Survive (Cascade Book 1) Read online

  SURVIVE

  CASCADE BOOK 1

  by

  Phil Maxey

  This book is dedicated to my mother, who always said I should be a writer.

  Copyright © 2016 by Philip Maxey

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  First Printing, 2016.

  http://digiterium.com/

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Table of Contents

  Survive

  About the Author

  Acknowledgements

  CHAPTER 1

  Abbey’s cell door opened once per week at 5 pm, when the guards would take her to a slightly larger area to stretch her legs. Abbey’s cell door was open and it was not 5 pm.

  “Changing the time you take your pet for a walk eh?” she questioned into the space beyond the door. “Hurry up I haven’t got all day!” she shouted. But of course I have.

  Abbey stood, walked to the door and looked out, the cell door to her left was also slightly ajar. From that direction came a noise, it sounded almost like a child crying.

  No animals allowed in here. She walked into the hallway. Beyond the next cell twenty-feet away was the main door to the control hub, that door was also open. A loud crunch noise echoed out from the next cell. Abbey flinched and took a slight step back, then started moving towards the source of the sound.

  Maybe somebodies hurt and the guards have gone to get medical assistance.

  The light in the next cell was flickering although Abbey couldn’t ascertain why. It was strictly disallowed to talk to other inmates and this would be the first time in three years she would get the chance. A strange sense of excitement started to fill her and then quickly faded when she saw what was in the far corner of the cell.

  A trail of milky liquid formed a path from where she was standing near the door to a mass of limbs that inhibited the corner. Arms and legs at wrong angles like a Picasso painting that had come to life. Abbey stood mouth agape and then burst out laughing.

  “Seriously? You have nothing better to do than play jokes on us?” addressing the guards no doubt laughing their asses off in the control room. The mass in the corner quivered, the arms and legs started to unravel and it’s form started to grow in size. Abbey started to back up.

  “I must admit I’m impressed…” she said more to herself than in any direction. Her mind started to fight her eyes that were widening, her mouth started to contort as just a car lengths away something impossible started to rise up. Multiple limbs attached to what seemed a human shaped torso moved uneasily towards her as if just been born. Hands on the end of spindly arms felt the walls on both sides of the cell leaving a stain and then slowly swung around in her direction. Abbey backed up so quickly that her legs tangled and she fell on her rear, all the time transfixed by this thing in front of her which was now just a few feet away.

  In a panic she kicked the door closed and scrambled away from it pushing her back up against the opposite wall.

  Feeling sick she feared if she stood up she would faint. From where she was she could just see the ceiling light flickering, with multiple shadows dancing around it. She waited for that thing to appear, like a cheap thrill in a horror movie. Nothing appeared. More seconds passed. She pushed herself upwards with the help of the wall behind her, each inch higher seeing more of the cell. Just as she was fully erect the light in the cell flickered one last time and went black. Now only the light above her penetrated the gloom of the cell. I need to go. It was the obvious thing to do, but she had to know, it was the same mentality that had made her a great hacker. Am I losing my mind? I’ve been here too long…no it had to be a military experiment gone wrong, had to be. Her mind was already making excuses for what she seen.

  She edged closer. Realizing that some of the milky liquid was on the bottom of her shoe she looked down in disgust and then back up.

  The black eyes were staring at her, black watery pits set inside a pinky smooth skin. The things face was pressed up against the cell door glass, one-foot away from her own. Abbey screamed and ran.

  CHAPTER 2

  Zachariah watched the moisture gather on the glass. There was no sun down here, only perpetual florescence, it reminded him of the times he would bust up a pot factory and there were these rows of lamps to simulate daylight. The twelve by twelve solitary cell was barren but he liked it that way, it provided more space to do the daily routine of sit-ups, push-ups and anything else he could push his body to do. He may never get out but he will be damned if he’s going to wither away.

  The military prison was not known to many in the outside world. This was the place the mistakes ended up. Men and women who liked killing a little bit too much.

  Zachariah or Zach to the few he was close too, had been military police. It was his job to put people in places like this. That used to make him laugh but now none of it mattered. He had been found kneeling, expression frozen in the front yard of his army home, covered in blood, his wife’s and children’s. Most of their body parts were inside, but not all. Eight consecutive life sentences, in the harshest regime allowed under any human rights convention. This was his life. And everyday he woke up knowing he deserved it.

  At a particular time during the day or night, he knew not which, moisture would start to creep down the glass on the inside of his cell door. This was an event. It meant the universe was still working.

  The blanket of sleep was drawing down on him when something else happened. Something that should not happen. His cell door opened.

  Few a few seconds he laid watching the space between door and cell, the space that was the difference between guilty and innocent, freedom and solitude, grey mush and a Friday night hotdog.

  He sat up waiting for a sound. The light in the hallway flickered slightly, as if being attacked by an insect but Zach knew that wasn’t the case, there was no innocent life down here. Minutes passed. Zach waited for a guard to appear, or an alarm to sound either would be satisfactory so he could go back to watching the inside of the cell door and then to sleep.

  “It appears the guards have gone” An elderly voice bounced a few times off the smooth grey-blue walls outside his cell and Zach stood up.

  What’s this gig thought Zach, nothing about this event made sense. The door shouldn’t be open, instead he should be hearing Earl the guard not some old guy.

  “Maybe the worlds ended, wouldn’t that be a ride.” The old guy again thought Zach. He looked back at his bed to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. It was empty. Taking a few steps forward he peered into the gap and then pushed the cell door slowly open. The cell next to his was also open.

  “I saw them bring you in six years back, names Ray if you’re wondering.”

  “I’m not” Zach’s words came out more aggressively than he planned. He hadn’t heard his voice outside his head for some time. Zach walked out into the hallway and stood waiting to be jumped, no attack came. Ray’s head appeared from behind the other cell door.

  “Hell, maybe it is the end of the world.” Said Ray looking up and down the hallway. Zach judged Ray to be in his sixties, maybe older, it was hard to tell there were only flickers of hair to get a fix on. Ray was roughly the same height as himself, but slimmer.

  “After all this time alone I would of thought you would be more of a conversationalist.” Remarked Ray walking into the hallway.

  Zach looked at Ray then turned away, looking towards the hub door which was also open. This has got to be some kind of military game or test, who knows what they are trying.

/>   ”I’m not playing!” shouted Zach while looking around, his words echoing around the hallway and fading into the distance.

  “Hey, can’t we enjoy our freedom a bit longer?” Replied Ray. Zach frowned, and walked towards the hub, it was time to see what was going on.

  Zach had only glimpsed the facility he had been thrown into, but he knew from previous experience that it was likely to be designed like a wheel, with each level having it’s own spoke housing a few prisoners, and a control hub at the center, this would then be repeated downwards however number of floors they had the federal budget to dig. The worst of the worst were at the bottom. Zach had no idea which floor he was on as there were no signs or numbers on the walls, just a few symbols.

  They stood a few feet from the hub’s entrance, beyond the light was dim. This was also wrong, the only times Zach has been through this section was blind folded and he could still see the lights. There was also no sound. Zach wasn’t sure which was worse. The open door in front of them was impossibly thick.

  “With a door like that you’d think we were worth something” Said Ray half smiling.

  “We’re not worth anything.” replied Zach, and leaned on the door to push it wide open.

  They looked onto a large room housing a smaller octagonal control room. Papers littered the floor. A small lamp shone a beam at a wrong angle onto the wall inside the control room, like a searchlight that had forgotten it’s purpose. No guards thought Zach.

  He walked forward and peered through the glass of the control room. More papers, a knocked over chair and a smashed mug, which had contained coffee but now was just fragments and a brown stain. The computer screens looked operational. Gently pushing open the control room door, Zach walked in and looked at the screens. A plan view map of this floor, with the words “Emergency: Doors open.” Flashing in red above it, was on one of them. Zach also noticed “Floor 7/12.” Ray appeared behind him.

  “Maybe it really is the end of the world, I knew they would do it eventually.” Said Ray looking resigned.

  “We don’t know what’s going on, but I’m not staying here.” Replied Zach. They both walked outside and into the hallway that lead to the stairwell. Zach started to expect the doors to be open and the door to the stairwell was no different in that regards, the only difference was the severed arm that lay just beyond the door.

  A loud crashing sound made Zach and Ray ducked instinctively.

  “What the hell was that?” said Ray whispering. Zach noticed Rays hands were slightly shaking.

  This is wrong, very wrong thought Zach.

  The sound came from the stairwell a few floors above them, there was also the sound of someone running, jumping down steps, someone in a panic.

  CHAPTER 3

  Abbey stood in gloom of the stairwell breathing heavily, the hallway hub door closed behind her. I’m in a friggin horror movie she thought and promptly let out a small laugh at the absurdity of her situation. Abbey loved horror movies, something her parents tried in vain to drive out of her. She had watched all the classic slasher movies by her sixteenth birthday and often watched stuff which made her boyfriends squirm on the sofa next to her.

  Abbey’s mother gave her that name because it meant “Intelligent and beautiful” and she was both, a math’s wizard from an early age and with a level of attractiveness that meant she could of made a career from her looks alone. The former was what interested her, although she hated the jibes that the school kids would give her about being Jewish and being good with numbers, hated it so much that instead of going into the family business at the age of sixteen, she shaved all her hair off and started to learn the ways of a hacker.

  At the age of eighteen and a half she hacked the pentagon, niftily circumventing their firewalls and accessing national security secrets. So impressed were the military with what she achieved that they intervened in her trial and asked for her sentence to be a military academy. The idea horrified her at first, but after a year she grew to like her newfound freedom to infiltrate enemy governments computer systems. This lasted until the second time she rebelled, but this time she did a lot more than just cut her hair off.

  Her horror viewing fell by the wayside while she as at the academy, but late night she still managed to squeeze in a film or two while doing her patriotic duty. She also knew the rules of horror movies and decided that next time she hears a strange noise she’s definitely not investigating. Luckily right now there were no strange noises, just frozen silence.

  She looked up the stairs into a wall of broken chairs, computer terminals and filing cabinets all stacked precariously to form a makeshift barricade. Beyond that was only darkness. Was there some kind of riot? She knew the kinds of inmates that were housed here and much preferred the idea of bumping into a guard than one of them. Going upwards was her instinct but it would take too long to clear that junk, so down it was.

  She slowly descended the stairs and as she did way off in the distance above her came a strange sound. She paused on the stairs. The sound was hardly noticeable but sounded like bacon frying. A low crackling sound so compacted it almost became white noise.

  In a different place at a different time it might have been the sound to send you to sleep but right now not something she wanted to hear. It was still quite far away, so she continued to descend, quickly arriving at the entrance to the floor below. Slowly walking down the first hallway, the door was open to the hub and revealed a scene of devastation. Abbey counted five guards, or what was left of them scattered around and inside the control room. The door to the cells is closed. She was relieved at that. Moving into the control room she could see the computer screens were all smashed. Damn. Amongst the bodies was a mixture of name badges with “3/12” and “4/12” on. Abbey placed a few of these around her neck. There were also stun batons but a quick tap on their triggers produced no electric charge, just an empty click. Whatever did this to these guards three-thousand kilo-volt wasn’t enough to save them, but it was still a weapon, so she grabbed two batons placing one down the front of her orange jump suit and her left hand through the strap of the other.

  Off in the distance the meat frying noise was now echoing around the stairwell.

  It’s getting closer Abbey thought without understanding what it was, she just knew she couldn’t stay where she was for too much longer. There must be some kind of floor plan or map She thought looking through the various binders that was on the desk, but without any success.

  She did see a page with “COUNTER MEASURES: ONLY TO BE USED IN MASS INMATE BREAKOUT.”

  Followed by a number of options the authorities had to quell any insurrection. One, which caught her eye, involved the use of XH12 gas. She had heard of XH12 from her hacking days and knew it was pretty nasty stuff. She was surprised it was even down as an option.

  The frying noise now filled the stairwell, whatever was causing this noise seemed just outside the door. Abbey tore the counter measures page out of the binder and moved swiftly into the stairwell without looking upwards.

  The sound of wood and metal smashing into each other came from above. The makeshift barricade she discovered had given way. Filing cabinets, chairs and whatever else was used could be heard tumbling down the stairs and smashing up against the wall in front of it. Without pausing Abbey ran down the flights of stairs to the level below and was confronted by a closed door.

  Closed! How can it be closed! She pulled on the handle but it would not budge, standing on tiptoe she looked through the glass to an empty hallway and gloom beyond. It’s close, keep moving came the voice in the back of her mind and she turned and ran down the stairs, leaping three-four steps at a time, turning at the bottom steps she abruptly stopped, standing in front of her were two men and a severed arm.

  One was older with hardly any hair, the other was maybe in his late thirties stocky build and dark greying hair.

  “They housed females here as well? Who would of guessed” Said Ray while smiling. Abbey stood breathing heavily in
front of Zach and Ray.

  “You caused that racket above?” Said Zach standing his ground.

  “We have to get inside it’s just behind me! Yelled Abbey while running past both men and into the hallway they had just left. The stairwell was full of the strange sound, which was now more recognizable as scurrying. Zach wanted to be sure there was a real threat above and walked to the front step and looked up.

  “What…RUN!” Zach turned and ran back to the hallway pulling Ray with him. Not having time to close the stairwell door they still managed to make it into the control room and closed the door behind them. Crouching down they waited for the source of the sound to arrive. They didn’t have to wait long.

  “What is that?” Ray was peering through the glass of the door towards the stairwell. “Is that oil?” A black mass, which could best be described as having the consistency of tar, flowed past the stairwell entrance.

  “That’s not a liquid look more closely” Said Abbey and they all squinted best they could. For what on first glance looked like a single mass was actually hundreds of smaller creatures, but of what type it was hard to tell.

  “Insects?” Said Ray.

  “I’ve not seen any insect like that, and how they move it’s more like a flock of birds”. Replied Zach.

  The mass flowed around the stairwell like a liquid being swilled around the bottom of a glass, until it stopped in front of the floor’s entrance. Looking at it was like looking into a nest of ants, a continuous moving mass but somehow overall seemed to have purpose. The mass rose up to form a monolith that completely covered the entrance like it was searching.

  “What is it doing?” Said Ray slightly panicky.