The Harvest (Book 1) (26 page)

Austin opened his eyes, snapping forward. “Yes sir. Sorry sir. I’m a little tired.” He told another lie.

“Of course you are. We’ll let you rest tonight. Tomorrow you begin your seminars.” The general stood up. “I’m so very pleased that you’re joining us.”

Austin stood up as well. Behind him a young red haired soldier, Brother Isaiah, waited to escort him to his room. Out of habit, Austin saluted the general before leaving.

24 SPECIMEN

A twig snagged Madison’s scarf, threatening to rip it from her head and forcing her to stop. She removed the scarf, replacing it with a neoprene mask and took a moment to catch her breath. There were no sounds of the men, which gave her hope they hadn’t found her trail. She turned around to peer down the path. There was nothing to be seen or heard, only dead silence. Not even the forest had any life left to give.

The barn was north and according to the arrow on her compass she was heading in that direction, but should have been close to the edge by now. Zack had drawn out the route she needed to take, one he had personally mapped and used several times. It was a half loop approximately two miles long. A distance, when calculating in the terrain, she should have been able to cover in twenty five minutes. Yet here it was going on an hour and the forest was giving no indication of opening up any time soon. Rather the towering pines grew closer together and blocked out all but small patches of the gray sky above. Madison checked the compass again. The needle pointed north. Her stomach growled, adding to her unease that this was taking too long.

Zack insisted she take an energy bar, a bag of beef jerky and a Gatorade gel pack just in case. She had laughed at the thought of getting lost, but allowed him to fill her pack with the items anyway. She would have to remember to thank him if she made it back to the bunker. Not if Madison, when, when you get back to the bunker, she corrected firmly.

As she dug around her backpack for the energy bar, she saw Zack had also packed a blizzard survival blanket. It was contained in a three by three inch pouch, but when unfolded could easily cover two adults. She pushed the pouch aside and reached for the energy bar. At least she wouldn’t freeze to death if she had to spend the night out here. This thought sent a shiver through her body that had nothing to do with the cold. 

Sighing, she began walking.  At least if she kept moving, she would stay warm. Over head a branch snapped and Madison stopped midstride. Another branch snapped. The sound came from the right, some fifty feet up into the trees. Peering upward Madison watched for movement, but saw nothing. Maybe it was the wind, she reasoned, but the wind wasn’t blowing this deep in the trees. What then she wondered, trying to think logically and not succumb to paranoia. The Sundogs don’t come out during the day. It could be a bear or a mountain lion. Although either one of those would most likely be very hungry. Madison held her breath and listened. The forest was a tomb of silence. She slowly released her breath and relaxed her muscles which had instinctively tensed into fight or flight mode.

Standing perfectly still, Madison watched her breath create tiny clouds of mist. All around her the great pines soared to magnificent heights that diminished her existence amongst them, making her feel insignificant and isolated. It was time to get back to the bunker. She began walking when another branch snapped overhead, this time louder. Every hair on her body rose up, every nerve was on end. The presence of evil was overwhelming.

***

The tension was thick as the guys watched the screens, waiting and hoping for Madison to reappear. But instead of Madison exiting the trees, out stumbled the three men. They walked back towards the barn in silence. At the barn they searched for Charlie. At one point two of the men began to push and shove one another until the third man came in and broke them apart. He appeared to yell at them and then waved for them to leave. All three left the barn and returned to where their vehicle was parked. They got in and rode off in the direction of the highway. At the highway they turned in the direction of Colorado Springs.

“Do you think they’re going to Cheyenne?” Luke asked. His eyes were still glued to the spot where Madison was supposed to exit the forest. 

“I don’t know, but I’m going to look for Madison.”  Zack announced.

“I’m going with you.” Luke got up.

“No you aren’t. It’s bad enough she’s out there. I don’t need you going and getting’ sick again.”

“I promised Austin I would protect her.” Luke pleaded with Zack.

“Yeah well, I promised to keep all of you safe. If you get pneumonia again you could die. So I got this.”

“He’s right Luke. Your immune system is still weak.” Edward laid his hand on Luke’s shoulder. “Let Zack go. He’ll find her.”

Luke’s shoulders fell. He knew they were right, and hated that he wasn’t strong enough to help. He was sure Austin wouldn’t have let pneumonia get in his way. Hell he wouldn’t have allowed himself to get sick in the first place. “You better find her.”

“I will. I promise.” Zack replied, turning to Colin. “Charlie’s in the room next to Ed’s. See if you can get her to tell you what the hell’s goin’ on. Ed, you take the walkie talkie. You and Luke keep a close watch on those monitors. If you see those guys coming back you let me know. Ok?”

“We’re on it.”  Ed took the walkie talkie from Zack.

“Hey Zack.” Colin stopped him as he was walking out the door. “Be careful.” Colin said. Zack gave him a crooked grin and nodded. A brief look passed between the brothers.

***

Twenty minutes later Zack stood over the ATV Madison had crashed into the fallen tree. On the other side of the tree, he found the blood trail she left behind. There were several footprints near where the blood stained the snow. He envisioned the men standing there arguing on whether they should follow her or let her die. They decided to follow the blood into the forest. Zack turned, facing the opposite direction, and walked along the edge of the woods until he found a smaller set of footprints, which he assumed belonged to Madison.

As he followed Madison’s trail, he was relieved to see only her prints. He walked for another ten minutes until he reached a slight fork in the path. Zack stared at the path and frowned. Madison had veered right instead of left, which he had specifically told her to be careful not to do. The fork was barely distinguishable and easy to miss if you weren’t paying attention. He guessed Madison had missed it. The two paths ran almost parallel to one another, but the one Madison chose would have taken her northeast and deeper into the forest, rather than north back to the bunker.

Zack rubbed his forehead. He was unfamiliar with this path, having only traveled it once before and never to the end. Time was an issue as well. In less than three hours it would be dark, probably less than that here in the forest and the deeper in the less light would remain. He had prepared for the worst and standing there thinking it over wasn’t getting him any closer to finding Madison. The time factor and more than running out of daylight, not wanting to disappoint Austin drove him onward at a fast pace.

The trail was tight, but easy to follow and Zack made good time. He rounded a bend just in time to see Madison standing statuesque in the middle of the path. She was facing his direction, but looking up towards the tree tops. He was about to call out to her when she spotted him. She slowly brought her finger up in a signal to be quiet and then pointed upward. 

At first he didn’t see anything except the tops of the pines gently swaying back and forth. He looked back to Madison, who again pointed upward, more insistently, while her eyes silently pleaded with him to see. He squinted towards the sky, focusing his attention on anything that moved in the tree tops and again saw nothing out of the ordinary. He was about to give up and walk the remaining twenty yards to Madison, when a loud rustling noise overhead stopped him short. 

This time when he looked up, about a quarter of the way from the tree top, hanging upside down like a giant bat, Zack did see. And what he saw was something out of a sci-fi movie, not real life. Not here on the outskirts of Pueblo, Colorado. No sir. Pueblo had wolves, black bears and even the occasional moose, but not giant winged creatures that hung from trees fifty feet in the air. Zack stared, transfixed by the sight of the alien being. Movement to the left of the creature caught his attention. His eyes grew wider.

All around, hanging from the trees, were hundreds of the alien creatures. Now that he saw one, he saw them all. When he looked back at Madison, his eyes were the only thing to move. She mimed that she would walk to him. With one more glance at the creatures, he nodded for her to come to him. 

Madison approached Zack at a turtle’s pace, pausing after each step, checking overhead for detection. Zack also kept his eyes glued on the creatures and not until Madison reached him did he look at her. They stared into each other’s eyes, afraid to speak a word or even a whisper. They held hands and began walking down the path away from the canopy of death.

A slight breeze blew over them, rustling the pines. The hair on the back of Madison’s neck stood on end, but not from the wind. She gripped Zack’s hand, squeezing hard and stopped walking. He looked over at her, but she was looking up into the trees. A large branch gave way, the cracking noise echoed through the forest, as did the crash of each bough it collided with on its way down through the pines. With a soft thud, the branch landed on the ground and silence resumed for a mere second. But the branch had been supporting one of the creatures and having suddenly lost its perch the creature awoke and took to flight. The sound and commotion of giant nine foot wings flapping about the tops of the trees, very quickly disturbed the others. Soon they all took to flight and loud angry chatter filled the air.

From their view below, it appeared to Madison and Zack the creatures were upset over their sleep being disrupted. It was only a matter of time before one noticed them and Madison wasn’t about to have her chest ripped open. They needed to take cover, but as she took in their surroundings she saw nothing sufficient to protect them from the aliens.

Think Madison. Think. The forest didn’t offer a dairy freezer to hide in or a metal door or… Of course, she thought. She eased her back pack around to the front of her body and fished inside for the blizzard blanket Zack had packed for her, just in case. This wasn’t the just in case he had had in mind, but his foresight might save them. She nudged him with the folded blanket and nodded her head towards a spot off the path.       

Overhead the creatures continued to fly around the tops of the trees. Every few minutes, two or more would clash and a brief fight would ensue. Their surly disposition created enough of a diversion for Madison and Zack to move off the path unnoticed, where they quickly crouched down next to a fallen tree. Madison unfolded the blanket silver side out and drew it over them tucking all the edges underneath. 

“Aluminum.  The blanket’s made with aluminum. They can’t see through it.” Madison whispered in Zack’s ear. He nodded in response, hoping like hell she knew what she was talking about. 

Huddled underneath the blanket, Zack and Madison listened to the ongoing ruckus above. Every so often a branch would break and fall to the ground. One of those branches came dangerously close to landing on them, but took a lucky bounce off the tree instead. The blanket would be no match for a thirty pound tree limb, and fearing their luck would run out, they shimmied as far under the tree as possible.

Minutes later, two of the creatures landed on the path not far from their hiding spot. The ground shook from the force. The creatures fought and from what they could hear, it was a physical and violent battle. Several more creatures swooped down. One landed on the fallen tree they hid under, rocking the tree forward with its weight. Madison clung to Zack and closed her eyes. It was Lucky’s Grocery all over again, except Austin wasn’t there to protect her, but Zack was and even if he had no way of fighting off the Sundogs she was grateful not to die alone.

There was a horrible screech, loud enough to leave a ringing in their ears and then it was as if the aliens were all talking at once. It was at this very moment that Colin tried to reach Zack on the walkie talkie hooked to his side. Madison froze at the sound of Colin’s voice, which her senses, in their heightened state, perceived as coming out over a loud speaker. Zack reached down and clicked off the radio. The creature on top of their tree jumped down, shaking the ground with its impact. Zack held his breath, waiting for the blanket to be ripped away, but the loud chatter continued.

Over the din, one voice dominated the others and silenced the maddening noise. This voice spoke with authority, delivering what sounded like orders. When the voice stopped, they heard murmuring from the others. The voice, even louder, spoke again and the murmurs ceased. There was a massive rustling noise, which they could only assume was caused by the creature’s wings. And then, like a giant flock of birds, they could be heard flying up through the trees. More branches fell to the ground, some close to their spot and after what felt like an eternity, silence returned to the forest.   

Several minutes went by before Zack and Madison dared to come out from under the blanket. Zack folded down a corner and surveyed the area, giving the all clear once he was certain they were alone. They crawled out from under the tree shaken, but alive. Zack wrapped the blanket around Madison, who was shivering uncontrollably. He looked up into the tree tops and then walked a few steps out onto the path.

“Shit.” Zack muttered.

“What?”

“Take a look at this.”

Madison joined Zack in the middle of the path. Her eyes grew wide. “Shit is right.”

On the path, not more than fifteen feet from where they stood, lay one of the alien creatures and by the angle of its head it appeared to have a broken neck.

“Looks like we got ourselves a specimen.” Zack said and walked over to the alien.

25 THE DISCIPLES