by Maxey, Phil
Brad went into the kitchen and opened the fridge. “Still a few bottles in here, hope the young man doesn’t mind me taking them.”
“It’s fine,” said Zach as he walked into the hallway, then into a large bedroom. Various clothes were scattered around the floor, and some drawers were left open. Brad appeared behind him in the hallway.
“What’s crazy about this whole situation is how most places I’ve seen don’t look that disturbed, it’s like there wasn’t a panic, which considering what was happening don’t make sense,” said Zach.
“People had no idea what was happening until it was too late, well apart from the ones that listened to my show. The government gave some bullshit story to everyone about how everything was under control and they all should grab some belongings and move out to camps.”
“Yes but people must have seen the changed animals?”
“The people that saw changed animals didn’t get a chance to tell the story. The number one driving force of all the E.L.F’s is to kill and dominate their surroundings. When the government brought large numbers of people together for evacuation it just acted like a magnet for the E.L.F’s. You see any of those nature films back in the day of thousands of wildebeests attracting predators? Well it was like that. The nukes they dropped were almost like the human race giving the E.L.F’s the finger. It took a lot of them out, but not enough.”
A noise made them both turn around. Dee was standing looking at them.
“Your dad’s not here,” said Zach. Dee looked down then burst into tears. Zach went to go to him but Brad reacted first, bending down in front of him.
“Dee is it? Okay well can you do something for me?” Brad reached into his pocket, and pulled out a small flat black box with a grid of thirty-six LED’s on it. Dee shook his head in the affirmative while tears rolled down his cheeks. “This little black box is very important, you see these little lights? Well if you see any of them light up at this point,” Brad pointed to a section of the lights, “you let me know okay? It’s a real important job.” Brad handed Dee the box.
“What is it?” said Zach.
“It’s wired up to my radio microphones. Over six miles square, if the microphone picks up a loud noise, the LED will light up. Basically, suped-up baby monitors.”
“Wow that’s smart,” said Dee, wiping the tears from his face.
“Where are we on that grid?” said Zach.
“Roughly D3. The building you are holed up in is roughly B2,” said Brad.
“You knew we were there?” said Zach.
“Sure did.” Brad smiled.
Zach didn’t know how to respond but thought it was a discussion for later.
“Dee is there anything you want to take with you?”
“Yes, give me a few minutes.” Dee opened a door opposite the large bedroom revealing a medium sized room with a single bed and more film posters intermixed with posters of pop stars. Dee carefully put the black box down on the bed, and pulled a backpack out from under it, he then started to throw some clothes in it. On the wall was a comic from the 1960s in a wooden frame. On the plastic protective cover, it was signed, “Never stop dreaming, love Dad.” Dee carefully pulled the back off and placed the comic and its bag inside the backpack. Dee looked around his room. He knew this would probably be the last time he was here and the weight of choosing what to take with him started to overwhelm his mind. There’s no electricity anymore so no point bringing a game console, but that’s stupid anyway, maybe I should bring more things that Dad gave me, no, no I need to think like an adult, what would Dad want me to do in this situation. Dee took a deep breath and calmed his nerves, then looked around the room again. He opened a drawer next to his bed and grabbed a pocketknife and put it in his pocket. His dad told him never to take the pocketknife outside but he thought his dad would understand. He also grabbed his computer tablet. He knew there was no Internet but it had lots of good games on it, and maybe Abbey could get it charged somehow. He then remembered his solar powered radio and torch his dad got him for his tenth birthday last year, but couldn’t remember where it was.
“How long Dee?” Zach shouted from the living room.
“Not long,” Dee shouted back. A solar powered radio would be a good thing to have. He looked around his room and tried to remember the last place he saw it then remembered he left it on the window seat in the living room to charge up. Running in the living room past Zach he grabbed the radio and went back into his bedroom. Pushing the radio into his already bulging backpack, he took one last look around and sighed. Turning, he put the backpack on both shoulders and left his room.
“Your dad was USAF?” said Zach holding a picture of a man in uniform.
“Yes, he worked in…” Dee searched for the correct terms, “Operations Intelligence. He helped find bad guys before he made games.”
“For what it’s worth Dee, your dad seemed like a great guy,” said Zach. Dee smiled. “You got everything? We need to move out.”
“Yes. Where’s Brad?”
“He’s outside, think I heard him talking to Ray. You been watching that box of tricks he gave you.”
“Shit!” Dee ran back into his room. He slowly reappeared with the black box in his hand, intently looking at it. He then held it up in front of him with the LED’s facing towards Zach.
Two lights near the top of the grid flashed intermittently. “What does this mean?”
“It means we need to leave.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Fiona, Cal and Michael had managed to throw various large desks and chairs into the first and second floor stairwells, before running up to the computer room floor. Abbey then locked all of the lower floor doors remotely. Michael, Fiona, Jacob and Abbey stood and sat in the computer room watching the outside camera feeds.
Cal was in one of the adjacent offices looking out in the direction the creatures were coming. Nothing could be seen. Where the fuck are they? “Do you see anything?” he shouted.
“Nothing, you?” replied Abbey.
“Nothing, I’m going up on the roof,” said Cal running up the stairwell. A cool breeze swept across him as he looked at the nearby buildings. There was no sign of the wolf creatures. Have they turned away?
For a moment time seemed to stop as there was only silence and stillness out there in the city of Roswell, not insane creatures that shouldn’t exist. But then he caught sign of movement near a car and a brown fur covered creature like something out of a fifties horror movie stood up on its hind legs, then leaped forward and within seconds slammed into one of the large glass windows on the ground floor, shattering it and causing glass to fly out onto the steps in front of the building. Only one? Thought Cal. He scoured the area just around their building but again there was no sign of anything. Even from the roof he could hear the paws of the creature on the ground floor scratching on the smooth polished surface. He then ran back down to the computer room. Everyone was watching the foyer camera.
“What’s it doing?” he said. The creature was standing on its hind legs and looking left and right, seemingly sniffing. It then walked forward. Everyone jumped slightly at the oddness of seeing a wolf-like creature move in such a way.
“Wow that’s creepy,” said Michael. “Cool in movies, not so much in real life.”
Slowly the creature moved towards the ground floor stairwell door and sniffed it.
“If they get up here I don’t think your ten rounds is going to be much help, there must be something else we can do to defend ourselves,” said Fiona.
“Maybe if we kill that one the others will…”
The sound of multiple windows shattering rang around the building. Abbey brought up extra internal camera feeds for the lower floors and at least five wolf creatures could be seen recovering their footing on the first floor. They snarled and growled at each other, then immediately their heads turned towards the stairwell exit.
“Look at their front legs, they look like…” said Michael.
; “Arms,” replied Abbey.
One of the creatures bounded up to the stairwell exit and sniffed the door, then reared up on its hind legs and slammed into it with its teeth and front claw like paws. The door held but seemed to splinter slightly.
“That door’s not going to last, and there’s no point us hiding in here they can obviously smell us, that’s why they are moving upwards,” said Fiona. “Okay we need to leave this room and get up to the penthouse, we can defend that area better, and if all else fells we move to the roof.”
“And have no means of escape?” said Jacob.
“Right now it’s kill or be killed. Let’s move everyone!”
The others ran upstairs, while Abbey switched off the screens so to not draw any attention from the creatures, she hoped if they survived this the computer room would still be in working order.
Abbey and Fiona were the last to leave the computer floor and as they entered the stairwell, they could hear the creatures slamming into and gnawing the door four floors down.
They both ran into the apartment and Fiona almost slipped on the floor. She gathered herself then stood bolt upright lost in thought for a few seconds as the others piled up furniture against the front door. She then ran into the small en-suite bathroom and turned on the tap, fresh cold water poured out. She then quickly returned to the living room. “Michael how much water do we have still?”
“Right now a few weeks’ worth, why?”
“We need piping.” She frantically looked around, then focused on a ream of garden hose someone had grabbed from the gas station on Main Street. Grabbing the hose she ran into the bathroom and connected one end to the tap, and fed the other end out into the living room. She then ran back into the bathroom and turned the tap on full. Water poured out onto the apartment floor.
“What are you doing?” Michael shouted. “We are going to need that water!”
Jacob put his hand on Michael’s arm. “Leave her alone kid I think she’s got an idea.”
“Abbey, I need you to find any kind of extension cord, I think there’s one in the kitchen. When you find it, pull the covering off the end so the wires are exposed.’ Abbey went to ask why, then realized what Fiona was planning.
With an almighty crash something heavy and angry slammed into the penthouse door. Cal, Michael and Jacob were holding the furniture in place best they could, but the initial slam pushed all of them back momentarily before they could gather themselves and push back. The floor of the apartment was now more akin to a large puddle, with water splashing everywhere when anyone moved in it.
“They got up here quick, so much for the barricades,” said Michael.
“The access to the roof is slim, we might be able to defend that spot, Abbey, you done with the cable?” said Fiona, Abbey shouted it was ready, “Good plug one end in the wall, but for god’s sake don’t drop the exposed end, hold on to it.”
Something slammed into the door and they were all pushed back momentarily again. The door splintered and huge canine teeth appeared in the tear.
“We can’t hold this much longer!” Cal shouted.
“We need to wait until more than one is in the apartment we are only going to get one shot of this. Jacob and Michael get to the roof! Abbey, pull the cable into the roof stairwell. Then get up to the roof!”
Another solid impact slammed the door, making furniture fall away and land with a splash on the floor. The door was disintegrating before their eyes.
“They are almost through!” shouted Cal, barely audible through the sound of snarling and frantic clawing at the door.
“Now!” shouted Fiona. She and Cal turned and ran into the kitchen splashing and trying not to slip, then into the stairwell. Fiona grabbed the cable, pulling the stairwell door as closed as much as she could, giving her a small gap to look through.
The furniture exploded backwards into the apartment and two wolf creatures bounded into the living room sliding on the wet floor and slamming up against the glass windows and sofas. Quickly gathering their footing one of them stood up on its hind legs and sniffed the air. It was at this point that Fiona truly grasped how big these creatures were because standing upright it was easily nine-foot high. Another one of them skidded into the apartment and it was at this point that Fiona thought now or never. Opening the stairwell door some more she threw the exposed end of the cable extension down onto the kitchen floor. The effect was immediate. All three creatures froze then started squealing and shaking, falling to the floor as the wall socket where the extension was plugged into popped with a large bang making sparks.
A loud bang was also heard on the roof where Abbey, Cal, Michael and Jacob were moving the fridges towards the stairwell.
Cal ran over to the stairwell as soon as the bang was heard and found Fiona slumped over on the bottom step. He immediately realized that the ground in front of her was wet. “Michael! Abbey!” he shouted behind him as he quickly walked down the steps.
“Don’t touch her she might be still touching the current!” shouted Abbey. Cal ignored the advice and grabbed Fiona, while pushing the roof door closed.
“There’s no current, it shorted,” he said, pulling her up onto the roof. “Quick, get those fridges down the stairs.”
“Is she breathing?” said Abbey, as Michael and Jacob did what Cal asked. More sounds could be heard coming from beyond the apartment.
Cal checked for Fiona’s pulse. “It’s there but very faint. I think the electric shock knocked her out. Let’s get her onto the chair.” He pulled her to it. “Stay with her,” he said, then ran back to the stairwell which now contained two large fridges.
“That’s not going to hold them back,” said Jacob.
“She took out three, maybe that will put them off,” said Michael.
Something large crashed into the opposite side of the roof door. The fridges hopped in their positions as the door shuddered.
“Jacob, get ready, when you clearly see one of them, shoot, aim for the head,” said Cal.
Jacob stood at the top of the stairs, both hands on the gun, aimed at the door that was now being chewed and eaten. The sound of the creatures furiously attacking was incessant and filled the air around them.
Michael handed Cal and Abbey large kitchen knives. “I grabbed these on the way through the kitchen.” He held a chopper which he flipped from one hand to the next.
“If they get through…” Cal was stopped before he could finish the sentence by the sound of gunfire. His reaction was to look at Jacob, but he had not moved or fired. A deep howling sound echoed around the streets below.
Cal ran to the east west wall and looked over. “Good timing Zach,” he said with a smile on his face.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
As Zach pulled up in the pickup outside the office building, he could see two wolf creatures already in the foyer and multiple windows on the first floor shattered. They had gone back to get Brad’s own pickup, then back to his home to grab some of his prized possessions, two M4 Carbine assault rifles, a few handguns and extra ammo. Brad’s home was surprisingly close, and it was only a few minutes before they got to the base of their building just as Fiona six stories above them had dropped the live cable onto the drenched apartment floor.
Ray and Dee stayed in the pickup with a handgun ready to shoot anything that came close.
“Watch your six!” shouted Brad, “These fuckers like sneaking up behind you.”
Zach had a quick look over his shoulder, but couldn’t see any creatures. They both approached the foyer, guns raised.
“I got the one on the left, you go for the right,” said Zach.
A large brute of a creature with dark brown mottled fur swung its head around in Zach’s direction. It immediately hunched its shoulders and lowered its head and snarled. Its clawed hands clenched and opened as it lowered its head even more, bending its back legs.
Zach pummeled it with bullets, pushing it backwards up against the foyer desk. The other creature scrambled forward wi
th the velocity of a sprinter, its hands clawing at the space in front of it. Brad fired two shots, which missed it completely ricocheting off the foyer walls. Zach looked across at Brad.
“I got this,” said Brad, dropping down on one knee to steady his hand. He then let loose a volley of three more shots each one connecting and dropping the beast instantly.
The other creatures left in the building heard the howls of pain and leaped from windows on the lower floor, over Brad and Zach’s heads and onto nearby rooftops and out of sight.
“Yeah! Get going!” shouted Brad as their snarls faded into the distance. Dee’s head appeared in the pickups window. Zach opened the passenger’s door and Dee climbed out followed by Ray.
“Stay close.” Zach said to Dee, as he, Ray and Brad walked past the corpses of the wolf creatures and through the hole where a twelve-foot high pane of glass used to be. As Brad walked past the creatures he pushed his gun into each to make sure there was no reaction.
The remains of the foyer stairwell door broke open and Abbey appeared, half crying half smiling and ran and hugged Zach with an embrace that took him by surprise. With the hand that wasn’t holding the M4 he held her too. Cal, Michael and the others appeared out of the stairwell door as well, stepping over pieces of furniture best they could. The last one to appear was Jacob, still holding his handgun. Abbey finally let go and stepped back.
Zach walked to Cal and passed him the gun. “I suspect you’re better with this than I.” Cal grinned and immediately checked the magazine. “This here is Brad and he’s the reason you’re all still alive.”
Brad for a moment looked a little embarrassed. “I could never take them on alone, feels good to give them bastards a kick in the teeth.” He slung his M4 on his back.
“You’re the UFO guy who left the message?” said Abbey.