Cascade Collection

by Phil Maxey

  Once the creature’s back was exposed, he fired a number of rounds into it. Some bullets could be heard skirting off and splintering bark, but some also hit with a thud, and the creature staggered, letting go of Abbey’s leg. She had been screaming but her voice had been lost in the confusion. He ran closer and fired again, this time the creature threw its arms up to shield its face, and then turned and ran off with the speed of a sprinter.

  Zach ran up to Abbey. She sat up shivering and screaming. He kneeled down next to her, and looked at her leg. There was some blood from small puncture wounds, but nothing more.

  “Are you injured anywhere else?”

  Abbey looked at him, wide eyed, and silently shook her head.

  “Can you stand? I need to get back and check on Fiona.”

  He helped Abbey to her feet. She put some weight on her bloodied leg, but could slowly walk. “Okay, you need to hold onto your gun. I’m going to go and check on Fiona.”

  Abbey had completely forgotten about the Glock handgun she had in her side pocket, and pulled it out, looking at it like it was some strange exotic object. She immediately took the safety off, and pointed it in the direction the creature ran in.

  When Zach got to her, Fiona was sitting up against a trunk of a tree.

  He kneeled down. “Are you injured anywhere?”

  “I’m finding it hard to move my arm, I think I’ve dislocated my shoulder.”

  Zach helped her carefully remove her coat, and top, and saw straight away the strange wrong shape of her shoulder. “Yeah, I think you’re right. I’m going to fix that, you ready?”

  Fiona agreed.

  “You think you can not make any noise?”

  She threw him a sarcastic expression.

  “Okay, here we go.”

  Zach held her arm and pulled. She grimaced and groaned slightly, and then let out a deep breath.

  “I think it’s back in. Thanks. Did you get it?”

  “I put half a magazine into it, then it ran off.”

  Abbey appeared behind him, with her hand still holding the gun. She then kneeled next to Fiona, and gave her a hug.

  Fiona flinched, and then smiled. “Hey watch the shoulder.”

  “When it threw you, I thought you were done for. I thought we all were,” said Abbey.

  Zach stood up and looked around them. The forest had returned to its state of deafening silence. “That’s it, we have to go back.”

  Fiona slowly got to her feet using the trunk as her support. “Do what you gotta do, but I’m finding Cal.”

  Zach looked surprised. “That was just one of whatever is out here! Even if he’s still alive, there’s a good chance we won’t be if we stay out here!”

  Fiona, walked past him, brushing his shoulder and into the dense trees. It wasn’t long before she wasn’t visible anymore.

  “Zach, you can’t let her go alone, she’ll die out here!”

  Zach shook his head. “This is a bad idea, but fine.” He walked a few feet forward then stopped and turned to Abbey. “Fiona has her own reasons for trying to find Cal, but he’s not been right for a while. Tanner tried talking to me about him at the station, but I ignored her.”

  Abbey straightened her back. “Then we need to find out what’s going on.”

  Zach and Abbey caught up with Fiona as they came across a road.

  “Look!” Fiona ran forward to some regularly spaced indentations.

  Zach and Abbey joined her. “Harder to cover tracks when walking on the road,” said Zach.

  “Least we know he went this way,” said Abbey looking down at the hardly noticeable variations in the snow.

  Zach looked up to the watery sun. It was only a few degrees from being hidden by a mountain.

  “We only have maybe twenty minutes left of good light, we need to find shelter.”

  Fiona looked exasperated. “Yes, but we now have his tracks, any new snowfall and they are gone, we have to keep following them for as long as we can.”

  “Fine, but the first structure we come too, we stay there till first light, agreed?”

  Fiona dismissively nodded, and they all walked along the snow packed road, following the off-color holes amongst the powdery white.

  It wasn’t long before the grayness around them turned darker, and the pine needles and trunks all started to merge, with only the road being clearly visible.

  Zach took out his radio. “I’ll take the lead, the glow of the radio should be bright enough for us to see, but not to attract attention. We need to find shelter soon.”

  Fiona and Abbey fell in line behind him, walking only a few feet from each other. After another twenty minutes, Fiona spotted a break in the trees up ahead. As they walked forward in the almost complete darkness, cracks and creaks broke out around them.

  “We need to find shelter, now!” whispered Zach.

  They all started running, as the crunching of wood seemingly followed them. The dark shadow of a two-story house loomed across a glowing white snow covered lawn. Running as fast as their legs would carry them, they crossed the lawn and jumped onto the front porch, pushing the door open and closing it behind them with a thump.

  Zach held his radio up so the glow would illuminate a small area around him, and in the gloom he saw Fiona and Abbey out of breath leaning against the walls. He then moved into a side room and carefully peered through the iced up window to the area they just ran across, but there was only the complete black of tree shaped silhouettes against a dark gray sky.

  “There were things around us, did you hear them?” whispered Fiona.

  Just as Zach went to reply, Abbey started screaming. A dark form was in the passage area with them, and it was grabbing at Abbey.

  A rasping voice could just be heard amongst Abbey’s screams and scuffling. “Make it stop, make it stop.”

  Zach dived at the shadow form, sending them both tumbling to the ground. He instantly felt the cold clammy skin of a human, and brought his radio’s glow up to the persons face, it was Cal. But this wasn’t the Cal that they left New Mexico with or even the man they saw the night before, this was something disheveled and pitiful. For a moment Zach stopped trying to hold Cal’s flailing arms, in shock as to what he was looking at, but then he grabbed both and held them down.

  “It’s Cal! Help me shut him up. He’s going to bring down whatever’s out there on top of us.”

  Fiona dropped to the floor and held his head, while placing her hand across his mouth causing his rants to become muffled. Abbey still shaken watched from the bottom of the stairs.

  “Where’s this blood from? What’s wrong with his forehead?”

  “Hold him still!” shouted Zach as quietly as he could, while holding the radio’s light up to Cal’s face.

  Across Cal’s forehead was the word “Arclight.”

  “Arclight?” whispered Fiona, looking up to Zach. “What the fuck is Arclight?”

  Zach went to reply, but before he could Abbey, now standing did.

  “Did you say Arclight?”

  They couldn’t see her expression, as she was just a dark shape amongst the intense darkness around them, but they could sense something in her voice, recognition.

  “Yes, he has the word ‘Arclight’ scratched into his skin on his forehead, why?” said Zach.

  Abbey kneeled down next to them, and leaned over Cal who had now become very still. She mumbled something to herself.

  Zach put his hand on Abbey’s shoulder. “What, was that?”

  “Arclight.”

  Fiona went to respond, when Cal suddenly grabbed Abbey by the shoulders and leaned close to her face. “Tell the Arclight we accepted.”

  Before anyone could respond Cal fell back to the floor seeming unconscious. Abbey sat stunned.

  Fiona checked Cal’s pulse. “He’s breathing, he seems to have passed out.”

  “Must be a coincidence,” Abbey said the words in a hushed tone, more to herself than those around her.

  “What’s a coincid
ence?” responded Zach, almost pleading for her to be more forthcoming.

  Abbey looked at Zach and then Fiona, looking bewildered. “Arclight, used to be my hacker name.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  They all sat against the kitchen cupboards, their faces lit by the neon blue glow from the stove. After Cal passed out earlier, they moved him into the kitchen, thinking the same as him, that it would be a good defensive position. Fiona also spotted the open cupboard door below the stove, and was similarly surprised when she turned the nob and it lit up. Abbey was pretty shook up, and Zach didn’t want to leave her alone with Cal, so Fiona stayed with both of them, while he explored the rest of the house. He almost fired at a large cardboard cut out of a Sasquatch that stood at the end of one of the corridors, but apart from that just found plain rooms. He grabbed as much bedding as he could and brought it to the kitchen.

  Cal’s head rested in Fiona’s lap. “I think he’s sleeping.”

  “He looks better,” said Zach.

  Abbey sat close to both of them, but was not looking at Cal, seemingly lost in her own thoughts.

  Fiona looked at Abbey. “So your hacker name was Arclight? And Cal just happens to have it carved into his skin? By I suspect, himself?”

  “I don’t know why that name is… on him,” Abbey’s words came out as if she didn’t want to speak them.

  “Yes, but…”

  “I don’t know!”

  Zach went to touch her, but she pulled back. “Abbey, whatever reason he did this to himself, I’m sure it’s not your fault. Maybe he heard you say the name, at some point and it became wrapped up in his mind with other things.”

  “What kind of hacking did you do for the government?” Fiona’s tone was inquisitorial.

  Zach looked at Fiona, with a stern expression. “What difference does that make?”

  Abbey turned slightly towards Zach. “It’s okay. I was part of a team that investigated corporations and wealthy individuals.”

  Fiona frowned, her mind rolling over what Abbey just told her, but not being able to make sense of how that was connected in any way to what was on Cal’s forehead. She then looked down at Cal. “He’s been off since we encountered those crazies at the base, maybe even before that. I should have said something, maybe if I had we wouldn’t be sitting here now, and that young guy...”

  “What’s happened is going to affect each of us differently, and you can’t discount our lives inside, or our lives before that, it’s all there waiting to fuck us up,” said Zach.

  Fiona nodded.

  “Anyway, he seems to be better, maybe coming out here was something he needed to do, for whatever reason.”

  “They still won’t accept him back at the fort,” said Abbey looking sad.

  “I never planned on staying there anyway.”

  Zach went to talk again, when Fiona put her hand up. Zach put his hand on his gun, and Abbey instinctively did the same with her handgun.

  “I thought I heard something,” said Fiona.

  Zach slowly got to his feet, and crept to the passage door pushing it open a few inches. He listened into the gap. A distant thudding noise came from somewhere in the house above him.

  “Wait here,” said Zach, as Fiona lifted Cal’s head and placed it gently down on some crumpled up sheets.

  He pushed the door open more and looked into the intense black of the passageway and listened. The padding thudding noise continued and seemed to be coming from far above him. Taking his radio out, he angled it forward to light his path and walked into the passage. The orange glow just had enough strength to make it to the far wall where the front door was, but Zach still had to strain his eyes to make out any details. On the roof? He got to the bottom of the stairs and pointed the radios LCD screen upwards. The carpeted staircase rose upwards to a small landing, and then turned to a second flight. The thudding had stopped. Resisting the urge to look out of the front windows of the house again, he walked gradually up the stairs arriving at the first landing, and then turned and continued until he was at the top. This time he knew what to expect when looking to the left and the radios light gave enough light to make out the bright lettering on the Sasquatch advertising board. He then turned to the right and lifted the radio. At the end of the right corridor another dark shadow stood in the shape of a man. What’s that? Another cardboard cutout? But then he saw it. A small plume of white mist emanating from the head shaped area. Fuck. Stepping backwards as slowly as he could he raised his gun, while trying to keep the light from the radio focused down the right corridor to give him some kind of indication of movement. The thudding started again, but this time it wasn’t high above him, it was just a few yards away.

  Turning he ran, leaping best he could down the stairs in the dark and crashing into the bottom most stair rail. He sensed something behind him coming down the stairs, but kept moving, punching the kitchen door open. He then pushed it shut, just as he did something heavy slammed into it, scratching at the veneered wood.

  “Quick, the fridge, you need to get it over here, in front of the door!” said Zach, desperately trying to resist being pushed away from the door, by the thing on the other side.

  Fiona jumped up and ran to the large fridge, and struggled to move it. “What the fuck is it?” said Abbey joining her, the fridge beginning to slide across the floor, making a scratching noise as it moved.

  “I… don’t… know,” said Zach straining to keep their only exit closed.

  No noise came from the creature, other than snorting and the sound of wood breaking and splintering and an intermittent thud of it slamming into the door and Zach pushing it back closed again.

  After what seemed like minutes, but was much quicker Fiona and Abbey managed to get the fridge close to Zach.

  He swiveled around replacing his back with his legs and shoulder at the door. “Get me the flashlight from the backpack.”

  Abbey quickly got it and gave it to him. The creature slammed against the door again, it opened a few inches before Zach pushed it closed. “I’m going to flash this in its eyes, hopefully it will become disorientated, and then we all push the fridge against the door, ready?”

  They all nodded. He then tore the door open and pushed the now lit torch into the gap. The creature let out a sound half scream half gurgled cry and fell back and for a moment Zach saw a dark green humanoid form, with thousands of squirming, wriggling worm like creatures all over it. Lost in the sea of movement that was its head, were at least two dark eyes. Zach slammed the door closed and they all heaved the fridge into place. A few seconds passed before the creature slammed up against the door again, but this time it hardly moved. After a few more weakening attempts, the area beyond the door fell silent.

  They all sat with their backs against the fridge, breathing heavily in the flashlight’s beam. Cal continued sleeping.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Zach woke, his eyes opening to a bluish light coming from the snow-laden window. He was warm, buried under a good few sheets with Abbey next to him, but he could feel the ice cool of the air in the kitchen on his face. After the creature attacked, they pushed more objects up against the fridge, and then each made a comfortable position to sleep in, and tried to get some rest. For Zach sleep came quick, even though he tried to resist, being unsure if the thing he stumbled into had truly gone.

  He sat up. Cal and Fiona were sitting at a small table at the other end of the kitchen. Cal was smiling.

  Zach quietly removed himself from under the sheets and walked over to the table. Cal went to talk, but Zach talked first. “What’s done is done. How you feeling now?”

  Cal smiled and sighed. “I slept, it’s been a while since that happened.”

  “Do you remember last night? How you ended up with that?” Zach pointed to Cal’s forehead.

  “I remember being in the room, and I vaguely remember putting the kid down, Fiona told me he was still alive when you left.”

  Zach sat on the bench next to Fiona and opp
osite Cal. “Tanners working on him, I know she will do her best to save him. What about the rest? Why did you leave the fort?”

  Cal sighed again. Fiona put her hand on his. “Early on in the journey to the Portland camp, I started having these dreams. At first I thought it was because of the crash in the Humvee, either the hit to the head or the drugs the doc gave me. But even after my wounds healed, the dreams kept on coming. And then I started getting a drumming in my head, like something was inside my skull trying to break out.”

  “And now?” Abbey startled them all by her question, from her makeshift bed across the other side of the kitchen.

  “That was the first sleep I’ve had for a long while and no dream. The drumming seems to have stopped as well. As for this…” he felt the dried blood and flayed skin on his forehead. “I don’t remember doing it, but the word is from my dreams. There was this figure.”

  Abbey walked up, clutching a blanket around her and sat down next to Cal. “Who was the figure?”

  Cal shook his head. “I don’t know, but he talked in this strange voice, like it was coming from underwater.”

  “What did he say?” said Fiona.

  “Tell the Arclight we accepted.”

  “You said that to Abbey last night, before you passed out, you remember?”

  Cal looked at Abbey. “No. Fiona told me, you used to use that name when you were a hacker?”

  She nodded.

  “I must have heard you say it sometime.”

  “No.”

  “What do you mean ‘no’, how else would he of heard it?” said Fiona angrily.

  “I don’t know. But the last time I used that name was almost seven years ago.”

  Fiona stood up frustrated. “As if this shit needed to get any crazier,” she took a breath then continued. “So what we doing? What if we get back to the fort and the kids dead? Then what? We can’t take Cal back there.”