Extinction NZ (Book 1): The Rule of Three

by Adrian J. Smith

  She knew that was it. Jack was “the One.”

  A popping sound caused Dee to look back out into the yard. One of the creatures was back, a straggler, maybe? It was staring straight into her neighbour's house, sniffing the air. The sound of its sucker mouth smacking making her shiver.

  She prayed that her elderly neighbour Faye was hidden. In her ninety’s, she never ceased to amaze Dee with her virility by still playing tennis, and doing her garden.

  The virus had taken over so fast, and with so much fury, that no one had had a chance. Before the phones had died, Dee had called Faye, telling her to hide with her in the basement to wait for Jack. Faye had refused, saying that her family were on their way. But after five days, nothing. No sign of anyone.

  The creature was still there, sniffing the air, when it suddenly burst over the fence with incredible speed, shrieking. Dee heard the crash of glass breaking. Her heart sank.

  Against her better judgement, she grabbed the only weapon she had — the Katana — and dashed outside. She leapt over the short boundary fence.

  Dee could see the smashed window. A horrifying noise came from inside the house. Peering in, she looked at a horror film. The creature stood over Faye’s torn body, one of her arms grasped in its claws. Blood and gore dripping from its strange sucker mouth, it let out another shriek. More shrieks answered from close by, maybe a few houses down.

  With blinding speed, the creature leapt at Dee.

  Stumbling backwards, she brought the Katana up as she fell. The speed of the creature went against it as the tip of the sword slid in underneath its chin and up into its brain, killing it. Black, foul-smelling sludge coated Dee’s arm and neck.

  Gasping, her heart trying to beat its way out of her chest, she gagged and pushed the nightmare off her. Hearing the shrieks again, but much closer, she listened intently. Screams, human screams.

  Jumping up, she ran hard for her house. As she cleared the fence, she saw a group of people running up the street.

  Dee gasped. People? I haven’t seen anyone for a couple of days!

  Waving to them, she yelled, “Hey! In here!”

  The group turned toward the sound of her voice as one, much like a school of fish being chased by dolphins.

  Dee ran to her basement door and swung it open. Getting a better look at the group, Dee made out four men and a couple of women.

  “Hurry! C’mon!” Dee gestured urgently for them to get inside.

  The shrieking sounded really close as she slammed the door behind them, bolting it.

  “Quickly, in the back,” Dee instructed. She reached into a plastic container and splashed the foul-smelling liquid over the door and floor.

  Going through to the back to join the others, she huddled down with them in the dim light. And prayed for the monsters to move on.

  Dee could hear them scurrying around in the yard, their joints popping. They scratched at the door, sniffing. Dee hoped that her seaweed garden solution did the trick again, its pungent stench intended to confuse the creatures, tricking them into thinking there was nothing to devour here. For the second time that day, the creatures moved on, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

  “What is the awful smell?” asked one of the men, whispering. Dee looked at him. Shaved head slightly overweight, funny beady eyes.

  “That awful smell just saved your life,” Dee replied. A bit annoyed, she stared him down.

  “Bloody hell, Matt, don’t be a dick!” exclaimed one of the women.

  “Sheesh, all right.”

  Dee looked over at the woman who had chastised Matt, and smiled. She had blonde hair, nice figure, a real beauty.

  “Sorry about that. I’m Alice. You know Matt.” She nodded in his direction. Pointing at the others, she listed their names in turn. “Mike, Aston, Vicki, and Boss.”

  “Boss?” exclaimed Dee, looking closer at the teenage boy Alice had pointed at. “What, like Bruce Springsteen?”

  Boss looked at Dee, a grin on his face. “Who?”

  I like this kid already.

  Boss started to laugh. “Nah, it’s a gaming thing. I used to boss everyone around in my WOW guild, drove everyone nuts.”

  Oh, a gamer? Dee grinned. “All right Boss.”

  Addressing the group in a low voice, Dee said, “That foul smell is raw sewage. It hides our scent from those creatures out there. That stench I put on the door is seaweed, and it does the same thing. If you wish to stay here, you obey my rules. I’ve managed to hide away from the creatures for three days. You get used to it, trust me.”

  Dee added, “And stay out of sight. Minimal noise too. We can share what little food I have. Hopefully my husband Jack will arrive before we have to scavenge more.”

  “Variants. They’re called Variants,” murmured Boss.

  Dee turned and looked at Boss. “What?”

  “That’s what the American on the radio was calling them. Variants.”

  “You’ve got a radio?”

  “Well, had, until they found me and my parents.”

  Dee could see Boss didn’t want to discuss the events of the last few days, so she made a mental note to ask him about it later.

  Variants? Variants of what?

  Dee’s group settled into an uneasy routine. For ten days they tried their best to be silent at all times, especially during the night. The darkness brought nightmares of hellish proportions. The Variants scurried, popped, and shrieked continuously.

  The ever-present fear of being discovered frayed everyone’s nerves. They took turns watching out of the ventilation grates in two hour shifts, being careful to always stay in the shadows.

  Boss came up with the idea of dousing themselves in the seaweed solution, and Dee insisted that the human waste be buried and covered in garden lime. Minutes ticking by dragged into hours, and hours dragged into days.

  And still no Jack.

  With little else to do when not on watch, they played cards, read books from Jack and Dee’s stored collection, and tried to sleep. But, knowing what awaited them outside, real sleep was a forgotten luxury.

  Boss and Dee became fast friends, finding a common ground in all things Monty Python. They would try and lighten their mood by writing quotes, each testing the other person’s knowledge.

  Matt, Alice, and Aston all sat staring morosely, sometimes whispering to each other.

  Vicki and Mike spent long hours just cuddling, only rising to do their shifts, eat, and use the primitive bathroom. They had barely said two words to anyone, the shock of the past few days showing.

  We all deal with things in a different way, some better than others.

  Dee knew they probably had only one more day of food left, at best. They had completely exhausted the supplies they’d managed to scrounge from the immediate neighbourhood. No one was willing to venture out any farther than they already had. A few close calls with the Variants had scared everyone. Now they had no choice. They would have to go out into the mess the Hemorrhage Virus had caused.

  Looking up from the book she was reading, The Chrysalids, she nudged Boss with her foot. “Hey.”

  Boss was surrounded by electronic bits and pieces. An old ham radio her Dad had given her was scattered around. Without looking up, he replied, “Yeah?”

  “Any luck?” Dee whispered.

  “Nope, it’s dead. An ex radio. Expired. No longer with us.” Boss was now grinning.

  Playing along, Dee said, “It was all right when it left the shop.” She sighed. “But seriously, could you fix it?”

  “Not without the right parts. Then, yeah, maybe.”

  Dee leant forward in her chair, shuffling closer to Boss. The smell of the dusty radio parts evoked fond memories of her childhood, of watching her father patiently assemble the old ham radio, trying to get it to work. He had explained what he was doing to Dee, but it had all sounded the same to her. She’d just loved to hear his voice.

  Blinking away the memory, she furrowed her eyebrows at Boss. “So, did your father
teach you how to do that?”

  Boss paused. Putting down the small screwdriver, he shifted his weight, stretching out a leg. “Yeah, well, sort of. He taught me how to use the radio. He loved to chat to people all around the country, and the world too, I suppose. I don’t know, really? He wasn't around much.”

  Dee watched as Boss shuffled around, turning away from her. He leant back down and picked up some pieces of the radio. He glanced around the room, his blue eyes flickering to her.

  Dee placed a hand on his shoulder. “Boss, what happened? To him, to your mum?”

  Wetting his lips, Boss replied, “They happened, Dee. They!” He gestured wildly towards outside.

  Dee patted his shoulder. “I’m sorry Boss. I shouldn’t have pried.”

  Boss sighed, rubbing his hands through his hair. He stared at Dee. “Dad worked as an IT consultant, hardware stuff. He mainly worked for that big animal breeding place. It wasn’t long after the news broke, a couple of days, maybe, that Dad came home sick. I think he had a fever. He still insisted on going to work the next day, and then he never came back. As it got worse out there, Mum and I hid in the attic storage area. That’s where Dad’s radio was. So when it was quiet, I warmed her up and reached out.”

  Dee rubbed the nape of her neck. “Is that when you talked to the American?”

  “Yeah. It was difficult to hear him. He said something about Variants attacking them, and to hunker down.”

  Tilting her head in the direction of the others, Dee asked, “What about them? How’d you end up together?”

  Boss picked up a piece of the radio. It was shaped like a small light bulb. Dee watched as he peered through it. He put it down next to the others, and turned around to face her. His eyes glistened, and he blinked rapidly. “He came back, Dee. He came back.”

  Her heart thumped against her chest, and nerves tingled down her arms, her blood running cold. She shivered. She hoped that what he was going to say next wasn’t what she was expecting. Why did I press him?

  “After a few days, he came back. But he wasn’t Dad any more. He was one of them, Dee!” His voice caught on the last words, and tears welled up in his eyes.

  “I ran, Dee. I ran, and left Mum to them.” Boss sniffed and wiped his eyes. Gesturing towards Matt and Alice, he added, “They helped me. We hid in their shed. The other two were already there. But they found us. Then we met you.” Boss sniffed again, and a smile escaped his lips.

  Dee moved forward off her chair. She swept a few of the scattered parts away with her foot and crouched down, joining Boss on the floor. She drew him into a tight embrace. “I’m really glad you did, Boss. We’re going to survive this, okay?”

  Boss tightened his arms around her, returning the hug. “Yeah. We better.”

  She held on to him for a while longer, savouring the comfort.

  Dee pondered how to approach the next subject, that of the drastically dwindling food supply. She knew the average male needed three thousand calories per day to survive, and they were all on a thousand at best. The time had come. Judgement day.

  She broke the embrace with Boss and sat back up on her chair. Not for the first time, she wished her Dad was still alive. He’d always treated her with a love and affection that had sometimes bewildered her. She’d always known he’d really wanted a son. He’d taken her on several hunting trips, and shown her how to live off the land. Firing hunting rifles and shotguns, fishing, and camping had all been part of her life, growing up. Dee cursed her luck at the Hemorrhage Virus arriving when the guns he’d left her were being serviced. His death had hit her hard, and she’d foolishly let the guns sit in the basement gathering dust. After Jack had shown some interest in learning how to use them, she had taken them in for servicing. Now they were lost to her too.

  What should they do? Move on and maybe get torn apart and eaten, or stay put and starve to death, and maybe get discovered and eaten? Where are you Jack? I need you now, more than ever.

  Shifting her weight, Dee nudged Boss again. “Boss.”

  “Yeah, what?”

  “We need to talk to the others.”

  Slightly perplexed, Boss now looked up from his task. “Why?”

  “We need to figure out what we’re going to do, that's why.”

  “Food?”

  “Yes, food, and we need to move on. There are more and more Variants every day.”

  Getting up off the floor so he could sit next to her, Boss gave Dee a quizzical look. “Have you noticed how you don’t see them in the middle of the day?”

  Nodding, Dee murmured, “Yeah. I think that's our best chance to go. We need to find water, food, and weapons. Real weapons, like guns. Jack and I have this cabin up in the valley, isolated. I think we should head there.”

  “What about a truck? Like a concrete truck?”

  Smiling, Dee said, “We need to be practical, Boss. It’s not Fury Road.”

  Stifling a laugh, Boss nodded his head.

  Approaching Matt, Alice, and Aston, Dee waved at Vicki and Mike, trying to get their attention. Getting no response, she nudged Boss. “Go get those two.”

  She listened as Boss talked to Mike. “Hey, looks like we’re having a pow wow.”

  Mike turned his head away from the ventilation grate. Sighing heavily, he said, “Why?”

  “Same old, same old. Food, guns. Lack thereof,” replied an annoyed Boss.

  “All right, but what about the watch?”

  “I’m just doing as Dee asked, sheesh.”

  Grumbling and muttering, Mike went over to Vicki, and they joined the others.

  At the small table, Dee had spread out an old map of the city, and next to it, one of the surrounding countryside.

  Smirking, Boss said, “What museum did you raid?”

  She gave Boss an over-the-glasses librarian look. She watched him sternly, clearly waiting for a cheeky response, but Boss just looked at his feet and kept silent. Dee looked back up and made eye contact with the others gathered round.

  “So, we need to decide what to do. Do we continue scrounging through houses for food? Or do we make a run for it? Get somewhere more isolated? Fewer Variants?”

  Pointing at the map, Dee pressed on. “If we stay, we just keep scavenging in ever-increasing circles, hoping for food. We could try for that food wholesalers. And we need guns desperately. Or, and this is what I vote for, we take my car and try to reach this valley. Jack and I have a cabin there.”

  “Well, I vote to stay. Surely the Army are going to show up soon,” said Mike.

  “What Army, dickhead?” replied Matt. “New Zealand doesn’t have an Army.”

  “Yeah, we do!” Mike replied, his voice rising.

  Cutting in, Alice said, “Guys! Seriously, shush!”

  Nodding his head in agreement, Aston said, “Look, yes we do have an Army, yes it’s very small, but it’s there. Regardless, they’re not worried about rescuing us mere mortals. We’re on our own.”

  There were murmurs of agreement from the others. Mike, begrudgingly, too.

  Turning to Matt, Alice poked him. “We should tell them.”

  “Tell us what?” asked Dee.

  “Yeah, what?” mimicked Boss.

  Matt, Alice, and Aston exchanged a look between them. Speaking up, Matt replied, “Look, we want to head off on our own, Alice’s family own a sheep station on one of the islands in the Gulf. We’re going to head there. Plus, I want to find my family.”

  Piping up, Alice said, “Dee, we’re really grateful, truly, but I need to know. Know if they’re alive.”

  “I can’t argue with that, Alice. I only have Jack. That’s why I want to go to the cabin.” She clasped Alice’s hand. “I really hope they are, Alice.”

  The two women smiled at each other, hope, anguish, and worry for their loved ones written deep in their eyes.

  “Well, that’s just bloody Dandy! Safety in numbers, anyone?” Mike slammed his fist on the table, causing everyone to jump.

  Vicki glared at Mike
. “Mike, shush, for Pete’s sake.”

  Dee glared at him too. Days of putting up with his foul moods and impudence finally got the better of her. “Mike! All they want is to see their families. You want to deny them that?” Speaking through her teeth, Dee added, “Or is it the lack of an invite?”

  Mike started gesturing madly, his face going red. He started to retort, but Vicki elbowed him in the ribs, effectively shushing him.

  “We’re happy to go with you, Dee. Our families are both on South Island. Just until it blows over, then we’ll be on our way.” Vicki added, almost at a whisper, “I’m sorry.”

  Still fuming at Mike, Dee decided to let it go for now. “Sure. All right then. Well, I don’t know about you lot, but I’ve had enough of this basement and its foul stench.” She looked at Boss, causing him to grin. She once again marveled at the teenager’s resilience. Seeing his grin gave her new motivation. “Matt?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You can take my neighbours car. I know where the keys are.”

  Matt nodded. “That sounds perfect. Thank you.”

  The group spent the next hour gathering what little food and water they had, dividing it up as evenly as they could. Dee gave them all spare clothes from some bags she had meant to take to the op shop ages ago. Gathering her Katana, Dee looked at Boss still trying to cram all the radio bits in a box.

  “C’mon, they’ll be active again soon.”

  “Yeah, I just don’t want to miss anything.”

  “Okay. Meet us in the car. And be careful.”

  Distracted, Boss nodded.

  Matt was waiting at the basement door, and as Dee approached, he looked over at Aston peering through the grate. Given the all clear, Matt slid the bolt, and they stepped out into the sunlight.

  Dee took in a deep breath, the fresh air filling her lungs. Glancing left and right, she gripped her Katana tightly. Seeing nothing, she walked on. Dread washed over her the closer she got to her elderly neighbour's house. The thought of seeing Faye’s mangled body frightened Dee, but she knew she had to do this. She wanted to survive, to see Jack again.

  I didn't fight the darkness for it to end now.

  Dee walked up to the smashed-in window, and quickly peered inside. On the floor was a thick, congealed blood stain, but no body. Where’s the body? Matt brushed against her as he peered inside.