Cascade (Book 7): Beyond

by Phil Maxey

  They drove along a newly laid road between fresh wooden walls to the brightly lit main building. Brad and some others Zach didn’t recognize were standing outside.

  For a moment they all sat inside the Humvee enjoying the welcoming faces outside, any fears they had that the outpost would not be there when they arrived were quickly being forgotten.

  “Feel’s like we were here months ago,” said Fiona.

  They all started getting out and Zach and Fiona walked up to Brad over rain soaked wooden planks. Brad briefly but enthusiastically embraced both of them.

  “Good to have you back!”

  Zach smiled. “Good to be back.” He looked over his shoulder at the mini town that had formed since he was last standing on the same porch.

  “Ha, yeah it’s really something. And we’re not done yet!” Brad then looked to his left and the smartly dressed woman with sand coloured hair. “This is Major Hoxted.”

  “Brad, I told you, call me Paige.”

  Zach smiled and held out his hand, which the major shook.

  Brad turned to the warmth and light through the doorway. “Right, let’s get inside. The cooks are just serving dinner and there’s news from Boston.”

  * * * * *

  Abbey and Elcher stood watching behind a glass partition, in the large infirmary of bunker thirteen. A mass of doctors prodded and examined the body of the other Hulathen.

  She looked up at him as he watched emotionless. “Must be strange to see one of your own people like this.”

  He looked back down at her. “We do not experience emotions as you humans do. But the word ‘strange’ does hint at what I am feeling. Your doctors should learn as much from his body as they can. It may help slow down your species demise.”

  “Umm…” Numerous questions and thoughts rolled around Abbey’s mind, some of which needed to be said.

  “Yes?”

  “You are here now. Why did you not just come to us before? Why wait until things got so bad? Until the Hulathen started to try to roll back their mistake?”

  The alien paused for a moment seemingly weighing up responses. “I had hoped to resolve the issue without direct involvement with your species. As time progressed and it became obvious my kind were only planning to make matters worse I tried to reach out to various Cascaders to try to influence their actions, so that if the Hulathen acted as they now have done, your species would have a chance for survival.”

  It wasn’t a completely satisfactory answer for Abbey and she went to talk again, when a noise came from behind them. Mitchell with guards and Bower appeared through some doors.

  Bryce who was one of the doctors near the carcass looked up as the group entered the other part of the room. He pulled his medical mask down and opened the door in the partition, walking up to the general.

  Before he could speak, she put her hand up. “Before you start, it’s definitely dead, right?”

  “Ummm—”

  “His consciousness is no longer capable of controlling this vessel, general,” said Elcher.

  She looked up. “Boy you aliens really do like to talk in riddles. Is he dead?”

  Elcher nodded.

  “Good. Go ahead doctor.”

  Bryce looked up at Elcher. “With the help of Elcher we have been able to take a blood sample from the other Hulathen and have found that there is indeed a genetic link between them and the Cascaders, and perhaps everything that has been affected by the Cascade on this planet. And—”

  “And now we have Hulathen blood we should be able to create a toxin, which just targets the Hulathen,” said Raj joining them from the other part of the room. “With Elcher’s help.”

  Mitchell looked up at the tall alien. “You’re okay with that?”

  “The Hulathen will not stop what they are doing unless they are made to stop.”

  “Okay then.” She looked at the doctors. “Make it happen.” She looked at Elcher and Abbey. “I’ll leave you to it.” She then left.

  The doctors moved back beyond the partition, leaving Bower, Abbey and the alien watching through the glass.

  Bower looked at the impressive piece of tech that was attached to Elcher's right wrist and hand, remembering the damage similar devices did a few nights before. “How about you show me how that thing works?”

  CHAPTER 39

  Brad, Major Hoxted, Zach, Fiona and the others sat around a large dinner table. Empty plates lay in front of them while the sound of the gasoline generators hummed outside. Zach with added details from Fiona and the others had spent the last hour retelling the events of the previous few days, including the strange light which tried to find them just twelve hours before.

  Brad shook his head while he sipped a beer. “If it’s not one thing it’s another.” Just as they sat down to eat he filled the newcomers in with the news from Boston, of the appearance of Elcher.

  “We need to get back to the camp near Austin,” said Zach. “There’s a lot we need to do and prepare for.”

  “Trow has already started bolstering the bunkers they do have, but obviously there’s not enough capacity for the millions or so souls that live there,” said Brad.

  “Yup, a whole lot of digging needs to be done,” said Fiona her words slightly slurring. She giggled to herself. “They spent all the past year building up, when they should have been digging down.” She looked around herself. “Where are the rest of the beers?”

  “We got a few more crates in one of the sheds, I’ll have it brought in,” said Brad.

  Zach pushed a jug of water towards her. “Maybe switch to this for a while.”

  She pushed it away and scrunched her face up. “Sheesh Zach, you sound like my dad.”

  Paige cleared her throat. “So, do you think we are a target here for the Hulathen?” She said to Zach.

  “I think everywhere is, but you haven’t seen any lights in the sky?”

  “Not sure if you saw the dome on your way in, but it’s a pretty late generation radar dish we have in there, spinning twenty-four seven. Takes a lot of power but I’m thinking now it’s worth it. Nothing has shown up on our monitors down stairs,” said Brad.

  “Presuming they show up on those things,” said Michael.

  “If they’re physical objects and I think they are, then they should show up.”

  “So we’ll have warning before they come and zap all of us, great,” said Fiona uneasily getting to her feet. “I’m going to find this mythholl…I’m going for the beer.”

  “I could do with some air as well,” said Miles. They both left with Fiona pushing Miles away when he attempted to help her walk.

  “Your friend is quite something,” said Paige.

  “She’s been through a lot,” said Zach.

  “We all have.”

  “Yeah…I don’t think we are specifically a target here. They seem to be hoovering up E.L.F’s and killing or capturing Cascaders where they can. If there’s a pattern beyond that, I’m not seeing it yet. Having one of them helping us could be what turns things our way.”

  Outside in the night air, Fiona walked haphazardly across the damp mud towards the closest shed she could see. Miles walked close by, ready to jump in and catch her in case she fell.

  “It’s good to see old friends,” he said.

  She threw him a look as if he had just uttered something in a language she did not understand.

  “Brad?”

  “Oh yeah, sure.” She banged up against the wooden door to the small shed and fiddled longer than she needed to with a latch, which she eventually flipped upwards. She pushed the door open and staggered forward, swearing when she walked into one of the first crates.

  Miles pulled on a small string and a light came on above them.

  She swung around looking at him. “You’re not going to hit on me are you?”

  He scoffed. “No!…no, I just wanted some air.”

  She turned back to the crates, wrestling with the wooden lid. “Good, because there’s someone—” She fr
oze and started gently shaking.

  Miles walked forward a few steps. “Are you—”

  She sniffed and wiped her face. “I’m fine! Help me get this damn lid off.”

  Back inside the seats around the table were empty and most had gone to their bedrooms in the large house.

  Zach sat on a chair inside Brad’s room, having taken him up on the offer of a nightcap.

  The older man walked to a drawer unit and unlocked the top drawer. “One of the downsides to having all these people here, is I have to keep the good stuff under lock and key.”

  Zach smiled. “Abbey would be excited to see how this place is developing.”

  Brad took out the bottle of thirty-year-old whiskey, together with two plastic beakers and poured a small amount of the golden liquid into them. He handed one to Zach. “I have to admit, I was surprised when I heard she wasn’t returning.”

  “She will, there’s just things she needs to take care of in Boston.”

  Brad nodded. “And how you holding up?”

  It was a question Zach wasn’t prepared for and he fumbled looking for a response which felt right.

  Brad smiled. “It’s not a trick question Zach.”

  He took a sip of his whiskey. “Ask me again once the Hulathen are gone.”

  “Oh right, that reminds me. You went into space. Boy what I wouldn’t have given to have been there with you.”

  “Be careful what you wish for.”

  “Ha, that’s very true.” Brad sipped his drink.

  “What about you?”

  Brad leaned against the drawers. “I’m doing okay. Helps having all these people here. Keeps me occupied. That’s one of the upsides.” He smiled.

  Zach finished his drink. “Which one of these rooms had a spare bed again?”

  “Turn right, down the hall then the second to last door. Not the last door! That’s Paige’s room. I think she shot the last man who accidentally walked in there.”

  Zach smiled. “She seems someone who’s got their head straight about all of this.”

  “She’s also a Cascader. Highest ranked at the camp down south.”

  Zach raised his eyebrows then put the beaker down. “Thanks for the drink.”

  Walking as quietly as he could he made his way down the corridor until he got to the second to last door. He glanced at the last one and smiled then opened the one he had been directed too.

  Immediately the air vibrated with the sound of a man snoring, but Zach was too exhausted to care and he quickly threw his boots and pants off and laid down…

  His eyes flickered open. Not quite knowing where he was he sat up into darkness and heaving breathing from across the room. A flashing light caught his attention to his left, getting to his feet he stumbled across the room to get to the window. He sighed in relief. It was just one of the outposts external lights swaying in the wind.

  Walking back to his bed he picked up his watch. 5:40 am. He had had five hours of sleep and didn’t remember any of it. Guess I slept well. Putting his watch on, as well as his pants, shirt and boots he quietly left the room to the snoring man and walked onto the landing. The generators rattled and chortled outside, but the inside of the house was relatively quiet. He walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. Light from outside allowed him to see just enough and he picked up a glass from the worktop. A voice in the darkness almost made him drop it.

  “You get any sleep,” said Fiona.

  “Err, I think so. Don’t really remember much after touching the pillow.” His eyes started to adjust and he could see her sitting at the table they were eating on hours earlier. “I take it you couldn’t.” He grabbed another glass and poured water from a jug into both.

  “Nightmares.”

  He walked over and sat on the table next to her, putting her glass down in front of her. “I’d be surprised if you didn’t have them.” He gently put his hand on her shoulder.

  She put her hand on his but continued looking off into the dark outside the dining rooms windows. “You never really know how unforgiving the world is until you’ve had hope.”

  He removed his hand. “There’s still hope. We got through the Cascade and we’ll get through the Hulathen.”

  “Sure, but what will it cost us?” She looked up at him.

  He took in a deep breath. “I gotta believe that whatever it does cost, would have been worth it. We’re not just fighting for ourselves, we’re fighting for everyone,” he smiled. “Even now the E.L.F’s.”

  “I should get some sleep.”

  “If you want to share a room with a large guy who snores, the second to last room in the left corridor is the place to be.”

  She drunk the water in one go, got to her feet, kissed him on his cheek and left the kitchen.

  As she did Brad came the other way. “I thought I heard voices.”

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

  Brad raised his hand. “Nah, I was just laying there anyway, thinking about those aliens you so vividly described.”

  “I think it’s best we make our way to the camp as soon as we can. Sometime today probably.”

  “That soon?”

  “I’ve been away from there for too long.” He sighed. The idea of moving even further away from Boston weighed on him, but his instincts were telling him he was needed elsewhere.

  “I can understand that. Well in that case, there’s something else I haven’t had chance to mention, and that’s we got the airstrip up and functioning that’s near here.”

  “Didn’t exactly have a fun time last time I was there.”

  “Ha, yeah well, with the help of the Cascaders the E.L.F’s weren’t a problem, and for the past week we have been bringing in supplies on a daily basis. Infact there’s a supply plane due in tomorrow. No reason why you can’t be on it when it returns.”

  * * * * *

  “And this is the new vehicle hanger slash bunker incase we need it to be.” Brad stood in front of fifteen-foot high double steel secured doors which were slid back to reveal two rows of Humvee’s as well as green crates piled high against the walls.

  Zach looked around the cavernous space that was partially built into the ground. “Looks secure.”

  “And that’s pretty much everything. I hope I get good report when you see Trow.”

  “With the amount of stuff she’s sending up here, I don’t think you need anymore praise from me.”

  “Next phase is the nearby town. There’s a lot of buildings there that were untouched and we could do a lot with them.”

  “There’s also less E.L.F’s around than there used to be…”

  “Yeah it’s a funny thing. These monsters killed…well everyone and now I have this feeling like we need to protect them—”

  “Like they’re still part of the planet.”

  Brad removed his cap, scratched his head then put it back on. “Yeah. Without the Cascaders we’re still be screwed though. If the aliens kidnap or whatever it is they want to do to them, then humans go back to being on the menu again.”

  “That’s why I need to get back to the camp, try and stop that from being the outcome.”

  Brad briefly looked around like he was looking for someone. “How’s Fiona? I’ve not really had a chance to talk to her about what happened to Cal…”

  “She’s—” Zach sighed. “—Doing as well as can be expected. I think going back to the camp will be hard for her, but necessary.”

  Brad patted Zach on the shoulder. “Lets get things ready for that trip—” He briefly looked at where the sun was in sky. “Reckon we got another hour before the planes due in.”

  CHAPTER 40

  Abbey’s hands gripped the cold metal of the ladder to the surface and pulled herself up and out onto the concrete to the street.

  A cool wind brushed past her making her shiver. She looked at the ruins around her and quickly spotted the object that was out of place. Hovering some fifty feet from the ground was a cuboid dark box, covered in veins that glowed. Sp
anning some forty feet square on its top and bottom sides it looked like a small structure just hanging in the sky.

  Elcher was standing beneath it while a shaft of light from the craft above lit the ground in front of him. Some way back sitting around a small fire that nestled amongst some ruins, four soldiers talked and laughed.

  Wrapping her arms around herself to keep warm, she walked over the loose bricks and debris until she was alongside the alien. From this new perspective she could see he was tapping away at the wall of light, as if he was operating a computer.

  “What you doing?” She said.

  “Working.”

  “I can see that. On what?”

  “Trying to shield my signature here, so not to draw more Hulathen to this location.”

  She bent her neck and looked up at the daunting looking ship looming above them. “That your…ship?”

  “In a manner of speaking.”

  “The general was right, you do talk in riddles.”

  Elcher stopped what he was doing and looked down at her. “The less your species know of what is beyond your planet the better.”

  Abbey looked about her, finding a small piece of wall and sat on it.

  Elcher went to start his work again, but stopped. “It is not your fault.”

  “What isn’t?” As the words left her mouth she wondered why she bothered talking them, she knew perfectly well what he was referring too.

  “The Cascade. You believe because of an insertion of a computer program into your countries satellite system, that then caused the devastation of your planet.”

  She looked down. “If I hadn’t—”

  “When it’s true to say that your action did lead the Hulathen to this region of space, it is not true to state that what you did then caused what happened next. It did not. The genes that triggered the Cascade virus were planted in your species many millennia ago by the ancestors of the Hulathen and the probabilities that the virus would be triggered with or without the actions of an outside species were still quite high. I hope that allays your fears of the role you think you played.” He went back to tapping and swiping.