Cascade (Book 4): Conflict

by Phil Maxey

The other side was a haze of light. Fiona was right, there’s hundreds. Holding his hand up, he tried to focus when he noticed some of the lights were moving in his direction. Walking forward and trying each step twice he slowly moved towards the oncoming bobbing lights, without being sure who was at their source. I know you’re there.

  “Let me see!” pleaded Abbey, while grabbing the scope from Bass, balancing it best she could with her good hand. “He’s out there alone!”

  “That was the plan, Abbey.”

  “Yeah but on the bridge, not on the ice.”

  “They might have the numbers, but we got enough to hold them back, at least long enough for us to get the hell out of here,” he then clicked on his radio. “If anyone tries to get across that ice, shoot it up. Over.”

  Abbey watched as Zach’s flashlight and the other flashlights grew closer and closer. “I can’t watch from up here, I need to be closer.”

  Tossing the scope back to Bass, she ducked back into the tank, pushing the back open and jumped out. Checking the gun she kept tucked in the back of her pants, she ran through the woods ignoring Bass shouting at her to return.

  Zach watched Tinley, a woman in a hood, and two other men approach. The two men were holding old fashioned burning torches, which were doing their best to stay alight between being hit by snow flakes.

  “Going back to the stone ages with your lighting there I see,” smirked Zach, “That makes sense.”

  “You make a joke because you have your Abbey back?” replied Tinley, his eyes fixed like stones on Zach.

  “Oh I’m happy for lots of reasons. But why don’t you let Daisy go, so we can get on with things.”

  Tinley smiled, then pulled her hood off to reveal a face that only hinted at being what it once was. Slices, crossed her face while her eyes looked out from blue and black skin. She could of been crying but Zach couldn’t tell. He felt sick.

  “Well, yeah I know she looks a state, but she had to pay! I really liked Abbey, we were getting on so well, and then this bitch helps her escape. Anyway, she functions pretty much as she did, just won’t be getting married any time soon!” He laughed, then hit her in the middle of the back, sending her sprawling forward onto the ice.

  Zach swiftly moved to her, helping her to her feet while trying to keep his view on those in front of him. “Can you walk?” she nodded. He then handed her his flashlight. “Take this, get as quickly as you can to the other side, someone will be waiting,” she staggered off towards the other bank.

  “Well looks like you got me,” said Zach.

  “Looks like I have. I could just kill you right now, but I want your lady to watch you suffer a bit, and it will also be good for the moral of my people. I’m sure you understand.”

  Take the shot Cal.

  “Your people? I thought they belonged to the Hell Fire gang?”

  Tinley smiled. “Take him.”

  The two men walked towards Zach. One swiped at him which he deftly avoided, instead kicking the man in his knee, then the stomach, then the middle of the chest planting him on his backside. The other though grabbed Zach’s jacket, and pulled him knocking Zach off balance, causing him to slip and fall on his shoulder. The pain vibrated through him, making him momentarily dizzy.

  Bass watched Zach kneel on the ice with the two men and Tinley close to him. Get away Zach we can’t fire. He then clicked on his radio. “Cal, if you get a clear shot on Tinley and the others take it! Over.”

  Back on the ice Tinley sniggered. “Oh right, I keep meaning to ask, how’s the shoulder? No permanent damage I hope?”

  Zach tried to get to his feet, as the two men bore down on him. The fist of one connected with his face, knocking him backwards. The other came in to kick him, but he dodged, grabbing his foot sending the man tumbling backwards and falling onto the ice which was now beginning to crack. Take the shot Cal!

  Looking around, he tried to see where Tinley was. He then went to get to his feet again, when he felt the butt of a gun connect with the back of his head, and he went down, his face hitting the cold wet ice with a slap.

  “Abbey, I do hope you can see this!” Tinley shouted towards the far bank, he then beckoned to the man who was now back on his feet. “Pick him up,” the man pulled Zach onto his knees. “Zach, you still with us? Not sure how hard you hit the ice?”

  Zach’s world was a blur for a few seconds, then Tinley’s face came into view. “I will kill you.”

  “No. No you won’t. But I am going to kill you. But not before you watch all you hold dear die. Look behind you Zach.”

  Zach turned slowly, back towards the bank he had just come from and the one that he had just sent Daisy to. To the south and north orange streaks rained down on his friends positions. More streaks flew in the opposite direction, and the silence of the evening was cracked open by the constant drone of automatic fire and explosions.

  “While you have been doing your long walk to your final resting place Zach, my people have been crossing the river, and soon will be killing whoever you have waiting for them.”

  No.

  Tinley clicked on his radio. “What’s the condition of the sniper? Over.” Zach didn’t hear the reply. Tinley looked again at Zach. “Did you expect that I wouldn’t know you had a sniper somewhere out in these trees pointing straight at my head?” he moved close to Zach, and pointed his gun at his head. “So you go to your end, knowing you couldn’t save anyone. Not your wife, not your…” The sound of a bullet flashed past, causing him to duck slightly. When Tinley stood back up he was smiling. Another bullet flew past.

  “Looks like Abbey can’t keep away from me.”

  One of the men fired back, hitting her in the leg. The impact causing her to fall onto the ice in agony.

  “Don’t kill her!” Shrieked Tinley.

  Zach made a lunge for the man firing at her, catching his back leg and causing the next shot to fly into the gray darkness above. The other man pulled him off, holding Zach’s arms behind him, while the first ran towards Abbey who was trying to lift her arm off the ground to fire at him. Soon the man was with her, kicking the gun out of her hand. He then picked her up, and half carried half dragged her back to where Zach was.

  The sound of battle reigned on Zach’s side of the river. “Everyone get across the river, I want this finished quickly, and don’t screw up that tank, Geneva wants it. Over.” Hundreds of lanterns and flashlights fell upon the ice and started moving across it.

  Tinley looked at Abbey and Zach in front of him. “So who’s dying first? although it looks like it might be Abbey.”

  Zach tried pulling his arms free, but his strength was somewhere else. He looked at Abbey who was also struggling, then he heard it. The sound of ice cracking.

  Tinley and the men heard it too, looking at the ground around themselves nervously. Tinley slowly started to raise his radio to his mouth, and the dots of light up and down the river had stopped moving forward.

  Zach watched as Abbeys eyes closed as if the pain had switched from her leg to her head.

  With an almighty roar about a hundred yards to their south, a tentacle the size of a semi-truck burst through the ice sending the people carrying the sources of light flying into the air. Shockwaves rippled through the remaining ice, knocking Tinley and the two men to the ground. Tinley’s gun and radio spiralled across the ice, with the latter instantly being swallowed into a crack.

  Zach saw his chance, and threw himself forward to grab the gun. Tinley saw the danger and slammed into Zach with both men landing on a piece of ice that was now fully separated from the rest.

  More tentacles sprung up around them, each one reaching five stories into the sky.

  Chaos reigned all around as Abbey opened her eyes onto Tinley standing above Zach, who was struggling to hold onto the side of the block of ice they were on. As he raised the gun towards Zach, he looked at her and grinned.

  A kind of hatred she had never felt before mixed with something else. No. Just being able to raise her
arm, she swept her hand across in front of her and as she did a huge dark gray tentacle did the same impacting Tinley, sending him into the air and then landing in the deathly cold water. He instantly sunk into the darkness below. Abbey looked to the north, where the ice was reasonably stable. Red streaks of munitions flowed back and forth between the river and the bank. Once again she raised her hand, as she did tentacles burst through that region of ice obliterating the attackers. Those that were still standing, turned and ran back to the bank.

  “Abbey! Grab the rope!” she looked back to where she had seen Zach before. He was standing on the ice which now had a ten foot gap between them. Her mind buzzed with thoughts and sensations she didn’t understand, and her leg felt like it was on fire.

  Zach could see she was fading fast, he had to get to her. Taking three steps back, he ran and launched himself in her direction. Landing a few feet short, he plunged into the icy water which instantly numbed any attempt he was about to make to grab for the ice shelf just ahead of him. Desperately he tried to swim, but it was too cold. His thoughts began to close out, when a hand grabbed him from above pulling him onto the ice. He coughed out some of the river water and looked up as Abbey was being pulled upwards to the bridge by the rope. Standing next to him was Bass.

  “We got you Zach, Abbey’s going to be okay. I’m no medic but I think she got lucky.”

  Zach tried talking but words weren’t coming together as they should. “The battle…how…”

  Bass tied a second rope around him. “We took some loses, but they have retreated, the bridge is secure for now,” he then looked upwards, and Zach started ascending.

  CHAPTER 23

  Geneva paced back and forth in the early morning sun, on a small balcony overlooking a plaza in downtown Atlanta.

  He looked out into the faces of nearly nine thousand men and woman, crammed into concrete space. “I failed you,” a murmur rippled through the crowd. “Your friends that died yesterday were my fault,” the murmur increased. He looked solemn, his face-paint giving the impression of an unhappy clown. “I was tempted from our true path by a devil. No!…not one of those things that torment us, but by a human devil! Someone who was obsessed with revenge, so much so that it consumed two hundred and eighteen of our family,” his movements grew more agitated. “But let me say this, as I stand before you on this fine morning. Never again will I be swayed,” some cheers rang out from the masses. “Never again will I lose sight of what our path is, and where our journey must end,” more cheers echoed around the filled to capacity area. “We are the chosen few. Those that must rise up, and take this land back. We must strike down those that appose us, and rebuild in the ashes.”

  His expression changed to one of ridicule. “Those from that place, we know the place with the silver walls. They are trying to return us to the past, the past of where we were told how to live our lives. Meddlers and thieves!” The crowd cheered in unison, as he moved up and down the confined second floor space with the vigour of a preacher. “We will not let them take us back to those times. We will not let them crush our pride and passion. We will war with them and we will defeat them!”

  By the end of his speech, he was out of breath and the throngs were shouting “Geneva, Geneva!”

  He raised his hands aloft, smiled as best he could and then turned, walking through the open doors behind him, which was part of the Hell Fire gangs headquarters.

  “Fucking Tinley,” The words spat out of Geneva’s mouth. The large room was decorated with some of the gang’s bounty from the previous year. There was also a good sized table. Geneva sat at the top of it. Taking up the other five chairs were his lieutenants. Standing behind him was Clovis.

  Geneva shook his head. “Four hundred you say we lost?”

  A man with tattoo’s and sporting a gray beard, and short cropped gray/black hair nodded.

  “Fuck.”

  “And a good amount of munitions. No vehicles though,” said the tattooed man.

  A younger man, in his early thirties wearing glasses, clean shaven with the look of a businessman sighed. “They also now know where we are. Did you mean it about attacking the camp?”

  Geneva fixed the young man with a steely stare. “Do I say things I don’t mean?” the young man, looked down.

  “With what we got, we can’t take that camp,” said the tattooed man.

  “I know Troy! Tinley was going to help us get our hands on what we need to breach those walls, now that’s all fucked. We need another way.”

  “We could try, like how we did with the other camps,” said Troy.

  The young man looked up. “Our spies are ready to implement any sabotage we need.”

  “This was going to be a real battle, like from old times. I wanted to avoid doing it under the table, but now it looks like we might have to. Put things in motion Aaron,” the young man nodded.

  “What about the old man we have locked up? He helped us before,” said a woman with dark brown hair and a scare across her cheek.

  “He said he won’t help anymore,” said Troy.

  “Then why’s he still alive?”

  “Do you know how to make explosives Arla?” said Geneva.

  The woman looked down.

  “I’ll think on it. Just keep our borders secure, that’s all for now.”

  The four men and one woman stood up and made their way out of the room, only Clovis and Geneva remained.

  “Do you need me to talk to anyone,” said Clovis.

  Geneva laughed. “Oh, Clovis, you’re too protective. It’s good they ask questions.”

  “What about the old man, he’s probably going to die anyway.”

  “His toys have gotten us out of some tricky situations on more than one occasion. There’s life in those old bones of his yet. But of course if he really doesn’t want to play his part anymore, then you may do with him what you want.”

  Clovis smiled.

  “Leave me now, I need to think.”

  Clovis left.

  Geneva had never been one for booze, and at first the bottle of hard liquor he had in his office was just for show. Something strong leaders would have. But he soon learned a tipple calmed his thoughts. This was one of those times. Standing, looking out the large glass windows watching the last remaining of his followers dissipate back into the underground spaces that had protected them from the start, he sipped and let the burning quell the doubts and fears of what led up to debacle of yesterdays evening. Aaron was right, they know where they are now, and they might indeed come for them, maybe that would be a better solution. They could defend the city well, but it wasn’t what he truly wanted. Most of the talk on the balcony outside was so the unruly could continued to be ruled. He knew there were some among his ranks that would happily kill him in his sleep, and had learned the best way to avoid that was to keep them busy. Keep them moving forward towards an ever bigger prize. The camp near Austin was the ultimate gift he could give them, but now it would be even more difficult to take control of, especially since they had the freaks on their side.

  He had known about some humans had been affected by the Cascade for a while. His spies in the camp told him what their nerds had discovered, but he thought it was just a fantasy until last night, when he saw it with his own eyes. And to think she was here, in his city, it made him sick just to think about it.

  Maybe there is still a way to get my hands on those ‘big’ weapons?

  CHAPTER 24

  Zach sat with his back against the bare wall, watching Abbey’s chest rise and fall. The small office in the bank building they found near the city of Birmingham served as an emergency operating room. Abbey slept with a drip just left of her, and a large bandage wrapped around her thigh. ‘Missed the artery’ was the best three words Zach had heard since the morning he left Abbey in the kitchen of their house.

  A similar bandage covered most of his forehead, and the pain killers he had taken only partially subdued the throbbing he felt between his temples.


  It had been a rough night. They lost seven soldiers, including one of the privates he talked too just a few nights earlier. “Randall Brown”. He spoke the words out loud, he felt that’s the least he deserved. They also lost the Humvee with the turret. The small force they had were up against three times their number, and came out of it mostly intact. The Hell Fire gang couldn’t say the same. Zach knew they would be a problem to be sorted out at some point in the future, but for now they were safe.

  She knows. She’s not going to forgive you for not being honest with her. He grabbed the bottle of water next to him, spun the top off and sipped. The creature in the river would have killed them all, but Abbey did something he was sure of it. If she had any kind of inclination that she might of been effected by the Cascade, surely after last night she knows the truth. Zach wasn’t sure what that meant in the greater scheme of things, and he didn’t care. Raj would help, he knew about these things.

  The door of the office opened and with it poured in morning light and the smell of coffee.

  Fiona’s face appeared along with her beckoning him outside.

  Getting off the floor felt like he had doubled his body weight, but he made his way outside into a small corridor, and closed the door gently behind him.

  Fiona was standing near the conference room doorway. “In here.”

  Zach stepped into the large rectangular room with a large wooden table, surrounded by padded chairs. A tall but slim window bathed the head of the table in light at the expense of the rest of the area. Bass and Raj were seated, while Michael and Fiona were standing looking over a map.

  A woman in her early sixties with shoulder length hair handed Zach a plastic cup with coffee in it. “Get this down you.”

  Zach smiled at Dr Keira Chapman, who he had quickly grown to like over the past twelve hours.

  “She’s sleeping?”

  Zach smiled again. “Yes. Thank you for all you have done.”

  “My pleasure. How’s the headache?”

  “I’m coping.”

  “Take some more pills around noon.”