The Last Mile Trilogy

by Jacqueline Druga

  They tried, they battled, but the crew of the Galaxy lost. The vehicle was struck, thrown and crashed.

  Reese walked away with minor scratches, but his crew wasn’t so lucky.

  Two of them were seriously injured, two fatally injured, and one, David Hawk, was gone. Not dead. Injured for sure, but gone. Vanished into thin air.

  All that was left was one of the five cell phones he brought with him to test in space.

  Ironically, it was the only one of the phones that powered up after they landed in what once was the Atlantic Ocean.

  As if he were some sort of tourist in the apocalypse, David Hawk took pictures with that phone and Reese was grateful.

  He looked and would forever look at the pictures. Not for the scenery, but for the images of Ken, Paul, Thad, Kip, David, Gene, and … Lucy.

  A polite clearing of the throat snapped Reese from looking at the phone, and Reese turned to see Tate Hoyt, one of the warriors, survivors, or soldiers, he didn’t know. Reese assumed he was someone in authority, at least in a security capacity. The man stood armed and was staring compassionately at Reese.

  There was something young about him, but Reese knew he wasn’t. Tate spoke rough, and he had lines around his eyes and scars on his face.

  “We’ll find him,” Tate said. “No one vanishes into thin air. But right now, we can’t leave the entrance open and it’s too dangerous to be out here for too long.”

  “I understand. And …” Reese inhaled. “I want to see my crew.”

  Tate nodded.

  “Any word on them?” Reese asked.

  “No updates since we came out. Then again, we try to keep any radio signals out here to a minimum. It’s a fifteen minute trip to the main hub of SC, so we wanna go now. I’ll order a tube transport. It shouldn’t take long.”

  “Tube transport?” Reese asked as he followed Tate. “I thought we were in SC.”

  “Not at all, we’re at one of the five survivor and salvage entrances. SC is quite a distance. We take the tubes. Sort of like super high speed trains to SC.”

  Reese paused at the entrance which was in a solid rock cliff that just slid to the side. “How are you so high tech?”

  “It’s a long story. We’ll tell you all about that when we fill you in. Knowing who you guys are, I know I would want answers, too.”

  “I do,” Reese replied. He watched Tate secure the door and he looked around. The other man, Tate’s brother, Jeb, wasn’t there. Jeb was a complete contrast to Tate, except in attitude. “Where’s your brother?”

  “He went back. He’ll meet us there.” Tate then spoke into his radio about returning and faced Reese again. “Tube is there already.”

  They moved from an entrance down a long cave-like corridor emerging into what seemed like a platform of a train station. Earlier, a portion of the platform had been used for triage. Now it was empty. The tube transport awaited them.

  “You okay?” Tate asked. “Other than injured, I mean.”

  “No, this is just very surreal to me.”

  Tate cracked an ornery smile and released an airy chuckle. “Yeah, well, I bet. This is just the beginning. But I guess to me it’s normal. It’s our way of life.”

  “In my memory, two weeks ago, my way of life was coming home from work, cracking open a beer, and watching reruns of Roseanne.”

  “We still have comedy around here, just not what you know,” Tate said as the door to the tube slid open. “But, man, are you in for a culture shock.”

  Reese mumbled, “That’s an understatement,” as he followed Tate onto the tube and the doors slid closed.

  Chapter Two

  SC-11 (So-Cal Sector 1, Level 1)

  “Lower your voice,” Robi told Jeb in a scolding whisper.

  “I …” Jeb bit his lip, tilted his head in frustration, and rubbed his hand over his dark hair. His voice was as big and gruff as he was. “I am. But this is as low as it gets. I don’t come with an internal volume control.”

  “Unfortunately,” Robi said, crossing her arms over her chest as she paced about a waiting room style room. She peered down at Martha who slept on the couch. The five-year-old girl who looked like a toddler was out in a dead sleep. She wasn’t normal, not at all. Not just in lack of size or the fact that she was completely bald, but Martha, like a couple of others in SC, weren’t from earth. They were sent as help for earth in the impending battle.

  Martha was a healer. She had impeccable powers that healed even the most deadly of injuries. But she could only heal one at a time and needed rest in between.

  Decisions had to be made if more than one person at a time needed Martha’s help, but Martha’s inner psyche chose the person to be healed. Such was the case with the crew of Galaxy. Two needed Martha, only one was chosen.

  “As I was saying …” Jeb said.

  “Shh.”

  “Oh, you shush. A nuclear explosion can’t wake our daughter. And she’s done healing, why are you still here?”

  “He’s resting and …” Robi turned to her husband. “I’m scared, Jeb.”

  “Of?”

  “Seeing him.”

  “Robi, he’s your father. After all the wishful thinking that the Galaxy was caught in the same worm hole as Mas’ people, after all the believing, you’re afraid?”

  “It’s been five years.”

  “Yeah, but it’s not been that long since he saw you,” Jeb said. “Then again, you may be a shock.”

  Robi gasped. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “I mean … I mean you look different.”

  “Old?”

  “Not really, well, some …”

  Another gasp from Robi.

  “You have a hard life.”

  “So I look old and rugged.”

  “Yes.”

  “Asshole.”

  “I mean. . .I mean, you do, but you’re still beautiful to me.” Jeb darted a kiss to her cheek.

  “I don’t know why I tolerate you. Really, there are lots of men to choose from.”

  Jeb laughed. “You love me. That’s why you married me. Besides, no man in SC can compare.”

  “Bishop.”

  “Ha!” Jeb tossed back his head. “Please. Melinda ain’t letting go of that leash on him.”

  “You got a point.”

  “Go see your dad.”

  She didn’t need to. The call of, ‘Roberta’, not only caused Robi to spin around, but Jeb to mock her in a shocked, questioning voice, ‘Roberta?’

  Robi’s heart thumped and dropped. It was her father. The last she had seen him was when he was on television getting ready to go on the space craft. He looked the same, the exact same, and she raced to him. “Dad,” she whimpered as she embraced him. “I never thought I’d see you again. I hoped, but it’s been so long.”

  Gene Brik held tightly to his daughter. A man on the verge of death not an hour earlier was in tip top shape. “When we landed and I found this world like this, I thought for sure I’d never see you.”

  Robi inhaled with a sniff. “You look great. How do you feel?”

  “I feel fine. I remember the jeep crashing; did I just get knocked out?”

  Jeb’s short laugh made Gene look his way.

  “To say the least,” Jeb said. “You were fried. Beam went straight through you. Knocking at death’s door, that’s for …” He grunted when Robi back handed him. “Sure.”

  “Who is he?” Gene asked.

  “I’m …” He reached out his hand.

  “Jeb,” Robi cut him off. “You were in the crash. Your whole crew was. You were attacked. We aren’t sure how or by what. It is completely new to us.”

  “If I was at death’s door, how did I get better so fast?”

  Robi held out her hand pointing to a sleeping Martha. “She healed you. But that’s a long story. She’s your granddaughter. I …”

  “We,” Jeb corrected.

  “We … raise her,” Robi said.

  Jeb cleared his throat. “It’
s a pleasure to meet you. I’m …”

  “Jeb,” Gene said. “You told me.”

  “No, I’m …”

  Robi interrupted. “Head of security.”

  Jeb grumbled, “Her husband.”

  “Her what?” Gene asked with shock.

  Robi shot a glare at Jeb. “Thanks, asshole, I wanted to ease him in. I was married to someone else when he last saw me.”

  Gene nodded. “So I take it James didn’t make it?”

  Robi shook her head. “Neither did the girls.”

  Gene groaned out. “Oh God, I’m so sorry.” He stepped to her. “Nick?”

  “He’s good,” Robi said. “He’s really good. All grown up. Still looks the same, though.”

  “So do you,” Gene told her.

  “Ha!” Robi shifted her eyes to Jeb.

  “A little worn …” Gene added.

  “Ha!” Jeb blasted.

  “But under the circumstances,” Gene said, “you look remarkable.”

  “Thank you,” Robi said. “Dad, do you know what brought you out this way?”

  “You. Lucy’s son. A man named Martin,” Gene explained. “We followed clues across the country. People left fliers and notes for family saying they were coming here. Our crew … Robi, what happened with the people I was with? I’m fine, but are they?”

  Robi stepped back. “No. Some will be. We don’t know their names. Not all. One has a head injury, and we’ll be using Martha on him. One lost his arm, but he’s stable. This Lucy …” Robi shook her head. “Her son Ben is with her now. She’s not going to make it.”

  “What about using your healing … girl,” Gene pointed.

  Robi shook her head. “Martha needed to regenerate, and Lucy won’t make it until she does.”

  “Why … why then did you heal me? Because I’m your father?” Gene asked. “Why not Lucy? My God, that woman is special.”

  “I didn’t make the choice,” Robi said. “Martha chooses where best to put her energy. We have no say so, I’m sorry.”

  “There are two more,” Gene said. “Are they dead?”

  Jeb shook his head and explained, “The colonel is fine.”

  Gene nodded and let out a breath. “Oh, that’s good. He’s a good man, a really good man. You’ll like him.”

  Jeb continued, “And the phone guy.”

  “Hawk?” Gene asked.

  “That’s the name.” Jeb snapped his finger. “Gone.”

  Gene tilted his head with a confused look. “You said they weren’t dead.”

  “He’s not,” Jeb answered. “He’s gone.”

  Frustrated and loud, Robi exhaled. “What he means is, this Hawk guy disappeared. He could be hiding, running, we don’t know. We looked. He vanished.”

  “Vanished?” Gene crinkled his brow. “It’s the middle of the desert. Where the hell did he go?”

  Chapter Three

  She wanted him to make a call. At least, that was what David Hawk believed she wanted by the way her fingers kept pointing to the phone she gave him. It was one of his five phones, the one that didn’t work. But there it was, powered up and full strength. Who was he going to call? Really?

  Her fingers glistened as if wet. He guessed they were fingers, they looked like fingers. Just like he guessed the being before him was a female. She didn’t have hair, but she had breasts. She was tall, slender, with wide eyes, a weird head, atypical of the classic movie look of aliens. Perhaps she was from Earth and Earth’s inhabitants had changed, but he quickly dismissed that thought. After all, evolution took longer than five years. It led David to believe that someone at one time really did see a being from another planet, and they were spot on.

  She was pleasant enough. She wore a lab coat and spoke some sort of click clack nonsense language.

  “Who?” David asked. “Who am I going to call?” His head felt increasingly foggy. The more she sprayed him with that substance, the more euphoric he felt. He could only fear it was seasoning and she was knocking him out for a Thanksgiving roasting.

  Her finger again pointed to the phone.

  “I’m cold,” David told her, then tried to bring his arms around himself to portray a shiver. But his arms were bound by wires and a weird intravenous of sorts. “I’m cold.”

  Her head went back as if to nod, and then she shook her head and pointed to the green patches on his body, slimy substances that tingled. Had they covered injuries he received in the accident? She reached up and an orange light shone bright upon him. Immediately he felt warmth.

  “Thank you,” David said.

  She held up a finger and turned.

  Someone else was in the room, another one of her kind. He heard her talk, and then she walked away.

  I’m naked and exposed for all to see, David thought. Swell.

  She returned with a huge green bowl, like the type of salad bowl his mother used to set on the kitchen table. She handed it to him, brought her hand to her mouth, and mimicked eating.

  “Food?” As David lifted his head, the table/bed he was lying on shifted to a more upright position and he was able to see the contents. He couldn’t help it. He laughed. “Ramen noodles. No way. Man, you guys have been monitoring us.” He sniffed, and it smelled normal. Of course, the portion was way off. Either she was feeding a family of six, or she thought humans ate a lot of food. No one consumed that much ramen in one sitting, not even a drunken college kid. David nodded in thanks. As he reached for the bowl, because he was hungry, she pulled it away. She set it on the table next to him, held up another finger, and then pointed to the phone.

  “Look,” David said. “I realize you monitor our culture, which is apparent by the noodles and you thinking I can just pick up a phone and call someone. But I don’t know where I am, and the last time I looked, I was the only one with a phone. Who am I going to call?”

  She seemed more insistent, pointing to the ‘send’ or ‘call’ button on the phone.

  “Fine. Fine,” David replied. “I’ll call. It’s useless, but I’ll press that button.” He did, and instead of a phone number, symbols appeared on the phone. The phone dialed, and as David put it to his ear, it rang. “It’s ringing. Who am I calling?” It rang only three times and a weird voice answered. It sounded electronic and like a recording in a language he didn’t understand. “Hello? Hello?” David called into the phone.

  Click.

  David pulled the phone from his ear and looked at the ‘call ended’ message.

  She reached down and took the phone, and to David it almost seemed as if she smiled. She placed the phone in her pocket, nodded once, and handed him the bowl of noodles.

  She turned and walked away.

  He didn’t know what he had done, but whatever it was, the reward was easy. He was hungry, healing, and finally warm, so he decided to eat those noodles hoping they weren’t poison. But what did it matter? He didn’t know where he was or what had captured him.

  Chapter Four

  SC-11

  Mas was an odd little man from outer space, and that’s what Bishop Dean liked to call him. In a sense, he was Bishop’s mentor and best friend. Over the past five years, Bishop had gone from being a charming salesman, to being a technical engineer and wizard. He learned how things worked and with that knowledge was able to be a top mind in SC.

  But he was a little worried.

  Thaddeus Hall had arrived. Thaddeus was the king of inventions, and Mas was excited.

  “Worry, you should not be,” Mas told Bishop as they sat in the control room.

  “But he’s brilliant.”

  “Ah, then, asset he should be. Thrilled you are not, why?”

  “He’s better than me.” Bishop scratched his head.

  “Bishop,” Mas shook his head. A short man and bald with a smooth face, he was close to a hundred but didn’t look it. In his time he was maybe fifty, like dog years, people said, but in reverse. “Bishop, be you should happy of learning.”

  “Yeah, I guess. But there is a brigh
t side.” Bishop smiled. “That bump on the head could be damaging forever. He could be like eight again.”

  Mas crinkled his face. “Of this, I understand not. Earth he is. Young he will not stay forever. Worries not.” Mas tapped his hand. “Heal of Martha shall be tonight. Then ah!” He clapped together his hands. “Meet we shall with mind of Brilliant.”

  Bishop grumbled.

  “Perhaps … wife you should go home and see. Not bad is affection when tense.” He raised his eyebrows a few times.

  Bishop looked seriously at Mas, grabbed a bottle, and took a drink. “Oh my God.”

  “Not, you can stay here all the time. Marriage not good for.”

  Bishop mumbled, “That’s what I’m hoping.”

  “Confused?”

  Bishop shook his head. The control room was home, a place Bishop frequented.

  Bishop was a whiz at watching the system and monitors, so he worked the control room as well. His wife of two years wasn’t happy about that. She claimed Bishop worked so much so he wouldn’t be around her. That was in part true … actually pretty much all true.

  A couple of years back, after they were really were on a roll and expanding SC, the survivors flooded in. Mas and his counterpart, Sam, were keen in predicting the numbers. Then again, they had been in touch with them.

  Undetected radio frequencies telling people where to go and not to use the radios.

  Jeb and Tate took road trips posting fliers, fighting the Atranda, which were large insect-like beings.

  The second wave.

  How people survived the second wave, Bishop didn’t know. The Atranda smelled them, came out of nowhere, and were there to pick off what the virus didn’t. Then the Loomis would arrive to finish off... intelligently.

  The final wave and the colonists had yet to arrive, the land was being prepped.

  The survivors didn’t have much time.

  They would still arrive, they were many and they were overseas. If will and fortitude were the ultimate weapons, then the people of earth would be unbeatable.

  Unfortunately, that was not the case.

  The longer people were outside of the comforts and safety of SC, the harder they grew. That was how Bishop explained his wife, Melinda. The fear of what occurred, what she had lived through made her that way.