by Maxey, Phil
Zach stood looking at the white flashing circles on the screen trying to ascertain where the remaining were. “Portland and Austin.”
Abbey’s head fell and she put her hands over her face. “The camp at Boston fell silent six weeks ago, my parents must have been there,” she said through the sobs.
Zach kneeled down beside her. “We don’t know that for sure, maybe they didn’t want to go, if you still want to go to Boston I’ll take you.”
“I don’t know, I need to know more.”
“That’s not all of it,” said Jacob.
“Dee mentioned to me there were red dots before, I wasn’t sure what he meant because as you can see there are none now, but looking through the records, the red dots were what this system used to symbolize a nuclear event,” said Abbey. Zach put his hand over his mouth then quickly moved it to his brow.
“They were on or close to two of the camps, San Diego and Minneapolis.”
“For now, let’s secure what we have here then we can decide what’s best going forward,” said Zach.
Abbey nodded then wiped her eyes and concentrated back on the screens in front of her. Zach heard noises from the corridor behind him.
“Where you want these boxes?” shouted Michael. Zach stood up and walked into the corridor near the stairwell, Cal and Ray were also there.
“Upstairs in the penthouse, we will be sleeping up there as well,” said Zach.
“Penthouse?” said Michael momentarily frozen. “Why didn’t you tell me already.” He disappeared up the stairs.
“This I gotta see,” said Ray who followed Michael. Zach and Cal looked at each other.
“Right let’s get these other boxes,” said Zach as Dee appeared walking up the stairs carrying a box.
“Drop it upstairs, then follow us, more needed up there,” said Zach to Dee.
“No problem, happy to help,” said Dee cheerfully, which made Zach and Cal smile.
After seven trips all the boxes of supplies were all on the penthouse floor. Abbey found the building’s plans on the network and discovered the roof was accessible via the kitchen in the penthouse. On the roof they found some garden chairs and some reasonably well-stocked mini-fridges. There were also large solar panels, which seemed to provide enough power to the penthouse to keep its refrigeration and electrics going. Zach stood against the west wall which ran along the edge of the roof and looked out towards the direction they had originally come, but nothing could be seen. There was no moon and without artificial light only the vaguest rectangular forms could be seen in the intense darkness. The stars above bristled intensely.
“Beer?” Fiona offered Zach a bottle. “It’s a bit warm I’m afraid.” Zach smiled and took the bottle, knocking the cap off with a pocketknife he had picked up at the gas station. Dee and Abbey were sitting behind them. Zach was concerned the effect of learning about Boston would have on Abbey so it was good to see her up here having a break. Fiona joined Zach looking out into the void.
“Do you think we are the only people left alive?” she asked.
Zach sighed as he sipped on his warm beer. “We need to pay a visit to the UFO guy, see if he’s still there, and at some point we need to take a trip to Austin. Beyond that who knows.” They both looked out from the roof, trying to make out shapes.
“Do you feel it too?” said Fiona.
Zach looked straight ahead. “The feeling we are being watched?”
“Yes.”
“We need to be ready,” he said.
*****
Everybody slept well. Abbey had tried to convince Dee to sleep on the sofa in the penthouse but he stubbornly resisted and remained under the large desk in the computer room. She stayed awake longer than anyone else. The feeling of the keyboard beneath her fingers made her feel free even if the sadness of what she learned tried to creep over her, eventually she checked that Dee was sleeping and fell onto one of the sofas in the penthouse. Zach and Cal arranged to take turns sleeping for six hours, then going up onto the roof to look in all directions to make sure nothing was approach the building, they had also placed some chairs and other pieces of furniture in one of the lower stairwells to block anything coming up the stairs. Ray and Jacob shared one of the double beds, Michael a sofa, while Fiona took the other bed. The intense black of the desert night was starting to give way to a misty blue when Cal tapped Zach on the shoulder who was half on, half off one of the garden chairs.
“Sun’s coming up,” said Cal.
Zach sat up, looking dreary eyed and shook his head. He let go of the blanket that he had over him. “Yup, see anything yet.”
“Still too dark, but I reckon twenty to thirty mins and we will start to have some kind of visibility.”
“You better get some shut-eye, I’ll wake you if there’s any drama,” said Zach, taking the old telescope from Cal, who didn’t need any persuading to fall onto the reclined garden chair and pull the light green blanket over him. Rubbing his eyes Zach walked over to the east wall, and looked to where the sky was now an intense peach orange. He then grabbed an already opened carton of orange juice and drunk down a few gulps. It had been many years since he had tasted fruit juice and it tasted every bit as good as he remembered it, even if this particular carton was somewhat out of date. He looked up at the sky. Ever since their encounter with the bird creature he had a distrust of the skies above him. Creatures that run and jump are one thing, but things that can swoop down from the heavens and pick you right up, that was something else. The streets and buildings of the city could now be clearly seen if there details could not. Zach raised the old telescope to his eye and scoured the gloomy scene in front of him. He could make out the gas station some way off, but no creatures. He then checked the other three directions before returning to the east wall. The door to the penthouse opened, and Fiona appeared with a packet of chips.
“Hope you like BBQ flavor,” said Fiona trying to walk quietly across the roof. Avoiding bottles and glasses scattered around she handed Zach the packet who took it gratefully.
“You should take the opportunity to get more sleep,” he said.
“Prison routine is hard to break, this is when I would usually wake, anyway who says it’s the men that have to do all the hard stuff,” said Fiona, snacking on her own packet of chips.
“Amen to that.”
“No sign of our furry friends?”
“No, but they must be out there somewhere.”
“You think they are waiting for us to leave here?”
“Could be. I know dogs, grew up with two German shepherds, but what we saw yesterday once you had hit one of them, it wasn’t dog like, it was like they were considering their options.”
“If these things are evolved from dogs, then maybe they are more intelligent?” said Fiona. Cal grumbled something in his sleep, and turned over. Fiona looked over to him.
“He doesn’t seem to sleep very well. Bad dreams by the looks of it. We don’t know much about these evolved creatures, maybe they are intelligent as us, maybe more,” said Zach.
“We need more intel, we need to know what we are up against,” said Fiona.
“Question is how to get that without ending up as their next meal. Abbey was up until the early hours she’s probably learned a lot more, once everyone’s awake in a few hours we need to discuss plans.”
“I can keep you company if you want?”
Zach smiled. “I’m good, even if it was your routine waking up now, we’re not in prison anymore, maybe more rest would be good”.
Fiona walked away still facing Zach. “Enjoy the chips.”
“Best breakfast I’ve had in years.”
The roof was now bathed in an orange hue and the streets could be seen clearly. Zach swept across the scene with the telescope, intently looking for movement but there was none.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“Man, that smells good,” said Fiona. The fragrance of newly made coffee drifted from the kitchen to the living room. The group was now
sitting around the marble table. Michael was in the kitchen putting together breakfast but still within earshot of the conversation that was happening. Dee was reading a comic on the floor. Spread out over the table were various print outs, copies of newspapers and articles from what was once the world wide web. Abbey stood up and walked around the table to face everyone else.
“Okay so we now have some idea of what happened. The servers here kept backups of websites the operators visited. Luckily they visited a lot of sites, I’ve printed out some of them, what you see on the table.” Fiona and Jacob leaned forward and picked up some of the articles.
“Zach mentioned something about the ‘Cascade’, what exactly is it?” said Jacob.
Abbey picked up one of the sheets. “It’s probably better I just read this out.” Abbey cleared her throat and started to read out the article in her hand.
“ANIMAL SPECIES EVOLVING AT ALARMING RATE
Scientists across the globe are in Geneva today for an emergency conference on what some have termed the ‘Cascade’. Due to the growing number of deaths caused by E.L.F’s (Evolved Life Forms) and scientists lack of any explanation as to the cause of their exponential change, governments have brought the best and brightest in the fields of micro-biology, chemistry, physics, and zoology to try and slow down the speed at which various species appear to be evolving. Doctor Markus Stewart of the Scottish laboratory of microbiology has been quoted as saying that what is happening could be part of this planet’s natural Darwinian cycles. When asked what that means for the human race, he replied.
‘We still don’t know the true evolutionary history of this planet, maybe this is just the natural course of things. Perhaps this is what happened to the hominids at a distant point in history and what led to us dominating the other species, we really don’t know but obviously if the human race is to stay dominant on this planet we must find a way to stop this from happening again.’
The group sat quiet silently digesting the information. “From what I can piece together, animal species across the globe evolved into something else. The first to evolve were the most genetically simple organisms so insects were first, then fish, amphibians, lizards, birds, small mammals and finally larger mammals and primates,” said Abbey.
“Okay so if all the animals evolved where are they all? We have seen some, but wouldn’t we have seen like a lot more?” said Ray. Michael walked out of the kitchen with coffee, toast and a few bowls of cereal on a tray.
“Breakfast,” said Michael, placing the tray on the table in the only gap not covered with paper, “Choose toast or cereal.” Ray, Cal, and Dee grabbed a slice of toast, Jacob, and Fiona a bowl of cereal. There was none left for Zach and Abbey but that didn’t bother them.
“Oh I didn’t make enough, okay hold on,” said Michael.
Abbey returned her attention to Ray. “That’s a good point, I have no idea, the only thing I can think of is survival of the fittest, what’s left is what dominated all the other evolved species.”
“So what’s out there are the biggest and the baddest of these new super animals? Great,” said Fiona.
“Not necessarily the biggest, just the most effective at surviving and killing,” said Abbey.
“Even better,” replied Fiona sarcastically.
“So where’s our comrades, where’s the friggin military?” said Ray.
“Gone, most were overwhelmed before they even managed to put up a fight. In the early days, there were many more evolved species, all fighting each other and us, and it seems we didn’t come out too well,” said Abbey.
“So if we had been released a few months ago we wouldn’t have survived?” said Cal.
“I don’t think so, but that brings us on to the nukes,” said Abbey, “Two tactical nukes were dropped on ‘hotspots’ around the country.”
“I can’t believe we are discussing the end of the world over coffee and super loopy flakes,” said Fiona.
“One was dropped on California and another just outside Chicago. Each of these locations was picked due to the high concentration of E.L.F’s or evolved life forms. And it looks like it helped, but by then it was too late.”
Michael came to a halt between the kitchen and the living room, with more toast on the plate. “It has to be too late to drop a nuke on your own country. So monsters and nukes? That’s our life now?”
“We don’t know if we are what’s left but there’s probably more people out there, right now I’ll priority has to be find others and survival, maybe it’s time we all told what our jobs were when we were formally part of the military, we need to know our specialties. I’ll go first. Zach Felton, Military Police,” Zach looked around the group for whom to go next.
“So you and Jacob here are practically the same,” said Ray. Jacob grinned.
“Okay I guess I’ll go next, I served in the EOD.” Dee looked up at Ray. ‘I stop things going boom.” That seemed enough of an explanation for Dee who continued reading his comic.
“My role was to protect the countries networking infrastructure and when required infiltrate the same in enemy countries,” said Abbey.
“So you were a hacker?” said Jacob.
“Yes.”
“Marines corps, scout sniper,” said Cal.
“I guess there’s no such thing as national security anymore,” said Fiona looking down at her fingers. “I joined the marines, but it wasn’t long before I got drafted into the CIA and used by other agencies.”
“That just leaves you Michael,” said Zach, all eyes fell upon Michael, wearing oven mitts.
“Culinary specialist, Navy,” said Michael the words more falling out his mouth than being spoken.
“You’re a cook?” said Fiona.
“Yeah, hey we all gotta eat right?” Fiona and Ray burst out laughing. The others smiled.
“So, we have a specialist in security, computers, covert warfare, a long-range marksman, explosives, and food,” said Jacob. “If you guys can’t survive this no one can.”
“But we got to work together,” said Zach, the others agreed. “And I think we all know what each of us need to do moving forward. Cal, your job is to monitor our surroundings, basically let us know if drama is moving our way, Michael you need to keep us fed, but you also got to make sure we don’t run out of supplies.”
“That I can do,” said Michael.
Zach turned to Ray. “You think you can build some devices to use against whatever’s out there?”
“I’ll need to go on a supply run but yeah.”
“Fiona, you and I need to go over our strategies going forward, how we are going to survive. Abbey keep on doing what you’re doing, the more intel you gather the more prepared we will be.”
“So what’s on today’s agenda?” said Fiona.
“The problem is we don’t know what else is out there, we are probably not as safe as we think up here. These glass windows would have been great before, but now won’t offer any protection if one of the flying creature’s attacks us. The UFO guy, he seems to know a lot, and if he’s still alive he could be useful, Dee how far away is Westside Avenue?”
Dee looked up from his comic. “Not far, maybe ten minutes from here.”
“Is it close to where you live?” said Zach.
“Yeah but…” Replied Dee.
“I know your dad said you should stay, but we should check out your home as well,” said Zach.
“Okay,” said Dee looking down.
“You up for a ride Ray?” said Zach.
“Reckon I am.”
“Me, Ray and Dee will take the pickup and check out Dee’s house, then see if the UFO guy is still around. After I grab some food, we will head out, Fiona maybe have a look at all the info Abbey’s come up with and piece together survival strategies?” said Zach walking into the kitchen.
Fiona picked up more pieces of paper. “Sure thing.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Ray went to open the passenger’s door of the pickup.
�
��It’s probably better if Dee rides up front,” said Zach.
“Fine, I’ve written out a list of things I need to make some small ordinance, kind of thing you can ignite and throw, maybe also set up some trip wires. We’ll need to stop at a hardware store,” said Ray, climbing into the back of the pickup.
The pickup seemed big to Dee standing next to it, and he had to hop onto the passenger’s seat.
“You know where there’s a hardware store, one that’s not on Main Street?” Zach said to Dee as he was putting his seatbelt on.
“Yeah there’s one a few streets over, sells all kinds of things.”
“You all set back there?” said Zach to Ray, who grumbled something in response. “Keep your eyes open for anything following us.” Zach put his belt on, looked down Main Street and around him via the truck’s mirrors and turned the key to the engine. “Okay Dee, which way?”
“Right for about a minute then left then straight for a bit.”
Zach resisted driving too fast as he wanted to be able to react quickly, without losing control of the truck. They drove along pleasant tree-lined streets with deserted single story homes on both sides, until they got to the large forecourt with a few shops on both sides. One of the stores was ‘Al’s Hardware’.
A few cars sat at odd angles to where they should have been parked, some of them also had their doors open. There were more dark red splurges here and there on the concrete floor, Zach tried hard not to weave around them. He parked the pickup up on the sidewalk close to the already open entrance to the hardware store. A stained red American flag attached to the front of the store window fluttered in the wind. Turning around he could see Ray was getting agitated sitting in the back of the pickup.
“Dee, stay in the pickup. Do not get out unless I say so, okay? If you see anything coming our way, bang on the horn,” said Zach, Dee nodded. Zach got out and looked around. Ray awkwardly climbed out the back then took out his small notebook. Zach walked ahead and they both headed into the store.