Cascade box set 2, p.23
Cascade Box Set 2, page 23
“I should have been. Why are you here? Are you alone?” As he talked, his flashlight’s beam bobbed around.
A noise came from behind making them both look in that direction.
Brad’s flashlight lit Abbey’s face. “Abbey!” His delight of seeing her was quickly turned into a frozen look of fright as Jai appeared from the shadows just behind her. “Sweet Heavens! There’s an E.L.F!” he went to grab for something holstered on his hip.
“No, that’s Jai, he’s with us,” said Zach as Abbey ran up and hugged Brad who was still shocked by the furry beast lurking behind her. “Maybe we should get behind that fence?” continued Zach.
“Err, yeah. Does he come too?” said Brad looking up at the towering creature.
“If that’s okay? I don’t want him out here alone,” said Abbey.
“Umm, sure.” He turned and pulled the gate a little more further back.
“We got a pickup, just a few yards down the road, I’ll get it.” Zach turned and ran into the darkness, switching on his own flashlight.
Brad pulled the second gate open and Abbey and Jai moved inside.
“We thought you were dead! Your home was burning!”
“I guess there’s a lot to talk about.”
Not long after Zach and Brad had brought their vehicles closer to the main house, and the gate was secured, they were sitting in a large candle lit kitchen, while Brad warmed up some stew on a stove. A brief accounting of what had happened over the past month passed between each of them while they were parking the cars, but all were hungry for more details.
“Run it past me again, how did you end up here?” said Zach sipping on some hot coffee.
Brad shook his head. “You don’t know how happy I am to hear those pieces of crap are ancient history!”
Zach looked at Abbey. “We all are.”
Brad did the same, she looked a few years older from when he had last seen her, he also noticed she walked with a slight limp and was trying not to use her left hand. “It’s good to see you alive and well young lady.”
Abbey smiled at someone seeing her as young, she had been feeling anything but, for longer than she could remember.
“Well I learned too late that the Hell Fire gang were destroying outposts. Although after Jim’s Nez’s outpost was taken I should have known. Should have prepared better.” He shook his head again. “Anyway, they had been watching me for a few days, and waited just for the right time. I took out a few of them, but there were just too many.”
He brought over two bowls and laid them down on the counter. Zach and Abbey both noticed the index finger on his left hand was half as long as it should have been.
“Ah, don’t mind that. They took it thinking I would tell them the locations of the other outposts, they were wrong!”
“They liked hurting people,” said Abbey.
“That they did. So they took me. Kept me alive thinking I would break at some point. Brought me back to Atlanta. They weren’t real clever when it came to keeping me locked up, and an opportunity arose and I grabbed it. I hid in the city, and after a few hours of looking they gave up.”
Abbey sniffed to herself in recognition. “I did the same when I escaped, in a parking-garage!”
“Mine was a basement of some office building.”
“Why didn’t you come back to the camp?” said Zach, eating the stew.
“I had overheard them saying how they were moving vehicles and people in that direction, and what with the E.L.F’s as well, I thought I’d head north. So I hot-wired a car, and did just that. I had meant to circle back around to the south, but after a few hundred miles, I thought why not keep going to this outpost and warn those here. Unfortunately I was too late.” He turned and leaned up against another of the counters. “Thirty six men, women and children were here, in this house. You might have seen the boarded up windows. I’ve been fixing it best I could. I was planning on getting the radio masts back up and running as well. But yeah, I found them all dead. By the looks of things had been that way for some time. But it sounds like I missed all the fun being way out here?”
Zach smiled. “Maybe it was better you did.”
CHAPTER SIX
Zach sat up in a sweat and breathing heavily. He looked to his side, Abbeys shape beneath the thick blanket was just visible. Just a few moments before he was lost in a world full of explosions, screams and fury. He had been running for his life, from a creature which filled the sky above him, and just as one of its gargantuan hoofs came down upon his head, he woke.
Nights filled with terror were par for the course and weren’t getting any less frequent, even with the gang defeated. He had found catching a few moments of sleep throughout the day managed to get him through, but he always felt drained.
Putting on his pants and boots he crept over the impressive carpet and out onto the landing. Even though he had seen Brad blow out all of the candles before they all headed off for the night, a glow came from somewhere below.
He walked down the grand staircase of the Greek revival style home and onto one of the large rugs which covered the hardwood floors. The light was coming from beneath a door under the stairs.
He opened it slowly and looked down a small flight of steps. A candle burned on a holder attached to the wall. Walking down he arrived at the door at the bottom and pushed it open.
“Who’s that?” shouted Brad from somewhere within the maze of high shelves ahead of Zach.
“This is a little bigger than your last basement!” Zach walked forward and examined a tray of cans that looked like they contained a kind of meat. They sat about five feet from the ground on one of six shelves, making up just one section of rows and rows of other supplies. Food, water, bedding, books, everything needed to survive seemed to be within easy reach.
“I’m over here!”
Zach followed the voice, coming out into an open space near one of the far walls. Along it was a large worktop, and a wall full of equipment. Brad was sitting down with a pair of welding glasses perched up on the top of his head.
“Couldn’t sleep then?” said Brad.
“No.” Zach sat on one of the three chairs that was close by. “This is something,” he said looking around.
Brad swiveled around on his chair. “This basement covers the entire size of the house above our heads. Enough for thirty people for a few years I would say.”
“I get the impression you’re not planning on going back?”
“To Roswell or the camp?”
“Either?”
Brad smiled and pulled his welding glasses off, laying them on the worktop. He then walked a short distance and pulled a bottle and two glasses from a shelf. “From the sounds of it, there’s nothing left for me in Roswell. As Abbey described it, that was a pretty extensive fire. And well, the camp never seemed like it was the place for me.”
“It’s a place for everyone, I’ll see to that when I return… but I know you’ve always preferred your own space.” Zach took the half filled glass of liquor and took a sip. “That’s pretty sharp,” he said breathing in.
Brad smiled. “Found it in one of the drawers upstairs in the study. Think it belonged to John Hopkins, the guy who ran this outpost.”
“Did you know him?”
“Nah, not really. We exchanged a few messages on the radio sometimes, but no. I buried him with his wife and the others in the old cemetery outback.”
“We noticed it driving in.”
Brad took a sip of his drink. “So Abbey’s a Cascader?”
Zach looked down. “Yeah. She and the others saved my ass more times than I can count. Same for the camp. If it weren’t for the Cascaders we would have lost our little war.”
“How does that work? The whole, controlling the E.L.F’s?”
“She could tell you better than I, but when a Cascader connects with a creature, they sort of imprint onto it and the creature does whatever the Cascader wants them to do from—”
“What?”
Zach suddenly remembered Cal, and that Brad didn’t know. “We lost Cal.”
Brad’s face contorted. “What?”
“We were south-west of Atlanta. Doing some recon, when things went sideways, he was killed.”
Brad’s eyes looked past Zach, as he took another sip. “I’m sorry to hear that, he seemed a good guy. Didn’t talk much, but he seemed someone you could depend on.”
“Yeah.” Zach took another sip.
“So what’s your plans? It’s still a long way to Boston.”
Zach swallowed the last of his drink. “Get to Boston, Abbey does what she needs to do, then we get back and start helping with the rebuild.”
“If you can spare a day or two, I could do with some help getting the radio mast back up,” he looked down at the mangle of wires and boxes in front of him. “I’ve almost got the wiring sorted, I just need some muscle to hoist the poles vertical.”
Zach wanted to get up north and back as soon as he could, but there was something about the place that Brad was putting together that made him feel like he belonged. “We can do that.”
*****
The wind buffeted Zach as he gripped the rope. The thirty-foot high alloy tripod was at a forty-five degree angle and dangled straining against the ropes holding it up.
“You got it?” shouted Brad twenty feet away, securing ropes at his end.
“Yes!” Shouted Zach.
“Hold it there!” said Brad as he ran across to where Zach was. He then gripped the rope as well. “Start pulling!”
They both heaved, pulling in unison and inch by inch the radio tower pointed towards the blue sky above them. After a few minutes of grunting and tensing their muscles the mast was vertical, with each of its legs resting in small holes in its cement base.
“Right, great. Keep holding it while I run around and secure the other tethers.” Brad took off running to each side, over the mud and small shoots of green grass, and locking down each steel cord. He then raised his hand and Zach let go of the rope. Zach walked over to him. He was knelt with his hand on a thick plastic pipe. “I’m running the cables through this, should keep them protected in most weather conditions.” He looked up at Zach. “Let’s see if she works!”
As they walked back to the house, they heard Abbey laughing in another part of the field around the side of the house. Instead of going inside they kept walking until she came into view.
“Well there’s something you don’t see everyday,” said Brad.
Abbey was holding a branch, which Jai was gripped on with his teeth and Mo was trying to take off with. The three of them were spinning around, pulling and pushing while Abbey was laughing. It could have been a scene from just a year ago, except with the animals from the past.
Zach smiled.
Brad patted him on the back. “Hopefully, I’ve connected everything right!”
“Yeah,” said Zach still watching her.
They both walked down into the basement, and sat in front of a large wall of metal boxes containing knobs and plastic faced dials.
Brad stretched behind one of the boxes and made sure the different cables were connected securely. “This little lot is at least thirty years old. They must have salvaged it from an old radio station or something.” He sat back down in front of the boxes. “Hopefully things will work as well as what I had back in Roswell.” He placed his hand on a switch. “Here goes nothing.”
Throwing the switch upwards, brought the whole system to life, with the meters lighting up, and immediately static came from two large speakers either side of the worktop.
“So far so good. Let’s switch to the right frequencies.” He looked down to numbers that were written on a small piece of paper, then adjusted the dials in front of him. Finally, he picked up the mike. “This is Brad Crenshaw, calling from Kentucky outpost, for Camp Bravo. Over.”
Static came back to them from the speakers.
“This is Brad—”
“We hear you loud and clear Brad—”
Brad and Zach both clenched their fists and let out a small cheer.
“—This is Core operations at Camp Bravo, in Texas. We thought your outpost was destroyed or abandoned? Over.”
Before Brad could reply, General Trows voice came through the speaker. “Brad! I thought you were dead! You’re in Arkansas? Over.”
“Good to hear you Elizabeth. It’s a long story. I’ve got someone else here who wants a word.” He handed the mike to Zach standing close by.
“Hey General, we made it. Didn’t expect to find this guy here though! Over.”
“Are the other people there from the outpost? Over.”
“No. But Brad should probably explain about that. How’s the rebuilding going? Over.”
“Making progress. Actually maybe we can discuss that later. We have been putting some of the E.L.F’s to work. Some of the species are surprisingly useful. Over.”
“I look forward to hearing more. Here’s Brad. Over.” He handed the mike back, and then turned around. Abbey was standing there, smiling.
CHAPTER SEVEN
A low rumbling howl echoed in the night.
A heavy set man with a ponytail, chipped away at a log with a six inch blade, his face lit by a fire. Around him sat a group of disheveled looking men and women.
“The boys are hungry,” said Clovis without looking up as he scraped the knife along the piece of wood.
Eyes amongst the group flicked from person to person, but nobody moved.
Clovis stopped scraping. “Someone go feed them…”
An older man, who looked like he hadn't eaten for a week, looked at the man with the large knife. “Clovis, we hardly got any food left in the store. What—No—No.”
Clovis half lifted the man by his shoulders and dragged him across the dust and grime laden floor of the warehouse they were in, to the exit door. Most looked on in horror, apart from a thickset young woman, who was using a splinter to pick dirt from her nails.
Clovis kicked the door open and the chilled night air flooded past him. The man went to scramble to his feet, when a muscular hand grabbed the back of his neck, spinning him around and in one continuous movement slung him out into the darkness. The tall ponytailed man stood for a moment with his eyes closed, as the old man pleaded to be allowed back in, then pulled the door closed.
As he walked back to the fire they had built on the ground floor of this former farm equipment warehouse, the growls and snarls increased beyond the walls. There was then a short scream which abruptly ended.
Clovis sat back down in his original spot, and picked up the wooden pole which was quickly transforming into a spear. He looked at it intently. “Best, some of you find some more food by tomorrow night.”
Murmurs of “Yes” and “We, will,” rippled around the group.
Further away from the others, two people sat.
A young gaunt looking man, needing a haircut, shifted uncomfortably on the floor, then leaned into the older man next to him. “He say anything about where we’re heading? Is there a plan?”
“He just said we’re heading north.”
“Why north?”
“He didn’t give a reason why. Just said it’s what his gut is telling him.”
The young man shook his head.
“If you think you’ll do better by yourself out there—” The older man nodded to the door. “—Then I don’t think Clovis would stop you from leaving.”
Brett sighed. “Bryan, you’re a doc, he needs you. He needs me like he needed Dwayne. I got no love for being food for his giant bear things.”
“Then be useful. Find things we need. You heard him. Find food.”
Brett looked across at the young woman with braided hair sitting a few feet from Clovis. “It’s fine for her. She just gotta use that body of hers, and Clovis will do what she wants.”
The doctor frowned, and for the first time since Brett started talking looked at him. “You know Lilly is not that way inclined. And I’ve never seen him show affection for anyone. Well, apart from those things outside.”
The fire flared up, making those close move back, apart from Clovis.
Bryan leaned further back against the mash up of cardboard that he was using as a bed. “Get some sleep, Brett.”
The young man wanted to be gone from this place, from these people. He and his ma and pa got drafted into the gang months back when they passed through the small south-western town he grew up in. He survived the battles the gang dragged everyone into, his parents didn’t. Now it was just him, and the leftovers from Geneva’s and Troy’s great war on the camp, and he didn’t care for any of them. Including the old man laying next to him. When he heard they were attacking the camp near Austin, he nodded and cheered like the thousands of others that had been press-ganged into joining, but deep down he never wanted to be part of it. ‘Do unto others, what you would have done unto you,’ his ma used to tell him, just before she tucked him in as a child. And he tried to live that way. He figured it was as good a way to be as any other. But men like Clovis just preyed on people, on the weak. Like how Clovis and the others treated the pretty lady back in Atlanta. The one he gave water too, and who he saw again on the truck when they traveled west. Clovis seemed to have a particular dislike for her.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Zach shook Brad’s hand. Above them a blanket of gray clouds covered the sky and a cool wind blew across them.
“Should be a few days before the group from the camp get here,” said Zach.
“I’ll have some of my stew waiting for them!” Brad then looked uneasily at the large brown fur covered creature standing a few yards from him. They were all standing near the large gate at the outer edge of the property.
Abbey talked to the large creature in hushed tones, which then hopped up into the back of the pickup.
She then turned and walked to Brad, giving him a hug. “I never thought I’d see you again.”
Brad nodded. “It’s going to take a lot more than a bunch of fanatics to make me part of history, young lady.”
