by Mark Leney
EXTINCTION
By
Mark Leney
2012
Copyright: All Rights Reserved
Registered: 2012 – 03 – 07
MCN: CXMP1 – PJE6R – LQNF9
For my wife and daughter:
This first book and all the others that follow is for them.
Dedicated to the memory of my much missed granddad,
Harry Warren. I hope you can read this in heaven.
Chapter One
The crowd stood back as the serpentine behemoth came roaring out of the dark tunnel. That roar was replaced by an inhuman screech as the driver of the tube train applied the brakes and gradually brought the vehicle to a grinding halt.
Sean Neal had been waiting for this train for the last two minutes since arriving on the platform on his daily commute to the monotony of his daily work as an Executive Assistant for one of the major corporate businesses that made up London’s city central.
He smiled to himself and straightened his tie as he prepared to step onto the train. What a surprise that two minutes actually meant two minutes today, Sean thought to himself as he patiently waited for the passengers from the train to depart. He smiled at a good looking red head who exited within inches of him. She barely even noticed he was there.
As the last commuter stepped off onto Mile End platform Sean made to step on…
His vision was suddenly obscured by the hulking Neanderthal that barged onto the train ahead of him. Sean swore under his breath, so much for queuing etiquette! He hadn’t even seen that idiot prior to his arrival on the platform. There was no way that he should have gotten on first. Sean sometimes felt that because he was short and black that was why people liked to pretend sometimes as if he was the Invisible Man. He stepped determinedly onto the train, but was too late for a seat. The Neanderthal was sitting near to the doors. Bastard!
“Please stand clear of the closing doors!” the tannoy cheerily announced.
Sean held on tightly as the train slowly pulled away from the platform.
At least, Sean thought, that he was running on time. He would have time to buy himself breakfast from the canteen before starting work proper. As the train rattled through the winding darkness like an oversized metal worm Sean wondered what sort of ridiculous demands his boss would make of him today. He wondered whether the cute French girl in the canteen would go for a drink with him this Saturday. He wondered whether he’d even have the courage to ask her… this time! He wondered…
Sean found himself suddenly thrown violently head first into the stomach of the Neanderthal. The Neanderthal too was despatched from his seat, landing heavily and becoming entangled with Sean and the other passengers who had been suddenly and viciously displaced by the inexplicable collision. Screams of pain and terror filled the carriage as it tilted over onto its side and the windows became the floor. Gravity pulled everyone who wasn’t desperately holding onto something onto the seat backs and windows. The sheer weight of panicking commuters meant that the glass did not hold. Shards of the broken glass were thrown into the mix of bruised and battered passengers. One man lay choking in his own blood where an especially large fragment had sliced open his throat.
For long moments the carriage was filled with the voices of the frightened and injured.
The cloying air within carried the scent of spilled blood and panicked sweat.
It took long minutes before anyone realised that the train had now completely stopped moving.
“What happened?” came one voice.
“Can anyone help my husband? I don’t think he’s breathing!” came another.
Soon the carriage was filled with unanswerable questions from those who could still find voice.
Sean found that some how he had ended up lying on top of the Neanderthal. His head rested rather indignantly between the man’s legs. He eased himself up onto his knees, realising suddenly that he was using the man beneath him as a make shift carpet. Sean turned to apologise. The impossible angle of the Neanderthal’s broad neck told Sean that the man was past caring. Sean got shakily to his feet, broken glass crunched beneath his once smart shoes, but he found fortunately that the glass was all that had been broken. It seemed that for the most part he had escaped relatively unscathed apart from a few bruises and scratches, the worst of which was trickling blood down the right side of his cheek.
He looked around at the carnage surrounding him. Those who could were standing and doing what they could to help those who couldn’t and that were not beyond it.
“No he can’t be dead! He can’t be!” this from the elderly woman who had spoken earlier. Her head lay across her dead husband’s chest as if listening for the heart beat that had long since departed.
“Has anyone tried contacting the driver?” Sean asked.
“No, no. That’s right. The driver, he’ll be able to help us!” a tall, bespectacled bald man in a grey business suit answered. He was visibly shaken and his black rimmed glasses had been rendered useless with their shattered lenses. The man crossed to the emergency alarm which enabled communication with the driver. Thanks to the carriage’s new horizontal angle the alarm was now located beneath them. The man pulled the alarm lever.
Silence pervaded the carriage as everyone waited for a response.
“Perhaps he’s answering a call from one of the other carriages.” A young blonde girl offered when it became obvious that no response was coming.
“Or maybe he’s dead!” came a less helpful comment from a spiky haired youth in a track suit.
“I hate to admit this,” Sean added, “but he could be right. We could be on our own here.”
“So what do we do now?” the bald business man asked.
Sean found to his dismay that everyone seemed to be looking to him for an answer.
He looked around at all the faces of those that had survived. The grieving widow, the young blonde girl, the bald business man, the spiky haired youth and six others whose acquaintance he’d yet to make; the young Indian couple, a pretty looking Polish woman and her young son, crying and clinging desperately to his mother’s thigh, an attractive black woman with long braided hair now stained with blood and a Chinese man with a goatee. For some reason they were looking to him as if he had all the answers.
He fiddled with the cut on his forehead absent mindedly.
“We should probably stay here and wait for someone to come and rescue us.” He stammered.
“But what if another train comes down the tunnel and crashes into us?” this came from the Chinese man.
Sean shrugged. “I guess that’s a chance we’ll have to take.” He replied.
“I say we take a vote!” it was the young Indian man.
“That’s right!” his wife agreed, “Hands up if you want to wait here to be rescued and possibly get smashed by an oncoming train.”
Sean tentatively raised his hand and noticed that he was joined by the widow and the spiky youth.
“Now who wants to get out of here and try to escape back down the tunnel?” the Indian woman continued.
“And possibly get smashed by an oncoming train!” the spiky youth drawled with thick sarcasm.
Everyone who hadn’t raised their hand before raised it now.
“It seems that you are out voted.” The Indian woman sneered rather un-necessarily at Sean.
“I just made a suggestion. Everyone was looking at me for an answer and I gave one. If you all want to go and risk your lives in the tunnels then be my guest.” Sean replied defensively.
The Indian man began making his way to the back of the carriage, stepping over the dead to get to the door at the back. Fortunately this was the rear most carriage and so they would not have to traverse through any other carriages.
“Shou
ldn’t we at least check the train for other survivors?” the spiky youth asked.
“If there are any other survivors then they can find their own way out.” The bald business man reasoned.
The Indian man had gotten the back door open and he was helping his wife through it.
He looked back at the others.
“If you are coming then lets go.” He called.
Sean found himself following everyone to the rear of the carriage.
Chapter Two
The tunnel they found themselves in was dimly lit by the fluorescent bulbs that lined the side walls. Before the crash the train had passed through Stepney Green and Whitechapel. Sean had been so lost in his thoughts that he’d barely noticed them passing. Following this tunnel would bring them out into Whitechapel again.
“Perhaps the rescue team is already on its way.” The blonde girl said hopefully.
“Let’s hope so.” Replied the Chinese man.
Silence reigned for long moments as they continued towards the light that was beginning to show at the end of the tunnel.
As the light drew closer and closer the survivors began to pick up their pace until they were all running towards what they hoped would be salvation.
Then something darted across the light at the end of the tunnel.
“What was that?” the Chinese man wondered.
No one could provide an answer. The sudden movement had brought the group to a halt within yards of the tunnel exit.
Something ran into the tunnel, closely followed by several other somethings.
Sean’s eyes widened in amazement and disbelief. Could he be lying unconscious back in the train, dreaming what he was seeing right now? Surely this couldn’t be real!
Six bipedal lizards – dinosaurs – were sprinting down the tunnel towards them. Their elongated snouts were filled with ragged razor sharp teeth, long arms ended in curved claws. The feet of their long powerful legs also carried piercing talons. Each one had an especially large hook like claw protruding at the side of each foot.
“What the fuck!” Sean exclaimed disbelievingly.
It was too late to run. They were as good as dead.
Everyone braced for the attack. Not everyone who screamed was female.
The dinosaurs ran right by them and disappeared into the tunnel.
For long moments the survivors stood astounded and yet relieved to be alive.
“Why didn’t they attack us?” the spiky youth wondered.
“Maybe they’re running from something bigger!” the blonde girl suggested fearfully.
“Or maybe it wasn’t us they wanted to eat.” The Indian man shuddered.
“What else is there?” the spiky youth chided.
The truth that slowly dawned on them was too sickening and horrific to contemplate.
“But I left my husband back there!” the old widow screamed.
Before anyone could stop her she was racing off back down the tunnel towards the train.
Susan Ford and her husband David had been on their way to Tower Hill station. Married for forty five years they had lived in London for over thirty of those years. In all that time they hadn’t really seen any of the famous attractions that the great city was so well known for. They had never been on the London Eye, never seen Madame Tussaud’s, never even seen the changing of the guard at Buckingham palace.
Since David’s retirement two months ago the couple had been doing their very best to rectify this. Already they had taken in the Eye and the Dungeons. Today had been their day to finally see the Tower of London.
That had been before the crash. Before David had…
Susan was sobbing as she stumbled through the semi-darkness back to where she had left him. She should never have left him. Should have stayed with him. Why had she been so ready to leave him? Would David ever forgive her?
As she reached the train wreck she peered in through the back window set into the door which lay partially open.
Those things were in there… feasting on the flesh of those who had died. Susan watched them. Their scaly hides were the colour of pebbled sandy beaches, but their snouts were drenched in crimson gore from where they had been feeding. She did not hear the voices calling behind her. All that she cared about was the sight of one of those vile creatures with its muzzle buried in her David’s stomach.
The deinonychus – for that was what it was, though it was not a name that Susan knew – tugged a tangled spaghetti of intestines from the cavity and threw back its head to gulp them back, swallowing them whole.
Any fear that Susan may have had was consumed by rage at the desecration of her beloved. Ignoring the voices that drew nearer she clambered into the train.
The dinosaurs turned to face the new arrival.
“Leave him alone!” Susan screamed hysterically, “You bastards! Leave him alone!”
She stumbled over the bodies and shoved past the nearer reptiles to get at the one which was consuming her husband.
The deinonychuses hissed as she went by, but other wise paid her no heed.
“Get away from him!” Susan shouted at the dinosaur.
It eyed her with apparent contempt and disinterest.
“Get the fuck away from him!” she bent down and rummaged amongst the corpses.
One of the commuters had lost a shoe in the crash. Susan’s hand found it. She could hear voices behind her… calling her back.
Instead of listening to them she took up the shoe and threw it with all the force she could muster.
The creature had been about to return to its meal when the shoe struck it a glancing blow, bouncing off its bloodied snout. It spun angrily on Susan, a menacing rasp emitting from deep within its throat. The deinonychus crouched, its arms raised and teeth bared.
Susan’s anger faltered as she realised its intention.
The dinosaur sprang onto her. Its teeth clamped around her face and the hooked talons of its feet lanced into her abdomen. The impact threw her onto her back. Susan’s scream was cut short as a sickening crack accompanied her head being torn from her neck and slung almost casually to one side in a spray of arterial blood.
The other dinosaurs were drawn to the fresh blood shed, but the victorious reptile stood over its kill and snapped at the others to keep away. Satisfied that its brethren were suitably cowed it settled down to feed.
Chapter Three
Sean pulled away from the back window of the train and heaved the contents of his stomach onto the tracks beneath him. Considering how he hadn’t had breakfast yet it was mostly bile and Sean grimaced at the bitter taste it left in is mouth. He wiped his chin with the sleeve of his jacket.
“What happened?” the Chinese man asked. He and the spiky youth had accompanied Sean in his pursuit of the old widow.
“It’s eating her!” Sean croaked, “It’s fucking eating her!”
“We’ve got to get out of here… before they fucking eat us too!” the youth stammered.
“I don’t think they’re interested in us. They only attacked her because she provoked them.” Sean replied, “All the same… I don’t want to hang around here any longer.”
He led them back up the tunnel towards the exit where they had left the other survivors.
The sound of scuttling feet and cracking bones faded behind them.
Back on the platform of Whitechapel station the others were waiting. Apart from them the place was deserted. Where had everyone else gone so quickly?
Then again, if dinosaurs were roaming about it was only natural that people would make themselves scarce.
Sean was surprised that the others had waited.
None of them knew what was waiting outside the station. Surely they would stand a better chance of surviving what ever awaited them if they faced it together?
Sean could only guess that this was why they had lingered.
As he and his companions returned the others on the platform looked to him.
He knew what that look meant. Knew that h
e didn’t need to answer it, but still he shook his head, his gaze directed to the ground, unable to look them in the eyes.
His wordless confirmation of their fears brought gasps and sobs of horror from them all.
“That poor woman!” the Polish mother sighed.
“What happened?” the Indian man asked.
Sean related to them what he had seen. He left out the gorier details, but this did not make it any easier on them.
“Do you think they’ll come after us when they’ve finished?” the blonde girl wondered.
“I don’t think so,” Sean shrugged, “But I can’t guarantee it. This is all new and weird. Who knows what might happen.”
“So what should we do next?” the business man asked.
No one was quick to answer that one.
An ear piercing screech brought everyone back to reality.
They all looked up to where the cry had originated.
At the same time as they saw it they felt themselves buffeted by the wind created by the beating of its great leathery wings.
The creature was huge… much larger than the creatures they had just escaped from. Its wingspan was like that of a small plane, the wings like that of a bat. The large head consisted of a long sharp beak that was balanced by an equally long bony crest that extended behind it. The eyes were round hungry yellow orbs with black pupils that regarded the people below with malicious intent. Only its legs looked small in proportion to the rest of its body, but were equipped nonetheless with grasping talons on the end of its feet.
The pteranodon began to dive towards the survivors, feet extended beneath it, poised to grab its intended prey.
“Quick! Up the stairs!” the Chinese man shouted.
The platform had stairs that led into the station building which led to the turn-styles and the exit to street level. The pteranodon was too large to follow them there.
They all made as one for the stairs, but bunched tightly as they were they found their progress hampered and the reptilian bird was almost upon them.
Only the roof of the platform saved them. The creature was forced to come under that roof and alight upon its clumsy clawed feet. It advanced along the platform, making awkward progress using the ‘fingers’ on its wings to pull itself after them.
