Genetic Drift (13 page)

DAY 281

COMMUNICATION

ROANOKE, VIRGINIA

The end of the hallway was thirty feet away from Maddie, Ben, and Quill.  They were crouched down to make a smaller target and remain undetected.  Quill turned around and whispered, “If you stay quiet and still, they won’t find you.”  He slowly turned his head and focused his sight on the end of the hallway.  The Troll took its first step from behind the corner.

Gunshots started to fire from around the other corner.  The Troll readied its orbitizer and the core began to glow.  Maddie didn’t hesitate.  Seeing the core glow, she stood up and stepped to the side.  She fired and her blue orb went directly into the side of the Troll.  The Troll’s side began to dematerialize as it turned toward her.  She fired again.  The Troll fell down to the ground.  This time Maddie ran to the Troll and touched it. 

Death imminent, Objecti…

Then there was silence.  At that moment, Maddie knew she hadn’t dreamed the voice.  “What’s wrong with you?” Marcus grabbed Maddie’s arm and pulled her away from the Troll. 

“It talked to me,” Maddie shot back while she was being yanked.  Barron and Ben were now behind Marcus. 

“Who are you guys?  What happened?” Quill asked them.  Ben turned around to see Quill walking toward him but this time his posture was different. 

“I asked who are you guys?” Quill repeated his question.  Quill looked down at the Troll’s body and his eyes opened wide. 

“Di… Di… Did you guys kill that thing?” he stammered.

Ben looked at the Troll and then answered Quill, “Yes, Quill. Yes, it’s dead.”  Quill looked at Ben with a strange, confused look.

“Who is Quill?  I am Will, Will Easton.”  Will, not Quill, said.  Marcus and Barron looked over at Will with confused faces.  Maddie had broken free from Marcus’ grip and adjusted herself. 

“Stop, just stop.  Let’s take a second to figure this out,” Ben demanded as he was trying to calm everyone down.

Ben was still facing Will trying to figure out if he was going to attack them.  Will was still holding a short blade, Quill’s machete to cut the Troll’s neck.  “What are you planning to do with that thing?” Ben asked as he pointed to the machete.  Will looked down at it and when he noticed what he was carrying, he dropped it.

“That happens all of the time, I don’t know where they come from but I always find some sort of weapon in my hand,” Will told Ben.  Will opened up his hands to show his palms with the Trolls’ blue blood on them.  He continued his plea, “I don’t know, every time one of those Grapplers comes around, I black out and wake up with something in my hands.  A gun, a scalpel, and this time it’s a blade.”  Barron figured out that a Grappler was a Troll and corrected Will.

“We don’t call these things Grapplers, we call them Trolls,” Barron said.  Will put down his hands.

“That’s fine, we can call them ‘Trolls,’ all I know is that they killed everyone here so long ago,” Will’s meek voice answered Barron.

Maddie asked Will, “Have they ever talked to you?” 

Will shook his head, ‘no.’ 

“They have never spoken to me but they hunt me every night.  Every night I’m hunted and I have to hide in the ducting,” he pointed to the overhead. “They have killed everyone in Roanoke.  The first night they came into town, they killed everyone.  Everyone but me,” Will told them.

“How long have you been here?  How long have you been alone?”  Ben asked.

Will directed his sight back to Ben, “About nine months.  I hide here because this is my home.  The judge said so.”

“We can’t leave him here, there is obviously something wrong with him,” Barron said to the group. 

“You’re right.  Plus, he has avoided these Trolls for that long.  He definitely knows how to get around them,” Marcus agreed.

“Would you like to come with us?  Do you think you can help us get out of town?”  Ben asked Will.  He agreed with Marcus.

Will rapidly nodded his head ‘yes.’  “We can leave in the morning.  They have to go back home in the morning.  But do you think it is okay with the judge?  He said I had to stay here.” 

“I’m sure the judge has no problem with you leaving here.  We’re going to help you now,” Ben assured him.

“And now on to you,” Ben said, and turned to Maddie. 

“What the hell is wrong with you?  Those things can be diseased or poisonous,” Marcus snapped at her, jumping in before Ben could say another word.

“Hey, it talked to me,” Maddie said, and spoke with the same sharp tone.

“That thing didn’t say a word.”  Marcus told her the reality of what he saw.

“They don’t talk, nope, never heard a word,” Will said in the background.

“They had voices, body numbers, cell counts, and objectives.  I heard it all.  I heard them die,” Maddie, clearly frustrated, told Marcus.  Marcus didn’t believe her.

“Then how did you hear them if nobody else heard them?” Marcus asked.  Maddie grabbed for his arm.

“I was touched by that one,” she said, and pointed at the Troll that Quill had killed, “and then I grabbed this one like this.”  She wrapped her fingers around Marcus’ wrist.

Marcus let her have her say and then asked, “If they did talk to you through… let’s say osmosis, then what important thing did they say?” 

She pointed to the first Troll, “That one said it was Sicilian or something like that and human then it died.” 

She pointed to the Troll that she killed and said, “This one knew it was going to die.”  Marcus looked at both of the bodies lying on the floor.

“I would say that they were right about dying,” he said.

Maddie dropped her grip on Marcus and scoffed, “You don’t understand.”  She didn’t want to discuss it anymore, “Can we just drop it?  I know what I heard but I can’t explain it.” 

“That’s fine but we’ll need to talk about it later.  You had better not be going crazy on me,” Marcus said as he crossed his arms.  Will’s head perked up.

“I know what that’s like,” he said, and shook his head.  He understood exactly what Marcus was saying. 

“Let’s get some sleep for tonight.  We’ll have to find a car first thing in the morning and get on the road.  We’ll need a bigger vehicle and Will can help us,” Ben announced while he looked at the group.

Marcus and Barron found a bed, ripped off the dusty sheets, and lay down.  Will went to sleep in a dark corner.  Ben slept as he sat next to the door.  Maddie was wide awake wondering what she had just experienced. 

“Why are they looking for hosts?” she asked herself, and then she succumbed to fatigue.

DAY 281

TRANSPORT

ROANOKE, VIRGINIA

The breaking of the morning sun pushed the darkness of night away.  No other Trolls.  No other emergencies.  A welcomed rest lasted until the morning.  Seeing the light of day starting to beam through the window, Marcus woke Barron and nudged and roused the others, even Will.

They exited the hospital with food and medical supplies.  Ben turned to Will, “Where can we get a van or something large?”  Will, thinking, put his hand to his chin.  An idea came to him.

“There’s a car dealership that has cars right around the corner,” Will said.

“That’s as good a place as any to start,” Ben said.

The group began their walk to get their vehicle and get out of Roanoke.  Maddie was walking behind the group with Will.  “Did you really talk to them?” Will asked.

“I don’t know if I talked to them but I heard them talking.  I know that,” Maddie said, as she shrugged her shoulders.  Will felt comfortable confiding in Maddie. 

“I’m scared of them.  It started when they received those satellite communications at the station.  When they arrived, I lost it.  I lost my job and they put me into that hospital,” he told her.  Maddie listened closely, waiting for him to tell her something to explain what had happened.  She let Will continue as he told his story.

“They killed everyone here a few days after they attacked.  I have been living in the hospital.  I know that they have been trying to get me but I know too many of the hiding places and they couldn’t find me.  Every night, they would send two of the Grapp…, I mean Trolls, to get me.  Every morning, I would wake up and they would be gone.  I would have thought that I was dreaming them if I didn’t see it last night,” he said.

“How did you hide from them?” Maddie asked, brimming with curiosity.

“I don’t know how.  I found the places, I just woke up in different places.  I can’t remember how I found them, how I got there, or where they went.  Sometimes, I woke up to see them leaving and knew that they left that way,” Will answered as he pointed.  It was the same way Maddie and the others had driven into Roanoke.

Will had finished talking to Maddie when they arrived at the dealership.  Barron found the lockbox with the key fobs and Marcus pried it open.  Barron took out all of the keys and started pressing the lock button on each one as Ben monitored which car reacted. 

“No, not that one,” Ben called out as a compact car chirped.  A truck sounded, then a car, then another truck.  Barron hit a button that belonged to a minivan. 

“That’s it, that’s the one,” Ben hollered to the group.  As they approached the minivan, Ben took the keys from Barron and entered the driver’s seat.  He started the car.

“Good, a full tank of gas,” he said as he looked at the gauge.

Will did not know what the plan was and asked, “Where are we going?”  Ben adjusted the rearview mirror.

“Kentucky.  We’re going to London, Kentucky,” he said. 

“Is it a good place to hide?  Are the Trolls not there?” Will asked, liking the idea.

“No, we’re going to meet with people that are fighting against them,” Ben answered.  A nervousness set over Will as he reclined back into his seat. 

“I don’t think there’s anyone fighting against them there,” Will said, and exhaled under his doubting breath.

The minivan pulled out of the lot and made it to the highway.  It was early in the day and they would easily be in London by the evening.

DAY 282

ARRIVAL

ROANOKE, VIRGINIA

An hour after driving past the tunnels that burrowed through the mountains, the minivan was quickly approaching its destination.  “We’ll be there soon,” Ben announced as Marcus navigated.  Since there was no traffic on the roads and no policemen to monitor their driving, the drive was fast and uneventful except for Will’s three ‘potty breaks.’  That was until 15 minutes outside of London.

Out of the rearview mirror, Ben saw a black jeep and other utility vehicles approaching the minivan.  The other vehicles were going fast.  Ben looked down at the speedometer and it showed 100MPH as the unknown vehicles raced to catch up to the minivan.  Ben pressed the gas pedal but he couldn’t get any more speed.  The tailing vehicles were going to catch up to them.  Ben prepared the others, “Looks like we have a welcoming committee.  Get ready, I don’t want to meet up with another Avalon Militia.”  He was expecting them to pull over the minivan and confiscate it.

Closer and closer the vehicles came until the black jeep pulled alongside of them.  A man in the passenger seat signaled Ben to pull over.  Ben pulled over to the shoulder of the highway and the black jeep parked behind the minivan.  The other vehicles stopped to box him in.  They were going to have to get out and see what these people wanted.

“Avalon Militia?” the man asked as he exited his black jeep.  He was tall and stocky.  He was young, no older than twenty years old.

“Yes, we’re from Charlottesville,” Ben answered the man. 

“What is your authentication code?” the man asked the follow-up question per protocol. He waited for an answer.  Ben could only think of the one authentication code that Alan had given him when he had to defend the town.

“5A41?” Ben responded, unsure if it was right or not.

“Sounds good to me,” the man responded with a smile.  Ben wiped his brow in relief and stuck his head into the minivan.

“It’s okay, these guys are with Supreme Command,” he said, and the others got out of the minivan slowly. 

“You all sure did take your sweet time getting out here.  You should have been here two days ago,” the man walked toward the minivan, “I’m Ethen and I’m in charge of this outpost, this area.  And you are?” he asked, and extended his hand to shake Ben’s.  Ben met his hand and introduced his fellow travelers.  Ethen noticed Maddie’s hand and then her eye.

“You’ve been caught by one of them, haven’t you?” he asked.  Maddie again covered her eyes with her hair and hid her hand behind her back.  Ethen saw that she was uncomfortable and tried to reassure her.

“You’re not the only one, we have several at Supreme Command.  They can help you out there,” he told her.  Maddie teemed with excitement and her voice matched.

“They can tell me what happened to me?” she asked.

Ethen shook his head, “Not really but they can tell you what’s going on inside of you.  I have personally recovered two others like you since the Attack.  One is still at Supreme Command and the other… well… the other supported the aliens.” 

Maddie focused on the last part of what he said, “Supported the aliens?” 

She whispered to Marcus, “Maybe they found Bryce?”  Marcus shrugged his shoulders.

“Maybe, maybe not, we will have to go there to find out,” he said.  Maddie started to glow from the sense of excitement, the ability to find out what was going on inside of her.

“When are we going to get to Supreme Command?” she begged.  Ethen looked around as it was getting dark.

“We’ll have to stop at the outpost tonight.  But tomorrow we’ll be able to get you to Supreme Command.  It’s a three-hour drive to Watauga, Tennessee,” he said.  Disbelief came over Ben and his face went long.

“Watauga?  Three hours?  We drove past it to get here.  Why in the hell did you guys have us drive past where we were going?” Ben demanded.  Ethen saw that Ben was clearly irritated and took a step back to answer his question.

“Hey now, nobody gets to go straight to Watauga.  If anyone knows where to go or is followed, then the assets we have there will be compromised.  The General and everyone else are not willing to take any chances.  If you haven’t noticed, we’re not faring too well against the aliens,” he said.  Ben understood, begrudgingly.

“Okay, then where is the outpost?” he asked.

“The outpost is at the tunnels coming into Kentucky.  That’s where we can monitor much of the traffic and anything else that might try to go through there,” Ethen explained.

“Well, when do we leave?” Barron asked.

Ethen raised his hand in the air and started to spin his finger.  “We’re waiting on you all,” he said.  As his finger spun, the troops that accompanied him reentered their utility vehicles.  The vehicles moved to give the minivan a clear path to turn around.  Ben watched the vehicles start to head down the highway.

“I guess we’re ready to go,” he said.  The travelers piled into the minivan.  With their transportation loaded, they followed the black jeep. Ethen, sitting in the passenger seat, led the way to the outpost.