by James Sperl
The machines and the New Humans were terrifyingly close now, the revving engines sounding as if they were just behind them. The acrid smell of exhaust permeated the cars. Then Tamara screamed.
“Mommy, they’re coming! They’re coming!”
“It’s all right, baby,” Catherine began. “We’re getting out of here. Just hold on—”
“They’re coming!” Tamara’s scream was so shrill it caused Catherine to turn involuntarily. When she did the sight behind her was enough to send a chill that radiated throughout her entire body.
Beyond their location, on the other side of the cars they had just passed through, moving like spiders in the vibrating light, were New Humans.
“Catherine, we’ve gotta move. Like, now,” Oliver’s tremulous voice said.
“Mom, go. Go, go, go. Hurry! Go!” Abby cried. She hadn’t yet mentally collapsed, but Catherine knew it would only be a matter of minutes if not seconds before she did.
But there was nowhere to go. There were no open passageways through the interior of the cars, no gaps wide enough for people to pass through, no way up, no way down, and no going back. They were, in effect, trapped.
Catherine fought to keep tears from falling. “What do you see, Josh!” she hollered.
Josh’s head popped back out of the nearby vehicle. “I see a bunch of those fucking things coming,” he howled. “They’re coming this way!”
Josh was losing his cool and Catherine could hear Leanne, Shelby and Madeline wail even from her distance and over the deafening sound of the motors.
“Keep it together, kiddo. We’re going to find a way. Just keep looking. Can you—”
The entire mound of cars suddenly shook with a violent shudder. Metal groaned and glass broke as cars shifted and settled all around them.
Everyone screamed.
“What the hell was that?” Josh shouted.
But Catherine knew. Knew that the New Humans climbing on the cars was only a ploy to try and flush them out. They couldn’t risk going too deep into the confines of the vehicles for fear of exceeding their range of light. And when that ploy failed, they really only had one other option.
Smash us out or kill us trying.
The cars rocked again, this time more ferociously. Tamara screamed unceasingly. Catherine was thrown onto her back and knocked heads with Abby who was directly behind her. Upon impact, Catherine’s weapon jarred loose from her waistband and she felt a surge of nausea rise in her as she listened to it rattle around the cab before clattering out the window and into the darkness below.
She clamored to her hands and knees and thrust her head through the opening. “Damn,” she muttered to herself.
Glancing around her immediate area she could see cars swaying precariously on their meager foundations, ready to collapse with the right amount of force.
A strong jolt shook the cars for a third time. It wasn’t until Catherine watched a VW bug roll down the jagged metal slope of vehicles in front of her that she actually began to consider the reason behind the fierce jostling. Without so much as a backward look, she knew.
They were dismantling the wall.
The truth of this drove into her like a spike through the chest. Using the excavator, no doubt, Catherine deduced that it was probably the same way they constructed the wall in the first place.
A loud grinding of metal was instantaneously followed by an ear piercing crash as another vehicle tumbled to the pavement below.
More screams of horror.
“Catherine, what the hell are we doing?” Oliver shouted.
“I’m working on it!”
“Well, work faster!”
Another car smashed dangerously close into the mound, careening toward the asphalt. Catherine ducked instinctively, bracing herself for the aftershock of swaying vehicles.
Abby was mumbling to herself now, repeating a string of unintelligible syllables repeatedly while Tamara whimpered and cried. Everything that defined Catherine as a woman and mother wanted to scoop her children up and reassure them, tell them it would be okay. But she knew the likelihood of this was remote and didn’t know if she possessed the acting ability necessary to convince them of such a fable.
An ear-splitting crunch of metal sounded just above Catherine’s location. The Bronco lurched downward suddenly, springing back into its original position and sending the occupants bouncing around like rag dolls.
More people shrieked and pleas for help and a rapid exit were met with a mute response from Catherine. There was nothing to be done. Nowhere to go. This was it.
Then she saw it.
She had to blink twice to verify that it was real. And as soon as the vehicle-crushing arm of the excavator neared for another scoop of devastated cars, the lights affixed to the arm emitted enough brightness to confirm it.
There was a gap.
Directly below her on the street, wide enough for several people, was a sliver of space. In all of the shifting and moving of cars, the excavator must have knocked the positions of some loose and opened up a corridor. If she could just make it to that opening there might just be a throughway out to the other side.
“Josh!” she yelled, her adrenaline flowing.
“Yeah!”
“Directly below us. Six o’clock. Think you can get to it?”
Josh writhed and squirmed to get a look.
“Yeah, I think so!”
“Then go. Now!”
Catherine propelled herself back inside the Bronco, feeling the sting of a shard of glass as it sliced into her palm. But she didn’t have time to worry about such trivialities.
“All right,” she said to everyone, “we’re moving. Stay right behind me!”
Catherine looked upon the tear-stained faces of her petrified daughters. They nodded silently and at that moment she knew getting them away from this wretched place wasn’t only something she wanted to do, it was something she had to do.
“Let’s go!”
Catherine sprung from the Bronco, twisting herself so she dangled over the opening. It was too far to drop down so she positioned herself to help Abby and Tamara traverse the maze of twisted metal.
“Okay, Abby. Go!”
Abby crawled forward and reached through the window for Catherine. Clutching her by her shoulders, Catherine wrestled Abby from the truck and lowered her onto the underside of another vehicle below, her slim shape barely able to squeeze past Catherine as she did so. She knew Tamara would pose no issue, but Oliver would certainly encounter setbacks.
“Climb down!” Catherine screamed to Abby as she looked over and saw what she thought was Shelby, then Madeline emerge from the vehicle in which she had seen Josh moments earlier. They worked themselves free of their car and began their descent, Leanne inching out just behind them.
Turning to find Tamara anxiously awaiting assistance, Catherine’s attention was abruptly drawn skyward as the lighted shape of the excavator arm swung like a pendulum into a Ford Focus not ten feet above her.
Catherine lurched into the Bronco and blanketed Tamara with her body as the resulting aftershock rattled the shaky tower of cars. Tamara yelped and Catherine watched out of the corner of her eye as the Focus rolled to the ground.
They were getting closer.
Catherine spied Oliver just over Tamara’s shoulder. “Get ready to move, Oliver!”
Oliver crawled as forward as he could behind Tamara. “Trust me, you’ll never see me move as fast.”
Hopping back out of the cab, Catherine adjusted her footing and yanked Tamara free. Glancing down, she saw Abby was almost to the ground. Easing Tamara by her, Catherine dropped the tiny girl onto the overturned car.
“Follow Abby, baby,” Catherine said. “Do what she does.”
“Okay,” came the jittery response.
Catherine turned to face Oliver when she saw the swinging arm of the excavator in action again.
“Brace yourselves!” she hollered, thrusting her arms perpendicular to her body.
Catherine checked below her and found that Abby had reached the ground. Tamara was moving gingerly toward her and Catherine could just make out Abby’s arms as they reached out to her sister.
Starting her own descent, Catherine caught up with Tamara in a matter of seconds. She continued on until she reached the ground then reached back up for Tamara. The final steps were tricky as they required a bit of body contortion and a fair amount of trust in that there would be a foothold where none seemed to exist.
But Tamara barreled forward like a trooper, reaching Catherine’s welcoming arms just moments after her mother had set foot on asphalt.
“Mom!” said Josh’s voice from behind Catherine.
Whirling in place, Catherine located Josh through the backseat of a Dodge Stratus. All the women were behind him, Leanne just dropping down from somewhere overhead.
“Josh,” Catherine said relieved. “Everyone okay?”
“Yeah, we’re all good. I think there’s a way through over here. Can you get by?”
Catherine scrutinized the crumpled roof and limited confines of the Stratus. “I don’t know. I’m not sure it’s large enough. But if you’ve got a way, go. We’ll catch up.”
“Hell with that. I ain’t going anywhere without you guys.”
Another massive crash sounded. The entire wall of cars rocked and swayed uneasily as Oliver clung precariously from one hand directly above Catherine.
“Son of a bitch!” he yelled as he regained his handholds. “These things are really starting to piss me off. Tell me you’ve got a way through down there.”
“I think we might. Just keep coming.” Catherine looked up at Oliver’s portly shape as he squirmed among twisted and crushed metal. But her attention was soon directed beyond him to the uppermost vehicle of the pile where someone sat, looking patiently down on her like a gargoyle statue atop a high rise.
Catherine watched in horror as the New Human calmly stood. It stared directly at her and opened its mouth, all indications of a scream evident—but no sound escaped.
Her eyes dancing nervously over the summit of the cars, Catherine’s breath caught in her throat as she heard the revving of not one engine, but all of them. The New Human had seen and reported their location. And when the New Human that had spotted them quickly vanished, Catherine feared the worst.
They were preparing for an all out assault.
New Humans scurried like cockroaches to clear a path in front of the mining trucks. Hopping down from their various positions atop the car pile, they retreated back behind the mammoth machinery as the engines gunned and exhaust spewed.
The pathway clear, the mining trucks began to back up. The reverse warning tone sounded as the two vehicles continued until a sizable distance lay between them and the mound of cars.
Then, without a second of delay, the trucks sped forward.
No sooner had the thought of a vehicle barrage flitted through Catherine’s mind than a distant, repeating beep sounded from somewhere. She knew that sound. Had heard it on forklifts, moving vans and UPS trucks.
They were backing up.
Before Catherine could formulate a question as to the why, the entire wall of vehicles shook with a force heretofore unfelt.
Oliver, reacting on pure instinct, released his grip split seconds after the wall of cars shuddered. Had he maintained his hold on the tire well he previously grasped, his head would have been pulverized like a melon, the front end of a station wagon sliding forward with a crash into the now vacant location.
Hitting the ground with an ungraceful thud, Oliver immediately hopped to his feet. “They’re gonna knock it down!” he boomed.
Catherine glanced up in time to see the wildly swinging arm of the excavator come crashing down on the top most vehicle.
“Get down!” she screamed, collecting Abby and Tamara in her arms and driving them to the ground.
Glass exploded out of several windows, showering Catherine and the others with a peppering of glass beads as the mountain of cars shook unsteadily. The cars themselves compressed and rebounded; metal groaned and creaked.
Catherine could hear Josh trying to reassure Shelby, Madeline and Leanne as the women screamed and shrieked. Rotating around to see, she looked toward the heavens as the excavator arm retracted, no doubt preparing for another go. Then came that beeping sound again. Two of them, in an arrhythmic, atonal pulse, one’s pitch slightly lower than the other.
Getting to her knees, Catherine stared into the darkness. This was the final push, she thought. They were coming full bore now. If they were going to get out of here then she needed to make something happen. Now.
But before she could utter a word of direction, the entire wall of cars trembled with the force of an earthquake as the mining trucks slammed into them again. The initial impact was deafening, but it was the subsequent crashing of vehicles overhead that forced hands to ears. Tumbling end over end, cars smashed and collided with each other as a torrent of dislodged vehicles clattered toward the earth.
Catherine and the others cowered like scared animals, taking up position alongside a Chevy Cavalier, its condensed frame their only protection.
The excavator arm swung again and sent three more cars spilling down the slope. The first shafts of pure moonlight poured in from the new opening it created and for the first time since their entrance into the maze of machines, Catherine could really see her daughters’ faces. But their delicate features weren’t the only things visible in the settling aftermath. Not ten feet away were two revelations Catherine could only describe as miraculous: a person-sized opening through to the street and an overturned motorcycle.
Wasting not a second, Catherine flung herself through the passage and over to the motorcycle as the taunting chime of the reverse signals sounded again.
“Mommy!” Tamara screamed.
“Stay there,” Catherine shouted over her shoulder as she sprinted to the downed cycle. Collapsing beside it, she rapped on the gas tank with bloody knuckles. A dull thud echoed back along with the unmistakable slosh of a partially filled reservoir.
Catherine’s heart fluttered in her chest. And when she discovered the keys still in the ignition, her spirit soared.
Whipping around, Catherine caught site along the summit of the car barrier, now dramatically reduced. New Humans moved across the top, eyeing her hungrily but she knew they were limited by their proximity to the light.
She looked back into the darkened hole from whence she emerged and saw three pairs of eyes staring back at her.
“Oliver!” she yelled, ushering him over enthusiastically.
Oliver squeezed through the opening and made his way to her. His eyes danced about nervously, unsure of his foray into open air.
Then he saw the motorcycle.
“Holy shit.”
“Can you drive it?” Catherine spat.
“I don’t know. I think—”
“Yes or no!” Catherine shouted.
“All right, yes! As long as it’s operable.”
Catherine spun toward the hole and waved her daughters over with emphatic swings of her arm. They materialized out of the darkness like a pair of timid rabbits.
“Give me your rifle,” Catherine ordered.
“I don’t have it,” Oliver confessed. “I had to lose it in there somewhere. I couldn’t move with it strapped to my back.”
“Shit,” Catherine hissed as her daughters reached her. “All right, help me get this up,” Catherine commanded as she turned to the motorcycle. Each grasping a section of the bike, they heaved it onto its tires.
“Get on. Start it up.”
Oliver regarded Catherine a moment. “What are you doing, Catherine?”
“Get your ass on the
bike and start it up!” she screamed.
Oliver climbed aboard the cycle as Abby and Tamara reached Catherine. He twisted the key and pushed the starter and was met with the instantaneous—if incredulous—growl of the motor as it sputtered to life.
Grabbing Tamara by her waist, Catherine lifted the girl and sat her directly behind Oliver.
“Mommy, what are you doing?” Tamara questioned, her eyes filling with tears.
Catherine ignored her, taking Abby’s hand and guiding her onto the motorcycle behind Tamara. She leaned forward into Tamara’s face. “Hold on with all you’ve got, honey.” She moved to Abby. “And you hold on to Tamara. As tight as you can.”
“Wait,” Abby protested, “where are you going to sit? There’s no more room.”
The answer, Catherine knew, would cause tremendous revolt among her daughters. More of a concern to her was the ability to answer without bursting into tears herself. But the decision had been made.
“I’m not going,” she said matter-of-factly.
Then the beeping stopped.
“But...we’re not going without you!” Abby wailed. “We won’t go—”
Catherine slammed her hand over Abby’s mouth and kissed her fiercely on the cheek. She grabbed Tamara’s head and did the same. “I love you both. More than you know.”
Releasing them to intense crying, she flew to Oliver. Retrieving the SAT phone from her pack, she jammed it into his shirt pocket. “My entire life is on the back of this motorcycle,” she choked out. “Please get them to safety.”
Oliver stared dumbfounded. “How will you find the shelter if I have the phone?”
She stared him in the eyes, her response of silence more than he needed.
Oliver nodded. “I’ll take care of them.”
“Go!”
Oliver peeled away. The devastated look on Abby and Tamara’s faces as they dissolved into the inky black night would haunt Catherine until her death. But they were away from here. And that little kernel of truth was enough to offer her a modicum of solace.
The trucks crashed again and this time Catherine had a front row seat to the destruction. Although the height of the car structure had been significantly cut down, there were plenty of opportunities for a wayward vehicle to wreak havoc on the remaining survivors still trapped inside.