by Maxey, Phil
Joel whirled around trying to orientate himself. “This way.”
They ran along the sidewalk between concrete walls, trying to stretch their senses into the shadows, eventually coming out to a junction. The sound of the rumbling fuel truck’s engine came from their left.
“Through that gate!” said Joel.
Passing an abandoned checkpoint, they moved past bent and twisted metal gates and were soon running towards the points of light at the end of the runway.
“Get the plane’s engines started!” shouted Joel, running towards Anna and Nelson.
Nelson hesitated. “I…”
“Pull the pipes free, and get the blades turning, we’re leaving!” shouted Anna. She turned back to the group of four that were halfway across the huge expanse, their flashlight bobbing up and down, when a crash of glass was following by a heavy thump behind them.
Corine and Barry pushed their muscles as much as could, as Dalton staggered along with them. Joel looked over his shoulder just catching glimpses of a huge shadowy form beating the concrete, gaining on them.
Anna ran forward as the two youngest rushed past her and jumped straight up the steps and onto the plane. Dalton reached out catching her arm to stop himself from falling. She threw her M4 back to Joel, who immediately spun around and started firing at the creature who was bounding at them. Neon streams sliced through the air, but appeared to not slow the truck-sized monster down. He could now feel the ground shaking and it wasn’t just from the plane’s engines.
He kneeled to get better aim and fired again, the projectiles finding their target but having no affect.
“Joel!” shouted Anna from the crew door behind. “Come on!”
The plan was slowly rotating on the runway.
He looked at the encroaching creature, which was easily big enough to destroy a part of the plane, then back at her, waving her away. “Get moving, I’ll catch up!”
Anxiety washed across her face, but she stepped back inside and climbed up to the cockpit.
Joel kept firing until his trigger finger produced nothing, and went to ready his claws when he caught sight of the fuel truck. Running to it, he pulled the door open and starting the engine. Without pause he floored the gas and surged forward, slamming into the side of the creature and sending it careening across the concrete and wailing in pain. But it scrambled back to its feet and leaped at the truck, smashing the vehicle so hard it tilted and fell to its side.
The sound of a frenzy of claws slicing through metal pulled Joel from the daze of hitting his skull against the inside of the cabin and he climbed up, then immediately fell back in as a paw with inches of razor sharp bony protrusions smashed into the door, then pulled it from its hinges.
Through the splinted windscreen he just made out the lights of the plane moving away and kicked the glass, then crawled out, leaping to the ground and broke into a sprint towards the aircraft that was picking up speed. The ground shook from the galloping creature behind as he pushed his limbs, the hot foul breath from the growls and snarls smothering his senses.
Amongst the glare of the twin tail lights he could see the loading ramp was down, but the plane was almost at takeoff speed and the thing was almost on him.
A gust of wind knocked him forward as the creature screeched in pain. Joel saw the shadow of wings around him, but kept on running and in a final push jumped onto the ramp as the plane left the earth. He walked forward into Anna’s embrace and turned around to see an almost prehistoric scene of a demonic creature diving and clawing, while the thing on the ground leaped and slashed at its sky born attacker. One huge impact sent Copeland barreling to the ground. He slowly got to his clawed feet as the plane gained altitude and as the beast hurled itself at him again, he took to the air once more, just evading the lunge.
Anna leaned in close to Joel. “We can leave him, Joel. All we have to do is raise the ramp and soon he won’t be able to get back on board.”
He looked into her eyes, momentarily unsure of what to do, then shook his head.
Copeland’s huge wings beat as the two of them stepped back, and the Drak landed on the ramp falling to his knees, then stood again and staggered forward into the cargo hold.
Joel turned and walked through the plane, ascended the stairs and sat heavy in the copilot’s seat. “Raise the loading ramp.”
Nelson leaned forward and flicked a switch. He then tapped a nearby gauge and leaned back in his chair. “We got a problem…”
“What?”
“We haven’t got enough fuel to get us to the island.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Barking dogs and shouting kids jolted Marina back to full consciousness. She could feel the sun sliding above the horizon without having to open her eyes, but did so anyway. Someone was knocking at the apartment’s front door, and then a different person was knocking at her bedroom’s.
“I’m coming, hold up,” she said, then opened the door to Jess.
“There’s someone at the—”
“I know.” Marina walked through the hall and peered through the spyhole at Carla, standing on the other side. She pulled the latch aside and opened the door.
“Have you had a rest? Because we got a meeting to get to.”
She hadn’t, with the night being a mixture of confused obsessive thoughts about a certain archeologist, worry about those that they left behind on the mainland and tentative plans for the future. She braved a smile regardless. “Sure—” She stepped back.
“I can’t come in. We’re already late. It was the best night’s rest I’ve had in a while. I guess it helps for the floor not to be swaying, who knew.”
“I’ll have to bring Jess, Jasper and the dogs.”
Carla smiled, that’s fine.
Soon, she was better dressed and packed into the back of the humvee with the kids and animals, with Carla in the front passenger’s seat, and a male soldier driving. A light rain fell upon the road which wound through a forest.
“Have you had a chance to see much of the base yet?” said Carla.
“No… well, I went for a walk—”
“It’s amazing,” said Carla over her shoulder. “They got a swimming pool, gyms, their own stores.” She looked back to the road and trees. “It’s almost like how it was before…”
“Do you know if there’s been any word from the others?”
“You mean Joel?”
“Yeah.”
“Not that I’ve been told, but I’ve only been given limited access. Hopefully we’ll find out more this morning.”
The road emerged into fields on both sides, with people working with trowels between rows of dirt mounds.
“They have started to grow their own crops,” said Carla. She looked at the young man in uniform to her left. “Private Garcia tells me they have a few hundred acres and plans for a few thousand, enough food eventually for who is on the island.”
Marina politely smiled knowing that Carla was referring to the humans on the island as she just needed the red stuff. But then, no humans, no blood.
They moved onto smaller roads, which were surrounded by block-like white and cream, metal and brick buildings, the warehouses she had been told about before. People milled around the entrances watching the humvee pass by. They were moving past forests again, until coming out to a large clearing and the large multi-storied headquarters, with sloped roof which ran all the way to the ground. They stopped just outside the entrance, with other vehicles already parked up.
“Garcia will look after Jess and Jasper… and the dogs,” said Carla, who noticed the frown on the face of the man next to her and couldn’t help but smile.
Marina hesitated.
Garcia turned around with his own smile, looking at the youngsters. “Hey kids, how about we go and explore the park nearby?” Jasper smiled but Jess looked doubtful.
“It’ll be fine, Jess. I should’t be too long.”
The private continued his sales pitch. “And I think they might have some ice
cream…”
“Really?” said Jess and Carla at the same time.
The private laughed. “Sure, I know a guy.”
A short while later, Marina and Carla were walking up a wide staircase, past multiple floors until reaching one of the highest, which gave a fine view of the base and island beyond, with gray skies above. Two guards waited outside the meeting room.
“Sorry, I’m late. I’m captain Carla Antos, and this is—”
One of the guards opened the door.
“Thanks.”
They both walked inside. The room looked more akin to a corporate boardroom, than a space within a building that was more bunker than offices. Various uniformed and non-uniformed people sat around a long table, most of whom the women didn’t recognize. At the head of the table was the general, with the colonel to her left and Gus and Clement to her right. Marina spotted Alfredo about two seats further down, seated next to Amanda and Maddison. She tried to catch his gaze, but he was the one person in the room not looking at her.
“Sorry we’re late,” said Carla.
“Only by five minutes,” said the general. Carla couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or not, but the older woman continued. “Take a seat. As I was saying, most of my people have now been debriefed and I believe some of you here have had a chance this morning to read through the long and difficult road we have had to get to his beautiful island.” She sighed. “I had hoped Jankle could survive what the corporation threw at it, but it turned out I underestimated the kings’ resolve to destroy human settlements.”
“We also thought us having one of the brothers, would stop the attack,” said Clement. “And look how that worked out.”
“Yes, and we don’t even know what happened to the rescue mission to find the doctor, but we have to assume the worst seeing we have not heard from them.”
An emptiness wanted to open within Marina, but she suppressed it best she could. Now was not the time for grieving. That could come after she established a home for her and the kids.
The colonel looked around the newcomers. “In the early days we had it bad here, and there were a few times there when we weren’t sure if we would come through the outbreak. A large percentage of the island fell to the scourge, but the people that were left, we managed to keep alive, and more than that, managed to form into a community, which is who lives within the bases walls today. With the influx from Jankle and the more kick-ass individuals—” He looked at the general who smiled in returned. “— that stepped off that ship, I feel good about the future. People is what we were lacking to fully get this island working again, and now we have them.” He looked at Marina, as did most of the others. “I want you to know that despite what the scourge did to you, we don’t think of you as monsters.” He looked around the others again. “We already had a few Alkrons here before you arrived, and they have been very useful in helping keeping things running around here. We run a blood donation program for ourselves and for those that need it. So you don’t have to worry about that.”
“Right then,” said the general. “On to pressing matters. As some of you already know we brought the third tablet with us, which is now—” she looked at Alfredo. “Is in the hands of doctor Narvaez’s team. What most of you here do not know, is we think we have located another of the king’s tombs. Using my blood to reactivate the tablet we used it to—” Marina detected a heart rate spike from the archeologist, which then quickly dissipated. “— give us information on the final of the original four Sumerian King’s, known as Freon. And as I have told the doctor and Winston, the tablet told us the tomb is located deep within this island’s cave system.”
Marina looked at Alfredo who was looking down.
“However the doctor thinks this is highly unlikely…”
Most eyes fell upon Alfredo, who looked up at Galloway, then at those looking at him. “I have studied the cave network on this island for over a decade as my father did before me. And even though it is true we have not explored every inch of it, we have never come across any evidence of such a location within the caves.”
“But there are legends though,” said Maddison, pushing her oversized glasses up her nose. “Correct?”
He looked across to her, Marina felt, stifling a frown. “There are as many legends as there were groups that inhabited this island, young lady.”
“But there is a legend, one of the earliest, that mentions there was a fountain of youth within the caves, that if you were willing to give your soul to a particular deity, and if you were judged honorable, that it would grant you external life. You know that legend?”
Alfredo sighed. “Of course. There are many similar tales from hundreds of cultures across the world. Puerto Rico is no different.”
The young woman leaned forward. “But don’t you see? A fountain of youth?” She looked around the others at the table. “How similar is that to what the scourge has done to Alkrons? And now the tablet tells us Freon’s tomb is here? That can’t be coincidence.”
Winston looked at the archeologist. “She has a point, Alfredo.”
“Yes she does,” said the general. “And we have no time to waste. If we can find this tomb, locate the sarcophagi, and bring this king back to the modern world, perhaps he will enable us to defeat what’s on the mainland.”
“I’m still not clear on how he would do that?” said Clement.
Galloway looked perturbed by the interjection. “I’m not a scientist, Clement. Maybe he knows how the scourge was started and how it can be stopped, or maybe just wants revenge on the remaining kings. Either way, we want him in our corner.” She looked at Alfredo. “I understand your reluctance to explore old caves, but I want an expeditionary team sent to the coordinates we have got from the tablet—” she looked at her watch. “— by thirteen hundred hours.” This time Alfredo did frown, but nodded. She looked at the others around the table. “Because I can assure you, the king’s won’t let any human colony stand, and that includes the one on this island. Now, moving to the business of the island’s resources…”
A short while later Marina was outside sitting on a bench in a playground, watching Jess and Jasper climb a small set of stairs then slide down the other side, giggling all the way. Flint was barking at them, while Shadow seemed content to sit by her side and watch. She looked at the space on the wooden seat to her side and a wave of sadness moved through her. She swallowed and looked back at the children, trying to find refuge in their joy. Footsteps came from the main building and continued growing close but she resisted turning around, she knew who was approaching anyway.
“You didn’t seem too happy in that meeting,” she said to Alfredo, keeping her eyes on the playground. He walked to her side and gestured towards the empty spot. “Please.”
He smiled. “It was that obvious.”
She looked at him. “Yes.”
“From early on, after the scourge hit these shores, and the civilian authorities were wiped out, the colonel has been in control… with help from others. And that is the reason your children are playing in front of you now and not running from vamps.”
“You think he should still be in control?”
“Ha, well he is a soldier, and outranked by the general. Far be it from me to argue against that, but Galloway and those close to her have not lived here, they did not have to go through what we did. We know this island…” He sighed. “I do not want to lose what we have.”
She looked back at the playground. “I don’t want you to lose it too… the general though made good choices before. Jankle would never have survived as long as it did without her. Maybe this place can last longer, because it’s an island… Unless vamps can swim.”
He chortled. “I do not think they can, but do not quote me on that!” They both laughed. “Well, I hope you are right because if you are not…”
She turned, looking directly in his eyes. “I want this place to be my home, Fredo. There is nowhere else to run. I will defend it will my life.”
She smiled while nodding. “I would like that.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Nelson placed the notebook on his lap, then looked at Joel in the copilot’s seat. “So we got ourselves a good and base news situation.” Both were wearing headphones and talking into the attached mikes.
“Bad news first.”
Outside the sun beamed across a clear sky and the tops of clouds which they were flying over.
“We got enough fuel to get most of the way to Puerto Rico.”
“Okay…”
“And that’s also the bad news. We’re going to have to put her down somewhere over Haiti, if we’re lucky maybe as far as the border with the Dominican Republic.”
Joel looked away in thought. “The earlier we land the more vamps we have to fight through to get to the east coast.” He looked at Nelson. “Can we make it to the border?”
“Maybe, but we’ll be running on fumes. If we were lighter, I reckon we’d make it and that’s if there’s a runway there. You know what’s in those crates in the hold?”
“No idea, but why don’t we find out.” He placed the headphones on the seat, and descended the steps to the cargo hold, and examined the first of the huge crates. He then looked along the aisle at the winged creature taking up three seats.
“What’s wrong?” said Anna seated near Joel.
“We need to be lighter.” He walked to Copeland, who looked up.
“What do you want?”
“What’s in these crates?”
“What is it to you?”