Without stopping to consider what it had done, the big creature continued beyond the truck, trampled through a chain-link fence, and disappeared into the backyard of a different house.
The mountain lions were on the scene faster than emergency services. Without the big boys there to scare them, they seemed anxious to pick through the remains of the truck. There was a brief moment of defensive shooting, but it didn’t last long.
“This is a nightmare!” Buck exclaimed.
“You only need a distraction to get through it,” Cy volunteered.
Buck whipped his head. “You used us as a decoy?” It made sense why the guy had gotten them out of the trucks. It hadn’t been to greet them. It had been to make sure the animals ate them first.
“I didn’t know you’d come all the way to the house, I swear. I figured you’d get out, see those mountain lion freaks, and jump back in your trucks. Those guys must have been hiding from you.”
Buck’s face warmed.
Cy picked up on his reaction.
“But once I knew you were behind me, I kept the doors open, right? If I wanted to hurt you or use you as a real decoy, I would have closed the door and let them get you. That’s not what I’m about. I’m a social worker, for God’s sake.”
Buck still didn’t trust him, but it had the echo of truth to it.
“Well, we’re from up the road near Denver. We came here to see if we could set up shop with places to live.”
“The natives aren’t too thrilled, I can tell you that.” Cy laughed. “They haven’t been since I arrived.”
“How long have you been here?” he asked.
“Two days,” Cy responded.
“Same as us,” Connie told him.
“All I can say is you better be able to defend yourself if you plan on doing any time here.” He pulled out a little revolver that had to be a .22-caliber, based on its dainty frame.
“We can, but as you can see, we don’t have much in the way of firepower for titans.” He motioned to the AR-15 in his hands.
“I can get you all the guns you want. A lot of the houses around here had gun collections. I gathered them on the kitchen table of the house I started out in. It’s where I was heading when you found me. If you help me get there, you can have any guns you need.”
“Is it far? We don’t really have the time for a big side mission. I have to get back to my boy before the sun goes down.”
“Not far at all,” Cy replied. “It’s two houses down the line.”
One of the towering creatures droned in the distance.
He looked at Connie.
She nodded.
“Then lead the way,” Buck said with finality.
Above Alpha Site
Phil was as surprised as the next guy when the bird landed on the truck, but he was ready when more birds came out of the woods behind it. He loosed a round or two to make it look like he was helping exterminate the crazy animals, but he kept one eye on Garth and Lydia. He expected them to make a break for it, and they did not disappoint.
After a brief chase, the guard caught up with the kids and pointed his weapon at them. Phil recognized the imminent threat to Buck’s son, so he lined up on the back of the guard and put a round in him from across the parking area.
The guy fell forward onto the gravel.
Phil ran as fast as he could to get to Garth.
“You okay, kid?” he asked.
Garth was frozen in place.
“Anyone in there?” He snapped his fingers in his face.
The boy became animated. “I thought I was dead.”
“Not yet,” Phil answered, “but we have to get you out of here before they take you wherever those people get taken. I haven’t seen anyone come out, and they won’t let me see what they have planned for you.”
Lydia was underneath the trailer but waited where she was.
“Come on out, ma’am,” he said to coax her the last few feet.
“You’re safe,” Garth assured her.
“There are more men coming.” She dipped her head. “I can see them under the trailers.”
He looked over his shoulder, but no one had arrived between the trucks yet.
“Phil, this guy was going to rape Lydia.” He pointed at the dead guy.
“And he was going to shoot Garth,” the girl added.
“Yeah,” Garth went on. “I guess they were going to get me out of the way.”
“We have to get the hell out of—” He was cut off by arriving footsteps.
Phil had five seconds to decide what to do. There were a fair number of guards, but they seldom worked together. If he could pick them off in ones and twos, it might be possible to get the kids to safety.
He listened for a moment.
There were more than one or two approaching.
“Shit.” He exhaled. “We can’t get out of here, not without risking your lives to do it.”
“We’ll risk it,” Garth insisted.
“No, not like this.” Phil stood up and backed away.
Garth pointed at the dead man’s rifle. “I can fire it. We can do this.”
Phil shook his head. “Play along with me.”
He made himself do something that didn’t come naturally to him.
“Oh, my God!” he wailed, coaxing out fake tears.
Phil tossed his gun aside as he emerged from the front of the tractor-trailer. Four of the guards had been searching in two groups, but when the gun went off, they rallied on one of the lieutenants. Phil aimed his distress at him.
“I tripped and shot my friend in the back! Friendly fire!” He wailed like a six-year-old to convince them of his remorse.
“The hell?” the lieutenant responded. “We don’t drop our weapons, soldier.”
He was going to pick it up, but the lieutenant stepped on the barrel to keep it from moving. “Not yet. I want to know what the hell happened here before we give you another weapon.”
The leader took a look into the gap between the two trucks. A dead man and two teens were close to the fifth wheel. He pointed at the missing rifle. “I want that weapon collected, along with his, and let’s get these two back into the group.”
On the walk back to the tents, one of the men took aim at a white and black avian straggler he spotted walking around on top of a tanker truck. The bird fell over backward, out of sight, and Phil was left wondering what would have happened if the man’s aim had been off. Would a gunshot have touched off a whole tanker of fuel, assuming that was what was inside? Why didn’t the lieutenant say anything about such recklessness? He was currently acting the part of the bumbling distraught soldier, so calling out the jackass for nearly blowing them all up wasn’t in character.
“In there.” The leader directed the kids into the tent, then he glanced at Phil. “You go with them. We’re all going downstairs.”
Phil finally got to see what was behind those canvas flaps.
Nineteen
Colorado Springs Fringe
Cy took them through the kitchen but didn’t rush out the door as he’d done at the other houses. Instead, he stood at the threshold and looked into the backyard. Not far from the patio slab, a three-foot mound of dirt had formed. There was a big hole facing sideways near the top, so it looked like a small volcano.
The guy pointed at the yard behind the adjacent house as well as the yards of the adjoining homes on the street behind them. Dirt hills dotted the landscape, littering the grassy areas like a bad case of acne. “You can’t really see them, but they’re out there.”
“Down in the holes?” Buck asked.
“Are they prairie dogs?” Haley inquired in a hopeful voice.
“Not even close,” Cy answered. “They’re devils, but they shouldn’t come out if we stick to the edge of their territory. I couldn’t get away with encroaching so close to them since it was just me, but maybe they’ll think twice about bothering a big group of us. I usually have to walk in the front yard to get to the house.”
<
br /> No one was going into the front yard at that moment.
“Can’t I wait here?” Haley squeaked.
Buck regretted bringing the young woman. At the time, he’d thought it was a good idea to give Eve a navigator, but if she was worthless on the ground, it canceled out her value in the passenger seat. Still, what was done was done, and he couldn’t give up on her. He also couldn’t let her stay.
“I’m sorry, we have to stick together. I know you’re scared, but if I left you here and we needed to shoot our weapons, we’d risk catching you in the crossfire. It would be like those bullets from the machine gun that almost clipped us. My friends in the Marines would come back from the grave to hunt me down if I was that irresponsible with you.” He laughed it off in an attempt to lighten the mood for the girl.
“Okay,” she agreed. “If you say so.”
“You stick with Eve,” he replied. “I promise she’ll take good care of you.”
“Okay,” Haley repeated as if she were on autopilot.
He gently shuffled her over to Eve, who took her.
“Let’s go,” he whispered.
Outside, he kept one eye on the nearest hill, keen to see what a devil looked like.
There were more of the holes in the ground the closer he got.
Mac stayed at his side as if he understood the threat.
There were more holes in the backyard of the next house, leaving Buck with two possible routes: inside and around them, or outside and nearer to them. Before he could hash it through, Mac began growling.
“What is it?” he asked, hoping it wasn’t one of the lions about to surprise them. It couldn’t have been one of the giants since they would have heard them coming from five houses down the row.
Everyone had stopped and gathered around Big Mac. He stood low as if crouching and stared intently at the nearest mound. At first Buck thought the dog was wasting his time, but then he noticed there was a pair of eyes looking back at them.
“Guys, back away. Get inside. Quick.” His decision about which way to go was made for him.
It was impossible to say what type of critter was twenty feet away. It had buried its head in the dirt at the edge of the opening, but parts of its snout were clear as could be when you knew it was there. Somehow, Mac had caught sight of the animal and deemed it a threat.
Buck patted Mac on the flank. “Come on, boy. Back up.”
He didn’t want an incident if he could help it.
It took the dog almost a minute to relent, but eventually, he let Buck drag him toward the house.
The new place had a door on the side of the attached garage, which allowed them to get inside the home without going around to the front or back. As with all the others, it had already been used by Cy, so it was unlocked.
Cy pushed open the door to the dark garage and motioned for everyone to follow.
Buck checked behind him one last time before going in. He recognized the calls of the new residents he’d recently met. Far away, the horn-blows of the sky-high rhinos. Much closer, the growls and roars of the giant mountain lions. A high-pitched cry or two was probably from deer that had been taken down.
Buck shut the door without further delay.
“Which way?” he asked.
The garage contained two cars so it was tight, but the doors had windows in the top row, so it wasn’t pitch-black. They navigated to the interior door and went into the kitchen.
“This place is—” Cy started.
“Shh!” he hissed.
The door was open. Cy had been the first one into the kitchen, but Buck saw movement beyond him.
A winged animal lunged for Cy’s head.
“Duck!” Buck yelled.
The young hipster fell to the linoleum.
Buck took care to aim the rifle well above Cy’s head, but he had to do it fast enough to prevent the flying animal from attacking.
The blast was deafening inside the closed garage.
Multiple people cussed at the loud noise.
He didn’t need to fire again at the first one, but his attack brought others.
“Shoot them but not Cy!” he insisted, squatting to prevent anyone from blasting him in the head. “I think they’re bats!”
Like most things they’d encountered save the deer, they reminded Buck of animals from the old Earth, but they weren’t identical. The things in the kitchen resembled bats with their leathery featherless wings, but they had larger heads than any bat he’d ever seen.
He didn’t trust them.
A volley of gunfire dropped three more of the bats in quick order.
Cy slid through the doorway and down the steps into the garage.
Buck stopped firing after that, but Eve and Sparky put several more shots into the door after Cy cleared it.
“Do you see more?” he asked after they’d wrapped it up.
“I know I saw one flying up the stairs,” Eve answered.
“I saw it too,” Sparky said.
“We can’t hesitate,” he said in a dry voice. “I’ll go left. Sparky, you go right. Don’t fire in my direction. Always know what you’re shooting at.” Keeping the civilians from shooting each other was almost as important to Buck as shooting the bad things.
He rushed through the opening.
Buck only needed three or four bullets to clear out the pair of bats hanging from the light fixture over the kitchen table. The back door was already open, suggesting the entry point for the alien-looking bats. He closed the door as Sparky discharged his weapon a single time.
“All clear?” he asked in a loud voice.
“Clear,” Sparky answered, coming into the kitchen from another direction.
“Let’s keep going,” he insisted. “One more house, right?”
Cy nodded.
“Are there squatters in that house?” Buck asked.
“I don’t think so,” Cy replied, “but I thought this house was empty too, to be honest.”
The young guy was unreliable at best.
“We’re doing this,” Buck called as he headed through the back door.
It put him about most of the way across the backyard, but there were a few of the mounds close to the house, which made Mac snarl as he ambled by them.
“Keep moving,” he told his group with great concern.
“Through there!” Cy pointed at the sunroom attached to the rear of the target home.
Buck went through the swinging door and through the stuffy screened-in area and entered the home’s sweeping kitchen. There was a giant granite-topped island, duplicate expensive-looking ovens, and about a million pots and pans hanging from a wire rack above the island. It looked like a professional cook’s kitchen.
The icing on the cake was the pile of rifles and shotguns on the tabletop.
“Holy shit, you weren’t kidding,” Buck said to Cy. “This is the jackpot.”
Haley came in after everyone else. Once she’d looked around, she addressed Cy. “It looks like you got these guns from the Army guys. So, why aren’t you walking around with any of these instead of that baby gun you’re holding?”
Cy looked at the tiny .22 in his hand.
“I hate to admit this, but this is the only one I could figure out. If the internet was still working, I could look up videos on how to load these things.” His sadness was palpable as he pointed at the table. “I didn’t want to blow myself up fiddling with the larger ones.”
Buck tried not to hold it against the guy. He’d taught Garth how to reload magazines when he was in grade school, but not all parents were as forward-thinking as he was. At the same time, Cy wasn’t the first young person he’d met who behaved as if it were impossible to do anything without a phone in their hand. His lack of ambition to learn how to load a rifle didn’t come as a big surprise.
He surveyed what he could.
There were several AK-47s.
Half a dozen AR-pattern rifles.
All manner of shotguns.
A few pistols.
Lots of ammo.
“You’ve done well,” he said, choosing to be both positive and diplomatic when addressing Cy. “I’m going to—”
His radio came to life.
Faith’s voice screamed out of it since he’d set the radio’s volume to maximum so he wouldn’t miss her.
“Buck, if you can hear me…”
What followed was all bad news.
Alpha Site
Once inside the white tent, Garth, Lydia, and Phil were directed to a table, where they were asked if they had anything metal on them, a pacemaker, or anything else affected by magnetism. Since Garth had no weapons, he was ushered through the line quickly. Lydia also went through without incident, though she had to give up her little firestarter.
“Not you,” a guard said to Phil. “Go on through.”
Phil followed them from one tent to the next. The second tent functioned as a corral, where the other seven time nomads stood waiting for their arrival.
“You are all back together, so let’s keep it that way,” the lieutenant said as if he were proud of them. “Follow me.”
The leader walked them out the back of the second tent, which put them close to the smashed truck he and Phil had seen the night before. They walked between two of the tractor-trailers and came out at the edge of the woods.
“In there.” The leader pointed at a bunker-like structure with one door and a set of stairs leading down. The metal door was propped open with a large rock.
He and Lydia followed the others into the depths of the stairwell. He missed a few at the start, but once he started counting flights of steps, he ended up thinking they were fifteen or twenty stories underground.
“Wow,” he said out loud.
Most of the other nomads said variations of the same thing.
The staircase dumped them out in an impossibly large underground chamber supported by even rows of wide concrete pillars and lit by long strips of ceiling-mounted LED fixtures. A black tube the height of a person that ran along the far wall from one end to the other sat on concrete pedestals. The middle of the room, about a hundred yards out, had a bunch of transformers and power cables as if it were responsible for delivering power from the reactor to SNAKE. Far to his left, there was a nuclear power plant. He recognized the curved water-cooling towers.
End of Days | Book 5 | Beyond Alpha Page 16