by Aline Riva
Joy had been lost in her own thoughts of the past, of the day she had taken her daughter to school and then the world had gone up in flames...
“I'll never know,” she murmured, “My daughter...I just hope she's still alive somewhere.”
Jekel closed his hand over hers.
“I lost Margo and the baby,” he reminded her, “Like you said, we all have loss... We just have to deal with it.”
“And on that depressing note,” Lynch added, as Elise gave a weary sigh, “My final task under UNA command was to be forced to watch as the bodies of my unit were cremated. So can we please drop the stories about death, yeah? Unless you want to hear mine. Everyone's fucking dead. There's no happy endings and we're all in misery. And things can only get worse...the only good news is, I see no Howler trace on the radar now.”
Elise said nothing as Joy and Jekel remained silent. A light patter of rain danced on the wind shield and Lynch in a foggy moment hit the radar button in error as Elise reached over and activated the wipers for him and he shot her a sour look.
“I'm not fucking stupid!” he snapped, then they continued to drive in silence as the wipers dashed away the raindrops and the road ahead that climbed through green hillside stayed clear.
It was late in the afternoon as the rain cleared out and gave way to a partly clouded evening as dusk beckoned as the sun sank low and shadows began to chase across the land. As they reached a hill top and Lynch turned on to another road that led downward, he slowed the vehicle to a stop, his eyes wide as he looked ahead.
“What the....”
Elise had seen it too, and she reached for her gun but Lynch grabbed her hand, pushing it from her weapon as he looked towards the lone gunman who stood in the middle of the lonely road in a long dark coat, a bandanna tied about his face as the breeze ruffled dark, wavy hair that carried slivers of grey. The man was armed with a rifle that he pointed at the vehicle.
“Halt!” he commanded in a heavy Irish accent, “Stop the vehicle and come out with your hands up!”
“Lynch...” Joy said in a low voice, “We should arm ourselves...”
“He's human and doesn't look like a crazy to me,” Lynch said in a hushed voice, surprised at how glad he was to see another person out on these lonely roads – a person who could clearly handle adverse conditions such as these, too....
Spike scrambled for the stairs, ready to take out the big guns.
“Stand down!” Lynch called back, “I can handle this.”
As he got up from his seat Elise caught the heavy sleeve of his leather coat, and he turned back to her in anger.
“Let go!”
“I'm more than capable of protecting you!”
As he looked into her eyes he saw a brief trace of a look he could only call android, something he had learned to love despite the UNA connection she could never shake off.
“Sit down and shut up and concentrate on that kid of ours,” he replied, “Leave it to a capable man for once, yes?”
Then he shook off her grip, walking away from the driver's area, passing his machine gun and instead taking a hand gun off Joy, who stood by the door at the mid section.
“There won't be a fight,” he said, “He's human and he's being careful. I don't blame him.” But all the same, he slipped the gun into his pocket, then stepped out of the vehicle with his hands in the air, and walked towards the armed man who stood in the middle of the road.
Lynch kept his hands raised as he met with the masked man who held the rifle.
“Irish?” Lynch guessed.
“Scottish?” said the gunman.
Lynch nodded.
“And I have English friends back there,” he nodded to the motor home, “Also, some are cyborgs – as am I. My woman is pregnant, too. We're no threat to you.”
Suddenly the green eyes of the gunman sparkled in amusement. He lowered his weapon and tugged down his bandanna and chuckled.
“So tell me this, why are we standing here squabbling on this Welsh hillside?”
“I have no idea,” Lynch replied, and then as the man held out his hand, Lynch shook it warmly.
“Flynn,” said the Irishman, “Alexander Flynn, but call me Lexie.”
“General Felix Lynch,” he replied as he let go of his hand, “Former...” he was about to say UNA, but preferred to leave that out, and then as British Army was on the tip of his tongue he stopped as something at the back of his foggy, damaged mind seemed to tap on the door of his memory...He was going way back, back to his army days in his youth, back to Belfast and the day he raised his gun to stop a speeding car, but had looked into the driver's eyes and seen a man not much older than himself, little more than a boy, a youth suspected of a car bombing... He had not fired that shot, he had lowered his weapon. Back then Lynch had been nineteen and on his first tour of duty... And the face of Lexie Flynn, although much, much older now, was very familiar indeed...
Lynch was still looking at him intently as Lexie spoke again.
“You see that camper van over the hillside? I'm travelling with a couple of people I picked up a few miles back – they've heard the legend of Sanctuary and so have I.”
Lynch blinked, looked at him and continued to study his face. Yes, he was familiar...
“Lynch?” said Lexie, “Are you listening, man? I said, that camper van over there...I've got two companions..I can't travel this neck of the woods without back up. Marcia and Fritz. They came from a campsite about fifty miles south of here – a lot of 'em were packing up and heading off to Freedom City. But I couldn't go, not without my wife.”
Lynch had turned his gaze from the old, pale blue vintage camper van , where two figures stood, one was a woman dressed in black who carried a rifle, the other was a tall, heavy set man who looked on, watching the conversation unfold in the distance.
“Your wife?” he asked.
“Her name's Kait,” Lexie replied, “I met her ten years back she had a clothes shop in London. We got married the same year. I thought I'd be with her forever, and we did get through everything even when the world fell apart - but then she got snatched off the road by some bastard called Byron Leather.”
He was looking at him like the name might mean something, but Lynch shook his head.
“Never heard of him.”
“You'd know him if you saw him,” Flynn replied, “Ugly fucker. Tall and pale with a cyborg faceplate in a flame pattern about his jaw line. Jet back eyeballs, too. Rumour has it he took her to Sanctuary. So I'm off to see if that rumour's true,” his eyes darkened as he added, “I'll find my wife and when I do, Leather's a dead man!”
Lynch looked back to the camper van and then to Flynn.
“We're also looking for Sanctuary,” he replied, “We're heading for the coast by morning. You'd be safer travelling with us....seen some real evidence of Howler activity in these parts, spotted something on the radar a few miles back, too.”
Lexie nodded in agreement.
“Good idea,” he said, “We should stick together. I'll let the others know and then we'll swing the van around and follow on.”
“Ten minutes and we're moving out,” Lynch replied, and he headed back to the vehicle. As he reached the main door, he looked to the rear of the vehicle, where Spike and Ruby had got out and were standing together, taking in low voices and giggling.
“What are you two up to?” he said coldly.
“Nothing,” Spike replied, and Lynch shot him another warning look and went inside.
And Ruby took the white spray can from behind her back and giggled as she passed it to Spike.
“I found a few of these under the seat by the window,” she said to him, “Shall we have a laugh?”
Spike's eyes lit up.
“Yeah, why not!” he said, and then he glanced about to make sure Lynch and the others were not about, and quickly began to spray something on the side of the van as Ruby put a skeletal metallic hand to her lips to stifle a giggle.
A short while later,
the motor home led the way, weaving its way up a winding road as the camper van followed behind, and the higher they climbed, the flatter the road surface became. On rounding the crest of the hill and taking a downward, slow and gradual winding turn, here the air was clean and the fields green and the scent of salt was in the air.
The light was fading out but it was not dark yet, and as they drove past houses here and there dotted about the roadside, it was noticeable that these houses had sustained less damage. Doors were intact, houses were whole and widows un damaged. The drove down a dip in the hillside and entered a village whose name had been torn off the roadside sign, and as they drove through its heart, where either side ships looked abandoned and looted by the windows were undamaged, Lynch watched as the reflection of the motor home showed in the glass, and then a look of annoyance turned to anger as he saw something next to the writing on the side of his motor home that said Welcome to the Crazy Life...
“What the fuck?” he fumed, and took the motor home through the village and up the hillside, where he stopped, got out and slammed the door hard, signalling to the camper van a short distance behind to also stop.
“Every fucker OUT now!” he fumed.
Elise climbed out of the driver's area, the mid section opened up and the others got out, assembling there on the hillside with puzzled expressions as fury burned in the eyes of General Lynch.
“What's going on?” Joy asked.
“Yeah, what did we stop for?” Jekel added, looking about the hillside nervously, recalling how close the Howlers had been.
The camper van pulled up and Flynn got out as his two companions waited inside.
“What have we stopped for? There's fuck all back in that village if you're thinking about supplies – place was trashed long ago, you can tell!”
“That,” was all Lynch said, and as he looked to the new graffiti on the side of the van, Ruby giggled.
“It's not funny!” Lynch yelled, indicating to the crudely drawn penis on the side of the vehicle, then he went inside again and came out armed with a can of black spray paint to cover up the white graffiti.
“Was it you?” he demanded.
Ruby chewed on a metallic skeletal fingertip as she looked nervously to Spike.
“Was it you, Spike?”Lynch said angrily.
Spike took a step up the hillside, turning to a steep drop as the threw his arms wide and the wind billowed out his jacket.
“We're the cock of the hills!” he yelled, “The cock of the hi -”
The spray can connected with his head sharply and bounced off, drawing blood as the others gasped and Spike stepped back from the dizzying drop, his hand to his head as blood ran between his fingertips.
“Cover it up now!” Lynch barked angrily, “NOW or you can fucking walk the rest of the way, you little prick!”
Spike grabbed the can and hurried over to the graffiti, spraying over it with the back pain as blood ran from his wound freely.
“You didn't have to be so spiteful!” Joy hissed as she stepped closer.
Lynch looked down at her, towering over her with anger in his eyes.
“It's my motor home! My only link to the past before the world turned to shit, do you think I want other people fucking with that?”
“No more than I'd want my threads damaged,” Jekel said to him, and Joy looked at him in surprise to think for once, Jekel agreed with Lynch.
“That was harsh,” Joy said as Lynch glared at her, “Yeah, be as scary with them eyes as you like but you don't scare me! You hurt him, Lynch. It was a stupid spray paint prank and you hurt him!”
“And it's MY vehicle!” he snapped.
Flynn had stood watching the vents unfold with a smirk on his face as Spike quickly sprayed over the rest of the graffiti.
“If shenanigans have concluded, should we not be on our way?” he suggested, “It's getting dark and we have to push on.”
“Point taken,” Lynch agreed, and he turned away and headed back inside as Flynn turned back to the camper van.
Spike dropped the now empty spray can and turned to Ruby as he clutched at his head.
“I'm still bleeding,” he said.
“Want me to take a look at that?” Joy offered.
“Nah, I'll be fine,” he replied, taking a handkerchief from Ruby and holding it to the wound.
“He's a spiteful bastard,” Ruby said to Spike as she helped him into the van.
Jekel and Joy followed and Joy closed the door.
The motor home engine fired up and moved off.
“Finally!”Flynn exclaimed from the driver's seat of the vehicle parked up behind, and then he started his own engine, and as the motor home pulled out, the camper van followed on as the travellers went on their way once more.
As night fell, the motor home was parked high on a hillside where the smell of salt in the air was even stronger than before as in the distance, the sound of the surf carried on the wind. From the hillside the sea could be seen in the distance, the waves shifted on a choppy surface in the dark looking like shaken black ink.
The electrified fencing had not stretched to cover both vehicles as Flynn's was parked a short distance away, but after several sweeps of the scanner Lynch had confirmed there was not a trace of Howler activity to be seen, and so as the residents of the motor home went off to bed for the night, a dim light still glowed further down the hillside in the camper van as Flynn, unable to sleep with thoughts of his missing wife plaguing his mind, sat at a table playing cards with his two companions.
And deep below ground, something moved and the ground trembled, sending a tiny shock wave up to the surface.
In the motor home, Jekel heard medical instruments knock together in a tray and he sat up on the bed as Joy sat up too, and they shared a look of alarm. Jekel's face paled as his eyes widened.
“That felt almost like -”
“I know,” Joy whispered, looking to the floor, and hearing Jekel catch his breath as once again, the ground beneath the motor home shivered and shook.
Joy jumped up from the bed and ran over to the curtain, ripping it aside.
“Howlers!” she yelled.
And outside, further down the hillside, the grass was torn apart as earth erupted through first, then a large pack leader stuck its head through the ground, its multiple eyes set on the lonely camper van on the lower hillside nearby. It gave a roar and the earth shook and erupted as more of the creatures emerged, like corpses from the grave, rising up and scrabbling free of the dirt, then moving at speed towards their prey...
Chapter 8: With no Warning
As the ear splitting roar echoed about the countryside, Flynn put down his cards on the table and looked to his companions who sat opposite.
“What the hell was that? It sounded like -”
“Howlers!” said Marcia.
And the top of the camper van peeled back as talons dug in, opening it up like a sardine can as Fritz moved in a blur, rolling from the seat and hitting the floor, as Flynn shifted back and reached for his weapon Fritz was up and running for the grenades.
Marcia looked up, a frozen scream on her lips as the large Howler peered in and glowing goo dripped from its open mouth, hitting her between the eyes as she began to convulse as the substance bubbled and burnt through skin then bone and hit brain tissue, burning a perfect hole in the woman's head.
Rotting arms reached in, claws clamped about her head, shaking it violently as she made a gurgling sound, then skin tore and bone popped and the head came free from the still shaking body, Marcia's eyes rolled over white as the creature snapped its jaws and crunched down on bone. The body was still at the table, jerking and convulsing as blood pumped from the neck stump and flesh and veins trailed downwards, as the remains of the neck bones jigged about as if in a gruesome dance.
Flynn heard Fritz call his name as he grabbed his gun and fired off a volley of shots, bullets punctured the beast but now more clawing hands had clamped on to the opening in the roof, and the
van was rocking and tearing like paper as metal screamed. As Flynn's back hit the wall he reached for the door latch and hit it, then shoved it open with the point of his weapon and let fly more bullets, the Howlers approaching screeched as they were hit, but kept on advancing.
Fritz was up the other end, grenade in hand.
“Run for it!” he yelled, and the large howler chewing on Marcia's head paused mid crunch, her head half crushed as an eyeball hung from its socket and then the beast shifted away to allow smaller beasts to plunge in through the torn open roof.
As more hands reached in and Howlers descended, jumping through and proceeding to tug at the arms of the headless woman until the body split and blood spattered the walls, Flynn dived for the open door as the first grenade went off, shaking the van as Howler parts were fragmented about the hillside by the explosion, as Fritz then lobbed another bomb from the rear of the vehicle.