The Ark Series (Book 2): The Ark of Attrition

by Scott Kotrous

  Peter turns and fires back and yells, “Maggie, go—go! We’ll cover the backdoor, you help the girls inside. Go, now!” He continues to return fire giving Nate a chance to fire back and also giving Maggie a chance to run back into the kitchen.

  She hears gunshots from every direction and sees drywall exploding from what seems like everywhere. She yells for the girls but hears nothing more than screams coming from the living room. She fires back and aiming at not much more than the closest window as she makes her way toward the screaming. She fires off a few more rounds at another window and gets to the back of the couch and waits for a second before duck walking along the back of the couch and sees Jen covering her ears and screaming while she’s crouched over something. She moves up behind Jen and puts her hand on her back, forcing Jen to scream even louder and then leapfrogging away from her and stumbling over a body.

  Maggie reaches for Jen and looks down at Sam’s motionless body gasping for air. “Oh, God—no—no—no! Sam—Sam stay with me!” She drops her rifle and looks up at Jen still screaming and rocking herself against the wall with her legs pulled tight against her body. “Jen—Jen, help me, she’s dying, help me!”

  The gunfire and exploding drywall is relentless, raining down on them from every direction as she attempts to help Sam. She can hear the screams from the basement and grabs her radio and yells, “Mia, Steph. Hit the panic button in the bunker and wait for us, can you hear me? Hit the panic button on the wall!” She waits and the screams from the basement soon go away. She again yells into the radio. “I need help! Sam is shot, and she’s dying! Kristie, Kelly where are you!”

  She hears nothing from the radio, but then hears Eric yell. “They’re all over the place, get downstairs into the bunker now! I’m gonna try and draw their attention away from the house and take some of them out from up here!”

  “Eric no, hold your position, it’s too dangerous, just stay put!” But it’s too late, most of the gunfire into the house stops and she can hear yelling from all around outside the house. The gunfire picks up again but it’s not directed at them, and she knows they must be aiming at Eric on the roof. Maggie peeks her head over the couch and can see Nate running into the room covered in white drywall dust and then ducks down while yelling out for them.

  “Kristie, Maggie, where are you, where the hell are you!”

  Maggie raises her hand above the couch and whispers loudly, “Nate, Nate, over here.”

  He rushes over to them and kneels down. He looks down at Sam’s lifeless body. “Oh fuck, is she—”

  Maggie looks back down at Sam and her body deflates. She squeezes her eyes to hold back the tears, but it doesn’t work. She tries to collapse but Nate catches her.

  “Maggie, not now, we need you. You can’t fall apart on us now. She’s gone and if you fall apart then more of us will soon fall as well. You need to be strong for all of us, you’re our rock, we need you.”

  She looks into his eyes and sees the same fear that she’s probably feeling, but can’t understand how he’s handling it so well . . . but then realizes he doesn’t have a choice. She squeezes her eyes and nods her head, and looks back at Jen still rocking back and forth.

  “Where’s Kristie and Kelly?” Nate said.

  Maggie looks up at him and shakes her head. “I don’t know. Where’s Peter, is he still alive?”

  “I think so, he was covering the back door.”

  “Go check on him, I’ll look for Kristie and Kelly.”

  Nate nods his head and then rushes back through the kitchen and gets to the doorway just as Peter drops his rifle and pulls out his knife. He sees someone roll under the halfway closed steel door and get to his feet. Peter doesn’t hesitate as he turns and enters the mudroom to engage the man. He swipes at him with his knife, but the man dodges it and elbows Peter in the back of the head sending him and the knife to the ground. Nate aims his rifle but just hears a click.

  He goes to check his clip but sees Peter jump up and almost growl as he punches the man in the ribs and then strikes him with a right cross straight to the temple, sending the man staggering back. Peter gets into a stance reminiscent of a UFC fighter, and waits for his attacker to make a move. The man lunges at Peter and so he moves out of the way and buries a knee straight into his abdomen forcing him to double over. He brings all of his weight down on his back with an elbow, toppling the man to the ground. Peter immediately stomps on the mans neck and his body goes limp. He then spins and grabs the knife off the ground and in one fluid motion plunges it into the back of the mans skull, and then pops back up. He looks up to see Nate standing in the doorway and not moving. The rage in Peter’s eyes scares the shit out of Nate, and he can do nothing but put his arms up. “Peter, dude, it’s me Nate, calm down man, he’s dead.”

  Peter slows his breathing and lowers his knife. “Where’s everyone else?”

  “They’re in the living room. Sam’s down and we can’t find Kristie or Kelly and I hope the two young girls are in the bunker. Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine, we need to secure the perimeter before anymore of those fucks get in. Can you do that while I cover the back door? The reinforced doors are almost down but there’s still a chance they can sneak in underneath,” Peter said.

  “I got it under control.” He reaches into his pant pockets and pulls out his last two clips and tosses one to Peter. “These are the last two clips I got, the rest are in the bunker so make it count.” He reloads his rifle while Peter grabs his off the ground and does the same. They both give a quick nod before Nate goes back into the kitchen and then makes his way back behind the couch. Jen hasn’t moved and Maggie is nowhere in sight.

  Nate bolts upstairs and says in a low voice, “Kristie, Maggie, are you up here?” He goes from room to room and repeats, “Kristie, Maggie, where are you?”

  Dusty is going berserk scratching at the door and barking.

  He hears movement on the roof followed by a loud thud . . . and then the gunfire stops. He freezes and then can hear something slide off the roof followed by cheers and then two more gunshots. He lowers his head, drops his rifle, and falls to the ground—he knows his best friend is dead.

  Tears begin to well up in his eyes and soon stream down his face. His radio clipped to his belt goes off and he hears Maggie. “Eric, Eric, are you there? Eric!” The radio silence is soon interrupted by laughter. “Oh, so there is some pussy inside this shitbox, well, well, well, nice to hear your voice, sweetheart.”

  “Where’s Eric? What have you done with him?” Maggie said.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. This must be Eric dangling from this here rope. I hate to be the one who tells you that he will no longer be of service to you, little lady. But once we get in, I can assure you I will be of plenty service to you.” The voice laughs again.

  Nate grabs the radio and screams into it. “You mother fucker! So help me god I’m going to kill you! Do you hear me you piece of shit, I’m goin’ to fucking kill you!”

  “Ah, how sweet, this must be his boyfriend I’m hearing . . . that is unless that other girl is his girlfriend, where did she go, I would like to hear from her again.”

  Nate yells again. “Don’t say a word, Maggie. Don’t give these fucks the satisfaction. Now you listen to me, you fucking coward! You’re a dead man, do you hear me, a fucking dead man! I’m going to gut you like a fucking pig, you fuckin’ piece of shit!”

  “Oh contraire, but I can assure you that, what did you say her name was, Maggie? Well she will most definitely be gutted, just in a different way than what you had in mind. But don’t you worry, me and my boys will treat her with the upmost respect while we rape her over and over again every day for the rest of her life. Just ask your neighbor Brock how we’re treating his girlfriend he most generously handed over for a handful of supplies and drugs.” He gets very close to the mic. “She gets that same treatment multiple times a day! And oh, woops, by bad, Brock’s dead so he won’t be able to tell you anything.” He laughs even louder this ti
me.

  Nate gets up and grabs his rifle and starts to walk downstairs just as the light from outside begins to fade. “You’re not getting into this place, you fucking piece of garbage. Take a look at the steel doors, you stupid fucking idiots!”

  “What—oh hell no goddammit! How did you fucks let this—”

  “Everyone in the house, radio silence from here on out.” Nate gets downstairs and meets up with Peter in the living room just as the steel doors finish closing on the windows. “The girls must be in the bunker, grab Jen and meet me down there. Peter nods his head and Nate runs back into the kitchen and gets to the stairs and stops at the sign of a blood trail leading into the basement. He runs down the stairs and gets to the bunker and pounds on the door. “It’s Nate, open up!”

  Moments later the door opens and he’s met by Mia who is crying and not saying a word. Nate enters the bunker and sees Maggie and Kelly trying to hold someone down on a table. Steph is standing close and staring at the obvious horror unraveling before her eyes. He runs over to her and can see that it’s Kristie on the table covered in blood. Maggie and Kelly are crying and trying to help her, but he can see that Maggie’s shaking is hindering her ability to do so.

  He stops in front of them both, the world closing in around him. “Kristie, Kristie!”

  She’s writhing in pain and clutching her side. Maggie’s trying desperately to hold onto the wound while trying to hold herself up from collapsing. “Help me, Nate, oh god, please help me!”

  “What do I do, dammit, just tell me what to do!”

  Kelly grabs Nate’s hands and puts them on top of Maggie’s. “Help Maggie put pressure on the wound.” Kelly lets go of their hands and then turns around and starts grabbing things off the shelf.

  Kristie reaches her other arm across and grabs Nate’s hands. “I—love—you—Nate . . . Maggie.” Kristie said in between gasps for air . . . and then closes her eyes.

  Nate collapses by her side and cries louder and harder than he’s ever cried before. “No! Kristie stay with me, Kristie! Help her, dammit. Fucking help her, Maggie!”

  Maggie looks at Nate and drops her head. “I—”

  Suddenly she’s pulled backward and Peter pushes them both out of the way. “Move, dammit! We need to close the wound and get her a blood transfusion. Someone get the med kit and get me a needle and thread.” He looks at them both not moving or saying a word. “Now, dammit, or she’s gonna die!”

  Maggie looks at Peter and then at Kristie’s pale face and snaps out of it. She races over to where Kelly is looking for supplies and grabs the med kit and pulls out a suture and needle. “Kelly, get me the disinfectant now and, Nate, do you know her blood type?”

  Kelly grabs the disinfectant and some gauze off the shelf and brings it over to them. Nate just shakes his head. “I don’t know what blood type she is.”

  Maggie hands Kelly the needle and then puts on rubber gloves and a mask and gets up beside Peter. She reaches around Kristie’s abdomen but doesn’t feel an exit wound. “The bullet’s still in there and I need to get it out. The forceps should be already sterilized so someone grab them for me.”

  Peter leaves her side and grabs the forceps and hands them to Maggie. She pours the antiseptic on the wound and tries to wipe away as much blood as she can. She places her fingers inside the wound and feels around for the bullet. She can feel something hard and proceeds to insert the forceps into the wound and digs around until she finally gets ahold of the bullet that she pulls out and drops on the floor. Kelly hands her the needle and then pours more antiseptic on the wound.

  Maggie pierced the skin with the needle and starts to sew up the wound. “We need to give her a blood transfusion now, does anyone know if they have type O negative blood?” She looks at everyone but they all shake their heads and then drop them. But then they hear a faint voice from behind them.

  “I—” Mia clears her throat and wipes her tears. “My daddy said I have a special blood type that can help anyone. I think it’s type O?”

  “Maggie continues to stitch up the wound. “That’s great sweetheart. I’m gonna need you to help Kristie out and we’re gonna need to put some of your blood in her. Is that okay?”

  “Yeah, that’s okay,” Mia said without hesitation.

  Peter walks over and grabs her hand and leads her to a chair. “Okay, sweetheart. Now I’m gonna have to prick you with a needle so I can get the blood out, so it may hurt a bit okay.”

  “Yeah, I know. My mommy used to work for the Red Cross and we would have to give blood all the time, it’s okay.”

  “Well you’re a very brave little girl.” Peter grabs an IV bag and gets it set up. He swabs her arm and inserts the needle without so much as a flinch from Mia. Once he gets enough blood, he pulls the needle out and immediately swabs it and tells her to hold it, but her hand is already in position, already knowing what to do. He then carries the bag of blood over just as Maggie gets done bandaging up the wound. He inserts another needle into Kristie’s arm and the bag begins to empty.

  Once Peter knows she’s stable, he runs upstairs and grabs Dusty and gets him into the bunker and then they lock the bunker down.

  Chapter 22

  Kate takes a sip of her champagne and once again congratulates her team on their accomplishment. They finally were successful in growing almost every human organ from stem cells, a feat that’s alluded her and her team for over a year. They started off by growing teeth in humans, and then quickly advanced to the ability to not only grow organs, but also the ability to grow back limbs along with the potential to fix spines from paralysis, not to mention potentially curing most diseases. She wishes John could be there for this monumental event, but just knowing if he’s safe or not would suffice. He’s been gone for what feels like decades, and ever since they lost communication, she’s not known if he’s all right.

  Just as Kate begins to get upset, Adam enters the glass doors to the lab and interrupts the celebration. The room gets silent once they realize he’s in the room, so Adam clears his throat.

  “Ah—pardon the interruption, I hope I’m not breaking up the party.” He slightly smiles while shrugging his shoulders.

  Kate presses the back of her hand against her eye and sets her glass down. “Oh, hi, Adam. No you’re not interrupting anything. Please, come join us in a glass of champagne; we’re celebrating.”

  Right as he walks closer to the group, everyone but Kate giggles and walks off. Adam puts up his hands and shows his palms. “Where’s everyone going, don’t run off.”

  “You guys, where are you going? Stay.”

  They continue to walk off giggling between whispers.

  Kate shakes her head and pours him a glass of champagne. “Most of them are young girls, so they get a little immature from time to time.”

  Adam puts down his arms and walks over to the table, and Kate hands him the glass and then grabs hers. “I guess so, what’s that all about?”

  “Ah—well I’m pretty sure they all think something’s going on between us since we spent so much time together. I think they forget sometimes that I’m still a happily married woman.”

  Adam lifts his glass but then lowers it. “So wait, what are we celebrating anyway?”

  “Oh! Let me show you.” She takes another sip of her champagne and then sets down her glass and slides her laptop across the counter. She shows him what they’ve been able to accomplish with their stem cell research. Adam looks over the lab and test results while Kate explains it in detail. They continue to pour additional glasses of champagne and she can feel herself getting a little tipsy.

  Kate eventually realizes how close Adam has gotten to her, and so she takes a step back. “But it’s sad because the one who made this all possible isn’t even here to celebrate this with us.”

  “Give yourself some credit, Kate. You and your team are the ones who made this happen. You guys did the research and all the work, so you guys made it possible, John just paid for it.” Adam inches closer to
Kate.

  “It’s not just about the money. It’s the fact that I believed in him enough to take such a huge chance and move out here in the first place . . . which led to the opportunity and sanctuary to be able to work on this research . . . not to mention the almost half a trillion dollars pulled out of this mountain. All made possible because I believed in my husband and had faith he knew what he was doing.”

  Adam jerks his head back. “Half a trillion dollars! Are you kidding me!”

  Kate drops her shoulders and turns away from him. “Oh shoot, I probably shouldn’t have said that.”

  “Well you did, so please elaborate. I had no idea it was that much!”

  “Well since the price for gold absolutely skyrocketed in the past few years because of the terrorist threat, thousands of dollars an ounce goes a long way with the amount of gold they pulled outta here. Hell if gold is still worth somethin’, there’s still billions of dollars worth of gold and other precious metals locked away in this place.”

  “That’s incredible! But just don’t let the fact that this place or John was the reason why you were successful in your research . . . you and only you made this happen. You’ve always had money right, so nothing’s really changed in that aspect. The only change was in your location, which gave you the means to pursue this line of research.”

  “Which was made possible by my husband. And by the way, we didn’t always have money. Before John’s production company took off, we were pretty broke just like everyone else.”

  “What? I know for a fact you come from a very wealthy family and had a very large trust fund. So at what point in time were you guys broke?”

  “I’m not sure how you know all of this, but since you do, please allow me to clear up any misconceptions on how we started out. Yes, I am from a very wealthy family, but my parents firmly believed that I had to earn my way in life and not just be handed things. So I didn’t have access to my trust fund until I finished medical school, which was in my late twenties. When I met John, he was what you would call a ‘starving artist’ and was what my family would call poor. I still remember our first date when he took me to a movie and some terrible restaurant.” She starts to laugh, and smiles as she reminisces. “It was quite a site.”