation it just acted like a magnet for the E.L.F’s. You see any of those nature films back in the day of thousands of wildebeests attracting predators? Well it was like that. The nukes they dropped were almost like the human race giving the E.L.F’s the finger. It took a lot of them out, but not enough.”
A noise made them both turn around. Dee was standing looking at them.
“Your dad’s not here,” said Zach. Dee looked down then burst into tears. Zach went to go to him but Brad reacted first, bending down in front of him.
“Dee is it? Okay well can you do something for me?” Brad reached into his pocket, and pulled out a small flat black box with a grid of thirty-six LED’s on it. Dee shook his head in the affirmative while tears rolled down his cheeks. “This little black box is very important, you see these little lights? Well if you see any of them light up at this point,” Brad pointed to a section of the lights, “you let me know okay? It’s a real important job.” Brad handed Dee the box.
“What is it?” said Zach.
“It’s wired up to my radio microphones. Over six miles square, if the microphone picks up a loud noise, the LED will ligh
t up. Basically, suped-up baby monitors.”
“Wow that’s smart,” said Dee, wiping the tears from his face.
“Where are we on that grid?” said Zach.
“Roughly D3. The building you are holed up in is roughly B2,” said Brad.
“You knew we were there?” said Zach.
“Sure did.” Brad smiled.
Zach didn’t know how to respond but thought it was a discussion for later.
“Dee is there anything you want to take with you?”
“Yes, give me a few minutes.” Dee opened a door opposite the large bedroom revealing a medium sized room with a single bed and more film posters intermixed with posters of pop stars. Dee carefully put the black box down on the bed, and pulled a backpack out from under it, he then started to throw some clothes in it. On the wall was a comic from the 1960s in a wooden frame. On the plastic protective cover, it was signed, “Never stop dreaming, love Dad.” Dee carefully pulled the back off and placed the comic and its bag inside the backpack. Dee looked around his room. He knew this would probably be the last time he was here and the weight of choosing what to take with him started to overwhelm his mind. There’s no electricity anymore so no point bringing a game console, but that’s stupid anyway, maybe I should bring more things that Dad gave me, no, no I need to think like an adult, what would Dad want me to do in this situation. Dee took a deep breath and calmed his nerves, then looked around the room again. He opened a drawer next to his bed and grabbed a pocketknife and put it in his pocket. His dad told him never to take the pocketknife outside but he thought his dad would understand. He also grabbed his computer tablet. He knew there was no Internet but it had lots of good games on it, and maybe Abbey could get it charged somehow. He then remembered his solar powered radio and torch his dad got him for his tenth birthday last year, but couldn’t remember where it was.
“How long Dee?” Zach shouted from the living room.
“Not long,” Dee shouted back. A solar powered radio would be a good thing to have. He looked around his room and tried to remember the last place he saw it then remembered he left it on the window seat in the living room to charge up. Running in the living room past Zach he grabbed the radio and went back into his bedroom. Pushing the radio into his already bulging backpack, he took one last look around and sighed. Turning, he put the backpack on both shoulders and left his room.