Primal Shift: Volume 2 (A Post Apocalyptic Thriller)

by Griffin Hayes

  Larry took it all in and then turned to Donavan. “How many fighters can we assemble?”

  He’d almost asked how many men, but quickly swapped it out for fighters. And it wasn’t simply a question of playing the political correctness card. If they were going to do this, they’d need every man, woman, and child they could spare.

  “New Jamestown has 192 individuals of fighting age. I used a cutoff age of 14. If we leave behind the minimum detachment to man the walls and operate the gate when we return, I figure we could muster 162. As well, at an average of four per vehicle, our convoy would stretch about 40 vehicles long.”

  “Alvarez’ men on the roof will see us coming the minute we hit Main street,” Dana said. “So you can forget the idea of a surprise attack.”

  Larry was studying the pattern in Callahan’s camo jacket. “Sure would be nice to have some extra firepower on hand. What are the chances your Commander Zhou would join us?”

  The touch of doubt on the young sailor’s face made the answer perfectly clear. “Zhou’s said his main goal is re-establishing contact with what’s left of the government. If I had to guess, I’d say he’d probably see this as a territorial squabble and wouldn’t wanna risk his men by getting involved.”

  “Typical foreign policy line you’d hear from the State Department,” Lou spat.

  But Larry was a salesman at heart and ready with a rebuttal to Callahan’s objection. “If you and your fellow sailors plan on setting up shop anywhere nearby, then they’ll have to deal with Alvarez and his army of Wipers sooner or later.”

  “Which is precisely why Petty Officer Lewis and I were sent here, to reconnoitre the area and report back as soon as possible. I’m sure they’ve already given us up for dead. I’d love to help you folks, really I would. I know this Alvarez guy needs to be taken down. I’m not making any promises, but who knows, maybe I can convince my CO.”

  “We’ll be dead by then,” Larry said. “We’re Americans, and for all intents and purposes our compound is under siege. Just like they used to do in the Middle Ages. Roll up an army, surround the city, choke off its supplies, and wait till the people inside ran out of food. Was never long before the cats and dogs would go missing, then the horses and eventually the people. Soon, there wouldn’t be any choice left but to swing open the gates and accept defeat. I know cannibalism’s a nasty word, but that’s where things are headed if we can’t find a way clear of this mess.”

  “Pack up and come to us,” Callahan said, and suddenly Larry could see the young man’s age and idealism shine through.

  “That’s a sweet thought, really it is, but a couple hundred starving people is the last thing your commander needs showing up on his doorstep. If it were me, I’d turn them away. Besides, your base is in the middle of the desert. At least here we can plant crops ... ” Larry stopped. Everyone was staring at him after that last bit. “Once we find the one responsible for sabotaging the colony, that is.” To Donavan. “Send out a few scouts to map out the best avenue of approach and report back on any defenses we may have overlooked.” Donavan saluted and left the trailer. “Can I count on the rest of you to help us?” Larry asked. He wasn’t speaking to Dana or Lou.

  “I’m not much of a people person,” Russell offered with little apology. “When I agreed to come here, it was only so I could bring the women and children to safety. We ... I should say I, would never have left the boiler room if hunger hadn’t forced us to take a foolish chance. I know Holly and Tamara want to stay. Won’t be surprised if Jessica does, too, but I can take care of myself.”

  “Out there, all alone?” Larry asked. “Even if you manage to hide from the Wipers, it’ll be lonely.”

  Russell chuckled. “Lonely’s underrated. ‘Sides, it never affected me all those years I worked those boilers. People rarely say what they mean or mean what they say anyhow, and I don’t have much use for that.”

  “Fair enough,” Larry admitted, wondering whether Russell’s comment was meant as a personal jab. “We could certainly use someone with your skill set around here.”

  “I’m flattered,” Russell said, “but I’ll be leaving first thing in the morning.”

  There was a change on Larry’s face, and Russell seemed to catch it right away. “I’m afraid I can’t allow that.”

  “What’chu mean, can’t allow that?”

  Larry’s eyes hardened. “It’s quite simple. You’ve become privy to very sensitive information, Russell. The layout of our compound, the number of men and women defending it, but most important of all, our plan to raid the Wiper’s base in the very near future. See, if this Alvarez ever got his hands on you, who knows what you’d tell him?”

  “Not a damned word, I swear.”

  “No, you wouldn’t intend to. I give you that. In fact, I’m sure you’d hold out for as long as you could. But there are ways to make men talk, let me assure you. Nasty ways I won’t mention except to say that when they were done, you’d be admitting to wearing ladies panties if that’s what you thought they wanted to hear. You catch my drift? What they’re after is already in your head, and they can get to it. So, stay with us and enjoy your time in New Jamestown, and once we’ve conducted this ugly business and returned safely in trucks packed with food, then you’ll be free to do as you please.”

  “So, we’re prisoners, is what you’re saying?” Russell asked angrily.

  “Call it that if you want to, but I prefer to think of you as our guests. A guest who will be entitled to a fair share of whatever game those hunting in the forests behind the compound return with. Call it national security if it makes you feel any better.”

  ‘Course it didn’t, and Larry could see that. But the truth was simple enough, and he felt he’d laid it out as clearly as he could. Russell could be a real asset to New Jamestown, so long as he continued to play nice. The man had information about the hotel’s layout and where the food was stored as well as a skill set in short supply. If he was smart, he’d continue to cooperate.

  •••

  After Larry thanked everyone, they stood and began shuffling out one at a time. All except Dana, who went to her chair and kicked her feet up on the desk.

  “You know keeping them here against their will just means more work for Lou and me,” she told Larry.

  “Don’t you think I know that? I wish there was another way. But what would you have me do? If the Wipers caught wind of this, it’d be bad for everyone. We don’t have a plan B. And you saw those people at the funeral today.”

  “They’re scared and hungry and being worked practically to death.”

  Larry put both hands on her desk. “Yes, I’m aware of that.”

  “He’s doing to you what you did to All Father,” Dana told him.

  There was no need to explain who she was talking about. It was perfectly clear she was referring to Timothy. “Oh, believe me, this little movement he’s started wouldn’t have a leg to stand on if we weren’t facing a food crisis.” Larry paused and drew in a deep breath. “I hope you’ve got him in your crosshairs.”

  “He’s definitely on my list of suspects,” Dana said. “But without some reasonable proof, any drastic action against him could turn the entire colony against you.”

  “Sometimes if you know someone’s guilty, you can always find the proof you need.” Larry snapped off a single wink, and the look on his face made it perfectly clear what he was getting at.

  “I won’t plant evidence, Larry, if that’s what you’re saying. He may be your biggest opposition right now, but that doesn’t prove he did this. But I promise you, I’ll find whoever it was.”

  “I hope so.”

  “Since I have you here,” Dana added. “There’s something I wanted to ask you. What can you tell me about a company called Tevatron?”

  “Tevatron?” Larry was drawing a blank.

  “Bob, the man who was killed during the Wiper raid. He used to work for them.”

  The illuminating flash in Larry’s brain just then had noth
ing to do with Bob. He remembered meeting up with Bud during their trek to Utah. Hadn’t he mentioned something about Tevatron in those long hours the young man had spent talking?

  “I’ve heard the name. Why do you want to know?” he asked.

  “Just a lead I’m following.” She glanced down, shuffling some papers on her desk.

  “Well follow it quickly, Dana. The longer it takes to smoke this traitor out, the greater the chances we might all die.” And with that, Larry turned, headed for the door, and paused with his hand on the knob. He was thinking of the note he found on his desk earlier. “I almost forgot to ask. How did everything go with Romeo?”

  Dana swallowed hard. “Fine. I felt bad for the kid.”

  “Yes, but sadly it had to be done. I’m just so thankful that in these trying times we can trust one another.”

  “Me, too,” she whispered back as Larry left, pulling the door closed behind him.

  Finn

  Finn’s real purpose in coming to Ely State was to find details on what had landed Joanne and him in prison. He shifted the warden’s computer tower now lashed to his back, trying to regain his balance. Herb had been leading him down a narrow passage between the walls when Finn had stopped to collect himself.

  Discovering that Joanne was his wife had been the kind of curve ball that slides up and whacks you in the face before you know what’s hit you. There was something incredibly surreal about finding out that a woman you barely knew had once been your wife.

  And probably still was.

  But beyond all that, the real question Finn was trying to answer in coming here was whether or not he was a murdering degenerate. It was downright impossible to reconcile the man he was now with who he might have been before The Shift. In a strange way, his conversation with Herb had helped square away at least some of his concerns. That the wicked were made even worse after the change was a step in the right direction, all of which could be undone if Finn were to discover he was really a serial killer or God knew what else.

  Herb was staring at him now, ready to continue on. “You all right, friend?”

  “Yeah,” Finn said, wiping a thin layer of sweat from his forehead. “I’m fine.”

  “From here on out, we’ll need to move quickly. We can’t risk the kinda racket you folks kicked up on your way to the Warden’s office. Oh, and keep your eyes peeled for booby traps. I’ve been finding more and more of ‘em these last few weeks.”

  “I thought they were all yours.”

  Herb grinned, two teeth missing in the front, which made his mouth look like a row of piano keys. “Not me. The ones you call Wipers. And they’re getting smarter.” He lifted the homemade ice climber’s ax he’d buried in that muscle-bound Wiper’s head. “‘Sides, Betty here and I don’t need any of that Iraqi insurgent shit, not when we got each other.”

  “Touching. You’re one of a kind, you know that, Herb?”

  “That’s the second time you’ve told me that, so I gather it must be true.”

  Finn paused, not able to recall making the comment before or even having it cross his mind. But there wasn’t any sense pushing the point, and the two men set off again.

  It wasn’t long before the passage between the prison walls they were navigating through began to narrow considerably. Lengths of piping and electrical wires now long dead squeezed them even further. Fingers of light streamed in 10 yards ahead. Herb turned and touched his lips with his index finger.

  “This is where some of them like to hang out,” he whispered. His breath smelled of stale water and tuna fish. As both men cautiously approached, Finn could see that Herb was right. Two Wipers in blood-stained orange jumpsuits were sitting in a cell, speaking a language that sounded like gobbledygook. When the earthquakes hit right after The Shift, it must have weakened some of the walls. In this case, a small section of cinder blocks had toppled over into the cell, creating a window. Shuffling by at top speed would surely draw the Wiper’s attention. ‘Course, it didn’t help one bit that this computer was strapped to Finn’s back. The time for leaving it behind, however, had passed, and Finn knew the only way back would be to keep moving forward. The sounds of gravel and concrete crunching under their feet was ear shattering to Finn. Growing more certain with every step that at least one of the two Wipers would hear something.

  For now, they were busy arguing. On the bed, a number of objects were laid out. A comb that, like them, was missing teeth, a knife made from a metal bracket, its tip filed into a lethal tip. The point was, most of this stuff was junk, but these two seemed to be yammering away like they were negotiating an OPEC deal. They’re bartering, Finn saw and hoped their bickering would continue for as long as it took Herb and him to pass undetected. That very thought was going through Finn’s head when the computer tower on his back knocked against the water pipe next to him. The sound it created was akin to an echoing boom. One that made Finn’s heart momentarily stop in his chest.

  The Wipers both looked up at once, and in a blur of movement, they were on their feet, coming for him, reaching into the hole in the wall.

  Then one of the Wipers, his hands covered in bloody nicks and gashes, closed his vice-like grip around Finn’s coveralls and began yanking him forcibly through the opening. The other Wiper was there beside him, closing in, eagerly. Finn felt his body slamming into the cinderblock wall that separated them. The rifle slung over Finn’s back didn’t make an ounce of difference in these tight quarters since getting it out and on target was impossible.

  In another second or two, the other Wiper was gonna go for that knife lying on the bed and plunge it repeatedly into Finn’s exposed belly while his buddy kept him held firmly in place.

  Just ahead of him, Herb wore the sort of panicked look of someone powerless to intervene. Finn was pushing himself away from the wall so he could reach down and pry the Wiper’s hands off him, when Herb tossed him the homemade ax.

  Gripping it tightly, Finn swung down with biting force and sent the tip screaming into the Wiper’s hand. He yelped with pain and tried to retract his hand, but the curved ax blade kept it firmly in place. Finn used both hands to free the ax, and the Wiper fell away, clutching a wound now spurting with blood. That’s when his Wiper friend came forward with the knife in hand, just as Finn had predicted. But he and Herb were already beginning to move away. The Wiper stuck his head through the hole to reacquire them, and Finn stepped back and swung again, missing by inches as his target withdrew back into the jail cell, the tip of the ax chipping nothing more than a chunk of cinder block.

  Finn and Herb didn’t wait around to see what the Wipers would do next. Surely, they’d climb in after them and give chase. That was why they were determined to put as much distance between them as they could.

  Soon, the narrow passage between walls opened into another cell. A set of stairs led down to B block, and the two men raced in that direction. Herb’s goal of moving in utter silence had been dashed to pieces. Now, with Wipers likely alerted to their presence, the objective had changed from stealth to speed. Lumbering along with the battered computer tower strapped to his back, Finn now took advantage of the wider space they were in to unsling his rifle. He didn’t have more than a half dozen rounds of 30.-06 in the pocket of his coveralls, but he was prepared to use the stock as a club if it came to that.

  The two made quick progress through A block and into the showers. The tight corridors and blind corners made for an ideal location to be ambushed, which drove home the very unsettling point that they weren’t out of the woods yet. Finn took the lead now, finger on the trigger.

  He stopped to listen when he heard footsteps echoing up ahead. So did Herb.

  “Sounds like a group of ‘em,” Herb whispered, tightening the grip on his hand ax.

  They went around a corner where the change rooms let out to the shower stalls, and Finn’s gut seized up the second he spotted the darkened figures. Then came the sound of weapons being charged and he knew immediately, if they were Wipers, the two of
them would already be dead.

  “Finn?” he heard a woman call out. They flashed a light in his face, and she squealed with joy. “Oh, thank God you’re alive.”

  The two groups came together. Foster was there along with a handful of military men with rifles.

  “A rescue party,” Finn said. “I’m touched.”

  “We thought you were right behind us until we ran into another group of Wipers. We backtracked to get you, and that’s when we found the dead prisoner. I was sure something terrible had happened.”

  “It would have,” Finn said. “If Herb hadn’t stuck his neck out to save me.”

  Herb grinned, and Joanne returned the gesture, despite the man’s missing teeth and the mist of blood in his white beard.

  “We should head back,” Foster said. “It isn’t safe here.” The sailors turned to leave. Finn followed a few steps behind them before realizing that Herb wasn’t coming. He stopped and turned around. “What’s wrong?”

  “Maybe I’m just an old bird who’s gotten used to his own cage, but I can’t come with you.”

  “But there’s food and water and ... ”

  “And more danger outside these walls than there is inside ‘em. Besides, I made you a promise, Francis, and I’ve fulfilled my end of the bargain.”

  Finn’s jaw dropped open. “You know my name?”

  “I was hoping you’d remember on your own, you see, but I guess those memories of yours really did get fried.” Herb let out a burst of wet laughter that sounded like an old Buick turning over.

  “We served time together, didn’t we?”

  “Bingo! You stood up for me once in the commons when a lowlife named Jeb Cain decided to use my head as a punching bag. See, Jeb led the white power boys, and if any of us Caucasians refused to join up, he and his friends would redecorate our faces. It was stupid what you did, Francis. Nearly got your ass killed trying to save a worthless old man, but I promised you some day I’d return the favor, and now I have.” Herb began to turn and then paused. “Good luck out there, you’re gonna need it.”