by Phil Maxey
The door closed. Brett had continued groaning throughout the tirade but luckily the voice didn’t notice or didn’t care. Zach kept trying to wiggle his left hand, the cable wrapped around it had loosened a bit but he still couldn’t free it. A bigger problem was the rag in his mouth, which was slowly creeping down his throat. He knew if it continued he would most likely choke to death but without being able to use his hands he wasn’t sure how he would pull it out. Then he noticed a drawer that wasn’t completely shut. The top of it had a metal rim. Wiggling his body he shuffled over to the bottom of the unit and with a heave rotated and lifted his body so his face was up against the side of the drawer. He then moved his head left and right trying to get the rag to catch the corner of the metal rim. With only one eye this proved difficult but after a few attempts the rag caught and Zach slid to the ground leaving the rag still caught on the drawer.
“Brett!” said Zach, his words mixed with coughing. “Brett!” Brett didn’t respond, and worse still his groaning had stopped. Now he just lay there motionless.
Bass had been trying Zach on the radio again when the first shot rang out from the third story of the main building. He and the soldiers with him fell to the ground then scrambled to find cover. Another shot rang out and this one connected with one of the soldiers boots which made him scream out in agony. Bass looked across to the soldier and was relieved to see him crawl behind a tree.
“You okay?” Bass shouted to the soldier, who indicated that he was, while holding his foot. In the distance back on the airfield everyone dived for cover too. “Fiona, you there. Over.”
“I’m here, I can’t reach Zach on the radio. Over.”
“Nor me. That shot came from the third story of the building you are in. Did you see anybody in there? Over.”
“No one. Over.”
“You’re going to have to make your way to the third floor, they have us pinned down here. Over.”
“Will do. If you can keep their attention on you that would be real helpful. Over.”
“That we will do. Over.”
Fiona returned to the entrance lobby, then slowly climbed the stairs, her gun pointing upwards. Listening for any sounds, she peered into the first floor corridor and apart from one open door nothing looked out of place. The cracking sound of a gunshot rang out again from above her making her duck and crouch. Looking up the stairs there was still no sign of anyone. Keep looking at Bass, fucker.
She slowly crept up the stairs. Ignoring the second floor she made it to the third and looked into the corridor. It was a mirror of the first with a long corridor and a series of plain wooden doors, three of which were open. A sound of rustling came from ahead of her but it was hard to tell from which of the open doors it came. She crept forward, inch by inch over the carpeted floor until she came to the first door. No more rustling sound came from any of the rooms now. Slowly she looked around the first door. A young man with long dark straggly hair in army clothes crouched near a broken window. Just when she was going to shout, “Freeze.” she felt the cold tip of a gun barrel press into her neck.
As Cal slowly climbed the fire escape he wasn’t enjoying the view over the base and to the mountains beyond. He steadied himself, then continued climbing finally making it to the fourth floor window. The corridor inside was full of open boxes, plastic bottles and what looked like rags. By now Cal recognized that this was a space that had been lived in. Carefully he pushed the window up and climbed in continuously listening for another gunshot to try and triangulate where it was coming from. This corridor had fewer doors than the rest, each one opening to a large room. Cal peered into each with his gun barrel leading the way, but they were all empty of people. Bedding and more boxes littered most of them including on one wall a large painting depicting what looked some of the E.L.F’s Cal had seen before and strangely a large dark disc hovering above them. Cal walked closer to the painting, there was something about it, something… another gunshot rang out making Cal duck and pivot on the spot. There was no one behind him, but now he knew from where it was coming from, the floor below.
Fiona froze. A tingling sensation passed over her and she held her gun out to the side.
“Justin I got one, let’s put it down…” Another gunshot rang out, and Fiona’s heart jumped. Her mind blanked out, but then she realized the shot wasn’t loud enough for it to be right behind her, and why was she still thinking these thoughts if she had been shot in the head? The man in front of her with the greasy long hair shouted and raised his gun towards her when another shot rang out, again from behind. Fiona was still frozen, like a statue holding her gun out when all of this happened around her. An explosion of blood hit the broken panes of glass behind the straggly haired young man and he slumped to the side. Fiona turned and Cal was standing with his gun still pointing towards the body on the floor. Without thinking she threw her arms around him. Cal felt stiff in her arms but then relaxed, and she could hear his heartbeat slow down. Running could then be heard in the stairwell they came from and before they both had a chance to raise their guns, Zach appeared staggering forward, holding onto the wall.
*****
“Wow that’s one strange painting,” said Fiona to Cal who was standing a few feet from it. “They sure were full of crazy.” Cal didn’t respond. “You planning on peeling it off and taking it with you or something?” Still he didn’t respond. “Cal?” This time she said his name with a bit more force.
“What? Yeah sorry, I don’t know why, I just find it interesting,” he said smiling briefly in her direction.
She put her hand on his shoulder. “We need to leave, Rob got the supply truck running and it’s packed to the top with goodies,” her hand lingered, then pulled him around to face her. She then kissed him, turned and left the room. Cal stood there not knowing what the correct response should be but she had left the room by then anyway. He put his hand to his lips, then started to walk out, as he got to the door he took one last look at the painting and left.
Zach sat on the bus seat with a cold pack from their new medical supplies on his right eye. Brett had one as well a few seats further behind. Dr. Tanner was looking at Zach closer than he would have preferred.
“It’s hard to tell but it looks like just a really bad black-eye, it’s going to be hard to see out of it though for a few days, so no driving for you for a while.”
“I think Rob and Fiona have got that covered,” Zach tried smiling but instead it appeared as a sneer due to the right side of his face feeling numb from the cold pack and painkillers. “How’s…” Dr. Tanner answered before he could finish.
“Brett’s going to have a killer headache for a day or so, but he should be okay. It was a risk coming out here, and crazies notwithstanding looking at all the supplies we got and that truck, it was worth it.” She put her hand on Zach’s shoulder and gently squeezed, then moved to her seat.
Bass jumped on the bus and closed the door. Rob fired up the engine, and they left the base, Brett’s truck driven by Fiona, leading the way.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
They dropped Brett and his truck off at the station, then got back on their original route out of the city by the northwest. Nora burst out in tears when she saw her husband, but Brett put on a brave face, and when she saw the impressive looking M4’s assault rifles, grenades and ammo that had been left with them she knew it had been worth it. Fiona was driving the supply truck with Cal as the passenger.
“No Humvee, but I’ll take what we have got,” said Bass sitting in the seat in front of Zach. “And it gives us more space on this old bus.”
Soon they were driving up into the hills, and snow capped mountains were passing by. Even with what happened at the base they still managed to leave before noon and they were scheduled to make it to the next staging post around nightfall. Gradually a scattering of white powdered trees turned into a blanked of them as they headed deeper into southern Utah.
Fiona and Cal had not exchanged words since they had left. Event
ually the silence got the better of her.
“So you saved my life back there, those crazy fucks were definitely going to kill me.” Cal continued looking out the truck’s windows. “You’re not going to say anything?”
“There’s not much to say, he had a gun to your head so I killed him.”
“And then later, I kissed you.”
Cal smiled. “Yeah you did.”
“So that’s it, nothing else?”
“I’m not sure what you want me to say.”
Fiona let out a noise that was part anger and part frustration, the result of which was her letting go of that line of questioning. “That painting, it seemed to have like a spell on you or something.”
Images of the painting flickered in Cal’s mind. He had not been able to forget it since he had seen it, but he couldn’t understand why.
“Just looked good is all. I liked the colors.”
“Right,” Fiona said incredulously. “You like art?”
Cal had never been into art, but he felt telling her that would just lead to more questions, so he said he did. For the next hour as the small convoy headed east into Nevada, they talked about art and other things, and even though Cal thought he didn’t want to talk, he found the distraction from the dreams and painting gave him a sense of peace.
Abbey looked at Zach sitting next to her and watched his eyes close, and his breathing deepen as the medication he had just taken kicked in. His right eye was still roughly double the size of his left, and it looked more blue than a few hours earlier but Dr. Tanner said the swelling should go down within a day or two and his eyesight should return. But seeing him like this, for the first time since they had left the camp made her fear for what was ahead of them. She had come to trust him, trust his judgment even when he doubted it himself. She could feel the fear start to creep up her body and looking out the window at the mountains and snow covered fields just made her more anxious. She reached for the small metal key ring around her neck and placed it between her fingers, her breathing started to settle back down. It wasn’t so much that it was something that Zach had given her, more that it represented her life previous to the Cascade, and even though everything had changed so much, back in the Camp civilization still continued, the creatures out here had not won yet. Seeing that Zach was now in a deep sleep she looked over her shoulder and saw Michael reading an adult magazine and smiling happily to himself, getting up she quickly walked up the aisle and sat next to him, making him scramble to push the magazine under his thigh before she got settled.
“Chill out Michael, I’ve seen an adult magazine before. I just thought I’d see how you were?”
Michael smiled awkwardly sitting up slightly. “I’m doing okay, how’s Zach?”
“Tanner says his eyesight will return.” Her voice quivered a touch and Michael squeezed her hand.
“Zach’s tough, no crazy alien fool is going to bring him down.”
“Makes you wonder how none of us have gone crazy.”
“Maybe we were crazy to start and can’t get any crazier!”
Abbey giggled. “That might well be that case!” She then looked down, her smile falling away. “In a way though I felt sorry for those men, I’m glad we buried them.”
Michael swallowed. “Hey, I wanted to say thanks, for coming back for me in Albuquerque, I was a gonna for sure.”
“You would have done the same for me, right?”
“You know it sister.”
The land flattened out around them, and a mixture of frost covered shrubs and mounds of snow flowed past them for hour after hour. The only change in the landscape was a town they went through that Bass informed everybody was roughly the halfway point in their journey.
The snow started to take on a blue hue as the winter sun hung low in the sky. For a lot of the journey Raj has been writing notes and thinking about the events of the past few days. As he looked out into the Nevada plains, he noticed lines stretching for miles in different directions.
“What are they?” said Tyler sitting behind, noticing what Raj was looking at.
“I think they’re tracks, but of what I have no idea.”
“All these new creatures, it must be an exciting time for you.”
“We’re going to have to rename this bus the Beagle,” said Dr. Tanner sitting next to Raj. Tyler looked confused and Raj laughed.
“I’m not sure I would put myself in that kind of company,” said Raj with a smile but then looked more thoughtful. “But I guess it is a similar situation, anyway somebody has to do it if the human race is to find a place in this new world.”
Towards the front of the bus Zach opened his one good eye and looked out onto the fading light. Turning to his right, Bass was sitting next to him.
“How’s the finger?”
“Probably better than your eye.” said Bass smiling.
“Good thing about my eye is I can’t tell how bad it looks, and I’m avoiding mirrors best I can.” They both laughed, then Zach paused before continuing. “I can’t tell if you’re happy to be on this trip of ours, or not.”
“I’m happy to be serving, making a difference”
“How you end up in the camp?”
“Before Bravo I was in Delta, when it was obvious we were fighting a loosing battle, I helped with the evac to Bravo.”
“And before that? I detect a New York accent.”
“Brooklyn, until I enlisted.”
“Did your family get to a camp?”
“It was just me and my sister, she got to the camp in Boston, but then I lost touch with her some months back. They told us that you were an MP before ending up in prison?”
“Did they tell you why I was in there?”
Bass looked away. “Nah, above my pay grade, but it must have been something bad for you to be in New Mexico.”
“It was… you got someone special back in the camp?”
“Sophia, she’s my girlfriend. She was one of the people I helped evacuate from Delta.” Bass reached into his inside jacket pocket, and pulled out a small photo of an attractive woman in her late twenties.
“Looks like a nice young woman,” said Zach handing the photo back.
“Don’t let her looks fool you, she keeps me straight!” They both chuckled.
“How close do you think we are to the third staging post?”
“Maybe thirty to forty minutes.”
“I think it’s time we tried them on the radio.” Zach clicked on his radio and sent out a message to see if there was anyone out in the gloom ahead of them. Nothing came back for about five minutes then Zach’s radio crackled and came to life.
“This is Robert Frisk, I read you loud and clear Captain. You might have trouble getting to us, as the roads are quite thick with the white stuff. If you can make it onto highway eighty we will meet on the highway near the old inn. If not, let us know and we’ll try and come out. Over.”
Zach pulled out his original map, unfolded it best he could and tried to focus on the small words and place names but couldn’t. “I think you might have to find out where we are on this.” He said passing it to Bass, who looked at it closely.
“Right, I think I know where we are, or should be.” Bass then got up and moved alongside Rob, telling him the directions of how to get to the highway Frisk mentioned. After a few minutes they drove slowly up a snow-covered slope and onto a highway. Outside small white blurs fluttered around the convoy as it pushed forward. Their progress slowed as the snow on the highway started to stack up.
“Just so you know, I’m slowing down because we’re losing traction, and I don’t want us to end up on the side of the road, stuck.” Shouted Rob.
Frisks voice came from Zach’s radio again. “We can see your headlights. We’re going to get out in front of you and drive slow. You’ll catch up pretty soon then just follow us. Our base is just up ahead. Over.”
Soon after Frisks message, Rob spotted headlights in front of them belonging to a pickup, which they followed alo
ng the highway, then down an exit. Turning left they crossed a small bridge and passed a sign. “Argo Correctional Facility”. After a short drive Rob pulled up behind the lights, which had stopped outside a three story gray building with slits for windows. A door opened at its base and a point of light swayed behind the white filter that had descended from the dark gray sky above. Everyone started getting off the bus. Two men directed everyone from the parking spot to the open door and into the prison block.
“I’m Robert.” A medium height man, with ski glasses, and other winter clothing started to unwrap. Zach stepped forward and held out his hand as the others wondered slowly into the main hall of the block.
“I’m Zach Felton.” Robert took his glove off and shook Zach’s hand firmly. He was a man in his sixties with a good head of short-cropped gray hair.
“It’s good you made it here when you did, knowing this place, in another thirty minutes nothing will be moving out there, including any of those things.”
“How much problems have you had with them here?”
“Not much, as you probably know they like population centers, and we’re pretty remote out here. We get the occasional one poking around, but we take of them. Let’s get you all a warm drink and food.”
Robert led Zach into the large high ceilinged room, with a balcony running around the top of it, and cells off of that. More cells ran around the bottom of the room and extra tables and other pieces of furniture had been put in on the ground floor. About half the cell doors were open with people peering out of them at the newly arrived group. Another small group of people were already sitting at one of the larger tables eating and drinking.
“Please, everyone find a seat where you can, and help yourself to the food and drink that you see on the table there.”
Everyone started taking their coats off and sat where they could, Zach, Abbey, Jacob and Michael sat on one side of a table, while Robert and two other men sat on the opposite side. They each grabbed a plastic bowl and poured some soup in it from a large plastic container.