After Days

by Salina Anderson

  They both laughed as Maya realized that all of those months that she thought she was alone, she was being watched. Oh goodness, the things that Dennis might have witnessed, she blushed just thinking about it. There had been a few warm days in the fall where she had taken a cold bath in the stream, had he seen her?

  “And just so you’re not agonizing over it, yes I saw you in the stream and that was how I knew you were pregnant.” Dennis chuckled as Mayas blush deepened.

  “But I didn’t stick around and keep watching when I realized what you were doing, because I’m not a dirty old man.” And then it was Dennis’ turn to blush.

  “You know, I guess I don’t really care either way. I’m just grateful that you were here watching over me and you did get Matt here when I needed it. I don’t know what I would have done otherwise. I had myself fooled into thinking I could give birth without any help and I couldn’t even handle the birthing pains!”

  Dennis grunted and grew quiet for a few.

  “Well, just so you don’t go doing something foolish like that again, you wouldn’t have made it if Matt hadn’t shown up. You lost a lot of blood on that road.”

  “Oh” Maya exclaimed. “I didn’t feel that horrible the day after the birth, wouldn’t I have felt really badly if I had been that bad off?”

  Dennis didn’t answer her right away and Instead looked around the room thinking of his reply before settling his gaze on Cade and responding.

  “I think it’s something Matt will have to explain to you. It will make more sense coming from him.”

  Maya stared at Dennis for a few but realized that he really wasn’t going to tell any more.

  “Ok, I understand that there is a lot that Matt has to explain but I’m really getting tired of all of these secrets.”

  “We’re not trying to keep secrets Missy, just want you to hear things from the source so they make sense. I wouldn’t even know how to explain it if I tried.”

  Maya was smart enough to know when she wasn’t going to get any more information out of someone. So she opted to get some sleep instead and stood at the window next to the woodstove and watched Dennis until the blackness of the woods swallowed him.

  The next several days continued this way with Maya and Cade spending the majority of the day just the two of them and then Dennis and Buddy joining them for dinner. They kept the conversation lighter at dinner as Maya didn’t want to feel disappointed anymore and they instead talked about memories of their lives before. Dennis was not surprised to hear that she was a geneticist and he was really interested in the work she had done while being stuck in the facility. She told him of her childhood years in the cabin with her grandma and then of the years after her parents death when she was so lost and her grandma waited patiently for her to find her path again.

  He told her of the trips he and his wife took together and all of the different places they had visited. Then he talked of his years alone after she passed away when he had wandered aimlessly not knowing what to do to fill his time. He told her of meeting Matt for the first time and then working with him several times while he built his monstrosity of a house.

  “That damn boy just didn’t want to stop building. He needed busy work but he would never say what he was avoiding by staying so busy.” Dennis chuckled.

  Maya smiled sadly as she remembered her years in the laboratory working overtime, often giving up an entire weekend to continue her research all in an attempt to forget her past life. She hadn’t made many friends over the years and the few friends she did make would often stop calling eventually when she wouldn’t make time for them. The few dates she had gone on over the years had been dismal at best and her relationship with Derek had been the first real relationship she had had since leaving Matt.

  Dennis told her of the trips that he and Matt had taken together in search of others and he told her of some of the others at the compound and what their different roles were. And when he sensed the question on the tip of her tongue, he told her in no uncertain terms that Matt had never taken to any of the women that had joined them.

  “And I’ll be damned if all of those women were just too young for me. I couldn’t keep up with them if I tried.”

  The interactions were pleasant for Maya but she missed Matts presence more with each passing day and would often stare out the window where his hummer had sat and willed him to come down her driveway.

  When a week had passed with no sign of Matt, she stopped looking for him. Dennis sensed this change in her but he had no clear answer of when Matt would return. He radioed into homebase every few days to let them know they were still doing alright but was not given any indication of Matts return.

  Chapter 23 – Commence Mission Freak Cleansing – Present Day

  It took some serious thinking for Matt to decide who he would bring with him to the city to begin the cleansing of the Freak population. He knew they would all be at risk of serious injury and possible death, but they needed to do something quickly about the Freaks as they were breeding and reproducing like rabbits.

  Levi and he had continued their daily mental communications and Levi informed him of the growing threat in the city. They were being attacked at night now by hordes of Freaks looking for more food to feed their growing brood. The castle they lived in kept them safe enough but they would not be able to build more houses and grow the community there with the threat of the Freaks nearby.

  It was a tough decision but Matt asked Scott to stay behind and to keep things running smoothly at the compound while he was gone. Scott was angry at first with the decision but understood it later when some of the others didn’t make it back alive.

  It was a solemn drive into the city. 5 men rode in the hummer together all lost in their own thoughts and prayers. The back end of the hummer was filled with all imaginable forms of weaponry and body armor that they could fit. Levi and the group also had their own impressive assortment of weapons, body armor and heavy machinery that they would take into the city to start the cleanse.

  The Freaks knew their weaknesses and Matt had learned of a few anomalies that had been killed before he had met the others.

  They would fortify the castle so they could fight and kill some of the Freaks during the night when they attacked. Then they would go out during the day to kill as many Freaks as they could find while they were hiding out of the sunlight in the various locations that Max, Levi and Tina had scouted on previous evenings. Tina fought fiercely to be allowed on their mission and they finally gave in to her, realizing that she would go out on her own if she wasn’t allowed to go with all of them. Lydia had no interest in scouring the streets and buildings looking for these deadly creatures and she opted to stay at the castle and act as backup if they needed her.

  That was as far as their planning stretched for they all knew that the Freaks were unreliable and unpredictable and anything could happen. They basically had to prepare themselves for the unexpected and the unimaginable.

  Lydia prepared the men some grub before the darkness came so they could build up their strength for the night of fighting ahead. Matt, Levi, Max and Tina joined together in the library to prepare themselves while the others ate and spent a couple of hours making sure their telepathy between each other was strong. Their skills had all increased over the ensuing months as they had spent time practicing and testing their abilities and Matt had learned of several more of his own abilities partly from the others showing him and some on accident.

  Max had showed Matt of their ability to jump down from very high places and land on all fours unharmed and they had spent one evening jumping off the roof of the castle and having way too much fun while doing so.

  Then one day while Matt was working in the workshop at his compound, he needed to get a tool from the other end of the shop. He was concentrating deeply on his project and when he looked up towards where the tool he needed sat and pictured it in his head, the tool flew off the shelf and over towards him. Without even thinking, he leaped into th
e air and grabbed it overhead before it passed him by. He stood too astonished to move for a few minutes with the tool in hand before he telepathically relayed these new abilities to Levi. The others tried these abilities as well with no success except Tina who was able to master the high jumping ability but not the ability to move things with her mind.

  They all knew that they would continue to discover new abilities of their special bodies as time wore on and maybe some of it was just part of the healing and growth process.

  In the library, they discussed the placement of everyone and who would have which weaponry. They laid out a good sweep of people all across the top of the castle and on the grounds below. The Freaks could jump extremely high, higher than Matt or Tina had yet been able to do so everyone would be at risk whether on the ground or on the roof. But the roof had a special access back to the castle that could be used if needed. The only worry was that a Freak could get into this access if someone wasn’t careful about it.

  When the other men had finished eating, they brought them into the library and explained the plan they had put together. Matts men were hardy and well-trained in defending themselves and he had no doubt that they would fight to the death. On purpose, he had chosen men to bring that had not yet created any attachment to a woman on the compound. They were struggling enough as it was with reproduction so he didn’t need to take away someone’s mate before they had figured out why they were having so many miscarriages and stillborns.

  Matt knew that eventually he would need to get Mayas help in figuring out how she was able to produce a perfect baby with no troubles. Maybe something in her genetics? With genetics being her strong area, he had already begun the preparations of locating the proper lab equipment to set her up with everything she would need to continue her work, he just hadn’t informed her of that yet.

  They all worked together for several hours setting up the equipment and going over their plans again before night time set in. Gearing up in their body armor and checking their ammo stores was the final preparation before they all set out to their designated posts to begin their long night. And then they waited…

  About two hours after dark set in, they began to hear them. Matt and the other anomalies could feel them before then and knew precisely when the freaks spotted the house shrouded in darkness. As incredibly animalistic these creatures now seemed, they had a memory and they remembered where the people were living after initially discovering them. Matt found it interesting that they had this level of intelligence and despite the guttural language they seemed to possess, they were communicating with each other enough to be somewhat organized in their attack. The grunts, growls and squeals of delight that came from the freaks when they spotted the house was enough to have a few of the men trembling in their boots. Only Matt and the other anomalies had seen what these creatures looked like up close but he had attempted to prepare his men as much as possible for what they were about to see.

  The freaks quieted down the closer they got to the house and began their stealthy attack by climbing over the fence as if it didn’t even exist. They were like lizards scurrying up the tall metal railings and leaping right up over the electrified razor wire at the top of the railing and down to the ground below. They spread out as they hit the ground and came towards the castle from all angles slowly. Stopping every few steps and sniffing the air for any hint that a human was nearby. They all had worked carefully to cover their clothing and armor with essential oils that smelled of pine and flowers in the hopes of not being discovered too quickly in their dark hiding places. Each persons designated area was equipped with a high powered spotlight that they would all switch on together when the freaks were close enough for them to attack in the hopes that they could kill most of them before they could escape.

  The anticipation built up to excruciating levels as the freaks made their slow crawl towards the house and when they finally got close enough that everyone had a shot at one of them, Matt gave the signal and all of the spotlights were switched on at once.

  The house and yard became bathed in a bright, brilliant white and the shrieks of the freaks filled the air as they attempted to turn around and run while shrouding their eyes from the painful light. Gunshots and screams rang out as they all encountered the freaks and began to cut them down.

  Matt’s eyesight adapted quickly to the bright lights and he could see a few of the others that were on this side of the house with him fighting hard and fast. Several of the freaks had already managed to get far enough away from the house to be out of range from gunfire so Matt began his chase. He was the fastest runner out of all of the anomalies so far and as he caught up to each freak, he would shoot them in the head or slash their throat with his knife as he ran by them. They had to be precise with their kill shots as the freaks could withstand an incredible amount of pain and would keep fighting even when missing a limb or having something stuck through their insides.

  Matt kept running until he got to the front gates where he saw a few of the freaks escaping. He let them go for he knew that he had to get back and help the others. He heard their cries of pain and fear as some were overcome by the freaks. Changing direction quickly, he sprinted as fast as he could back towards the sound of agony that he was hearing and saw one of his men being mauled by several of the freaks. In a few quick motions, Matt gutted one, cut the head off another and put a bullet through the forehead of the third. Max ran over as Matt killed the third freak and threw the injured man over his shoulder quickly and sprinted back towards the house. Matt ran towards the other cries of help and found Tina fighting fiercely with one of the larger male freaks. He had torn open her thigh and slashed through her belly and kept coming in at her strategically over and over again tearing and slashing at another part of her before she could fully heal. Matt leapt into the air above the freak and came down on the top of his head with the butt of his rifle, cracking the freaks skull open with a sickening crack and squish. Tina collapsed to the ground immediately when she realized the threat was gone and Matt could already see her wounds healing as Max again sprinted over and tossed her over his shoulder and ran back towards the house.

  Matt ran toward the back of the castle as he heard the cries for help from one of his men and saw several freaks dragging his screaming and mutilated man towards the gate. Before he could give chase, a freak leapt upon Matts head from behind and knocked him to the ground, knocking the wind out of him. Matt looked up in time to see his man dragged over the security razor wire at the top of the gate, lifeless. He knew it would be too late to save him so he focused instead on the several freaks that had decided to gang up on him, quickly cutting them down one by one.

  Matt continued his run around the castle until he had slaughtered all of the remaining freaks. When he felt that the coast was clear, he retreated into the castle, dripping with freaks blood and flesh. The injuries were bad to his remaining men and his guilt was overwhelming as his men lay in agony while he and the other anomalies quickly healed their own wounds.

  Matt went over to the first man and laid his hands over the wounds one at a time. The other anomalies were tending to the other wounded men but began looking questioningly at each other and then came over to Matt when they heard the man’s cries turn into sobs of gratitude.

  One of the other abilities that Matt had stumbled upon that he possessed was the ability to heal.

  Matt continued this one by one on all of his wounded men until they all were healed and resting comfortably. This ability took a lot out of Matt and he immediately needed to lay down for a few hours and sleep to replenish his energy.

  The other anomalies held their questions until Matt was awake and feeling better but spent those few hours while Matt rested talking amongst themselves and wondering if they also had this ability and didn’t know it and why had Matt kept it from them.

  They had learned over the years to never use anger or jealousy with each other. They were too special for such petty emotions. Instead they were in awe and inc
redibly excited about this turn of events.

  When Matt awoke and came back into the library to check on his men, the anomalies watched him questioningly, waiting for some sort of explanation.

  Matt cleared his throat and sat in a big chair in the middle of the room and looked at each person in turn. His men were still resting but were awake and interested as well in what he had to say.

  “I should have told all of you about this a long time ago but I didn’t know how to explain it or teach it.”

  “How did you discover this? When?” asked Tina quickly before anyone could process Matts words.

  “It was entirely by accident. Dennis and I took many trips to his current cabin a couple of years ago to outfit it in preparation for him to live there and on one of the trips he injured himself. It was a minor injury really, he decided to be a tough guy and was carrying the electric fireplace in on his own and dropped it on his foot. I didn’t even know he was injured until I realized that he was just sitting in his recliner quietly and no longer helping me bring items in which is really unlike him. When I came around the front of the recliner, I saw the quiet tears on his face and the look of pain in his eyes. We were pretty sure he had broken his foot since it swelled up immediately and he couldn’t put any pressure on it. I put together a bag of ice and was holding it on his foot to see if it would help the swelling and his foot just healed.”

  Everyone sat in silence while they digested this new information and finally Levi asked “Did you test this anymore after that time? Those were some pretty serious injuries you just healed on your men and I can’t imagine that you would have brought them here knowing the danger but not knowing if you could heal them.”