Salvation (Cascade Book 8)

by Phil Maxey

  Now there was some space between them, strength returned to her legs and she looked definitely up at the man she still hated, but mostly had come to pity.

  “What about him?”

  “You know about him?”

  “Know what?”

  The large man frowned as if something was making him feel queasy. “He can make you do things.”

  “Yeah I saw you had become his little bitch,” she said, fully expecting him to hit her, but instead after a flash of anger in his eyes, his demeanor returned to one of a desperate man.

  “I know you gonna be leaving. I want to go with you.”

  Laughter erupted from somewhere deep within her and burst out uncontrollably.

  This time the anger in Clovis’s eyes was real, but instead of lashing out his face contorted and he went to walk away.

  “Wait…” She composed herself.

  One problem at a time Abbey.

  He stopped then slowly turned to face her again.

  “Erin follows me everywhere, he’ll want to come with me if I return to the camp.” It was a lie, she fully expected to leave the leader of the Cascaders behind, if she could.

  Clovis’s eyes grew wide and for the first time the big man’s fear actually struck the same emotion into her. “He can’t be allowed to go back there!” He stepped in closer to keep his scratchy voice low and his tone became sarcastic. “You think he has not been controlling you? I bet he has got you doing shit you don’t even know you’re doing.”

  Now it was her turn to feel queasy. “I’m not being controlled.” She was losing count how many lies had passed her lips within the last few moments.

  “Whatever you think girly, but even if you’re right, you will start to do his bidding soon enough.” His face changed to smirk which made her skin crawl. She wanted to walk away, leave this horror of a man to his fate as a slave, but a distant voice inside her mind shouted that would be a mistake.

  He could be useful.

  *****

  Bower looked down at the newly dug hole with Harpers body wrapped in a sheet in the bottom of it. The sun was on its downward path, and he and Hayes cast long shadows across the grave.

  The younger man cleared his throat, then lent forward and threw in a number of food rations onto the dirt. “I owe you these…” He sighed. “And a lot more. I couldn’t have asked for a finer partner through all this shit.” He turned painfully, then limped back a few steps.

  Bower picked up the shovel and started shoveling the dirt.

  Hayes looked surprised. “No words?”

  “She knew what I thought of her when she was alive,” he said continuing to pile the brown bits of mud into the hole. Hayes nodded then leaned back on the fence.

  Bower had carried her remains back to the top of the hill a few miles from the bunker entrance, found a spot in the middle of the forest which overlooked the town, and dug the hole. Hayes followed.

  After thirty or so minutes the hole was filled and Bower picked up a cross, which he had fashioned from two pieces of what remained from the house which used to stand nearby, and pushed it firmly into the dirt. In the gloom they both stood to attention and saluted.

  They then both turned and looked down at the dark shapes of the buildings below them.

  “If they come back, we’ll be digging more of these holes up here,” said Hayes.

  “Not if I have anything to do with it.”

  They both slowly walked away while switching on a flashlight and holding it facing down.

  It wasn’t long before they were back in the tunnels and then back inside the relative safety of the bunker network.

  Hayes returned to his quarters to rest, while Bower entered the laboratory which had been set up under Raj’s instructions.

  A glass beaker smashed up against the quarantine window just as Bower entered. A young girl in a hazmat suit scrambled to clean it up, but Raj waved her off, doing the task himself.

  Bower banged on the glass partition.

  Raj saw the Captain and nodded, not doing a good job of hiding his shame. The second of the sealed doors then opened and Raj emerged in his hazmat suit. He took his helmet off and laid it on a nearby table.

  “I came here hoping for good news, but I guess I already have the state of things,” said Bower.

  Raj shook his head and went to speak when Bower held his hand up. “In English, not scientist talk, doctor.”

  “We’re trying to re-engineer a flu virus with alien DNA, so the virus only targets the Hulathen. It won’t kill them, but it will definitely affect their ability to rage war on us, and—”

  “And make them think twice about hanging around.”

  “Exactly.”

  The door that Bower had just entered from, opened again. Abbey stepped inside, her face slightly flushed.

  “Everything alright?” Said Bower.

  She walked further forward to allow the large figure of Clovis into the room.

  Bower sneered. “What the fuck is he doing here? Shouldn’t he be running errands for your esteemed leader?”

  Clovis’s eyes narrowed.

  Abbey quickly closed the door behind him. “I need your help to get us out of the bunker. I need to return to the Camp and he needs to go wherever he needs too.”

  “Yeah,” growled Clovis.

  “Why would you help him?” Said Raj.

  “I have my reasons,” said Abbey.

  Bower took a deep sigh and rubbed his chin. “And you don’t want Erin to know?”

  “No,” said Clovis again.

  “More than one syllable a challenge right?” Said Bower to the taller man.

  Clovis sneered.

  “You can’t leave yet,” said Raj. “Not until we have perfected the toxin. If you’re leaving you might be our best chance yet to get it to Austin.”

  “If you go, I’ll be going with you,” said Bower.

  Clovis scowled. “She don’t need no pussy boy human to help her.”

  Bower went to move forward when Abbey stepped in his way. “I hate to say this Cole, but I’m better off alone. The E.L.F’s are no threat to me and I’ll stay off of the aliens radar.”

  Bower went to reply when the single old-fashioned landline phone on the wall, started to ring.

  Raj walked over and picked up the receiver. Listened for a few seconds then looked at the others in the room.

  “What?” Said Abbey.

  “He’s gone,” said Raj.

  Abbey went to reply but then a feeling washed over her and she knew who was missing.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Zach studied General Trow’s pixelated face. She had been relaying to him the loses, not just in people, but in machinery and defenses that the Hulathen had inflicted on them in a few short hours during the day, and he could tell she was a woman struggling.

  He cut her short. “How is Anthony?”

  She blinked as if waking from a dream. “Umm he’s okay, he’s in the second bunker not far from the one you’re in. Thank you for asking.” She went to continue, but her lip quivered.

  “You’re doing a hell of a job Elizabeth, I have no doubt the camp would have been overrun if it weren’t for you in charge down here.”

  She briefly smiled then pulled the drawer open in her office, produced a small bottle and poured a small dose of the golden liquid into a glass.

  “You might want to saver that, we might all be underground for a while.”

  She took a deep breath. “It’s just…I thought we had gotten over the worse of it. Finally.”

  “When we send these aliens packing, back to whatever hell hole they crawled out of, it will be it. They’ll know not to return.”

  She nodded and took another sip. Zach could see conviction was starting to wash back into her. “Got any ideas on how to actually accomplish that?”

  “We need the Toxin they’re working on up near Boston, although how they get it down here, is going to need some planning. Until then we play a game called, ‘don’t b
ecome extinct’.”

  “What’s stopping the Hulathen from just blasting down into the bunkers?”

  “They never seem to want to get in the middle of a fight unless they absolutely have too. They know there’s a few hundred Cascaders underground, but they are probably just going to wait until we go back up top.”

  “So it’s a waiting game.”

  “Until there’s a better game to be played, yeah.”

  A knock came at the door of the small space which was the bunkers comms room.

  “Come in.”

  Fiona minus her bandage, but with a small trickle of dried blood above her brow appeared. “Sam’s going back out, he says they haven’t heard from Isaiah in any of the other bunkers.”

  Zach shook his head then looked back at Trow. “I have to go. Check back in an hour.”

  She nodded and the screen went black. He got up and they both left, Zach nodding at the usual comms officer who had stayed outside for the duration of the private chat between generals.

  They quickly walked along the corridor to a junction with the words. “Officers lounge” and “Infirmary plus routes to section B” on the wall. They chose the left route and were soon walking along a gantry with stairs leading down to the one of the main entrances to the bunker system.

  Sam was already in full combat gear, his squad minus Fisher was alongside him checking their equipment.

  “Sam! What are you doing?” Shouted Zach.

  Sam continued looking over his gun, briefly inspecting the magazine. “Don’t try and stop me Zach. You got no jurisdiction over the justice force.”

  “Actually I have, but I’m not going to try to stop you. But you’re risking yourself and four others on this mission. I want Isaiah found as much as you—”

  Sam turned lifting a finger. “I’m going Zach.”

  “We all are,” said Joan wiggling her nose so her glasses were on correctly.

  “Then you need a Cascader.” He looked back at Fiona, who nodded and quickly left the way they came in.

  Sam reluctantly nodded. “Fine.”

  A silence descended upon the room.

  Zach looked at Sam, who was impatient to leave. “I haven’t said this, but I need to. Thanks for putting your ass—” He looked around the others. “— All your asses on the line to come and get us.”

  Sam smiled and slapped Zach on the shoulder. “You’re the head honcho, what else we gonna do?”

  A noise came from the gantry and Miles appeared with Fiona, hastily putting his flak jacket and helmet on. Zach handed him his rifle then looked at the rest of the group. “Stay on comms!”

  Sam nodded then looked at Miles. “You sure you up for this?”

  Miles nodded.

  “Okay then, let’s move out.”

  The door to the surface was unlatched, and Sam, Miles and the others walked through.

  *****

  Sam leaned against the smooth but cold concrete wall of the towering building above him. “I do love me a good set of NVG’s.” He peered around the corner onto the dark street which ran a good way through the downtown area. Faint glows of green amidst the shapes of wreckage, slid across his view. He shook his head. “Not seeing anything moving, alien or otherwise. Flores, you seeing anything on the east side? Over.”

  A brief ‘negative’ came back through his radio.

  “Okay, stay sharp, Isaiah’s squad was last heard of, about three blocks over to the northeast. Let’s move to the next junction. Over.”

  The small group of six were divided into two parts, on opposite sides of the wide street. They ran forward with their guns leading the way. Everyone but Miles had night vision goggles on.

  “Shit,” he said under his breath as he walked on and then slipped off a piece of fallen masonry.

  “You okay?” Said Sam looking back.

  “I’m fine,” he said rubbing his ankle.

  “You sensing any E.L.F’s?”

  “Other than the huge lizard thing back near the bunker, no…” He squinted. “Actually there might be something, but I can’t pinpoint it.”

  Sam nodded. “We’ll keep alert.”

  They all continued running forward, using what obstacles they could for cover.

  “What’s that?” Said Miles looking up at one of the smaller skyscrapers above them.

  “Looks like some civilians are still in there. Damn it,” said Sam.

  “Just leave them to it,” said Boe.

  “We can’t, they’re like a beacon to any of those little green men flying around. Someone has to go up there and get them to kill the lights. We’ll pick them up on the way back.”

  “I’ll go,” said Miles.

  “Hell you will,” said Sam. “You’ll leave us exposed out here. What if more giant lizard things pop out of the drains of something?”

  “And what if one of you go into the building and run into an E.L.F. ?”

  “He’s got a point, cap.”

  Sam sighed. “Fine, but if you’re not back out in fifteen, we’ll have to come in after you.”

  “I get it. If I run into any problems I’ll let you know.” Miles got to his feet, running out from the cover of the bus they were hiding behind, and into the stairwell of the apartment building. The entrance lobby was intensely black. He switched on a small flashlight and waved it around. A small counter sat looking unused, while suitcases lay scattered on the smooth floor. He scoured the wall until he found the sign which said stairs, and ran to them. The silence around him was as pervading as the darkness as he ran up the steps. When he arrived at the first landing he swore to himself realizing he already was starting to forget exactly what floor the lights were illuminating from.

  Was it fourth or the fifth?

  He placed his foot on the next step. The back of his neck felt tingly.

  E.L.F.

  Pointing his light up into the next flight of stairs, he ran up them, then again ignoring the exits until he got to the fourth floor. The feeling of a creature nearby was stronger but still didn’t feel like it was on top of him. He realized if he did stumble across it, it probably would have already been imprinted and therefore his attempts to stop it from killing him, without its owner around, might not amount to much. He reached down placing his gloved hand on the exit handle and gently pulled it open, peering into the darkness. Keeping his flashlight pointed down, he strained his eyes into the gloom looking for any glows seeping out from behind apartment doors, but couldn’t see any.

  Fifth.

  Closing the door, he shone his light upwards again. He knew there was a strong chance there was an E.L.F somewhere above him, but as far as he knew they wouldn’t have been able to turn a light on either. He walked up the stairs slowly, straining all his senses and was soon standing at the fifth floor exit.

  Sam’s voice came from his radio, echoing around the stairwell. “How’s it going? Over.”

  He fumbled to cover the speaker then held the mike to his mouth. “I’m almost at the source of the light…Over.” He whispered. He thought about telling them about the E.L.F, but then realized they would probably all come storming inside and that was the last thing he wanted.

  Opening the door, he once again looked into the shadows of a long corridor, this time immediately noticing the faint white glow emanating from under one of the doors about half way along. The rest of the corridor seemed empty, but he was now sure that the E.L.F was on this floor.

  Could it be in the apartment with the light?

  It seemed a crazy idea, but then he had seen a whole lot of ‘crazy’ in his time. He slipped through the gap of the open exit, and stepped carefully over the hard floor toward the light. Once he arrived at the door, he placed his ear to it and listened.

  Is that voices?

  The sounds of muffled humans whispering to each other were just audible through the white wood of the door. Then he noticed it. Some of the light at the bottom blinked out momentarily.

  Definitely someone in there, maybe more.


  He cleared his throat and went to knock on the door, when the entrance to the stairwell filled with the sound of boots. He sighed.

  I told them to wait.

  He turned back to the apartment door, when it swung open and humanoid shape constructed entirely of shadows burst outwards. Miles flung himself backwards, landing hard on the ground, his flashlight scattering behind him.

  He went to try and pull his rifle from his shoulder, when an immense weight landed on him, pinning his arms to the ground. As he looked up, multiple layers of white teeth glistening in the faint light from his flashlight started to appear and expand just a few inches from his face, and with it fear started to overwhelm him.

  A flashlight flooded the hallway from the apartment, this time hovering just above the double barrels of a shotgun. “Jerry, don’t you kill him. We’re just trying to scare them off.” Shouted a scratchy voice.

  Miles looked at the worn boots and socks just visible at ground level. “Err…hi, could you get this thing off of me?”

  The entrance to the stairwell swung open and Boe appeared and immediately raised his rifle. “What the hell?”

  “It’s okay Boe, don’t start shooting!” Said Miles still unable to get up. Some of the creatures drool dropped on his cheek, which he flicked his head to get rid of.

  The E.L.F thing above him, looked at the justice force member at the end of the corridor and let out a low growl.

  “Jerry’s going to tear your friend here to bits, and I’ve got a shotgun pointed at your manhood, so you better be off, both of you!”

  Boe lowered his rifle slowly and walked forward. “I don’t know what that thing is, and I don’t know why it’s on my friend here, but we only came up here to get you to turn your light off, you’re gonna attract the aliens.”

  The old man seemed to hesitate. “We…he likes the light.”

  “Who likes the light?” Said Miles.

  Sam’s voice came from Boe’s radio enquiring what was going on, which Boe quickly replied too.

  “Jerry, he likes us to keep a light on when we sleep…You haven’t come here to get us to leave? Or to take Jerry?”

  “No one’s taking anyone if they don’t want to go!” Said Miles slightly pleading. “Jerry’s kind of heavy, can you get him off of me?”