by Phil Maxey
When Zach, Fiona and Michael entered the food store they were taken aback by the sheer chaos that was strewn across the floors in front of them. The building was full of most of its former content’s, except instead of being where they should be, neatly arranged on shelves, they were across the smooth surface at their feet. Smashed bottles, blown packets of all varieties of chips, cookies mashed into dust and hundreds of cans, all lying in a cacophony of opportunity. Michael commentated that it might even be possible for an E.L.F to be lying in wait under all this ‘goodness’ and they wouldn’t know. The others weren’t sure if he was joking or not.
Caroline picked up small bottles of pills and white packets with hardly visible bumps, examining them before either putting them back or dropping them in the cart. “So how long have you all been together?”
Fiona watched into the darkness of the back of the store, her gun in both hands. “For a while.”
“You were in the army together?”
“Something like that.”
One of the bottles, Caroline opened, dropped one of the tablets in her hand, then quickly popped it into her mouth before twisting it shut, and continuing her search. “So it’s your job to bring back survivors to the camp near Austin?”
“Yup.”
Caroline stopped and looked at Fiona. “You’re not much of a conversationalist are you?”
“No offence, but I’m here to make sure you don’t become monster food, not become best buds,” Caroline turned and continued searching. Fiona sighed, her words came out angrier than she meant. Making female friends was never something she found easy. “We find people and bring them back to Camp Bravo, but we’re not part of the main convoy with most from the Portland camp, that’s been headed up by someone else.”
“They are taking heavy losses from what Travis told me.”
“They have a lot of protection, I’m sure they will make it back to Bravo,” Fiona surprised herself by how well she lied.
The sound of carts, creating a path through plastic wrappers and broken shards came from the front of the store. Zach’s voice came from Fiona’s radio. “You done? Over.”
Fiona looked at Caroline who heard the question. “Tell him, almost… I just need to find a few more things.”
“Few more minu…” Fiona stopped. A sound like a distant train suddenly filled the small space of the pharmacy they were in. “Zach, you here that? Over.”
“Yes, we have to go now. Over.”
Fiona ran forward and grabbed the handles of Carolines cart. “We need to go, they are coming.”
Michael stood looking anxious, his brow furrowed from the icy rain hitting his face. “Man, I don’t know to watch the ground or the sky.”
“Just help me get all of this in the back,” Zach pushed the carts best he could, not being able to stop them from giving another slight dent to Caroline’s pickup.
Fiona and Caroline appeared running from within the gloom with a packed cart. It bumped over the curb, causing a few packets of pills to fall and scatter across the concrete. Grabbing them up, they then started scooping up the contents and throwing it in the back of the vehicle.
The low drumming sound was less pronounced outside, but it was still there, lingering in the recesses around them.
Finishing up, Zach closed the tailgate, and jumped back in the pickup to join the others eagerly wanting to leave.
“Anyone see anything?” said Zach putting his seatbelt on.
“No, I can’t hear anything either,” said Fiona.
As Caroline drove away, the glass in the buildings around them, which was vibrating to a silent battle cry, stilled.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
A young child, with short dark hair sat watching Sam. “So you’re like a robot or something?”
“That’s exactly what I am, do you want to see my robotic leg?”
Isaiah rolled his eyes, sitting next to him on the bus.
Sam pulled his pants leg up, revealing a steel and carbon fiber prosthetic.
“Whoa, that’s so cool. Can you like run really fast?”
Isaiah sniggered. “Shit, he can’t even hop fast.”
Sam gave him a disparaging look, then returned to his enthusiastic audience. “If I’m chased by a six legged bear, sure.”
The young boy laughed.
Irene and Mary, both sat in silence, Sam’s conversation with the kid clearly audible from their place on the bus.
Irene leaned towards Mary. “He seems a good guy, why don’t you talk to him. I know you like him.”
“Ssshhh” said Mary slightly embarrassed.
“What are you waiting for! For the world to end again?”
“I know, I know, I just… I have responsibilities, anything could happen. Maybe once we get to the camp. Anyway, if you like him so much, why don’t you talk to him?”
Irene leaned back in her seat. “Maybe I will.”
They had been on the road for an hour. Esther had been in tears leaving Travis and Corey, but the supplies Zach and the others brought back had given those leaving hope that the two remaining would survive okay. Zach asked Travis for some time with their long range radio, so he could talk to General Trow and told her they should be back in Roswell in a day or two, roughly the same time the large Convoy should pass through there as well. They had decided to avoid going through or even near Salt Lake City, and instead headed due south, taking them close to the route they took on their way to Portland.
Frosted clumps of yellow-beige grass surrounded by white crisp snow stretched to the horizon on both sides of them, as the small convoy sped along.
“I can’t believe I’m going to say this but, it’s good to be back in the desert,” said Abbey admiring the barren ice blue landscape around them.
Zach smiled. “Yeah yeah, let’s see how you feel by time we get to Brad’s.”
Fiona’s head was down, looking at one of their maps. “In another hour, we will pass within eighty miles of the Prison outpost, if we needed to make a stop.”
“That’s too far out of our way, and I want to get a good amount of miles done today.”
“What is our destination by nightfall?” said Jacob in Zach’s direction.
“Whatever the closest town is to us around 4 p.m. When we are closer to that point we will narrow it down.” Zach glanced in the mirror at Cal sitting passively between Fiona and Jacob. He wasn’t completely at ease with him being back there with an assault rifle close at hand, but he also didn’t like the idea of him being on any of the buses and out of reach. Zach hadn’t had time to decipher what had been going on with him, that was Fiona’s job.
Cal looked at the snow capped mountains as the others talked of where they were meant to end up, at the end of another desperate attempt to escape their fates. Their voices all blurred and he found himself thinking of the young man he had killed. Jason and he had briefly scuffled in the dark. Cal had no intention of hurting him like he did, but Jason slipped on the ice and hit his head. He should have gone back, but at the time the drumming inside his skull blocked all rational thought. It had to stop, he had to escape. And since then he had done things and appeared in places without any memory of how he got there. He also suspected that Fiona knew more about his disconnected behavior than was letting on, but for now, just knowing that she cared, helped. He also felt different. Changed in some fashion. But just as with the shadowy figure in his dreams, he wasn’t able to articulate exactly what the change was. It was like he had entered an alternative reality, where only he was aware of how things used to be.
They made good progress, passing forgotten towns lost in a sea of ice and dust. Dark forms danced in the distance, on top of white tipped peaks, but as the sun moved across the sky no E.L.F’s got close enough to be a concern. After almost four hours they moved into a spread out town, with a main street encompassed by gas stations and casinos.
“We passed through here on our way up,” said Fiona.
Abbey looked around her, trying to ge
t a fix on any of the single story ice encrusted buildings. “I don’t remember any of it, all these towns look the same to me.”
“We’re not staying here for the night?” enquired Jacob.
Zach looked in his mirror at Jacob. “We got another two hours of daylight left, we can make it to another town before then.”
Abbey wasn’t sure if that was the right course of action, but sitting in front of Fiona, Cal and Jacob was not the time to question any of Zach’s decisions. She was also aware of his urgency to get to Roswell, before Tinley.
After passing the third gas station, Zach clicked on his radio. “Rob, how we looking for fuel? Over.”
“Our supplies should be good for another four, five hundred miles. We will need to refuel at least one of the buses soon though. Over.”
Zach paused then continued. “We will stop at the next gas station we come too, see if it’s got any fuel around, and refuel with what we already have. Over.”
Rob agreed. After continuing for another mile, they took a turning that took them south, which soon led to a large gas station. Zach pulled the convoy onto the forecourt.
“If anyone wants to stretch their legs this is the time to do it. We will check out the fuel situation, then be back on the road in ten. Over,” he then turned to Fiona behind him. “Let’s see if there are any canisters of fuel inside the store, if not, maybe we can siphon some from these vehicles. Everyone else, keep your eyes open.”
As he finished talking the bus doors flew open, and Mary appeared with a few children. Bass, and two solders followed. They all then moved off, with the soldiers entering the gas station store, and Mary and the kids close behind.
Zach and Fiona entered the store, passing one solder stationed at the front and another near the back. The mingled sound of young and old voices came from the restroom.
Mary then emerged, looking back from where she came. “Addison, make sure they wipe their hands with paper towels.” She smiled at Zach, who was busy looking for any fuel canisters. “Any luck?”
“No fuel, we will see if any of the vehicles outside has anything to siphon off.”
She smiled in response and looked around the modern looking aisles, and light colored walls. Outside the sun was making good work of melting what snow had fallen the day before. Most of the shelves were empty, but a few packets of nuts were left towards the back of a shelf, which she grabbed, before returning to the restroom.
An awkward silence filled the air in the Humvee. Both it’s occupants, Cal and Jacob wished the other would leave to give them a moment of privacy. After a few minutes the tension was more than it was worth keeping warm and Cal decided to get out. He stood, and looked around. Mounds of white mush lay like miniature artic islands and the air had a clarity that made you want to breath it in. Nothing of any substance laid between where they were and the mountains of varying heights in the distance, but Cal felt his attention drawn in a particular direction, towards a small restaurant behind the gas station, a few hundred yards away. He strained his eyes but nothing stood out to explain why the hairs on the back of his neck were standing up. The dark windows of the building weren’t giving up their secrets from this distance, so he ran forward a few more yards, and took his rifle off his shoulder. Holding the scope to his eye, he looked again. Movement. He walked forward and kneeled down. Is there something in there?
There was something moving in the shadows inside the building, but the distance and the sun glinting off the glass made it impossible to know what the cause was. Looking back at the Humvee, Jacob seemed to be absorbed in a notebook, and the others on the buses were talking and otherwise engaged. He looked at the food stop, and started walking towards it.
Soon he was running across a sparsely filled parking lot, trying to keep his balance on the crunchy ice below his feet. A white sedan sat neatly parked fifty yards from the front entrance of the restaurant. He ran to the back, and peered out towards the glass front. Shadows shifted form, but he was still too far to see details. A person?
He stood and quickly ran to the front, and kneeled down below one of the large advertising filled windows. Beyond the sound of the light breeze on his face, objects being slid around came from within. Lifting himself up slowly he squinted into the gloom of rows of red padded seats and a clean looking floor. An E.L.F, one that he had not seen before loitered between curved cornered tables with menus printed on them and overturned trays. This creature was smaller than the things they had previously encountered, but still over six-feet tall. It was humanoid in that it had two arms and two legs, but added to that was a tail, and a large spike ribbed wing like appendage that run up it’s back. Its face was monkey like, with large eyes, and its skin was a dark leather with areas which looked like plate’s, similar to a lizard.
Watching did not satisfy Cal, so he ran along the wall, bending over as much as he could, until he got to the glass door. The creature was towards the back of the restaurant, near the kitchen area, so he would have time to enter, shoot and if he missed or if something went wrong, he could quickly leave.
His mind returned to the others near the vehicles, and he tried to count the minutes that had already passed, but he wasn’t sure, either way he knew he had to do this quickly.
Pressing on the cold glass of the door, he pushed it open, and walked inside, keeping low as possible and his gun trained towards the back. The sound of pots and glass being broken was now clear amongst a kind of snorting noise the creature was making.
One clear shot, come on. Cal looked down his scope. The creature was now in the kitchen area, with only the large open window used for serving giving any view of the E.L.F inside. Cal calmed his breathing, and waited. He was doing his job, and it felt good. Part of the creature came into view, it’s shoulder. Come on, more to the right. Yes, keep going…
Cal increased the pressure on the trigger, when a second creature rose up from a nearby booth just two tables away. Instantly, it tossed the table to one side and charged at Cal, it’s eyes wide, and rows of shark like teeth snapping.
Too close. Cal went to turn his rifle’s barrel towards it, but it was too late, the creature was an arms length away.
Mary and the children, returned to the bus, with Bass and the soldiers behind them.
Zach watched Fiona use her piece of piping to siphon gas from the nearby car as he did the same, and then they both walked to Rob who had finished refueling both buses. He gladly took the now full canisters and packed them away in the buses storage departments. Zach and Fiona then returned to the Humvee. They both went to get inside, when they realized Cal wasn’t there. They both looked around.
“Where is he?” said Zach, who then ducked down inside the Humvee to address Jacob, who’s head was still stuck inside a notebook. “Where’s Cal?”
“No idea, he got out and walked in that direction about fifteen minutes ago,” Jacob pointed to a dark red brick building a few hundred yards away.
Fiona went to walk away. “I got this.”
Zach walked with her. “I think I should come as well.”
A chill wind blew across the large parking area, which only contained a few vehicles. Their walking became a jog. They looked best they could into the shadowy world within the restaurant but couldn’t get a grasp on who or what was inside. As they grew nearer, they both unslung their rifles. Within twenty yards, they could tell one of the shadows was definitely human shaped.
“Is that him?” said Zach, leaning forward to try to get a better look.
“I think he’s coming out.”
Cal emerged from the glass door, and walked towards them. His rifle was over his shoulder.
“Any trouble?” Zach shouted.
Cal walked past both of them. “No. Let’s get going.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
After an hour and a half of driving across barren snowy desert in eastern Utah, Zach slowed the convoy. The reason was obvious, to their south a large number of dark shapes were moving across a frozen lake. A
concoction of large lumbering beasts mingled with smaller creatures that skittered and hopped across the expanse of flat ice.
“Fuck. E.L.F central,” said Michael in the Humvee. Cal had decided to sit in the second bus.
Zach clicked on the radio. “Everyone increase their speed. Over.”
Large plumes of powdery snow formed misty clouds as different forms of creature dived in and out of the cracked ice.
Zach looked at the Humvee’s speedometer, it was showing seventy miles per hour, the buses started to fall behind. “Fiona, how far does this lake stretch?”
She looked at the map, and then her eyes flickered as she calculated how far they had to go according to the speed they were moving. “Few minutes and we should be leaving it behind.”
Michael looked out the Humvee’s window. “Zach, the buses, we’re losing them,” he then looked out to the right to see the mass of exotic creatures were still more interested in the water than the three vehicles trying to creep past. “They don’t seem to be coming after us.”
Zach slowed slightly to allow the buses to catch up, he then clicked on the radio. “Bass, how’s it looking back there? Over.”
“They don’t seem to be paying us much attention. Over.”
In the Humvee, they all suddenly noticed a blue-green walrus type creature, except with spidery legs ahead of them, moving in the direction of the highway. “Rob, Greggs, there’s something moving in the direction of the highway up ahead of us, we need to get past that point before it gets to it, otherwise it could block us. Get as much speed as you can out of the old buses. Over.”
Rob and Greggs acknowledged and Zach increased his speed back to around seventy. The Humvee hopped and skipped as it hit rocks and ice, Zach being fully away that if they started sliding he could lose control and there would be nothing he could do to get it back.
The creature continued its relentless trek toward the light gray path, which cut through the desert as the convoy sped towards it.
Abbey, held onto the door. “We’re not going to make it, it’s going to get there ahead of us. If we hit it…”