by Maxey, Phil
“Cherry please.”
Tinley threw him the packet then offered one to Carrie who shook her head, he took another for himself and started eating again. “So the San Diego camp has been destroyed?”
Carrie nodded. “We left when it was being overrun. I think a lot of people made it out though.”
“To?”
“The Portland camp mostly I think, some Chicago and some further away.”
“Ah, yeah the camp near Austin. Before I lost comms they appeared to be holding out. Is that where you two girls are heading?”
Carrie slid her hand over her face. The day’s events had sapped her strength and now she needed to rest. “And Grant. Maybe. Making a stop in Roswell first though.”
“Going to be a lot of E.L.F’s between here and there. And all you got is a beat up truck?”
“We will get there,” said Ben, his defiance surprising Carrie.
She smiled at him then turned back to Tinley. “I think I’ll find another vehicle in the morning. You got any working tanks left?”
He smiled. “You’re leaving tomorrow?”
“That’s the plan. You can come with us if you want? Or are you still on duty or something?”
He snorted. “That’s a matter of opinion. If you want a crazy old army officer then I would be happy to tag along for the ride.”
*****
“Dad!”
Grant lifted his eyelids which felt double their usual weight, and looked into the concerned face of his son. He went to move on his single bed, forgetting his injuries and a sheering pain moved through his right arm. He grimaced but stopped when the right side of his face also pounded. He let out a breath then looked up at Ben. “What is it?”
“She’s gone!”
“Who’s gone?”
“Amy!”
Grant’s mind was clogged full of disjointed memories, he tried to recall the young woman that had joined them. “What you mean she’s gone…” He suddenly realized how dry his mouth was and looked around the small hotel room for any bottles of water. There weren’t any, but his pack was not too far away on the beige carpeted floor.
“I slept in here,” said Ben. “And Amy and Carrie shared the other room, and Mr. Tinley he—”
Grant looked up with confusion then pushed himself upright with his left hand. His right had some kind of rigid strapping on it, not that he could feel his fingers anyway. “Who the hell is Mr. Tinley?”
“He’s this really nice army man. Carrie found him in this hotel.”
Grant looked at the bland walls around him, the other single bed with a notepad on it and the sun seeping in through the gaps in the blinds. He had no idea where he was or how he got there. “I remember the freeway and the big snake thing, and I was running and that’s all I got. Where are we?”
“Flagstaff, but it don’t matter. We have to find Amy!”
The pulsing pain in Grant’s body relented and he was able to think clearly for a few seconds. “Where’s Carrie? And pass me my pack. I got some painkillers in there.”
Ben did. “She’s going through the rooms looking for her. Mr. Tinley is helping too.”
“We’re in a hotel?”
“Yes!”
Grant raised his hand. “Don’t worry we’ll find her.” He pulled his bottle of water from his pack, together with a small plastic bottle, unscrewed the top and took some with a few gulps. For some reason he felt a bit better even though he knew the pills couldn’t have worked that quick.
The door to the room pushed open and Carrie appeared together with a tall middle-aged man in military uniform.
“You’re awake. Good. How you feeling?” said Carrie.
“Like how I look. You Tinley?”
The officer nodded. “Lieutenant Colonel Eric Tinley.”
“We can’t find Amy,” said Carrie.
“When did you last see her?”
“Sometime during the night. I opened my eyes and she was getting up to go to the restroom, and I went back to sleep. Then I wake up again thirty minutes ago and she’s nowhere to be seen. I’ve tried all the rooms that would open on this floor and the two above.”
“I’ve looked on the command floor, medical and storage, but there’s no sign of her,” said Tinley.
Grant looked at the new member of the group. He noticed that Tinley’s eyes hadn’t left him. He looked at Ben. “Help me up.” Ben did but he still wavered momentarily next to the bed. Carrie went to move forward but Grant held his hand up. “Just show me where you were both sleeping.”
“It’s just next door. She’s definitely not there.”
“I need to see.”
A short unsteady walk later he was in an identical room. “Where was she sleeping?”
“Far bed,” said Carrie.
Grant walked forward and looked at the ruffled sheets. “Where’s her backpack and rifle?”
Carrie walked forward. “It’s…” She looked between the beds then walked around the other side, closer to the window. She scrunched her face up in confusion. “I thought they were here… But I’m not really a morning person. Maybe I just thought I saw them.”
“If her stuff is gone then she probably just left,” said Tinley.
Carrie looked back at him. “She wouldn’t do that. She was coming with us. All the way.”
“Maybe she changed her mind.”
Carrie went to walk towards Tinley.
“The colonel is right,” said Grant. “We only just met her. She probably just decided to do her own thing.”
“No way of knowing how all of this affects people,” said Tinley. He looked down. “Can make you feel like you’re better off alone.”
“If she’s not in the hotel, then she’s gone Carrie. And we need to do the same.” Grant stopped for a moment letting the latest wave of pain subside.
Tinley offered his arm. “Let me help you back to your room.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Grant stood in the lobby entrance. The pills he had taken were doing their job, but he felt distant and disconnected from the world around him, not ideal.
The heat was already building despite it only being 8 a.m. To his side was Ben with his small pack on his back, and a solders helmet on his head. His son had hardly said two words since they realized Amy had left.
“I know you liked Amy. I liked her too, but she wanted to be alone.”
Ben mumbled something.
“What?”
“She told me she was looking forward to seeing the new camp. I don’t understand why she left us.”
Grant placed his hand on his son’s shoulder. “Sometimes people do crazy things. Especially with… how things are now.”
An engine sound came from across the parking lot and a Humvee with a dented front bumper appeared and drove to just a few yards away. Carrie pushed the driver’s door open. “I could get use to this!”
Grant smiled then walked to the rear door, pulling it open. “See any E.L.F’s?”
“There were some sounds a few miles away, but I couldn’t see anything coming our way.”
“I don’t want to stay here for too long.”
She nodded in agreement.
Ben got in first sliding across to the other side and Grant followed, awkwardly bending forward and dropping more heavily than he would wished on the hard seat. His arm was now across his chest, held in place by a sling they found in one of the medical wards.
Tinley walked back to the hotel disappearing inside.
“Better get this shit in the back then,” said Carrie. She followed the officer inside.
Grant looked at his son who was busy sketching again. He went to talk, to offer some hope that Amy was alright and maybe on the road driving her own vehicle somewhere, but it would be lying and that wouldn’t help Ben. He didn’t understand why Amy left as well, but he did know that the world they were living in would cause some people to break. It did before and now things were worse, much worse.
The car shook as a weight
was placed in the back. Tinley wiped his forehead and walked back to the entrance as Carrie walked past him with her own load.
Grant reached into his pack and pulled out the road map, opening it at where they were. He turned the page and then again and there it was, their destination. Roswell, New Mexico. He wondered how close they would have to be before they could use their radios to communicate with Brad.
“Will we need to find another place to sleep tonight?” asked Ben.
“No. We should be able to make it by time it’s dark. About eight hours driving.”
Tinley dropped the last of the heavy loads in the back then got in the front passenger’s seat. His sleeves were rolled up. Grant noticed a number of scratches on his wrist. “You just do that?” he asked.
Tinley looked back, then at his arms. “This? Yeah. How’s your arm?”
“It’s—”
The sound of masonry falling came from beyond the trees at the edge of the parking lot.
Carrie appeared from the lobby, carrying bags in both hands. She looked in the same direction and jogged to the Humvee, dumping the bags in the back, closing the trunk then jumped in the driver’s seat. They were soon reversing away from the noise. She turned the truck around then headed down the slope and to the scene of devastation.
“Damn,” said Grant. He looked at Tinley. “It’s a miracle anyone survived this.”
The sound of trees falling came from beyond the hotel.
“Yeah,” said Tinley.
Carrie pushed down on the gas and weaved around some wreckage, and they were quickly moving away from the junction. It wasn’t long before they were back on the highway, which ran alongside the city.
Carrie noticed something happening amongst the tall buildings some miles off. “Yeah that’s not good.” She increased their speed.
Grant looked out the left side window, but despite seeing smoke and movement some miles away, he wasn’t able to focus. “What’s going on over there?”
“There’s like, these huge dinosaur things and they’re fighting,” said Ben. He turned to a blank page on his notepad.
“They’re not moving in this direction are they?”
“Don’t look like it.”
Grant briefly smiled. His head was now hurting more than his arm but he was struck by how the man in the front wasn’t looking at the E.L.F spectacle, instead he was looking in the completely opposite direction. Back the way they had just come from.
Grant looked at the watch on his left wrist and seeing that it was time to take another two pills, went to reach inside his pack, but instead he hesitated then closed it back up.
*****
Voices bounced off the walls of Grant’s mind, but he was locked inside darkness. Pain was shooting through both of his arms. He looked down at hands that were claws. He staggered back in the dark room not understanding, and realized his whole body was covered in scales. In horror he threw his hands to his face and only felt large birdlike eyes. He went to scream, but instead a screech emanated from his throat. He knew he was going insane, but then suddenly the room was lit with a brilliant purple light and a demonic creature was standing in front of him.
He tried to talk again.
“Wake up…” said the large humanoid with wings.
“Wake up!” someone shouted to Grant, this time he recognized it as Carrie’s voice. He blinked trying to focus but the scene around him was too bright. Then he heard the other sound. In his confused state it was like an orchestra warming up, except it wasn’t violins and horns but roars and wails.
“I’m awake. Where… what is that noise?”
“We don’t know! But it sound’s like a damn E.L.F zoo!” said Carrie.
“I think it’s coming from the south!” said Tinley looking through binoculars.
Grant looked at the flat landscape made up of sand and dirt. To their right was a ridge of green. He went to look down at his map when huge dark wings reared up about three miles from them, seemingly out of the ground.
“Look at that thing!” said Carrie the fear obvious in her voice.
He looked at the creature which looked like a stingray, except this version was the size of a semi-truck with trailer and was hovering a few hundred feet in the air. “Go faster!”
“My foot’s all the way down!”
Grant flicked the pages open of his map. “It’s the Little Colorado River. Out here it’s the only water they can get.”
A roar boomed out across the desert making the ground shake and before anyone could respond, a dark green tentacle flicked out grabbing the flying creature and dragged it back down out of sight.
Grant looked back at his map and followed the path of the river and the highway. He shook his head. “It’s no good. We’re following the river for miles. Slow down and get off the highway to our left, the ground should be flat enough for us.”
Without hesitation Carrie did just that, and they slowed to half their speed and moved onto the bumpier surface. They kept going until the animalistic sounds were almost entirely gone and everyone sighed in relief.
“Keep following the highway and we should go around a few small towns. If we’re on the right track, we should see an airport and then...”
“What?” said Carrie.
“We need to cross the river.”
“Well that ain’t happening.”
“If we don’t we might not make it to Roswell by nightfall.”
He heard her visibly sigh. “Where do we cross?”
“About ten miles ahead, one of the towns has a bridge. We can cross there.”
“Let’s get closer to the town, check it out. Maybe it’s better there,” said Tinley.
“Okay…” said Carrie.
Just as predicted fences bordering areas of greener land told them they were on track, and the Humvee bumped onto the concrete of an airport runway. In the distance amongst single-story buildings, things as big as the structures around them were casually bathing in the sun.
Carrie slowed the Humvee to a stop.
Tinley shook his head while looking at them through his binoculars. “They’re big suckers. Four legged, silver skin. Scales maybe, like lizards but with features of fish…” He shook his head again.
“As long as they are not moving towards us. That’s all that counts,” said Grant. “Can you see roads around them.”
“Yeah, there’s a four-lane road to the left of them. I don’t see any problems on that.”
Carrie slowly drove forward knocking down a piece of a small fence and moved back onto the highway then stopped again. “Does this lead us to the bridge road?”
“No, we stay on this a few miles then take the first exit. That takes us into the town and then it’s one road all the way through the center of town, and over the bridge.”
She looked back to him. “You sure you want to do this?”
He didn’t. But he also knew the longer they stayed on the road driving, day or night, the greater the chance they wouldn’t make it. And they had to make it. “Yes.”
She eased down on the gas while Tinley took hold of his M4.
Grant wanted to do the same, but his right hand was out of commission, so instead he held the handle next to him. He looked at Ben and asked him to do the same.
They quickly picked up speed and raced under an overpass.
Carrie had a quick glance to make sure nothing was hanging from its roof, but then she saw other threats ahead. “Shit.”
What remained of a gas station, the roof that used to house the pumps was now tilted to the ground, and crumpled wrecks of once new cars from a dealership were scattered in all directions, some covering the road. Amongst them were E.L.F’s, a group of sandy colored four-legged creatures, like lions, but with heads that belonged in the deepest oceans.
The Humvee roared past them and some started to give chase, bounding over obstacles.
Tinley opened his door and started firing.
“Stop firing!” Grant shouted.
&
nbsp; “I’m scaring them off!” Tinley shouted.
“You’re just going to attract more!”
Tinley sneered and pulled his rifle in and closed the door. More gas stations and motels rushed past as the speedometer reached fifty mph.
“Look!” shouted Carrie.
On both sides of the road things were stirring. Awkward shapes with leathery hides slowly rose, their bodies being lifted by stalk like protrusions.
“I can still turn around!”
“The bridge is only a few hundred yards ahead!” shouted Grant in reply.
“If it’s still there,” said Tinley under his breath.
They swerved around a fallen motel sign and then an overturned red cattle truck, then Carrie accelerated again.
“What’s the shaking?” she said looking at the road which appeared flat. She then looked in the side mirror. Her eyes grew wide and she looked back to the road. “Turning around is no longer an option.”
“It’s just up ahead!” shouted Grant, now trying to be heard over the ruckus that was behind and ahead of them.
“Look at the buildings…” said Ben. He didn’t need to though as everyone was seeing the same level of destruction of the small town. The closer they got to the river the more the landscape had been flattened. Single story homes, double story motels and stores reduced to piles of rubble, and their advertising hoardings crushed in amongst the remains.
The road rose as they neared the bridge.
“Oh…” said Carrie as she saw a scene from a world she hardly recognized as her own. Brightly colored lizards with butterfly type wings, flew across their path, while tentacles each one the width of the vehicle they were in, whipped and whirled from the river below, amongst them were creatures each one an impossibility and each one now looking at the metallic human machine trying to break through their ranks.
“Faster!” shouted Tinley.
The Humvee sped onto the concrete bridge, the sound of the engine now overwhelmed by the cacophony of zoological sounds they were moving through.
Ben grabbed hold of his father, causing pain to shoot through Grant’s arm but he ignored it and held him close. He then saw what they all did. One side of the bridge was gone, replaced with jagged stone and steel girders. Carrie changed lane but that brought them closer to the tentacles that were waving through the air, just yards above the surface of the road.