The Deadlock Trilogy Box Set

by P. T. Hylton

  He squinted up into the darkening sky, watching for any streaks of white.

  There was a knock at the door. The noise was so loud and unexpected that Trevor almost leapt to his feet. He went to the door and looked out the little window. There were five boys standing out there, all older than Trevor. Trevor knew them, though he wasn’t sure of all their names. They were his classmates from the Beyond Academy.

  Trevor opened the door wide enough to stick his head out.

  The boy in front crossed his arms. His name was Sam something, Trevor knew, and he was one of the popular kids, if there was such a thing among the brainiacs at the Beyond Academy.

  “What’s up, Hinkle?”

  “Hey guys,” Trevor said. The words felt awkward leaving his mouth but he couldn’t think of anything else to say.

  “Listen,” Sam said. “We weren’t sure whether to invite you given who your dad was. But then we remembered what Zed said. You’re a Beyond man. It doesn’t matter what your dad did. So you can come.”

  Trevor stared at them, hoping one of them would elaborate. They didn’t. So Trevor asked, “Come where?”

  Sam nodded toward the sky. “The Unfeathered are back. We are Beyond Academy. Where do you think?”

  Trevor tried not to let his face betray him. They were just kids… whatever the teachers said, they were just kids. Were they really going to fight monsters? At the same time, Trevor couldn’t deny the heat of excitement warming his belly. It would feel so good to be out there fighting instead of cowered inside waiting for the adults to do something.

  Finally, Trevor nodded. “Okay. Let me ask my step-dad.”

  A couple of the boys laughed. Sam smiled. “You really think he’s gonna say yes to this? You think any of our parents would?”

  Trevor knew Sam was right. The only way this was going to happen was if he didn’t ask permission. “What do I need to bring?”

  Some of the kids laughed again, but it was a joyous laughter this time. A short boy whose name Trevor didn’t know said, “That’s the best part. They let us into the Beyond Academy’s armory. We’ve got more guns than you’ve ever seen. All you need is your trigger finger.”

  Trevor wasn’t sure what to ask first. Who had let them into the Armory? Where were the guns? Also, the Beyond Academy has an armory? Instead he said, “One second. I’ll be right out.”

  Trevor ducked back inside without waiting for an answer. He wasn’t going to ask permission, but he also didn’t want his mom and Will to think he’d been plucked into the sky or something. He grabbed a pad of paper off the counter and jotted a quick note. He tore off the piece of paper and stuck it under a magnet on the fridge.

  He grabbed his hooded sweatshirt and walked out the door.

  It was almost a half hour later when Will found the note:

  Mom/Will,

  I’m spending the night with some friends from school. I’ll explain in the morning. Please don’t worry. I’m safe.

  Trev

  Night Four

  They were surrounded.

  Frank stood with his back to the Hansen men. The Hansens had their guns trained on the four Birdies gathered around them. Frank’s eyes were on the sky, quickly scanning for the tell-tale white shapes. The four on the ground were troubling, but it was the possibility of an unexpected attack from above that really worried Frank.

  The Unfeathered didn’t move. Neither did the men.

  As one, the Unfeathered turned their beaks to the sky and began to sing.

  “Shit,” Gus said. “They are calling for reinforcements.”

  “Drop ‘em!” shouted Frank. He turned his gun on the Birdie closest to him.

  One moment and four ear-splitting gunshots later, three of the creatures fell to the ground. The fourth, the one closest to Ty, thrust its beak forward and snapped at Ty’s leg. Another gunshot rang out, and the fourth creature hit the ground, a piece of denim from Ty’s jeans hanging from its beak.

  The four men turned toward the sound of the final gunshot and saw Sean Lee standing in front of his police car, firearm raised.

  “You all right?” Sean asked Ty.

  The big man was gripping his leg. Blood oozed between his fingers. “Yeah,” he groaned. “I could use a bandage, but I’ll live.”

  “I can’t believe you missed, Ty,” Teddy said. “That thing was like ten feet away.”

  Ty gritted his teeth. “It was moving like a snake.”

  “Thanks for the assist, Officer,” Gus said.

  As Sean approached, Frank gave him a cold stare, and Sean sent the same right back. The two men hadn’t spoke since that night at Sean’s house. Frank wasn't avoiding Sean, not exactly anyway. Confronting Sean about turning him in to Zed was definitely on his to-do list. His anger at the police officer was never far from his mind. But things were a little hectic with the monsters attacking town every night. Frank and the Hansen men were piling up Unfeathered bodies all over town while most people huddled inside their homes. The guys purposely attracted the creatures, and when they cornered one, they gave it time to call for help before killing it. Depending who you talked to, Frank and the Hansens were either public annoyances or folk heroes.

  Frank glanced down and saw the remains of the thing the Birdies had been feeding on when he and the Hansens had stumbled upon them. He wasn’t sure what the poor animal had been until he noticed the collar around its neck. It was a smallish dog. A beagle, maybe. It was hard to tell with so much of the flesh missing. Frank was fairly confident it had been a hound dog of some sort. Frank looked away. He had a soft spot for animals, and it made him sad to see that dog and think about what its last moments must have been like.

  “Gentlemen, I think you better head home and do it quick,” Sean said.

  The men looked at each other. Frank said, “Did we do something wrong, Officer?”

  “Maybe we made you boys look bad by killing too many Birdies?” Gus asked.

  “Ain’t no shortage of the bastards,” Teddy said. “Plenty to go around.”

  “No, nothing like that,” Sean said. “It’s your families at home I’m worried about.”

  “Our families are fine,” Gus said. “They stay inside after dark. No need to worry.”

  “We’re getting some reports tonight from the outskirts of town. The Unfeathered are getting more aggressive out there. They’re attacking windows. I hear they slammed into the front door of one house over and over until the damn thing buckled.”

  Frank felt the familiar wave of guilt crash over him.

  “Nothing against your cabins,” Sean said, “but I’m not sure how they’ll hold up to giant birds flying into them.”

  Gus looked at Ty and Teddy. “Let’s go.”

  “I’ll follow you there,” Frank said.

  “I’d suggest you get your family further into town,” Sean said. “We have some vacant apartments downtown. You are welcome to use them for a bit until this thing blows over.”

  Ty gave Sean a hard stare. “You want us to retreat? Leave our homes to these creatures?”

  Sean looked him in the eye. “Yes sir, I do.”

  Gus frowned. “Let’s check out the situation before we get crazy.”

  Gus, Ty, and Teddy walked to the car. Sean tapped Frank on the shoulder. “Hey, you ride with me. We need to talk.” Frank only paused for a moment before nodding.

  Sean pulled his squad car in front of Gus’s beater pickup. All three Hansen men were jammed into the truck’s front seat. Sean sped down the road with his sirens blaring and his lights flashing. Even still, Gus kept right on Sean’s bumper the whole way.

  Sean waited until they were a few blocks away before he spoke. “Frank, what the hell is going on? What happened to Zed?”

  Frank glanced at the sky. “After you called him, you mean?”

  “Yeah, I called him,” Sean said. “I thought if anyone could keep you from doing something stupid, it would be him. Looks like I was wrong.”

  “You were wrong. Can’t nothing
keep me from doing something stupid.”

  “What happened? What did you do?”

  Frank shrugged. “I opened Zed’s box. Then Zed left.”

  “Where’d he go?”

  “He didn’t say. He seemed like the cryptic type.” Frank brushed the thick, black blood of the Unfeathered off his jacket sleeve and onto the car’s upholstery. “I’m sorry, Sean. This is all my fault. Zed said that I’ve killed us all, and I think he might have been right.”

  “We’ll find a way,” Sean said. “We’re going to stop these bastards yet.”

  Frank stared straight ahead. “There ain’t no we. You sold me out. Even if you had good intentions, you still betrayed me.”

  By the time they made it to the cabins the Unfeathered had already smashed through every door and window. They found Gus’s youngest son unharmed, hiding under his bed. Gus’s wife wasn’t so lucky. All that was left of her was a pile of bones in the kitchen.

  Night Five

  The students were collecting the feet of the Unfeathered. They lined them up along the end of the gymnasium in rows. The collection was now four rows deep.

  The feet were interesting in a purely academic way, Wendy had to admit. Each foot had three toes with long claws curving out of the end. The feet were a solid fifteen inches long, and they were pure white, like the rest of the creatures’ bodies. The number of joints on each long toe varied, anywhere from three to seven. Pretty fascinating, if you didn’t think about the fact that each foot had been chopped off the leg of a monster by one of the Beyond Academy’s teenage students.

  Wendy surveyed the gym once again, scanning for anyone who might need medical attention, a shoulder to cry on, or even a little pep talk. She was the only female faculty member at the Beyond Academy and she had been left to act as Den Mother to students taking a break from their hunting. She had mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it was incredibly sexist. On the other hand, if she had been given her choice of assignments, it would have been the one she picked.

  It wasn’t that she was against fighting the Unfeathered. If it had been just her, she would have been out there kicking ass. She was much more ambivalent about enlisting teenagers to fight the battle. Other faculty members were out there acting as field generals, devising strategies and showing the students where to point their weapons.

  They had been lucky so far. No Beyond Academy students had been killed. There were a few injuries, but none too serious. How long that luck would last was anyone’s guess.

  A group of ten students shuffled into the gym followed by Ned Carlile, the science teacher.

  The returning kids looked beyond tired. They were different than they had been a few days ago. They walked past without a word, approached a group of tables set up at the north end of the gym, and began disassembling their rifles to clean them.

  Ned Carlile shuffled over to Wendy. “Everybody doing okay here?”

  Wendy nodded. “Everybody’s okay. Spirits aren’t exactly high at the moment, but what can we expect?”

  “Supplies holding up okay?”

  “Yeah.” In addition to the gym, she had also been put in charge of the armory. “Unless we're planning on invading a small country, the ammo will last for the near future. How’s it going out there?”

  Ned shook his head. “I don’t know Wendy. These kids… they’re amazing. A real tribute to the Rook Mountain spirit. They are professional and efficient. They listen to orders without question. They protect their brothers and sisters.”

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  “It’s the creatures. I’m starting to think they're smarter than we thought. They attack people on the streets when they have the chance, but they're focusing most of their efforts on the edges of town. They're destroying house by house and slowly moving inward.”

  Wendy tried to imagine whether such a thing was possible. “Do you really think they have the intelligence to be that methodical?”

  Ned shrugged. “It might be planning, or it might be that there are more of them on the edge of town. Either way, the result is the same.”

  “What do you think is going to happen?”

  Ned glanced around before speaking. “Honestly? If they keep moving inward, the town won’t last another week.”

  Wendy took a deep breath. There were things she could control and things she couldn’t. She could make sure everyone who stepped into this gym was safe and comfortable, but she couldn’t make sure they would survive long term. All she could do was stay in the moment and do her best.

  “Have you seen Trevor Hinkle?” Wendy asked. “I thought he was with you a couple nights back.”

  Ned nodded. “He was. The kid was good, too. Everything Zed hoped he would be. Fought like the devil himself. I haven’t seen him in two nights, though. I suspect his family is keeping him at home.”

  “Good. I wanted to make sure he was okay.”

  “Some of the boys wanted to head over there and liberate him. Let his family know he’s needed. I talked them out of it. I figured it was best not to go looking for trouble.”

  “Good call.”

  Wendy was glad Trevor was home. She wanted the boy to be safe. She knew she couldn’t wait much longer. Soon she would have to visit the Osmond house and give Trevor the gift from his father.

  Night Six

  It was one of those times when Christine missed cell phones.

  Will, Frank, and the Hansens were out in the streets again tonight, fighting their endless and increasingly futile battle against the Unfeathered. Tonight they had taken the fight to Meadow Park, Rook Mountain’s largest subdivision. It was a newer section of town featuring street after street of well-kept middle-class homes. The Unfeathered were getting uncomfortably close to the subdivision, and the guys were hoping to push them back a little.

  It would have been nice to check in with Will every once in awhile to make sure he wasn’t bleeding out in a gutter or something. But, no cell phones. She knew he would call if he had the chance.

  Speaking of calling… she glanced at her watch. It was 9:03. She walked across the makeshift hospital, past the quickly filling gurneys, and made her way to the phone mounted on the wall. She picked it up and dialed a quick seven digits.

  Trevor answered on the third ring. “Still here, Mom.”

  “Okay,” Christine said. Ever since Trevor had gone out with his school friends a few nights ago, she wasn’t taking anything for granted. She called him every hour on the hour to make sure he was home. If there had been any other choice, she would have stayed home with him, but the town needed its doctor. Will had stayed home with him the last two nights, but tonight she hadn’t been able to talk him out of going out to fight. Will said he was doing more to protect his family out there than if he stayed home. Christine wasn’t so sure. They were killing lots of the Unfeathered, and in the end that could save some lives. On the other hand, those things seemed endless.

  Christine asked, “How’s it going there? Any singing?”

  “A little, but it’s far away.”

  “Good. Got your gun out?”

  “Of course, Mom.”

  “Good. Keep the safety on unless you need to shoot something.” Something in life had gone horribly wrong, Christine knew, for her to feel comforted by the thought of her twelve-year-old son with a loaded rifle.

  She had considered bringing him with her. At least she would have known he was safe. They were set up in the spacious basement of the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church. Though it had been designed for potluck dinners and Bible studies, the room was working out nicely. There was plenty of space, and it stayed cool even with all the people. The building itself was among the most solidly built in Rook Mountain. Christine hoped it wouldn’t come to that, but the Unfeathered would have a hell of a time getting in here if they attacked.

  In the end, she had decided against bringing Trevor. She wanted to limit how much death the boy had to see, and here he would see plenty. Most of the people who were brought here
were passed the point of saving with her limited triage skills and resources. There had been two deaths already tonight.

  The Osmond home was near the center of town, and there hadn’t been much Unfeathered activity nearby except for the occasional stray flier. Trevor was armed and he knew how to use the weapon. Leaving him home alone was a risk, a terrible risk, but it was a calculated one. The neighbors on both sides were watching the house and had promised to call her if any Birdies showed up in the neighborhood.

  “Doc!” someone yelled from across the room.

  Christine sighed. “I gotta go. Be safe. I’ll call you at ten.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  “Yeah, I do. Love you. Bye.”

  “Bye.”

  Christine hung up and made her way toward the man who had called out to her. His name was Martin Grady. A bird had crashed through the window of his home on the outskirts of town last night. It had taken a sizable chunk of his right leg before his wife had blown its head off with a shotgun. She sat next to him now. She’d been holding his hand since Christine had arrived three hours ago.

  Christine sat in the folding chair on the other side of the cot from Mrs. Grady. “How you doing, Mr. Grady?” Christine didn’t like the distant look in the man’s eyes.

  It was Mrs. Grady who spoke. As she did, she gave Christine a look that couldn’t have been far off from the one she had given the bird creature before she shot it dead. “He’s in pain, doctor. You need to help him. He’s not a complainer and if he says he’s in pain then by God he is.”

  Christine hated this part She reached out and took the woman’s hand. “I believe you. But we are low on supplies, and injured people are pouring in here. He’s had all the pain medication I can spare at the moment.

  Mr. Grady pulled her hand away. “Please.”

  “I’ve done all I can for now. It’ll be a rough night, but I believe he is going to make it. In the morning, I’ll reevaluate our supplies and let you know.”

  She turned and marched away before Mrs. Grady had a chance to respond.

  The door at the top of the stairs opened with a crash and a man stumbled into the basement. It was Henry Strauss. He had a two-inch cut on his right cheek and the blood was dripping down onto his shoulder. Christine hurried over to him. “Henry, let me take a look at that cut. Any other injuries?” She pulled on a pair of latex gloves.