by Maxey, Phil
Brad smiled. “I am.”
Dee stayed closed to Zach but was watching the closest wolf creature with wide eyes.
“Don’t worry Dee it’s not going to hurt anyone now,’ said Zach.
Abbey looked at Zach with tearful eyes, but these were sorrowful tears not the joyful ones from a few moments ago. “Fiona was hurt.”
“How bad?” said Zach, fretful of the answer.
“The young lady was electrocuted, saving our asses, she’s still alive, but hasn’t regained consciousness,” said Jacob.
Zach rushed to the stairwell and ran up the stairs best he could, the others followed closely behind. Finally he made it into the penthouse and stepped through the sodden carpet and out onto the roof, pushing past the fridges. Fiona was laid out in the reclined garden chair, kneeling he checked her pulse. Cal, Michael and Abbey appeared from the stairwell.
“Pulse seems okay, a bit intermittent, but she’s alive. You say she was electrocuted?” said Zach, Cal nodded.
“She should be conscious by now,” said Zach. He then felt her head and found a small bump at the back of her skull. “Ah, it wasn’t the shock, it was when she fell she must have hit her head and it knocked her out, have we got any strong spirit anywhere around?”
“There’s a bottle of whiskey in one of the boxes,” said Michael.
“Bring it here.”
Michael ran off and quickly returned with the bottle. Zach opened the bottle and sniffed. Taking a swig he then placed the bottle under Fiona’s nose. She started to stir, then swiped the bottle away with her hand, almost knocking it out of Zach’s grasp.
“I don’t dring,” she slurred.
“Yes!” shouted Michael. Abbey instinctively hugged Cal and Michael.
Zach helped Fiona sit up, placing the bottle of spirit on the floor. “Someone grab me one of those water bottles from the fridge.” Abbey quickly found one and passed it to Zach who twisted the top of and gave it to Fiona. She gulped a few mouthfuls down then started to shake her head but quickly stopped, wincing in pain she felt the back of her head.
“They didn’t kill us all then,” said Fiona.
“You, Zach, the UFO guy saved us,” said Michael.
“UFO guy? You found him?” she said, becoming more alert.
“More he found us, but yeah he’s downstairs. When you feel up to it, we need to have that chat I mentioned before I left, but for now rest here,” said Zach, smiling.
“I’m going to keep watch up here for a while,” said Cal, Zach nodded his approval then walked back into the penthouse and observed the scene of devastation. Abbey appeared behind him in the kitchen.
“Quick thinking, electrocuting them,” said Zach.
“Yeah it gave us the extra few seconds we needed for the cavalry to arrive,” said Abbey smiling, her expression then changed, “The computers,” she said and ran past Zach jumping over one of the wolf creatures, broken furniture, and out of the apartment.
Zach followed her down to the computer floor, as he approached the computer room he could see a flashlight beam haphazardly moving across the walls and screens. Entering he saw Abbey pushing some buttons on the terminals.
Abbey sat down heavily on the office chair. “It’s all fried. I hoped this system had a surge protection but if it did it didn’t stop us losing these computers.”
“Hello?” Brad’s voice could be heard from the corridor outside.
“In here,” Zach shouted back.
Brad walked into the computer room brandishing his own pocket light, illuminating Zach and Abbey in front of him. “Fried?”
“Looks that way,” said Abbey, shaking her head in disappointment. “We were getting a signal back from the two remaining evacuation camps.”
“You talked to them?” Brad asked.
“Talked?” replied Zach.
“I’m in frequent contact with Brigadier General Halsted in Portland and General Trow near Austin. Last communication was with Portland at twenty-two hundred hours last night,” said Brad, looking glum, “They are just hanging on up there.”
“You got comms at your home?” said Zach.
“Sure do, and you are all welcome to come back with me. Looks like this place is done,” said Brad.
Abbey looked at Zach with a hopeful smile. Zach stood for a moment weighing up the options. “I think, that’s what we should do.” He held out his hand to Brad, who shook it briefly but welcomingly. “We have maybe four hours left before sunset, should be long enough to get everything packed up.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Even though Brad’s place was just a mile from the office building, they were all tired by time they arrived at his home. A lot of the boxes of supplies were water soaked, meaning they had to find other containers to move everything in, and they only just managed to get to Brads as the sun was setting.
“You live here?” said Michael to Brad as Brad parked his pickup.
“Not all conspiracy theorists live in a bunker out in the desert,” replied Brad.
Michael smiled then became serious when a thought struck him. “You guys were right.”
“About what?”
“Everything.”
“We didn’t want to be.”
Zach and Fiona parked up behind Brad. Zach had caught a glimpse of Brads place before, and had been impressed by the two story brick built mock Victorian property with a hint of Spanish revival in the arches and windows. Most of which were boarded up. Something he’d missed the first time he was there though and now was more apparent due to the setting sun behind them were the antennae and satellite dishes perched on the roof. They all got out of the vehicles and looked around anxiously before setting off for the front of the house.
“Not the front, I don’t use that, there’s an entrance to the basement around the side,” said Brad leading everyone down some steps to the entrance which Brad had covered with a piece of wooden fencing. Visible at the back of the property in its large grounds was a tower with a wind turbine on top. At the bottom of the steps, Brad keyed in a number combination and opened a secure looking steel door. He flicked some switches and lights came on. They all filed into a good-sized space, with walls of computer screens, server boxes, electronic components and bookshelves. To the right the space opened up to a single bed against a wall, a small table and another door. Against one wall was a large worktop area with tools, circuit boards and wires, and above it white boards with diagrams and words on. The wall space that was left was filled with newspaper cuttings and images of various supernatural phenomena.
“So this is where I broadcast and try to stay in touch, with who’s left out there. I usually sleep over there, I like to be close to the radio in case a message comes in. Let’s move upstairs and I’ll show you the rooms,” said Brad, closing the outside door, and moving towards the other one.
Fiona lingered near the outside door. “This is the only way in and out?”
“It is.”
“And the code to unlock it?”
Brad smiled, and walked closer to one of the walls, pointing at a small piece of paper. “I wrote the code here, if I ever forgot the number I didn’t want to be trapped in here.” Brad opened the other door.
Abbey and Dee both looked thrilled at all the equipment and were still looking at the screens when the last of the group started to walk up to the first floor. “There’s four good sized bedrooms upstairs, including my own but like I said I hardly sleep there these days anyway, so feel free to use it.” Brad lit two candles, which illuminated a moderately sized hallway. No natural light made its way past the boarded up windows.
“We need to start getting those supplies in here, before it’s dark,” said Zach to the group. Fiona turned and started to walk away. Dee came up the stairs as they were going down.
“Fiona, maybe take it easy for the next few days?” said Zach.
“I’m fine, who’s helping,” said Fiona disappearing through the basement doorway. Cal and Michael followed her back down into the basemen
t.
“Might be an idea to pull the truck and pickup as close to the side of the house as possible,” said Brad to Zach.
“Sounds good, I’ll just take a quick look around if that’s okay and get right on it.’ Zach walked up the main stairs to the second floor.
“You weren’t joking about these rooms,” said Ray, looking into a room with a double bed, dresser and shelves. “It was a shame leaving the penthouse but this will do nicely.” Ray sat on the end of the bed.
“You and Jacob get to share again,” said Zach with a smile.
“Maybe I’ll take the floor,” said Ray dejected.
Zach had a quick look in the other rooms then went downstairs to move the vehicles and help the others with the supplies.
Dee walked into one of the rooms at the back of the house and put his backpack on the single bed. It wasn’t a large room and even in the gloom it reminded him of his own room back home. Looking around it he saw there were a few black and white pictures on the walls, one of which was of a man in uniform, Dee wasn’t sure if it was Brad or maybe his father. Dee knew he should unpack but still didn’t feel completely safe to do so. He thought to himself maybe he will just keep his stuff in his backpack for now. Standing up he looked out the window just managing to see through a small gap in one of the wooden planks. In the large garden at the back a wind turbine stood proud in the center of a large rectangular area part sand part grass, the blades turning at a slow but constant pace. Beyond that was a single-story workshop area, which enveloped the garden on two sides to the west and north. Small and dirty windows were staggered along a stretch of it and on top it was covered by a series of solar panels. Various thick looking cables ran across from the turbine and solar panels into the workshop.
“Dee, you hungry?” A voice drifted up the stairs from who Dee thought was Michael. Leaving his backpack, he ran to the top of the stairs and shouted in the direction he thought it came from, then walked down into the hallway.
“Watch out Dee,” said Cal as he walked past holding three boxes, placing them down near the front door.
“Where’s Brad?” Dee asked.
“Showing Abbey all the tech,” said Cal. Dee followed him back down into the basement where Abbey and Brad were talking.
“I’ve got a number of short wave receivers, some good old ones and a few more of the portable types,” said Brad, pointing at part of the table with some metal boxes on it. “Everything connects to the broadcast antennae on the roof. All the signals I get I funnel through the computers so I can control everything with software. There’s no Internet of course but these babies,” Brad turned and put his hand on a small rack of server boxes, “still make me feel connected.”
“How do you power it all?” Abbey asked, as Cal, Michael and Zach all came through the open steel door with arms filled with boxes.
“I’ve got three lithium-ion home batteries, two outback and one in here. To actually generate the power I use whatever I can, got a wind turbine out back, and my workshop is covered in solar panels. I’ve also got two gasoline generators, and plenty of gas to last me… well a long time. Foods a bigger problem than power, and water is a bigger problem than food,” said Brad.
“Most of the stores we have seen have been well stocked with both still,” said Abbey, with an enquiring tone.
“The problem isn’t the availability of it, it’s getting it with the E.L.F’s around,” said Brad. “You see all the E.L.F’s I know of are carnivores, and seeing most of the earth’s animals evolved into something which was hard to kill, humans became the easy option. Because of that it was the big population centers which drew most of the E.L.F’s, even a small city like Roswell.”
Abbey swallowed hard.
“Don’t worry young lady we are quite safe in here. Please sit down, take it all for a spin Zach tells me you are quite the computer wizard.”
“Yeah, she’s great with computers!” said Dee, speaking up from the bottom of the stairs.
Abbey beckoned him over. “Dee, come and take a look at all this cool stuff.”
“Mr. Crenshaw…” Dee started to say.
“Call me Brad.”
“Can I charge my computer tablet anywhere? I miss playing games… I know it’s dumb with all that’s happened,” said Dee, looking guilty.
“Not dumb at all, we all need to remember what our lives were like, sure have you got the right cable for it? If so you can plug it into any these ports,” said Brad.
Dee’s face lit up and he ran up the stairs. “I’ll be right back.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
The group all sat in the candlelit living room, on various chairs and a sofa eating a stew that Michael had made. Fiona looked at the black stained hole that was the fireplace.
“Nothing more I would like to do than get that fire burning, but the smoke would literally be a smoke signal to our canine friends and whatever else is out there,” said Brad.
Fiona gave an accepting smile and carried on eating. Silence fell upon everyone as they eagerly chowed down on the stew. “So you guys were all locked up until recently?” Ray choked a bit on his food.
“Not me,” Jacob said. “I served the good people of Baldo New Mexico for twenty years.”
“You’re a cop?” said Brad.
“Sheriff.”
“I see, I just mention it because it’s remarkable to me that the world ended and most of you had no idea.” Brad looked around the group. “I’m not sure if that was for the better or worse.”
“From what we learned, I’m thinking for the better,” said Zach. Brad nodded.
“So what do you know?” said Brad.
Zach and Abbey took turns telling Brad what they had learned over the previous forty-eight hours. “So you know part of the story, but you don’t know how it all played out with the people and the military?” The group shook their heads in the negative. “I had been running a weekly internet radio show called ‘Roswell Central’, which was basically me trying to put out into the world what the government were really up to.” Fiona shifted in her chair. “Yeah I know what you are thinking, I’m one of the tinfoil-hat brigade.”
“Pretty much,” said Ray. Abbey shot him a frown.
“No, no it’s okay, I’m used to it. My father worked as a contractor on the nearby airbase, and on his death bed… which was 1987, he told me some things, as well as leaving me a bunch of official papers which he ‘found’ shall we say, when he was working on the base during the fifties and sixties. The only stipulation he gave me was that our family name should never be associated with those papers.”
“Aliens right?” Michael said enthusiastically, “No, I’m not making fun, everyone knows the little guys from another planet crashed near here.”
“Well that’s the thing, the papers my father gave me mentioned nothing about aliens, what they did mention however was advanced propulsion systems, the kind that you can travel to other planets with. It was a prototype that crashed near here.’
Michael looked disappointed. “So no aliens?”
“Oh there are definitely aliens…”
Michael punched the air. “I knew it.”
“Just none that crashed at Roswell that I’m aware of,” said Brad smiling, “But back to more important matters, anyway I got these papers and it opened my eyes to what was really going on in the so called secret government. Back then I just broadcast my ‘show’ to a few on the Ham radio, then the Internet happened and the rest as they say is history. I was receiving reports from other conspiracy theorists around the world at the end last year, reports which nobody was taking seriously, at least not officially.”
“Do you think the CIA, DOD knew what was happening?” said Fiona trying to keep her tone neutral.
“Undoubtedly,” said Brad.
“So why didn’t they get the government to act sooner?” said Cal.
“My sources told me that what happened was a result of a black project that got out of hand, and the other branches of t
he secret services wanted to shut it down without anyone the wiser. Avoid embarrassment and all that. Problem is they waited too long.” Brad paused then continued. “Even when it hit the mainstream, the whole situation was ridiculed with the press putting it all down to chemicals in the water or some such nonsense. But the governments largely ignored it until the first waves of attacks happened back in February. First one was in southern Spain, a small town was attacked by an E.L.F. which they said used to be a locust, but had become these two to three-foot long flying spiked insects that attacked as a swarm, imagine flying piranhas and you get the picture, anyway most of the town was wiped out, women, children there was no difference to the creatures attacking them. After that the world sat up and took notice but more and more attacks were happening globally and the frequency of attacks was increasing weekly. The simpler life forms that changed first, took out a lot of the more complex un-evolved life forms before they themselves evolved, which in turn took out a lot of the simpler evolved life forms, it was complete chaos. All life on this planet had been thrown back into the melting pot.”
Jacob put his bowl down. “So what you’re saying is that man went from being at the top of the food chain to the bottom in a matter of a few months.”
“Yes...” Brad said with a sigh. “The scientists got together in May in Geneva…”
“We read about that,” said Abbey.
“Yeah, all the brightest minds humanity had to offer, and the conclusion they came to was there’s nothing they could do to stop it. Something had affected the genome of most of the animal-life and they said to reverse it would be impossible because it would mean genetically mutating all those creatures back to their original state, which not only did they not have the technology to do, but with all the creatures out there running wild they didn’t have the means to do either. So the message to all humanity was try to survive and kill as many of the E.L.F’s as possible, essentially ending all animal life on the planet for humanities survival. That didn’t go down so well with some folk.”