The Sixth Extinction 2: An Apocalyptic Tale of Survival. (Part Two: Ruin.) Read online

  THE SIXTH EXTINCTION

  AN APOCALYPTIC TALE OF SURVIVAL

  Part Two: Ruin

  By Glen Johnson

  www.sinuousmindbooks.com

  Published by Sinuous Mind Books

  www.sinuousmindbooks.com

  Also available as a pap

  erback from Amazon

  Copyright © Glen Johnson 2013

  Cover image: Shutterstock

  Cover design by www.sinuousminddesigns.com

  Glen Johnson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names and characters are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living, dead or undead is entirely coincidental.

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not be, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form without Sinuous Mind Books or Glen Johnson’s prior consent. Except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles.

  Typeset: Caecilia LT Std/Italic

  Also by Glen Johnson from Sinuous Mind Books(Available in ebook or paperback from Amazon)

  Horror

  Lamb Chops and Chainsaws: Nine Disturbing Short Stories About the Darker Side of Human Nature.

  Lobsters and Landmines: Another Nine Disturbing Short Stories About the Darker Side of Human Nature.

  The Devils Harvest: The End of All Flesh.

  Apocalyptic/Zombie

  The Sixth Extinction: An Apocalyptic Tale of Survival. Part One: Outbreak.

  Occult/Supernatural

  War of the Gods: Part One – The Devils Tarots.

  Fantasy

  The Gateway: Close the World Enter the Next. World One of the Seven Worlds.

  The Spell of Binding: Part One.

  Children/Young Adult

  Parkingdom: You Can

  Be Small and Still Make a Big Difference.

  I dedicate this book to a handful of people who found me on my Facebook page to express their appreciation for my work–Lisa Loyd

  Jenny West

  Carol Patrick

  Patty A. Finn-Hill

  Marie Ryan

  and

  Marcelle Hemingway

  Thank you for your support.

  Acknowledgments

  A big thank you to my older brother, Gary Johnson who went over the raw manuscript with many read-throughs, editorial help, and suggestions. In addition, Matthew Chilcott, Kate Pike, Anthony Pike, Victoria Tamkin, Sarah Shapter, Rachel Shapter, Sarah Kelly, Jamie Kerr, Stacy Folan, Pete and Jo Butchers, Kimberley Driver, Stacey Driver and Danni Simmons.

  The locations in this book are a fusion of real and imagined, but the events and characters are merely a fabrication of my overactive imagination.Any mistakes are of my own making.

  Glen Johnson

  “The more we exploit nature, the more our options are reduced, until we have only one: to fight for survival.”Mo Udall

  “In the kind of world we have today, transformation of humanity might well be our only real hope for survival.”

  Stanislav Grof

  Prologue

  The Sixth Extinction is a period of time from present to around 10,000 BCE – where a large number of extinctions span numerous plants and animals, including birds, amphibians, arthropods, and mammals. This, of course, has happened five times previously since life appeared on planet earth.

  The main reason for the hundreds of thousands of extinctions, which is speeding the sixth extinction along, is due to one mammal – the homosapien. Without intervention, the human race will cause the next mass extinction.

  Part One: Outbreak

  Part One followed three people as they struggled to come to terms, and survive in the changing world. The outbreak started in a remote part of the Madagascan jungle. Within three weeks, it had spread across the globe, affecting people on every continent, and killing hundreds of millions of people, and in the process turning them into a spore filled delivery device to help spread the infection.

  Noah Morgan was just an ordinary twenty-one-year-old. He had no girlfriend, few friends, and a dead-end job. He was forced from his flat when a gang of yobs set light to the building next door. He took what he could carry and fled. He ended up hiding in a mortgage company’s breakroom, where he ran into Red.

  Red recognized Noah from school, and they came to an agreement to share the building.

  Noah left Red to go and locate some kind of masked filter in a paint store next door to protect her from the spores. While there, he ran into some stage three, infected eaters. As he tried to escape he made it out onto a fire escape, only to realize the alleyway was full of stage four bloated bodies, which were about to explode, releasing spores into the air.

  Red is a nineteen-year-old who ran away from home, using the outbreak as the excuse she needed to escape. However, she harbors a disturbing secret. She remained in the breakroom while Noah went scavenging. In his absence, some unknown person had just broken the door down.

  Doctor Melanie Lazaro is a biomedical scientist, who was drafted in by the military to work in Exeter University’s Biomedical Sciences Department, to try to find a cure. She identified the strain of the disease on the host’s genetic code that was turning humans into animalistic predators.

  The General in command of the South West of England arranged for Doctor Lazaro to be transported to the military medical research compound on Dartmoor. While waiting for the helicopter the doctor was shown around the bipods, where infected people with the four stages of the strain were being held. The university came under a coordinated attack by a horde of over a hundred stage three eaters, and Doctor Lazaro was caught in the middle.

  While unconscious the transportation arrived, and twenty soldiers fought their way through the mutated humans to find the doctor and a file containing her findings. During the fighting, the helicopter was damaged. While en route to the military research facility, located in Dartmoor prison, the helicopter crash-landed in Newton Abbot, about a quarter of a mile away from Noah and Red’s position.

  The sound of the crash brought eaters running to the site’s location.

  1

  Doctor Lazaro

  Crashed Military Merlin Transport Helicopter

  Courtney Park, Newton Abbot, Devon

  Friday January 5th 2013

  10:48 AM GMT

  Melanie could see the creatures as they ran across the grass towards them. All were naked and covered in blood and filth. Some were young teenagers, who ran ahead of a few older ones. Their guttural cries pierced the air, making the hair on the nape of her neck stand on end. The sound of the helicopter crashing drew their attention.

  Automatic gunfire sounded like metallic burps. One of the soldiers must have been surveying the area and noticed the advancing mass.

  “Make a defensive wall,” the soldier in command shouted over the screaming heading their way.

  The crash, mixed along with the lingering drugs the nurse had given her, made Melanie weak and nauseated. If it were not for the crash webbing, she would have tumbled forward to lie stretched out on the metal decking.

  The soldiers who survived the crash, and were conscious, were scrambling to get outside. Too many remained unmoving. There were probably only ten left capable of defending themselves.

  Melanie was physically as well as emotionally drained. The last three weeks had been a nightmare, what with the world going to hell and all, but the morning she had been having
was straight out of a horror movie.

  “Rogers, to your left!” the officer shouted.

  Gunfire vibrated the metallic walls of the helicopter’s fuselage. The guttural sounds of what were once humans echoed around them. The crash, as well as the gunfire, was drawing more of them in. Melanie could not see how many because the small window gave a limited view across the park.

  “I’m out!” a voice shouted over the sound of the gunfire.

  “Me too!” shouted another.

  “Coco, break the supplies open.”

  A soldier bounded in and pulled a knife from his belt, and proceeded to cut the webbing off some dark-green containers that were strapped to the metal decking. He tossed the lid back. It was full of ammo.

  Melanie hung limply forward, held by the webbing. The soldier seemed to notice her for the first time.

  “Hang in there Doc. We just have a little tidying up to do, and we will get you sorted.” He gave her a smile. Sweat glistened on his young, stubble covered black face.

  Melanie did not know if he was trying to lighten the situation by making a joke, or if he was the kind of individual who sees the best in every situation – the perpetual happy guy.

  Coco grabbed an armful of ammo, gave her a wink, swung around, and headed out.

  Cheers went up as the ammo was passed around.

  “Oh shit!” another shouted. “Where are they all coming from?”

  2

  Red

  Newton Abbot, King Street

  The Mortgage Company’s Breakroom

  10:50 AM GMT

  Red held the bow pointed to the gap where the door used to be before it was smashed from the frame. Nothing charged through. She expected one of those naked zombie type creatures. The bow trembled in her shaking hands. Instead, a large form of a man stood blocking the doorway. He wore a greasy grey overall and heavy work boots. She could not see his face because he was so tall the top of the doorframe shadowed it.

  He’s not naked? Went through Red’s mind. And he’s not charging. She pulled the arrow back harder. The bow shuddered in her hands.

  “Stop making a mess, Lennie. Why’d you have to break everything?” said a female voice.

  “Locked,” a slurred male voice replied.

  “Stand back, let’s see what we ‘ave ‘ere then?”

  The giant shuffled to one side, dragging his left foot along the carpet.

  An old woman shuffled in. “Jesus girl, you gave me a fright.” She raised a frail arm up in front of her face. “Mind pointing that thing some place else?” She had on a long brown dress that looked a few sizes too big for her – as if she had shrunk over the years – with a large thick, green polo neck jumper. She had no coat, just a couple of blankets tossed over her shoulders. Her greyish-white hair looked like it had been dragged through a bush backwards, and she was trying to impersonate a dandelion.

  “Who are you? What do you want?” was all Red could think to ask.

  “Now, now dear, no need for open hostilities, we are all victims ‘ere.” She shuffled into the room and plunked herself down into an armchair.

  The giant of a man moved under the doorframe. He had to duck, and turn sideways to get through. Red noticed he looked about thirty. He had a wide, plain face, which was flushed red, like an oversized baby. He had a scruffy mop of black curly hair, large blank eyes, and thick wet lips, as if he continually ran his tongue over them.

  Red lowered the bow and arrow a little.

  “We were just looking for somewhere safe, is all. And for food.” The old woman gave a loud sniff and wiped a sleeve across her nose.

  “I’m Betty, and this here lummox is my grandson Lennie. Of course, his real names Able, but the name Lennie stuck after I read Of Mice and Men. You know John Steinbeck’s literary masterpiece?” Betty gave a smile, showing crooked teeth with lots of gaps.

  “Say hi Lennie.”

  “Hi.” Lennie moved forward to offer a handshake.

  “I wouldn’t shake it, if you wanna be able to use that bow again. Grip like a vice. Would probably shatter every bone in your tiny hand,” she announced with a smile. “He doesn’t know his own strength.”

  They did not seem like a threat. Just an old woman and her dimwitted grandson. Red lowered the bow all the way.

  “My friend will be back any minute,” Red said. It sounded like she was making out there was more on her side.

  “That’s his stuff over there I take it?” Betty asked. “Looks like the kinda stuff a man would carry.”

  “Yes. He will be back any second.” Red still held onto the bow.

  “Relax. Take a weight off,” Betty said. She looked at the vending machines. “Mind if we eat some of your food? Pickings have been sparse as of late.”

  “It’s not mine. But you’re more than welcome to it.” Red took a few steps back, away from the machines. She wanted to keep the giant in her sights.

  Betty got up slowly, making a grumbling sound as she did. “Sorry, old bones. I should be at home relaxing at my time of life, not running around, avoiding bloody zombies, or whatever the naked things are.” She shuffled over to the machine.

  “You gotta pull the door open. Here let me.” Red made a judgment call. The old woman seemed genuine, and not out to hurt anyone. She placed her bow and arrow on the couch. She then moved forward and pulled the front of the snack machine open. Red then took a step back.

  “Hmm. Don’t really like chocolate, but beggars can’t be choosers.” The old woman grabbed a bunch of chocolate bars and a few packets of crisp. After Red opened the drink’s machine, the woman removed a handful of cans.

  “Lennie, take a seat. Sit there.” Betty nodded to an armchair. “But take the bag off first.”

  Like a slow moving tectonic plate, the giant of a man moved over. He slowly swung the large backpack off his back and gently placed it on the floor, and then dropped himself down into the seat. The chair groaned under his weight. It was a tight fit.

  Betty deposited the snacks and drinks on Lennie’s lap. “Eat up lad. Keep up your strength. Be a good boy for grandma.”

  It dawned on Red what the old woman had just said about the naked creatures.

  “You’ve seen some of them?”

  “Hmm. What was that midear?” The old woman straightened her back, and winced as it cracked like a row of dominos.

  “The naked zombie type things, you just said.”

  “Yes dear. That’s why we came into this building. After all that gunfire started in the distance, we saw a group of them running full pelt into the Paint Center next door.”

  Just then, the windows vibrated from concussion blasts. It sounded like something was exploding one after another.

  3

  Noah

  Newton Abbot, King Street

  The Paint Center’s Fire Escape

  10:51 AM GMT

  Noah could not believe his bad luck. The bloated bodies that filled the alleyway blocked the only escape route. He could hear the naked, animalistic people chasing down the hallway behind him. With all his strength, he slammed the fire exit door shut. He could hear their bodies frantically slamming into the other side. It would not take them long to smash their way through.

  Think fast.

  He could not go down among the bloated bodies, because he had seen the result of their violent exploding, and he could not return the way he came.

  Up!

  A thin metal ladder was bolted to the wall, leading up onto the paint centers roof. Noah grabbed the rusted metal, and with the speed brought on by fear, he flung himself onto the ladder and started scrambling up it.

  He could hear the screaming of those behind the door, as they collided with the fire exit. The sound of the metal hinges straining under the onslaught – along with the wet slapping of their bodies against the wood – sped him on. It did not take him long to swing his body over the lip onto a flat gravel covered section about four feet wide, and just in time too, because the door was ripped off its hin
ges and clattered down into the alleyway. He lay still below the lip of the low wall. He tried not to move because the sound of the gravel beneath him would give his location away.

  The ear-piercing screams intensified when they realized they had lost their quarry. However, their screaming was drowned out by the sound of the bloated bodies as they started to explode one after another. The ground shook from the violence of the blasts.

  Noah instinctively put his hands over his face, covering the gasmasks faceplate. Through the gaps in his fingers, he could see the blood, guts, and bones flying high into the air. As the fluids, meat, and bones started to be pulled back down by gravity, it left the deadly black spores floating like a slow-moving cloud of ash.

  4

  Doctor Lazaro

  Crashed Military Merlin Transport Helicopter

  Courtney Park, Newton Abbot

  10:56 AM GMT

  Melanie was jolted awake when a hand shook her arm. Bleary-eyed, she looked into the blood-covered face of Coco.

  “It’s okay; the bloods mine. I turned and caught my head on a sharp piece of wreckage,” he stated, to ease her fears that he was not dripping contaminated blood all over her.

  I must have blanked out; Melanie thought.

  Coco was cutting the webbing from around her. She slumped forward.

  I’m so weak. What the hell did that nurse give me?

  “We’ve sorted out the worst of the critters, but stragglers are still heading our way.”

  The occasional sound of gunfire rung through the confines of the wreckage.