Cascade Collection

by Phil Maxey

  “Barely, Portland is in a worse state than Austin. They’re down to maybe twenty thousand people. I give them maybe a few weeks. If it wasn’t for the nukes I doubt there would be any humans left alive on this planet, and that even includes all of you.”

  “We heard they were dropped on hotspots?” said Abbey.

  “’Hotspots’ meant camps, unfortunately. Those particular camps were overrun, then the E.L.F’s attracted more of their kind, it couldn’t have been an easy decision but it might have saved the human race, at least given us all some more time,” said Brad.

  Abbey noticed Dee’s head was down, with his knees up against his face, she put her arm on his shoulder.

  “Question is, what do we do now?” said Cal.

  Before anyone could answer Abbey interjected. “Dee, you must be tired, maybe now’s a good time to get some rest?” He solemnly nodded, slowly got up and walked upstairs.

  Zach’s expression was one of deep thought. “Can’t the Portland people get to Austin?”

  “Twenty thousand people across the country? Even without the E.L.F’s that wouldn’t work. It’s just bad luck that the two remaining camps are the furthest apart.”

  “An airlift?”

  “They don’t have the fuel anymore.”

  “Did they try chemical or biological weapons against the E.L.F’s?” said Fiona the words rushing out of her mouth.

  “They tried both at various locations across the planet, sometimes it worked, sometimes it had no effect, there were just too many E.L.F’s to take out.”

  Silence enveloped the living room once again, the candles almost making their own noise.

  “Austin is surviving?” said Abbey, but before Brad could answer Zach spoke.

  “What about people who were left outside the camps, do you have any contact with anyone?”

  Brad looked at Abbey first. “Austin is holding its own, they started with the lowest population, that might have helped their cause, and they have a large underground complex, also for some reason they haven’t been attacked by huge numbers of E.L.F’s like the other camps were. As for people outside, well there are small pockets of survivors dotted around, mostly keeping their heads down, that’s pretty much how I’ve survived, I used to be off the government’s grid, now I’m off the E.L.F’s grid.”

  He smiled at these last few words then turned to Cal. “Cal, is it?” Cal nodded. “You asked what do we do now? Well that’s up to you and your friends, I’m doing okay here, I’ve got supplies to last a few years. If you’re thinking of fighting back? There is no fighting back, there’s just not being one of those bastards meal today, or tomorrow or the day after.” Brad got up, “Anyone want a drink? I’ve got some whiskey and spirits around here somewhere. I don’t usually drink, but then I don’t usually have guests.”

  “I’ll have a shot,” said Ray. Brad indicated to the others.

  “Sure, whatever spirits you got,” said Fiona.

  “Same here,” said Abbey.

  “Yup,” said Michael. Zach, Cal and Jacob shook their heads. Brad picked up a candle and disappeared into the gloom of the other half of the house.

  “So what’s the plan?” said Jacob in a steady tone of voice. Brad could be heard opening and closing cupboards, muttering to himself.

  “You mean apart from stay alive in this world that no longer wants us?” said Michael.

  “Yes,” replied Jacob.

  “We have seen maybe four types of these things, and yet there are hundreds more out there?” said Fiona.

  Brad reappeared with a bottle under his arm and another in his non-candle holding hand. “This is all I got.” He put the bottles and candle down on the coffee table. He then went to a cupboard along the wall and pulled down some glasses and poured out the drinks. “You folks must be a bit bewildered even being pretty tough sons-a-bitches.” Brad smiled, handing out everyone’s drink.

  “We were just wondering what our options are,” said Cal.

  “I guess there’s no point any of us trying to find our families.” Abbey’s words came out more as a statement than a question.

  Brad, took a small sip of whiskey. “Unless your family made it to the Texas camp, probably not.”

  “If there’s nothing that can be done for the Portland camp, then that just leaves Austin,” said Zach.

  “I’m sure Trow would be happy to have you, regardless of your pasts.”

  “We were in a military prison, maximum security,” said Zach.

  “I see, well still, beggars can’t be choosers as they say, I can talk to Trow on your behalf if you want, see what she wants to do, but I suspect she doesn’t care what you did before the Cascade happened.”

  “We keep hearing that word ‘Cascade’, what does it mean?” said Fiona.

  “It was the term the scientists came up with, an evolutionary event which happens exponentially, basically run-away evolution,” said Brad. “Looks like some of you need to hit the sack.” Michael was slumped in the armchair, head on a pillow behind him.

  “Yeah maybe we should pick this conversation up in the morning,” said Zach.

  Brad stood. “I’ll be up for some hours yet, if anyone wants to have a chat you know where to find me.” He then walked into the hallway.

  Cal went to nudge Michael, but noticed Zach motioning to leave him where he was. Fiona finished the rest of her drink in one gulp.

  “You up for sharing?” said Fiona to Abbey. “That means you should all have a single bed to your own, unless of course you want to share with each other as well.” Zach smiled. Ray grumbled.

  “Sure,” said Abbey.

  Everyone but Zach walked up the stairs. He sat looking at the pictures of the camp in Portland, then picked up the bottle of drink and walked down to the basement.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  “Crenshaw you there? Over.” A stern but concerned female voice interspersed with crackling, emerged from a paint chipped green metal speaker box. Brad woke with a start, not quite being aware of his surroundings. Sitting up he grabbed at his bedside lamp, almost knocking it off the small wooden table it sat on. Turning the lamp on, he pushed his glasses onto his face and looked towards his work desk and radios. “Crenshaw, come in. Over.” The old glow-in-the-dark UFO clock that hung on his wall displayed 7:45 am.

  “Damn.” He stood up and ran across to the desk, sat down and picked up a silver metallic looking mike. “I’m here. Sorry was bit of a late one. Over.”

  “Did you make contact with them? Over,” said General Trow.

  “Yes, yesterday. They’re all here. Over.”

  “Will they be useful? Over.”

  “Yes, I believe so, they are all… well they are all your colleagues so to speak. Over.”

  “Military? Over.”

  “It’s a bit of a story, which I’m sure you don’t have time for me to tell you. They were all in a military prison in New Mexico, got out a few days ago and made their way here, they had no idea of what happened, were completely cut off.” Brad paused trying to shake the sleep from his mind, then continued, “Over.”

  No response came from the speaker then, “Which branches?”

  “I don’t know all of them, but one’s Military Police, one EOD, one computer systems, another a sniper, not sure about the others, although I think one of the girls is intelligence services of some kind, maybe CIA.” Again there was a pause on the other end of the transmission.

  “Tell them that if they come to Austin I will reinstate them at their previous ranks, with a full pardons.”

  “Even without knowing what they did before? What if they are psychos? Over.”

  “You have been watching them for the past few days. Do you think they are psychos? Anyway I’ll take what I can get.”

  “They’re not the most trusting of the military.”

  “Can you pass message on to them. Over.”

  “No problem, I will do that. How are things there? I’ve not heard from Portland now for over twenty-four
hours. Over.”

  “We had a transmission from them last night, there’s less of them now… so the supplies they have will last longer, if they can survive the attacks. If things get worse I will send a rescue mission to see if we can grab any of them and bring them here. Over.”

  “That’s quite some way to try a rescue mission. Over.”

  “We have to try… Over.”

  “And in Austin? Over.”

  A muffled knock came from the door to the upstairs.

  “Come in,” said Brad over his shoulder.

  “Sorry to interrupt, do you want some coffee?” said Abbey, peering around the door.

  “Sure.”

  Abbey closed the door quietly.

  “Had a few that made it over the walls last night, but nothing we couldn’t take care of. Over,” said Trow.

  “Good to hear, well you take care and I’ll let you know what they say. Out.”

  Brad put the mike down, and sat in his technological cave still trying to wake up. Realizing he was sitting there in his underwear, he laughed to himself. The sound of muffled chat and knocks emanating through the ceiling above was as alien to him as the sounds the E.L.F’s made, but these noises were comforting. He had always been happy with his life as a loner and even after his wife Marie died he preferred his solitude and never felt lonely in all the empty space the house offered. But the cascade changed that, for the first time in years he had felt alone. The sounds above his head reminded him it was possible for life to continue. He heard someone start to walk down the stairs to the basement and quickly ran back to his bed and jumped into some pants. A knock similar to before came from the door.

  “Come in,” said Brad.

  “Sorry I forgot to ask if you wanted milk or sugar,” said Abbey, offering Brad the mug.

  “First time in fourteen years anyone has made coffee for me in this house, I’m sure it’s fine,” said Brad smiling, the coffee fragrance somehow more rich than when he made his own. “Who else is awake?”

  “Fiona, Michael, Cal and Jacob, I think Ray is still sleeping and Zach is just getting up.”

  “Me and Zach were up to the early hours exchanging war stories. He might have a heavy head this morning.”

  Abbey smiled. “Was that one of the camps, I heard you talking to someone?”

  “That was General Trow, at the Austin camp, we keep in touch usually around this time.” Abbey looked impressed. “Me and Catherine go back a-ways.”

  “What’s the situation there?”

  “Considering everything, Austin is doing okay, thank God, Portland though…” His voice trailed off. “General Trow said she’s willing to attempt a kind of rescue mission if things get to the point of no return. She also gave me a message to pass on, but I think it’s better I explain to all of you at the same time. I’ll be up in a bit.”

  “Okay,” said Abbey, turning, and starting to close the basement door.

  “Abbey?”

  “Yes?” said Abbey with one foot on the bottom step.

  “How’s the kid? All what he heard last night must have been a lot for someone so young.”

  “I had a quick chat with him this morning, he seemed okay, was busy playing a game on his tablet.”

  “Good,” said Brad his mind seemingly elsewhere for a moment. “Okay thanks, I’ll be right up.” Abbey closed the door and continued up the stairs.

  Brad smelled the coffee then took a small sip knowing it was probably too hot, but not caring. From across the room he could see the computer monitor with his microphone grid across Roswell displayed in simple neon lines with numbers next to each node showing the level of noise the microphones were picking up. The node near the office building showed a small amount of noise but nothing to get bothered about. He would spend hours looking at that grid, watching the numbers rise and fall, plotting the movement of creatures around the city but not knowing exactly what they were. He’d programmed his software to alert him to speech, incase a human was near the mike but had never received such an alert until a few days ago. Putting his coffee down he put on a flannel shirt, tucking it into his light khaki combat pants, then picked up his coffee, opened the basement door and walked up stairs.

  “Morning,” Brad said to Ray as Ray walked through the hallway to the living room. Ray grumbled something back, which Brad didn’t pick up.

  Zach came out of the kitchen with a coffee. “Hey, any communication with the camps?”

  “That’s what I want to talk to everyone about, Trow has given me a message for all of you.” Brad looked into the living room to see who was in there. Cal and Michael were on one of the sofas, Ray was in the armchair, but nobody else. “Where are the others?”

  “Abbey’s in the kitchen with Jacob, Fiona I’m not sure,” said Zach.

  Fiona had crept past Brad after Zach told her he was in a deep sleep, and escaped up the outside stairs and into the back garden just before sunrise. Following the cables from the wind turbine she made her way to the back of the area and with a pocket knife managed to shimmy the lock open to Brads large workshop area. Exploring the workshop with a key ring torch she discovered large amounts of canned goods, plastic bottles of water and two gasoline generators, but beyond that nothing that Brad had not already told them about. She returned to the house and made it through the basement without Brad even moving in his sleep.

  “Did I hear my name?” said Fiona walking down the stairs.

  “Brads got a message for all of us from Trow in Austin,” said Zach.

  “Can we all gather in the living room for a moment,” Brad said, raising his voice in the direction of the kitchen. Abbey appeared, Jacob was still nowhere to be seen but Brad thought this was just for the rest of them anyway. They all stood and sat around the mahogany coffee table facing Brad who was at one end of it.

  “So I talked to General Trow in Dallas and she has told me that if you go to Austin to help out she will reinstate all of you to your former ranks and give you a full pardon of your crimes.” A shocked silence descended in the room.

  Ray scratched his chin. “Uh huh. The world must have really ended.”

  “And she’s going to give us this in writing, right?” said Michael.

  “Seriously?” said Abbey to Michael.

  “I just want it to be official,” said Michael.

  “If Trow gives her word it’s official,” said Brad.

  “Why does she want us in Austin? Hasn’t she got enough personnel?” said Zach.

  “She’s heavy on the personal but what she needs is guys.” Brad paused. “Excuse me, and girls who can do what needs to be done. She didn’t hesitate to make this offer once I told her about your group.”

  “Sounds like an offer you can’t refuse,” said Jacob, standing in the doorway sipping on coffee.

  “I’m not sure I want back in,” said Fiona.

  Brad stood. “I’m going to check on the perimeter alarms, you discuss it amongst yourselves.” He then left the room.

  “We should do our bit, help out,” said Cal.

  “You heard the guy last night, talking about lots of people being in one place being an easy target for these creatures, why would we go and add to that?” said Ray. “If we stick together we can get by fine.”

  “I get that you have been away longer than any of us, but she’s offering us a full pardon and a chance to change this shit around, maybe Austin is all there is left of the human race, and if I can do something to help I’m going to,” said Abbey in a tone, which came across as prouder than she planned. Everyone looked at Zach, who was staring intently into his coffee.

  “Zach? You going to pitch in on this?” Fiona asked.

  Zach sighed. “I guess it comes down to what kind of life we all want. Most of us had a life before we ended up in New Mexico, maybe even a good life.” He paused, then continued. “Then all of that was taken away from us, and we thought our lives were over.” He put the coffee down and looked up at the group. “Then we got out and discovered that th
e world was over, but strangely our lives weren’t. This is the world we got, and we can either crawl back into a hole like we just came out of, or we can kill those things out there that are trying to take our home from us. I’m going to Austin.”

  Abbey swallowed, her eyes glistening. “Me too.”

  “God damn it,” said Ray.

  “I guess they always need cooks right?” said Michael.

  *****

  Brad pressed buttons on his keyboard and brought up different maps of the surrounding area. White circles pulsed out from various points on the map which didn’t cause him any alarm, and he switched to a different screen showing his inventory. He checked this daily and amended it accordingly. He liked the routine and just because his house was full of people didn’t mean he wasn’t going to do it. He heard them debating whether to go to Austin above his head and had to stop himself from guessing what their answer would be. He didn’t have to wait long as fifteen minutes after he first sat at his desk, he heard feet coming down the basement stairs. Then there was a stronger knock than before.

  “Come in,” he said. Zach opened the door and walked into the basement. “Did you vote on it?”

  “Didn’t need to, most of us felt we need to go to Austin, the ones that didn’t can do what they please, but I think we will all end up going. Why don’t you come with us?” said Zach already knowing the answer.

  “And leave my palace here?” Brad smiled. “I’ve lived here for over twenty years, and this is where my final days will be. Anyway Trow likes me out here, gives her some eyes in a place where she doesn’t have any.”

  “We need to work out the route, and go over that with you and anyone at the Austin camp who has ideas as to what’s between us and them. Ideally, we will leave tomorrow, if we can get our supplies sorted out before then.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  It was still dark with a chill in the air when Zach, Cal and Michael started putting their supplies into the truck and pickup. They didn’t need to take as many as before, but still filled both vehicles up with a good amount. Brad had told them that a lot of the E.L.F’s hunt at night, but they felt moderately secure being outside due to Brad’s early warning system. Still though, they ran between the basement and vehicles as fast as they could, trying not to spill their boxes contents. Once all the supplies were packed, they filled up the vehicles with diesel and gasoline from Brads supplies. Brad had told Trow the group agreed to go to Austin, and they had worked out a complicated route that kept them away from large towns, and known areas of high E.L.F. activity. Austin also didn’t want them drawing any E.L.F. attention to the camp so it was agreed they be met at an abandoned nearby town then be taken by guard the rest of the way. That didn’t sit too well with Zach, but they were told it was the only way. The route was roughly six hours. They calculated they should get to their destination around early afternoon. The group stood in the basement, in front of them on the ground was a number of different colored backpacks.