by Maxey, Phil
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The sky screamed in orange and mauve as the sun dissolved into the horizon. They had passed San Moore’s hospital they investigated a week before and were now passing the water tower where they first met Jim and his son James. Zach had tried a few more times to reach Jim, but only silence met his requests. As the convoy followed the same path they had been led up last time they were here, Zach took a breath and clicked on his radio. “Bass, I’ve not been able to get Jim on the radio, something feel’s off, have your people stay alert. Over.” Bass acknowledged and agreed.
Soon they were in the hills outside the city, and at the junction with the large steel tower covered in communication dishes. Turning left, they drove the short distance along the dirt-frosted road, until they came up to the entrance to the manufacturing building that Jim and his friends had made their home.
“That’s odd,” said Zach, looking at the open gate. “They don’t have a guard on the gate.” He looked over to the large metal shutter, and could see no sign of movement. Something’s wrong.
Zach led the convoy along the track and stopped a few yards from the large entrance they entered the building through last time. No light came from any of the few boarded up windows that the building had.
“Maybe they are just busy and don’t know we’re here,” said Abbey not truly believing her own words.
“Stay in the Humvee until I give the signal to come inside,” said Zach, opening the Humvee’s door and getting out. A cold wind blew, as night started to take hold.
Bass and a few soldiers ran up to him. “Let’s see if we can get this metal shutter open.”
They all moved to the large pleated metal shutter, grabbing the bottom and pulled upwards. It slid upwards without much effort and they were all immediately hit by the smell, which escaped out into the darkness.
Abbey watched them put their arms across their noses, and swallowed hard.
“Fuck this,” said Fiona getting out. Michael followed. Abbey sat there, knowing she should get out and see what the others were seeing but she felt rooted to the seat.
The first body that they came across was a teenage boy. He was lying on his front, with his arms tangled up with the rope from one of their tents. The next was an elderly woman, maybe in her seventies, she was slumped on the floor with her head up against a rotting box of cabbages. Zach and the others around him slid their flashlight beams from one corpse to the next. All were blue in color and had been dead for a few days, some had slash marks across them, but most had small dark red holes in their heads of torsos.
Abbey walked zombie like up to Zach, and put her hand to her mouth, she then started crying. He held her, but kept his eyes on the dead.
Bass walked to him. “What we going to do?”
“We have to stay here for the night, it’s too late to try for anywhere else.”
Abbey leaned back from her embrace. “But the kids?”
“We will move all the bodies into the other part of the building, beyond the far door. We’ll tell them the smell is due to rotting food.”
Abbey pulled away, and looked at the closest body to her. At first she wasn’t sure if she was seeing right as the tears were stinging her eyes, but she leaned forward slightly and even in the gloom it was obvious the person had been shot. “They… they were shot…”
“Sir?” A young soldier just visible in the gloom, was waving for Zach to walk to where he was.
Zach and Abbey walked to the far wall, avoiding the black stickiness on the concrete floor. The soldier’s flashlight beam was initially pointing to them as they approached, but then swung around to the wall. On it written in dark red was the word “Geneva”.
“What does that mean?” said Abbey.
For a moment Zach was about to answer that he had no idea, and then he remembered the conversation with the priest, Alex, about a motorcycle gang headed up by someone going by the name that was smeared in blood on the wall.
Zach walked back to Bass who was directing the operation to move all the bodies into the far room. “We need to post lookout’s outside, in case they come back. Let me know when all the bodies are out back.” Bass nodded, and two soldiers who were still on the bus, jumped off, with one running back to the gate and another disappearing around the back of the building.
Zach then walked slowly back into James, radio room. A number of the plastic and metal boxes that he was impressed with just a week before were gone, and what was left was smashed into parts unknown. He stood there for a moment trying to absorb what must have happened. People did this.
“Zach?” Bass stood in the doorway.
“Yes.”
“They are all moved into the back room. Shall we start moving everyone off the bus?”
“Make sure any pools of blood on the floors are covered with something, but after that, yes. Thanks.” Zach wasn’t sure why he thanked him, but it felt right. Bass left, and Zach followed him out, but then walked to the end of the building. He opened the door to the room that Abbey had told him about after they had left this place of life and hope. The long room that was going to be an area for growing, had now become a morgue for the very same people that were going to plant there.
Carefully, moving solemnly from person to person, he shone his flashlight beam on ashen faces. Eventually he found, Jim and his wife Jen. Both shot in the head. He felt emotion swelling up inside him, but then he realized, he had not found Jim’s son, James. Escaped? Taken with them? He clicked on his radio. “Bass, have your people found any bodies outside? Over.” The response came back negative. Zach stepped outside, and closed the door. He then found a nearby upturned chair, and placed it against it.
*****
Caroline sat with her legs mostly inside the blue sleeping bag that she had found. She couldn’t bring herself to completely climb inside, due to it belonging to someone who had died just a few hours earlier. She also knew that as the temperature dropped, the discomfort would leave her the colder it became and she would soon be zipping it up to her chin. But for now, just keeping her feet warm would suffice. She looked around at the large chamber like room. She hadn’t asked, but she picked up bits of conversation that led her to believe that a large number of people died in this room, people that were making a go of it, who had survived. What she couldn’t understand was how things went so wrong that they would let in an E.L.F that would then go on to kill all of them. Maybe they lost hope and killed themselves? She wasn’t sure, but for now she was glad to be a good way into her journey to the camp near Austin and the chance of a new life.
She felt bad not having talked to Esther much, but they had been living in the same cramped space for over three months and now they were outside, there seemed to be a kind of repulsive force that meant they kept their distance from each other. A new life. She lowered herself a few inches more into the sleeping bag, and smiled.
Zach stood just outside the large metal shutter, and rubbed his hands together. Bass, Cal and Fiona stood with him.
“We’re going to need to have patrols throughout the night, two people at a time, doing four hour shifts,” said Zach, looking up at the stars above their heads.
“Do we have any idea who did it?” said Fiona.
Zach sighed, and then told them the same story that the priest had told him.
“Fucks.”
“They must have grown in number, because a small motorcycle gang, even with a lot of firepower wouldn’t have been able to take down Jim and his people.”
“They probably talked their way in, then killed everyone,” said Cal. Fiona was pleased to hear him talk in a clear and concise way for the first time in days, even if it was about something so horrible.
“That’s my thinking too.”
Bass looked around into the darkness. “They could still be in the area.”
“Yup, that’s why we won’t be getting much sleep tonight. We also need to leave on time at sunrise. Lots of road to eat up tomorrow.”
T
hey all agreed on how the shifts would work between them, and then those that weren’t on patrol straightaway made their way back inside, back into the concrete box that smelled of death.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Zach stood, his head lowered in front of the bodies of Jim’s outpost. Inside he said a few words to a higher power he wasn’t sure existed but words he felt those in front of him were owed. As he finished his silent tribute he took one last look at Jim’s face. “I’ll find your son,” then left, and closed the door behind him. Pulling out a marker that was found amongst one of the body’s belongings, he scrawled the words “Dead inside.” On the door and dropped the pen to the ground. He then walked to the entrance, where Bass was waiting for him. Icy rain fell like silent needles and the sun was a few minutes away from making its first appearance of the day.
“Next stop, Roswell,” said Zach, as he and Bass pulled the shutter down.
Soon the convoy was back on the road, moving with speed along highway 60. The planned route back to Roswell, would take them a different way than their journey to Portland. They wanted to avoid Albuquerque so that meant going to the east of that city, and passing through Santa Fe instead. As a watery sun rose, they turned right and headed south.
Zach watched the road ahead and thought about what he needed to do in Roswell. To accomplish his task, to make Tinley pay, he had to stay detached from his emotions. If he couldn’t it might go bad.
Fiona looked out into the gloomy morning sky, aware of Cal to her right, but not wanting to look at him in case he noticed her. He had changed again. His eyes seemed alert and he seemed to want to be part of their team. The old Cal was back. So why wasn’t she happy? Why did something still feel wrong? She looked to her right, and smiled at him. He smiled back. He’s healed. Stop worrying.
“What’s the plan when we get to Brads?” said Michael, sitting right of Cal and behind Abbey.
“We should be joining up with the larger convoy,” said Zach.
“What’s left of it,” said Abbey.
“I’m not looking forward to taking any commands from that asshole in command, what’s his name? Rimley?”
“Tinley,” said Zach, trying to hide the tension in his voice.
Cal cleared his throat. “There’s some stuff I need to say.”
The space inside the Humvee went so quiet, Fiona thought she could hear her own and everyone else’s heartbeat.
“You all must have thought I’d gone crazy. And truth be told I did. I’m not making excuses for what I did back at the fort. There’s no making that right, but I just want you to know that I’m thinking clearly again. You don’t need to sideline me anymore.”
The silence continued.
“So I just wanted to say that,” continued Cal.
Michael awkwardly smiled at his friend to his left.
Zach looked in the rear mirror. “It’s good you’re feeling better, but we need to take things one step at a time.”
Abbey looked to her left slightly in Cal’s direction. “Do you remember anything about what you said to me at the ski lodge?” she immediately regretted asking the question.
“It’s all pretty hazy. I remember being in the hotel room with Fiona. I remember looking at the ceiling and then it’s just a blur of sounds and images that don’t make much sense until I woke up in the kitchen in the lodge.”
Abbey feigned a smile, then returned looking out towards the highway ahead of them. In that moment she wanted to be outside, somewhere she didn’t have to confront the connections that were being constructed in her mind.
After driving for miles through desert, they drove through a large town with wide avenues, and single-story buildings offering refuge for truckers. Leaving the town the road dipped and rose over hills until they entered a heavily forested area and the highway started to steeply ascend.
Rob’s eyes flickered to his right. Tyler was writing in a small notebook.
“I was thinking,” said Rob. Tyler looked up at him. “When we get to the camp, I want to try and get some work fixing up people’s cars, and then if that goes well, setup our own auto repair shop. We haven’t really had a chance to put our boots down in that camp yet, but some folks must want their vehicles repaired.”
Tyler smiled. “Yeah, I think that would be a great idea. I’ll help too.”
“Ha, when have you ever been interested in fixing cars?”
Tyler’s expression changed to one of frustration. “I helped, fix up nana’s old car!”
Rob smiled. “That you did,” he sighed, and then continued. “I know you want to help, but your future is not with your head in an engine, it’s your head in a book. We all knew you were the brains in the family, and you gotta make something of it, become a doctor, or a scientist, like that Indian guy you were talking to.”
“I guess. But I have to pay my way, I’ll get a job doing something.”
Rob reached out with his right hand and scrunched up Tyler’s hair. “Oh yeah you will.”
They both laughed.
As the convoy pushed through the snow, and the incline got steeper the buses struggled to keep up with the Humvee.
“We better slow it a bit, the buses are falling behind,” said Fiona looking out the rear window.
“I don’t want to slow too much, in case we lose traction,” replied Zach.
“Couldn’t we pull over when we see a rest stop, and let them catch up?” said Michael.
“If we stop in this amount of snow, we might get stuck. Even though there’s reasonable light, I don’t want us to be stuck in these mountains.”
Zach clicked on his radio. “Rob, Bass. You both know the route, if you lose sight of us, we will pull over and wait for you at a point where there’s less snow. Over.”
Snow laden tops of trees on their right, and white gray slopes that ran down to the road on their left, flew by as they all did their best to keep their vehicles traction and not to slide. After a few miles the highway leveled out, and started to descend, but it quickly became more of a winding dirt track, which took all of the drivers concentration to stay on.
“Maybe Albuquerque was a better choice,” said Michael as the Humvees back wheels slid dangerously close to a sheer drop down to the valley below.
“At least we know there’s not going to be anyone coming the other way,” said Abbey, and they all laughed.
As the road straightened out Zach looked up at the rear mirror and saw Greggs in the first bus come around the bend they themselves just navigated, he then looked away and looked back to see Rob’s bus do the same. Just as he was about to look away again, a large hippopotamus looking E.L.F slid down a rock face to Rob’s left, slamming into the side of the bus, sending it in the direction of the fall off.
Zach could see Rob struggling with the steering wheel while intermittently waving behind him, but Zach couldn’t see why. The bus’s wheels skirted the boulder strewn cliff edge, and then it was gone. The sound of branches breaking echoed around them. The other bus and Humvee were now stopped, and everyone sat frozen.
“Look out!” shouted Abbey, even though no one in the other bus would hear her as more creatures slid down the rock face, hitting the back of the other bus, which was shunted forward, slamming it into a rock face.
Zach blinked a few times, then clicked on his radio. “Bass, hold everyone inside, let these things pass!”
The herd of E.LF’s ran past the bus, and the Humvee, buffeting both and causing a plume of dust, rocks and ice to fill the air like they were in the middle of a tornado. After a minute, the creatures continued their stamped down the road into the valley. Everyone in the Humvee sat silent, until Zach clicked on his radio. “Bass, what can you see around you? Over.”
Bass’s voice responded from Zach’s radio, together with the sound of fear in the background. “I think we’re okay, no injuries, the front might be a bit banged up. But… Rob…”
“I’m coming to you, stay around your vehicle. Over,” Zach then turned to those a
round him. “Cal, you’re with me, everyone else, watch our surroundings, if anything moves, let me know,” he and Cal then got out into the settling dust and snow, and ran back to the other bus. As they did, no one talked inside the cab of the Humvee, except for Abbey silently voicing the words “Oh God.”
Bass was already outside the bus, when Cal and Zach got to it. Ignoring the crumpled front bumper they looked into the white cloud of dust and snow that was slowly settling where the other bus left the road.
“What is that?” said Bass, as they all strained to see a dark form lying on the ground.
Running forward, they ran past the tire marks and the loose rocks on the edge of the road and up to Tyler who was sitting up feeling his head. Blood trickled down his face and mixed with his tears.
“He told me to jump out the back…” said Tyler crying. “He… he... left me… they all left me,” he tucked his head between his knees and his body started shaking.
“We need to get him back to the bus. Cal keep watch around us,” said Zach as he and Bass, leaned down and picked Tyler up. Cal unslung his rifle and scoured the surrounding trees and hills. They walked Tyler back to the bus and put him down on a seat towards the back. Zach then asked Mary if she could get some bandages on Tyler’s head wound, and he ran back to where Rob’s bus dropped into the valley below. Zach looked down, but nothing could be seen of the bus, only a two hundred foot drop into rocks and trees. He took his rifle off his back and looked down onto the valley floor with the scope. There were some broken tree tops but not much else. It was obvious that nobody could have survived that fall. He ran back to the bus, where Bass and Greggs were examining the front.