Cascade box set 2, p.43
Cascade Box Set 2, page 43
“This is important. Tell her Abbey Reisner needs to talk to her. She’ll want to know what I have to say.”
The soldier frowned then turned and walked to an old fashioned phone mounted on the wall, and relayed Abbey’s message. It wasn’t long before the red door was opening.
“Follow me ma’am,” said another soldier.
After walking for what seemed ten minutes, but must have been half of that, the soldier led Abbey into a tunnel with multiple doors, but only one of them had two armed guards outside. The soldier knocked on the door. The general’s voice came from the other side and the soldier waved Abbey inside.
“I thought you would be still resting,” said Mitchell.
Abbey looked around the luxurious decorated room, which had two other doors. Paintings adorned the walls along with bookshelves that dusty volumes sat on. Unlike the rest of the bunker the floors here were covered in rugs, and chairs, sofas and a large desk sat on them.
“I need to get back up top.”
“And why do you need to go back outside? We have everything you could need down here. Why don’t you take a seat. Would you like a drink? I got a good selection here.” She briefly pointed at the well-stocked drinks cabinet alongside the book shelves.
Abbey shook her head. “I’m fine, thanks. Don’t you patrol outside the bunker at all?” She sat on one of the sofas, enjoying the softness of it.
The general sat on the edge of her desk. “It was a month ago the last time we stepped on the surface, and even that was a close call. We needed to erect a new antenna, as the creatures destroyed the old one. We sent a team, including two Cascaders, but they were unable to keep the creatures away for long. Anyway we got the job done, but since then… we just patrol the tunnels beyond the bunkers.”
“I think I can help with that. It’s taken a while but I’m pretty skilled with my umm abilities, and I can teach your Cascaders to use theirs. But we have to do it on the surface. I can’t sense anything down here. I feel…”
“Cut off?”
“Sorta. It’s like I’m deaf or something. It’s hard to explain.”
“Hmm. I noticed since you have been here, you haven’t asked to contact your camp…”
“Oh they—”
“Are you running from them?”
It was a question that she didn’t want to answer. She wasn’t here for that. “I thought you didn’t want for anyone else to know about the bunkers? I thought you wouldn’t let me communicate with them, so I didn’t ask…” It was a good excuse off the top of her head she thought.
Mitchell smiled. “Well you’re right about that. But about the other thing. It’s swarming with E.L.F’s up top. I would be risking the lives of anyone I send up there, including your own, even with all your super powers.”
Abbey sat forward. “You can’t stay locked up underground forever. And what’s more, you don’t need too. In my camp near Austin, people live and go about their daily lives and the Cascaders keep everyone safe. It works… well until the Hell fire gang appeared, but that wasn’t the E.L.F’s fault or the Cascaders.”
Mitchell took a long breath and crossed her arms. “Maybe you can take a few at a time, with a two soldier escort.”
*****
“It’s a beautiful day!” said Burt as he stood up from climbing out of the sewer. Turning around he reached back down and helped Abbey out. She immediately searched the intensely blue skies for Mo.
After her came two soldiers, one seemingly a lot older than the other. Taylor, the gray-haired sergeant came first, looking at the skies suspiciously. After came a young woman.
“Look sharp Clayton. I want your eyes permanently fixed on the buildings and trees around us, you got that private?”
“Yes, sir!”
“I got a bad feeling about this.” A young man with black short hair peered out of the manhole.
“Come on Jason, I don’t have all day!” came a woman’s voice from below him.
“Yeah yeah Claire, stop your complaining, I’m just getting a feel for things, you know, Cascader style.” He climbed up and out.
“You’re not going to help an old lady? Puh!” said Claire.
Jason rolled his eyes and leaned back into the hole, allowing the elderly woman to grab hold of his hand.
Abbey couldn’t sense Mo anywhere in the skies around her and it made her feel queasy. He’s out there, he’s just off doing his own thing. Pushing the uneasy feeling away, she switched to sensing all the other creatures that they were surrounded by. There were a lot and the closest of which were already moving towards them.
Jason tried to enjoy the feeling of the sun on his face, for it was the first time since Christmas that he had been topside, but his anxiety was squashing any good feelings he might have. He looked at Abbey who was just standing there with her eyes closed. That didn’t help.
“So how we do this? We join hands or—”
A loud rumbling came from behind what was left of an old three story shop and apartment block. He looked back at the manhole.
“Young lady, what should we do? We are at your mercy out here,” said Claire.
The rumbling grew louder and part of the building they were all looking at collapsed sending a plume of dust into the air.
The Sergeant raised his gun. “Clayton, move ten yards to the south, behind that car. I’ll cover them from the—”
With an explosion of masonry and metal beams, something the size of a large car looking like a cross between a beetle and a rhino, sprung from the smoke and charged towards them.
“Start doing your thing Cascaders or we’re going to fire!” Shouted Taylor as the ground shuddered.
Instead of stepping back, Abbey walked forwards.
“Is she nuts?” said Jason moving towards the hole in the ground.
“It’s okay son, she’s got this,” said Burt.
Claire looked at the young man at her side and smiled, then walked forward towards Abbey who raised her hands out in front of her.
The creature skidded to a stop, causing small stones and debris to fly up at them.
Once they all uncovered their eyes all but Burt’s mouth lay open, for Abbey was standing just a few feet away from the E.L.F that towered above her.
“How she do that?” said Jason.
“Well I’ll be…” said Taylor.
Abbey turned around, looking directly at the two other Cascaders. “It’s okay, come here both of you, She won’t hurt you.”
“You can tell it’s a girl?“ said Jason tentatively stepping forward looking wide eyed at the beast which now seemed docile.
“I can. She’s also pregnant.”
“Okay first lesson, Jason you first. Close your eyes—”
“Yeah, I dunno if I can do that.”
“Just trust me.”
A screech rang out around the junction they were standing in the middle of, making everyone but Burt and Abbey duck slightly.
“Mo!” Shouted Abbey walking away, as the bird monkey E.L.F swooped down from the heavens and landed just a few feet away from her.
Jason and Claire looked at each other then looked at the vision of spikes and armor in front of them.
Mo jumped up and down fluttering and screeching.
“I’m happy to see you too! Sorry I don’t have any biscuits, but…” She reached into her pack and pulled out some sweet bread, offering him some which he sniffed at then took.
“Umm, I don’t mean to break up your reunion but what do we do with like the big monster that is right, like…here.”
“Ha, yeah, sorry. Jason, close your eyes, then with your mind try and feel the being in front of you. Don’t try and ‘see’ it, feel it.”
“Okay, here goes.”
Burt whispered something into Abbey’s ear.
“Don’t go far, I can only sense a few miles,” she replied. He nodded.
A tingling started to rise up Jason’s spine, until he could feel a presence. But that’s all he could sense, just that he wasn’t alone in his own head.
“When you sense her, think of something which makes you happy…” Abbey noticed the large E.L.F was moving slowly towards Jason. “Yeah that’s it.”
Jason opened his eyes, when he felt hot foul smelling fumes wafting over his face. “Ahghh!”
Everyone laughed. The creature’s head ducked and bobbed up and down.
“She likes you, whatever you thought about did the trick.”
He looked at Abbey. “I just thought about my kid sister.”
She nodded then looked at Claire. “Right, your turn.”
Over the next hour, Claire and Jason had both taken control of a few E.L.F’s each, under the watchful eye of Abbey. Taylor and Clayton had even gone back to the bunker and brought back food for everyone. It wasn’t until the end of the second hour that she started to worry about Burt.
Abbey sat on the hood of the front half of a sedan, looking at the streets and broken buildings around her.
“And he’s not a Cascader right?” said Jason sitting alongside.
“Nope.”
“Would you sense if any of the creatures around us had attacked him?”
“I don’t know, maybe. But that’s not the point, he knew not to go far.”
“You know which direction he went in?”
She shook her head, and pointed. “I think towards the stores over there.”
Jason stood. “Then why don’t we go find him. It’s not like any—”
An overwhelming sensation flooded Abbey’s mind, sending a paralyzing chill across her body. She grabbed Jason’s arm stopping him mid-sentence. “We have to go now.”
“But, your friend?” he said trying to keep his feet as she pulled him back towards the center of the junction, where the others were sitting and chatting. They all looked up at her confusion in their faces. Taylor knew something was not right, and leaped to his feet, aiming his gun at the windows and mounds of rubble around them.
A voice boomed out across the vine-covered road. “I always knew you would come back to me.”
It was a voice she recognized. She froze while the world around her seemed to slow down, as if she was drowning.
A millipede like creature the length of two semi-trucks, rose up from some nearby bushes and rubble and slid across the road towards them. Abbey could sense the creature’s intent, and immediately focused her mind on it, but it kept coming.
Jason ran forward. “I got this!”
“No!” Shouted Abbey, trying to catch up with him, but it was too late. In a blink of an eye the creature’s pincers grabbed hold of the young man, and then tossed him like a doll through the air.
Mo Squawked and landed on the creature’s back, grabbing at its many horns.
Bullets started slicing the air, when Abbey could feel a presence behind her. She turned to face the man she hated more than any other on this earth. Clovis.
He stood a hundred yards off, surrounded by his toys. At least ten six legged bear like creatures stood alongside him, salivating and growling in her direction.
“He wants me! Quick, just get inside the tunnels and try and get back to the bunker!” she shouted.
Taylor looked at Jason lying motionless some tens of yards from them.
Abbey noticed him looking. “You won’t make it, just go!”
Claire was already disappearing down the manhole, with Clayton behind her, while Taylor continued to fire at the creature Mo was tussling with.
“What about you?” He said as he climbed into the hole.
“Just go!”
Taylor ducked down and pulled the cover over his head, sealing it tight.
Abbey looked back at Clovis. He looked to his left and right and his beasts charged forward. Turning, she moved towards Mo while instructing him what she wanted him to do at the same time.
Letting go of the creature underneath him, he took to the air. Abbey raised her arms which he grabbed and soon they was rising high above the ground. She looked back as one of the bear creatures jumped into the air, but she was already out of its reach. Looking at Jason lying on the ground, she reached out with her mind but couldn’t sense anything. He was dead.
As she flew over the nearest two story building, the growls and roars of Clovis’s pets filled the warm air and the artificial spires of central Boston were visible just on the horizon. She indicated with her mind where she wanted to go and Mo started flying east.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
As the helicopter touched down from Pittsburgh on the newly created helipad at the outpost, Zach felt a weight lifted from him. Sitting opposite him was Fiona, who had been drifting in and out of sleep for most of the uneventful journey back and to their side was Wyatt, Hayes, Miles and Diaz. Three Cascaders was a bit of an overkill Zach thought, but he was glad to see them nonetheless.
He and Fiona hadn’t said anything of where they had been for the past few days, despite it being obvious that Diaz wanted to know. Instead they just said they would explain everything once they were back. Diaz chewed her nails for most of the way to Kentucky.
Zach looked through the helicopter’s windows. Bower, Michael and Brad were standing just beyond the area of downdraft. One of the pilots slid the door back, and he and Fiona climbed out and walked across to the others.
“So where the fuck did you two get too?” said Bower.
Before Zach could reply, Michael moved forward and hugged him. “I thought you were a gonna for sure.”
Zach smiled, looking at those that had been waiting. “It’s good to be back here, before you ask, it’s a long story.”
Hayes ran to them keeping his head low.
“They’re healthy?” said Bower to him.
“They appear to be fine.”
“Right then, let’s get inside and figure all this out.”
As they walked back, Zach leaned in to Brad. “Any word from Abbey?”
The older man shook his head.
Zach glanced at the new buildings that had sprung up since he was gone, then disappeared inside with the others. Soon they were all sitting around the large table in the basement which was covered with maps and water bottles.
“The generals going to want a real long chat with you, when you’re ready,” said Bower.
“Actually that’s a good idea.” Zach looked at one of the soldiers at the workstations manning communications. “Can you give us an open connection to the camp?”
The soldier nodded.
“It’s that serious eh?” Said Bower.
“You don’t know the half of it,” said Fiona, sipping some water.
The soldier uttered some words into his headset, then got out of his seat, dragging some cables with him which he then connected to a large microphone and placed it in the middle of the table. He then looked at the Captain. “They should be able to hear you and their response will come through the speakers on the wall.”
Bower leaned into the mike. “Whom am I talking to? Over.”
“It’s the General, Captain. Do you have them? Over.”
“We do. They are in the room with me. Over.”
“Glad to have you both back safe and sound. I’m sure you have a story to tell, but was there no way to get to Doctor Joshi? Over.”
Zach leaned forward. “Good to hear you too General. We wanted to find Raj…but it was not possible. Over.”
“Where were you Zach? Over.”
He took in a deep breath. “What we’re going to tell all of you, is going to sound crazy. Trust me, I know how crazy it sounds—”
“I think we’re used to crazy by now. Over,” said general Trow.
“Ha, yeah, so—”
Fiona sighed. “We were abducted by terraforming aliens called the Hulathen into cells, in space and two other aliens, who were not Hulathen helped us escape… umm. Over.”
“Knew it was aliens,” said Michael under his breath standing against a wall.
A quiet descended across the room.
“Well say something then…” said Fiona.
“How did you escape?” said Bower.
“I got lucky. When they took us, they also took an E.L.F and me and it ended up in the same confined space. It managed to get some licks in before I put it down. One of its bits came in handy in breaking through the cell’s wall. I then helped the other alien to escape, and well, they told us what was going on and then helped us use one of the cells to get back to Pittsburgh.”
“What did they look like?” said Diaz.
“Who?”
“Err… any of them?”
“The ones that helped us were tall, slim, humanoid but with strange facial features.”
“They talked English?” said Brad.
“No, but at one point they found a way to communicate with us,” said Zach.
A crackling came from the speakers. “The Hulathen were what created the Cascade? Over.”
It was a bit of a leap from the scant information that Zach and Fiona had already given those around them, but Zach was used to the General thinking a few steps ahead of everyone else.
“That’s what the other aliens told us, yes. Over.”
Some around the room shook their heads.
“Did you say ‘terraforming aliens’ ?” said Brad.
“I was about to ask the same. Over,” said the general through the speaker.
Some around the room looked confused.
Michael stepped forward, nearer the table. “Don’t you see? All of this shit. The world coming to an end, it’s just some aliens’ way of clearing the decks, so they can come and vacation on our beach!”
Some still looked unclear.
Michael pulled a frustrated expression.
“They are changing the planet, so it’s like their home,” said Diaz her eyes seemingly fixed on some far away thing.
“Does that mean we are now like them?” said Wyatt.
Everyone started talking and asking questions at once.
More crackling came from the speakers, and everyone quietened down. “There’s a lot we don’t know. But we now know a lot more than we did. I don’t know how you both got back to us, but well done. So now we know who and what caused the Cascade, and what they’re trying to do, the next question we need to ask is—”
