Beyond

by Phil Maxey

  Mo and the other Simivem dropped Raj and Abbey onto a nearby roof, which stood just above the nearby trees.

  They both ran to the wall to look down upon the plaza. Clovis’s creature was laid out, its limbs stretching across most of the concrete area while hundreds of the bodies of its attackers lay over it.

  It was a scene of devastation that shocked Raj, but Abbey’s face was emotionless as her eyes searched.

  “Can you sense him?”

  She closed her eyes and looked with her mind. “There’s something, but I can’t tell where. I think he’s moving away.”

  “He didn’t seem the running away kind…”

  Abbey opened her eyes and looked into the distance as if a thought was forming in her mind. “He’s not running from us, he’s running back from where he came.” Turning, she searched the sky for Mo. “We need to collect our things then return to the Boston camp.”

  Far above in the crystal blue sky a demonic looking creature hovered watching. It’s huge wings keeping it aloft. It then turned and ascended even higher moving through a circular opening, into a block like craft.

  * * * * *

  Burt ran through the tunnel as dust and small pieces of concrete fell from the wall above him. Even though he had been here a few days now, he still found himself getting lost in the maze of tunnels that made up the bunkers. This time was no different, apart from the incessant siren and flashing red warning lights. He arrived at a junction and looked both ways trying to ascertain where the medical rooms were. The bag of supplies over his back were badly needed.

  The tunnel shook once again. They are almost inside.

  A soldier appeared at the end of the left tunnel.

  “Hey, which way to the medical rooms?” Burt Shouted.

  The soldier pointed to Burt’s right. “End of this tunnel, then take a left, you should see a sign.” The soldier then kept on running. As Burt took off down the left tunnel he could hear more soldiers boots following the soldier he just saw.

  As described painted words on the curved tunnel wall, indicted he was going in the right direction and he kept on running, until skidding to a stop and then opening a final door to another tunnel, the end of which was a hive of activity. People in white and blue gowns with splatters of red across them, ran left and right, disappearing and reappearing from doors.

  “I got the supplies!” Shouted Burt trying to catch one of them. A woman with short blonde hair looked back at him. He ran up to her out of breath, then took the backpack from his back. “Got what you wanted.”

  She took the pack, opening and looking inside, then disappeared into a door in front of them. He walked up to the small glass windows in it and looked at the bodies of people writhing in agony in beds. Some proper hospital ones, others makeshift camping beds only a few inches off the ground.

  He saw someone coming towards the door and backed away. The man opened the door and looked at him. “You the guy who brought the supplies?”

  Burt nodded.

  “You’re needed at section five. There’s been another breach.” Burt went to ask where that was, but the man had already moved off through another door.

  Burt took his assault rifle from his shoulder and checked the magazine for the amount of ammo. Seeing it was full, he snapped it back in and ran back to the outside corridor.

  Section five…section five. He looked left and right at both ends of the tunnel. And randomly chose the right one.

  Running through the tunnels he ran across a woman running in the opposite direction who gave him the directions he needed.

  As he grew nearer his destination, the ground shook more violently and the clatter of gunfire filled the air.

  He careered around a corner, and immediately ducked to the ground as the body of a soldier flew over his head. A creature looking like a giant scorpion with no stinger but at least four pincers railed against the tunnel walls as bullets bounced off its armored torso.

  Burt got to his knees and started firing as the other dozen or so soldiers on both sides of the creature were also doing.

  He shook his head. Not working. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out something which had saved his life on more than more occasion, a flash bang grenade. He had brought a few with him from home.

  The creature lunged forward and swiped through the confined space scything through a soldier, instantly killing him.

  Burt pulled the pin and threw the nade along the tunnel. “Cover your ears and eyes!” He shouted, doing just that.

  A blinding flash, together with an explosive noise filled the tunnel. Burt was the first back to his feet and started firing again at the creature that was staggering against the tunnel walls, swiping at the air.

  “Everyone move in!”

  The solders focused their fire on the creature, as they did Burt realized the creatures underside was oozing a dark brown liquid. He dived to the ground and fired again, hitting the creature and making it let out a piercing screech.

  “Everyone shoot its belly!”

  As they did the creature fell backwards while more of the liquid burst from it. After a few seconds of sustained fire, it slumped to the ground with its limbs twitching.

  He ran beside the creature and looked up into the gaping twelve-foot square hole in the ceiling. Pieces of soil started to fall on him.

  He looked at the soldiers around him. “Quick, we need to barricade this area, there’s more coming!”

  CHAPTER 21

  Abbey and Raj stood on a roof of a shopping mall, looking across what was once a huge parking area, but during the Cascade had become a shantytown of sorts. Multi-storey wooden buildings sat half destroyed amongst the refuse of small constructions, and between them rags and a myriad of items which had long since been of any use.

  “It must have been chaos here. Makes you realize just how lucky we were in our camp,” said Raj.

  “Yeah…” She was beginning to feel the pines of longing for the home she and Zach left near the lake.

  He looked towards the hills and forests in the distance. “How much further until we get to where the bunkers are?”

  “Not far, maybe another ten miles. You ready?”

  He rubbed his arms, then took out a rag he had found and wrapped it around his mouth. “Yup.” He then raised his arms into the air and was almost instantly grabbed and took aloft. Abbey did the same.

  From high above the destruction of the Boston camp was even more obvious. Huge swathes of trees laid flat in forests, created by E.L.F’s making their own roads, while only a handful of buildings beyond a few story’s remained upright, and everywhere in-between crumpled vehicles of all size and color lay. The monsters had clearly made the camp their own.

  As they neared where she had fled from a few days earlier, an inner alarm fired off in her brain and she could sense a large number of Cascaders. She strained her eyes to see a few miles further ahead, but it was impossible to see anything amongst the ruined buildings and creatures lumbering inside the wreckage. Mo started descending, as did Raj’s creature.

  They landed on a road lined with broken 1950’s wooden homes.

  “What is it?” Said Raj looking around them.

  “There’s something weird up ahead. I thought it better we went the last bit on foot.”

  A striped yellow snake like creature but with four legs stopped a hundred yards away and looked at them.

  “Weirder than that?” Said Raj.

  Abbey started walking. “Come on. I need a better view of what’s happening over there.”

  He ran after her. Soon they were walking up a road of a steep hill, bounded by a dense forest, although driveways could be seen weaving inside.

  Raj tried to ignore the movement between the burgeoning green of the trees. “You know there’s—”

  “Yes, I know. They won’t harm us.” She said charging up the sidewalk.

  As they neared the top the road sloped back down the other side and into the center of what used to be the sm
all town. Even from this distance they could see a swell of creatures standing at various points, at the back of buildings and in the streets.

  Raj walked forward slightly. “Is that—”

  “Yup. People or more accurately Cascaders.”

  “They seem to be using the E.L.F’s to dig into the ground…”

  “They’re trying to get to the bunkers.” She turned around and looked at the sky from where they came. The sun was just a few degrees from the horizon and the shadows were growing long. “Let’s find a place to hold up and see how things play out. Mitchell won’t be letting anyone in with that going on.”

  “Can we help them?”

  “There’s a lot of Cascaders down there, I couldn’t fight that many.” She looked at a nearby path which led further up the hill. “Let’s see what’s up there.”

  * * * * *

  As the green of the spring forests mingled with other more exotic flashes of color in the setting sun, Hayes in the back of the second Humvee sighed. He had lost count how many packets of cookies he now owed Harper next to him. He dropped his cards onto the seat. “That’s me done. I’m going to have to start baking to give you all that I owe you now.”

  “Maybe you can start a baking business?”

  “His options are going to be limited without any eggs around,” said Diaz in the passengers seat in front of them.

  “Have we found any E.L.F’s that lay egg’s yet?” Said Bower driving.

  “Hell no am I eating them,” said Harper.

  The others laughed.

  “Hey, I like eggs, there’s got to be one of these damn creatures that can lay a proper egg!” Said Bower.

  His radio then crackled and Zach’s voice came from it. “Think it’s time we found a place to hold up for the night, there’s a town coming up. Over.”

  “Sounds good,” replied Bower. He briefly looked to his right. “Play time over, we’ll need to recon a location that won’t have our Cascaders up all night doing their thing.”

  Diaz looked out at the multiple lanes of the highway which was moving towards a river crossing. “I hear that. There’s a lot of activity up ahead of us. We’re going to have to move through it, if we want to get into the town.”

  Before she had finished talking, the convoy had already started slowing. Pot marks littered the concrete of the bridge along with military vehicles, including crumpled tanks and more than a few Humvee’s in various states of decay.

  As the convoy slowly crept forward weaving left and right, squawks and roars echoed all around them.

  In the first Humvee Wyatt and Miles concentrated best they could, trying to get a lock on any of the E.L.F’s tens of yards below them that were noticing the vibrations and noise above.

  “Almost across,” said Fiona.

  Zach went to say something looking back over his shoulder, but stopped the words from coming out of his mouth when seeing the concentration on the faces of those behind him.

  They quickly sped up once free from the bridge and warehouses and office buildings soon appeared on both sides of the highway.

  Wyatt and Miles both breathed heavily.

  “That was tough, I must be out of practice,” said Miles looking across Michael to Wyatt. “How you find it?”

  Wyatt shrugged. “There were a lot of them.”

  Zach pointed to the top of slopes to their right. “Let’s take the next turn off and see if we can find somewhere up there.”

  Further down the highway a small group of heavy looking creatures lumbered across the road, but Fiona took the turning before and soon they were traveling up a slope towards an industrial park of stores. Weaving around some abandoned vehicles, she pulled the Humvee into a large parking lot, eventually pulling up in front of some monolithic looking buildings.

  Zach had a quick look at the skies then looked back at the two Cascaders. “Anything?”

  “Nothing we need to be concerned with,” said Miles.

  They all started getting out, Bower and the others did the same.

  “Good line of sight,” said Bower walking up to Zach. They both looked out over the highway they just travelled up and the forest covered hills in the distance. The tops of a number of the trees could be seen moving in the gloom, despite the lack of wind around them.

  Soldiers starting piling out of the truck which Bower walked towards. “Recon the area. Find me some good places to post look outs.” The soldiers nodded and started fanning out. He then turned and followed Zach who was approaching the nearby building with Harper, Hayes and the others.

  A huge handmade sign stretched above the doors. “NO MORE FOOD.” It mostly covered another sign which mentioned being a restaurant of some kind.

  Zach pointed towards the building next to it that was even more block-like and three times as high.

  Harper and Michael approached the glass doors which seemed undamaged, and pushed on them, they rattled but didn’t open.

  “They’re chained from the inside,” said Michael.

  “This is the one,” said Zach looking at Bower who nodded.

  “Harper, Diaz get around back, find another way in,” said Bower. They nodded and took off.

  “I can shoot through the glass?” said Michael.

  Zach shook his head. “Too noisy.” He noticed Wyatt was looking uneasy. “What’s wrong?”

  “Just lots of E.L.F’s around us,” he noticed Zach’s reaction. “But it’s okay, I…we can handle it.”

  “If you can’t, you need to tell us, okay?”

  The younger man briefly nodded.

  Shadows moved beyond the glass doors and Harper appeared holding her radio up to her mouth. “There’s a way in around back. Over.” Came from Bowers radio.

  “Let’s get inside and find somewhere to sleep for the night,” said Zach.

  Soon most were walking in the side entrance to the cinema and a guard was posted at the door to go with the others that were already on the roof acting as lookouts.

  Zach, Fiona, Bower and the others walked into a grand foyer and swung their flashlight beams over the clean looking walls and movie posters.

  “Doesn’t look like this place saw fighting,” said Fiona walking up to the long counter. “Ha, there’s still popcorn back here.”

  Michael climbed over the counter and grabbed a paper bag from the shelf and pulled it open, his expression immediately changed and he dropped it to the ground.

  Fiona laughed. “Yeah, I wouldn’t eat that.” She looked around. “Try some of the other packets.”

  Zach walked into a small room off the foyer. It was packed with arcade machines. He smiled remembering his childhood.

  Wyatt enthusiastically walked up to one of the large machines, with a fake gun pointing at a screen. “Man, I loved this one.”

  Zach walked to the smaller machine, with the simple screen and controls. “This was my thing when I was a kid. I sunk a whole lot of my weekly allowance into it.” He looked at the other machines and the carpet. “Although when I was a kid, you would see a lot more cigarette and drink stains everywhere!” He laughed, and turned around. Wyatt was moving the plastic gun left and right as if the machine was working. Zach walked to him. “No reason why we can’t get some machines like these up and running again in the camp.”

  Wyatt gave a forlorn smile and put the fake gun back in it’s holding.

  As night fell, most found their way to ‘Screen three’, and were sitting in one of the many seats trying to get some rest.

  Zach looked across the rows for Fiona, but couldn’t see her. He spotted Michael sitting right at the front. “You seen Fiona?”

  “Saw her walking to the back, up top.”

  He looked at the people gathered near the topmost seats. “She’s not—” He saw some flickers of light from the projection room window. “Ah, I know where she is.” He went to walk away then stopped, turning back. “How’s…”

  “Hannah. Yeah she’s good thanks.”

  Zach didn’t know what else to
say so smiled and walked away. Soon he was knocking on the projection room door. “Fiona you in there.”

  “I am indeed.” Her tone was slightly off Zach thought. On entering, he found her sitting on the floor with a bottle of clear liquid in her hand. The alcoholic fumes filled the air.

  “Mind if I join you?”

  She nodded, waving the bottle.

  He closed the door behind him, and looked at the simple looking office with a desk, filing cabinets, sofa and a modest size box device, which pointed towards the screen outside.

  “Yeah, not what you imagined eh…Bet you thought there be this huge—” She opened her arms. “Contrapssion…with reels of film and…”

  Zach smiled. “Yeah…”

  She briefly closed one eye then opened it. “Technology! Ain’t…I mean, wasn’t it great! Made all this shit possible for us…” She then stopped as if realizing something. “If the world has ended, does that mean that if I invent something, then I would have invented it for the first time?”

  Zach sat near to her and she gave him the bottle. He took a small swig, but resisted handing it back. “Umm yeah sure why not.”

  She looked about the room then smiled pointing at the bottle. “Then I lay claim to invensing Alcohol!..” She blinked while swaying back and forth. “I’m gonna be so rich.”

  Putting the bottle down he got to his feet and helped her up and onto the sofa which she immediately laid down on.

  “I don’t feel so good…”

  He helped her turn on her side and her eyes fell shut, followed by her breathing deepening.

  He looked down at her and sighed. “Get some rest,” he said quietly, then left.

  CHAPTER 22

  A house which by any means would have been regarded as a luxury residence, sat near the top of the hill with a back corner missing. Luckily it was the corner without the stairs, which led up to a number of spacious bedrooms.

  Abbey looked through the gap between the drapes with her small set of binoculars at the buildings and lights in the middle of town. A light knock came from the door behind her.