by Maxey, Phil
Abbey tried typing something on the keyboard, a message flashed up on the screen.
“PLEASE INPUT SECURITY PASSCODE”. Abbeys fingers furiously tried various combinations.
“Sometime the passwords on these systems are ridiculously easy…but looks like I’m going to have to circumvent it.” Said Abbey.
“That’s so cool, my Dad would have liked you.” Said Dee, Abbey smiled. Abbey grabbed one of the chairs with wheels and sat down on it, and started to go to work. Zach entered the room.
“You might want to sit down, or join the others downstairs, this is going to take a while.” Said Abbey. Dee hesitated.
“Do you have food?” Said Dee. Abbey stopped the typing and turned around.
“Sure do, go downstairs and see what there is.” Said Abbey.
“I’ll show you what we got,” Said Zach and then turned to Abbey “Let me know when you can open those doors.” He and Dee then left the room.
Zach showed Dee a box of sweets they had snagged from the gas station, and then approached Fiona.
“Feel we should check out the lobby before we close up for the night, want to come with me?” Said Zach, Fiona nodded.
Zach stood in the ground floor stairwell, head pressed up against the door to the lobby.
“Can’t hear anything, but we don’t know how quiet these things can be and the lights going to be pretty dim in there.” Said Zach. He removed the chair keeping the door to the lobby closed, and gestured to Fiona who was holding her pickaxe to be ready. He then opened the door. None of the light from the setting sun made it to the area near the stairwell and shadows lurked in all directions. The lobby though and the statue in front of it was still relatively well lit because of the large glass windows near the entrance to the building. Zach moved into the lobby cautiously looking in as many directions as possible, but mostly concentrating on the entrance and the street beyond, which almost looked peaceful, bathed in the setting sun.
In the center of some sofas towards the front left of the lobby a three-foot high statue sat, circular in nature and abstract enough that anyone could make a random guess as to what it is and probably be correct.
“Keep an eye on the street.” Said Zach, who then moved around the left of the counter where another door was with an ‘Exit’ sign just above.
He noticed another card access point but tried to open the door anyway, it didn’t move. He then turned and looked at the statue and an idea came to mind.
“Give me a hand with this thing,” Said Zach walking over to the statue “We could use this up against the bottom stairwell door, and just roll it out the way when we want to leave.” Fiona nodded in approval.
Their first attempt was a failure, but with a deep breath Zach and Fiona managed to lift it from its stand, and shuffled across with it to the open stairwell, placing it just beyond the open door. Fiona then pulled a latch across above the main entrance door securing it, and pulled one of the lobby sofas across the front of it. When they closed the stairwell door they slid the statue up against it.
“It might not keep one our wolf friends out but it should slow them down.” Said Zach.
When they arrived back on the fifth floor Dee was sitting on a chair next to Abbey eating a chocolate bar. One of the screens in front of her was black with white programming code scrolling by faster than Zach could read it.
“Are you in?” Said Zach to Abbey.
“Almost, another few minutes, if I were…hacking from the outside this would take days, but from in here piece of cake. I’ve already turned off the alarms for this floor, and I found this.” Said Abbey typing some key combination and making one of the bottom screens come to life showing the outside of the building as well as a changing view of the different floors. Zach put his arm on Abbeys shoulder and gently squeezed.
“Now that’s impressive,” Said Zach with a smile “We will need someone in here pretty much twenty-four seven to monitor those feeds, we will work out a schedule.”
“I’m good to be in here most of the time, this feels like home.” Said Abbey looking a bit embarrassed “I guess that’s kind of sad.”
“Hey geeks took over the world, nothing to be sad about,” Replied Zach smiling “Me, Cal and Fiona will be ready to open these doors when you give the shout, but when you unlock them, you and Dee stay in here with this door closed, we can’t be sure what’s in those other rooms, I’ll let you know if we find anything interesting.” Said Zach, Abbey nodded while still looking at the screen.
Zach, Cal and Fiona stood in front of the first door, charge batons and pickaxe at the ready. They just about heard Abbey shout ‘unlocked’ and then they heard a click from the three doors close to them. Zach put his hand slowly on the first door and pulled the handle down.
It opened with little effort and a rush of cold air hit them all making them hesitate moving forward, but they quickly realized it was a room of computer servers, with blinking lights, but nothing else of any use. Dee peered around the left corridor wall, and then followed them into the server room. He walked around the walls of plastic boxes in awe, while the three others left and opened the two other doors. These were just were just plain offices, with mundane looking desks.
“One more left, whatever’s upstairs.” Said Zach. He told Abbey to unlock the top floor door in about thirty seconds and then himself, Cal and Fiona raced up the remaining stairs to be in front of the door when it unlocked. With perfect timing soon after they got there a click was heard. Zach opened the door revealing a penthouse apartment in darkness. Glass windows were on two sides gave an unparalleled view over the town, a three part white leather sofa sat towards the windows and an open plan kitchen area was to the right. Just in front of them, to the left and right were open doors with large bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms.
They all walked slowly forward into the gloom, their eyes adjusting to their surroundings.
“Well I know where I’m sleeping tonight.” Said Fiona wondering into the right bedroom.
“We will need the supplies up here, but this looks like…” Said Zach, as memories of his former life flooded his view, and the gloom around him transformed into a room filled with light and sunshine, with his wife and children. Zach junior ran around the marble table, and his wife was cutting vegetables in the kitchen. Terra sat on the sofa playing with a red-headed doll. Zach new he had to look away, he knew soon the scene of perfection would spoil, the horror could not be kept out for long, but he wanted to stay in this moment, it seemed more real to him than the life he was living. As he watched, the doll sprouted legs and climbed over his daughters face, but she still smiled, he tried to run forward but his legs felt as cold and solid as the statue he had just carried. He looked to his wife, who was still cutting, but instead of the vegetables on the wooden board in front of her, it was fingers, a small neat pile of them. He wanted to scream for them to run, to hide from what was happening but no sound came from his throat, only rasps.
“Zach?” Cal’s voice snapped him out his trance “You ok? You were just standing there, not replying.” Zach, slid his hand over his face, he was sweating.
“Yeah I’m fine, I wonder if the water still works” Said Zach walking into a small bathroom to the left of him. Standing in front of a marble sink, turning one of the golden taps he splashed the water over his face, it’s coolness making him feel more at one with his surroundings but the image of the spider doll crawling over this daughters face clung to the front of his mind. He shook his head then dried himself with a towel that was hanging on a chrome bar on the wall. In the gloom he looked at himself in the mirror, it was a man he did not recognize. I probably look like my father he said to himself smiling, knowing that he had never met his father.
When he came out of the bathroom Cal was near the windows looking through an old brass telescope, in the southeasterly direction.
“There’s movement down there, near that cream building and those cars, four hundred and fifty yards away, can’t see exactly what i
t was, but it was something fairly large moving quickly.” Said Cal. Zach squinted best he could but couldn’t see anything, he noticed how at home Cal seemed with the scope.
“Sniper?” Said Zach. Cal looked to his left slightly and then continued looking down the eyepiece.
“Marines corps, scout sniper.” Said Cal.
“We should probably have someone up here or on the roof twenty-four seven as well as in the computer room, Abbey’s got the external security cameras working, if those wolf things try to attack, we need warning. Although I don’t see where the roof access is.” Said Zach looking around the room.
“Fiona’s gone to tell the others, and to start shifting the supplies up here.” Said Cal.
“Whoa cool,” Said Dee admiring the penthouse apartment “Dad use to say that a rich man lives at the top of the building but we never knew it was this cool.” He wondered over to a computer console in front of impressively large TV and picked up its controller, playing with the small joystick and joy pad like there was an actual computer game to play.
“I miss games.” Said Dee.
“There are still games, just ones that don’t require electricity.” Said Zach, but Dee still looked sad.
“I’ll go see what else Abbey can learn from their computers, how you feel about keeping watch up here?” Said Zach to Cal who nodded.
CHAPTER 18
Abbey’s head was in her hands as Zach walked up to her, Jacob was sitting on a chair behind her.
“I’m guessing the news is not good. I already know about the camps, Ray and Fiona found paperwork downstairs, there’s five mentioned.” Said Zach.
Abbey tearfully looked up to Zach.
“This screen monitors the camps across the USA. The white dots are the camps that are still responding to the automated signal this networks radio mast is sending them. As you can see only two camps are still responding, the last one went dark three weeks ago.” Said Abbey. Zach stood looking at the white flashing circles on the screen trying to ascertain where the remaining was.
“Portland and Austin.” Said Zach. Abbey’s head fell and she put her hands over her face.
“The camp at Boston fell silent six weeks ago, my parents must have been there.” Said Abbey through the sobs. Zach knelt down beside her.
“We don’t know that for sure, maybe they didn’t want to go, if you still want to go to Boston I’ll take you.” Said Zach.
“I don’t know, I need to know more.” Said Abbey.
“That’s not all of it.” Said Jacob.
“Dee mentioned to me there were red dots before, I wasn’t sure what he meant because as you can see there are none now, but looking through the records, the red dots were what this system used to symbolize a nuclear event.” Said Abbey. Zach put his hand over his mouth then quickly moved it to his brow.
“They were on or close to two of the camps, San Diego and Minneapolis.” Said Abbey.
“For now let’s secure what we have here and then we can decide what’s best going forward.” Said Zach. Abbey nodded then wiped her eyes and concentrated back on the screens in front of her. Zach heard noises from the corridor behind him.
“Where you want these boxes?” Shouted Michael. Zach stood up and walked into the corridor near the stairwell, Cal and Ray were also there.
“Upstairs in the penthouse, we will be sleeping up there as well.” Said Zach.
“Penthouse?” Said Michael momentarily frozen. “Why didn’t you tell me already” And with that he disappeared up the stairs.
“This I gotta see.” Said Ray who followed Michael. Zach and Cal looked at each other.
“Right let’s get these other boxes.” Said Zach as Dee appeared walking up the stairs carrying a box.
“Drop it upstairs, then follow us, more needed up there.” Said Zach to Dee.
“No problem, happy to help.” Said Dee cheerfully, which made Zach and Cal smile.
After seven trips all the boxes of supplies were all on the penthouse floor. Abbey found the buildings plans on the network and discovered the roof was accessible via the kitchen in the penthouse. On the roof they found some garden chairs and some reasonably well-stocked mini-fridges. There were also large solar panels, which seemed to provide enough power to the penthouse to keep its refrigeration and electrics going. Zach stood against the west wall which ran along the edge of the roof and looked out towards the direction they had originally come, but nothing could be seen. There was no moon and without artificial light only the vaguest rectangular forms could be seen in the intense darkness. The stairs above bristled intensely.
“Beer?” Fiona offered Zach a bottle “it’s a bit warm I’m afraid.” Zach smiled and took the bottle, knocking the cap off with a pocketknife he had picked up at the gas station. Dee and Abbey were sitting behind them. Zach was concerned the effect of learning about Boston would have on Abbey so it was good to see her up here having a break. Fiona joined Zach looking out into the void.
“Do you think we are the only people left alive?” Said Fiona. Zach sighed.
“We need to pay a visit to the UFO guy, see if he’s still there, and at some point we need to take a trip to Austin. Beyond that who knows.” Said Zach, as he sipped on his warm beer. They both looked out from the roof, trying to make out shapes.
“Do you feel it too?” Said Fiona.
“The feeling we are being watched?” Replied Zach looking straight ahead.
“Yes.”
“We need to be ready.” Said Zach.
* * * * *
Everybody slept well. Abbey had tried to convince Dee to sleep on the sofa in the penthouse but he stubbornly resisted and remained under the large desk in the computer room. She stayed awake longer than anyone else. The feeling of the keyboard beneath her fingers made her feel free even if the sadness of what she learned tried to creep over her, eventually she checked that Dee was sleeping and fell onto one of the sofas in the penthouse. Zach and Cal arranged to take turns sleeping for six hours, and then going up onto the roof to look in all directions to make sure nothing was approach the building, they had also placed some chairs and other pieces of furniture in one of the lower stairwells to block anything coming up the stairs. Ray and Jacob shared one of the double beds, Michael a sofa, while Fiona took the other bed. The intense black of the desert night was starting to give way to a misty blue when Cal tapped Zach on the shoulder who was half on, half off one of the garden chairs.
“Suns coming up” Said Cal. Zach sat up, looking dreary eyed and shook his head. He let go of the blanket that he had over him.
“Yup, see anything yet.” Replied Zach.
“Still too dark, but I reckon twenty to thirty mins and we will start to have some kind of visibility.” Said Cal.
“You better get some shut-eye, I’ll wake you if there’s any drama.” Said Zach, taking the old telescope from Cal, who didn’t need any persuading to fall onto the reclined garden chair and pull the light green blanket over him. Rubbing his eyes Zach walked over to the east wall, and looked to the where the sky was now an intense peach orange. He then grabbed an already opened carton of orange juice and drunk down a few gulps. It had been many years since he had tasted fruit juice and it tasted every bit as good as he remembered it, even if this particular carton was somewhat out of date. He looked up at the sky. Ever since their encounter with the bird creature he had a distrust of the skies above him. Creatures that run and jump are one thing, but things that can swoop down from the heavens and pick you right up, that was something else. The streets and buildings of the city could now be clearly seen if there details could not. Zach raised the old telescope to his eye and scoured the gloomy scene in front of him. He could make out the gas station some way off, but no creatures. He then checked the other three directions before returning to the east wall. The door to the penthouse opened, and Fiona appeared with a packet of chips.
“Hope you like BBQ flavor.” Said Fiona trying to walk quietly across the roof. Avoiding bottles and glass
es scattered around she handed Zach the packet who took it gratefully.
“You should take the opportunity to get more sleep.” Said Zach.
“Prison routine is hard to break, this is when I would usually wake, anyway who says it’s the men that have to do all the hard stuff.” Said Fiona, snacking on her own packet of chips.
“Amen to that.” Said Zach.
“No sign of our furry friends?” Said Fiona.
“No, but they must be out there somewhere.” Said Zach.
“You think they are waiting for us to leave here?” Said Fiona.
“Could be. I know dogs, grew up with two German shepherds, but what we saw yesterday once you had hit one of them, it wasn’t dog like, it was like they were considering their options.” Said Zach.
“If these things are evolved from dogs, then maybe they are more intelligent?” Said Fiona. Cal grumbled something in his sleep, and turned over. Fiona looked over to him.
“He doesn’t seem to sleep very well. Bad dreams by the looks of it. We don’t know much about these evolved creatures, maybe they are intelligent as us, maybe more.” Said Zach.
“We need more intel, we need to know what we are up against.” Said Fiona.
“Question is how to get that without ending up as their next meal. Abbey was up until the early hours she’s probably learned a lot more, once everyone’s awake in a few hours we need to discuss plans.” Said Zach.
“I can keep you company if you want?” Said Fiona.
Zach smiled, “I’m good, even if it was your routine waking up now, we’re not in prison anymore, maybe more rest would be good”. Fiona walked away still facing Zach.
“Enjoy the chips” Said Fiona.
“Best breakfast I’ve had in years.” Said Zach.
The roof was now bathed in a orange hue and the streets could be seen clearly. Zach swept across the scene with the telescope, intently looking for movement but there was none.