Conflict (Cascade Book 4) Read online

  Fuck. She felt that whoever the young man was, she was getting through to him. Maybe he felt sorry for her, hell maybe he even was attracted to her, who knew, who cared, it was something she would use to her advantage if she got another chance.

  Now her mind wasn’t preoccupied with the dryness in her mouth, her other senses started to form an impression of where she was. Damp wood? Metal? Dust? She sniffed at the air around her, trying to form a mental image of where she might be. Warehouse?

  Her hands were tied behind her back, but now she was alone she started to pull and twist her hands against the plastic straps that held them. While at the DOD she had been given some basic training in what to do in precisely this situation, and she knew getting out of these straps might mean a dislocated thumb, but if it kept her alive it would be worth it.

  As she was struggling, her mind drifted to Zach, and she felt tears well up in her eyes, so much so that she had to stop trying to escape to calm down. The emotion wasn’t because she felt bad for her own situation, but because of what Zach must be going through. That was not acceptable. She pushed the world outside the room she was in away and concentrated on the tiny bit of slack she started to feel in the strap. Moving and rotating her hands left and right, the strap started to loosen just as the cool air from before washed over her again, and she froze.

  The sound of heavy boots came towards her, then stopped.

  “Who’s there?” she exclaimed to the space in front of her. A kind of grunt responded, then the boots moved closer still.

  * * * * *

  Zach sat in the passengers seat of the Humvee looking at drone footage. The last vestiges of daylight, were gone and a gloom permeated the air around them. Ethan and his team back at the Core spent hours flying over west of the camp, and Zach sat just a few hundred yards away from the west gate watching what they had found. He zoomed in on video of a convoy of vehicles moving west, then the clip stopped.

  “Shame that couldn’t get anymore,” said Cal sitting in the back.

  “The drone was at the end of it’s fuel, they had to ditch it out there,” Zach nodded towards the wall in front of them, “It’s something though, it looks like they kept on going west, so that’s were we head.”

  “Bit convenient, that the drone just happened to catch the convoy?” said Michael in the drivers seat.

  “They wanted to be seen,” said Zach, as his radio crackled then came to life with Fiona’s voice.

  “Few minutes out, brought some friends. Over.”

  Zach caught Michael glancing in the rear mirror at Cal sitting behind. Since they had returned from the Portland mission, not many words had passed between them.

  A silence descended upon the interior of the Humvee, Michael was the first to break. “Seems like the E.L.F’s have decided to stay away from attacking the camp.”

  “Maybe they felt sorry for us, decided to leave us alone,” said Cal.

  In the rear mirror vehicle headlights appeared in the distance.

  “More than a few friends, by the looks of it,” said Cal stepping out of the Humvee.

  Soon a Humvee with top mounted gun, an army personnel truck, and a light tank, which doubled as a armoured personal carrier approached.

  Fiona got out of the Humvee, while Bass jumped down from the top of the light tank.

  Bass saluted as he neared Zach, who was now standing with Cal and Michael. “Complements of the General. We also have a small platoon of fine soldiers. Six in the light tank, and fourteen in the truck, along with weapons and ammo.”

  “Enough to fight a small a war,” chimed in Fiona.

  Bass smiled, while rubbing his hands together to shake off the evening cold. “If that’s what it takes.”

  Zach smiled back at Bass, but inside he had to fight the emotion of the gift the General had given him. The camp had lots of military resources, but well, this was a tank he was looking at.

  The rear door of the Humvee opened, and a familiar face appeared lit by the vehicles interior lights.

  “I see you have brought less luggage than before doctor,” said Zach as Raj approached him.

  Raj smiled. “Actually I have just as much, but it’s already packed in the truck,” his smile than receded. “I’m sorry about what happened to Abbey, I will do all I can to help get her back.”

  “I’m surprised the council were okay with you going on this trip?”

  Raj smiled. “Well they don’t really know I’m here.”

  Zach held out his hand, which Raj gladly shook. “Thank you,” he then turned to Bass and Fiona. “Are we all ready to move out?”

  “Sure are,” said Fiona.

  Zach walked a few steps forward looking at the light tank. “Maybe this should be up front.”

  Bass nodded, and returned to his spot at the top of the tank, ducking down to say something to the people inside. The vehicle then rumbled forward passing everyone else, and stopped some yards in front of the first Humvee.

  Fiona walked closer to Zach. “There’s been some light E.L.F activity ten miles west of the wall, but nothing major.”

  “Good…”

  Fiona looked at the quickly approaching night. “I wish we were doing this in the daylight…but I know we can’t wait.”

  “If we leave now, maybe we slip out without too many people noticing, even with the tank. Let’s do a quick comms check then move out.”

  Fiona nodded, and messages quickly passed between the radios the group had.

  Zach then returned to the first Humvee, and clicked on his radio. “This is Rescue squad one, we are ready to move through the west gate. Over.”

  A large rumbling started to shake the vehicles as the large steel gates, slowly begun moving sidewards.

  CHAPTER 9

  Not again. This time Abbey was sitting further back in the stadium, and around her were E.L.F’s. Not ones she had seen before, these were more human sized, but they were just as strange. Some had tentacles for arms, others had multiple heads. She froze in her seat, frightened any of them would soon notice her, but instead they seem to be enjoying the show the angry rock star she had seen before was putting on for all of them. He was screaming his lyrics as before, and jumping with his mike, and all around the creatures waved and made noises which seemed to be of happiness and enthusiasm. Then it stopped. The man on the stage had gone, and all the strange beings around her were looking at her, thousands of them. Their faces were emotionless, just staring. Abbey wanted to scream, but she realized she had no mouth, or nose, or ears. She looked down and saw that her arms were tentacles, as were her legs, which writhed against the plastic smoothness of the floor. Wake up Abbey. Wake up!

  Abbey awoke into even greater darkness than before. Earlier in the day, when she had woke from the first dream, there was light around her, which flooded all the gaps her blindfold afforded her. She had been sure it was daylight and not artificial. But now, there was only intense black, and she was lost in the center. The smells were the same though, rust, mixed with the sodden moist damp smell of wood or cardboard, she wasn’t sure which, but she was sure it was a warehouse, and she was still in it.

  She was glad of the water she drunk before, but she was also aware that she was dangerously dehydrated, and if she didn’t get more inside her, whatever fate awaited her from those that took her would be the least of her problems.

  Suddenly she remembered her hands and how one of them was almost loose. Her skin felt rough and sore against the plastic straps as she pulled and twisted her hands. Just a bit more. One hand broke loose and pain shot up her arm dissipating into her shoulder. She stifled the sound she wanted to make in response and immediately brought her hand around and pushed the blindfold up to her forehead. At first, even with her eyes already adjusted all she could see was a wall of black around her, but then she noticed a faint glow ahead.

  She reached down to her ankles and pulled at the rope that was holding them together. Soon her feet were free as well and just as painful to move. She pivote
d onto her knees and winced in pain. Blood flooded into parts of her legs from where it had been lacking and she sat waiting for her body to feel normal again. She then moved as quietly as possible into a crouching position and again tried to focus on her surroundings, which were beginning to make more sense to her.

  The walls were a lot closer than she had original thought, being only seven feet from her on most sides. She was in a kind of back office, with multi-panelled windows to her front, and a hole where a door should have been to her left. Furniture was behind and to her right, but she wasn’t unable to make out what any of it was. Getting to her feet she immediately hit her head on something solid and ducked back down, rubbing the spot which stung.

  She then reached up, and tentatively felt the flaky smoothness of an old pipe which had fallen down from the ceiling. Weapon. Crouching back down, she shuffled forward, cautiously feeling into the dark until she found something which felt long, metallic and heavy. She slid her hand over the top. It was a cylinder, probably another pipe. Walking forward, she put her other hand out in front of her, and moved towards the doorway. Soon she was outside the office, standing in what looked like a large open area, with walls which were a combination of brick and plaster. Various dark shapes surrounded her, but they were not moving, or making a noise so she continued past them, towards the glow. As she got within thirty feet of it, she could see it was due to light seeping under a shut door. She could also now hear talking. Two men were talking about something, but she couldn’t make out exactly what and she wasn’t going to get closer and risk making a noise to find out. Instead she looked around, desperately trying to see if there were any other exits.

  Her mind briefly returned to the time she was taken, and the hail of bullets which rained down on the young people at the computer centre. She began to feel faint, and swayed back and forth on her feet, until steadying herself. Not now.

  She moved towards the closest wall when gunfire broke out, outside. It was then she realized she was on a second floor of the building, as neon red streaks flew into the night sky, which she could see through windows not far from her. Quickly moving forward and avoiding kicking anything on the dusty floor, she looked out of the closest window and saw a large winged E.L.F unlike any she had seen before, flapping large bat like wings over the heads of a small group of men with guns.

  As she watched the creature hovered and swooped, while it’s large reptilian tail swiped at the figures below. Looking like a scene from a fantasy novel, more gunfire rang out, and the creature shifted to the left and right, trying to avoid the lines of death which were aimed at it. Abbey felt momentarily transfixed by this mini battle of man versus beast, when something strange happened. The creature flapped quicker to gain some height, and moved in her direction. She felt for sure it was going to crash into the window in front of her, when the clatter of automatic fire was followed by the creature screeching and falling to the ground.

  The area outside fell once again back into darkness.

  “You know, a lot of people died for you to be here.”

  Abbey immediately recognised Tinley’s voice. She was so engrossed in the scene outside the window that she hadn’t realized the light that she was now bathed in from the door behind her.

  “Just so you know, this door is the only way in and out of this floor, and I don’t suggest you trying to climb down. I need you in mostly good condition for when your beau arrives.”

  Abbey was frozen and did not want to turn around and face the person standing just twelve feet from her. But she did anyway.

  “Hmm you’re less attractive than I remember, but then this world will do that to a girl, I guess. Not like the old days, so many beautiful girls,” for a moment, Tinley’s eyes looked beyond Abbey to a place she did not want to think about.

  “He’s going to kill you, you know that don’t you,” Abbey’s voice was full of indignation, and it took all of her will to pull it off.

  Tinley smiled. “Well I hope he tries, that’s the whole point you are here!”

  “Shall I tie her up again?” the same gruff voice from earlier, that was talking to the invisible other person came from behind Tinley.

  “No, just make sure this door is secure, she’s not getting off this floor. Not without a climb down the side, and that would be entertaining to see,” he then started to walk into the brightly lit room behind. “Oh, almost forgot,” he tossed a plastic bottle onto the floor. “Make sure you drink, it’s good to stay hydrated,” he then disappeared into the room closing the door behind him. The sound of more than one lock then followed.

  Abbey let out a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding in. She then walked over to the bottle which was now only just visible in the gloom, and opened it. It was only half full but it was enough.

  After quenching her thirst, she crept towards the door and pressed her ear up against it. There was no sound on the other side. Gone. When he said this was the only way off of this floor, her hope silently waned, but the moment he left, another idea replaced the despair. She looked again at the large room around her, it was full of lots of heavy items, machine parts, large blocks of wood, old barrels. Walking to a long heavy looking plank of wood, she picked one side up and started sliding it as quietly as she could to the door.

  CHAPTER 10

  “What was that?” Michael glanced quickly to his right, trying to see with his night scope through the Humvee’s side window.

  Zach continued focusing on the road, having taken over driving duties for the next few hours. “Anything?” he said to his two occupants.

  Cal joined Michael by looking out the rear window. “If it was something, it doesn’t seem to be following. How long until we reach the point the drone saw the convoy?”

  “Few hours yet,” Zach clicked on the radio. “Fiona, Bass, anything moving around us? Over.” Answers came back in the negative.

  Michael looked guiltily to the road in front. “Haven’t really been out here at night, put’s my E.L.F radar alert up to eleven.”

  “You be as twitchy as you want, I would prefer not to miss anything out here,” Zach then turned his head slightly to his rear passenger. “You feeling…” he wasn’t sure how to finish the sentence.

  “You want to know if I’m doing any weird mind stuff and feel if any of the E.L.F’s are tracking us?”

  “Yup.”

  “No, I don’t think so,” it wasn’t a totally true answer as he still didn’t know how his abilities worked, other than they seemed to when he most needed them, but he still couldn’t switch them off and on when he liked. He thought better the others had confidence that he could. “If I er…feel anything you’ll know.”

  Michael shifted uncomfortably in his seat which Cal pretended not to notice, and the small convoy rolled along the central highway towards the east of Texas.

  In the second Humvee Fiona’s thoughts drifted back to the morning, and the vote in the council on segregation. When she was back at the Core she found out that the vote had been postponed. The council were in too much of a state trying to understand how Tinley escaped to decide upon something so important. At least we have more time. Although she still didn’t know what they had more time for, perhaps to leave the camp.

  Raj sat in the back and tried to sleep, although every bump they drove over knocked him out of his drowsiness and made him look around to see if the soldiers that were beside him were readying their weapons. Luckily so far they were not. This time he was equipped with his own M4 rifle, body armor and a helmet, which he found was not good for trying to get some sleep in. He was also equipped with a more advanced version of his audio device that had a greater range in distance and frequency. Mostly though, as his thoughts started to merge and scatter as sleep took over him, he was equipped with the knowledge that some of those that were traveling with him were different to the rest of them, and he hoped that would prove to be their biggest protection.

  “I see them. Over.” Fiona clicked off the radio, as the so
ldier next to Raj raised his gun. An hour had passed and the headlights from the convoy lit a mile long abandoned freight train to their right. Also caught in the vehicles glare were creatures sleeping on top of the carriages.

  “Any idea what they are doctor?”

  Raj quickly put his helmet back on, and leaned forward to get a better view. “No idea, but if they were nocturnal they wouldn’t all be lying there like that. As long as we keep driving we should be okay.”

  Fiona clicked on her radio. “The doc thinks they won’t be a problem…”

  Raj interrupted. “What does Cal think?”

  Fiona sighed. “He wants to know what Cal thinks. Over,” a few moments passed, then Fiona put the radio down and turned slightly to Raj. “He doesn’t sense anything.”

  Raj sat back.

  Fiona sighed more heavily. “He’s not an experiment to be prodded and tested, you know that right?”

  Raj was a bit taken aback by the comment. “Of course, I never meant anything by asking. I’m just collecting data.”

  Fiona never replied.

  They ploughed further into the winter night, the temperature confirmed by the mass of twinkling stars above them. After another hour, they were approaching the town of Catacomb.

  Zach clicked on his radio. “Listen up everyone, I know you all must be tired, but we are approaching the town of Catacomb, which the drone saw the convoy enter before it went down. We still got the signal from the drone, so that’s where we will go to first, but everyone be on alert from here on out. There could be E.L.F’s or Tinley’s people, or a combination of both. Over.”

  Broken buildings and abandoned structures appeared with greater frequency on both sides of the highway, until they were driving through a medium sized forgotten town.

  Michael looked nervously around as the convoy slowed to avoid the increasing number of vehicles blocking their way. “I wonder why we haven’t been bothered by any E.L.F’s.”