Terra

by Robert Turnbull

  Chapter 7.

  Walking twenty miles these days was as good one hundred because one could not just simply walk, people had to carefully move from cover to cover. Now she drudged along old pothole covered roads with her new cage. The cage would take care of daytime travel, but night traveling was still deadly, so each night shelter had to be sought. She had not encountered insects for the couple of years that she had survived so she guessed that they weren’t as numerous as the things called grinders. It wasn’t until she headed in a more southerly direction that she ran across a family that told her of them, or at least what they knew of the situation. There were pockets of humanity that had managed to survive and people had told her that the grinders had stopped dropping out of thin air…mostly. Of course it was nothing like the first year when they seemed to drop out of nowhere at several places all at once, and all over the world. Those days were the most terrifying anyone could remember. It was those people that told her of the town she just left.

  Like everything else humans did survive mainly to varied reasons. Some simply stayed put and farmed backyard gardens, others went to shelters guarded by the military. The unsettling fact was most humans had become ‘far and few’ and full-fledged colonies even more scarce. That was why Sue was stunned to top a hill and see a beautiful little town about two miles ahead. Now on the road for several months since the ‘Al incident’ as she called it, Sue was ready to find some place to stay for a few days.

  The town was pretty standard compared to other survivor towns, it had a good half mile of cleared foliage in all directions and using a pair of binoculars, she saw men in the church’s bell tower and on the farther side of town, two men on top of the town’s water tower. Both towers had screen and metal grating to protect them from swarms and at least one really large rifle in each tower kept pointing in various directions.

  “That’s odd, grinders don’t come out during the day…” then it dawned on her, they weren’t watching for grinders, but using the scopes to scour the surrounding areas beyond the cleared ‘kill zone’. Grinders occasionally did drop out of nowhere, lookouts had a never ending job.

  As Sue got within a mile she could see a small gate opening that centered on a road that branched off the paved road she walked upon. A man came out and waved as she approached and when he got within a few yards motioned for her to stop.

  “Sorry Miss, if you have a weapon, you have to leave it with me. I also have to tell you that we are a closed community. You can stay the night, but will have to move on in the morning if it’s clear to do so.” Sue started to reply, but the man smiled and continued “My name is Daniel and we aren’t trying to be inhospitable, but we have limited our population to three hundred and forty-eight. We will give you water and food for a week, more if you can carry it.” Daniel looked at the lovely Sue and nodded to her attire.

  “Miss, far be it for me to comment on your clothes, but that pull over you’re wearing is sweat soaked and I can see the color of…uh…and you do have rather large…uh…” Daniel stammered to a comical point.

  “I do have a jacket for the cool evenings Daniel, thanks…I’m Sue.”

  “I sure wasn’t trying to…uh, look miss…excuse me, Sue. You see it’s just there are some rather unsavory characters that have come this way and with you being out on the road alone and dressed like that and all…”

  “I’m fine Daniel, thanks.” she frowned “I’ve already dealt with one of them.” She smiled warmly. “I will pass on the overnight stay, but would welcome and food any water you could spare.”

  Daniel said something to someone behind the gate and although he motioned for her to enter, Sue refused graciously.

  “I’m afraid to get too comfy Dan,” she smiled “don’t want to get to the point where I lose my edge until I get all the way to the gulf. Figure maybe I can find me a boat to live on and anchor off shore a bit once I find my family. If I do find a place, I’d be wanting to stay for a week or so then travel on.”

  “Why’d ya want to do that? I mean the gulf of course.” he asked.

  “Don’t you all know?” she looked puzzled “Grinders can’t swim. Hell, Dan…I watched a pair of them pop out of nowhere while I was taking a bath in a lake. There I was jay-assed naked and poof they dropped into the water about ten yards away from me. Broad daylight too, don’t know how or where they came from, didn’t care. To be honest I guessed my time was up but when those bastards dropped into the water, they splashed only for a few seconds and went down like rocks.”

  “Holy Jesus Miss, they drowned?”

  “Fuckin’ ‘A’ right they did. Never bobbed, nothing. Hell, I saw a little island with some trees on it and figured that if they couldn’t swim, then that was where I needed to be. Saw two more drop out on land and made a mad dash to the closest shelter they could find, an old cabin. Looked like the sun hurt them or something.

  Got my ass dressed, swam out to the island…and just as I got to where my feet touched bottom four of those things came running out after me, or so I thought.” Sue grinned “I took a backward dive and they stopped at the water’s edge as I paddled away from that island as fast as I could. Those things saw an old shack and headed to it.

  Let me tell you Daniel, I was beat, couldn’t swim another stroke, so I just laid back and floated for a bit.”

  “Sounds scary…” as a hand shot through the gate with a small backpack of food and two half gallon jugs of water tied to each side. He handed it to Sue “We boil the water from a stream that runs through our town, the food is a kind of hard tack that don’t spoil easily. Miss, if ya have bad teeth, I’d recon you’d better soak it before ya bite down on it.” he smiled “I’m glad you got away from that island.”

  “Me too Daniel, me too. I had touched one of those things I found dead and the skin is tougher than leather, but as I was floating my feet hit something just under the water’s surface.” she shivered slightly “It was one of the grinders…oh God when I touched it, it was all squishy. At first I panicked and started to swim, but realized that I had been standing and turned back around. This was something new, so I took a deep breath and grabbed onto it…” she looked frightened to Daniel “my fingers sunk into its skin like if it was made of clay. No sooner had I pulled my hand back the damned thing rolled over and some putrid gas blew out of its mouth and it sunk again. Let me tell ya, I puked right there and then in that water…and when I was done…I puked again. I don’t know what the hell they are, but sink them in deep water and you don’t have to shoot them.”

  Daniel reached out and shook Sue’s hand “Thank you for the information, Mother Mary, it’s been nearly twelve years now since they came and this is the first we’ve heard of it. Maybe there is a way we can use that to protect ourselves.”

  “Might start by building a dam on that little creek of yours. I’m guessing that if you raise the waters a bit, if the grinders ever get through your snipers, they might stop at the high water.”

  “Thanks again Miss…Sue.” he looked a bit sheepish and Sue noticed.

  “Was there something else?”

  “Sue, you said you’re headed south? Well about one hundred miles down this highway there is a little town that’s set up like we are. Has water, and a natural gas source, limited protection. Well we used to talk to each other over ham radios, but over the years the best we can do is send static bursts at each other once a month.” he frowned “not that either of us would go and help the other when we could talk…” he rubbed the back of his neck as he shook his head slowly “Hell, I guess we still do it just to let each other know we’re still kickin’.”

  Sue smiled warmly “Nothing wrong with that, it’s nice to know other people are still around.”

  “Sue? Uhh, let me just ask…” he paused.

  “Is there something you want me to tell them?”

  “Not so much tell…” he sighed “Look, last month we had three kids decide to steal a car and drive to Freeport. My boy, his girlfriend, and his frien
d took off when her parents told them they were too young to get married…guess I pretty much said the same.” He looked at her sadly “If only I…we, had not trivialized the way they felt…” he brushed away the tear that was sliding down his cheek “If you find any trace of them…no matter what…would you tell their radio man to send extra burst during next month’s check?”

  Sue understood missing someone. Her little sister was four the last time she had seen her and that was a few months after the grinders started dropping out of thin air in other parts of the world. Grinders popped out of thin air in any place they could…it was also why she had noticed that one sniper always had one gun trained on the town. Grinders usually appeared out of thin air and a few feet off the ground and usually hit the ground running, attacking.

  “Miss?”

  “I’m sorry, Daniel, I was thinking how bad it must be not knowing. I tell you what, if I do find them, I’ll tell their radio man to send one extra static burst if I found any trace, but nothing definite, two if they are living in this Freeport, and three if I find the worst.”

  Daniel laid his hand on her forearm and smiled warmly “Thank you Sue, we all appreciate it…are you sure you won’t spend the night?”

  “Thanks, but no thanks. I have several hours left of light.” she smiled warmly “I can put several more miles between you and the next stop.”

  Dan waved and nodded that he understood “If you can make six miles, there is an old gas station. No roof, but the walls can keep you hidden from their radar…” he nodded at her portable swarm cage “I see you met Al Harding. That bastard stole that idea from one of our people, not that we care, but it is a damned good thing…hey, you must have run into him or you wouldn’t have given ya one of his cages. Oh lord, I hope that he didn’t hurt you, he can be a bastard at times.”

  Sue raised her swarm cage a bit and smiled “I can honestly say that he never objected when I took this and left.”

  “You’re really lucky Sue, some say he was a murderer and rapist before he found God.”

  Sue smiled and hefted the new pack over her old pack and waved “Why I believe that you are right Daniel, when I left old Al was talking to God that very moment…thanks, and I’ll keep an eye open for the kids.”

  Dan waved and Sue headed down the road. Making fairly good time and only having to stop once to toss her pack to the road and lift the cage over her. A swarm approached and she threw her backpack to the ground, lifted it over her and made sure the cage was sitting level on the two lane road. She gripped tightly to the handles to make sure that when they hit, they wouldn’t knock the cage over; it was a good plan…but they just flew by and never gave her a look.

  It was then that Sue came up with the idea that using the straps and the handles in the top of the cage, she could fasten the smallest backpack to those handles and as petite as she was, she now could put the cage over her without removing her main pack.

  This came in handy just before dark.

  As Sue saw the old station that Dan had told her about, another swarm appeared from out of the forest that lined both sides of the road. There was no mistaking that if they continued down the road, they’d find her for sure. She crawled under the cage and wiggled a bit to make sure that it went all the way down. The small backpack touched her head, the cage was firmly on the ground and the swarm hit her like a barrage of dark pellets. She could feel the cage wiggle as they kept hitting it, but the stubborn woman named Sue slowly started to move using tiny foot slides. All the time she moved, she watched the ground to make sure there was no way for even one of the bugs to get under the rim.

  After about a dozen steps she realized that that she was moving into deep shadows. Fear raged through her as her head snapped up to the top of the trees to see the sun flickering through and knew it was nearly dusk. Grinders were known to occasionally rise and start hunting at dusk if it was dark or cloudy enough.

  Sue quickened her baby steps and nearly fell and she stopped long enough to gather her fear, take a deep breath, and once again start moving toward the old gas station. Sue had spent most of the time since the grinders came at an underground military base. Being one of the lucky few she lived there, worked there and helped others kick their need for drugs there.

  Eventually when the food ran out she moved to another survivor camp and quickly found out about grinders, but until the incident with Al, she had only heard some sketchy rumors about swarms…so when the swarm suddenly took off as fast as they could fly, she was shocked.

  It was then that she realized that she was nearly in total dark…swarms sheltered at night; that was when the grinders came out.

  At first she raised the cage to run faster, but as dusk became night, she flipped the cage to her side, let it collapse as much as it could with her pack inside and sprinted to the old gas station. She could see it had no roof and only partial walls and wondered why Daniel had told her to come here. Through a partially opened door she scurried as the nightmarish screaming of a blue called to its mate to begin hunting.

  Squeezing through the door and trying not to trip on the rubble Sue smiled, there in front of her was a grease pit and it had been covered with a steel plate, debris covered most of it and a hinged steel door with a double sliding lock was all that showed. What little roof still existed protected it from the rain and snows, and into it Sue went tossing her cage and packs in first. Carefully lowering the hinged door she noticed it was really heavy and that fact made her smile…this would be a good night.

  Inside she pulled a small battery operated LED light and sighed as she saw only one left. She drank freely knowing that dehydration would kill her as easily as a blue. At least here in the northern part of the U.S. there was plenty of water. She ate one of the hard tack bars she had been given and other than it nearly broke her teeth, it was tasty.

  She spread out her sleeping bag and put on her jacket knowing the night would be cool especially surrounded by concrete and steel.

  She laid back and remembered the last times that she had seen her mom, dad, and little sister. She knew her running off was mostly to blame for her dad’s death. However after she went and visited with her mother and sister, her mother still gave her some food and a bed for the night. Sue repaid her mother by taking their rent money and slipped out the door to find the closest drug dealer. She stopped by her sister’s school the next day and while glimpsing a photo she had taken from the drawer with the money, she scanned the children…and saw her sister. She started to call out, but tears filled her eyes and she turned and vanished into the masses walking on the streets. Sue Little was ashamed of herself.

  Sue pulled an old crumpled photo from her pocket and smiled sadly at the picture of her sister who would be about fourteen now. As she reached over to turn off the light she softly vowed.

  “If you are alive Izzy, mom, I’ll find you…I swear.”

  Chapter 8.

  Gil had always been an avid flyer and as a hobby flew lighter than air aircraft every chance he got. Somewhere in the back of his mind he seemed to remember passing a small airport on his way to the complex, but knowing that was over fifteen years ago, he wondered if it even still existed…and within a half day of walking it did. Relieved and yet realizing that he had been apparently asleep for fifteen years, and without any clear date as to when all this started, he could only hope fuel was still viable. He had barely a few hours in regular single engine aircraft, his best friend at the time had trained him in the helicopter that he owned. Now the fact that no matter what aircraft, if any, he could find that still could fly, that he’d still be taking his life into this own hands.

  “Wish now that I had gone through more flight school now.” It was only due to his exceptional abilities that he became an astronaut and that he’d just received his pilot’s license when he entered NASA. He grinned “Might not have many hours in the pilot’s seat of real aircraft, but I sure can fly the piss out of ultralights.”

  Gil walked along the old overgrown con
crete runway toward several of the larger hangers and frowned as he saw the private aircraft sitting there disintegrating; obviously nothing but an old civilian airport and judging by the three small hangers, not a very big one.

  The first was wide open and mostly empty other than some scattered junk. The second was closed and the third partially burnt and what looked to be ransacked.

  “Ok the second one it is.” he muttered in a whisper although he wasn’t sure why. Those things from the shaft, he remembered Val saying were nocturnal. It was still a few hours to sundown and one of those things could be in there awaiting the sun to go down.

  He walked around and saw no intrusion points…unless they could close and lock a door. The doors he tried, were steel and well locked; he sighed.

  “Ok, so all secured, but that one little window with bars on it and the screen was intact…” he walked around back to the front and the huge aircraft doors “guess these won’t op…” the door he pulled on opened.

  Somewhat startled, yet curious he peeked in and checked around quickly and then scanned the roof for any openings…safe! Leaving the tall hanger door cracked enough to squeeze in he checked around until he was sure he was alone and all was safe. He closed the door and took a steel hook lying on the floor and secured the lock hasp.

  Inside was an old Piper Cub and by the looks of it, it would never fly again. The office with the tiny window had nothing of import. Frustrated he sat at the dusty desk and kicked his feet up and cursed a blue streak. Knowing the bar would keep those blue things out, he slid the window open and the fresh air felt good. Just as he finished he saw a deer dart across his field of view between the hangers and behind it a loud buzzing swarm. Nearly falling backward Gil darted toward the small door that was built into the larger hanger door and unlocked the bolt. Looking out he saw the swarm hit the deer so hard it knocked the running deer off its feet. Within seconds the swarm was upon the still deer and within ten to fifteen minutes, there was nothing but bones and blood that stained the taxiway.