by Maxey, Phil
In the vehicle behind, Keller looked at the mountain of a man seated next to him, then sighed and looked out of the window. Dalton did his best to hide his smirk. He could smell the fear on the sergeant, and that’s just how he wanted it. Kizzy sat behind, almost lost within her full combat fatigues and equipment. Amos sitting next to her was clothed the same and wasn’t sure to be amused or concerned about the war fantasies that were playing out inside her mind. As the brown gray wall of trunks and branches slid past outside, she imagined herself storming into a sea of monsters, some vamps, some definitely from late night movies and mowing them down with two assault rifles, which appeared to have limitless ammunition. Geri sat to his right, her own mind lost to memories of time ‘on the road.’
He sighed and looked out of the front window. He needed to stay out of their minds. At least they did not seem scared. Or if they were, they buried it somewhere deep. His fear though was much closer to the surface and if he had been given a choice, he would have preferred not to have gone on this mission. He liked Anna as much as the rest of them, but was she worth all of them being killed over? The corporation weren’t idiots, they would be expecting some kind of rescue attempt, and Joel and the others were going headlong into whatever trap the King’s had waiting for them. He just hoped he would get a glimpse into one of the enemy’s minds before it was too late, but if not, if things went wrong, he would grab Kizzy and they would disappear, even if the young women next to him wanted different.
The landscape south was full of green and muddy brown forests, obscuring the occasional beige colored field, with farmhouses, white churches and forgotten wooden shacks and barns that were dissolving into the soil.
After an hour Pachmayer informed everyone they had passed into Florida and a gas station flashed by, with decaying signs shouting that they would exchange fuel for food.
Two more lanes joined the one they were on, and the two humvees had to slow more often to drive around abandoned vehicles. Smart residences became frequent at the edges of the road, which then doubled in size, until finally they came to a junction, with a multitude of advertising hoardings. Stores, restaurants, gas stations and motels crowded every possible route.
Joel looked at his watch.
Two more hours before sundown.
He gestured to a grand looking four story building with pillars. “Over there. Park near the side entrance to the courthouse.”
Pachmayer drove into the lot, which was half full of vehicles, and pulled up near a ramp which ended at a light gray door. The other humvee stopped alongside. Everyone stayed inside their truck.
“You think they are watching us now?” said the soldier seated behind Joel, a young male soldier by the name of Cannings. The female private next to him tutted. “Did you miss the briefing? That’s the idea.”
Joel ignored them both and held his radio to his mouth. “We are down here on routine reconnaissance to find supplies. We’re going inside this courthouse. Your group heads out a bit further, but stay within comms range. Make it look like you’re looking for things. Over.”
“Roger that,” said Keller.
CHAPTER NINE
Evan stood outside the headquarters building and breathed in a lungful of air in the fading light. He had been told to keep working on the symbols on the surface of the tablet, despite the whole town readying itself for an all out attack, and felt his physical rather than mental abilities would have been better put to use outside. But then, he wasn’t a soldier, even though he felt as if he had been in a war since the Scourge made its first appearance in his hometown.
The streets around were full of noise. Vehicles, large and small, some with wheels, others with tracks, maneuvered into position, while people hustled along sidewalks, running to find refuge from the storm that was about to break against them.
He looked at the statue that was casting a long shadow as the sun dipped below the tops of single story stores which lined the town square and wondered who was it that had been immortalized.
“Emma Sansom,” said Galloway. He hadn’t heard the general approach, but then she was a hybrid.
“Uh?”
She nodded towards the statue. “As the Union forces moved through Alabama, they burned a bridge, trying to stop the Confederate forces from catching up with them. A local girl, Emma Sansom helped the Confederates find a crossing, while being fired at and the Union forces were captured… If we show just a tiny bit of her bravery today, we’ll do okay.” She smiled at Evan and he replied in kind. “Well, I better be getting back inside. When the attack starts I expect you to be in the basement. Once the elevator shaft is blocked, no vamps will be getting down there.”
He was slightly irritated at being treated like he was made of glass. He wanted to snap back that he was a hybrid! Like she was, but instead he smiled and nodded. The general walked back to the building passing saluting soldiers moving the other way. He went to follow but only got a few steps towards the large doors, until he stopped.
Not going back down there.
He didn’t need to turn back to the setting sun to feel that the night was coming. For the humans in the town that meant the terror would begin, but not for him. He wanted, needed to be outside. He glanced again at the statue, then ran along the sidewalk.
Marina looked out of a fourth floor window of the headquarters, towards the north, and mile after mile of forest whose color was draining into the landscape. That was the direction vamps would come from. She couldn’t see the bloodthirsty creatures yet, but she was sure she could feel them. Like an itch in her mind that she wasn’t able to scratch. She could tell Jasper sensed them too, for he was even quieter than usual.
“It’s your go,” said Jess impatiently to him.
“Sorry,” he muttered. Then picked up the dice and let them clatter across the game board. Shadow sat next to him, while Flint remained next to the little girl’s side.
Marina had wanted to leave after Joel had. Find a vehicle, make up an excuse and head out with the kids and Mary. It was the logical thing to do. Why stay? The prison only survived due to the ancient tablet. That wasn’t available to them this time. And how easy was it for the corporation, or kings or whoever was the new crazy to dispense of the hybrids. She let out a breath. Over sixty individuals with the same strength and speed as she had, and they were massacred. The town of Jankle had been nothing but a bloodbath for her and those that arrived a few days before. Why stay?
It was a question she had no answer for, other than she was too exhausted to run again. Evil was consuming every inch of the country and perhaps it was better to make one final stand… She turned away from the scenery outside which was now almost completely lost within the gloom of evening, and looked at the two youngsters she was responsible for. What right did she have to choose their fate for them? She sighed and swung back to the large window, indecision weighing on her when Flint gave out a bark in the same direction.
A few miles outside the north wall, Carla saw the movement through her NVG’s. A swarm of things were moving amongst the bark and branches about a mile further out from the tower she had returned to. Another twenty-eight soldiers were also positioned in vantage points about the old textile plant, the first point the enemy would hit up against before making it to the town wall. A few hundred feet above her head a drone buzzed.
“Here we go. Over,” came from the radio on her shoulder. Before the next thought formed in her mind, a series of booms rang out, splitting the silence and the area of land she was observing lit up so bright with a wall of fire that she had to flick the goggles to the top of her head to stop from being blinded.
*****
Joel looked out with his NVG’s to the street behind the courthouse. He had found for distance, the human tech was even better than his own enhanced visual abilities. Despite the almost complete lack of light outside, he tracked a large figure stay close to the storefronts, and then sprint across the road and enter the building, two floors below. A few seconds later Dal
ton was at the top of the main stairs hardly out of breath.
“We’re ready,” said Dalton, his face lit by Canning’s flashlight. “We found two pickups, located the keys and got them fully refueled. Couldn’t find any blood though…”
“Is the area well covered?” said Joel.
“Trees all around. No line of sight from tall buildings.”
“Then it’s time we left.” He looked at the five around him. “This next bit, it goes without saying…”
“We know,” said Kizzy. “Don’t get seen.”
Joel nodded. “If they know we have left this town, then its game over. It might look completely dark out there, but if the enemy is watching, they will see us if we’re—”
His radio burst into life with Keller’s voice. “Set of lights just switched on about two blocks east. Over.”
“Vehicle? Over.”
“Yup.”
“Moving this way? Over.”
“Nope. Just sitting there.”
Joel paused, stroking his beard. “Could it be civilians? Over.”
“Hard to say. Want me to get a closer look? Over.”
“I can go,” said Dalton.
Joel shook his head. “No.” He held the radio back to his mouth. “Keller get yourself down from the roof and meet us at the rendezvous point as arranged. If you think whoever that is knows we’re here, let me know. Over.”
Keller acknowledged the order.
“Shouldn’t we make sure?” said Amos.
“Can you sense anything from here?”
The young man shook his head.
“Then we stick to the plan. Lets go.”
They all quickly descended the grand staircase and left the building by the side door, then as quietly as they could moved across the road, the hybrids and human alike using what visual advantages they had to probe the deepest of shadows.
They ran past the glass windows of a baker’s, the panels reflecting the dark gray clouds above and quickly crossed a junction. The round dark shapes of trees rose up and more rectangular forms told them that they were now amongst abandoned homes.
“Movement!” said Pachmayer. Before anyone could ask from where a hungry scampering shadow ran towards them across a lawn, then promptly fell to the ground, its body falling separate to its head with Dalton standing over it. He quickly joined the group and they kept on moving south as the ground beneath them declined.
A click came from Joel’s radio, telling him foster could see them approaching. He responded with two clicks of his own, then spotted the two pickups parked, one behind the other and the soldier, with a figure he knew to be Geri, standing near the first.
They all quickly got to the vehicles, each person climbing into the same positions as before, but Joel waited outside, looking back the way they came.
Come on, Keller.
A breeze rustled the trees around him, and he looked into a darkness that even his goggles couldn’t penetrate. He walked to the other pickup. Amos already had the window down. “You sensing anything out here.”
“No.”
“What about Keller?”
Amos looked away, his brow becoming narrowed. “Yes… I think—”
Joel held his hand up as he spotted a human figure running towards them.
CHAPTER TEN
Evan watched the battle from the roof of a building which had become part of the northern wall of the town. A stretch of land, encompassing freeway, farmhouses, fields and tens of miles of forests were ablaze with a firestorm that had rained down from the sky, or more accurately from the turrets of tanks, lined up hundreds of yards from him. They had been firing constantly, and he thought the constant sound of explosions would never stop, until they did, and he watched, mesmerized by a vision of hell that the human weaponry had brought to the vamps that were trying to reach them.
Even hybrids couldn’t survive that.
But then he heard a noise, which at first he couldn’t place but then realized it was coming from below. A tile became dislodged and slid down the roof, shattering on the concrete path below. The building and the ground it was built upon were juddering, slightly, but noticeably, and it was then a memory hit him so hard he almost joined the tile on the ground, fifteen feet below.
Digging.
He looked down at the pools of floodlit ground beyond the wall, which had been cleared for a distance to allow the lookouts to see any oncoming danger.
“Digging!” he said out loud, then looked to the slight hill off to the west where the tanks were stationed along with soldiers also positioned on buildings waiting for the attack. He ran along the roof then jumped to the ground and kept on running, quickly jumping clear of a fence and pushing his legs and arms as fast as his hybrid limbs could move, all the while shouting at the town’s defenders from where the vamps were about to emerge. At this level the tremors were not as noticeable and he realized the tanks’ engines would mask the vibrations bubbling up from below.
Shortly after they first arrived, he and the others were debriefed and each told their tale, some of which was the story of Bellweather and what the vamps did there. Could Galloway and her people not have seen those reports?
A large quake knocked him off track and sent him headfirst into the ground. His face skidded into the muck and dirt before he slowed to a stop and quickly looked up. A huge plume of dust was now at the top of the small hill, so thick he was unable to see within, but the sound of gunfire and screams managed to escape. The nearby lights which covered that section of the wall, flickered. He climbed back up and went to sprint off in that direction when something sliced across his back, spinning him completely around while returning him to the solid damp ground. As he tried to ignore the stinging across his back he chastised himself for being so careless to not see an attack coming from a vamp, but then an odor drifted across his nose.
Not vamp…
He swallowed hard and flicked his head left and right within the long grass he was cradled within. He knew the smell of a werewolf ever since he first encountered Donnie. A musky moist smell which was half dog, half old man living under a bridge with a shopping cart.
The growling confirmed it.
Shit.
He had no idea if he was faster than a werewolf. The pain in his back tried to force its way into his thoughts, but it was going to have to wait. More growling, this time at a different location. Was the thing circling him? Was he a wounded prey about to be devoured?
Screw this.
He stood and ran forward at the same time, heading up the hill when a gunshot echoed out and something that was inches from the back of his neck groaned in pain. Evan stopped and turned. The fur covered creature was not looking back, but at a human, a short female figure who was aiming their gun at his would-be killer. Another shot rang out making the man-wolf duck, then surge towards its attacker.
Whoever this girl was she was about to be run over by the thing bounding towards her. The screams had grown silent within the gray mist on the hill and the lights had been completely extinguished. Whatever had happened to the tanks and soldiers was over. They lost. Evan broke into a run, not being sure if he could catch up with the creature before it tore the girl apart. She fired again, catching the werewolf in its shoulder but it kept on coming at her.
Evan pushed his head down, his fists pumping the air and ran faster than he knew he could and crashed into the back of the wolf, both of them slamming into the ground, but the wolf righted itself faster than he did, and lunged a claw in his direction. He tried to sway backwards but he knew he was too slow and tried to brace for the impact. A blast echoed around the field and the things brains exploded across his face. He stood frozen as the wolf person slumped to the ground.
“Come on! They’re coming!”
“Shannon? How—”
His senses were telling him it was a conversation for another day and he spun around. Hundreds of vamps were tearing down the hill towards them. Shannon’s hand dragged him backwards. He turned an
d together they ran towards the edge of the field and the trees that resided there. He didn’t need to turn around to know how close the horde were, every sense was clogged with their stink. The salvation of the bark and leaves beckoned, but he knew they wouldn’t make it. Just as the resignation in his mind started to slow his legs, neon streams split the air on both sides of them, and soldiers poured out of the forest.
*****
“Headquarters! Are you there? Over!” shouted Carla into her radio, hoping her voice could be heard over the sound of automatic fire and grunts and screeches of vamps that had turned the ground, a hundred feet below her into a seething mass of blood hungry bodies.
She had watched them emerge from the wall of extreme heat which the forest had become, some still on fire, and spill onto the two-lane road, then flood through the gate to the complex of buildings which made up the plant. That was twenty minutes ago, when she still had a full platoon to fight back with. From the rapidly diminishing returning fire she reckoned she was down to about a squad’s worth of soldiers, Bishop being one of them.
“General? Anyone? We can’t hold this position for much longer! Over!” she shouted again into her radio.
She almost heard the scampering too late. A vamp had managed to climb the ladder to the metal tower she was on, and was only a few feet away, before she turned and exploded its head with her assault rifle. She ran across and looked down. Others were climbing up. “Bishop? You still out there? Over.”
She fired a few bursts directly down, and the vamps fell onto others below.
“Yes—” Came from her radio. Shots rang out behind Bishop’s voice, followed by screeches. “— I’m… still…” More firing. “Here! Over!”