Cascade Box Set [Books 1-8]

by Maxey, Phil

  “No sign of it out there,” said Cal looking through the scope onto the suburban road.

  Michael was quickly flicking through the E.L.F guide they had been given back at Camp Bravo, his expression changing from one of excitement to disappointment. “It kind of looks like this.” Michael said pointing the small ring-bounded book towards Cal.

  “A Calgorian? Looks like a cheetah but much bigger,” said Cal glancing towards the book and then back down the scope “What’s the easy way to kill it.”

  Michael flipped the page and looked on the back under a section entitled “TERMINATION”.

  “It just says high powered weapons.”

  “Yeah, that’s real helpful,” said Cal.

  Michael Flipped back to the previous page. “They think it used to be a species of one of the big cats, probably a Cheetah, it attacks with its claws mostly, very fast moving, sensitive to bright lights. So maybe if we stay here until night.” He laughed. “It says if you see one, tick the box.”

  “I’d prefer to locate the locals before it gets dark, we don’t know what shape they are in,” said Cal picking up the radio. “Fiona, you out there? Over.” A few seconds of static passed than Fiona’s voice came through clear.

  “I’m here, about a mile from where we parked, no sign of anybody. Over.”

  “We are laying low in a house, we spotted the E.L.F they warned us about, Michael says it’s something called a Calgorian. Over.”

  “Right, well haven’t seen it yet. I’ll cover a few more miles than head back your way. Over.”

  Cal then checked in with Zach and Jacob who were in the truck and Humvee respectively, but nobody had seen any sign of the source of the signals that Ops talked about.

  The exterior walls of the homes in the street took on a pinkish hue as the day began to end.

  “Check if there’s any food in here. I’ll keep watch for our friend,” said Cal.

  Michael sniggered. “Hey, this creature, if you shorten its name you get Cal.”

  “I’m aware,” said Cal trying not to smile.

  Michael wondered out of the room and into a small kitchen. Most of the cupboards were open and empty, apart from two tins of apricots, which he grabbed and put in his backpack. Pictures of a young family fought for space on the refrigerator door, along with magnets which haphazardly spelled out the name “Amie is 7”. Michael could feel emotion wanting to creep into his mind, but he walked away and looked into the backyard before it could. Pulling the handle down he slowly opened the door. A rush of winter air slid through the widening gap as Michael walked down a small step and stood on the concrete slabs listening and scouring the yard for any sign of something that shouldn’t be there. There were no wrong creatures, just kid’s toys turned upside down covered in leaves and grime. Since his incarcerated life had come to an end he learned that the world’s life, animal life specially had come to an end, at least in the form that he remembered it. As he stood in the fading light he couldn’t help but imagine what this same scene must have looked like one year before. Perhaps the kids were playing in the yard and their mother was cooking them dinner, perhaps she called them to come in and they protested that they wanted to play some more. He closed his eyes not to better imagine but to try to block those same thoughts. That world had gone forever, now they had to survive in the ruins of the aftermath. He hated death, hated what he had done to those officers. The ones that had made his life hell got away with it and other people paid for their crimes.

  Closing and locking the door to the yard he walked back into the front room, where Cal had not moved from his kneeled sniper’s position. “Hope you like Apricots.”

  “Nope.”

  “You’ll like them when I’m done with them.”

  “Good to know. I say we get Fiona back here, then use the pickup to explore more to the east, the other Cal hasn’t made a reappearance.”

  “Hey you made joke.”

  “Won’t be a joke if there’s a bunch of those…” Cal was interrupted by the distant clatter of automatic fire. Standing he turned on the radio. “Fiona, you there? Come in over.” Only static responded. “Fiona, you there. Over.” Cal looked at Michael who stood waiting for the radio to come to life with Fiona’s voice. They both waited for what felt like minutes but only a few seconds had passed.

  “Hard to say where the shots came from,” said Cal taking one last look out of the window and then opening the front door, “we need to head back to the pickup, keep trying her on yours while I try Zach,” he said changing frequencies. “Zach, was those shots where you are? Over.”

  “What shots? Over,” replied Zach.

  They both left the house, closing the door quietly behind them. Moving quickly across gardens and sidewalks, Cal told Zach about the shots and that they couldn’t get Fiona on the radio.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Fiona lay on the ground, breathing heavily, behind a small wall. Looking down at her leg she could feel a patch on her calf becoming warm and wet. The Calgorian had knocked her clean off her bike, throwing her against a car, luckily for a few seconds it became more interested in the bike than her and that was all she needed to fire repeated shots into its side, dropping it instantly. Her radio skidded across the ice on the road and came to rest in front of a recycling bin.

  Cal’s voice burst out of it like a beacon to any other creatures nearby. She swore under her breath and tried to stand when she caught sight of two more of the creatures about two hundred yards away down the road. They didn’t seem to be paying particular attention in her direction, but she needed to get that radio. Slowly she climbed to her feet. Her calf hurt, but it wasn’t stopping her from putting weight on that foot. As she crept forward across the frost-covered road she kept her gaze glued to the scene of the creatures in the distance. Are they looking my way? She hesitated trying to squint in the gloom to see if their forms were growing or shrinking in size, to try to get an indication which direction they were moving. One of the forms seemed to be getting bigger. Shit. Moving as quickly as she could she crossed the road and grabbed the radio, turning the volume down.

  The creature was now one hundred yards away, it seemed to stop every few yards and look around. Fiona looked back at her bicycle, its front wheel was buckled. She then looked at the houses closest to her. The one to her left had large windows at the front but the one to her right had smaller windows and a large tree out front, which provided some cover. That was enough for her to lurch forward, and run down the alleyway to its left side.

  Running around the back of the property she found an old wooden door, which opened when she tried it. Her surprise of finding the rear door unlocked lasted as long as it took her to move into the gloom of a small back room and face the long barrel of a shotgun that was pointed straight at her. There were no lights on in the room and her eyes were taking longer than she wanted to adjust.

  “Hello? I’m Fiona, Sorry I didn’t know…”

  The end of the barrel wobbled and the figure of an old man wearing a light checkered shirt began to reveal itself.

  “You go on now, leave here.”

  “There’s an E… there’s a monster outside.” Just as she finished the sentence the sound of snorting and a dull thud came through a side window, which looked onto the alley she just ran down. The old man hesitated, looking confused as to what to do next. “I’m not here to harm you or take anything, I just need to wait in here for the monster to move off, is that okay? What’s your name?”

  “Joe. That rifle, take it off and put it on the ground. I’m the only one who’s going to be holding a gun in this house.”

  Fiona reluctantly took her gun off her back and laid it on the threadbare rug in front of her. “Look, there’s one of those creatures just outside, can’t you hear it?” The sound of snorting grew louder and the recycling bin she was close too could be heard being pushed and slid across the dirt. Joe’s eyes flickered to his left at the sound coming from the window.

  “You brought it her
e!” said Joe.

  “I know I’m sorry, I can kill it, just let me…” Fiona started to reach for the assault rifle.

  “No, we just gotta be quiet, it will go, they always do eventually,” said Joe waving his shotgun in a way that made Fiona feel he didn’t have complete control over it. It would just be her luck to be shot by some old coot she thought.

  A heavy plodding noise, with snorting came from the alleyway just outside the window. There was only a light dirty looking curtain draped across it, and Fiona was sure that if the creature came closer it would definitely know they were inside. Joe beckoned Fiona to crouch down as he uneasily felt behind him for the arm of a worn looking chair. He sat heavily, the barrel of the shotgun waving around in Fiona’s direction making her duck even lower. She looked at her gun, just a few feet away.

  “Don’t think I can’t shoot you before you reach that gun young lady.” Joe’s voice was too loud for the situation, Fiona thought he seemed to not be fully aware of what was investigating his alleyway just a few feet away. Suddenly a large fur lined skull appeared at the window, its snout pushing up against the glass making the frame creak. Fiona froze and looked at Joe who was still looking at her and not the creature. She tried indicating with her eyes towards the creature that could easily smash through the window, but Joe seemed to be staring through her, his mouth muttering something to himself. She suddenly realized the back door was still unlocked behind her. If the creature just ventured a further few feet into the alley it would know where its prey was.

  Like it had heard a silent call, the creature’s head turned to the sky, and it turned and scampered out of the alleyway to the front yard of the house. Fiona let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding in and looked back at Joe.

  “Didn’t I tell ya, you leave them alone, they leave you alone,” said Joe. “I oughta shoot you right here…” His voice trailed off.

  “Why didn’t you go to a camp?” said Fiona.

  “Thirty-five years I’ve been in this house, and no one is making me leave, you be off now, and leave that fancy looking rifle where it is.”

  Fiona hesitated. The M4 was not something you lost. “I need that gun, I need it to protect myself, and you already have a gun.” Joe raised the barrel so it was pointing directly at Fiona’s face.

  “I reckon I just kill you and take it anyway.”

  “You fire that old shotgun and that creature will be back here, you want to risk that?” The old man looked unsure. “Look, you need food? I got some in my backpack.”

  “What you got?”

  Fiona moved slowly towards the side of the room, trying not to step on cans and cartons that lay scattered across the floor, and had a quick look into the alley to see if the creature was still there, it wasn’t. She then pulled her backpack off her back, opened it and pulled out two cans of tuna. Placing them on the floor, she reached for her rifle and picked it up making sure to keep the barrel facing down. Joe’s expression did not change during the entire transaction. She then backed out, keeping her eyes fixed on the old man with the gun, until she was outside again.

  She breathed in a lungful of the winter air, and walked down the alley, pausing at the end of it to make sure there were no more creatures nearby, there were none. She then ran forward, crouching down behind the recycling bin that was now lying on its side. Turning the volume up slowly on her radio she could immediately hear Michael’s agitated voice asking for her.

  “I’m here. Over,” she said as quietly as she could.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Zach and Abbey had opted to explore the northern reaches of the town. They drove the truck along the overpass and out onto a wide road opposite a large dark brown building. Utility poles and street lamps lay strewn like matchsticks across the street, which caused Zach to zigzag.

  “We need to start thinking about a place to hold up, that university building over there might be a good bet,” said Zach “Seems to be one of the taller buildings around here, and has good line of sight in most directions.”

  “It’s a pretty big building, we don’t know what could be in there,” said Abbey.

  “We will scout it out after we searched a few miles of these roads,” said Zach driving the truck slow along the road, and then stopping at a junction.

  Across from them was a fire station with a few fire trucks still parked inside. “That station might be worth checking out as well, might be useful equipment in there,” Zach turned into the fire station road and drove on for a few hundred yards before noticing a storage facility “And another place we need to look at, looks like most of the storage doors are still locked, could be all…” Zach was interrupted by Cal on the radio asking about gunshots and that he couldn’t reach Fiona.

  “Should we turn back?” said Abbey.

  “Not yet, suns going down, we need to search some more then we will see if they found her or not.” After a few minutes the road around them had started to widen out. Zach stopped, turned the truck around and headed back to the University building. He drove the truck over the curb of the parking lot avoiding a few vehicles and then up close to the building’s side entrance, which also had a fire escape winding down the side.

  “This is a large complex,” said Abbey looking at the expanse of other buildings of varying sizes a few hundred yards from them.

  The sun hung low on the horizon. The buildings and trees cast long black shadows, one of which enveloped the truck. Zach and Abbey both looked up at the four-story building for any signs of movement.

  The radio suddenly came to life and Fiona’s voice streamed out informing them she was safe, and Cal and Michael were picking her up. Zach told them to head north on Main Street and they should spot the university building where they are parked. He did the same for Jacob who also hadn’t seen anyone when searching to the south.

  Zach turned the engine and lights off, which suddenly made both of them aware just how dark it was now getting around them. The intense black beyond the windows of the building close by didn’t help.

  “You got all the supplies we need in your pack?” said Zach.

  “Yes, fair bit of food in mine.”

  “Good, we will get inside quickly, but then we need to go slow, and stay close together, it’s probably like a maze in there in the dark.”

  They both got out of the truck, Abbey touching her chest pocket to make sure Rays’ notebook was still there and ran for the nearby door. The door opened with a creaking sound and a musky smell escaped out into the winter evening. Their flashlight’s scanned the walls of a small corridor, the light bouncing off the smooth glossy floor. The confined space kept any of the remaining light out and both of them felt uneasy about moving forward.

  “Keep your gun raised,” said Zach walking forward slowly, his words taking form in the cold air around them. The corridor turned a corner and opened up into a larger room with faded patterned carpeting and leather sofa’s. A sideboard had fallen onto the floor scattering a vase, which contained flowers that had become dry black crumbs, but apart from that the room looked like it had not been effected by the outside world. They both stood in the darkness waiting for something to appear but nothing did.

  “Let’s head up the stairs to one of the dorm floors, see if we can find a few rooms to sleep in,” said Zach, but then stopped. The sound of a vehicle pulling up outside resonated around the room they were standing in. “Wait here, I need to see who it is. Keep your eyes fixed on that direction, it’s where the stairs are.” Zach then turned and walked back to the side entrance, peering as best he could through the glass of the door. Cal, Zach and Michael were standing outside of the pickup.

  “In here.” Zach said opening the door. He noticed Fiona was limping. “What happened?”

  “Had a run in with some cat like thing, I took it down but hurt my leg doing so, it’s fine.”

  They all filed into the small corridor and Zach led them into the communal room. Abbey was reading a magazine on Pacific islands, her flashlig
ht perched on the sofa’s arm pointing towards the stairs entrance.

  “Jacob said he’s about twenty minutes out,” said Cal.

  “We need to check out the rooms upstairs, Cal you okay staying down here to show Jacob and Jacks the way in?” said Zach, Cal nodded. Zach led them up a narrow staircase, past the exits to floors one and two, until they got to the third floor. He pointed his flashlight’s beam through the small glass window and looked down the hallway of the dorm. Some clothes lay scattered on the floor, but there was no sign of humans or creatures. He opened the door and they all walked slowly into the hallway made up of eight doors, four on each side, and a window at the far end with connected with another fire escape. The first door on their left was open, the others were closed.

  “Anyone in here?” said Zach into the hallway, the milky white walls lit by the beams of the groups flashlights. “Fiona, Abbey, you check out the right side, we’ll take the left.” Zach peered around the edge of the first door numbered seventeen, into a small room with two unmade beds. A desk with an overturned lamp was on the far wall under a small window and solid looking books lay on the floor. Michael tried the next door, which was locked. Fiona and Abbey had better luck on their side, and opened all but one of the doors. Michael and Zach faced their locked door, then both kicked forward near the handle causing it to fly open. This room was typical of the others apart from walls adjourned with some astronomy posters. A noise came from the staircase behind them. Cal, Jacob and Jacks emerged from behind their flashlight’s beams.

  “Any sign of human life out there?” said Zach to Jacob. Jacks spoke first.

  “None that we could see, but Jacob here drives a bit slow so we didn’t cover as much ground as we should of.” Jacob remained emotionless and then spoke.

  “Nope, we did see some of the E.L.F’s that Fiona ran into, looked liked the kind of thing I would see in those fancy New York museums as a kid.”

  “Fiona took care of one of them, but she saw another two, there’s probably a lair around here somewhere, but first we need to find out if the intel that Ops gave us about survivors is true,” said Zach.