by Phil Maxey
“Kind of makes you feel we’re in the land of the giants,” said Burt nodding towards the closest of the exotic flora.
Abbey smiled.
“The closer we get to Boston, the more the scenery looks…”
“Alien?”
“Yeah—”
A buzzing insect like creature the size of a football flittered across their path, making Burt slow the pickup. He took a deep breath, then picked up speed again. Abbey noticed he briefly placed one hand on his automatic rifle which nestled down the side of his seat.
She looked out into the increasingly thick undergrowth around them. Most of the creatures were keeping their distance, no doubt unsure of what this strange metal box with wheels was, but she could sense them out there. She could sense all of them. Hundreds that slithered crawled and flew, from the microscopic to the things that if they didn’t move you would think were part of the landscape. All of them born into the world just a year or so ago, and each one not knowing their place in it. She knew how they felt.
“Hopefully there’s answers in Boston…” Said Abbey under her breath.
Burt looked at her. “What was that?”
She looked back at him with a smile. “I’m glad to be almost there.”
He nodded. “Yeah, well try and stay close when we arrive. I don’t reckon my chances if you wander off.”
“Mo’s got orders to protect you if anything happens that shouldn’t.”
“That’s umm…good to know.”
Abbey slid her window down. A rush or warm air squeezed through the gap, as vibrant greens, mingled with flashes of orange and yellows flew past.
“I’m going to have to put the air con on soon, this is definitely not seasonal weather,” said Burt.
“It’s not just the plants which are changing, it’s the climate too. Everything’s linked.”
“Well, I never did like the Pennsylvania winters.”
They both shared a quick smile.
Truck stops and farm buildings passed by, all buried under the new plant life that was sprouting up over everything, and even the towns the highway cut through were slowly disappearing beneath a sea of trees and vine.
Burt slowed.
Abbey looked up from resting her eyes. She went to ask what the problem was, but immediately saw why they were stopping. The other highways which rose above and across the one they were on, were covered in the same plants that were everywhere else, except this time they had dropped down to the concrete of the road they were on, completely blocking it.
Burt turned and looked the way they came. “Looks like we’re going to have to find another route.”
He went to put the pickup into reverse when Abbey had an idea.
“Wait, there might be another way.”
Burt looked at her confused.
“Now, don’t get alarmed. I’ve never tried this before, but I think it will work…” She closed her eyes.
“Think what will—” Burt leaned forward in his seat. A swarm of giant beetles each one a few feet across emerged from the undergrowth and flew towards them. He went to grab his rifle.
“No, don’t do anything, I’m controlling them,” she said opening her eyes.
The incessant hum of the insects wings filled the air. A water bottle that was on the dashboard rolled off and landed in Burt’s lap.
“I don’t know if this is a good idea…”
Abbey put her hand on Burt’s shoulder. “It will be okay, just hold on to something, I don’t know how steady a ride it’s going to be.”
“What—”
Each of the beetles spiked talons gripped a part of the pickup, sinking into the metal. The old pickup creaked and strained then slowly lifted into the air. The beetles hum increased in pitch as they rose five feet, then ten, each foot taking them skywards and towards the obstruction in front of them.
Burt grabbed the seat and dashboard at the same time. Abbey started laughing, as did Burt. “Yeah!” He shouted.
As they sailed into the air, moving over the other highways Abbey looked out at the landscape around them. From this height she could see a lot of the creatures she was already sensing. Four legged lizard beasts five stories high, which silvery yellow scales, roamed across a large flat area, while a myriad of smaller creatures, some in herds some alone, flew and ran between the remains of buildings and trees.
“Err…how far we going?” Enquired Burt.
“Oh, right, yeah sorry,” said Abbey as if waking from a dream. She closed her eyes again and the pickup slowly descended back onto a relatively clear part of the highway. With a jolt the wheels struck the concrete, and the beetles immediately turned and flew back into the forests.
“Bye!” Shouted Abbey, while Burt smiled and started the engine again.
* * * * *
Wyatt traipsed through the mud, past men hammering and drilling and up to the eastern fence of the outpost. Grabbing hold of the ladder he climbed the ten or so feet up to the newly constructed tower, which had become his home for the past week and looked out to the old graveyard and trees beyond.
Two soldiers began filling in a hole, twenty yards away, just one of a dozen or so new graves that had appeared.
His attention turned back to the horizon or what he could see of it through the trees and bushes. He squinted, and then swore to himself that he forgot to ask for a set of binoculars like the other scouts had. Looking into the undergrowth hundreds of yards away, he was sure that there were more greens and browns around than he saw when he first arrived. Spring must be here.
His Cascader radar was tweaking, but whatever they were, were far off and seemingly moving away. He looked around the small eight by eight space. Need to get a chair in here.
An image of his room back at the camp, and how empty it felt after his grandmother passed intruded into his mind when a crunching noise came from behind.
“Mind if I join you?” Said Michael looking up at him.
Wyatt nodded, and Michael pushed his winter hat up on his forehead, slung his rifle over his shoulder then climbed up.
“Kind of cozy up here,” said Michael.
Wyatt smiled even though he preferred being alone.
“I thought it was Miles’ time to patrol this side?” Said Michael.
“He’s on the other side, and I kind of like being up here.”
Michael nodded. “What’s your senses telling you? Anything out there?” He looked out towards the trees. Wyatt shook his head.
Michael smiled. “Okay then,” he went to climb back down.
“Umm…”
“Yeah?” Said Michael gripping the top of the ladder.
“Are we just going to leave them out there?”
Michael didn’t have to ask whom. “I’m working on it.” He continued climbing down.
CHAPTER 5
Fiona looked at the broken piece of wall in front of her, and then back at the lacerations on her hands and forearms. They stopped bleeding a few days ago, but they still stung when she moved. The blood loss didn’t bother her, but possible infection did. Who knows what kind of microbes and viruses were on that thing?
The ‘thing’ she was referring too laid dead, in a few parts on the ground around her. It was about the size of a large dog, but looked insect like, with around six legs and antennae sprouting from what she presumed was its head. That was also the part that made a distinct cracking noise when she got it in a headlock, just after it had torn away at her arms and legs.
Why’s it always me in the confined space with the monster?
She laughed to herself then winced.
A gurgling noise came from the food pipe and she uneasily got to her feet and sauntered over to it, placing her hands cup like beneath the nozzle and waited. The yellow gloop slid down the pipe and landed with a plop in her hands which she eagerly started eating. This was the sixth serving she had devoured and she was beginning to take a liking to it. Compared to some of the things she had to eat on various missions in exotic plac
es in her previous life, it wasn’t too bad. Kind of like mushy warm oats, and anyway she was going to need her strength for her plan to succeed.
Once the food substitute had been cleared from her hands, she picked up the boney and incredibly sharp talon that she had prized from the dead creature and moved back to the broken part of the wall. Without the creature crashing into it after it swiped at her head and missed, and causing some of the carbon fiber like material to splinter she wouldn’t have thought it was possible to break out. But it did, and after almost constant sawing and hacking she was ready to break through whatever the main cell wall was, and out to the other side. Presuming there was ‘another’ side. She had thought maybe this box she was inside of might be just floating in space, in which case breaking out might not be the wisest of ideas, but she had spent years already in a cell, and she wasn’t about to do so again.
As she hacked away with the crab like talon, she also wondered if whoever ‘they’ were that took them, were watching her now. Like how a cat plays with a mouse, watching her attempt to escape just for them to zap her or something, and then she would wake up an hour later in another cell.
“Screw it,” she said under her breath, and continued beating at the inside parts of the wall.
A gaseous noise came from a small hole that she had just created, and she backed away. Shit, I’ve hit a pipe.
A foul smelling white mist started to fill the room. Panic started to well up inside her, but she instantly pushed it back down, and walked back to the burgeoning hole. “I’m not dying in here.”
She hacked and tore best she could, ignoring the smoke, until she was able to get her hands into the hole and then pull the fabric like layers back. Heaving best she could, a large piece came away in her hand and instantly a glow emanated from the newly created gap.
From her position a few inches away, all she could see through the hole was another wall, but because it filled her entire view it was hard to see if it was near or far.
She coughed. Her head was starting to feel a little woozy. Pushing the disorientation she was feeling aside she tore away at the material on either side of the hole, pulling it back, further and further.
“Come on…” she said between gritted teeth.
Finally the hole was just about big enough for her to fit the top half of herself into. She looked back at the cell, it was now disappearing into a white haze. She wavered, then quickly grabbed at the wall to steady herself. No…
She had no idea what was on the other side of the hole, but staying where she was, was not an option. She pushed up against the wall, then pushed her head through the layers and through the hole, the air immediately became fresher.
Cubes on cubes. She blinked and shook her head, trying to clear her mind and equally understand the scene she was looking at. Cells similar to her own, spread out all around her, with only a few yards of space between each of them. She rotated herself looking upwards, and it was the same above. Stretching as far as she could see. A distant clanging made her freeze. When there was no follow up sound she breathed again. Looking down, she noticed a rail maybe a foot wide on the outside, ran along most of the metal boxes where their floors would be. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to stand on. She tucked the talon into her belt.
She went to push herself fully out of the hole, then she stopped. Do I really want to be out here? Inside whatever the hell this larger structure is?
She swallowed her fear, and pushed, squeezing her shoulders, then torso through the hole and dropping at the same time. Something’s wrong.
She felt like she was swimming even though she was breathing air of some kind. She reached out with her fingers until she was hanging half out of the hole, and then touched the rail. It was smooth and cold to touch, and didn’t provide much in the way of grip for her fingers to hold. She tried not to look beyond it, for just rows and columns of other cells were cast in all directions, seemingly in perfect symmetry disappearing into infinity. If she slid it was a long way down, or was it up or forward, she wasn’t sure.
Her feet scrambled to get more traction just inside her cell wall, and with a final push she slid out of the hole, her momentum taking her towards the rail, which she crashed into and then continued to move past. In a panic she desperately flung her hands out and grabbed the smooth metal. It was then she realized she was floating.
CHAPTER 6
After four hours Burt and Abbey had left Pennsylvania, moved through Connecticut and entered Massachusetts. The fact that they had seen no humans at all throughout the entire journey bothered them both and the increasingly exotic plant life that was smothering most of the towns and cities didn’t help.
“The city of Worcester is about ten miles up ahead, and if we get any elevation on this highway I imagine we would start to see the walls of the Boston Camp,” said Burt.
Abbey rummaged around in her backpack and pulled out a small pair of binoculars, and looked out, but all she could see was more of the same brown trees of the old world and lush greens of the new. “I’m not seeing anything yet.”
Lumps of metal that were once vehicles had now become homes to smaller E.L.F’s, and as they passed the reed and flower covered mounds, creatures ducked back inside.
As the highway split the city, the remnants of homes and office buildings were still visible despite natures attempt to bury them.
“There’s no way a human would survive in this,” said Burt, the warm breeze from his pulled down window sweapt over his face.
“Maybe there’s Cascaders in there.”
Burt briefly glanced at her, while steering the pickup between broken cars and trucks. “You sense any?”
She continued looking forward. “No…I don’t think so.”
“The change is greater here, seems to be getting more concentrated the closer we get to Boston.”
“Looks that way.”
Her thoughts quickly jumped in and out of sensing creatures, linking with them so they knew they were no threat, then jumping back to her immediate surroundings. She did this now almost without realizing it.
After a long sweeping bend, a sliver of silver glinting in the early afternoon sun was obvious to them both.
“We found it,” said Abbey.
“Yup. You want us to drive right inside?”
“Yes, if that’s possible.”
“We’ll soon find out.”
The Boston Camp’s wall grew in size as they approached.
“I half expected it to be covered in vines and such like everything else around here,” said Burt.
Abbey went to reply when she closed her eyes as if she had suddenly been struck by a headache. “Stop.”
“What?” Said Burt slowing the pickup but not stopping it.
“Stop!” Abbey exclaimed.
He slammed on the breaks. Just as he did the ground noticeably started to shake. He looked confused at the ground outside. “We don’t get earthquakes up—”
He didn’t need to finish his sentence as the cause of the ground shuddering became obvious as something which looked like a slug except being three story’s high climbed up onto the highway, and moved across it. Half way across it stopped and seemed to move part of it’s torso in their direction.
“You are controlling that thing right? It knows we’re no threat?”
Abbey had her eyes closed as if she was intensely concentrating.
“Abbey?”
“Yes!” The words blurted out with a force she hadn’t meant.
The creature looked back towards its intended path and continued to move its gargantuan mound like body off the side of the highway taking with it a good few vehicles.
“Well least the way’s clear now,” said Burt. He looked at Abbey. “You okay? We can stop here for a while if you want.”
She opened her eyes. “No, I’m fine, for some reason I was having trouble linking to that thing. Sometimes it goes like that. We can keep going.”
Burt nodded, then slowly pressed down o
n the gas pedal.
As they moved forward the wall loomed over them. It was even higher than the one near Austin, but appeared to have less gun emplacements. Where the large gates should have been, was just a gaping hole. They drove slowly through it, but had to slow even more due to the wreckage of vehicles laid out in front of them.
Even with the stalks and leaves sprouting from the concrete it was obvious a fierce battle had taken place all amongst the trees and hills around them. Military vehicles were tossed on their sides, and single and two story buildings sat at regular intervals most with holes covering them, or entire sides missing revealing their inner floors.
“Most of these buildings look like they were newly constructed,” said Abbey.
“Like your camp?”
“No, these are just shacks compared to what we have there.”
“I reckon they never had the time and space to get going like the Austin camp.”
“You’re probably right.”
All around her she could sense the E.L.F’s, even if they weren’t showing themselves. “There’s a lot of creatures in these woods and hills, even more than outside the walls. It’s hard to keep track of them.”
Burt looked at her. “If you need me to turn us around, just say.”
She shook her head. “No, we’re fine.”
Burt went to ask her if she sensed any humans, but decided not too.
As they drove onwards, the landscape around them looked pretty much untouched. The strange alien plants where taking hold like everywhere else, but apart from that it didn’t even look like they were inside a camp. After a few more miles of driving over undulating hills, the highway straightened out, and a town grew ahead of them.
Burt stopped at the turnoff. “Shall we head into that town?”
“Yes.” Abbey tried stretching her senses across the miles around them, to sense anything out of place, but only a wall of E.L.F noise came back at her.