by Maxey, Phil
Jay nodded just as screeches and roars erupted from behind the cabin.
“Get back in your pickup!” he shouted to Jay, who didn’t need any convincing. He then climbed in his own driver’s seat, fired the engine up and immediately put it into reverse, pressing down on the gas.
Crashing and crunching of wood mingled with the guttural noises filling the air.
“Shit, there’s another one!” shouted Carrie as another bird thing crossed their path, then another and another. Each one hopping across the rope which was tugging on the wooden pole.
“Come on,” said Grant, easing down more on the pedal.
There was a whimper from the back seat.
“Don’t look at them Ben. Look down.”
Ben yelped as one of the things climbed over the roof. The scratching was so loud it sounded as if the thing would pierce the top of the cabin. The pickup shook, but Grant continued revving the engine and finally the pole skidded back towards them, swinging around and clearing a route.
“Got it!” said Grant.
Hardly being able to hear himself think due to the battle that was happening out of sight, he held the radio to his mouth. “I’m going to cut the rope, then we drive past and don’t stop. Over!”
“Yes!” said Ethan.
Grant pulled his knife from the side of his leg and looked to the bushes alongside. Branches were bent and broken but the barrage of creatures appeared to have stopped. He pushed the door open quickly and ran around to the front of the hood, and in one movement placed the blade under the rope and pulled, cutting it. It pinged back towards the pole right into the path of another of the bird things which had sprinted out onto the road. Of all the species of E.L.F’s that Grant had seen this one appeared most like the animals of old. Like an Ostrich, but just more brightly colored and with legs belonging to that of a lizard.
He backed up slowly as the thing’s large eyes looked directly at him, then climbed into the pickup, gently closing the door.
“Go on, go eat with your friends,” he said under his breath.
The creature’s head flicked back to its original target and it sprinted off.
Grant pushed down on the gas, swerving to the left land to avoid the pole and increased their speed. Carrie and Ben looked back at the huddle of creatures climbing over the black mass, snapping and fighting over their kill.
*****
Carrie watched the darkening shadows in the forest as they sped along a country lane. Several times she had been sure that she had seen something between the bark and pine, a limb of some kind, or maybe eyes. But so far nothing had leaped out of the gloom to interrupt their progress. Despite her fear she was glad to be out of the camp. Away from the order that it imposed on her life. She hated that. It was why she moved out of LA, away from her producer father. He insisted she needed to go into rehab, but what did he know. He had spent his youth going to parties and trying every drug that was available. So why couldn’t she do the same? Eventually he gave her a choice. Rehab or leave the house she grew up in. It was a touch choice, but she packed up her shit and headed south to San Diego. She imagined a life free from restriction, lazing on the beach, able to indulge her habits. She was pretty sure she wasn’t addicted to any of them, but then the world ended and so did her supply, and she learned just how wrong she was. Now, a month later, her previous life was just a bad dream, replaced for most people with a worse one, but not for her. No more pills were required for everyday was a high, if you just managed to survive it. Still, if she did come across a pharmacy…
Static came from Grant’s radio making her jump a little.
“Only maybe thirty minutes of full daylight left Boss, we should think about bunking down for the night if we see a place. Over,” said Ethan from the radio’s speaker.
“I agree. If we find somewhere, which looks like we can protect it, we’ll give it a go. Definitely don’t want to be on these roads at night. Over.”
Grant looked in the rear mirror. Ben appeared to be sleeping.
“You really think it’s a good idea to sleep out here, in the middle of these woods?” said Carrie.
“When I looked at the possible route to New Mexico, we could have taken a straight-line, through the cities to get there and avoided the kinds of places you would think would be infested with E.L.F’s. But I had a hunch that those monsters would be in the cities and towns, wherever the easy prey was. And I’ve learned to trust my hunches.”
She nodded. So far he had been right.
“What’s that?” said Ben from the rear seats.
Grant and Carrie both saw it as well. They passed a number of roadside signs, slowing, then stopped in the road. A large cabin store sat to their right, looking unscathed. Grant held his radio up while looking around at the sixty foot high trees. “Looks pretty good. Over.”
Ethan agreed, so he pulled the pickup over onto the gravel outside the shop, with Jay doing the same alongside.
He let the window slide down, listening to the world outside, while the engine still ran.
“It’s so quiet…” said Ben.
“Yeah,” said Grant turning the engine off then listened some more. “Both of you wait here, let me and Ethan scope the place out. Maybe the owners are still here.”
“There are some motorhomes in the campground out back,” said Carrie.
“We’re check them out.” He went to say that if they did not return within thirty minutes, to just leave, but his eyes met Ben’s and he couldn’t bring himself to. Instead, he closed the door and joined Ethan walking up on the deck to the entrance.
A sign hung above the wooden door.
‘The Eagles Nest Cafe.’
Grant walked along the planks, being aware the noise his boots were making and looked through a glass window. “Not seeing anyone inside.”
“Let’s see round back,” said Ethan.
They left the deck and walked a short distance to the edge of the building, where a small dilapidated shack stood. Seeing that it had been in that shape for a number of years, they moved past it. Ethan looked at the ground. There were a series of ruts, as if a large vehicle had driven through. At least that’s what Grant thought. He looked at Ethan, who was kneeling running his fingers along the edge of the dirt.
“Not tires?”
“Nope.”
They moved to the side of the building and looked through another wider window. This one showed a large dining area, with neat rows of chairs.
“Whoever was here left before they had a chance to stack the chairs,” said Grant.
“Yeah, none of these windows are even boarded up. They didn’t bother staying.”
Grant looked up into the canopy of branches high above, which were becoming lost in shadow. What bothered him the most though was the absolute silence. It was if he was moving in a dream, where the sound had simply been turned off. He rubbed his ear.
Ethan noticed. “The lack of background noise is weird.”
Both men looked at the motorhomes and other structures just visible through the trees ahead of them.
“I think we just stay in this place,” said Ethan.
Grant nodded and walked up three steps to a door, marked ‘Staff entrance’. He was surprised on trying that the handle turned and the door opened. He squinted into the darkness inside, just seeing a small hallway with coat pegs and buckets and cleaning materials below. They both walked inside and quietly closed the door behind.
The kitchen was clean with the only sign of use being a silver pan which was on top of the tiled floor. They pulled some of the cupboards open revealing tins of meat then made their way into the same room they had peered into a moment before. The sun had almost completely given up, and there was a kind of richness to the dark beyond the thin glass pane of the dining room.
“I’ll check upstairs,” said Ethan switching on his flashlight.
Grant nodded and moved past the tables and chairs, past a counter and to a room which he presumed was the one at the fro
nt of the property, the store. Outside he could just make out the two pickups and switched on his own flashlight, then promptly jumped back into a wire stand of keepsakes, raising his rifle at the six foot tall brown bear that stood frozen in the center of the room. He swore under his breath. “Just my luck, I’ll have a heart attack caused by a stuffed animal.”
Recovering his composure, he swung his light around the long room. It was well stocked with shelves of snacks, hunting and camping equipment, some of which he planned to take when he left. He turned to a counter and a piece of white card with a message written on it.
‘If it will help you survive, take what you want. No payment required.’
He picked the card up, turning it over, then placed it back down and went to take a step towards the front door to let the others in, when the floorboards creaked behind and Ethan appeared. “What’s it like upstairs?”
“I found the owners.”
Grant sighed. Ethan’s tone and expression told him what lay in the floor above.
“An elderly man and woman. Looks like they died together. Not E.L.F’s. We should leave them there. Taking them outside might attractive… predators.”
Grant nodded. “Upstairs is where we need to be as well. The windows allow easy access to the front and the pickups, and being up there should give us some protection if something tries to come into the ground floor,” He gestured towards the large glass window near the door. “These windows aren’t going to stop any E.L.F’s from getting in here.” Ethan nodded. “How many rooms up there?”
“Two bedrooms and a large storeroom. That’s the one which looks over the parking lot.”
“Then that’s where we are staying for the night. Make sure the couples door is closed and locked if you can.”
Ethan nodded and left, while Grant started unlocking the front door.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Ethan gave up on trying to be comfortable on the single sheet which he covered the wooden floor with, and sat up. The moon shone through the two sets of windows, illuminating the others who appeared to be sleeping. That was good, he knew they earned it, and he never needed much anyway, even before the back injury he got on his second tour. When he was deep in enemy territory, he would take bites of sleep when and where he could, and that’s what the country he loved had become, enemy territory.
He looked at Grant, sleeping next to his son. The ex-homicide detective was the one that had convinced him to get in the fight, and stop drinking his nights away at the speakeasy under the parking garage. The alcohol made him forget the world was ending and the pills that Carrie always seemed to have, helped with his back. He told Grant he, Carrie and Jay were a package deal. The latter two weren’t actually interested in helping anyone, but they knew the role came with better accommodation and regular food. A few weeks later though they had all found new purpose, working for the ‘Boss’ and helping those that the military couldn’t.
They knew it was a short-term gig. As each day passed, more creatures were finding a way inside and picking people off. It was a losing battle for the humans from the start. The camps were a desperate attempt to save some of the major cities, but really they were just prolonging the inevitable.
He looked at the wall to his right, buried as it was behind wooden boxes large and small and thought about the two corpses that lay on the bed. He guessed they were both in their eighties and decided to make the end their choice. He respected that, but couldn’t help feel a tinge of sadness for them. He hated these new animals for what they were destroying.
He had no idea if they would all be alive in a day’s time, but until then, he would do his best to keep it that way.
The sound of branches snapping came from outside. He looked at the others. They remained still. He got up awkwardly and crept to the nearby window and looked out at the parking lot. At first everything looked as it should. Two pickups. The road. The forest beyond and… He leaned back instinctively on seeing the thing which stood almost as tall as the trees around it, then looked again. In the moonlight he couldn’t see much of what was walking between the trees, taking some of them with it, other than it was dark in color and appeared to walk on four legs. He watched it silently move away into the night and wondered just how many other things were out there, waiting to be discovered by what was left of humanity.
*****
Grant opened his eyes but it was his nose that was first aware of his surroundings. He realized Ben wasn’t where he should be, and turned quickly to see his son sitting with Ethan and Jay, eating something from a plastic bowl.
“You missed breakfast!” said Ethan.
“Not the first time that’s happened,” he replied. He looked at the bundle of sheets a few feet away. “Looks like Carrie missed it too.”
The blankets moved.
Grant looked at Ethan. “Any sign of danger?”
Ethan continued chewing on the syrupy fruit from the tin in his hand, while shaking his head. “Nah.” Grant could tell Ethan wasn’t being completely truthful, but he trusted there must have been a good reason.
“How much longer until we get to your friend?” said Ben.
“Good question.” Grant reached into his backpack and pulled out a map. He flicked through the pages, then again. “We’ll need to find another place to sleep tonight, but tomorrow if we make good progress, then around late afternoon we should make it to Roswell. We’ll be passing through a few small towns. Can’t be avoided.”
“We should look for more ammo,” grumbled Carrie from beneath her soft shelter.
“Agreed,” said Grant. “But we only stop when it looks safe to do so.”
Everyone nodded.
He got to his feet and walked into the hallway outside. Ethan had placed some boxes in front of one of the doors. He tried the one next to it, opening the door to a pleasant looking restroom and went to walk inside when he heard a creak of floorboards behind him. It was Ethan with his radio in his hand.
“Can we talk,” said Ethan.
Grant nodded and they moved into the restroom and closed the door. “There were E.L.F’s outside, last night?”
“There was something out there but that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about… I couldn’t sleep much so I moved into the hallway outside and listened on the radio. See if I could pick up any broadcast. Anything from the camp.”
“And?”
“The reception is bad. I was surprised to get anything this far out, but from what I could pick up, it’s a full evacuation. Most of the occupants have been moved to the Portland camp, with some going to the one in Texas. There’s a small military contingent left behind for now, but they are telling anyone thinking of going to the camp for refuge to go to one of the others.” Ethan could tell from Grant’s reaction what he was thinking about. “I’m sure Rose will be fine. She’s a doc. She’ll be protected.”
“Yeah.”
Ethan pulled the door open. “Anyway, I thought you’d want to know.”
Grant caught Ethan’s eyes. “Next few days are going to be tough…”
Ethan nodded and closed the door. Grant looked in the mirror above the basin and got a shock at how different he looked with not shaving for a week. ‘Old’ was the word that echoed through his mind. He traced his finger over the red line on his cheek, which was still giving him a tinge of pain then frowned and turned the faucet, hoping the cafe got their supply from a well. The pipe chugged then water started to flow.
A short while later they had all had their turn in the restroom, and after taking with them some of the supplies from the cafe were back outside, sitting in the pickups. The world around them was still deafly silent, but it was hard to miss the fallen trees, especially the one which blocked half of the two-lane road. The pickups moved off.
They progressed through the woods not seeing any sign of life but plenty of destruction. Huge swathes of land some covering the entire sides of hills looked like they had been deforested. Except the logs had been left behind. Trees lay
snapped at their bases, most fallen in the same direction, towards the west and people.
Soon the woods fell further back and then were gone completely, replaced with grasslands, distant hills and creatures.
Amongst plumes of dust some miles off, things were visible, thrashing and darting left and right. Each in the vehicles watched the commotion, praying it wouldn’t move any closer. Grant increased their speed and soon they moved beyond another of the hills. He looked in the rear mirror to check on his son and was surprised to see him drawing. Maybe another adventure for ‘Captain Cascade’.
An hour had passed and the road which had been straight and dusty became clean and winding. Properties also started appearing in the fields and hills. “Where are we now?” he said to Carrie.
She lifted her head off the headrest and opened the roadmap. “We’re about to move through…”
A sign with ‘Welcome to Delton. Population 534,’ moved by on the side of the road.
“Maybe there will be people here,” said Ben.
Grant flicked his eyes at Carrie. “Yeah maybe.”
They arrived at a junction which was surrounded by a few picturesque wooden houses.
“Do a left,” said Carrie.
Grant did and they moved onto Main Street. He was just about to say the town looked untouched, when he had to slow and move around a blue sedan on its roof. The driver’s side door was open. Grant wasn’t sure to slow down or speed up, but then they passed a gas station with more devastation. Three cars sat in the lot to the side, about half the height they should have been. An immense weight had crushed them in turn.
“Getting a bad feeling about this place,” said Carrie.
“It’s a small town, we’re be—”