Cascade Box Set [Books 1-8]

by Maxey, Phil

  A few gasps rippled across the room.

  “So who’s in charge?” said Sam.

  “That would be me,” said Zach.

  Sam smiled. “Nice.”

  “Absent of a new civilian administration being put in place, the military will be running the camp and as of yesterday I’m in charge of the military,” he nodded to the back of the room where a long table sat with a coffee machine and water cooler on it. “There’s fresh coffee and water at the back of the room if anyone needs something to drink.”

  Mary got up, asking who around her would want anything, then set off to the back.

  Zach looked at Hannigan who tapped a key on a keyboard in front of him, and the large screen switched from a blue screen to a map of the United States. A red dot indicated the location of the camp. There were also other dots of varying colors. “This map shows Camp Bravo, as well as the Hell Fire gang’s known locations around us. Again, some of you might already know this, but the Hell Fire gang have grown to something much larger. We think they number at least five thousand, and have somehow managed to find a lot of military hardware. Two days ago they gave the council an ultimatum. We agree to the country being divided up into two halves, or they will attack. One half they would run, the other we would run.”

  More gasps rang around the occupants.

  Isaiah tutted. “How are a bunch of crazy bikers going to threaten us here? Have they seen those walls?”

  Before Zach could answer the door opened and Elijah and Ethan Moore entered.

  “Could you have made this room any more difficult to find?” said Elijah slightly out of breath.

  “Glad you’re both here. Good to see you Ethan, how’s Dee?” said Zach.

  “Some bad dreams but he’s doing fine, thank you,” said Ethan finding a place to sit, as did Elijah.

  Zach looked back to Isaiah. “They got tanks, lots of them, as well as jets. The recent attack on our factories in the north was them making a point.”

  “So why are we here?” said Irene.

  Zach paused for a moment. “Simple answer is because I trust all of you,” his eyes skipped past Elijah as he looked around the table.

  “I appreciate that, but how can a blind lady help you?” continued Irene.

  “A fierce blind lady,” said Sam. A ripple of laughter flowed around the room.

  Zach smiled. “Each of you has shown that when the shit hits the fan, you know how to step up. If this camp is going to survive it’s going to need that kind of courage. Now, some of you here have specific military knowledge, whereas others don’t, but I feel all of you given the right tools can help.’

  “Okay…” said Irene.

  “There are fifteen of us in this room. We are a war council that will meet around this time everyday.”

  “We’re at war?” said Irene with Isaiah saying something similar.

  “In a sense we have always been at war, ever since the Cascade started, but now we’re facing a human foe, that seems bent on destroying us and this camp.”

  “We can’t talk to them? Why do they want to destroy us?” said Mary.

  “That’s what the councilors went to do yesterday, and you know how that turned out. As to why—” he shook his head. “We don’t know. They must see us as a threat to what they want.”

  “They have to pay for what they did,” said Fiona. Zach wasn’t exactly sure what she was referring too, but nodded his head regardless.

  “So when do we take the fight to them?” said Bower.

  “That’s what I’m talking about,” said Isaiah, and then looked at Bower. “Who are you again?”

  The Captain smiled. “Captain Cole Bower.”

  “I agree with the Captain, why don’t we just load up and pay these people a visit.”

  “Because that’s what they want us to do,” said Elijah. “If we leave the camp, go looking for them, they will pick us off. Whereas if we stay in the camp, we will slowly run out of resources and die.”

  “I’m guessing there’s a third option,” said Bass.

  Elijah continued. “They’re not at our walls yet, but when they arrive, and believe me they will. It all comes down to who has the most supplies. In pure bodies alone we outnumber them a hundred to one, but most in this camp don’t or won’t fight. So if you look at fighting age men and women, then it comes down to ten to one. And of that who is already military trained maybe the numbers are close to even. Which means they need food and water for a fraction of the people we do. And that’s our weakness.”

  Everyone was silent, absorbing the situation they didn’t realize they were already in.

  Elijah continued. “When the supplies get low, people won’t care about the E.L.F’s or even those outside the walls, they will just want food and water for themselves and their families. At that point people will kill to get those things. And then there’s the one hundred and sixty miles of wall we need to keep watch over. It just needs one breach, and they can have their tanks and who knows what else inside. And I haven’t even mentioned the fuel situation yet.”

  “So, millions flood to this place for salvation from the monsters, and then human monsters try to kill them anyway. Some things never change,” said Mary. “Please tell me we have a plan?”

  “Right now, we have some ideas. All of you are here today to turn them into a plan,” said Zach looking at everyone. “You all ready to get to work?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Zach looked at the fields on the country road pass by on his way back to the house he had not visited for weeks. Abbey was to his side.

  “I’m seeing a bit of green in these fields. Maybe spring is on its way,” he said.

  “Without natural pollinators a bit is probably all it’s going to be,” said Abbey.

  “Raj and his people have been trying new cultivation techniques up north, but without Mother Nature they have been only partially successful.”

  “I would kill for some grapes or a pineapple.”

  Zach smiled. “Well we still have the seeds, it’s just a question of creating the right conditions to grow them. Once we take care of the current crisis maybe we can focus on things like that.”

  Their pickup pulled into the drive at the front of their house. The noonday sun above shone bright.

  “I’m not sure I can do another night in the officers’ quarters at the Core,” said Abbey.

  “I’m going to go back later, but you should stay here and get some rest tonight.”

  They both got out carrying some belongings with them. As they walked around the back of the house a clump sound made them both look up. Mo was perched on the roof, his wings fluttering to help him balance.

  “Hey Mo!” shouted Abbey. “Did you like the food I left ya?” The winged E.L.F squawked in reply.

  Zach walked across the partially grass covered lawn to the edge of the lake. Some of the wood he had cut the morning that Tinley escaped laid damp with moss growing on some of it.

  A noise made him turn around. Abbey walked up to him and held his hand. The water lapped gently at the shoreline, and they both stood silently watching the sun reflect off the ripples.

  “I want us to enjoy this view one day with some kids running around.”

  “Kids?” exclaimed Zach in shock.

  Abbey smiled while slapping his shoulder. “Oh, stop.”

  He groaned.

  “Oh, sorry! I forgot.”

  He smiled. “It’s okay it’s the other shoulder I was shot in.”

  “Ah!” She smiled and put her hand around his waist as they both turned back to the lake.

  “One day,” he said then turned back to the house. “Let’s get inside and see if there’s anything still edible to eat.”

  As they walked back hand in hand, his radio crackled and came to life.

  “Brigadier General Felton, you are required back at the Core. We have received what we believe to be a communication from the Hell Fire gang. Over.”

  “You just got here!” said
Abbey.

  Zach swore under his breath, then clicked on his radio. “I’ve just got back to the house. What does the communication say? Over.”

  “I’ve been advised by the technical officer that it’s better we don’t broadcast that. Over.”

  “Of course. Give me ten minutes and I’ll be on my way back. Over.” He turned to Abbey pulling towards the house. “Come on, I want to eat in my own house for once.”

  After some hot coffee, a tin of watery soup and a hug from Abbey he was back on the road. He hated leaving her behind. He told her he could have some soldiers stationed outside their house, but she refused the offer saying they would make her paranoid. He said he understood, but secretly he intended to do it anyway. She had been taken as a hostage so many times he had lost count since they first arrived in the camp, and he wasn’t about to let it happen again.

  It wasn’t long before he was pulling into the Core parking lot, pulling up close to the entrance for once. Being in charge of things had its perks.

  As he moved into the lobby a soldier ran up to him. “Sir, everyone is waiting for you in main operations,” the young soldier saluted while walking at Zach’s side.

  “Thank you private.”

  He took the elevator down numerous floors and walked through a maze of hallways until he was walking into the main operations hall. The fury of noise which the place usually had hushed when he entered. That was something he was still getting used too.

  “What have you got for me,” he said walking up to Trow, Bower and Fiona. Trow turned to Hannigan who pushed his glasses up his nose then tapped on the keyboard in front of him. They all looked to the large screen at the front of the hall.

  “This recording was broadcast, about two hundred miles due north of the camp at approximately 11 am this morning.” Hannigan started playing the audio recording.

  “Good people of Camp Bravo. As you should be aware by now the ones that ruled over you, the ‘council’ are all dead. You no longer have anybody in charge of how your camp is run. Well apart from the military, but do you really want them to be in charge of your lives? My name is Troy Carlson and what I offer you is security. Not just from the monsters that roam our land, but also from those that want to take your freedom away. We have a chance with what happened, to start again. Do things better this time. But the people that were in charge of the camp just wanted to control you, while they reaped the rewards. We say fuck that. We want you to live how you want. It’s the American way. Soon we will be outside your walls. Waiting for you to do the right thing and rise up against those that want to keep you down. I look forward to meeting all of you.”

  Zach sighed. “It’s a clever approach, I’ll give them that much. Has anyone else in the camp got this recording?”

  “A number of local radio stations picked it up and have rebroadcast it.”

  Zach clenched the back of a nearby chair shaking his head.

  He turned to Fiona. “I want you to crack down on anyone that starts to use this recording as a means to an ends.”

  She nodded.

  “Any gatherings larger than a few people I want broken up.”

  “Okay, but I’m going to need more people.”

  “Talk to who you need to, to start recruiting more people.”

  “Err that’s going to mean more payments, and we are running low on funds as it is.”

  “Just do what you can.”

  Fiona nodded and left.

  Trow looked at Hannigan again, who tapped his keyboard making the screen display feeds from various drones. “We have been monitoring the surrounding area’s, and so far no sign of them…”

  “What is it?” asked Zach.

  Trow looked at Hannigan. “Bring up the feed from sector twelve.”

  One of the feeds enlarged to fill most of the large screen. A string of vehicles came into view.

  “Zoom out.”

  Hannigan did as asked and the drone’s camera zoomed out, but the end of the convoy could still not be seen.

  “Where is sector twelve?“ said Zach.

  Before she could answer, Hannigan started typing away at his keyboard.

  “That’s not the only drone that’s seeing movement.” He shrunk down the existing feed so there were six feeds once again. Each one had a red frame flashing around it. “We’re picking up movement from all the drones. They are all about two—”

  Before he could finish one of the drone feeds fizzled and went black.

  “What just happened?” said Zach standing close to the man at the keyboard.

  “I… I don’t know, we just lost the connection.”

  “And another!” said Trow looking at the large screen, as the second feed went to black.

  “Bring the drones back! Or we will lose them all!” said Zach.

  Hannigan looked at the soldiers sitting at a station in front of him. “You heard the Brigadier General, return the drones.” Even before he finished talking another two feeds went black.

  The soldiers in front of them frantically spoke into their earpieces but stopped when the final two feeds went dead.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Fiona sat in her pickup looking at a hundred or so angry faces. “Break up gatherings of more than a few people. Right…”

  The stout man next to her with a healthy beard, looked at her. “What do you want us to do ma’am?”

  Fiona and her second in command of the Justice Force were parked in a side street to a large open square in the downtown area.

  The shadows were growing long as the march for ‘Freedom’ gathered in the center of the flat concrete area.

  “Give them one warning to go home, and then we use harsher methods.”

  “Like what?” said the former marshal.

  “Like whatever you need to do to get them to get the fuck out of the area. We got an invasion force bearing down on this camp, we don’t have time to be dealing—” she stopped when she realized her words were coming out way too strongly. “I’m sorry Mike. Just do what you think is enough force to convince them to leave.”

  “Okay,” said Mike Lardner getting out of the pickup. Once outside he told the officers around him to move in, from his radio.

  Fiona watched the men of the medium gray uniforms walk forward with body armor and guns over their shoulders, and the angry faces grow angrier.

  Placards with “Justice for the five” and “We won’t be ruled by a dictator” bounced up and down behind masked individuals.

  Mike walked forward to the closest protestor and engaged him in conversation. They seemed to be talking. That’s something. The last thing the camp needed was an insurgency, although that was exactly what the gang was trying to create.

  Her radio crackled and came to life with Zach’s voice. “How’s it looking down there? I’m watching it on the news. Over.”

  “Mike’s talking to some of the leaders. They seem to be willing to listen. Over.”

  Chants of “Down with the military!” Got louder.

  “That’s good, we can’t let this get out—”

  A gunshot rang out around the square and everyone started running.

  “What’s happening? There’s a gunshot?” Continued Zach.

  “I’ll get back to you. Over.”

  Fiona quickly pushed her helmet on and jumped out of the pickup, with her rifle in her hand. As she ran forward she realized one of the officers was lying on the floor with blood pouring from a head wound. All the officers were ducked down behind cars, looking up at the buildings that loomed over the square.

  The crack of another gunshot mixed with screams as people scattered like ants in all directions, some pushing into her as they ran to get away from the kill zone.

  She flung herself down next to Mike, who was behind a wall.

  “We got a sniper up there somewhere, could be anywhere,” said Mike. “How did Krycek look? I just saw him go down?”

  “He’s dead,” said Fiona.

  Mike shook his head. “He was a goo
d kid.”

  “How good an aim are you?”

  “Pretty decent why?”

  “Because you’re about to have four seconds to find the shooter after he misses me with his first shot.”

  “What?”

  Fiona jumped up and ran forward around the wall, a bullet whistled past her head making her duck, but she kept running, zigzagging best she could. Come on. She knew the second shot probably wouldn’t miss. Ahead of her in the center of the square was a tree, it was going to be the only chance she had of avoiding the next bullet.

  Two shots rang out. She dived under the tree and immediately looked for bullet wounds.

  “I think I got him!” shouted Mike. “He’s in the east block, on the fifth floor.” He repeated the details on his radio and officers ran into the building. Fiona sat, steadying her breathing.

  A few moments later, an officer’s face appeared in the gap of the shattered glass window five floors above, and shouted down, “he’s dead”. Fiona slowly got to her feet and walked over to Mike as he walked towards her.

  “You must have a death wish or something,” said Mike.

  “I want to know everything about who that person was, before daybreak,” she said walking back to the pickup.

  Mike watched her leave. “Yes, ma’am.”

  As she got back into her vehicle, she clicked on her radio. “Fiona to Core operations. The protest is broken up.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  Zach stood on the north wall looking out to the faint greens and browns that made up the fields and occasional clump of trees. The sun was going down and the color was slowly being washed from the landscape, being replaced with shades of blue and gray.

  Since seeing the gang’s convoy moving towards the camp from the grainy drone footage, he wanted to inspect as much of the wall himself as he could before they arrived.

  “We got good visibility in most directions for miles due to there hardly being any tall hills around here,” said Bass.