Harvest Earth (20 page)

Madison slams on the brakes and puts the truck into park
.
She then reaches for the amulet around Tobias’ neck. Tobias tries to bat her away. The two of them wrestle as Madison tries to pull the shard away from Tobias’ next, but Tobias is strong and pushes her back. He brings up a fist and it collides with Madison’s cheek. She barely feels the blow, she is so focused on grabbing the glowing fragment of foreign metal. Tobias then strikes her again. This time her head shoots back and slams against the driver’s side window.

Madison rubs the back of her head where it had collided with the glass. She only takes a moment to regain her composure before she realizes Tobias is staring at her. There is a look in his eyes. It is one that tells Madison she is in danger.

Madison leaps out of the truck and slams the door behind her. She dashes to the front of the truck. Tobias opens the door to the cab and hops out as well. He does so smoothly, as if his body is vapor. He moves stealthily, the only sound comes from the slow methodical fall of his footsteps.

“We should go.” Tobias says, his gaze is fixated on Madison.

Madison doesn’t waste time responding. She bolts in the direction of the nearest rows of pillars and Tobias moves swiftly to stop her. She runs full steam into dark, the sound of Tobias storming behind him echoing off the sides of the pillars.

Madison is surrounded by darkness. She races up and down the columns of electrified towers, searching for some place to provide her with sanctuary. Her lungs burn with exhaustion. As a bolt of lightning arches overhead illuminating the area, Madison sees a long reptilian tail disappear behind a pillar. Madison runs in the opposite direction.

Blinded, heaving heavy breaths and fueled by a need for survival, Madison rounds the corner of yet another column. It is nearly pitch black. Her only sense of her surroundings are the shadows of the pillars around her. Madison had the answers she had come for, she realizes. Even if they had not been the answers that she had wanted to hear. Madison realizes that all she wants now is to make it out of the maze of pillars alive.

Madison his something hard. It strikes her in the face and she falls to the ground. There is a shadow above her. Another bolt of electricity overhead reveals Tobias’ form standing over her. He has a clenched fist raised.

“It is over. There is no escape.” His voice is like glass, smooth and without a ripple.

Madison rubs her nose staring up at the man who has struck her. She is determined to survive. Madison shifts across the ground and props herself up on her elbows. Tobias still looms over her, not making a sound.

“So all of this was planned, everything?” Madison says. She is stalling, hoping to catch her opponent off-guard. “Then why take you? Why did they take you when you were a teenager?”

Tobias obliges her. “To test me.” He says. “To see if our species had reached its ripeness. They decided were still lacking.”

“But now we are ripe?” The words sting Madison’s tongue as she says them.

“The season is right and the crop is mature. This is our purpose.” Tobias says the phrases as if he no longer sees himself as truly human. Madison wonders if he is.

“Well I hate to mess up your plans but I don’t think I’m ready to be turned into some kind of alien battery cell.” Madison shifts her weight underneath her slightly in the dark. She gets her body into to better position for what was inevitably to come.

“We are fuel, nothing more.” Tobias replies. “Our bodies were made for this purpose alone. “ Tobias then arches his back. “But spoiled fruit may not be allowed to pollute the batch.” There is fire in his eyes, one that tells Madison what is about to happen. The light overhead fades and a shadow falls on top of her. Two powerful hands wrap around Madison’s throat. Madison doesn’t even bother screaming.

Instead, Madison focuses on how she is going to fight back. Her knee come up under Tobias’ legs and strike his groin. The young man’s whole body quivers from the force and the grip on Madison’s neck loosens. Madison rams her forehead into Tobias’ nose and hears the cartilage crunch as she does so. With a chop, she then swings for Tobias’ neck and makes contact. He gasped for air and rolled away from the pain. Madison is not a victim, she never had been. She is a survivor and a fighter. Something her enemy would learn.

Free from Tobias’ grasp, Madison rolls away. An electrical bolt flashes overhead then and Madison’s heart jumps. A dozen of the serpent creatures have surrounded her in a half-circle. Their tongues are flawing and their shoulders are hunched. They are ready to pounce. Madison can hear the licking sound of their tongues in the dark over Tobias’ heavy and wounded breathing. They are all no doubt preparing to finish her off. Madison is soon blind again. She hopes she can react quickly enough.

“You are alone.” It is Tobias. He had disappears into the darkness. His voice sounds weak, his windpipe likely bruised by Madison’s blow. Madison looks around in the dark, trying to locate him, but the voice could be coming from anywhere. Madison presses her back against a pillar to protect herself from an attack from behind. She tries to hone her sense of hearing, listen for his approach. It is difficult to make out anything over the sound of her own breathes.

“You are of no value alone.” The voice echoes off the surrounding pillars.

“I couldn’t agree more.” Madison says smartly. It is a fact that now sits comfortably within her heart.

“Come.” The voice fills the air. “Come fulfill your purpose.”

A distant bolt of light and Madison sees something glimmer, it is the glow of the metal shard around Tobias’ neck, the implant that he had torn out of his arm and that the young man wore on a string. Madison grabs for it and feels her fingers wrap around the metal shard. She pulls, snapping the string that keeps it around Tobias’ neck. Tobias bellows and lunges for her, more ravenously than ever before.

A gunshot rings out. Tobias’ body flies to the side. A spray of blood fills the darkness.

39    Cassie

The smoke billows out of the end of Cassie’s rifle as she stares down the sights of her weapon. It had only taken one shot to bring down the young man who had been charging at Madison. One shot, a quick spray of blood and Tobias now lay somewhere in the dark on the ground. It had been a difficult shot to make, Cassie was shooting at shadows, but she was sure she had hit her mark.

“No!” It is a bellow from Debra as she races past Cassie towards her fallen son. Debra carries a gas lantern in her hand, it swings from side to side as she runs. The ambient light dances off of the pillars, casting long dark shadows in all directions. Madison steps away from Debra as she runs toward her. The shrieking woman falls to her knees besides her son.

Madison turns to Cassie and in the pale glow of the lantern Cassie can see that the Lieutenant is smiling. Madison runs quickly towards Cassie. There is something clenched in her fist. Cassie is startled when the Madison wraps her arms around Cassie in a fierce hug. Cassie’s body tenses up, she resists it at first. Soon, however, her body relents. Cassie has to admit that after everything she had been through, the human contact felt comforting.

A bark! Both Madison and Cassie turn to see the shape of Copper wobbling towards them in the dark. The dog’s fluffy tail is wagging. It runs up and licks Madison’s hand. The Lieutenant is crying, Cassie realizes. Cassie too feels tears welling up in her eyes, only she fights them away.

“The monsters.” Madison’s face then suddenly changes, as she remembers something terrifying. She surveys the scene. The only people in view are Debbie kneeling over the body of her son. Whatever ‘monsters’ Madison is referring to must have vanished. Apparently realizing this, Madison sighs and her body relaxes. She bends down and starts to furiously scratch at Copper’s ear. The animal pants with excited breathes, its tongue flopping out of its mouth.

“How did you get here?” Madison manages to say between residual sobs.

Cassie readjusts the rifle strap around her shoulder. “A dirt bike back at the house. That crazy witch-woman was able to get it working.” Cassie motions to Debra who is sobbing besides her son’s motionless body. “From there we found two motorcycles, one with a sidecar for Copper here. Debra was able to get those working again too. They were fast and small, allowed us to weave in and out of the traffic on the highways.”

“But how did you know where to find us?” Madison rises, one hand resting on the dog’s head.

Cassie gestures over to the crying woman and her son again. “Psycho-boy drew this place. Well, Washington, D.C. anyway. I don’t know what the hell this place is now?”

Madison sighs heavily and opens her clenched fist. In it she holds the metal shard that Tobias had worn around his neck. Cassie can see that Madison is studying it. “I don’t think he’s crazy. I think he was being controlled.” She then looks up, staring at the pillars. “And this place-“ She pauses. “This why they came for us, to turn us and our planet into this.”

“But what is it?” Cassie asks as a beam of light stream overhead.

“Some kind of power station.” Madison throws the metal shard onto the ground. “And we’re the fuel.” She steps on the piece of metal with the heel of her foot and Cassie hears it crack from the force of Madison’s heavy stomp. Madison then pivots her heel. When she removes her foot, the small shard is thoroughly pulverized.

“Then everything is gone? The government? Everything?” It feels odd for Cassie to say the words out loud. They are thoughts that had been building for days, confirmed as she and Debra drove tirelessly across the country and saw all the devastation that lay between them and their destination.

“Yes.” Madison is looking directly into the face of the Private. In the dim light, Cassie can see where her tears have left streaks down her face. “We’re the only ones left.”

Cassie lets the thought sink in. It takes some time. The enormity of all of it, it takes time to take hold. “But what do we do now?” The words creep out of Cassie’s lips unconsciously. She had been so used to taking orders, to following commands, even the most moronic of them. Now there was no one to lead her. No one was left to guide her except her own will.

Madison takes a long time to answer. She is staring off along the pillars, they continued on for what appear to be eternity. There is no end to them in sight. Eventually Madison squeeze out two words, “We survive.”

Cassie looks at Madison and then glances at the columns. It was true. Everything was lost and only they remained. They and the crazed woman.

Cassie glances over in the direction of where her maddened travel partner had run off to, but only finds her boy laying in the hue of the lantern. The woman has vanished.

Cassie is suddenly alert. She is startled by not having seen the woman get up. She could be anywhere now. Cassie grips her rifle tighter. She looks to Madison and her eyes widen. Madison seems to immediately pick up on Cassie’s expression, but it is too late.

A crazed face appears out of the shadows behind Madison, a raised knife in her hand. Copper yelps and runs off in the opposite direction. The mad-woman, Debra, screeches as the knife she holds comes plummeting down towards Madison’s neck. Cassie tries to react but can’t get her rifle up quick enough.

The knife’s point are inches from Madison’s neck.

40    Gabriel

Once a comfortable distance away from the Washington Monument and the Reflecting Pool, Gabriel flicks on his flashlight. The gunshot he had heard had not been that far away. Gabriel tries to hold the sound of it in his memory. He uses the recollection of it to guide him.

In his offhand Gabriel still carries the strange device that seemed to have both the ability to cause bursts of green flame and transport people large distances. Gabriel wasn’t sure what value it had to him, if any, but something tells him that it is prize that is worth holding onto. After all, it had cost him his eye.

As Gabriel gets closer to where he thinks he had heard the gunshot, he flicks off his flashlight. Instead Gabriel just uses the light from the occasional arcing beams overhead to illuminate his surroundings. Gabriel becomes a shadow, a shadow among shadows. He creeps in the dark and his body disappears in darkness.

Ahead of him Gabriel hears voices. The sounds of two females. Gabriel watches them from his hiding place behind one of the pillars.

The one has dark-skin and wears military fatigues. She has a badge on her shoulder, though Gabriel can’t identify the insignia. In her hands she holds a rifle. She doesn’t look menacing and the woman who is with her doesn’t appear to be afraid. This other woman has light-skin and is dressed in more casual attire. She has her hand on a dog’s head. Gabriel’s heart warms ever so slightly at the site of the furry pet. The dog looks pleased. The whole gang of them together seem to be rejoiced to see one another. Gabriel supposes he is grateful to see them too. He is grateful to see beings with human forms again after the all the monsters he had encountered of late. Not since Jules and Tayna did Gabriel feel glad to be in the presence of people again.

To the side of the two women is a light. It is an orange ambient light coming from a lantern. Besides the lantern is a body, it lay still on the ground. Gabriel recoils slightly and disappears behind a pillar, only letting his eyes poke out. The woman with the rifle had undoubtedly shot this man. Gabriel wonders if the same fate awaited him should he present himself.

There was a sound then of shuffling in the darkness and Gabriel crouches down lower. Gabriel holds the foreign weapon in front him, his hand around the trigger preparing to fire. There is something else in the shadows with him. There is something moving stealthily through the columns. Gabriel fears it os one of the creatures, one of the large beings he had encountered before. He fears in that moment he might not have the strength to survive a second assault.

Then Gabriel sees a shadow. It is the form of another woman. Her hair is long and wild. Her frame is slender. There is the glint of something sharp in her hand. She is passing between the columns, silhouetted by the ambient light.  Gabriel tracks her as she creeps behind the fair-skinned woman. The shadow woman’s knife is raised. Gabriel knows what was to come next.

Gabriel moves quickly. He dashes forward towards the shadow form. His body was reacting out of instinct, some need to prevent the terrible deed that was about to occur. The woman with the knife screams as she brings down her weapon, but Gabriel is already there. Gabriel swings the heavy alien device in his hands with both arms and it crashes into the side of the would-be assassin’s head. She collapses onto the ground, the knife flying out of her grasp.

Off-balance from his blow, Gabriel can barely recover as the women in fatigues charges him. She knocks him back and pins him to one of the pillars. Gabriel stares down the barrel of the woman’s rifle. Her eyes are two angry slants on the other end of the sights.

“Hillman!” It is the woman with fair-skin’s voice. She is pointing at the lady on the ground, the one Gabriel had hit. The would-be assassin is getting up.

The woman in fatigues is conflicted. Gabriel can see her eyes dance back and forth between himself and the woman that had sprung from the shadows. She can only train her rifle on one of them.

Clutching her rifle, the woman takes two steps away from Gabriel. The rifle passes back and forth between Gabriel and the woman on the ground.

“Witch! Stay down!” The rifle-yielding woman shouts at the woman on the ground.

The one on the ground freezes. Her face is twisted up in a demented snarl.

The woman in fatigues then glares at Gabriel, “And who the hell are you?”

Gabriel takes a moment to measure his response. He feels so very numb. Besides a few tattered moments of hope, Gabriel’s insides feel cemented by anger. If in that moment he felt any will to survive, it was only so that he could exact his revenge on those who had filled him with such rage.

“I’m like you.” Gabriel finally responds. He speaks each word as slowly as he could, very deliberately. Gabriel then places the device in his hands onto the ground. He then stands with back erect with his palms in the air. “I’m a survivor.”

The woman in the fatigues doesn’t seem convinced. “You don’t know us!” She gestures to the woman squirming on the ground. “For all I know you could be a wackjob like Mrs. Serial Killer over here.”

“I don’t want to hurt you.” Gabriel says. It is true. His anger was directed elsewhere. He hopes that the sincerity in his voice will earn him his life.

“Hillman, he saved me.” It is the other woman now, the calmer one dressed in casual clothes. “If he wanted me dead why save my life?”

“I don’t know.” The one called Hillman replies. “Hell if I know how the brain of a psychopath works.”

“I’m not a psychopath.” Gabriel replies. He is getting upset with the woman now. “Look, if you want to shoot me, get it over with. Hell knows I was about ready to do it myself a few hours ago. You’d be saving me a lot of trouble.” Gabriel then points to the makeshift bandage around his eye. “And you could finish off the job that some messed-up creature from Hell started.”

“They’re not from Hell!” It was the woman on the ground now, she had propped herself up onto her elbows. Blood was running down her face from a gash in her forehead where Gabriel had hit her. “You’re all the hellspawn! They’re angels. Angels sent to protect us. To protect us from ourselves!”

“Mom!” The voice comes from the side of them. It is a man’s voice, deep and rich. Gabriel turns to see the man who had been shot is standing now. His body is tilted to one side as he holds his bleeding shoulder. A bullet hole is covered by his palm.

“These creatures took me. They kidnapped me.” In the ambient glow of the lantern fire, Gabriel can see that this other man is crying. “They took me, your son. They took me away from you and yet you protect them?” The syllables of the man’s words wobble through his sobs. “They’re not angels, Mom.” His tone softens. “Their freaking aliens.” He gestures to the pillars surrounding them. “And all they want is to use us until there is nothing left.”

Gabriel watches as the woman with the rifle waffles. She seems to be unable to decide who to train her sights on. There was just too much happening at once. Too many potential threats in her eyes, Gabriel suspected.

That is when a small shape leapt out from behind a pillar and the woman called Hillman nearly shoots it. Fortunately she pauses, just long enough to realize that it is a dog. The same sand-colored one from before. It leaps out and lets out a faint woof. It then runs over and starts nuzzling against the other man’s leg. It rams its furry head into his kneecap. It continued to do this, nearly knocking the injured man over, until the man rests the hand that isn’t covered in blood onto the pet’s neck.

The tension was broken.

The casually dressed woman steps forward and offers Gabriel her hand. He takes it.

“My name is Madison.” Her voice is soft and gentle. It is a welcome relief to the hostility that had been Gabriel’s entire evening.

“My name is Gabriel.” He smiles. It is fake. Something he does out of habit. He doesn’t know if he will be capable of a real and genuine spontaneous smile again.

“You’ve already met Cassie, though she goes by Pvt. Hillman.” She gestures to the woman with the rifle who was still shifting her weapon across her body uncomfortably.

“The man with the bullet in his shoulder is Tobias.” Madison points to the man. He was reaching down and picking up the lantern with his free hand, the other still pressed into his bullet wound. “The dog trailing behind him is Copper.”

“You shoot all your friends.” Gabriel says snidely.

“Just the ones they’re trying to save from themselves.” Tobias is the one to reply. He is grimacing with pain as he takes steps towards them. “And that woman is my mother, Debra.” Tobias nods his head to the woman on the floor. She hardly seems to notice that everyone is looking at her. She just sits staring at her son blankly, unmoving. “She’s still a little confused.”

Tobias steps closer and Hillman tenses up. Gabriel sees her finger hover over the trigger on her rifle. The young man seems unafraid, however, and he turns to Madison and lowers his head.

“I’m sorry.” His tone is somber and authentic.

Madison places an uneasy hand on his shoulder, the one where he had been hit. She rubs him gently. “So am I. Thank you for trying to show me the answers I needed.”

He nods, his long ponytail bobbing behind him. “We both needed.” He replies as he pulls away from her touch and starts walking away. He walks past his mother without even acknowledging her. The whole time she is staring up at him unblinking.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” Hillman hollers after the young man.

“We need to leave.” Tobias slows his march to a halt and peers over his shoulder at them. “It is dangerous here, and besides, there is nothing more for us here.”

It is odd, but in that moment Gabriel knows it to be true. Though Gabriel’s remorse had turned to hatred, now was not the time exact it. Here was not the place.

“He’s right.” Gabriel says in agreement. These people were wounded, Gabriel thinks to himself. They are people that had felt loss and misery. He could see it in them in the way that they talked. Gabriel feels like one of them. “The creatures will know that we’re here. They will come for us before long.” Gabriel finishes. He can’t be sure, but part of him senses eyes all around them in the dark.

“And where the hell do you suggest that we go?” Hillman glares at him, Gabriel doesn’t mind. He likes her passion. He knows she shares his rage.

Gabriel pauses before answering. Was there anywhere to go? Anywhere safe left. Gabriel then remembers the folded up piece of paper in his pocket, the one that Jules had written down the address of a home in the mountains. It was a place where Jules thought they would be safe. It was a place where they could survive and regroup. It was a place where Gabriel could stay until he was ready to bring the fight back to those who had taken everything from him.

“I know of a place.” Gabriel says. “There are good people there. They are survivors like us. You’re welcome to join us.”

Madison and Hillman exchange unsteady glances. Madison then looks to Tobias. He merely nodded his head once in response to her gaze.

Madison walks towards Tobias with her arms across her chest. “This place,” she says softly to him. “Is there more I have to see?”

In response, Tobias shakes his head from side to side.

Madison seems to understand this. She turns back to the others. “All right, then, lead the way.”

Gabriel peels himself off of the pillar. He reaches down to pick up the alien device before walking in Tobias’ direction. Hillman lags behind, hesitant to move at first. She seems unsure of this new plan to go with the two men, but eventually she surrenders and falls in-line behind Gabriel. Ahead of them are Madison and Copper. Tobias leads them away with the lantern raised out in front of him.

“Wait!” It is Debra, her body is stretched across the ground. She is reaching one open hand out to them She is at the edge of the lantern’s light, shadows cast across her face. “Stay with me, please.”

There is an uncomfortable silence as everyone exchanges glances. Everyone except Tobias, who doesn’t even stop walking at the sound of his mother’s voice.

“Don’t worry mother.” Tobias says the words without even looking at her. His voice is flat and harsh. “This is a home for monsters.” He then snarls, “You’ll fit in fine.”

By the end of Tobias’ sentence Debra is outside of the lantern’s light. She disappears into the darkness. Only silence followed.

The rest of the party follow the light. Gabriel and the others follow Tobias to a truck that has two motorcycles parked beside it.  As a group, Gabriel, the three other survivors, and the dog, drive out beyond the rows of pillars undisturbed. Together, they leave the darkness behind them.