by Maxey, Phil
“No…” said Ford.
Owen held the radio back to his mouth. “Gale…. tell me you got everyone to the bunkers? Over.”
As those in the confined space of the roof waited, their heartbeats were almost as loud as the constant stampede of noise below.
“Yes, Owen. Everyone’s in the bunkers. Where are you? Over.”
“I’m safe. To anyone else listening. Don’t engage. Stay hidden and hope the things don’t find you.”
CHAPTER NINE
8: 18 p.m. Eastern Colorado.
So close…
Two words that keep repeating on a loop inside Jess’s mind. The snow had returned and with it memories of death, which she was having difficulty suppressing. Then there was the impossibility of what she saw in the depths of Biochron and worse still… much worse, what her daughter had been reduced to…
She’s fine… she’s whole again…
She looked to the darkness outside the pickup’s window which was alive with thousands of white particles sweeping past, some hitting and accumulating on the windshield before the wiper turned them to water. She hated this journey, hated it more than any part of the last few days. Josh being taken was as if she had lost a limb… again. Taken by something inhuman which she was powerless against because she was human. Her joints ached, her muscles were sore and there was a slight throb of a headache within her skull. All signs that the virus which boosted her physical abilities had left her system. There was also the exhaustion, the temptation of sleep which sat at the edges of her reserve of energy, just waiting for her to relax and overcome her resistance. But keeping her awake was a combination of fear, anxiety and anger. She had zero idea how she was going to reclaim her son. Scott had given her some hope with his mention of tanks and platoons somewhere out there, but it felt like a fairytale and she needed a cast-iron plan, something which she could work towards… which she didn’t have. With Sam, blind panic and a rage she had never felt before propelled her across the state, back to her home city to confront the monster and somehow it worked out, despite the horror that befell her daughter, but this time…
Her eyes started to close, not with tiredness but with despair, until she forced them open.
Come on, Jess… you can figure this out… how do I get him back… So close…
In the trailer of the semi-truck behind, Landon sat with three others amongst large cardboard boxes, some already broken into. A flashlight rested on one, the only illumination in the confined space and lit Tracey’s, Andy’s and Lachlan’s faces. The former having receded further into the darkness of the back of the trailer than any of the others. Landon looked at the other former resident of his home city. “What you do in Denver?”
“Firefighter… You?”
“DPD. Detective.”
The younger, brown-haired man smiled. “Yeah, you have that way about you.”
“Calculating, cool under pressure?”
“More like you’re trying to fix the world…”
Landon smiled, which was an effort due to the pain emanating up his arm from his wrist.
“It’s too broken to fix…” said Tracey, her tone flat. “You didn’t hear…” The three others looked at the young women, her face mostly in shadow. “What came at the school… these things were… louder, stronger… more… evil…” She let out a sigh and before anyone could reply they felt the brakes be applied and the truck and trailer stopped.
A crunch of footsteps on the snow came from outside before a thump came on the trailer’s door, which then opened to a red faced Brad. “We’re picking up a message on the truck’s radio. It’s from a town called—”
Landon and Andy both said ‘Newgrove’ at the same time and walked forward, jumping down to the white surface of the road and with Brad ran to the cab, where Esther already had her door open.
She nodded at the last comment from the radio’s speaker. “Yeah, I hear ya, Owen. Hey, I got Landon here now. I’ll pass the mike to him. Over.”
She did so. “I’m here, Owen? Over.”
“You can’t be too far if we’re communicating. That’s good. Few hours ago we had a few hundred of the things pass through town, killed some of us. But that’s not what I want to tell you. Soon after, two soldiers came into town. Got one of them with me now. They say they know, Jess and Scott? Over.”
A crunch of ice came from behind Landon, making him turn to face Jess and the others from the pickup.
“Is it Luci?” asked Scott.
Landon saw the pained expression on his wife’s face and knew she needed the answer to a different question. “Owen. Did you see a car? Maybe driving amongst the creatures? Over.”
“Uh? Car? No, we were too busy trying to…” Muffled voices came from the speaker.
“Landon? We haven’t met, I’m Luci. Your wife and Scott know me. You asked about a car? Over.”
“Yes! They have my son! Josh! Did you see him in the car?”
“We saw a boy in a car in southern Denver with two others, one’s a kind of messed-up, human monster hybrid. Appears to be leading the creatures. We followed them to Newgrove. Over.”
“Did you see where they went? Over.”
“Looks like, south. Over.”
“We’ll be there within the hour.”
*****
8: 32 p.m. Colorado, Oklahoma Border.
Ice hit the windshield of Arlo’s car, instantly being batted away by the wiper but the interior of the glass was blanketed in condensation, narrowing his view of the void outside. A few hours before he had sat on the overpass, questioning his sanity, watching the lights from a car move into the mass of creatures and then stop as they gathered around it. It made no sense. He waited for the things to tear the vehicle and occupants apart but instead they swarmed as if in deference to whomever was inside. And then a few minutes later the car left, the creatures going with it. He thought about stopping his chase. Things were happening which were beyond his comprehension and there was no way to bring his friends back. But instead of continuing to Denver, he took the exit south and followed the destruction. A few hours later he had seen the horde move in the direction of a town and knew if he followed there was a good chance he would get caught in the narrow streets, so instead he veered far left, a few miles to the east of the town of Newgrove, driving in bursts and spurts to check he wasn’t about to collide headfirst with something unnatural.
He hoped there were no survivors in the town, but if there were… He didn’t want to think about it. Instead, the car he had seen played within his mind. An awkwardly shaped piece of puzzle with no good hole to place it in. He had seen some of the creatures behave strangely over the past few days, as if they remembered what they once wore. Hints of more intelligent behavior and the attack on the school was odd. Why that school? A location on the outskirts of the larger town… could the music and light had been so obvious to what was watching from miles around?
The car… who were they….
There were at least two individuals in the car and the creatures restrained from killing them. It was almost as if these people were controlling the things…
As he drove up another incline on the miles and miles of due-south, two-lane road, slowing near the top, he searched for answers.
Could those in the car had sent the things to the school? Why though… What was in the school that was so important to destroy?
He thought about the Keller’s desperate effort to get their daughter back from a human, creature hybrid that had kidnapped her. It was all too much of a coincidence. That had to be part of it.
He stopped just before the crest of the small rise, turned off the headlights and eased down on the gas until he could see the horizon again on the other side. This had been the procedure since his detour and luckily the landscape had been a series of undulating shallow hills, giving him time to see for tens of miles ahead.
He wiped the glass in front of him, but it instantly misted up again, so instead he slid the window down to his lef
t and leaned out. Doing his best to ignore the flecks of snow landing on his glasses, he looked into the darkness, waiting a few seconds for his pupils to adjust. There were a few dark shapes highlighted by the lighter sky, but they were stationary. A sigh in relief became mist. “Looks… clear.”
Sitting back he looked across the passenger’s seat and the empty bottles. No more beer or water. He then looked at the glow coming from the dials on the dashboard and frowned. He reckoned he had another hundred miles at most of fuel. This time he was determined to refuel before the car ground to a halt. He eased down on the gas and rapidly moved down the slope still asking himself the questions as to what his plan was. Would he follow this army of things all the way to the Gulf of Mexico? Then that?
As the speedometer reached twenty and the small car continued its passage through the flurry of snow, he sat back in the bucket seat, shaking his head, not having an answer, but knowing he wouldn’t be stopping his pursuit until he had one.
CHAPTER TEN
8: 59 p.m. Newgrove.
Twin beams of light cut through the northeastern outskirts of Newgrove, the convoy making its way around fallen pylons and refuse which littered the roads. Off to the side, piles of rubble, once single-story homes were just visible beyond the glow from the vehicles.
In the pickup which led the way, everyone sat silent, keeping to themselves the horror which had befallen the town, but Jess wasn’t the only one to question how they would stop what had turned Newgrove into a ruin.
They moved deeper in, past trees which lay scattered like sticks in the darkness of snow-covered grounds until they reached more substantial brick built buildings, but even they had been reduced a story or two, their insides revealed by the illumination of the passing visitors.
Jess’s radio crackled, she held it up in anticipation.
“We see you,” said Owen. “Keep moving to the center of the town. We’ll meet you at what’s left of the police station. Over.”
She acknowledged and they were soon moving down Main Street, none of the stores having kept their windows and took a right at the intersection to see six vehicles, all parked haphazardly outside another pile of masonry, glass and steel.
The pickup and truck stopped, everyone quickly getting out, as a small group walked to them.
“Boy, are we see glad to see you folks,” said Owen, standing next to Luci and Floyd, all three lit by the headlights of the various vehicles.
“How many were there?” said Landon, joining his wife and a few others. A brief nod passed between Scott and the other soldier.
“Reckon a few hundred,” said Floyd. “Was hard to see. Could have been more, further out.”
“But you didn’t see the car?” said Jess.
Everyone but Luci shook their heads. “We lost track of it once it headed towards the town,” she said, looking between Josh’s parents then settled on Jess. “I’m sorry we didn’t know it was your son.”
“Even if the car wasn’t amongst those things,” said Owen. “There was nothing anyone could have done, other than get dead.”
Jess looked down, away from the self-appointed mayor of Newgrove then back to the soldier. “Do you have any idea which way they traveled?”
Luci shook her head. “I wish I could give you something more solid, but the trail of destruction they created heads south, so I’m guessing Oklahoma, Texas? If it helps, they weren’t moving particularly fast. It was pretty easy to track them and from what we saw outside Denver, Josh looked okay.” She kept to herself how scared the boy looked but it was enough for Jess to let out a breath.
Owen looked at the truck’s owner. “We could really need some more medical supplies, batteries, things like that, if you… don’t mind sparing some more?”
Sanchez nodded.
*****
9: 22 p.m. Newgrove.
Jess, Landon, Scott and a few others sat in the impressive office inside the town hall. Despite the scarring to the stonework outside the building, none of the creatures made it in. Perhaps they never tried to, but the plush room with an abundance of vanished wood and a few large paintings, hardly showed any sign that the world had ended a week before. A half-full cup of coffee even sat unfinished on the large mahogany desk, which was equally covered with a map of the southern states.
Scott shook his head. “I was sure that bastard was dead.” He looked at Luci. “It couldn’t have been something else? Another of the creatures? Some act almost...” Luci’s reaction gave him his answer. “We collapsed the whole facility on top of him…”
Jess didn’t want to believe the thing responsible for so much destruction had survived its own. She had no explanation for what Rackham was but after seeing what she did on the lowest level, nothing was impossible.
“And now he’s in charge of an army of those things…” said Landon.
“Don’t forget his second in command,” said Scott. “The soldier guy.”
“Finn…” They all looked at Jess. “That’s his name. Sam told me that’s what Joan called him.”
Owen, his balding head free of the hat usually seen there, walked closer to the desk and tapped the printed paper panels. “We can’t know the condition of the track, but we lucked out with the things leaving the main engine alone and some of the train cars. Its fully fueled with diesel and ready to move south.” He sighed, his face turning gray, looking around those in the room. “I’ve spent my whole life in Newgrove. Fully expected for it to end here, recently more than ever. But—” He looked to Scott. “But if you tell me there are people on the coast, then that’s where the people left in this town need to go.”
Luci walked closer to the map. “All I know is that was the plan, and after six days, which is roughly twelve hours from now, if the virus and creatures had gone, they would take back the city. Establish a beachhead, then from there—”
“Wait…” said Scott, moving closer to her. He looked up at the others. “What are the chances these things just happened to be making a direct path to Texas…” He looked at Jess who was leaning against the wall further back in the room, Landon seated nearby. “Why would the creatures be heading towards the only place left on this continent where there might be military?”
She knew the answer before he finished, but didn’t want to express it. She walked to the desk, looking at the towns and cities still left to be raised to the ground. “If what Lucas or whoever it was told me before is true, then… there might be offshore labs.” She looked at Scott and Luci. “He may have survived but we destroyed where he was working. Destroyed his work. He needs new facilities. Somewhere to start again…”
They all looked back down at the map and in particular, Galveston.
“That’s not good,” said Scott.
Landon awkwardly stood, looking at the soldier. “You don’t think those platoons you mentioned can handle the things?”
Scott subtly shook his head, biting his lip. “I don’t know.”
“They don’t know they’re coming,” said Luci. “Whoever’s in charge down there, will think the pandemic is over. No more monsters.”
Jess looked at Owen. “Your people are ready to leave?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
10: 01 p.m. Texas. Outskirts of Amarillo.
Arlo swore under his breath then eased down on the brakes, not due to any danger ahead but because he was completely lost. The car slowed to a halt and he sat looking through the largely clear windshield to a green sign mentioning an exit in a few miles.
“An exit to where?”
He had also not seen any hint of ruin from the creatures. Maybe they took a turn and headed west or east? Had he come all this way for nothing?
He pushed on the gas, driving up a slight incline and moved over a bridge. More signs for turnoffs passed by but then he caught an advertising boarding, mentioning an auto mechanics based in Texas.
“Texas?”
He hadn’t realized he had moved that far south. He started
to slow again, contemplating turning around, trying to pick up the trail again when the silhouettes of single-story homes started to appear, tens of yards back from the two-lane road. He hadn’t been anywhere near a town for a few hours, and the needle on the fuel gauge had just entered the red zone. Wherever the creatures were he wasn’t going to find them unless he found more gas.
Keeping at a steady forty-miles per hour he tried to spot any parked vehicles amongst the darkness, but most of the ranches appeared desolate, empty places. No doubt part of the exodus of people looking to survive what swept across the country a week before.
It wasn’t long before the buildings became more industrial in size and shape. Warehouses and manufacturing plants. Dark blocks against the lighter sky, which was now devoid of snow.
He was moving into a town, he was sure of it.
“Got to be a gas station…”
More signs of civilization slid by, along with more homes, these with vehicles in their drives but he was now confident that a gas station wouldn’t be too far off and soon his gamble paid off, but instead of turning onto the forecourt and driving close to a pump, he kept on driving, now intrigued by the town he was entering. And anyway, the virus was almost gone. It was almost six days since the nightmare began and he would have the entire town or perhaps city, he wasn’t sure which yet, to himself.
He also wanted another drink, water or otherwise and maybe some food? Yeah, why not. All his friends were dead, but he had survived. Time perhaps to relax a little, try and figure how what life would look like in this new world. The army of things were long gone and he never had a good reason to be following them anyway. He gave chase and had lost them amongst the wastelands of Oklahoma and Texas. What else could he do? Let the monstrosities find new targets, he needed to rest up. His departed friends would understand.