Cascade Collection

by Phil Maxey

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Even though Brad’s place was just a mile from the office building, they were all tired by time they arrived at his home. A lot of the boxes of supplies were water soaked, meaning they had to find other containers to move everything in, and they only just managed to get to Brads as the sun was setting.

  “You live here?” said Michael to Brad as Brad parked his pickup.

  “Not all conspiracy theorists live in a bunker out in the desert,” replied Brad.

  Michael smiled then became serious when a thought struck him. “You guys were right.”

  “About what?”

  “Everything.”

  “We didn’t want to be.”

  Zach and Fiona parked up behind Brad. Zach had caught a glimpse of Brads place before, and had been impressed by the two story brick built mock Victorian property with a hint of Spanish revival in the arches and windows. Most of which were boarded up. Something he’d missed the first time he was there though and now was more apparent due to the setting sun behind them were the antennae and satellite dishes perched on the roof. They all got out of the vehicles and looked around anxiously before setting off for the front of the house.

  “Not the front, I don’t use that, there’s an entrance to the basement around the side,” said Brad leading everyone down some steps to the entrance which Brad had covered with a piece of wooden fencing. Visible at the back of the property in its large grounds was a tower with a wind turbine on top. At the bottom of the steps, Brad keyed in a number combination and opened a secure looking steel door. He flicked some switches and lights came on. They all filed into a good-sized space, with walls of computer screens, server boxes, electronic components and bookshelves. To the right the space opened up to a single bed against a wall, a small table and another door. Against one wall was a large worktop area with tools, circuit boards and wires, and above it white boards with diagrams and words on. The wall space that was left was filled with newspaper cuttings and images of various supernatural phenomena.

  “So this is where I broadcast and try to stay in touch, with who’s left out there. I usually sleep over there, I like to be close to the radio in case a message comes in. Let’s move upstairs and I’ll show you the rooms,” said Brad, closing the outside door, and moving towards the other one.

  Fiona lingered near the outside door. “This is the only way in and out?”

  “It is.”

  “And the code to unlock it?”

  Brad smiled, and walked closer to one of the walls, pointing at a small piece of paper. “I wrote the code here, if I ever forgot the number I didn’t want to be trapped in here.” Brad opened the other door.

  Abbey and Dee both looked thrilled at all the equipment and were still looking at the screens when the last of the group started to walk up to the first floor. “There’s four good sized bedrooms upstairs, including my own but like I said I hardly sleep there these days anyway, so feel free to use it.” Brad lit two candles, which illuminated a moderately sized hallway. No natural light made its way past the boarded up windows.

  “We need to start getting those supplies in here, before it’s dark,” said Zach to the group. Fiona turned and started to walk away. Dee came up the stairs as they were going down.

  “Fiona, maybe take it easy for the next few days?” said Zach.

  “I’m fine, who’s helping,” said Fiona disappearing through the basement doorway. Cal and Michael followed her back down into the basement.

  “Might be an idea to pull the truck and pickup as close to the side of the house as possible,” said Brad to Zach.

  “Sounds good, I’ll just take a quick look around if that’s okay and get right on it.’ Zach walked up the main stairs to the second floor.

  “You weren’t joking about these rooms,” said Ray, looking into a room with a double bed, dresser and shelves. “It was a shame leaving the penthouse but this will do nicely.” Ray sat on the end of the bed.

  “You and Jacob get to share again,” said Zach with a smile.

  “Maybe I’ll take the floor,” said Ray dejected.

  Zach had a quick look in the other rooms then went downstairs to move the vehicles and help the others with the supplies.

  Dee walked into one of the rooms at the back of the house and put his backpack on the single bed. It wasn’t a large room and even in the gloom it reminded him of his own room back home. Looking around it he saw there were a few black and white pictures on the walls, one of which was of a man in uniform, Dee wasn’t sure if it was Brad or maybe his father. Dee knew he should unpack but still didn’t feel completely safe to do so. He thought to himself maybe he will just keep his stuff in his backpack for now. Standing up he looked out the window just managing to see through a small gap in one of the wooden planks. In the large garden at the back a wind turbine stood proud in the center of a large rectangular area part sand part grass, the blades turning at a slow but constant pace. Beyond that was a single-story workshop area, which enveloped the garden on two sides to the west and north. Small and dirty windows were staggered along a stretch of it and on top it was covered by a series of solar panels. Various thick looking cables ran across from the turbine and solar panels into the workshop.

  “Dee, you hungry?” A voice drifted up the stairs from who Dee thought was Michael. Leaving his backpack, he ran to the top of the stairs and shouted in the direction he thought it came from, then walked down into the hallway.

  “Watch out Dee,” said Cal as he walked past holding three boxes, placing them down near the front door.

  “Where’s Brad?” Dee asked.

  “Showing Abbey all the tech,” said Cal. Dee followed him back down into the basement where Abbey and Brad were talking.

  “I’ve got a number of short wave receivers, some good old ones and a few more of the portable types,” said Brad, pointing at part of the table with some metal boxes on it. “Everything connects to the broadcast antennae on the roof. All the signals I get I funnel through the computers so I can control everything with software. There’s no Internet of course but these babies,” Brad turned and put his hand on a small rack of server boxes, “still make me feel connected.”

  “How do you power it all?” Abbey asked, as Cal, Michael and Zach all came through the open steel door with arms filled with boxes.

  “I’ve got three lithium-ion home batteries, two outback and one in here. To actually generate the power I use whatever I can, got a wind turbine out back, and my workshop is covered in solar panels. I’ve also got two gasoline generators, and plenty of gas to last me… well a long time. Foods a bigger problem than power, and water is a bigger problem than food,” said Brad.

  “Most of the stores we have seen have been well stocked with both still,” said Abbey, with an enquiring tone.

  “The problem isn’t the availability of it, it’s getting it with the E.L.F’s around,” said Brad. “You see all the E.L.F’s I know of are carnivores, and seeing most of the earth’s animals evolved into something which was hard to kill, humans became the easy option. Because of that it was the big population centers which drew most of the E.L.F’s, even a small city like Roswell.”

  Abbey swallowed hard.

  “Don’t worry young lady we are quite safe in here. Please sit down, take it all for a spin Zach tells me you are quite the computer wizard.”

  “Yeah, she’s great with computers!” said Dee, speaking up from the bottom of the stairs.

  Abbey beckoned him over. “Dee, come and take a look at all this cool stuff.”

  “Mr. Crenshaw…” Dee started to say.

  “Call me Brad.”

  “Can I charge my computer tablet anywhere? I miss playing games… I know it’s dumb with all that’s happened,” said Dee, looking guilty.

  “Not dumb at all, we all need to remember what our lives were like, sure have you got the right cable for it? If so you can plug it into any these ports,” said Brad.

  Dee’s face lit up and he r
an up the stairs. “I’ll be right back.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  The group all sat in the candlelit living room, on various chairs and a sofa eating a stew that Michael had made. Fiona looked at the black stained hole that was the fireplace.

  “Nothing more I would like to do than get that fire burning, but the smoke would literally be a smoke signal to our canine friends and whatever else is out there,” said Brad.

  Fiona gave an accepting smile and carried on eating. Silence fell upon everyone as they eagerly chowed down on the stew. “So you guys were all locked up until recently?” Ray choked a bit on his food.

  “Not me,” Jacob said. “I served the good people of Baldo New Mexico for twenty years.”

  “You’re a cop?” said Brad.

  “Sheriff.”

  “I see, I just mention it because it’s remarkable to me that the world ended and most of you had no idea.” Brad looked around the group. “I’m not sure if that was for the better or worse.”

  “From what we learned, I’m thinking for the better,” said Zach. Brad nodded.

  “So what do you know?” said Brad.

  Zach and Abbey took turns telling Brad what they had learned over the previous forty-eight hours. “So you know part of the story, but you don’t know how it all played out with the people and the military?” The group shook their heads in the negative. “I had been running a weekly internet radio show called ‘Roswell Central’, which was basically me trying to put out into the world what the government were really up to.” Fiona shifted in her chair. “Yeah I know what you are thinking, I’m one of tinfoil-hat brigade.”

  “Pretty much,” said Ray. Abbey shot him a frown.

  “No, no it’s okay, I’m used to it. My father worked as a contractor on the nearby airbase, and on his death bed… which was 1987, he told me some things, as well as leaving me a bunch of official papers which he ‘found’ shall we say, when he was working on the base during the fifties and sixties. The only stipulation he gave me was that our family name should never be associated with those papers.”

  “Aliens right?” Michael said enthusiastically, “No, I’m not making fun, everyone knows the little guys from another planet crashed near here.”

  “Well that’s the thing, the papers my father gave me mentioned nothing about aliens, what they did mention however was advanced propulsion systems, the kind that you can travel to other planets with. It was a prototype that crashed near here.’

  Michael looked disappointed. “So no aliens?”

  “Oh there are definitely aliens…”

  Michael punched the air. “I knew it.”

  “Just none that crashed at Roswell that I’m aware of,” said Brad smiling, “But back to more important matters, anyway I got these papers and it opened my eyes to what was really going on in the so called secret government. Back then I just broadcast my ‘show’ to a few on the Ham radio, then the Internet happened and the rest as they say is history. I was receiving reports from other conspiracy theorists around the world at the end last year, reports which nobody was taking seriously, at least not officially.”

  “Do you think the CIA, DOD knew what was happening?” said Fiona trying to keep her tone neutral.

  “Undoubtedly,” said Brad.

  “So why didn’t they get the government to act sooner?” said Cal.

  “My sources told me that what happened was a result of a black project that got out of hand, and the other branches of the secret services wanted to shut it down without anyone the wiser. Avoid embarrassment and all that. Problem is they waited too long.” Brad paused then continued. “Even when it hit the mainstream, the whole situation was ridiculed with the press putting it all down to chemicals in the water or some such nonsense. But the governments largely ignored it until the first waves of attacks happened back in February. First one was in southern Spain, a small town was attacked by an E.L.F. which they said used to be a locust, but had become these two to three-foot long flying spiked insects that attacked as a swarm, imagine flying piranhas and you get the picture, anyway most of the town was wiped out, women, children there was no difference to the creatures attacking them. After that the world sat up and took notice but more and more attacks were happening globally and the frequency of attacks was increasing weekly. The simpler life forms that changed first, took out a lot of the more complex un-evolved life forms before they themselves evolved, which in turn took out a lot of the simpler evolved life forms, it was complete chaos. All life on this planet had been thrown back into the melting pot.”

  Jacob put his bowl down. “So what you’re saying is that man went from being at the top of the food chain to the bottom in a matter of a few months.”

  “Yes...” Brad said with a sigh. “The scientists got together in May in Geneva…”

  “We read about that,” said Abbey.

  “Yeah, all the brightest minds humanity had to offer, and the conclusion they came to was there’s nothing they could do to stop it. Something had affected the genome of most of the animal-life and they said to reverse it would be impossible because it would mean genetically mutating all those creatures back to their original state, which not only did they not have the technology to do, but with all the creatures out there running wild they didn’t have the means to do either. So the message to all humanity was try to survive and kill as many of the E.L.F’s as possible, essentially ending all animal life on the planet for humanities survival. That didn’t go down so well with some folk.”

  One of the candles flickered and died making the light in the room even dimmer. Brad got up grabbed another candle from a box, lit it and sat back down again. “Then came the dumbest idea in our history, and when I say ‘our’ I mean mankind’s. The decision was taken to create huge camps all around the world, which would defend as much of humanity as possible. Like you mentioned, there were five created in the United States, two in the UK, twelve across mainland Europe etc. It varied but each one could hold around fourteen million people. And covered forty or so miles square…” Brad went to continue but could see Zach was about to say something.

  “My math’s has never been that great, but last I heard the population of this country was around three hundred million, five times…”

  Brad interrupted. “Meant a whole lot of people were left outside the camps.”

  “Jesus,” said Ray.

  Abbey looked anxious. “How did they decide who got into a camp and who was left outside?”

  “They supposedly used a lottery system, random selection and all that, but the rich and powerful all somehow managed to ‘win’ and get in, not that it helped them any,” said Brad.

  “What do you mean?” said Abbey.

  “That brings me back to the ‘dumb’ part, I mentioned some of this to Zach earlier, all the E.L.F’s, at least the ones I’m aware of are carnivores, they go to where the most meat is. By putting everyone in one place, they just up a huge sign saying…”

  “Yeah we get it,” said Fiona.

  “But you said these areas were well defended?” said Zach.

  “They were, latest state of the art weaponry, each camp had its own runway, underground storage facility, factories, and a hundred and ten-foot high wall running the entire length of the perimeter, with manned and automated machine gun posts. Some were even built into mountains. Wait I’ll show you…” said Brad standing and walking down to the basement and returning with a few pieces of paper with faded images on them. “This one is Portland.” Brad handed Zach an aerial image of a huge complex, made up of newly built multistory houses laid out in a grid formation, intermingled with larger buildings. There were also rows and rows of tanks and other military vehicles. Zach found it hard to believe it was only forty miles square in size, as the grid seemed to run on forever. Lower down in the image was a huge concrete wall with pill boxes two-thirds of the height, roughly every fifty yards. In front of the wall was a ditch similar in depth as the wall was high. The whole scene to Zach
looked like a futuristic medieval castle.

  “And that wasn’t enough defense?” Zach handed the images to Cal.

  “The problem was they had no idea what they were up against, all of this weaponry was designed to fight humans, not creatures that had evolved million years in a few months.”

  “Yeah but we put those canines down with the M4s,” said Zach.

  “That we did, but that was one type of E.L.F. and maybe ten we were up against. Don’t get me wrong, I watched those canine fucks take out… well kill a lot of the people in this town, but these camps attracted thousands of E.L.F’s, made up of hundreds of different types of creature, with many kinds of capabilities,” said Brad.

  “Capabilities?” said Jacob.

  “Ultimately this is what did for those camps. Or at least that’s what I’ve been told by the guys holding out in the other camps. Think of all the abilities that some animals had, for example echolocation in bats, these critters could find objects roughly seventeen meters ahead of them, now make that a hundred meters, and make the bat itself the size of a man with a twenty-foot wingspan. then there’s the other stuff…” Brad looked down, looking every bit his fifty-three years.

  “More?” said Fiona.

  “I have multiple reports, of E.L.F’s showing signs of advanced thinking. Some of the attacks on the camps by more than one E.L.F. showed strategic planning. There have also been signs of these things forming social groups, I’ve not seen any hard evidence of that myself but it has to be a possibility. It’s one thing if the nine-foot high creature with claws is a mindless beast, it’s a whole other kind of scary if it looks you in the eye and knows who you are,” said Brad.

  Different members of the group shook their heads, lost in their own thoughts, and everyone seemed to sigh at almost the same time.

  “So basically it’s the end of the world. I knew it would happen,” said Ray.

  “You said you had contact with the remaining two camps? They are surviving?” Zach asked.