“I’m sure they would rather be here, than wherever they are now,” said Brad.

  She nodded.

  Brad pointed to the other foundations being created. “These two other structures, will be a new comms center, and there will be a tunnel linking it to the basement under the main building.”

  Zach looked at all the work going on and nodded. “We need all the outposts to be like this, better protected. They will serve as places of refuge for those still left.”

  Brad smiled and placed his hand on Zach’s shoulder. “That’s the plan.” He then pointed towards the far off fence, and went to talk but stopped when he saw Fiona walking up to them.

  “We broadcast on all the main frequencies. There was no reply from them. What do you want us to do?” she said to Zach.

  Zach thought for a moment before talking. “Tell Bower to get his squad ready, we’re going back to Lexington.”

  CHAPTER 15

  “I think you should stay,” said Zach, as he and Abbey stood in the hallway of the main house.

  Corina Diaz and Will Freeman walked past with heavy packs on their backs, and rifles slung over their shoulders.

  “Tell Bower I’ll be out in a few minutes.”

  They nodded and left by the open front door.

  “I can do this Zach. I need to do this.”

  He sighed. “Mo stays here though, okay?”

  She nodded.

  “Make sure you have your Glock with you and an extra magazine.”

  She held up her bag that was over her shoulder. “Got everything I need.”

  “Okay then let’s do this.”

  As they went to walk away, Brad appeared from behind them. “Try not to get captured this time!”

  They both smiled.

  “Back before you know it,” said Abbey.

  They both walked out into the early afternoon sun. The trees and bushes of the Kentucky landscape were beginning to return to a semblance of how they looked a year earlier, with green shoots starting to appear.

  Zach got into the front passengers seat of a turreted Humvee, with Fiona driving. Abbey got in the back, alongside Hayes and Miles.

  Behind them was another turreted Humvee that Bower was driving along with the rest of the squad.

  Above them Mo squawked and flapped his wings on top of the large building. Abbey smiled.

  It wasn’t long before the small convoy was taking the same route northwards on highway sixty-eight. Small undulating hills and former agricultural land passed them by.

  “Anyone ever been to Kentucky before?” Hayes’s said, wanting to break the silence.

  “Few times,” said Fiona, the only one responding.

  Quiet fell once again on the occupants inside and Hayes returned to his game of counting how many old style barns he could spot.

  After an hour Zach clicked on his radio. “Keep a close eye on the surroundings, they might have people this far out. Over.”

  Bower acknowledged and the convoy sped along the highway avoiding the occasional wreckage of a vehicle.

  Ten minutes later they entered the western edge of the city, and Abbey watched a turn of the century farmhouse pass by on a top of a hill, which she remembered from before.

  They pulled off from the highway and stopped at the start of a long straight road which headed into the heart of the city.

  “A few miles further ahead is where we got ambushed. I suggest we man the guns, and move forward real slow. Over,” said Zach. He then climbed into the back, and stood up inside the turret. For a moment he absorbed the beautiful spring afternoon, and then reality crashed back down on him due to the complete lack of noise from wildlife.

  “You don’t think we should come at them from a different direction? Over,” said Bower.

  “We don’t want them to think we are here to attack them, but if they show any of the wrong kind of intentions towards us, we open up on them. Over.”

  “I hear that, Over.”

  Fiona pressed down on the gas pedal and drove forward keeping at a maximum of thirty miles per hour.

  Gas stations and office buildings packed both sides of the road, most of which Zach recognized from his time here before. Up ahead he spotted the wreckage that stopped their progress a few days earlier. He went to click on his radio when he heard Abbey say something from below.

  “Zach…”

  He ducked back inside. “Yes?”

  “I’m sensing E.L.F’s ahead of us.”

  “They’re coming this way?”

  “No…I don’t think so.”

  “Let me know if they start too.”

  He stood back upright. “Abbey’s sensing E.L.F’s ahead of us. Over.”

  “Diaz is saying the same thing. Over.”

  “We’ll need to move around the—”

  Zach spotted something rising above the trees in the distance. He bent down slightly. “Someone pass me the binoculars.”

  Abbey did and he stood back up and looked at what was moving into the sky to the east. Thick black smoke was bellowing upwards from somewhere in the city. He clicked on his radio. “I’m seeing smoke to the east, there could be a fire over there. Over.”

  Fiona stopped the Humvee as she approached the barricade in the middle of the road.

  Zach waited for the same kind of movement which he spotted days before, but this time there was only the sound of a light wind blowing around him. “Something’s wrong,” he said to himself, then ducked back inside. “Turn us around. We’ll find another way to the stadium.”

  They were soon driving through an industrial area with graffiti covered buildings that were abandoned long before the Cascade. Zach looked to the southeast at the smoke that was even more obvious than before.

  Dilapidated office buildings mingled with storage units as they drove closer to their destination.

  Fiona slammed on the brakes as a creature some twenty feet high, walking on pole like legs with a spear shaped tail moved across a junction in front of them. They all watched it, as it watched them in return, but it continued on its path. Just as she was about to press down on the gas pedal once again, there was a screech from above, and a flying E.L.F looking like something from the prehistoric era swooped down close to the road and then back up heading away.

  Zach ducked back inside and looked at Abbey.

  “There’s a number of E.L.F’s all around, it’s hard for me to get a lock on where they are exactly, but I haven’t sensed any hostility towards us yet. They seem to just want to move away from here,” she said.

  The source of the smoke now seemed obvious as a few miles ahead of them, plumes of black soot rose up from the large box shaped stadium building.

  They drove forward soon arriving at another junction. More creatures lurked on both sides of the road, some seemingly injured.

  “Keep driving,“ said Zach to Fiona.

  She did as asked, driving the same stretch of road Zach and Abbey were taken almost at the same time the day before.

  “There’s people up ahead,” shouted Zach.

  As the convoy approached the wretched looking individuals, most covered in black marks, some shouted out for help. Fiona stopped.

  “What happened?” said Zach to a gaunt looking woman wrapped in rags, holding the hand of a small child who looked lost.

  Harper on the main gun in the other Humvee looked around nervously, as more people got to their feet.

  “There was a fire, we couldn’t stop it. Who are you? Where are you from?”

  “We’re from the south” Zach then noticed amongst the movement around him, dead bodies.

  The woman noticed what he was looking at. “The creatures killed many of us when they escaped the cages, luckily a few of the coaches remained with us, and made them leave.”

  “Did Hemming’s survive?”

  “We don’t know. Can you help us?”

  Zach clicked on his radio, and looked around them. “We’re leave the vehicles here, and give these people what assistance we can. Myself and Bower’s squad will look inside the building. Over.” He then ducked back inside. Abbey and Fiona overheard what he said.

  “I’m coming with you,” said Abbey, her voice quivering slightly.

  “Me too,“ said Fiona.

  He leaned across and placed his hand on Abbey’s shoulder. “I’ll have Diaz with us if there’s any creatures inside. I need both of you out here, making sure this situation doesn’t get out of hand. Fiona, radio back to the outpost, tell them we’re going to need troop carrying trucks up here to take these people back,” he then looked at Miles. “I’ll need you with me.”

  Miles nodded and got out.

  Fiona clicked on her radio, while Abbey shook her head and followed Miles outside, immediately going to help the closest person to her.

  Bower and his squad apart from Hayes who was helping the injured, had already formed a group at the top of the downward ramp to the large smoke stained building.

  Zach approached them. “Looks like most of the fires inside have died down, but unless any of you were a former fireman, we go slow and don’t push our luck.”

  “Why we even bothering looking inside this hellhole?” said Diaz.

  “We’re looking for survivors, there were around a thousand people living in here. Look around you, I see maybe forty out here.”

  Diaz shrugged her shoulders.

  Zach turned to Miles. “Miles was a prisoner in this place until yesterday. We’ll take his lead on where to look.”

  “Well, if we go in at the bottom down there—” he pointed. “— That will take us to the market area, that’s as good a place as any to search.”

  “Okay you all heard the man, this is a recon mission, looking for any injured. There also might be E.L.F’s still inside, so Diaz, dial that creature radar of yours up to the max. Let’s move out!” Said Bower leading the group down the blackened concrete slope.

  As they walked across the parking lot, howls, roars and other noises not quite recognizable played out in the distance. Bower looked at Diaz.

  “Meh, they’re too far to be a problem.”

  “We got maybe four hours of daylight left, I want to be long gone from this place before it gets even near sunset,” said Bower.

  They approached a large gaping hole, with darkness beyond. Even from the distance of a few yards the smell of smoke and burnt plastic permeated the air around them.

  The metal gate that Abbey and Zach first drove through when they were taken to the building laid mangled and smoldering just inside.

  Bower took his pack from his back and pulled out a few cloths. “Time to wrap what you got around your nose and mouths.” He handed two to others around him, while wrapping the last one around his face. The others reached into their own packs and did the same with whatever material they could find.

  They slowly walked forward into the gloom, each one turning on their flashlights and letting their rifles lead the way.

  The bustling market that Zach had seen the night before was now smoking heaps of wood, metal and plastics.

  “If there’s people here, we’re not going to find them under all—” Diaz coughed. “-That.”

  “Keep moving,” said Bower.

  As they moved deeper into the bowels of the building, the air grew warm, and a pungent smell seemed to be emanating from the walls.

  “Take us to the living area,” said Zach to Miles, who nodded in reply.

  They approached an opening that had a burnt black door hanging from it, and into a corridor with dark streaks across it. On the floor burnt picture frames cracked as they walked over them.

  As they got to the end, Freeman tried opening the door but it was stuck. “Something on the other side!” He and Harper then both pushed, and the door gave way with a scraping noise. The stench of burnt flesh made all of them put their hands to their mouths even with them already covered.

  Freeman pushed his way inside the stairwell. Bodies lay across most of the stairs, some were burnt but most weren’t.

  The others filed in behind him.

  “Smoke must of got them,” said Bower.

  “We need to go up two floors!” said a sweating Miles.

  They quickly climbed up the stairs trying not to touch the dead and were soon at a door, with a blackened sign above it.

  Harper pushed the door open, and then jumped back inside. “There’s an E.L.F in there!” she whispered.

  Bower looked at Diaz.

  “The smoke and smell it’s messing with my senses!”

  “Can you sense it now?”

  “Yeah yeah, hold on.” She closed her eyes. “Okay, I feel it. It’s lost, or waiting, like it’s looking for something, no, some one.”

  For a moment Zach thought about Abbey’s pet wolf creature, but then quickly remembered that she sensed him dying. Whatever it was, it wasn’t Jai.

  “Can you deal with it?”

  “I dunno. I’ll try.” She pushed forward past the rest, and then opened the door and looked down the hallway. A four-legged creature, which looked like a lion but with the armor you would have found on an armadillo, stood looking lethargic. Its head slowly turned towards her.

  She closed her eyes, then let her breathing steady. She then felt outwards with her mind until she felt it connect with the creature. She then opened them. “Okay, I think it’s safe to pass.”

  “You think?” said Bower. “I’m going to need more of an assurance than that, if you don’t want me to blow it away with my—”

  Diaz huffed and walked into the corridor.

  “—Private! Get your ass back…”

  She was already too far away and too close to the creature for them to protect her if she was wrong. Bower swore under his breath and followed her out, looking down the sight of his rifle towards the creature.

  Diaz reached out her hand towards it. The creature sniffed towards her, then sat down.

  “He’s—”

  Zach saw Diaz spin around and fall before he heard the sound of the bullets flying towards them.

  Bower, Harper and Freeman who were already in the corridor dived to the ground and returned fire along the corridor, not knowing what they were shooting at, while Zach and Miles ducked back into the stairwell. Bullets pieced the wood of the door above their heads, sending splinters through the air.

  The creature stood back up and roared in both directions, as bullets ricocheted off it’s back.

  Zach held the door open a few inches so he could at least see Bower and the others on the ground nearby. They kept firing. “Can you see who’s shooting!” he said, closing the door momentarily each time bullets flew in his direction.

  “There’s a few of them up ahead. One rifle, and a few handguns by the sound of it. We nailed one of them.” Bower then looked at Freeman and Harper lying next to him. “Cover me, I’m going to try to get to Diaz, she’s still alive!”

  A volley of fire streamed towards the end of the corridor, while Bower scrambled to his feet. Zach took the opportunity to move out into the corridor and knelt against the wall.

  As Bower approached Diaz, he slowed as the large creature swung it’s head around, and started to growl. He crouched down and reached out for Diaz’s shoulder, which he then gently shook. “You still with us Diaz.”

  She groaned in response, and her head moved from side to side.

  Bullets skimmed past his head, while another bounced off the creature.

  “Diaz! Looks like you took one in your right shoulder. You with us enough to send this creature towards those shooting at us.”

  Diaz’s eyes flickered open. She looked up at the creature looming over her. She then winced in pain and closed her eyes. The creature shook it’s head slightly, then turned towards those twenty or so feet away.

  Bower knelt closer to Diaz. “Hey soldier, how you holding up?”

  She sat up, and pushed herself back against the wall. “Oh…this is nothing,” she said grimacing. They both looked along the corridor as the creature roared in the same direction. Those that were firing stopped, but held their ground.

  Bower took the opportunity to try to communicate. “We’re here to help you!” He shouted.

  “We don’t need your help boy, just be on your way!”

  Zach recognized Hemming’s voice. He crawled forward, keeping as close to the wall as possible. “Hemming’s? It’s Zach Felton.”

  Two shots rang out, just missing Zach’s head.

  “This is all your fault! You and that woman! I’m going to kill—”

  A shot rang out before Hemming’s could finish. Zach looked behind him to those lying on the floor. Freeman raised his head from his scope and nodded.

  CHAPTER 16

  Zach stood in Hemming’s makeshift zoo and looked at metal bars twisted and bent into impossible angles. Amongst them were the ashes and bones of creatures. He still had his scarf wrapped around his nose and mouth, he had too. The smell from the still smoldering E.L.F’s were making him dizzy as it was, and he had only been exploring the area for a few minutes.

  Diaz stood with him, holding her shoulder. “I’m not sensing anything alive down here. Looks like a few got out, but most died in the fire.” She sighed. “Usually I wouldn’t give a shit about E.L.F’s, but there’s something about this situation that is very wrong.”

  Zach nodded. “Let’s get back to the others.”

  After the short walk back to the maintenance bay they then walked outside, and stopped on the forecourt. A steady stream of men, women and children walked slowly up the slope to the road and grass area, joining the hundreds that were already there.

  “Gonna take a while to get this amount of people back to the outpost.”

  “Yup.”

  “If we hadn’t gone inside, that madman and his goons would have killed them all.” She looked down. “I had my doubts about going inside. I was wrong.”

  Zach looked at her and smiled. “Nothing wrong with being careful.”

  They walked across and joined the throngs leaving the still smoking building. Zach spotted Abbey talking to a middle aged man with blonde hair, and walked over to them.