by Maxey, Phil
“I mean… why play these games? They’re going to let those in Galveston know we’re coming! And look at how many we’ve—” A hand, or maybe it was a claw? Was constricting his throat. It was attached to a stalk like appendage that had emerged from the back of the creature previously known as Arthur Rackham, even though the scientist’s body was still facing the window, his eyes calmly observing the chaos.
“Do not question what you do not understand,” said Rackham. “The girl has a larger role to play. Not one I originally planed, but perhaps this way is better. More fitting. And as you know the serum is spreading throughout those that are still left, and they are making their way south from all over the country.” The claw released its grip and Finn bent over, rage in his heart, trying to gather air into his lungs.
Beneath the building in the dense black of an underground parking garage, Arlo and Josh sat in the back seat of Finn’s sedan in silence. Arlo had tried to count in his mind, to keep some kind of idea of the time the two monsters had been gone, but before he reached around thirty, pain would surge across a limb or his back and he would forget the number and reset back to zero. He let out a breath in frustration. He knew the boy was awake, knew he was listening. He also knew the boy was traumatized and any talk of attempt to escape might result in a worse outcome than last time.
“Your parents are still out there. And if there’s—”
“I don’t care. It doesn’t matter anymore. Everyone’s dead. Your dead and so am I.”
Arlo held his breath, knowing that his effort to sit up further was going to cost him. In one swift movement, he pushed his throbbing legs into the floor and jolted up the seat but quickly stopped as a cascade of burning pain spread from his lower back. He groaned, having to wait a few seconds for the pain to dissipate so he could at least string two thoughts together. “You got any water?”
There was a rustling. “I can’t see much. I have to touch your face, so I know where to pour.”
“Yeah, it’s fine… Thanks.”
Josh missed with some but enough made it into Arlo’s dry throat to allow him to feel normal for a moment. “Neither of us are dead, Josh. We’re still breathing and we’re still us. That means...” The sobs were quiet and subdued but undeniable. If his hands weren’t tied he would have placed one on the boy’s shoulder but as it was all he had was words. “You are much braver than me.”
There was a sniff. “What do you mean?”
“Shit, if I were your age, I’d be freaking out. I’d probably just gone plain crazy…” He wasn’t sure if he was helping or making things worse.
“I don’t know what going crazy would feel like. I just know I want this to be over. I want the monster men to get to where they want to go, then maybe they will let me go.”
“Where are they going?”
“They didn’t say exactly. They don’t talk much, but the older one said it’s somewhere he can continue his work. Whatever that is.”
“Did he say why he took you?”
“Just that I’m important. Like my mother and sister…”
“They’re right about that, buddy. You are important and that means they won’t harm—”
A clatter came from across the parking lot along with the sound of boots. There was no swaying flashlight beams though, the two approaching humanoid figures didn’t need them.
“Please, don’t try and escape again! Promise me you won’t try to do that?”
“Hey it’s okay. I promise. I won’t do that again.”
The driver’s then passenger’s door opened and in got their abductors. Arlo let out a breath. He hated lying.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
7: 37 a.m. Texas.
A clear blue sky, tinged with pinks and mauves in the east sat above the Keller’s as they made their way down a gravel track alongside the boxcars. A young woman with an arm full of bloody rags ran past them in the opposite direction. A meeting had been called in the first of the cars, near the engine and Jess and her family had been requested to attend.
They passed the open boxcar which had been designated the mobile medical facility, getting glimpses of pain and suffering, while doc Barker and others that were helping, ran from person to person administering what assistance they could. A chill wind blew, causing Jess to rub her elbows. Now she was human again, the world was one of shivers and aches.
Landon knocked on the closed door of their destination and it slid open, allowing heated conversations and actual warm air to escape. There was also the welcome odor of cooked food. “What smells so good?” he said, trying to see the source. With some help they were pulled up into the mostly normal looking space of any of the boxcars he had seen. To their left, some fifteen-feet away, bathed in light from candles, a few individuals were hovering over pots and pans which sat on hotplates. Nearby were chairs and a few tables, but that’s not where the majority of the occupants were, for in the center of the space a larger table had been placed with a map on its surface, along with some handguns and rifles.
The door was closed.
Scott was snacking on a candy bar, his pants leg near the ankle bulging with what Jess presumed was a bandage. Luci and Vance were also eating, while Owen, Ford, Gale and some others Jess nor Landon recognized looked at the map.
“Stew will be ready, real soon,” said an elderly woman near the hotplates.
“Can’t come soon enough, Ella,” said Owen.
Ella stirred the bubbling mix. “Least these old bones, still have some use!”
Jess wanted to smile. Good people doing normal, helpful things. But she couldn’t. There was no space inside her for joy. She looked at those around the map. “You have a plan?”
Owen looked at Floyd, who was leaning up against the back wall. “Tell the Doc we have to get going soon. We need to keep ahead of the things.”
“He said—”
“I know what he said, but none of that will matter if the things catch up with us.”
Floyd nodded, opened a small gap in the door and jumped down, closing it behind him.
Owen looked back at Jess and Landon, both now standing over the map. It was marked with a series of pencil X’s at various locations around the city of Houston. Jess pointed at them. “What are these?”
“Locations where we can resupply,” said Luci. “And if the military have made it back onto the mainland, where we might find them.”
A knock came on the door, which was pulled open. Sam helped Sanchez climb up. He limped a little and his hand was heavily bandaged.
“How did you get to the train?” said Landon.
Sanchez smiled. “I had jumped clear from an airplane on the border on more than one occasion. The fuel had been depleted or more usually a bullet had hit something important in the engine. Either way I learned the usefulness of a having a parachute.”
“The crazy SOB jumped from the top with a chute,” said Luci. “Can you believe that?”
Sanchez wasn’t the only one that sniggered.
“That’s amazing,” said Sam.
“Usually it’s from a few thousand feet, not a few hundred. Meant I landed a little harder than I was planning to.” He held up his hand. He nodded to those around him. “Good to see you all made it.”
Luci looked down at the map, humor quickly leaving her. “Some of us didn’t.”
He nodded again. “And when this is over, we will mourn who we have lost.”
Owen looked back to Jess. “You want to know the plan? It’s pretty simple. It’s roughly four hours to Houston. We get there. Split up into teams to recon the locations the sergeant has told us about. If there’s no sign of the military then we make our way south to the cost.”
“And if there’s no one there as well? Then what?” She looked across the other faces for an answer, most looked away.
“This is the only way to get your son back, Jess. Most on this train are civilians who have been through hell over the past week—” Anger was building inside her, but she pushed it away a
s best she could. “— We barely made it out of Dallas. In Galveston I’m sure we’ll find help, but if not—” He looked at Luci, Sanchez and Owen. “We make a stand there.”
“And my son? I’m not hearing his name mentioned in any of this.”
Scott sighed, looking momentarily away then back to her. “Josh is with Rackham and whoever or whatever it was who attacked the school. They need him for some reason—” She pushed away thoughts of Sam. “— And that means he’s alive. Rackham wants the facilities the government use. He will bring Josh to us and when we get the first opportunity, you have my word we will get him back to you.”
Josh’s parents both let out a breath at the same time, but for one of them the soldier’s words were empty.
*****
9: 52 a.m. Southern Texas.
Sam looked out at damp muddy fields and beige forests. The greens, browns and branches of spindly trees brought into stark contrast by the early morning sun. The train was charging along the tracks and the wind, although cold felt refreshing on her face. The boxcar door being open just enough for her to stand in the gap. Some behind her were sleeping, others crying, silently. Whether it was tears of joy or grief she wasn’t sure. These were the survivors but she knew it was too early for her to call herself that. In Dallas she could feel Rackham in the city. Almost smell him. Even above the stench from the things. She had no idea how she knew, but she did. Everything that happened was because he wanted it to. She was sure of it. And they escaped because he wanted them too as well.
Once again she was a doll being played with. But that was okay. This time she was prepared. Let the scientist have his schemes. At some point soon she would come face to face with him and she would make sure he inflicted no more pain on the world or her family. She glanced behind her at her parents. Her father with his eyes closed. She was happy if he were truly asleep. It was obvious how much pain he was in and that his future was one without his left hand. It made her sick to her stomach. She swore under her breath. She needed Rackham to get to Houston where hopefully there would be others to help take care of his army and then she would take care of him.
Her mother’s eyes were the opposite, but Jess’s face was looking far beyond the confined space. No doubt thinking about Josh. Sam looked back out to the landscape, now with hints of barns and ranches between the woods, her heart aching for her little brother.
“Soon, Josh…”
CHAPTER TWENTY
11: 41 a.m. Northern outskirts of Houston.
Jess looked at Sam and Lachlan talking. It was a scene which lifted the gloom which covered her heart momentarily. She looked back to the lush countryside sliding by. It wouldn’t be long before they were in another big city. They escaped Dallas and even though some died, she knew it had been too easy. The creatures could have taken them if ordered to do so. Instead Rackham’s children had held back from inflicting a fatal blow, but what stuck in her mind was why? Why not end it there?
She shivered not due to the chill wind which flowed across her from standing on the edge of the opening to the world outside, but because of the same feeling of being in the underground parking garage in her apartment block in Denver. The things could had taken her then as well, but they didn’t. Instead they tormented her. She now knew that it was Rackham that was seeing through the eyes of what nested in the basement of the apartments. He had always been controlling the pieces from the moment the space probe supposedly crashed outside her home city. Always two steps ahead.
Think Jess… why does he want us to go to Houston then Galveston on the coast? What did he gain from letting us—
“Hey,” said Landon behind her. She turned. He had a mug in his hand which contained a dark brown swirling liquid. He offered it to her. “I think this is coffee, but don’t hold me to that.”
She smiled with a nod, taking it from him and took a quick sip. He stood beside her, holding onto the frame with his one good hand and looked to the landscape flashing by, which contained large, flat block-like buildings. Factories and warehouses. “We’ll be at our destination soon.” He glanced at her. “It’s a good plan. We get supplies. Weapons and other things, then we head south to the coast. If the military aren’t there, then we find a secure place to defend. Rackham will come to us… he will bring Josh, I’m sure of it.” She nodded looking at the same highways and suburbs as he was but remained silent. He continued. “I know… you’re not like how you were before.” She looked at him, shocked. “It’s okay…”
She looked away. “If the virus was still inside me I… I would be able to fight what’s coming. Be of more use.”
He held his infected hand up slightly. “We will all fight this battle with what we have. I’ve still got one good hand and you still got that brain of yours. I’ll take that over you being super strong or something.”
She glanced behind them at Sam then leaned in closer to him. “I’m worried she’s going to do something stupid. Put herself in harms way. And if she does, we won’t be able to stop her.”
Landon sighed, keeping his view on the buildup of roads, sidewalks and parking lots amongst the occasional faded green space and trees passing by. “She knows better than that.”
Static then Scott’s voice came from a radio attached to Jess’s belt. “Five minutes out. We find vehicles first. Over.”
“Copy that. I guess you’re not hearing anything from anyone in the city? Over,” said Jess.
“Nothing yet. Over.”
*****
12: 52 a.m. Northern outskirts of Houston.
Jess looked at the glass and concrete blocks of central Houston as the van’s engine echoed around the empty streets. It reminded her of Denver, but with more of an imprint of history in some of its neoclassical styled buildings. Mounds of dusty brown refuse sat at regular intervals as if giant moles had dug upwards from miles below and broken open the sidewalks, depositing their earth, but the truth was a little less cute. What the virus has created from the citizens was being erased by the strong wind blowing across the concrete, leaving dark stains. In the driving seat next to her was Vance, and in the back was Andy. Their mission to find food and water and they had found copious amounts of both, filling their white van to the brim. The journey from the mall had been in silence so she was surprised when Vance started to talk.
“You think it’s real?”
“What’s real?”
“The military being offshore in ships and shit? Coming back to the land now the virus has gone?” He looked across to her for answers as they moved across an intersection swerving around an abandoned delivery truck.
“I don’t know.”
He looked back to the four-lane road. “So that’s a no then.”
“I didn’t say that. It could be true.”
“Well, there’s been no reply to any radio messages. So I’m guessing it’s all bullshit.”
“If it’s not, we’ll find a place in Galveston, anyway.”
“Hmm…” There was a moment of silence. “I’m sorry about your boy. Can’t be easy.” They drove over a river which cut through the heart of the city.
“It’s not, but we’ll get him back.”
He glanced at her again this time not responding. It wasn’t long before where the train was left came into view. Their road would have allowed them to cross the lines, except the five boxcars and engine blocked any route east.
Jess counted at least seven vehicles, mostly pickups, but there was one semi and she wasn’t surprised to see Sanchez standing near it as a constant flow of people moved from the back of it to one of the boxcars.
They pulled up. Owen was with Scott and Landon. She started to approach when shouts from a train car further back caught her attention.
“Hi, Mrs. Keller!” shouted Agatha, frantically waving. Toby was holding Donnie outside the boxcar with Helen holding Syd. Brad briefly appeared next to Agatha and waved as well. Jess replied in kind then continued to the small gathering near her husband.
Owen had a wid
e smile as she approached. “We won’t go hungry that’s for sure!”
“Luci’s on her way back with a truck full of weapons and other fun stuff from the armory,” said Scott.
Beyond them, standing near the engine Jess caught Sam looking up at the sky. But Owen continued.
“It’s maybe an hour to the coast, so I want everything loaded into the boxcars by time…” Jess walked past him, he following her attention to her daughter.
Sam stood near a metal fence with a sign for ‘Buses only.’
“What is it?” said Jess to her across the road.
“I think I can see…” Sam leaned forward. “I dunno. Something in the sky.”
Scott walked as quickly as he could to her side, immediately producing a set of binoculars from his jacket pocket and holding them to his eyes, adjusting the central dial. “Shit… We got a problem,” he said. A tiny dark shape bobbed and weaved just above the horizon. “One of them flying things. Maybe… ten miles out. It could be here within minutes.”
Owen whirled around to those carrying things between the vehicles and the boxcars. “Grab what you can! We’re leaving!”
Scott held his radio to his mouth while still observing the small fluttering shape. “Luci. How far out are you? Over.”
“Not far. Maybe six, seven minutes. Why? Over.”
“We’re about to have company. Over.”
“Leave. We’ll head south on the highway, meet up with you in Galveston. Over.”
“I’ll get the beers ready. Over.”
Jess, Landon and Sam ran back to their boxcar, but Landon saw Sanchez and Esther talking near their truck. “Get on,” he said to Jess and Sam. “I’ll be back.”
“Hurry, we’re about to leave!” said Jess.