by Maxey, Phil
Joel sat with his back against a wall, watching Anna move from child to child checking they were sleeping okay, and then to the adults doing the same. As he felt the depth of feeling for the woman who always put others ahead of herself, he realized that despite the world ending, he was in a new relationship. He had allowed some hope to build within him during the perilous journey across the ocean, but all of that had been washed away on seeing that the corporation had beaten them to the island. Was the military base in San Juan even there still? Had the kings already removed it from the map?
Anna sat by his side and let out a deep breath.
“How is everyone?”
“All things considered, pretty good. We’re low on blood though. Got maybe a day and a half left if we ration. So expect everyone to start getting grouchy.”
He nodded towards the two kids still awake. “Good to see Barry’s got a friend… I didn’t think she spoke English?”
Anna smiled. “She knows a few words. Seems like it’s enough.”
“I’ve been thinking—”
“That’s never a good thing.”
He smiled. “Hey, I have good ideas sometimes!”
She laughed, grabbing his arm and briefly shaking it. “Yes, I can remember at least two times!”
He nodded, still with a grin. “At least two times… umm, but I think, we need to split into two groups…”
Any humor she had quickly left, for she knew what his comment would mean for them. “We should stick together. All of us. Head east to San Juan.”
He looked down then back to her. “I need to know what’s happening with the corporation in that town.”
“Why does it have to be you!” Her voice was louder than she wanted, and some of the children stirred. Barry and Layla looked across then continued with their discussion.
Joel held her hand. “Because we need to know. The world may have ended but some of us still have a job to do… if we can. You, Dalton, Hector, the kids, Amos, Kizzy—”
A side door opened and the young man appeared, looking briefly around the room and then walked over and sat with them. “Actually, I want to go with you,” said Amos.
Joel’s surprise only lasted a second when he realized the Amos’s ability had returned. “Are you sure?”
“This island is the last stop. If we can’t stop the corporation here, we might as well all jump in the ocean. I’m sure.”
“Does Kizzy know?” said Anna.
The young man let out a breath, then got to his feet. “No…” He moved back through the way he had just entered by.
“So the people I mentioned, and Corine and Barry will be the group that goes directly to San Juan. Myself, Nelson and Amos will head north and learn what we can, before moving east to the base.” Joel looked around the drawings from children still on the walls, then stood. “Get some more rest, but I want us to be leaving by the end of the hour. Dalton and Nelson are out looking for vehicles. If they find some, you could be at San Juan by nightfall.”
“Where you going?”
“To chat to a winged demon.”
Joel made his way along the street, fighting against the constant barrage of wind and rain, the strength of which would have pushed a normal man to the ground. He jogged past an abandoned silver coupe, half on the sidewalk, past homes fast deteriorating, and kept moving towards where his senses were telling him to go.
A two-story high auto-repair shop sat on the corner, its large metal shutter down, but rippling against the storm. Joel ran around the side of the building, pulling open a door and made his way past the back office and into where a Drak was sitting on the oil sodden floor, besides an old truck raised on bricks.
He tossed him a half-used bag of blood. “Thought you might be needing this.”
Copeland looked up at him, picked up the bag and finished the contents in seconds. “Thank you… Are you always aware of where I am?”
“Pretty much.”
“The king’s must have had the same ability.”
“So what happened between you and them? How you end up in jail?”
Copeland sighed and looked straight ahead. “I thought they would be willing to work with me. Turns out they do not work with anyone other than themselves.”
“Yeah well, there’s one less to be bothered about now.”
Copeland smiled, nodding.
“We’re splitting into two groups. The largest heading for the base, and myself, Nelson and Amos heading north—”
“To find out what they are up too.”
“Yup. I know you want to see your—”
“I’ll come with you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Anna threw her arms around Joel, not wanting to let go. They pulled apart then kissed, making some of the children giggle and Hector frown. They were standing with others inside the school hall, while the sound of splintering branches and shattering tiles filled the air just a few feet away behind the double doors of the entrance. Almost lost within the noise was the sound of three engines running.
“Take a look, then head east. Okay?”
Joel nodded. “I’ve got no intention of being caught by the corporation again. We’ll get some intel then get out of there.” He briefly looked up. “Hopefully they will be more concerned with this storm than spies.”
“I mean it, Joel. We need—” She looked at Amos standing near the door. “— All of you to make it to the base.” The young man nodded. Kizzy sniffed, her eyes red, while Corine stood impatient to leave.
“You just concentrate on getting there yourselves,” said Joel.
She nodded then looked back at the ten children. “Is everyone ready to go on a journey?” Most couldn’t understand her words, but nodded anyway.
“Come on, let’s go,” said Hector to them in Spanish.
Amos pulled on the door handle with some effort, the wind not wanting it open, then falling back, as in a rush it did. He held it as the group going directly east ran outside, huddled together and holding hands and jumped into the back of a green SUV and a brown minivan.
Joel waved to Dalton upfront in the van, while Anna kissed his cheek once again and ran outside, jumping into the driver’s seat of the SUV. The minivan pulled off then the SUV, with Anna giving a brief final wave, Joel doing the same.
He let out a breath. A part of him was disappearing into the gloom of the storm. He turned to Amos. “Ready?”
The young man nodded and they moved outside, closing the hall door, and ran to the pickup, which Copeland was seated in the bed at the back of. They both climbed inside.
“I’m thinking the coastal road is going to be pretty flooded,” said Nelson in the driver’s seat. “Which is exactly why we’re going to try and take it. If there’s corporation further in, we should hopefully avoid them.”
Joel nodded. “Lets try.”
They drove west, past brightly colored single-story brick built homes, with flat roofs, some of which were flapping against the wind, and weaved around fallen trees and scattered mail boxes, arriving at a junction. It was one they had walked past on their way from the shore hours earlier, but this time it was as if the beachside homes were stranded in a lake, their supports and posts submerged.
Nelson nodded to the route that headed north. “That’s us.” He looked at Joel in the passenger’s seat. “What you want to do?”
“Try it.”
Nelson eased forward, the wind battering the side of the vehicle and they moved into the few feet of seawater. The pickup kept moving, its clearance just enough for the engine to not get waterlogged and they followed the two-lane road as it moved past holiday homes and apartment complexes, with parking lost beneath the ocean waves. As they moved away from the coast, the newly formed river becoming shallower, and each man breathed a sigh of relief, but it was short lived for their route soon veered back towards the ocean, their vehicle working harder to not be swept away.
“How much further we got to go?” said Amos.
“
Not far, we should see the bay soon… Look,” he gestured up ahead as they left the last line of trees which blocked their view of the ocean.
“Fuck…” was what Nelson said on seeing what the sea contained, but it was echoed in the others’ minds.
The bay was full of cargo ships. The kinds of vessels that were once the reserve of the oceans, ferrying cargo from one far-flung location to another, were now lined up, their decks full of containers, from one side of the bay to the other. Those trying to absorb the scene hadn’t realized that the road had raised up out of the water and they were stopped on a bridge.
“It’s got to be to shallow,” said Nelson. “How they getting them offloaded?” He looked at Joel for an answer, who had none.
Joel looked along the road, which looked dry compared to what they had traveled through. “Park up ahead, we’re on foot from here on.”
Nelson drove up a driveway to a luxury villa and parked outside its white stone entrance. Immediately the back of the pickup lifted, and a shadow briefly fell across the hood as Copeland took to the windswept sky.
Joel looked at the other two. “From here on, there’s a chance we could be—” He winced, touching his forehead, then looked back out to the bay, and the plethora of shipping fighting the huge waves. “I know what’s in the containers…. vamps.”
Nelson and Amos joined him counting the numbers of containers that filled the decks of the enormous ships.
“If they all make it to land, that’s tens of thousands…” said Nelson.
“We need to get closer,” said Joel, then grabbed his backpack and rifle and pushed the door open to the storm.
They tried to keep to the road, but where it was too deep they headed inland, climbing over walls, running across saturated squares of long grass and then across huge swathes of standing water that hid parking lots.
Joel drew closer to the other two, then pointed at a three-story apartment block. They nodded and moved onto the grounds, splashing through a foot of water until running up steps to the nearest entrance and bundling through the door to the hallway and relative silence.
“If we get to the top,” said Joel, rubbing his temple again. “Maybe the roof, we should be able to see the town.”
They both agreed and all three quickly ascended to the topmost landing, then with Joel breaking the lock, pushed open the door and forced themselves out into the gales, but it wasn’t the wind that drew their breath but what had become of the shoreline and part of the town. The towering seafaring leviathans had beached, crushing everything beneath them. Homes, restaurants, parks and sea front stores all now rubble beneath the five-story steel hulks, and at the side of their hulls a beehive of activity. Transport helicopters struggled against the winds to offload the containers, dumping them on the ground which was a mass movement. Thousands of humanoid figures were wading through waves and across what was left of the coastal town.
“Shit,” said Amos.
“That’s a lot of vamps,” said Nelson.
There was a thud, making them turn around to Copeland retracting his wings. He walked forward. “It’s not just vamps. They got some military vehicles. Look like missile launchers, and there’s something else.”
“What?” said Nelson.
“The king’s are here…”
Joel nodded. “I can feel them. Which means if we stay here any longer they’ll be able to do the same to us. We need to get to the base and warn them what’s coming their way.”
*****
Winds were a distant howl outside the windows of the smart apartment. Marina smiled as the old man and woman behind him walked tentatively inside, both of their eyes wide. He looked at her with a bemused expression. “You sure this ours?”
Marina smiled. “Two bedrooms, a shiny kitchen with modern appliances. All yours for free.”
“Free?” The woman said, then continued before Marina could respond. “Nothing in this life is free.” She walked into the bedroom. “I bet they will still want our blood!”
“Only if you want to give it and they will pay you for it.”
The old men raised his eyebrows in approval.
“My apartment is just across the street, so if you ever want anything let me know. Oh I almost forgot. There are two food packages in the kitchen, with stuff you might want to get in the refrigerator.”
The old man smiled, while cupboards closed and opened wherever the old woman was.
“I have to go. But remember I’m just across the way.”
The old man nodded and Marina quickly made her way down the stairs to coaches, and a street full of people, which despite the storm force winds were trying to find their own new homes.
She ran forward and helped a child back up that had fallen, her mother thanking Marina. The family quickly made their way into a ground-floor apartment.
She was about to cross the street to her own home, when through the sea of people she picked up her voice being shouted and turned around to a humvee and captain Ayers standing beside it waving. Pushing through the people stepping off school buses with what little possessions they had, she approached the captain.
“Why are you here?” said Marina.
“You have to come with me immediately. There are some new arrivals at the west gate of the camp, saying they know you.”
Marina looked confused. “Who?”
“She says her name is Anna Faraday.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Layla said something in Spanish to Hector who replied in kind, both sitting in the back of the SUV with two other children, the rest being with Dalton in the minivan. Both vehicles were parked outside an impressive steel gate, with a humvee on the other side and a gaggle of soldiers, some of which were talking on their radios.
“How long do we have to stay here?” said Hector to Anna in the driving seat. The wind howled just outside, rocking their vehicle.
“I thought you knew these people,” said Corine on the passenger’s side.
“Not these people exactly, just some of them. But I don’t know if they even made it here…”
Hector uttered something in Spanish which Anna didn’t need translated to understand.
Another humvee pulled up behind the first and even with the windscreen being full of mist and drips of rain Anna recognized one of the raven haired women who emerged, then ran towards the gate arguing with one of the soldiers.
Hector started to talk again but Anna was already pushing her door open, stepping out into the sheets of rain.
A humming rang out just audible over the sound of the weather, and the gate started to slide open. She ran forward just as Marina slipped through the gap, both women embracing, then hugging while slightly jumping up and down in joy.
“You’re alive! You made it here!” said Marina, rain sliding down her race. Her eyes flicked to the vehicles behind.
“And you! Where are the others? How’s Jess, Jasper and Mary?” Marina’s sudden neutral expression stabbed at Anna’s heart. “What happened?”
“Mary didn’t make it.” Marina’s tears mixed with the natural ones from the heavens. They hugged again, she pulled away then looked down to Anna’s missing appendage. “I’m so sorry what happened to you…”
Anna held her arm up. “Ah, yeah. Well I manage…” Anna suddenly realized just how much the woman in front of her didn’t know of the previous week’s events.
Marina spotted her reaction. “What is it?”
“Geri didn’t make it…”
“What?” Marina looked at Dalton sitting in the minivan. His stone cold expression was visible even through the steamed up window.
“It happened when they came to rescue me. It was a trap…”
“Joel?”
Anna nodded. “He’s okay… took a bit of beating, but you know Joel.”
It was a small spark of relief amongst the rage bubbling within Marina. She looked back at the vehicles wondering if now was the time to tell the tortured woman in front of her, about Galloway’s betraya
l.
Kizzy pushed her door open and leaned out waving. She waved back.
“Joel should be here soon. But there’s something you and Galloway need to know.”
“What?”
“The corporation are on the island.”
“What? Where?”
“West coast, where we made shore. About two hours from here.” Anna could tell the news shocked the hybrid woman in front of her. She looked back at the vehicles. “We have children with us, is there somewhere we can take them?”
“Yes. Follow us.” Marina ran back to her vehicle, Anna doing the same. The other humvee backed out of the way and the convoy of three vehicles drove along a road bordered by forests of broken branches and then out past forecourts of military vehicles and buildings.
“Where are we going?” said Marina to the captain who was in the passenger’s seat.
“We have orders to take them to the headquarters.”
“No. That’s not where we’re going. Take them to Alfredo’s home.”
“But the general—”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass what she said. Take them to Alfredo’s. If Galloway wants to talk to them, she can do it there.”
Ayers nodded at the soldier who was driving, and they headed in a different direction. As the exotic looking home appeared at the end of the tree lined street, Marina found her heart beating with emotion. She couldn’t believe they had made it to the island, but knowing the corporation were nearby filled her with dread.
The gate pulled back and the three vehicles made their way up the drive, parking outside the grand entrance, where Alfredo was waiting with Zelma.
Marina jumped out and ran to him. “The corporation have landed on the island.”
“Where?”
“West coast.” She looked back at the civilian vehicles. “My friends saw them. They have children with them. I thought I should bring them here…”