Cascade box set 2, p.51
Cascade Box Set 2, page 51
Next he was in a tree. The smell of pine needles filled the air and he could see that he had not four, but six limbs of some sort, each holding securely to the branches.
Then he felt light, and reeds and pieces of rubbish flew past him quicker than he could recognize them. He was underwater. As he looked around hundreds of E.L.F’s which looked like octopuses but had two human like arms with hands as well as their tentacles flowed past him.
Elcher… I need to concentrate… Elcher!
Suddenly the world around him disappeared as if being switched off, and all around was almost complete darkness apart from a small far off light, which was growing in size. He looked down at his own arms and feet. He was human again. The light was coming fast.
“Elcher? Are you—”
A beast from biblical texts sprung forth from the light and stood in front of him. Its huge bat light wings spreading out and then receding. The creature bathed in the light which seemed to hang above both of them, stepped forward and then leaned closer to him. “Whhhyy you heer?”
Wyatt leaned back slightly. “Are you Elcher? I’m a Cascader, can you help us stop umm you?”
Back in the CIC the heart machine monitoring Wyatt’s heart started beeping.
“Raj?” said Zach trying to understand what was going on.
The doctor turned the machine off. “Cascaders hearts beat faster than ours do, he should be fine…”
“Cascccaders can… stttop… Hulathen… coming…. for…” The large humanoid creature stepped back, and seemed to be distracted by something that Wyatt couldn’t see. “Prrrootect… Cascccaders….”
“What? Why? What’s—”
As if being sucked away into oblivion the towering Hulathen shrunk into the distance and then was gone. Wyatt looked around into the intense black with only the small area around him being lit still. “Hello?…”
Bright lights, sounds and smells flooded back into his senses. His arms flailed pulling the electrical cables from his body.
“Wyatt? Can you hear me? You’re back with us,” said Raj standing over him and trying to look at his pupils.
“Yeah, yeah I’m with you, get the light out of my eyes.”
Fiona handed Wyatt a bottle of water which he took some gulps from.
Mitchell walked closer to him. “Well kid, did you talk to the big bad in the sky?”
Wyatt nodded. “I think so…” He then looked at those intently looking at him. “He said we need to protect the Cascaders.”
Zach kneeled near Wyatt’s chair. “Why?”
The young man looked at him with red eyes. “He said the Hulathen are coming for them.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Abbey pushed open the door to the second floor motel room and kicked it closed behind her without turning. The single bed was a tangle of stained sheets, but she didn’t care for the thirty miles they just covered had drained her of all but the ability to stagger. She sat down heavily on the mattress and stretched out. Her eyes just caught the pink orange hues of the setting sun on the walls in front of her before they closed.
A searing noise pierced her mind. She sat bolt upright. Flashes of blue appeared on the wall in front of her, in neat rows. Then it was darkness again. A woman started screaming quickly followed by the roars and screeches of E.L.F’s. For a moment she was sure she was having flashbacks of the battles of a few months back and shook her head, expecting the noises outside to subside, but instead booming knocks pounded at her door.
“Miss Reisner! Are you awake?” Came a young male voice she recognized. “It’s me Brett, Miss. Reisner, we have too—”
The wall at the end of her bed lit up again with the same intense blue-white streaks. This time she knew she wasn’t dreaming as she quickly looked at the light streaming through the blinds, until it reverted back to black again. She stood up, put her pants on then pulled the door open. Brett went to speak but stopped when he could see Abbey wasn’t paying any attention to him. Instead she stepped out onto the balcony mouth agape at the scene in front of her. Streams of light were intermittently turning off and on across the landscape, while those that she had traveled west with, were running left and right in the parking lot below. She squinted trying to understand where the beams were traveling up too, but the cloud was low and hid anything beyond a certain height.
“They’re taking us!” shouted Brett trying to wake her from her waking dream.
She looked at him. “What?”
He went to answer but stopped when he noticed once again she wasn’t listening. Instead her gaze was over his shoulder.
A dark humanoid shape was walking over a nearby field towards the motel.
“What…” Was all she could say as the figure came closer to the parking lot.
Brett looked in the same direction. “What the hell is that? It’s huge! Is it an E.L.F?”
“I…” Her mouth resisted saying what she knew to be true. “They’re here…”
“Who? What’s here?”
“The Hulathen…”
The twelve-foot high demonic looking creature, covered in a form of blue-purple armor bounded over a car and landed in the center of the parking lot. The feline E.L.F that Abbey encountered a few nights before leaped from the roof of the motel, six inch claws primed, towards the figure. Before the E.L.F was even close to striking the figure swiftly turned its arm towards it, and from it a burst of energy streamed forth leaving a perfect hole through the center of the creature, which fell lifeless to the ground.
Other E.L.F’s scampered forward and jumped at the armored figure, including the large insect beast. The Hulathen struck down some with its weapon, while slicing others with a tail which was covered in spikes. Each E.L.F which fell was accompanied with a wail of a Cascader watching on in anguish. Finally the large prehistoric looking creature that Abbey knew belonged to Erin stormed into the parking lot, knocking aside cars like they were toys and slammed into the armored alien figure knocking it through the air some twenty yards and through the wall of one of the motel rooms. Some cheers echoed around the lot.
Brett walked along the balcony to have a better view.
Abbey tentatively walked with him as the large reptilian E.L.F stomped forward towards the dust and rubble where the Hulathen had crashed. Out of the corner of her eye she could still see vertical columns of light switching on and off across the landscape.
“I think it’s dea—”
Abbey felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up and without thinking dragged Brett and herself to the floor. The space around them lit with a light so bright they had to shield their eyes even though they were facing down. When it was gone, Brett scrambled back as he was teetering on the edge of a smoldering hole.
More shouts and screams came from outside.
Abbey got back to her feet helping Brett do the same. The Hulathen was climbing out of the wreckage of the building, while the semi-truck sized carcass of Erin’s E.L.F lay divided into two half's on the ground.
Even without the sounds of anger and rage, Abbey could sense the grief of the Cascaders around her.
The towering alien walked forward and kicked the E.L.F it had just killed, and made a sound which to Abbey sounded like laughing. It then did something far worse, it looked up at her.
Both her and Brett ducked down and started crawling back to the room.
Gunfire started up all around them, but after each burst there was an intense bright light and the gunfire stopped.
They both fell into the motel room and pushed the door closed behind.
“We have too—”
This time she just had enough time to push Brett away, while she fell backwards. The beam was so close it burned her face. When it was gone the clouds could be seen through a perfectly circular hole, which ran from the ceiling above to the floor between them.
She blinked trying to get the light echo from her vision and make out if Brett had been clear or not. “You there?”
The sound of broken furniture was replaced with Brett’s voice. “I’m here…”
As she lay on the carpet feeling the cool night wind on her face, she closed her eyes and tried to reach out into the universe around her. Elcher, or whatever your name is, we could do with some help…
The sound of people running and shouting mixed in with some gunfire outside, but she still laid on her back looking up at the clouds moving silently across the night sky. Then she saw it, a dark rectangular shape holding its place as the clouds moved over it. She knew what was coming as the hairs on her arms spiked once more. She closed her eyes and waited.
After ten seconds she opened them. The dark shape was gone and there was only silence from outside.
*****
About a hundred people laid and sat across molded seats and the hard wood floor of bowling lanes. Most were Cascaders.
In an employee’s common room at the back, Abbey, Erin, Dale and Clovis sat and stood. A few candles lit their faces, some of which were bloodied and burned.
“I reckon this is her doing!” said Dale at Abbey.
Erin looked at the floor, it was the most deflated Abbey had seen him. “We do not know why this is happening.”
“She comes with us and the same night! Weird alien stuff starts happening. That ain’t no coincidence in my book! That thing killed all our creatures!”
Abbey tried ignoring Clovis’s cold eyes that never left her.
Erin looked at her. “You told me some things before which I had a hard time believing, now maybe I’m thinking you were right.”
“What things?” growled Clovis.
Abbey refused to look in the tall mans direction, instead she addressed Erin. “They are aliens. They are call—”
Clovis snorted. “You always were a crazy bitch.”
A ripple of rage ran through her. She went to continue talking to Erin, but couldn’t. Instead she looked directly at Clovis. “How’s the leg? I saw you limping, hope that’s not permanent?”
Clovis stood up and walked towards her.
Before he was within striking distance, Erin looked at him. “Clovis…”
The large man went to take another step, then as if his face was itching, he squinted, stopped and looked at the man who was sitting on the desk.
“This is not the time for this. Please sit back down.”
Abbey watched Clovis seemingly wanting to take another step forward, but instead he grumbled something then turned and sat back in the place he just left. She had seen Clovis take orders from others before, but this was different, this was as if he couldn’t say no.
Erin turned from Clovis and looked back at Abbey. “Tell us what you know—” He leaned in closer. “It would be good for you, if you were completely honest with me.”
She recounted most of what she had been told, even telling her own role in events and Zach’s and Fiona’s little venture beyond the atmosphere. By the time she was done she thought she would regret what she had said, but instead she felt strangely relieved.
“I told you it was her fault!” Said Dale.
Abbey tried not to greet the attention of the men around her. “It’s not just the creatures that will change, it’s the plants as well. There will be nothing for… old-worlders to eat. The planet will become completely alien to them. And do you want to live somewhere, which looks like an alien planet? The buildings, infrastructure, any sign of your human past will be gone,” she said.
“Meh, I’m fine with it,” said Dale.
Erin took a long deep breath. “Dale does have a point Abbey. Why should we care about the ecosystem changing, I do care however about what happened tonight. Why the… Hulathen attacked us.”
Erin’s words had lost their energy and she suddenly realized this was her chance to try and change the path the man in charge was on.
“I know you don’t care about the old-worlders, but right now we need them. They have access to guns, planes and machinery we don’t. Even with our control of the E.L.F’s we won’t be able to stop the Hulathen from plucking each and everyone of us and taking us who knows where!”
Erin was not looking at her, instead he continued to look down.
“And I know you don’t want to do it and you had all these grand plans to setup a Cascader town or whatever it is you wanted, but whatever these things are that are in our skies, we can’t fight them without help. We need to return to the bunkers, maybe we can survive down there with the others.”
Clovis growled something and got to his feet. “You gonna listen to this BS? I ain’t going back—”
Abbey continued. “Maybe once all this is over, they will let the Cascaders have their own territory? Anything’s possible. But I—”
Clovis sneered and put his hand on the door handle of the exit.
“Clovis, why do you insist on doing things the hard way—” The taller man’s hand trembled seemingly trying to pull the handle down. “—What can the old-worlders do to us really? We have the power. But Abbey is right, we could use them. Use their machines. Don’t you think that is right?”
From where Abbey was sitting she could see Clovis’s hand still shaking, but not putting any pressure on the handle. She also noticed his eyes. Wide and looking at the door. He then looked at her with an expression that shocked her. He looked scared.
“Whatever you want Erin,” he said.
“Good. You can leave now.”
Clovis’s shoulders relaxed as if a weight was suddenly taken from them, and he pushed the handle down and left.
Erin looked back at Abbey. “Tomorrow we find new creatures, then we head back to the bunkers.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
A single turreted Humvee drove at pace along the highway. The sun had been above the horizon for an hour, but early morning mist still lingered in valleys.
“When I look at the green that’s appearing on the trees and from the earth, I wonder which of it is alien,” said Diaz in the backseat looking at the forests passing by. To her left Michael stood manning the main gun.
“It’s not over until the fat lady does her thing,” said Fiona driving.
“If what Abbey says is right, then if enough Cascaders get together they have the power to stop anymore damage from happening to the ecosystem,” said Zach in the passenger’s seat.
“All the Cascaders I’ve come across tend to want to do their own thing…” said Diaz.
“If anyone can pull them together its Abbey,” said Fiona before Zach had a chance to say the same thing.
“And maybe this Erin guy can help,” said Zach.
Fiona briefly looked at him while steering around some abandoned cars. “You don’t really believe that? All we know of him so far is that he’s friends with Clovis and he killed a bunch of civilians trying to steal their shit. It’s another tin-pot dictator all over again.”
Zach frowned while looking out of the side window, glancing at the cloudless sky. “Maybe, but we got bigger fish to fry.”
Only another ten minutes had passed before Diaz sat up in her seat. “I’m sensing a massive build up of Cascaders and E.L.F’s ahead of—”
Michael banged on the roof of the Humvee causing Fiona to slow. “There’s something up ahead,” he shouted.
Fiona slowed the Humvee to a stop.
Zach pushed the door open and got out, taking his binoculars with him. “It’s a convoy, mixture of vehicles and—” A loud squawk made him look skywards while ducking slightly. A large shadow momentarily blocked the sun and then he felt an updraft and the sound of beating wings. Mo landed on the asphalt just a few yards in front of the Humvee, beating his wings and mildly squawking.
Zach smiled. “Hey buddy!”
Inside the vehicle Fiona watched the column of vehicles and creatures grow closer. “I guess that Erin has had a change of heart.”
Diaz had her hand on her rifle. “Or they have returned to finish what they started.”
Fiona pushed her door open. “We’ll soon find out.” She looked up at Michael. “Stay alert.” He nodded in reply.
A number of vehicles pulled up about twenty yards along the highway. An assortment of other E.L.F’s some four legged others two, walked forward then stopped parallel with the vehicles.
Car doors opened and a bearded man got out of one side, while a woman got out of the other. Even from this distance Zach recognized Abbey.
They both walked slowly forward until they stood just a few feet away from Zach and the Humvee. Erin pulled his leather gloves off and walked up to Zach. “It’s a beautiful morning, no?”
“Err… sure.” Zach looked at Abbey wanting to embrace her, but she stayed rooted to the spot behind the man.
Erin held out his hand. “I am Erin Santiago of Irish and Hispanic stock.”
Zach shook his hand. “I’m—”
“I know who you are. You are the man that I was told was dead, but as I can see is very much alive.”
“I don’t—”
Erin waved his hand. “It doesn’t matter, Abbey told me the truth last night.”
Abbey walked forward and embraced Zach. “Just go along with it,” she whispered into his ear.
Zach looked confused as Abbey pulled away.
Erin walked closer to both of them. “So, it would seem we can be of some use to each other?”
*****
Four sturdy looking soldiers stood on both sides of Erin, while he entered the CIC. Zach, Fiona, Abbey and Bower were behind him, while general Mitchell and others were already inside.
“And you would be the sonofabitch who killed fifty-two of my people?” Said the general not moving from her position behind the illuminated table in the center of the room.
A number of soldiers seated in front of screens briefly looked at each other, then back at their work.
Erin smiled while walking forward. “I am Erin Santiago, of—”
“Yeah yeah. I don’t care. What do you want? And what’s stopping me from putting a bullet in your head?”
Erin stood at the opposite end of the five-foot long glowing table, which was covered in maps and charts. “All of us need to stand together to fight the menace which created the Cascade in the first place.”
