The Survivors Ch. 03

Having my wife at my side with our little community growing and prospering was probably the best couple of months of my entire life.

But I knew it couldn’t last.

Around Christmas time I was feeling edgy and restless.

It had been almost 3 months since anyone had been to town, and we badly needed intel about the Changelings and where they were laired up.

Pete Johnson told me to relax, that with the mountains full of snow during the winter, the Changelings would be starving to death in Billings.

I wasn’t so sure about that.

Pete was thinking in terms of humans.

But the changelings weren’t human anymore.

“Melissa, I have to go scout out Billings,” I told her one night in early January, “We don’t know what the Changelings are up to, and for all we know they may be spreading out of town looking for food.”

She put her hands flat over her bulging belly protectively, “We can’t let them find us here.”

“I know,” I said. “That’s why I’m going out tomorrow to do another recon. I need you to be in charge here while I’m gone.”

‘What about the baby?” she asked. “Will you be back in time?”

“I’ll try,” I assured her. “But you know I can’t give any guarantees.”

Early the next day I was ready to go, my horse saddled and my gear packed as best I could against the cold and the snow.

“We’ve got to be crazy,” remarked Pete Johnson as he saddled his own horse. “It’s gotta be 10 below out here, and it’s a good three days ride to town as deep as the snow is.”

“Well, you can always stay behind if you don’t like the odds.” I told him.

Pete just chuckled as he rechecked the cinches on his saddle. “Hell boss, you gotta let a man bitch once in a while.”

He stepped up into the saddle and gathered the reins, “Bitching about the weather and other conditions has been a soldiers right since the dawn of time.”

I turned my horse and led the way out of the barn and down toward the tree line where the snow wasn’t as deep.

I didn’t need to look back to know that Pete was right behind me. I knew he would be there no matter what came up.

It took us a full week to reach Billings. We took our time the last couple of days.

Scouting outlying ranches and homes, but finding no sign of Changelings anywhere.

“Where the hell are they bossman?” Pete asked finally.

“I don’t know, and I don’t like it either,” was all the answer that I could give him right then.

We settled on an isolated house that sat on a hill a couple of miles from town.

From there we had a good view of Billings and the surrounding countryside.

On the second day in our observation next, Pete called me to the front room.

“Holy shit Mike!” I heard hi exclaim. “You gotta see this!”

I hurried to the front room where Pete had set up his 60X spotting scope on its tripod.

There must have been 8 or 9 hundred Changelings milling around near what had been a school athletic field.

I couldn’t make out what they were doing, but I was worried.

From what I had been told of Changelings, they NEVER gathered in packs of more than 20 or 30.

Then I got a good look at the focus of their attention.

A Changeling wearing clothes appeared to be speaking to the mob.

Changelings always went naked.

Changelings talking?

And gathering in one place without the usual internecine warfare?

This was not a good sign.

“Pete, Take the horses and ride like hell back to Carltown and bring at least a dozen fighters and supplies for a 2 week campaign.” I ordered.

Pete didn’t argue at all, he simply donned his coat and hat, then slipped out to the barn where the horses were stabled.

I waited for him to get gone, and then I shrugged into my battle harness and boots.

There was only one way to find out more about the Changeling’s new developments, and that was for me to go in for an up close and personal look.

I eased down the hill, keeping to brush as much as possible and working my way at an angle towards a group of burned out buildings.

It took me the better part of 4 hours to travel the 2 miles to the ruins, and another couple of hours to reach a point where I could see and hear what was going on.

There was a Changeling wearing clothes all right. And the noises it was making sure sounded like speech to me, but not in any language that I had ever heard.

Since I had no way of understanding what was being said, I backed away silently and made my way downtown, keeping to cover when possible, and doing my best to avoid any stray Changelings that might have decided to skip the monster pep rally.

I was about ready to exfiltrate the town, having noted a dozen major lair sites.

There was a drainage ditch running roughly North-South that offered a route out of town and back toward the observation post with a minimal risk of detection. I slipped down into the ditch and headed North, my H&K held ready for any surprise visitors.

I heard a commotion approaching from the west, and I flattened myself with my back against the west slope of the ditch.

The thick band of dead weeds and bushes lining both rims of the ditch had served to catch and hold the snow, thus further blocking any possible view down into the ditch..

The concrete bottom of the ditch was cluttered with random debris but largely free of plant growth, or anything else that might offer concealment.

I lay without moving as the noise came closer and closer.

Then a body hurdled the snowdrift on the rim of the ditch and crashed to the concrete bottom with a sickening thud.

The noise from above got louder, now holding a note of triumph in the cries.

I pulled the pins from a couple of grenades and gave them a toss up and over the snow bank above my head.

One was a fragmentation grenade, the other was white phosphorous.

The frag grenade blew with a flat crack that was followed by screams and much thrashing around.

When the white phosphorous grenade went, there were suddenly a lot more screaming voices and confusion above.

I shoved myself to my feet and started on down the ditch to take advantage of the chaos to cover my escape.

The commotion would bring every damn Changeling in earshot on the run.

As I neared the Changeling crumpled on the floor of the ditch, I damn near jumped out of my skin when it moved.

I was swinging the H&K around to finish it off when it saw me.

Instead of attacking instantly like every other Changeling I had seen so far, it cowered away from the gun with a cry.

“Don’t shoot me!” it pleaded.

The words were distorted, coming from a muzzle full of fangs, but were understandable.

I held my fire but kept the subgun pointed at the Changeling. “Why not?” I asked.

“Just let me go! I won’t tell anyone about you!” she begged.

She?

I looked closer. Sure enough, there were definite breasts beneath all that hair and filth,

I made up my mind. “Come on then, Stay ahead of me and keep moving. One false move and I’ll blow you in half.”

I may have been crazy, but no way could I pass up the chance to find out more about the changelings new metamorphosis.

I kept my prisoner ahead of my and kept my gun trained on the center of her back.

If any Changelings had shown up, I would have put the first burst into her, then dealt with the newcomers.

Despite an obviously broken arm, my prisoner didn’t slow me down at all. She seemed as eager as I was to get the hell out of town.

I wasn’t crazy about taking her back to the observation post, but I could see little choice if I was going to get any answers out of her.

It was full dark when we got back to the observation house.

I made her keep well in front of me as I moved around sealing the blankets over the windows to keep any light from leaking out and drawing attention from below.

When I had the place as secure as I could make it, I moved us both to an interior room with no outside windows and lit a Coleman lantern.

“Sit down in that chair over there across from me and stay there.” I ordered.

She carefully moved to the indicated chair and sat down slowly, never taking her eyes off the muzzle of the subgun.

I sat down in a chair across the room from her.

“The only reason that you’re alive right now is that I need information,” I told her. “If I decide that you’re lying to me, or if you don’t co-operate fully I’ll kill you without warning.”

She bobbed her head nervously.

“Let’s start with how you can talk and understand me,” I said.

“ I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t remember anything before I woke up this morning.”

I nodded for her to continue.

“I mean, I knew what words meant, and that this was not how I am supposed to look. But when I tried to ask someone what was going on, he sniffed at me, then attacked me.” She shook a bit as she cradled her broken arm. “I got away from him and ran. I’ve been running and hiding ever since.”

“Where were you at when you woke up?” I asked

“I think I was in the Wal-mart.” She said. Then she cocked her head to the side. “But why do I know it was a Wal-mart and not my own name?”

I shook my head. “That’s something I can’t tell you.”

A couple more hours of questioning showed me only that she was young, confused, and scared.

I wasn’t going to get any more useful information out of her.

“ Please,” she said. “My arm hurts so bad. Can you help me?”

I pulled the trigger on the H&K.

The muzzle was still pointed at her, and the burst ripped her chest and head to shreds.

“That’s the best I can do for you.” I said to the barely twitching corpse.

I dragged her body outside and down into the trees. There was a hollow log that I had found when we had initially scouted the place.

I stashed the body in the log and sealed the ends with some large rocks.

If I made it through the winter alive, I’d come back and give her a proper burial.

Pete arrived 3 days later with 14 men and women from Carltown and enough supplies and ammo to fight an extended campaign.

Tammie and Vicki were with them looking excited and eager.

“What the hell are you two doing here?” I demanded when I got them alone for a moment.

“We’re here to fight just like everyone else.” Said Vicki as she brushed her hair back out of her eyes.

“We’ve had the same training as everybody else,” chimed in Tammie. “Besides, we were going nuts just sitting up there doing nothing.”

Well, they were here now, and I couldn’t spare anyone to take them back.

“Ok. But first time one of you fails to jump when I say so, I’ll shoot you myself.” I said.

“We know the rules dad,” said Vicki.

I just went on in to where the rest were waiting for me.

“OK. Listen up people.” I began. “We have a serious threat here. The Changelings are starting to come out of their totally beast phase.”

I paused to let that sink in.

“In the last couple of days I have seen Changelings wearing clothes, and I actually captured and spoke to one who had regained the use of speech, but was still physically a Changeling.”

That brought a few gasps and excited whispers.

“This does make them a lot more dangerous for us.” I continued when the buzz died away. “If the Changelings start remembering how to use weapons and vehicles while retaining their savage nature, we won’t be able to stop them. They outnumber us dozens to one.”

“What can we do now?” asked Pete.

“We strike hard, and we strike tonight.” I said. “Before they can get any more organized.”

I spread a map of Billings on the table.

“Here, here, and here,” I pointed out the 12 biggest lairs that I had pinpointed during my recon.

“We’ll start on the west end of town and work out way east. When we reach a lair site, we kill every living thing inside, then we burn it to the ground.”

“But if they’re getting their minds back, why do we have to kill them?” asked Buck, one of the young men that Pete had brought with him to Carltown.

“Because the remission might be only temporary. And because if they ever get organized enough to start using weapons as well as their native ferocity, they’ll wipe us humans out in no time.”

I made a mental note to keep him close to me during the fighting. I couldn’t have some softhearted kid endangering us all.

I divided us into two 8-man squads. Pete led one and I led the other.

I kept Tammie, Vicki and Buck with me. I figured that I could take up their slack if I needed to.

We made our way down to the first of the 12 lair sites without any trouble.

At least the Changeling’s fear of the dark was still holding true.

I sent Pete’s squad around back of the schoolhouse where the Changelings had holed up.

Even from a half a block away the Changeling stench was overpowering. Pete had 2 flamethrower men in his squad, and I had 1 in mine plus the flamethrower that I was carrying.

“Light’em up!” I bellowed and sent a stream of liquid fire through an open window of what I assumed was the gymnasium.

Jack, the other flamethrower man, concentrated his fire on the doorway and open windows, setting Changelings ablaze as they tried to escape the inferno within the building.

Pete was holding up his end on the other side of the building, and the rest of our troops killed any Changelings that the flames had missed.

The assault was over in less than 5 minutes. Not a single Changeling survived.

The next assault didn’t go as smoothly.

A couple of Changelings hit us from behind as we were torching the building.

Tammie went down under their first rush, her neck broken and her throat torn out before she even knew that we were under attack.

Buck killed the Changeling that had killed Tammie, only to be killed a second later by another changeling that hit him from the side.

I flamed that Changeling as it stupidly bent over Buck’s corpse to feed

Vicki went berserk when she saw her adopted sister die and had to be restrained from entering the now blazing building to kill more Changelings.

We lost 3 more that night, among them Pete Johnson and Amy, a vivacious girl who had been very sought after by most of the single men in Carltown.

I had no idea how many Changelings that we had killed during the night.

All I knew is that it wasn’t enough.

We withdrew from town back to the observation post.

We watched through telescopes the next morning as scattered bands of Changelings roamed the streets, often on all fours, sniffing for a scent trail.

“Jack, take the bodies and the rest of the people back to Carltown.” I told him.

“Tell Melissa about Tammie, and tell her that I’ll be home a couple of days after you get there.”

“Damn I’m so sorry about Tammie,” Jack said with tears in his eyes. ”Maybe if I’d been faster, or more alert, I would have seen them coming.”

“No son,” I assured him. “Not even I could have seen them coming out of the dark like that with our night sight ruined by the flames, and our ears ringing from all the gunfire.”

I sighed. “Let’s just make sure that they didn’t die in vain.” I said. “Let’s never make that mistake again. Always post a guard at the rear of an assault in case the bastards do an end run around us again.”

I waited for an hour or two after the main party had left. Then followed them, laying booby traps and rigging lethal surprises along the trail that I could not conceal.

The next morning I heard the distant explosion and saw the pall of smoke over the trees where evidently the Changelings had found the observation house and triggered the booby trap I had left there. A cutting charge to split open a 500-gallon propane tank beside the house, then another charge to ignite the vapors.

With the other ball bearing studded bricks of C4 that I had placed around the outside of the house and timed to go off with the charge that ignited the fuel air mixture, I doubted that there would be many survivors.

I arrived back at Carltown within a day of the others.

Melissa threw her arms around me, bawling like a baby over the loss of Tammie.

I comforted her as best I could.

Vicki was also tearful, but calmer.

She and Tammie had been as close as sisters can get, and I wondered how she was handling the rage and grief that she must surely be feeling.

It wasn’t until she came into my arms for comfort that my worst ears were realized.

I looked into her eyes and saw there a mirror of my own.

Vicki had put her soul in a box and locked it away somewhere deep inside.

Outwardly she seemed to be doing well after all that had happened.

Until you looked into her eyes and saw the emptiness there.

Vicki had become a Ghost.

And a little more of my soul died.

Vicki spent the next month practicing with a rifle that she had talked one of the men into modifying for her. She had sweet-talked the man into making a dozen interchangeable suppressors for the rifle, and wheedled another man into turning out several hundred custom .308 cartridges for her rifle.

I watched her as carefully as I could, but then events caught up with me in a rush.

Melissa delivered a healthy 8.5 pound baby boy that we christened Carl Peter Phillips.

It was after the naming ceremony that I noticed that Vicki was gone, and so was her rifle, ammo, and one of the horses.

That night a blizzard hammered us, preventing me from going out to bring Vicki back.

When the storm eased I went looking for Vicki, but couldn’t find a trace.

Melissa mourned the loss of her third adopted daughter, and would have likely gone mad if little Carl hadn’t given her something to concentrate on.

By spring thaw, Melissa was pregnant again.

It was the third warm day in a row and the snow was melting fast when one of our sentries radioed back to the house. “Vicki is back, on foot, and she has someone with her.”

I rushed out of the house and down the road to where the sentry had spotted Vicki.

Sure enough it was our daughter returned.

Skinny and hard-muscled, she had hacked her hair short with a knife, and carried her rifle in her arms like it was a baby.

But as glad as I was to see her again, it was her companion who got most of my attention.

A Changeling girl barely into her teens, looking scared spitless and shaking like a leaf.

“Who’s your friend?” I asked in what I hoped was a casual tone.

“This is Cindy,” Vicki replied. “She’s been with me for almost 3 months now.”

“Are you Vicki’s daddy?” Cindy asked quite clearly.

“Yes I am,” I replied.

The Changeling girl looked at Vicki for support and got a nod to go ahead.

“Will you be my daddy too?” Asked Cindy.

Of all the things I had ever imagined, adopting a Changeling was never even a remote possibility.

How would the rest of the community react to her?

Vicki spoke up then, interrupting my train of thought. “Cindy is my friend and my sister. And I’ll kill anyone who hurts her in any way.”

Said in that flat even tone of voice and backed by those pitiless eyes, it was clear as a bell that she meant every damn word.

”Welcome to the family kid.” I told the Changeling.

Vicki relaxed visibly.

“Daughter mine,” I said to her in a no nonsense tone of voice. “We have a lot to talk about.”

“I know, dad.” She replied.

Just for a moment, I saw the old Vicki shining through her eyes, and I knew that the girl I had come to love so much was still in there somewhere.

Then they were the flat blank orbs that were the mirror of my own.

“Come on Vicki,” I said gruffly. “Melissa is in there wanting to see you.”