Extinction Gene | Book 6 | 1 Day To Vengeance

by Maxey, Phil

  Contents

  Title page

  Copyright

  Disclaimer

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Thank you

  1 DAY TO VENGEANCE

  Extinction Gene Book 6

  by

  Phil Maxey

  Copyright © 2021 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, 2021.

  https://www.philmaxeyauthor.com

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales, is purely coincidental.

  CHAPTER ONE

  9: 34 a.m, December 20th. Heavercroft School.

  The final day.

  Thick black smoke drifted from burning bodies half a mile away, staining the blue-white ice which blanketed everything. Jess’s eyes stung but she continued digging. The muscles in her shoulders, arms and lower back cried out for a rest but she was almost done with the last of the two rectangular holes.

  Scott, by her side, stood, stretching, placing his shovel into the pile of dirt and snow. “Should be deep enough.”

  The graves sat next to two others already filled in with a small pile of rocks at the top, and repurposed pieces of wooden furniture stuck in the ground as markers for Willa and Carly Gaines.

  Jess nodded and looked across to the back of the field, at the flames removing all trace of the other ninety something people who were evidently partying at the time of the attack. She looked down at the two bodies covered in sheets and shook her head. Vance said after the screams on the roof, there was a gunshot and he saw Daryl drop to the parking lot with Josh in his arms, the kid then trying to escape but being caught by the ‘soldier.’ The things then made quick work of the man that had saved her son. He never saw what happened to Meg, but Jess was sure it was her gunshot that Vance heard. A last desperate attempt to stop the inevitable. She owed them both more than they would ever know and that was almost as hard to deal with as knowing that Josh was somewhere out there, with the things that caused all the destruction.

  The sky was bright and mostly blue, the smoke only smearing a part of it and brought into contrast what the monsters had done to the landscape. Flat and scarred for as far as she could see in all directions. Even if the occupants of the school weren’t distracted they probably wouldn’t have had a chance against what broke against them during the early hours.

  “You ready to put them in the graves?” said Scott.

  She nodded, her eyes the only visible part of her face, the rest being covered in a blue scarf. He jumped down then she carefully dragged then lowered both bodies into each hole and helped him climb back up.

  “Anything you want to say?”

  She looked at him with red eyes, his question catching her off guard then looked at the first grave, Daryl’s. “I hardly knew him… He worked in our apartment building. Always seemed a good guy. Hard worker… Thank you Daryl for protecting my children. You deserved to get through this…” Looking at his remains she couldn’t help but feel guilty at not trusting him for as long as she did. She took a step to the side, standing in front of the woman who had become a surrogate grandmother to her family and tried to force words from her tightening throat, but instead silent sobs came, her nose running with the tears. She started to use her sleeve to clear her vision then remembered what she had in her pocket and pulled out Gregg’s letter. She looked down at the handwriting on the outside.

  ‘For Meg from an admirer.’

  Another wave of grief flowed across her, but this time with anger.

  “You going to read that?”

  She shook her head, kneeled and dropped the letter onto the sheet in the grave then picked up her shovel. “Let’s get this done.”

  *****

  9: 59 a.m. Central Kansas. Highway 70.

  Arlo felt the tremors through his fingers which were clamped to the large steering wheel. He looked at his fuel gauge and swore. Less than quarter of a tank.

  Not enough…

  He had used a lot getting this far and soon, somehow, somewhere he would need to refuel. He sat in the old sedan on an overpass looking to the west and a cloud of dust and dirt on the horizon. Behind, in an almost direct line from the school, hundreds of miles to the east, was a newly formed highway, one created through homes, parking lots, barns and farmsteads. As if an almighty plow had descended and chewed its way across the state, grinding trees and pylons which now lay flat amongst the mud and smattering of snow. A swathe of land reduced to a memory of what it once was.

  His eyes shifted to the rear mirror and then the side. A check he did every few minutes just in case one of the things came up behind him.

  As he looked back to the front, images from the early hours made themselves known and he flinched. Swirling flakes of ice almost hiding a horde of things descending upon the school… and his friends. He shuddered, trying to shake the hateful scene, but it held on and once again forced him to witness what he was powerless to stop.

  Once the party had started it was obvious they were quickly going to run out of alcohol, and despite his extreme reluctance to leave, he was the one voted on to find some more. So he trekked through the burgeoning blizzard to his old car and slid his way along the road to the nearby houses, north of the school, where he found hardly anything. So he drove further and further until he realized if he didn’t turn around the party would be over. Luckily he did find some beverages, a few boxes of beers and was making his way back along the narrow road when he saw Vance’s pickup putting on a sound and light show. He almost kept on going, almost drove all the way into the parking lot and certain death, but instead saw the frenzied motion and slammed on his brakes, sliding then only stopping when his car hit a fence post, bending the front fender.

  He had sat frozen, watching the destruction. The things came at Vance’s vehicle but it sped off into the darkness and once some of the things appeared to be moving in his direction, Arlo did the same, reversing, then when finally gaining grip, turning and accelerating away, tears in his eyes, guilt in his heart. It wasn’t long before he cracked open the first of the bottles.

  Maybe it was the beer or anger at what had happened but after a few minutes of trying to stay on the road in the storm, he stopped, turned around and headed back. When he arrived the things were gone. But he saw what they had left in their wake, including Daryl’s body beyond any kind of help. In that moment he decided to follow the trail of destruction which moved in a westerly direction. He had no idea why he was taking this action, it was obviously suicide if he actually caught up with the army of things, and after an hour he did.

  That was two hours ago and he ha
d been following at what he hoped was a safe distance ever since.

  He looked at the fuel gauge again, shaking his head then his gaze slipped down to the radio which sat on the passenger’s seat amongst two empty bottles. More than once he had been tempted to hold down the talk button and send out a message to whoever was listening, but what if someone bad, heard? What if whoever Joan was working for, was eavesdropping on the airwaves? Waiting for some poor sap to make themselves known, and down would come the black helicopters. He wasn’t having any of that, so he was going to keep radio silence until he couldn’t any longer.

  The brown-gray smudge sitting above the fields was dissipating. The things moving out of sight. He turned the key in the ignition, starting up the engine and pulled forward.

  CHAPTER TWO

  10: 27 a.m. Heavercroft School.

  Jess glanced at those in front of her. Some heads were bowed while others looked at her with pain etched into their soot covered wrinkles. Nine adults, two teens, three children and two animals inhabited the largest of the classrooms on the second floor. One of the few rooms that was not commandeered for human occupation. A room with text books half opened on desks and a half full flask of stale coffee on a window ledge.

  “As all of you know, the thing which attacked the school… and killed everyone here, also took my son…”

  Helen huddled close to Brad, but Agatha and Toby sat by themselves, the former playing with Donnie, the latter looking at a book he found.

  Brad shook his head. “We were so close…” He looked at Vance. “You said the things were gone?”

  “They were…”

  Jess had no clear explanation for what came at the school in the early hours, other than Rackham was responsible. After what she saw on level seven of the Biochron complex, she was willing to accept any possibility. Including that he had found a way to prolong the nightmare. She looked down. “I saw—”

  “We saw,” said Scott, interrupting.

  She nodded at him with a brief smile then looked back to the others. “Yes, we saw unimaginable things at Biochron… the man in charge, a scientist… well, was, I don’t know what he is now, he’s insane, but he’s responsible for everything. For the virus being released, for what people became, for what happened to our friends last night.” She glanced at her daughter who looked down.

  “And we blew his ass, up,” said Scott. “He’s at the bottom of thousands of tons of rubble.”

  “So… he’s dead?” said Brad.

  “I wish I could say I know he is,” continued Jess. “But he wasn’t human anymore. He’s something else. Perhaps something which could have survived. Either way, the soldier that you and Vance saw, works for him.”

  “Like Joan?”

  Sam looked up. “Not like Joan. She… wasn’t all bad… this guy’s a monster… like Rackham. I…” She touched her temple. “I think she talked about him on our trip to Denver. He was one of a group, which Biochron gave an early version of the virus to, but he went crazy or something. Killed a bunch of people… I can’t remember where.”

  “What happened to Joan?” asked Brad.

  “She died… trying to help me escape.”

  Brad let out a breath, looking back to Jess and Landon who was standing close by. “So what’s our next move? How do we take on an army of these things and whatever this soldier is?”

  It was a question everyone had been asking themselves, without any good answer.

  “What if they come back?” said Esther.

  “That’s not impossible,” said Landon. “He doesn’t know what happened at Biochron. This soldier, whoever he is, thinks Rackham’s still there and think’s he’s taking Josh to him.”

  “So we get ahead of him, get to Denver first,” continued Esther.

  “And then what?” said Vance. “You got a few dozen tanks and marines to take on those things?”

  Almost everyone else let out a breath trying to not admit defeat, but Jess noticed Scott’s eyes betrayed plans being made. “What is it?” she said to him.

  He nodded to himself then looked at her. “Remember what Lucas, or whatever that thing was, said about Galveston?”

  “Umm… that there’s a boat which picks up survivors and takes them to a navy ship off the coast. Some kind of government offshore facility?”

  “Yeah, well I forgot about it after the thing pretending to be Lucas started killing people, but then I found Luci and Miller, and turns out it’s real. They were actually on their way down there when we found each other. They said a number of divisions upped and left, moving to the sea. If we need tanks and soldiers, that’s where we’ll find them…”

  “That’s got to be a thousand miles,” said Sanchez. “Even if you make it that far, why would they help you?”

  Scott looked angrily at him. “I’ll make them believe. Trust me, they’re going to want these things gone as much as we do.” He looked back to Jess. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but if you go after your son alone, against those things, you’ll never get him back, but maybe if I can convince the general’s that this shitshow’s not over, that there are a few hundred of these things still walking around and they’re being controlled by this crazy soldier guy…”

  All Jess wanted to do was jump in a car and head west. It was the same plan she had to get Sam back and it worked… but then she had help. And this time a few soldiers and some plastic explosive were not going to be enough. She nodded.

  “I’ll need Luci and Miller with me,” said Scott. “I’ll head back to Newgrove. Pick them up then get to southern Texas.”

  “There’s a train,” said Landon. “They got it working. Owen, the guy in charge said it goes all the way to Texas.”

  “Then that’s our way there. I’m sure the generals are going to want to know about it too. Could be useful moving supplies north.”

  “I… don’t know if I can just leave my son to be taken to Denver,” said Jess. A question as much to herself as the others. “What happens when the soldier finds what we did at Biochron?”

  Scott lacked a good answer, words failing him.

  “We head west,” said Sanchez. “Go after your son, but wait for the army to show up. Maybe we can give them intel on where these things are? And if we get a chance…”

  A tinge of hope threatened to build inside Jess. She took a deep breath, doing her best to subdue it. But as she looked at the small group around her, she felt pride. They were what was left. They had made it to the final day and each one was still willing to go the extra mile for her and her family. She looked across their faces. “Thank you for being willing to do this for me.” She glanced at Landon and Sam. “For us.”

  *****

  10: 51 a.m. Central Kansas. Highway 70.

  A rough, foul smelling rag mostly held the world outside at bay for Josh. He would catch shadows and movement through the tiny gaps in the material, but worse were the sounds. Grunts, growls, roars were a constant reminder of where he was, and what had happened. If he could close his ears as he could his eyes he would have done so.

  His last memories of the early hours were running into a flurry of falling ice, Daryl’s words to run fading into the night behind him and then nothing until the noise of the vehicle and the creatures woke him. At first he thought it was a nightmare. He had fallen asleep in the library at the school and somehow he was still sleeping. A super real dream where he could feel and smell and taste the world he was in. His hands and feet were also restricted in movement, just part of the bad dream, he thought. But no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t wake up. It was when he started to scream and shout and the man responded with not so nice words for him to quieten, that Josh contemplated that it was real.

  From that moment on he stayed quiet and still. It was a common pray animal response to not be noticed and it came to him instinctively, but he knew deep down the time would come when—

  He jolted forward then back, then forward again. The man in the front swore which was quickly followed by
the sound of the car door opening, a rush of wind filling the cabin then the door closing.

  Josh was alone. He shuffled forward, leaning towards where he hoped the headrest was and on feeling the leather hide, nodded, moving his head up and down, rubbing the blindfold until after a few attempts he managed to catch a ridge which pulled on the fabric and pulled it lower.

  Momentarily, a blast of yellow-white light removed his ability to see. Blinking the tears away he strained to make out details and soon the black leather seats and dashboard came into view, then the highway, and…

  An angular head, perched on a long brown neck coiled around to look at him with dark inset eyes. The thing was just feet away from the car, on the left side. Josh froze, hoping the creature couldn’t see him. Maybe the car had darkened windows like he had seen on some city cars, maybe…

  He jumped back in his seat as the thing turned the rest of its humanoid body in his direction.

  “No… no…”

  Appendages where arms should have been emerged from the remains of a blazer, that being the only piece of clothing the thing wore. It staggered forward, towards the window.

  “No… please… no…” Josh looked at the door beside him. Maybe he could open it, maybe he could…

  The right side of the highway was akin to an African savanna of grazing animals. Creatures sat and stood, swaying and staggering in the morning sun amongst the few inches of snow. It made no sense. The man at the school said that—

  Josh yelped as a clump came from the left door window, making him whip his head back in that direction. The door opened and Finn sat heavily in the driver’s seat, dropping a radio onto the passenger’s seat. He looked in the rear mirror catching Josh’s eyes, then snorted.