Primal Shift: Volume 2 (A Post Apocalyptic Thriller)

by Griffin Hayes

  Wasn’t long, however, before Larry saw the problem. Donavan hadn’t sent anyone to secure the corridor that led to the elevators and dinning room. Instead, he and the group who’d followed him in had beelined it for the ballroom. As a result, he’d left his rear exposed to a counter attack. If the kid made it out, Larry would surely give him a truckload of shit for his oversight. Quickly, he waved two dozen colonists inside and ordered them to push on toward the dinning room and clear out any Wipers they found. The rest, he sent toward the ballroom where by the sounds of things, most of the reinforcements were needed.

  In spite of his concerns of a counterattack, right now the dinning room was the safer of the two options. Which made going in that direction himself a no-brainer. He crossed the corridor at a full run, pulling a somewhat reluctant Bud behind him.

  “Don’t worry,” he told him once they’d reached the other side. “You’ll get your chance for revenge soon enough.”

  Bud didn’t look all that convinced, but the truth was, Larry needed Bud for something else. “Where will we find this Alvarez?” he asked.

  Dana

  In less than an hour, Dana had managed to gnaw the nails on her right hand down to nubs. She was at the jail, talking to her father, but a part of her was right there with the dozens of men and women who’d driven off to raid the headquarters of a group that wanted nothing more than to smear them off the face of the Earth. There would be loss of life, that much was clear, but how many would survive, if any? That was the question causing her belly to work itself into a tight fist. She found her mind returning to Bud time and time again, and with each orbit, she pushed it away. The way he could have killed them all and escaped but instead chose to return her pistol and give her a wink.

  Then Larry had gone and done something crazy. He’d set Bud free, and now she would need to get used to him as Bud, an active member of New Jamestown, rather than as Bud the convict. But none of that would mean a whole hell of a lot if he never returned.

  “You’re not listening, are you?” her father said accusingly. His shoulders were slumped, like a man who’d already given up.

  “‘Course I am.”

  “You ask me, attacking those savages is a damned stupid idea. If things go south over there, we won’t make it through the winter.”

  He was talking as though that included him, somehow overlooking the death penalty he was facing. A penalty likely to be carried out as soon as Larry returned. And at whose hands? Certainly not her own. Surely, even Larry wasn’t that cruel.

  “You know I didn’t do this,” he said, his hands on the bars, and for a moment the sight made her think of Alvarez in the brig at Fort Baker, swearing on his life that he hadn’t killed Keiths. Both claims she’d wanted to believe. And who wouldn’t? As far as she was concerned, her dad was the only person left on Earth who hadn’t lost his mind. Sometimes, the fear of loneliness can eclipse the fear of death. It was one of the ways the human mind managed to contort itself into all kinds of strange illogical shapes. She found her father’s frightened face again, and the thought faded at once.

  “No, I don’t think you did it, but obviously someone wants us to think otherwise.”

  “I don’t see who, I mean, I’ve been pulling my weight just like everyone else. I don’t have a huge number of friends. But that shouldn’t surprise anyone. There aren’t a lot of people close to retirement around here.”

  Dana sighed deeply. She was studying the thinning lines under his eyes. “You know, in a weird way, the end of the world’s been good for you, Pa. You kicked the booze and stopped watching CNN all day long.”

  He laughed and reached through the bars to touch her hand. “After we lost Gregory ... ”

  “We didn’t lose him,” Dana cut him off, hating when he tried to numb the reality of what happened. “Not the way people lose a sweater. He jumped off a bridge.”

  Her father’s eyes fell, his face etched from years of pain. “Your mother left soon after that. Before long, there wasn’t much to keep me going.”

  If his words had been a gleaming knife, they wouldn’t have cut as deeply as they did now. “I was there, Dad, but that never seemed to be good enough for you. You were so busy focusing on what you didn’t have that your eyes never saw the people right beside you. That’s the real reason Mom left, not that you were ever one to deal with reality very well.”

  He didn’t have an answer for that, and she was thankful he’d fought the urge to fill the air with lies and excuses. Flawed and damaged as he was, the man was her flesh and blood, a bond just as strong as it was frustrating.

  “You need to stop talking like this. We’re gonna get you out of here.”

  “Don’t you see it, Dana, no one believes me. I’ve been framed, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why.”

  Dana could think of a reason or two, and she was quite sure it might have something to do with her investigation. She could think of many people with the motive and opportunity. For Larry, it meant putting a face to the pantry thief and perhaps putting her loyalty to the ultimate test. For Simon, it could mean diverting suspicion away from him and perhaps avenging his father’s death. For Timothy, it could be a ploy to create further chaos and instability in the colony in an effort to unseat Larry, with an added bonus of driving a wedge between the self-appointed king of New Jamestown and herself. And add to that a half dozen other suspects, all with a vested interest in destroying the status quo.

  She pulled her hand from her father’s and stood. “I won’t let them get away with this, Dad. Something’s rotten in New Jamestown, and framing you might have been a warning for me to back off.”

  He was staring up at her now, with a faraway look like he was retreating into his own little world. “I always thought one day I’d reach a certain age and be ready to die. You remember that Mrs. Sanders down the street. Eighty years old and shrivelled, begging for Jesus to take her. That’s where I expected to find myself one day, wandering around, begging God to come down and take all my pain away. Maybe that’s my destiny. Maybe it’s everyone’s destiny, but I’m not there yet, Dana. Not by a long shot.”

  Dana winked a tear away before telling her father she loved him. In spite of his imperfections, he was the only flesh and blood she had left in this shitty world, and she wasn’t ready to let go of that.

  A few seconds later, she crossed the dirt road and was in the sheriff’s office. She flicked on the light, not able to entirely quiet the torrent of conflicting thoughts swirling around her. Thoughts of the attack were back again. About Lou, his son, Ethan, Nikki, Bud, and a score of others. Then she thought of Romeo. His body was still hidden in the trailer next to hers, and she would try and use the colony’s near emptiness to remove any trace of him. It felt like an incredibly heartless thing to do, but so did taking a fall for refusing to send Romeo off to die. And with that, the tape recorder popped into her head. She reached up, unlatched the door that once led to an air conditioner and now housed the listening device. Taking it down and placing it on her desk, she could see right away that something was different. The mark she’d made on the tape with her pocket knife was gone. In fact, the tape itself was an entirely different brand, which could only mean one thing. Someone had been inside the trailer and taken the conversation she and Lou had planted. Now she could only hope that her plan might bear fruit before her father faced the gallows.

  Nikki

  The smoke-filled corridors of the Grand America Hotel reduced visibility to but a few feet. Nikki had been part of the group Larry had waved toward the elevators and dinning room.

  The ear-shattering boom from guns firing behind them were starting to fray Nikki’s nerves. Tanner and Ethan were right beside her, but the thought did little to calm her down. Nor was it able to diminish the feeling they’d entered some kind of twisted fun house. One many of them might never escape. She was clutching a pistol in her right hand, desperate not to let it fall from her grasp, but also careful to keep her finger away from the trig
ger.

  The group Nikki was in inched forward through the haze. A blur of movement ahead made her body tense. Between the crackle of gun fire behind them, she could hear new, guttural voices shouting at one anther in broken English, and she knew right away they were Wipers. A handful of colonists in front opened fire, and that’s when all hell broke loose. A bullet whizzed by her head and punched a perfectly round hole in the wall next to her. More bullets zipped by, and Nikki dove for cover, Tanner and Ethan pilling on top of her to block any incoming fire. People were shouting all around them. From out of the smoke, a figure in black leather charged, emptying an assault rifle into a cult member until his weapon clicked empty. He was reaching for a machete in his belt when Ethan dropped him with a single blast from his shotgun. The Wiper flew back against what might have once been an expensive painting, his chest peppered with buckshot. Another Wiper had knocked a colonist named Susan Miller to the floor and was in the process of strangling her when Nikki leveled her pistol. She was thinking of her mother and what Wipers had done to both of them in the airport.

  She squeezed the trigger. Two shots rang out, hitting the Wiper both times in the chest, under the armpit. At once, his fingers relaxed on Susan’s throat, and his eyes rolled up in their sockets. She rose to her feet, her hands shaking. The Wipers weren’t coming anymore, and the lull gave them time to check on the wounded.

  One colonist and one cult member were already dead with another five wounded. Given the racket going on near the ballroom, who knew how many more had been seriously hurt or killed.

  Ethan came close to Nikki and asked if she was all right. She wasn’t sure if he meant physically, but it hardly seemed to matter. The horror people were experiencing here would stay with them a long time.

  Straight ahead was a series of high-end suites. Wipers could be behind each door, waiting to ambush them, a prospect that was absolutely nerve shattering. Nikki’d been trying to keep an eye out for Aiden the whole time, but in all the chaos she hadn’t seen anyone matching his description. And given the carnage, she was beginning to think if he was still here he may have already been killed.

  On her left, a group was entering the first suite when semi-automatic fire erupted from inside, riddling a middle-aged cult member caught in the open after kicking in the door. He crumpled to the ground as one of the colonists stuck his rifle around the corner and fired off a dozen shots. Another peeked around and then charged inside with his pistol. Two others joined him. More shots rang out, then a shout from inside: “Clear!”

  Waiting in the back for everyone else to do the dangerous work was Larry, his own pistol drawn, the expression on his face beleaguered as though he’d been in the thick of things from the start.

  When the next suite door was kicked open, Tanner, Ethan, and Nikki were the first ones in. She pulled the hammer back on her pistol, her heart like a caged animal inside her chest. This suite looked far more opulent than the others. On the right was a bathroom covered in marble. Tanner peered inside. It was lit by a flickering candle next to the sink. Not enough to read by, but more than enough to see the bathroom was empty. Across the narrow hall was a closet with two folding doors. Ethan was about to check it when they heard the noise. Sounded like someone puffing on a cigar around the corner.

  All of them left what they were doing and headed in that direction. In the foyer was Alvarez, sitting in a plush, studded leather chair. He was kissing the end of the cigar in his mouth oblivious there was an attack on his headquarters or that his men were being decimated. But it was the figure standing obliquely behind him that caught Nikki’s eye.

  Dressed in dark leather, his hair showing the early stages of natural dreadlocks, was Aiden. Although his strange appearance wasn’t the only thing different about him.

  Ever since she could remember – which wasn’t that long, mind you – there’d always been a twinkle in her brother’s eyes. The kind she supposed was common to all little brothers who lived to tease their older sisters. But now that sparkle was gone, replaced by an almost soulless expression. Aiden stood there at Alvarez’ elbow, glaring at them as though they were invaders instead of liberators. Nikki was about to call out his name when Alvarez blew out a thick cloud of cigar smoke and said, “Aren’t family reunions touching?”

  For a moment, Nikki was stunned speechless not only by Alvarez’ cool manner, but also his knowledge that they were related. Was it the family resemblance or the eagerness on her face that had betrayed her?

  Ethan was on her left, and he raised his shotgun against Alvarez at the exact moment the woman came bursting out of the closet, snarling like a wolverine as she jumped on his back. The shotgun in Ethan’s hands went off with a loud boom. The shot went wide, creating a moonscape on the wall above Alvarez’ head.

  The woman sank her teeth into Ethan’s neck and buried her nails into his face. Nikki tried to get her off, but Ethan was moving around too much, shrieking in pain. Tanner reached over to yank the crazy woman off when a shot came from Alvarez’ direction. But it wasn’t Al holding the gun, it was Aiden. Ethan fell to the floor, the woman still clinging to his limp body. Tanner pistol-whipped the back of the woman’s head, knocking her out, then took aim at Aiden.

  Nikki jabbed the pistol, and the shot went wide. She then ran to her brother, shielding him with her body.

  “Don’t kill him. Can’t you see he’s been brainwashed by this monster?”

  Alvarez’ eyebrows rose at the mention of the word monster. “Is that what you all think of me?”

  That was when Lou, Larry, and Bud stormed in. His son lying on the ground, Lou’s eyes went wide with shock and then rage.

  The crazy woman from the closet was coming to. Lou must have assumed she was responsible, because he put the muzzle of his AR-15 to her head and pulled the trigger. A spray of blood hit Tanner in the face as her body fell, convulsing. This was the first time Alvarez betrayed the slightest hint of emotion.

  Lou swung his rifle over with the intent of wasting Alvarez, Aiden, and maybe even her.

  “Stand down, Lou,” Larry shouted and when the big guy’s rifle didn’t budge, Larry barked at him like a drill sergeant. Lou blinked hard, as though he and the real world were slowly merging once again and then dropped to his son on the floor.

  Alvarez tapped the ash off his cigar. “Larry,” I presume. “I’ve heard so much about you.” Then his eyes shifted to Bud, and a smile grew on his lips.

  “I’m sure you have,” Larry answered.

  Donavan came in, followed by a group of colonists, their faces a macabre combination of dirt and spattered blood.

  “Take Alvarez into custody,” Larry told Donavan and his men. “I have a feeling he’ll prove quite useful.”

  PRIMAL SHIFT 9: New World Order

  Finn

  By the time Finn, Lou, and Foster reached Joanne hiding in the office, Wipers were once again pouring through the prison’s front entrance. From the rooms and balcony that ran along the second floor, Zhou’s men continued to fire down upon the invaders. Many of them had chewed through more than half of their ammunition. There was more in ammo boxes they’d brought with them from Point Loma. But what they lacked was the time it would take to feed those bullets into magazines.

  Finn was quite certain Zhou never expected an assault from a force as large, determined, and organized as these Wipers. Small bands of raiders and scavengers were the fiercest opposition he’d faced since arriving at Ely State Prison. Not to mention the fact that they hadn’t planned for stay for more than a couple weeks before moving on to Salt Lake City.

  And that was precisely the city Alvarez’ army of Wipers were from. Not a great way to promote SLC as a safe place to create a settlement.

  Zhou was on the radio now, telling his men to fall back to the inner reception center. They’d set up a series of concentric defenses around the prison. The first was the outer perimeter fence and guard towers. Next, the main reception area and as a last resort, the inner reception area where back in the
day prisoners were processed and shipped to their cells.

  Sailors on the second level had to fight their way along a narrow walkway to reach that final defensive zone. But for those on the main floor – Finn, Joanne, Zhou, Foster, and the dozen sailors who’d joined them – the path to the inner sanctuary would mean heading through two long corridors.

  Shots rang out behind them, and Finn turned in time to see they’d been spotted by incoming Wipers. He and the sailors nearby returned fire, in an attempt to buy time for the rest to escape. Foster stayed with Joanne and Commander Zhou.

  One by one, the sailors peeled away to follow the main group. The idea wasn’t only to kill the Wipers, but to keep them at bay. An improvised leap frog maneuver.

  Charging at a full run, Finn caught up with the group of fourteen right as they rounded the first corner. Even before he arrived, he could hear shouting.

  “Don’t shoot him!” Joanne screamed.

  That was when Finn saw what all the commotion was about. A man with a white beard wearing an orange jumpsuit had his hands propped in the air.

  Even in the darkened hallway he could see it was Herb.

  Zhou and his men had their weapons trained on him.

  “He isn’t a Wiper,” Finn barked.

  More shots from behind as one by one the sailors caught up.

  “There’s no time to talk, Herb,” Finn told him. “We’re heading to a better defensive position inside. This place is about to get overrun.”

  They were already moving past Herb when the old man spoke up. “You do that, and they’ll have you right where they want you,” he said.

  Zhou stopped. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying there’s another way that leads underground,” Herb told him. “Past the prison walls and out into the desert.”

  “But we’ll maintain strength in numbers if we stay together,” Zhou said. The shooting behind them was growing louder. There wasn’t any time to talk it through.