“Look, I don’t know who you are. But you seem to be in charge of the people here.”

  “The Cascaders?”

  “Yes, and well I learned of some information, which means that Cascaders need to come together.”

  “Hmm, that’s interesting.”

  “And I thought you could help with that.”

  He walked forward and past her, leaning on the outside wall and looked out into the night. “What information are you referring to?”

  “I know how to stop the Cascade.”

  He turned around to face her. “Stop? Look around! It’s already over. Humanity lost. I think you’re a little too late.” He smiled.

  She shook her head. “Only the animal part has stopped, but the environment, that’s still changing. And it will keep changing until it’s more habitable for those that started the Cascade in the first place!”

  His expression changed and she could see for the first time he was genuinely curious.

  “Go on.”

  She walked nearer to him. “The Cascade was started by a race of aliens—”

  He rolled his eyes turning away. “Ha! Aliens!” He sighed. “For a moment there I must admit I was beginning to be interested.”

  “No, I’m telling you the truth! It was the Hulathen! They—”

  Noises came from the nearby door to the apartments below, and two men appeared, which Abbey could sense were Cascaders. They walked towards her. She started to back away. “You don’t understand, the planet is in jeopardy, what you have now, it won’t last!”

  “These men will show you to a room downstairs. We don’t hurt those Cascaders who stand with us, but equally we don’t know you, and honestly you seem a little—” He twirled his finger near his head. “Loco.”

  She thought about running and trying to call to Mo to fly down from where she left him on the hill, but it was too dangerous. Instead she nodded and walked away with the men.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Zach walked to the Humvee outside the cinema and opened the driver’s door. In the black of night a background of squawks and roars echoed all around him. Trying to ignore the sounds he climbed inside. Those seated behind and to his right were barely awake. Closing his door, he clicked on his radio. “Ready? Over.” Bower’s voice confirmed they were refueled and ready to leave. Zach then took a glance at Fiona who was holding her head and started the engine. They were soon back on the highway and pulling away from the town.

  He reached down beneath the seat and held out a bottle of water to Fiona. She took it and swallowed a few gulps.

  “How much further?” said a tired sounding Wyatt.

  “Roughly six hours, but we will be stopping in a few hours time and deploying the drone. That should tell us how best to approach the town. You get any sleep?”

  “Some…”

  Zach didn’t bother asking any of the others, as they looked like they were still sleeping. He was pleased at least one of the Cascaders was awake.

  A light drizzle filled the air as the convoy thundered along the highway.

  “How you feel?” said Zach to woman next to him. He had offered her some help getting to the car as she had staggered her way through the lobby of the cinema but she pushed his hand away.

  “Fine,” she croaked.

  “Keep drinking the water.”

  “I know what I need to do.”

  After an hour Wyatt couldn’t contain the questions that were rattling around his mind. “So… how are we going to stop the aliens from doing what they are doing?” It was a question he posed to Zach, but he immediately looked to the other passengers. No one answered.

  Zach looked in the rear mirror briefly to see the young man looking back at him.

  “Don’t worry about the big questions, kid,” said Fiona. “Just concentrate on getting through to the next day.”

  “Okay…”

  Zach watched Wyatt sit back in his seat. He was sure it didn’t answer what Wyatt wanted to know but it was about as true an answer as he was going to get.

  After a few more hours the sky was beginning to change from black to dark blue and they approached a bridge over the Hudson river.

  Zach looked back to make sure the two Cascaders were doing their jobs. Both had their eyes closed, but their faces were one of concentration.

  Fiona looked to the south. “Fifty or so miles down river is NYC.”

  “You been?” said Zach slowing the convoy as he steered around an overturned semi-truck.

  “I lived there for a while. You?”

  “Only once.”

  “I wonder what it looks like now…”

  “All messed up,” said Michael in the back.

  Fiona continued looking into the night. “No doubt… How much further?”

  “Another hour till we stop.” Zach briefly looked behind. “How’s things with the E.L.F’s around us?”

  “Keeping them away for now,” said Miles.

  As they progressed the convoy slowed almost to a crawl to avoid all of the vehicles broken and forgotten across the highway.

  Zach clicked on his radio. “We’re not far from Hartford, let’s take the next turn off. I think we might reach a standstill soon staying on here anyway. Over.”

  Bower agreed and soon they were on a wide four-lane road which stretched out to the west of the city. With each new turn the concentration of buildings increased and after traveling for ten minutes, Zach pulled over to the side of the road, and got back on the radio. As he spoke he looked at a large blue sign with white writing visible in the Humvee’s headlights. “There’s a hospital up ahead, let’s stop there. Over.”

  Driving a short distance, Zach pulled the Humvee into the entrance of the hospital then stopped far short of the actual hospital doors as ahead was a wall of sandbags and cars used as barriers. He looked back at Wyatt and Miles. “How are we?”

  “Lots of creatures in the city. Apart from one or two the rest are still sleeping,” said Miles.

  “Wait here.” Zach got out taking his rifle with him.

  Harper ran up to him from the other Humvee. “The boss says I’m to go with you, sir.”

  Zach nodded and they both walked slowly forward towards the wall and then started to climb over it, using what light they could from the vehicles. Clambering best they could over sand and steel they both eventually stood fifteen feet high off the ground. Zach flicked on his flashlight and waved it around into an empty parking area beyond. He looked back at the convoy and waved them out.

  Soldiers started jumping down from the truck and the others got out of their vehicles. Michael was the first to join them on top of the barricade.

  “Can’t see anything on the other side. Looks clear, might be a good place to hold up and get the drone functioning,” said Zach looking down to Bower who was looking up at him.

  The older man nodded and the soldiers were soon clambering past Zach and down into the shadows at the doors to the hospital. Others were pulling the tarpaulin from the drone at the back of the second truck, as well as four of them carrying a heavy looking piece of machinery with an antenna and a control panel.

  “We’re going to need that on the roof of the hospital,” shouted Bower.

  The soldiers looked at the wall they had to carry it over and groaned.

  Zach and others from his Humvee stepped over splinters of glass from the entrance doors and into a large lobby. It looked empty. Even the furniture was missing. As the beams from the various soldiers’ flashlights swept across the walls, large holes and hundreds of postmarks stood out. That’s also when most in the lobby looked around their feet to see the dark stains which drenched the tiles.

  “Must have been some battle here,” said Miles.

  Fiona walked forward, not bothering to step over the blood marks. “See one battle inside a hospital, seen them all.” She looked at Zach. “So how long until we got a feed coming in from the drone?”

  “We need to get the control station and antenna to a high point, then just a matter of finding an empty stretch of road for it to take off from.”

  She turned and walked into a shadow infested corridor. “Good”

  Zach looked at Miles. “Go with her.”

  He nodded.

  By the time the sun was peeking over the horizon, most were on the roof trying to keep warm. A lieutenant sat on the ground with a joystick in his hand just behind the device that had taken an hour to get to the roof. A nearby portable generator churned away, giving the machine which linked to the drone in the street outside, life. The young man turned and gave the thumbs up to Bower, who clicked on his radio and walked to the outside wall.

  He looked down upon the street and the drone at one end. “We’re getting a feed from the drone. All the shit out of the way? We don’t want it crashing before it’s even in the air. Over.”

  In the street below Wyatt looked anxiously out to buildings around them. Then looked at Zach nearby. “There are things waking up around us. I’ll try and cloak our presence but the sound of the generator is going to draw them this way.”

  Zach nodded, then clicked on his radio. “We’re all good down here. Ready when you are. Over.”

  Six soldiers, three on each side of the makeshift runway, looked out at the buildings around them as roars and noises that belonged to inhuman things echoed in the cool morning air.

  Zach and Wyatt stepped back from the ten foot square miniature plane shaped drone as its engine fired up. It slowly started to roll forwards, then suddenly surged, covering twenty feet in a few seconds. Tilting backwards it took to the air.

  Zach noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Something with wings took to the air and headed for the drone which was now at about roof height and had already moved past the end of the road they were protecting.

  He ran forward, looking down the scope of his rifle. “There’s something chasing the drone!”

  Wyatt immediately closed his eyes and the dark shape which was closing in on the drone peeled away. “I got it,” he said opening them.

  Zach patted him on the back. “Good going.” He then waved for the other soldiers to come towards him. Soon they were nearby. “Everyone pull back to the wall outside the hospital, we need to protect the control station on the roof for at least the next hour.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Abbey looked out of the third floor apartment window to the group of E.L.F’s in the street below. Some of the Cascaders creatures were standing and sitting. The cat like creature was there, its golden fur glistening in the early morning sun. She begun to wonder which E.L.F belonged to which Cascader, and if she could guess just by looking at the human or the creature.

  Closing her eyes she tried to sense those around her, human and beast alike. She wanted to know roughly how many Cascaders there were, but more importantly she wanted to know if Clovis was already there. After a few moments, she had sensed about forty Cascaders, luckily none of them with her foe’s signature.

  She turned and looked at the small bedroom she had been told to stay in. It was pleasant enough, with a single bed, some cupboards and a television although that was redundant in this new world.

  The sound of wood creaking came from beyond the door, then came a knock.

  “Are you decent?” said the man she had met a few hours earlier.

  “Yes.”

  The door opened and in walked the noble looking man who had the dinosaur as a pet. He had a tray with some tinned fruit in a bowl and a glass of what looked like fresh orange juice.

  “It’s not much, but you can’t exactly run down to the local store anymore, can you.”

  She smiled as he put the tray down on a small table.

  He looked at the still well kept bed. “Did you sleep?”

  “I laid on top. Got a few hours.” She lied.

  “I just realized you don’t know my name. I am Erin Santiago of Irish and Hispanic stock.” He held out his hand.

  It was a flamboyant way to announce who you were she thought, but briefly shook his hand anyway.

  He leaned up against the doorframe. “How long have you been a coach… I mean a Cascader?”

  The word ‘coach’ struck a distant cord in her mind, but she couldn’t quite place it.

  She looked down at the food and drink and calculated it would be a hard way to try to kill her. She took a sip of the juice. “Few months I guess… you?”

  “Since early on. So how did you find—” The walls and floor of the room shuddered. “—Don’t mind that, we are doing some excavating.” He smiled. “You just happened to be passing? And sensed us?”

  A number of scenarios that she could try ran threw her mind in a matter of seconds. “Do you know a man called Clovis?”

  Erin’s eyes widened slightly. “What of him?”

  “It’s a long story, but we have history. He wants me dead. In fact I just came from fighting him in central Boston.” Abbey could see Erin’s expression harden, and she began to plot what item around her she could use as a weapon.

  “And why does he want that?”

  “You still haven’t told me if you know him…”

  “I do. Why does he want you dead?”

  “I don’t know what he’s told you of his past—”

  “Not much.”

  “—Okay well, he used to be working for a group called the Hell Fire gang…”

  Abbey spent the next few minutes, laying out Clovis’s role in her life over the past few months, but altered a few facts as she was talking. When she finished her story, she tried reading the man’s face in front of her, but couldn’t find any indication of what he was thinking. Instead, he just nodded.

  “Did you kill him, in this battle?”

  “I don’t think so. Actually I thought he might have come back here.”

  “Ah… you came here to try to kill him again?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “It would seem if he does return, then we would have quite a situation on our hands. But from what you have told me, if it is true, then he has no good reason to harm you, just a few bad ones.” Erin moved closer. “Unless there is no other choice we do not kill our own.”

  “That’s umm good.”

  “Also I am sorry to hear of this Zach’s death. You obviously shared a lot, even if he could not have truly understood you…”

  Abbey let the lie hang in the air and nodded.

  *****

  Bower and Zach stood near the wall on the roof of the hospital and looked out to the surrounding streets at the E.L.F’s that were amassing.

  “Going to be interesting when we need to leave,” said Bower.

  “I’m sure Wyatt, Miles and Diaz will handle it. They have too.”

  The lieutenant, who had been flying the drone for the past forty-five minutes over Connecticut then Massachusetts, looked over his shoulder at his two commanding officers. “We are almost at the target location.”

  Zach took one last look down at the nervous looking soldiers behind the sandbags and car barricade and joined Bower watching the screen on the control device.

  “I have to admit, I’m impressed this box of wires actually worked. The nerds back at the camp put it together so we could use the drone on the road. I never thought it’d work,” said Bower.

  “We are passing over the Boston camp’s walls now, sir.”

  Zach and Bower leaned in closer.

  The devastation which befell the camp was obvious from the air. The walls which had withstood so much punishment in Texas, here lay in ruins with huge pieces missing revealing jagged edges.

  “Maybe they were destroyed but I’m not seeing many gun emplacements,” said Bower. Zach nodded.

  As the drone left the walls behind and pushed further inland, what were once forests were now wastelands, of flattened and snapped trees. Amongst the stumps new green was emerging while E.L.F’s, some alone, others in groups walked across the fields and roads. Where buildings once stood only the foundations remained.

  Zach shook his head.

  “They never stood a chance,” said Fiona just behind him.

  “Expanding their bunkers was a good call,” said Zach. He looked down at the lieutenant. “How far until it gets to the town?”

  “Not long, few more minutes, sir.”

  A roar echoed around the buildings around them. Zach went to move back to the wall, when Fiona put her hand on his arm. “You stick with this, I’ll sort any monster problems.”

  He smiled and she moved away to the roof exit.

  “That’s it coming up, to the north east, sir.”

  A group of buildings and the signs of urban planning started to appear beyond the nearest hills. They leaned in closer.

  “I’m seeing some movement, sir,” said the lieutenant.

  The drone moved across the streets and industrial areas on the outskirts of the town.

  “Can you zoom in on the center of town? Looks like there’s something down there…” said Zach.

  The soldier did as asked and groups of people could be seen standing in the streets surrounded by E.L.F’s and large craters.

  “Will they see the drone?”

  “If they are looking in that direction perhaps, it’s more likely they will hear it.”

  “So we might not have long then.”

  “They look pretty concentrated in the center of the town,” said Bower.

  “Can we get in closer? I want to see their faces,” said Zach.

  “I can bring it down to a lower altitude but it increases the chance it will be destroyed.”

  “Do it,” said Zach.

  After a few adjustments the view from the drone clearly showed individuals and their creatures. A bird monkey E.L.F beat its wings while perched on top of a truck. A twinge of recognition ran through Zach’s mind which he instantly ignored.

  “That’s a whole lot of Cascaders,” said Bower. “An outright assault is not going to be an option, not unless we had a platoon or two.”

  They both studied the feed.

  “We just need to pull them away from the bunker entrances and allow those in the bunkers a way to get their own forces to the—” Any further words froze in his mind. He moved forward almost putting his pointed finger on the small screen. “That woman, can you get in closer on her face.”