Tears flowed down Henry's face as he walked down the ramp to inspect the loaded vehicle. He felt as if he had lived several lifetimes during what had only transpired in a matter of minutes. He wasn’t sure what had come over him, but he took a moment to regain his composure before walking over to inspect how well Cod's men had fastened down the equipment.
He was impressed to find everything securely fastened to the bed and to the top rack of the vehicle. In fact, they had done such a good job that Henry wondered if he would be able to unfasten the ropes. He also heard the new solar electric engine purr quietly.
He noticed that Lenny had already jumped inside and was excitedly punching coordinates into the onboard navigation computer. Lenny looked like a kid in a candy store who was just told he could have all the candy he could eat for free.
Cod walked over to Henry and extended his hand, which Henry gladly took.
"God be with you, my friend," Cod said.
"The same to you, and may the waters ahead of you be calm and smooth."
Henry nodded to the old captain once again before the two men went their separate ways. He climbed into the vehicle and checked the levels on the power cell. Satisfied that everything was in working order, he grabbed the wheel and pushed on the accelerator. The all-terrain vehicle took off like a cannonball.
Henry hadn’t driven a motorized vehicle for some time; like millions of other people, he had turned to self-motorized transit cabs for transportation now that he was out of the military.
Lenny screamed as they almost careened into the side of an old tool shed. Henry tightened his grip on the wheel and wrestled the vehicle back under his control.
He glanced over at Lenny who held to the roll bar with a white-knuckled grip.
"Is everything okay over there?" Henry asked.
"Has anyone ever told you that you suck at driving?"
Henry laughed wholeheartedly. "This is nothing. If you think this is bad, just wait until we have to go off road and really hit some rough terrain. I guarantee you that the straightest route to Rick and his team is going to involve us taking some unconventional roadways."
"How unconventional?" Lenny asked.
Henry laughed again. "Don't worry. This baby can handle it."
To prove his point, Henry yanked the wheel hard to the right and charged off the old crumbling road and into the overgrown brush. The vehicle bounced along the off-beaten path and plowed through the brush. Lenny bounced around in his seat, gripping the roll cage for dear life with one hand and desperately clutching his laptop to his chest with the other hand.
Henry then turned the vehicle back towards the road, where it soon ran a bit smoother. Lenny breathed a sigh of relief and thanked Henry for getting back on the road. Henry nodded.
"Can you turn on the radar detection system?” Henry asked. “I don't want to be caught unaware by unexpected guests."
Lenny eyed Henry and the steering wheel one more time before deciding it was safe to open and activate his laptop. The laptop's operating system blazed to life. Lenny ran a cable to connect the laptop to a port in the dashboard and activated the radar system to transfer the readouts from his laptop to the monitor in the dashboard. When Lenny was done, he disconnected the laptop and powered it down.
"Alright everything's good to go. If anything heads our way from any direction within a hundred miles of us, we’ll see it."
Henry nodded and continued to follow the directions on the GPS.
The vehicle made great time as they traveled across the Irish countryside. Henry and Lenny travelled from the seaside town of Dundalk to the small Irish village of Moneyneany in little over two hours. Henry made several pit stops along the way because Lenny's poor constitution was not up to the heavy terrain riding. More than once, Henry had to stop so Lenny could empty the contents of his stomach near some bushes or a tree. Overall, they made excellent time and didn’t experience any run-ins with the local creatures.
As the sun descended towards the western horizon, the robust vehicle rolled into a small village. Henry didn't want to be caught out doors after dark in case the Beast or other nasty creatures hunted at night.
The village that had once been called Moneyneany wasn't an overly large village; in fact, before the Union Forest disaster, its population was a mere one hundred seventy-four residents. Henry had done some research back in Dundalk before leaving to determine their best route to Rick's last reported location. While researching, he'd found that this little village was home to an old church by the name of Saint Eugene's. The church had a unique history, but what had caught Henry's attention was the fact that, at one time, centuries ago, it had been fortified against attack.
The historical records had also mentioned an underground well that the residents believed to have healing properties to it, and so several precautions had been made to protect it. Henry hoped it was still working and that the water hadn't been contaminated.
All of this made the church a perfect place to set up camp for the night. Plus, it would provide adequate protection from any of the island’s more active and carnivorous inhabitants.
Henry located the church fairly easy when they entered the village limits. Once there, he pulled up right next to the stone building. The church’s structure was fairly simple with a steeple and a bell tower atop it. Both men could see three windows—a large round stained glass window and two smaller rectangular windows with arches. The small windows were situated alongside two large metal-banded wooden doors that rested at the top of a small set of stone stairs.
Lenny looked at Henry in disbelief. "What are we doing here?"
"Well, I know you said you'd never step foot in another church again after your parents died, but this is the most defensible building in the area because it was once reinforced as a fort. It's time you got over your issues with churches and help me unpack all the equipment and carry it inside. We can set up once we have everything inside."
Henry jumped out of the vehicle and went to inspect the locks on the large doors to the church while Lenny sat in the car sputtering curses. Henry picked the lock rather easily and unwrapped the chains that held the doors closed as Lenny walked up next to him.
"You know, I always swore I'd never enter another one of these buildings unless a fiery demon rose from the ground ready to kill me, and it was the last safe place to hide. Well, I guess this qualifies as one of those fiery-demon moments."
Henry chuckled. "Leave it to you to find some logical and valid reason to override your oath never to enter a church. We need to untie the equipment and get it inside before dark. I'd rather be safe inside these walls than be outdoors on this island."
Lenny nodded and started untying the equipment while Henry drew his sidearm from its holster before turning on his flashlight. He entered the church to do a quick sweep of the building just in case something had found its way inside. Henry took great care inspecting the main chamber and any side passages, not letting a single corner go unnoticed.
When he felt that the building was safe and clear, he walked back outside to help Lenny unpack. Surprisingly, during the past thirty minutes, Lenny had removed most of the items from the roof and had them lying on the ground ready to be taken inside. Lenny glanced up from his work on top of the vehicle and waved at Henry.
"These knots come undone surprisingly easy. With how well they held everything down, I thought I'd be out here for hours trying to undo them."
Henry looked at a few of the knots and realized what Lenny was talking about. He, too, had thought these knots would take some time to undo. However, Cod's crew had used a modified anchor bend knot that held everything secure without slipping, but came undone with a simple tug and a twist. It was impressive how a simple knot like that would hold so well and yet be so easy to remove.
Due to the ease of the knot, it only took another fifteen minutes for Henry and Lenny to unload the remaining items from the vehicle and carry them into the church. As they were unloading, a wolf howled nearby
. Another wolf, howling from the eastern edge of the village, responded to the lonely call. Henry wasn't too concerned until he heard another five distinctive wolf howls not too far from the village.
He grabbed a pair of binoculars from one of the packs in the back of the vehicle's main cabin and scanned the area to the east and west of them. He didn't like what he saw.
"Are any of the remaining items in the vehicle something that we need?"
Lenny was a bit confused. "No, not really. Most of the vital stuff like food, weapons, and computer equipment are already inside. Why do you ask?"
Henry grabbed as many of the items as he could, handing several of them to Lenny and keeping a few for him to carry.
"We can leave the rest of the stuff where it is because we need to get inside now! We're being surrounded by a pack of wolves. I caught sight of one through the binoculars, and these aren’t normal wolves. They appear to be something you'd find in a horror flick. Trust me, you don't want be caught out in the open when they arrive. With how loud their howls are getting, it won't be too long before they'll be here. I'm guessing they caught our scent somewhere along the way, and they've been tracking us for some time. Plus, given the lack of animals we've seen today I bet they're hungry."
Lenny stuttered and babbled like a mad man. Henry placed his strong hand on Lenny's shoulder to calm him down.
"Don't worry. The church was used as a fort long ago, and I am certain we’ll be safe inside."
Lenny seemed to relax for a few moments and then high-tailed it into the church.
Once inside, Henry closed the double doors and looped the chain through the doors’ metal handholds. When he finished, he pulled out the old weathered lock he had picked and slid it through a couple of links in the chain before clicking it into place. Henry tested the doors to verify they were secure. Satisfied that the doors were secure, he walked over to help Lenny set up.
Lenny sat on one of the wooden pews near the chapel’s alter with an apple in one hand and the fingers of his other hand typing like crazy on the keyboard of his laptop. Henry thought it best not to bother him, so he went to work organizing and unpacking their equipment.
Henry wasn't too worried about the wolves so he went about unpacking things. He knew that once the wolves realized their prey was no longer reachable they would more than likely move off to find easier prey. Henry continued to organize the equipment they had taken off the all-terrain vehicle while Lenny continued to do whatever it was he was doing on his laptop. Henry could hear Lenny giggling every now and then. He wasn't sure what was going on, but for now, he figured he'd leave Lenny be. He set several items aside since they wouldn't be needed as they were indoors.
Once he completed that, Henry decided that the windows next to the main doors could be a possible breaching point. So he took the time to drag over several of the large church pews and tip them on their sides to create a barricade over the windows. When he was satisfied that the barricade would hold, he went about surveying the other windows in the chapel. Many of the windows were too high for the wolves to reach, so he left them alone.
Henry turned to regard Lenny who was still hunched over his laptop whispering something. He decided to find out what Lenny was up to. As he approached, he wiped away the sweat that rolled down his brow.
Man it's hot! Henry thought. This can't be normal. It's late October and at night for crying out loud.
Henry tapped Lenny on the shoulder. "Hey, what's the temperature outside?"
Lenny didn’t respond.
"Lenny?!"
"Huh? What was that?" Lenny asked as he quickly fumbled about closing down several windows on his laptop before Henry could see what they were.
Henry noticed how awkward the lanky man acted but decided it wasn't worth questioning him about it.
"How hot is it outside?" Henry asked again.
"Oh, is that all?"
"Yes, that's all. I honestly could care less with what you were doing on that laptop of yours. Just tell me what the temperature is and what weather satellite is reporting."
Henry waited patiently as Lenny connected to the weather satellite and pulled up the current temperature reading for the location.
"This can't be right," Lenny said.
"What do you mean?" Henry asked as he curiously looked down at the computer screen.
"First off, someone reconfigured the satellite and second according to this, the temperature outside is ninety-two degrees. Before the Union Forest event, the average temperature for this time of year was fifty-five degrees. But for the last five years the average temperature has been seventy degrees, which is about what it's been for the last two weeks. Yet, over the last forty-eight hours, the temperature has spiked and continued to rise."
"Can you see anything that would cause the temperature spike?"
Before Lenny could investigate further, something slammed hard against the wooden doors. The thunderous retort echoed throughout the chapel. Lenny jumped from his seat clutching his laptop.
"What was that?!" he asked.
Thud! Something hit the door again.
Henry wasted no time racing over to a Kevlar-reinforced lockbox. He threw open the latch, picked out an M16 assault rifle, and grabbed a case of ammunition. The baying of a solitary wolf echoed throughout the church. Henry strode over to one of the windows near the door and pushed over the church pew that blocked it, just enough so that he could see outside.
Outside, he could see five large wolves tearing apart one of the heavy-duty canvas duffle bags they had left outside. The bag contained food that had attracted the wolves. They didn't appear to be interested in any of the other bags out there, but that one. The wolves fought each other over the food that tumbled out of the bag as they tore it apart.
A large black wolf jumped up on to the back of the all-terrain vehicle and let out a series of barks and yelps. Henry watched in amazement as the other wolves stopped tearing at the bag. The same wolf let out another series of yelps and barks, and then one of the wolves that had been fighting over the food turned and charged at the door, slamming into it with a reverberating thud.
The wooden doors groaned as another large canine slammed into the door but with no success. Henry could hear Lenny in the background asking if everything was okay, but Henry ignored him. He was glued to the scene outside. The large black wolf howled into the night and the other four wolves joined in.
Henry nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt a hand clasp his shoulder. He spun around ready to strike. Curiosity had apparently gotten the better of Lenny.
"What's going on out there?" Lenny asked.
"We have five guests outside led by a large alpha male wolf. They've destroyed one of the bags we left outside that had food in it. But, overall, it appears that they can’t get in. Wolves are intelligent, but these, especially that black one, seem to be extremely intelligent. The alpha’s commanding the others to hit the doors."
Henry turned to watch what was transpiring outside. The larger alpha barked another command and a different wolf ran full speed into the solid barrier of the doors with enough force that the lock bar rattled. Lenny gave Henry a concerned look.
"Don’t worry. The doors will hold," Henry said.
"I don’t know if this is the best time to bring this up, but I found him," Lenny said as Henry continued to watch through the window.
"You found who?" Henry asked, not paying much attention to what Lenny had said.
"I found Rick."
Henry immediately turned to Lenny.
"You did? How? Where is he?"
Lenny turned his laptop screen around. He activated a GPS program and pointed to a small red blinking light on the screen.
Henry pointed at the screen, confused. "What is this?"
"This is the same GPS tracking system we were using to monitor any unwanted guests, which doesn't appear to have worked.” Lenny remarked as he looked out the window. “Anyway, I tracked down who had adjusted the satellite and found
that it traced back to a signal that came from near here. I figured that Perkins must’ve had some way to track their progress over here. So I hacked into their system again and found the records to the tablet that was issued to them. I then pulled up the tablet’s location by tagging its GPS tracking and configured the program to search for it. So, long story short, Rick and his team are located just outside of a town named Claudy. It’s about sixteen or seventeen miles from here. I calculate that if we maintain an average speed of sixty miles an hour, we could make it there in about forty minutes, give or take a few."
"Are you sure it's them?"
"Well, short of leaving the tablet in some random village. I'm pretty sure that's them."
The door shuddered again from the impact of another wolf. Lenny took a couple of involuntary steps back from the door as Henry spun around. He had a huge grin spread across his face, despite what was happening outside the small church.
"This is fantastic news! Unfortunately, with these damn wolves outside, we won't be going anywhere soon. Is there any way you can set up some sort of a relay to communicate with them?"
Henry knew something was up as soon as he asked. Lenny wouldn't look him in the eyes and began fiddling with something on his laptop.
"What is it?" Henry asked.
"What do you mean?"
"I can tell something's up. Give it to me straight."
Lenny sat down on a nearby chair and began furiously typing on his laptop, muttering something Henry couldn't hear over the howling of the wolves outside.
"Whatever it is please just spit it out."
Lenny slammed his laptop closed. Henry had never seen Lenny mistreat any type of electronic device so harshly.
"Lenny?"
Lenny took a deep breath as he vigorously massaged his temples.
"I've already tried to send a message. But something is preventing me from sending it. I pinged their tablet, and I received a ping back, so I know the tablet’s still active. I also pulled up the program that tracked the tablet’s movements on the Union Forest servers and tried to relay a message to it. Still nothing! Every time I try to contact the tablet, I receive an access denied error."
The Shadow Above The Flames Page 20