Nightfall

by Peter Hoole

Without giving any indication of his actions, Caleb swung his weapon away from William, towards his right. Panning the room, he stopped on his new target – James.

  William saw Caleb move. Caleb’s arc towards his leader didn’t come as a surprise, but it was enough to distract him.

  So distracted, in fact, that he didn’t notice Charlotte regaining consciousness. William loosened his grip on his captive as Charlotte began to struggle.

  Not wanting to lose his advantage, William took it. While fighting off Charlotte, he tried to focus on his target. He needed to be quick, faster than the man could pull the trigger. With barely enough time to think, William lined up his weapon, and pulled the trigger.

  The shot was loud enough to stun the four occupants of the room.

  Being stunned wasn’t Caleb’s only problem. As he was about to fire on James, he realised Charlotte and William were struggling. He knew William would be forced to act. As the pair struggled, Caleb attempted to significantly shift his position, hoping to get out of the way of the bullet that would be heading in his direction. He didn’t make it.

  To Caleb’s dismay, William’s gun was loaded with armour piercing bullets. Not enough to shoot through a room, but more than enough to get through his vest.

  The bullet pierced his skin, sending searing pain through his body. He’d been shot before, but no more than a graze.

  This time was different. Caleb had moved to his right and away from the bullet causing his body to turn side-on to William – not enough to avoid the bullet, but far enough that, once the bullet entered his arm, and left on the other side, the only course it could follow was through his ribs.

  Once there, the bullet had slowed sufficiently, and taken up place in his thorax.

  As he hit the ground, he knew he was done for.

  He was going to die.

  As the images around him turned from light into a blurry-grey mess, Caleb heard Charlotte’s voice.

  He then heard a scream, and then a few thuds on the floor. Caleb was so blinded by the pain, he couldn’t determine the location of the noises and their meaning.

  Lying on the ground, his thoughts turned to Darcy. The thought he would never see her again was almost too much to bear.

  Time seemingly stood still, and he tried to refocus his thoughts.

  He tried to remember the happier times.

  Unfortunately, the happier thoughts did not enter his mind, and he continued to lament the loss.

  While pain overtook his body, and he felt his blood flow out, he was glad for the fact that he could see her face, and that she would be his last thought.

  For the final few seconds, he held onto her image, his light in the dark.

  The room turned from grey to black, and all thought left his body.

  Caleb’s limp and lifeless body lay motionless on the floor.

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  “You’ve got to be kidding me?”

  The words resonated from Casey’s mouth. They were all thinking essentially the same thing. Only moments earlier, they had been in what was seemingly a technologically advanced base, aesthetically and practically well designed.

  Now, the contrast between the locations couldn’t have been more severe. The network of underground tunnels, each lined with its perfectly smooth walls, bore little resemblance to the town they were currently standing in.

  Using one of the tablets found on the Kite, Darcy, Casey and Dunleavy had found a way out. After exiting the base, they’d found their way into a store. It wasn’t what they’d expected as they climbed the steps.

  With Casey taking ‘point’, they tentatively made their way up the steps, and out the hole in the store’s back-room. The silence surrounding them was the most apparent thing. Darcy knew they couldn’t linger, they were there for a specific purpose. They needed to find a way out of the Colony, and out of the town.

  Walking out of the storeroom, with Casey in front, they began to realise they were, indeed, alone. The walk out of the store seemed to take a long time, such was the trepidation of their steps. Eventually, however, the trio made their way out, only to find even more emptiness. It was as though the entire town had been built, and no one had moved in.

  “What the fuck is this?” said Dunleavy, struggling to catch his breath.

  It was a question they were all asking themselves. The town was best described as a hamlet. From their vantage point, they felt they could see every aspect. Across the road was a motel, and further down what had to be the main road, was a few specialty stores. The only other physical buildings appeared to be houses.

  “Where are all the people?” asked Casey. “Surely, someone lives here?”

  Darcy suddenly realised what the town was. “Ahhh” she began. “This is no town. This is a façade.”

  “Façade?” asked Dunleavy, still puffing heavily. For an older man, he had done quite well, but the rigours of the last day were beginning to catch up with him.

  “Yeah,” Darcy responded. “That’s what it is. Just something to throw people off. You can’t have people going in and out of here without giving them somewhere to go. That would raise suspicions. No, this is a town that is protecting what’s below. Plus, it doubles as a living area.”

  Casey, still attentive on what was going on around them, began to fidget. “Well, whatever this place is,” he said, “we’re exposed. Let’s just do what we came to do.”

  Darcy concurred, and pulled out the tablet. She pressed a few buttons revealing a detailed outline of the town they were currently standing in.

  Studying the map, she realised her first impressions had been slightly… off. The town actually stretched quite a bit further than she’d originally thought. There were several roads operating off the main road, and each had several buildings along them.

  What she noticed most was the dots. As she zoomed out on the map, she saw all the red dots that indicated the colonials and their whereabouts. To her relief, every single one of them was moving away from the town. Some were headed north, some south – roughly half in each direction.

  “Casey, check this out.” She motioned the Sergeant to come closer.

  Casey looked at the screen, and breathed a soft sigh of relief. “Where do you think they’re headed?”

  “Don’t know,” Darcy replied, “but whatever Murphy did, it scared them away from here.”

  Dunleavy approached them, taking the tablet from Darcy. After looking at the screen, he turned to them. “You know what this tells me? This tells me that whatever your girlfriend did, is really going to fuck this area up. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not be here when that happens.”

  Darcy and Casey agreed.

  They were in a precarious position.

  Darcy, taking the tablet back from Dunleavy, examined the screen. Pressing a button on the screen, the red dots changed to the previous blue, indicating the vehicles on site. What Darcy saw significantly reduced her levels of stress. While there were several blue dots moving away from the town, there were still a few left behind.

  “Remind me what those are again?” Dunleavy asked, peering over Darcy’s shoulder.

  Darcy smiled. “Those are our way out. They’re the SUV’s.”

  Dunleavy, reassured by Darcy’s smile, shifted position. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s get out of here.”

  Darcy and Casey both looked at Dunleavy, shocked by what he’d just said. Dunleavy felt he understood their predicament better. “You guys seriously think Caleb and Murphy are gonna make it out of there alive. One – we have no fucking idea of how long we have before this whole goddam place blows. Second – we don’t know how much farther into the facility they are. Third—”

  Before he could continue, Darcy broke into his rant. “Dunleavy! Shut up!” Her tone caught the older man off-guard. “We’re staying. This is not a debate. If you like, we can go get one of the ‘Bats, but that’s it. We stay until Caleb and Murphy join us.”

  Dunleavy’s posture communicat
ed his disagreement. He scoffed.

  “I imagine you can’t walk to a city from here. By my reckoning, Sydney’s about two hundred miles,” Casey said. “If you start going now, I reckon you’ll make it in about a week.”

  Dunleavy threw his hands in the air. “Fuck you guys! Seriously, this place could go up at any minute! Did you see how those little red dots were scattering?”

  Darcy turned away from Dunleavy, not wishing to continue the conversation further. Her mind was made up, and there was nothing he could say to change her mind. She looked at the screen again. It seemed as if there were a group of the ‘Bats, located about a hundred yards north, along the main road.

  “Follow me,” she said, giving her first order.

  Without hesitation, Casey followed. With much hesitation – more out of anger and dissent than anything else, Dunleavy eventually plodded behind in formation.

  “Up ahead, there should be a ‘Bat or two.”

  Casey moved to the front, the position he considered his duty. While it did serve the purpose of him fulfilling the orders of his Captain, it also gave him focus. If he didn’t have such focus, he knew his thoughts would begin to dwell on Murphy.

  Darcy had no objection to this. Despite the fact that she’d killed a few people in the last couple of days, she had no desire to kill any more. Added to the fact that she still had limited ability to fight, she was happy to lead from behind.

  “Which building, Darc?” Casey asked, observing the town along the top of his gun, raising the sights at any potential target.

  Darcy closely examined the screen to ascertain their target building.

  “There,” she said, pointing to a house-like building, approximately seventy yards ahead.

  Casey looked in the direction she pointed.

  The trio, led by the Sergeant, took several more steps towards the building. As they approached, Casey kept watch. As far as he could tell, there was no movement in the town. Not wanting to take any chances, Casey stopped them short.

  “What is it?” Darcy asked, seeing Casey’s hand extend towards her.

  “Let’s just have a look at that.” Casey reached for the tablet. He pressed the previous button, to show how many people were still in the vicinity.

  After a second, the screen changed. Where the blue dots had been, had now been replaced by half a dozen red dots. There were people inside the building.

  “Well, shit,” he exclaimed. “Looks like this will be a bit trickier than we’d hoped.”

  Chapter Fifty-Nine

  Without missing a beat, Casey darted towards the wall of the building, and Darcy and Dunleavy followed suit. Darcy ended up next to Casey, directly to his left. Dunleavy waddled up to Darcy’s left as well.

  The garage was no more interesting than a typical mechanic’s workshop. Blue in colour, the one story facility had enough height to facilitate two car hoists, and enough width to fit three SUV’s through the large, open garage door.

  Casey stood silently, looking down the wall to the open garage bay doors. He handed the tablet back to Darcy, having justified his previous caution. There were three Colonials waiting inside the garage.

  “What are they waiting for?” whispered Dunleavy. “I thought they’d all left?”

  Darcy pondered the question. “I imagine they’re waiting for the guy that Caleb’s with. He’s their leader, after all.”

  Dunleavy shrugged his annoyance.

  Darcy, not interested in the old man’s emotional state, turned to Casey. “What now?”

  Casey smiled. “No problem,” he said. “Piece of cake.” Darcy noticed in his voice a reluctance to relay the true nature of what he was feeling. She decided not to press him on it. So far that day, he had been reliable, and there was no reason for her to change her belief in his abilities.

  From the tablet, Darcy could see that there were at least three Colonials in the garage. What she couldn’t see was exactly how they were positioned in relation to the fixtures of the room. All the screen showed was the dimensions of the room, the fact there was several ‘Bats and the aforementioned Colonials.

  Casey, much more adept at combat, began to brief the other two. “Okay, so we’re gonna hope they aren’t expecting us…”

  Dunleavy obviously felt compelled to interrupt. “Wait… we’re actually going in there? Are you fucking crazy?” he whispered angrily.

  Casey looked at him, steel in his eyes. “What do you suggest? There are no other vehicles that we can see, and we need to have transport. If we don’t, there’s nothing stopping them coming after us in those vehicles, and on foot. To use your vernacular, we would be fucked.”

  “Doesn’t mean we have to go in there and try to take them down.”

  “What do you suggest then?” Darcy interjected.

  Dunleavy tried to think, but an alternative was not readily apparent. He confirmed his lack of ideas with silence.

  “Fine then,” Darcy said, and turned her attention back to Casey.

  He needed no further coaxing. “As I was saying, they’re probably not expecting us. There’s only one place we can attack them from. Well… at least to keep the surprise up.” Casey motioned to the large open door on the left of the building before he continued. “We’re going to take it slowly. Stay close. When we get to the door, I’m going to get to the other side. You two stay on this side of the opening. Dunleavy, you take the tablet.” Darcy handed it to Dunleavy. “You’re our spotter. You need to tell us which direction to shoot. Darcy, just fire where Dunleavy says. With any luck, we’ll hit them early. As I said, I don’t think they’re expecting us, so we can take them by surprise.”

  Darcy nodded her head, and Dunleavy shook his.

  Casey ignored the pessimism, and stepped towards the door. His gun raised, Casey took himself to his usual alert state. Only fifteen feet away from the door at the start, the trio made their way to the opening in little time. Casey turned back, “Ready?”

  Darcy nodded, and breathed deeply.

  Casey turned, and sprung forward, rolling three times across the precipice of the garage. In less than a second, he had made it across.

  He stood up opposite Darcy, pointing his gun inside the garage. He stood for a moment, regaining his composure. “NOW!” he shouted.

  He fired his weapon at the only target he could see, taking him down with a headshot.

  Darcy swung around the corner. There were three ‘Bats towards the back of the garage, two occupied by Colonials soldiers. The one Casey had taken down was slumped on the floor near the edge of the room.

  Darcy raised her pistol, lining up one of the soldiers in the car. She fired, the resulting projectile bouncing off the window as though propelled by a force-field. Darcy tried again, with the same result. Fortunately, the startled soldier made the worst decision he could.

  Instead of appreciating the protection the ‘Bat provided, the soldier leapt from the vehicle, propelled by his own arrogance. As they had come to learn, the Colonials were not modest. They had a sense of bravado and superiority only shared by the likes of the Harlem Globetrotters. Only this situation wasn’t rigged in their favour.

  As soon as the soldier exited the vehicle, Casey snatched the opportunity. A hastily fired bullet split the frontal lobe of the soldier’s skull, rendering his last action irrelevant.

  By that time, the element of surprise had been lost. Dunleavy, focused on the tablet screen, began to panic. While he could see the red dots on the screen disappearing one at a time, there were still four soldiers remaining, and they were beginning to scatter. “Fuck,” he exclaimed.

  “Where are they, Mike?” Casey demanded, unable to see any of them.

  “They’re splitting off… towards the right.”

  Casey looked towards where Dunleavy had indicated. “I can’t see them.”

  The soldiers had run for the main office of the garage, and they were making rapid progress. As soon as Dunleavy realised what was happening, he turned to his right. “They’re coming o
ut the other door.” Dunleavy shouted.

  The door to Dunleavy’s right burst open, and three Colonials came out.

  The blood drained from Dunleavy’s face, the lead Colonial raising his weapon to the old man.

  “Mike, get down” yelled Darcy.

  Dunleavy did as he was told, barely ducking under the bullet as it whizzed past his head. To his surprise however, it was the Colonial that fell, shot down by Darcy.

  The other two kept running towards the other side of the street. Darcy, having just taken out the lead gunman, was in no mood to chase them. She aimed her weapon as they fled, and fired an array of bullets. As she fired the men hit the floor, falling back towards her.

  Perhaps I’ve hit them low, Darcy thought, as the gunmen’s falls did not match their previous running momentum.

  Dunleavy, still shaken from yet another near death experience, hunched on the ground over the tablet, hoping to see the remaining four dots vanish.

  His wish was mostly answered, with three of the four disappearing. But, there was still one remaining.

  Dunleavy turned to Darcy and signalled as such.

  “Casey,” Darcy yelled, no longer concerned by the possibility of alerting the Colonials, “One to go”.

  After a brief pause, a different voice replied. “I’m sure he’s aware of that,” the low baritone voice declared.

  Darcy moved inside the garage, her gun drawn. She stepped slowly through the room, careful not to avert her eyes from any potential target.

  As she rounded one of the ‘Bats, it became apparent why Casey hadn’t answered. He stood with his weapon still drawn, but his shoulders were slouched.

  Behind Casey was a masked man, the last Colonial left in the garage. His weapon was pointed straight at the back of the Sergeant’s head.

  “Put your weapon down, or your comrade will die” he said, the slightest remnants of a Russian accent in his voice.

  “Don’t you dare, Darcy” ordered Casey, “Shoot the fucker.”

  The Russian held his weapon firmer, attempting to accentuate the power of his position.

  Darcy, knowing that a bullet wouldn’t be fast enough to stop the gunman from taking out Casey, paused.