Cascade Box Set 2 Read online

  Contents

  Title page

  Copyright

  Disclaimer

  Book Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Book Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Book Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Book Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Thank you

  CASCADE

  Books 5 - 8

  by

  Phil Maxey

  Copyright © 2019 by Philip Maxey

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  First Printing, 2019.

  https://www.philmaxeyauthor.com

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales, is purely coincidental.

  BOOK

  CHAPTER ONE

  Bubbles and blood ascended from Abbeys half open mouth. It was the eighth time she had been dunked into the ice-cold water, or so she thought. Her head felt like a stone block balancing on the end of her shoulders.

  A vice like grip pulled her up and slammed her down on an old wooden chair and the men’s gruff voices around her once again changed from muffles to questions, this time though aimed at each other.

  “You sure Clovis said we can't play with her? Even with the beatings she’s still more fine than most others we got.”

  Abbey gulped for air as her lungs continued to burn.

  “That's what he said.”

  A man who Abbey had come to call ‘the fat one’ in her mind, looked disappointed. “We been at this for an hour, she don't know shit.”

  The tall one leaned down close to her face. “You got to give us something darling. I don't care if it's Zach’s color of underwear, but if you don't talk we gotta continue this, and unlike my friends here, I don't much like hurting on women.”

  Abbey looked at the wet floor in front of her then splashes and streaks of crimson flashed in her mind. Twelve hours earlier she had fought and screamed at those that were holding her, to let the Cascaders go. They were the old and the young, and others who were not soldiers, but she was ignored. The sight of them being lined up against the wall of the school entrance, and riddled with bullets kept trying its best to push its way into her mind and it was all she could do to stop the scene from playing out on an endless loop and overwhelming her.

  Zach is out there.

  Four words that she had clung onto since the ordeal started. It was the only thought in her mind that allowed her to resist. Her captors hadn't bothered with water boarding, instead had gone straight to semi-drowning.

  Her mind raced for something to placate them. Something which sounded like it was important, but actually wasn’t, or better still was a complete lie. She figured anything she said now they would probably believe.

  While still looking at the floor, she started talking. “He never told me much! He kept that stuff from me,” the words came out with a string of saliva, which she spat to the floor.

  The tall one stood back
upright. “Okay darling, don’t say I didn’t give you a chance to get out of here.” He stepped back and the third man stepped forward and grabbed her shoulders.

  “But…”

  “But what?” said the tall one holding his hand up to the others.

  Abbey started sobbing. Play it up.

  “I love him, I don’t want to betray him!”

  The tall one put his hand on her shoulder. “Hey, who’s going to know it came from you?” he looked around the small dark gray room, with the single hanging light bulb above them. “None of us are going to say anything. This is just from you to us,” he then leaned in closer to Abbey, his rancid breath washed over her. It was all she could do to stop the contents of her stomach from returning to her mouth.

  “Well… he kept meeting with one of the generals, and a few nights back I heard them discussing something about Dallas, that something major is happening there.”

  The tall one raised his eyebrows. “Really? Now that is interesting.”

  “But I’m not telling you anything else!” she blurted the words out.

  There was a silence in the room, and she waited for her head to be grabbed once more, but instead the fabric hood she had on when she entered the room four hours earlier was placed back on her head, and she was lifted to her feet.

  Soon she was walking back across the cold concrete, and a chill wind blew across what was exposed of Abbeys neck beneath the rag that was covering her face. She was glad to be outside, away from the three foul smelling men.

  But where she was, she had no idea. They had driven for a few hours from Atlanta in a large convoy and when they stopped a man appeared from the darkness outside the cattle truck she had been traveling in, covered her eyes then unchained her. She ended up being led to what she was presumed was some kind of structure, because it felt warmer than the truck. She then waited with others she had traveled with, until she was led away, for questioning.

  Looking through a tiny gap in her blindfold, she examined every mark and scratch on the surface below, as she scuttled along best she could with the chains across her exposed feet.

  The ground changed and she stepped over a threshold of some building, and was soon slowly clambering up some stairs, one chained ankle at a time. Voices of men and women hushed as she moved past them, and soon she was walking across carpet. It was rough and coarse but still felt like velvet on her sore feet.

  The person that had pushed and dragged her to this point seemed to leave her, but she could tell she was not alone.

  “There is a seat just behind you, sit down.” This was a new voice, one that was almost elegant in its tone and pitch.

  She took a leap of faith and let her back arch and her rear descend, luckily he wasn't lying and she sat on a padded seat. “Why am I here?” She had given up asking that to her abusers hours earlier, but she had a feeling, this person might actually have some answers.

  “This really shouldn't be your concern my dear. What should concern you is what I want.”

  “Okay.”

  “You should know, unlike Tinley, I don't play with my food before I devour it.”

  She sat silent.

  “I would as soon as kill you right now, like what happened to the other freaks at the school—” A rage wanted to rise up inside her, but she was so tired that it died out almost as soon as it started. “— But I know you are connected to one of the higher ups at the camp, and that is the only reason you are still breathing.”

  She swallowed. “Well you might as well kill me then, because even if I did know something that could be of use to you, I wouldn't tell you,” she thought she heard the man snigger.

  ”Right now you are worth more to me alive than dead. The night you have had at the hands of my comrades was just them letting off some steam. I can tell you, you'll little band of trouble makers put up quite a fight at that school. Even the freaks. Anyway, for now you will be taken to some new holdings, and allowed to clean yourself up.”

  Hands belonging to another person she didn't even know was there grabbed her under her shoulders and lifted her up.

  She thought about asking about Ray, and how he ended up with the Hell Fire gang, but thought better of it. No need for these people to know about their former connection.

  She shuffled out of the room, and was taken down stairs. Lots of them. Until the air chilled once again.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Zach and Cal huddled down beneath the grime-covered window of the forgotten gas station. Even after a year the fumes of gasoline hung in the air along with smeared and torn pictures of glamorous women which lined the walls.

  The ground shook.

  “Forth truck in so many hours. They are moving a lot of something in there,” said Zach peering through his rifle’s sight at the large semi moving in the direction of the base, that was once home to the army’s aviation wing.

  It was 9 a.m and they were glad for the rest. After they, Fiona, Wyatt and Abbey’s pet left the school back at Atlanta, it wasn’t long before Cal was able to pick up Abbey’s trail, and the convoy she was part of that was heading south. Keeping to the back roads they shadowed the vehicles convoy which stretched for a few miles, and after three and a half hours Cal sensed that Abbey had stopped moving. Looking at the map they had of Georgia, there was only one place they could be, and that was the large army air base. It explained how Geneva’s people were able to attack Camp Bravo with jet’s and helicopters.

  After some arguing Zach and Cal convinced Fiona to return to Jackson to the safety of the tank and the soldiers that were still at the pharmacy, and to tell those back at the camp what had transpired the night before. Wyatt and Mo also went with her.

  Zach and Cal had no idea how they were going to rescue Abbey, or anyone else if they were still alive, but leaving them behind wasn’t an option.

  “One of those trucks might be our way in,” replied Cal looking through the scope of his M40.

  “Maybe, but then that doesn’t leave us an obvious way back out. I’d rather see what the options are for getting through the fence. There’s probably holes, we just need to find them.”

  Cal rested his snipers rifle up against the nearby wall. “I dunno about you, but I’m tired and hungry. Let’s rest up here for a few hours, then head out for a little recon.” Zach looked pensive, and went to say something. Cal knew what it was. “Hold on,” he closed his eyes, and searched the myriad of E.L.F. frequencies he could feel around him. After a few seconds, he honed in the one he knew to be Abbey’s. Opening his eyes he smiled. “She’s still out there.”

  Zach visibly relaxed.

  Cal felt something else, but resisted saying it out loud. “What you got in that backpack of yours?” he said looking at the dark green and gray pack lying next to them.

  Zach continued looking out the window. “Few cans of fruit, and few candy bars, help yourself.”

  Cal moved across the dust and paper covered floor, and pulled a can of fruit out. “You want anything?”

  “I’m not hungry.”

  “You got to keep those electrolytes up.”

  Zach frowned and nodded. Cal tossed him a candy bar, which he opened and started chewing on, while still looking through the scratched and dust covered window.

  Cal walked across behind the counter, while eating some of the pears from the can. The few shelves were empty save from a calendar for the previous year. He picked it up. The month left open was for August. Written on some of the days were names. “Tyrone, Samantha, Arthur dead,” said one day. The others were similar.

  He dropped the calendar back down and the ground once again shook. “Another truck?” he said looking back towards Zach.

  “Yup. You get some rest, I’ll wake you in a few hours.”

  Cal looked down at the empty can, placed it on the counter, and looked for a spot on the floor that wasn’t grease and oil covered. Eventually an area near the far wall looked the best choice. Lying with his back against the wall and facing the front door, h
e placed his rifle across his chest and fell quickly asleep.

  After a few minutes Zach looked back at him. Cal’s chest was slowly rising and falling. Checking the ammo in his rifle, Zach quietly got to his feet and walked to the entrance. Having one last look outside, he opened the door and stepped out into the early morning sunshine.

  CHAPTER THREE

  As Fiona drove herself and Wyatt along the highway in Jackson she was having a hard time keeping her eyes open. This was despite the fear she felt at the root of her mind. She looked across to her passenger who was asleep.

  The early morning sun ate away at the frost on the ground as they pulled into the pharmacies parking lot. The tank was immediately visible where she remembered it.

  They had decided to stay off the radio until she made it back. A dark-haired soldier emerged from the broken front entrance of the building, and watched as she parked her truck.

  The soldier ran up to her as she jumped down from the cabin. “What happened? Where are the others?”

  She walked past him. “I need to contact Core operations.” Soon she was in the confined space of the tank, holding the mike in her hand. Amanda Holland was on the other end of the communication, and could be heard gasping as Fiona retold how the night had unfolded and that Zach and Cal are still in southern Georgia trying to rescue Abbey and whoever else they could find from the Atlanta group.

  “Councilor?” said Fiona after there had been no reply.

  “I need a minute.”

  Fiona looked at the soldier sitting next to her. His name badge on his sleeve read, ‘Corporal Gabe Bell’. “You had any trouble here? Or seen any of Geneva’s people?”

  “Nothing ma’am. Not even any E.L.F’s.”

  Fiona looked back at the radio. “Well that’s something.”

  The speaker came to life, this time with Brigadier General’s Garland’s voice. “And you say it’s an air base they are in control of?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Do you know how many planes or helicopters they have use of?”

  “It was dark when I was there, so no. But they have a hell of a lot more people than we thought. The convoy we saw had at least a few thousand. There might have been more already at the base.”