by Maxey, Phil
Corine watched the strangers around her, including the kid. When the wolves attacked she felt useless. Again. Unlike the others, she had no ability to move out of the way of an impending attack, to jump clear or heal quickly. She was like the mind reader in that respect, although she thought maybe the change had made her a bit physically stronger than him. Her eyes shifted to the old man. She had hoped finding another like her would contain clues as to how she could survive in this new deadly world. Tricks, so she wouldn’t end up slaughtered by those that had sharp fangs or claws, but the old man was as in the dark about his ability as she was. In the small town he had come from, he had used his telekinetic ability to help fortify defenses, sliding trucks and cars into place, but apart from that he was as exposed to the vamps as she was.
She sighed and let her head fall back against the metal wall behind her, thoughts of her family making her smile and feel sadness in equal measure. Maybe if they made it to the island, she would find a place to fit in.
The steep banks of pine trees slid by along with the occasional roadside bar or convenience store, and the higher they rose the more the distant peaks glistened with white.
Anna hated lying to the man driving. He had noticed the damage to the interior of the RV, but she said it was her that killed the vamp that had found Barry hiding inside. Now she knew the boy could also kill vamps, would that mean he could kill Alkrons? Either way that needed to be kept a secret until they weren’t being hunted night and day and she could do some tests. Hopefully give the kid a better handle on how to control his ability. And if the situation turned bad, she would make sure he wasn’t near any humans… or others.
The highway turned north, with hotels and restaurants, all wooden constructions, nestled amongst the pines and bark.
“I don’t think the airport is far,” said Anna. “Are you sensing—”
A dark humanoid shape descended from the sky landing ahead of them, making Joel slam on the brakes. Copeland stood in the headlights.
Amongst the swearing that came from the back of the van, Joel jumped out onto the road and walked up to the Drak. “What’s going on?”
“We have a problem. The corporation is already at the airport.”
*****
Sparkles and cones of light moved amongst the complex of buildings which sat at the west side of the landing strip.
Joel looked through binoculars at the humvees patrolling and the parked trucks, already emptied of their black uniformed contents, which were now surrounding the large hanger.
“It’s in the hanger?” he asked Copeland kneeling next to him.
“It is.”
Joel looked at him. “A C-130? Fully fueled?”
The Drak looked down at him. “You do not believe me?”
Joel frowned, placing the binoculars back to his eyes. “That’s a lot of plane for one person.”
“It was my backup. When I still… looked as you do, but the blood lust would make me do things… I knew I might need a way to escape. So I purchased that plane from my military contacts. And filled it with what I thought I would need to live elsewhere.”
The idea a billionaire would fill a cargo plane with things to live a luxury life in a warmer climate wasn’t so far-fetched, thought Joel. “I presume you also bought a pilot which we now don’t have.”
“Yes, but I studied many simulations also to how to fly it… in case a pilot was not available.”
Joel looked at the huge figure next to him again. “And now you are too big to fit in the cockpit anyway.”
“I can tell someone else what to do.”
“That plan might have worked before the corporation had a hundred soldiers guarding it. And who knows how many are Alkrons. I’m ready sensing a few down there aren’t human.”
Copeland stood, his wings stretching out breaking some nearby branches. “I will kill as many as needed.”
“Hey, easy there. There might be a way to do this that doesn’t involve all of us being shipped back east, or worse.”
The Drak looked down. “What?”
A few hundred yards behind them, in an apartment, one of many in a two-story block, Anna and the others sat and waited. Kizzy’s knee bounced up and down, while Amos sat in a reclining chair to her side, looking down.
“We can’t fight a small army…” said Corine.
“Hopefully it won’t come to that,” said Anna. Barry sat on the floor by her feet reading a magazine. She could sense his fear and hoped that’s all it remained.
“I’m not going back to the facility,” said Nelson. “If I die tonight, that’s fine by me.” Anna shot him a look and he frowned, turning away.
“Ain’t nobody dying,” said Dalton looking out the living room window to the distant lights. The first words he had uttered for almost a day.
The front door opened and Joel walked into the room. “Okay, I’ve seen what’s down there. There are a lot of troops. That’s the bad news… but if we can draw them away from the plane’s hanger, then maybe we have a chance of getting in there, and getting the plane off the ground. But it needs to be a real big diversion.”
“Like what?” said Amos.
Joel looked at Corine and she gulped in reply.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Joel and Corine traipsed through the forest, trying not to break twigs and branches in case the echo could be heard beyond the reach of human ears. The ground descended to a wire fence, with the runway, a few hundred yards away, stretching left and right. Beyond were small hangers on either side of the main airport building, which was well lit. But that wasn’t what they were moving towards, for sitting on the concrete in neatly arranged slots were four single engine planes, and one business class twin engine jet directly opposite them.
They stopped at the tree line, making sure to keep some trunks between them and the fence.
He scanned across the lights in the distance, and the shadowy figures behind, then focused on the largest of the planes. He looked at Corine. “You can do this.”
She looked at the sleek aircraft. “Plane’s lighter than a car right?”
“Of course.”
“Umm… can we get a bit closer?” She went to step forward when she felt his hand on her shoulder.
“Any closer and we might be spotted. We have to do it from here. This is easy. The cars you lifted on the highway, were further away.”
She nodded, focusing on the dark form of the wings and fuselage. “Okay… I got this.” She stretched out a hand, her eyes narrowing while Joel looked back through the eyepieces.
It was hardly noticeable but the plane started to roll forward.
“That’s it! Its moving! Keep it coming towards us, then if you can—”
Gunfire echoed across the runway from the buildings beyond. The plane stopped moving. Joel flicked his head towards her. “What’s wrong?”
She started to back away. “Maybe we should just leave…”
He looked back through the binoculars at the humvees and soldiers moving towards the now motionless plane, then to the frightened young woman in the dark by his side. “Corine. I know you’re scared. But I’m telling you, if you don’t do this, you will end up in a facility like the one before, and there will be no one to rescue you. Do you want that?”
The sounds of engines and shouts were now clear, traveling the few hundred yards across the runway.
“No… It’s just…”
“Corine. This is our only chance…”
Even in the dark she could feel his eyes on her. She looked back at the plane and concentrated again on its central section. Immediately the wheels started to turn and it started to pull away from the vehicles baring down on it.
Joel looked back through his binoculars. “That’s it… towards us… yes… You’re doing it. Now turn it onto the runway, and if you can increase its speed as much as you can.” He watched it slowly turn as sparks of bullets pinged off it, then briefly looked at his radio, pressing the talk button twice.
A
mile to the south, Anna and the rest had seen and heard the commotion from the airport as they were hidden in the shadows of the forest which ran down to the back of the largest hanger. The one the Drak had said contained his airplane.
Two clicks came from her radio. “This is it. We go now.” She looked back to Barry who was behind her. “Stay close.” He nodded. She looked at Dalton as they moved down the slope. “You getting anything?”
He kept sniffing the air. “Alkrons are here, but I can’t tell where. Too much engine oil and stuff.”
They all arrived at the fence which parted with a wave of Nelson’s hand, and kept going weaving between small block-like cabins then seeing it was clear, running across a forecourt, arriving at the back of the hanger and a nearby door.
Dalton grabbed the handle, pushing it open and breaking the lock. They all continued along a small narrow corridor, passing an open door to an office, and onwards to another with ‘Hanger’ marked across the top of it.
Anna wondered where Copeland was for he was not in the sky above, and for a moment when Dalton pushed the final door open, her heart fluttered at the possibility that everything had been some strange game he and the kings had played on them…
“Damn that’s big,” said Nelson standing in the cavernous space looking at the tail fin of the C-130 transport plane.
Anna had her flashlight turned on and was panning it across the right wall, trying to locate a particular section. “One… three… six.” She ran to the steel beam that ran to the height of the ceiling, and felt behind it for a small metal box, when Dalton let out a roar and the lights above them turned on, flooding the whole area with light. She spun around as the plane’s ramp began to lower, and soldiers emerged from the corridor they had just come through.
The six of them backed together near the hanger doors, as footsteps came from the back of the plane then onto the smooth floor.
“Margery?” said Kizzy, her face one of confusion.
The middle-aged woman appeared around the back of the plane, with a slightly younger man Anna recognized. An empty pit opened in her stomach as memories of ‘Powder man’ flooded back.
“Hey deary,” said Margery.
“I… thought…”
The soldiers, with their rifles aimed at the group walked forward with the two Alkrons.
“I know… you thought we were friends. But as you can see, I work for the corporation. Maybe we would have become friends if I had more time with you, but then your other ‘friends’ did the whole rescue thing, and now here we are.”
Barry grabbed hold of Anna’s waist, she putting her arm around his shoulder. “It will be okay Barry, keep calm.”
“Who’s the kid?” said Faulkner.
“Not your concern,” said Anna. She teetered on the edge of letting her vamp fury loose, but knew that wouldn’t help the boy next to her, and if he lost control…
Margery held up a small black box, its lid open. “You were looking for this? Once I got an idea of your direction, it was obvious this was where you were going to end up. Then we looked—” she waved her hand at the wing above her head. “— and found this beast. And it didn’t take a genius to work out he needed, and by ‘he’ I mean Copeland. Would need the key to get the thing started. Which I now have.” She waved a small set of keys around.
“You ain’t going to take me back!” said Nelson.
She scoffed. “Shit, no one’s being taken back. We’re just going to keep you here until the boss arrives, and…” she looked at the man next to her. “Just how long, do we have to wait for that?”
Faulkner looked at his watch, then back to the huddle of Alkrons looking for a way out, smiling. “Any time now.”
Anna could hear the heartbeats of those around her, and Joel’s and Corine’s nearby. She looked at Amos, who was sneering at those aiming rifles at him.
Be a great time to get your powers back kid, she thought.
“Ah uh,” said Faulkner seeing the exchange of looks between the two. “As soon as you do any mind shit boy, there’ll be a hole so big in your girlfriend’s head that even she won’t be able to come back from it.” He smiled at Anna. “Unlike the doctor here who can’t regrow appendages.”
Two words drifted on the breeze. Not loud enough for those under the wing of the plane to hear, but loud enough for a hybrid to pick up.
‘Get ready.’
She took a step in front of Barry.
“Aww look at that Marge. The cripple is protecting the kid. How c—”
The sound of glass shattering filled the air and with the falling shards came Joel dropping like a stone from the hole where the skylight used to be. He landed with a thump on the plane’s roof, projectiles splitting the air just above him.
“Keys!” shouted Anna to Nelson, who immediately flung his hand in Margery’s direction. The keys pulled from her fingers and landed in the old man’s hand. Dalton surged forward with a roar towards Faulkner, but just as the werewolf got to him, he had become transparent, the claws swiping right through him.
Before Margery could tell the soldiers to stop, shouting. “They can’t escape!” A clatter of gunfire set forth a volley of bullets at the group that were now dispersing. A bullet tore through Amos’s shoulder, another just missing Anna’s cheek. Kizzy dragged her boyfriend behind a wall of metal shelves, full of tools, while she grew in size to cover him from any more impacts.
Anna ran with Nelson and Barry around the side of the plane, using it as cover. “Keep him safe,” she said to the older man. She crept along the fuselage then spotted Joel fighting a group of soldiers, and Dalton struggling with the Brit. Her hands turned to claws, her eyes blackened and she tore forward swiping across two soldiers, both not turning their weapons around quickly enough to fire. Without thinking, she grabbed both weapons, throwing one back towards Nelson then used the other to take down three soldiers who were embroiled with Joel. She ran to him. “Rynon will be here soon!”
He nodded and they both looked at Dalton desperately trying to lay a claw on the thing changing density in front of him, when suddenly the great wolf held his own throat and started to choke.
“No… not again,” said Anna. With Joel she sprinted forward, but charged straight through the whispery form of the man killing Dalton from within. A whirl of claw slashed where it seemed an arm, or leg was something other than dust, but each time it evaporated before impact until Anna stopped. “He’s killing him!”
Kizzy stood with Amos by her side. She looked at him. “Amos. I don’t know what’s been happening with you, but this would be a really good time to do your mind thing!”
He looked at her and swallowed, then closed his eyes. Immediately blood poured from his nose, his hands’ shook then his body, as the mighty frame of Dalton’s wolfen state fell to its knees, gasping for one final breath.
Amos and Dalton Collapsed to the floor at the same time as a man’s scream rang out.
Joel and Anna looked at Faulkner’s face in agony, trying to form from particles, but each time the construction fell apart until finally there was nothing.
Dalton coughed then got back up, now in his human form, while Nelson and Barry ran around the back of the plane.
Joel looked at the older guy. “I need the hanger doors open!” He looked at the others. “Everyone get onboard!”
Nelson nodded and stretched his hands towards the front of the space. The huge metal doors immediately started to creak, pulling apart and revealing the night outside and a demonic figure standing with a much smaller female human.
Corine ran forward with Copeland.
“There are lots of soldiers coming!” she shouted, while the Drak lowered his head, walking up the ramp with Kizzy carrying an unconscious Amos.
CHAPTER NINE
Marina sat on a sofa in a clean apartment, with captain Karen Ayers in front of her. On the coffee table was a computer tablet which the hybrid had just spent the last hour typing into.
“I think that’s everythi
ng that happened,” said Marina. Jess and Jasper were asleep in the other room, the dogs the same.
Ayers briefly smiled, picking up the tablet and switching it off. “That’s some story. I’m sorry about your husband.”
“Me too… Umm…”
“Yes?”
“What’s it like here? I mean, this apartment is great, but the others appeared dark? Not used? Where is everyone?”
“There are roughly four-hundred people spread out over the base. This is just one apartment complex, there are many others. Everybody that came with you, from Jankle will be housed in temporary accommodation that we have set aside in the industrial area. Before they can be moved to more suitable places.”
Marina noticed the captain did not answer the first part to her question, but she had been cold towards Marina’s attempt at small talk throughout the debriefing anyway.
Ayers stood. “Most on the base are human, so we keep normal daylight hours. The colonel will want to see all of the Alkrons in person, in the morning at zero eight hundred hours, if that is acceptable?”
“That’s fine.”
Marina followed the captain to the apartment door, but as she walked out into the hallway a final question came to her, something that had been scratching at her thoughts. “There was a man, standing just inside the base we were at earlier. What—”
“Narvaez?”
Marina nodded. “The colonel said he was the reason the tablets came to the island?”
Ayers stood in the hallway, facing away from the front door. “I’m not cleared to discuss the tablets, but Mr. Narvaez heads up a team of scientists that have studied the scourge.”
Ayers entered the stairwell before Marina could ask anything more. She went to walk back inside, but stopped. The night was still young and there were no vamps in a thousand mile radius.
Safe…