The Sixth Extinction America Omnibus [Books 1-12]

by Johnson, Glen

  “This should come out near my old barracks, section H4. The entrance to Zone 7 is not far from here,” Ralph announced.

  “I’m so thirsty,” Pete stated.

  “We need food and water,” Bachman said. “Is there a mess hall nearby we can scavenge?”

  “Sure, H4 has its own food preparation section,” Ralph said.

  “Good, we have to head there first; else we won’t last much longer without sustenance.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Ralph stated.

  “Maybe a shower as well,” Emma muttered. She wasn’t referring to her own needs, rather that of Pete and the dry gore that caked his clothes and body.

  The lights above started to get closer together. Then the steps led to a bare concrete room.

  “This is the exit,” Ralph whispered.

  There is no window to peer out of. No vent to stare through, just a metal door identical to the one they entered far underground. There was no way of knowing what was on the other side until they opened it.

  If there are creatures outside, they would be between a rock and a hard place – creatures in front and behind. The steps had no other sections leading off it, just a one-way set from point A to point B.

  The doorway in the subway was still taking a pounding. The dull echoes emanating from the door sped them all on. However, if there are creature’s right outside, they would be attacked from both sides. Eventually, one of the doors would break, and they would be fighting either on the steps or in the small concrete chamber.

  Ralph gripped the handle.

  “Are we all ready?”

  “As we’ll ever be,” Emma muttered while gripping the broken mop pole.

  Pete’s fist tensed on the hammer’s handle.

  Bachman had the large axe up and ready.

  Ralph slowly opened the metal door.

  They all held their breaths.

  265

  Stu, Soozie and the children

  Out to sea

  Somewhere off the shore in New York State

  Stu gunned the engine, teasing as much power as he could from the small outboard motor. The boat skipped through the waves, spraying salty mist over the four of them.

  It could have been eight people; Stu thought. How four lives can be snuffed out so quickly.

  The boy was sat staring back towards the shoreline, trying to see is he could spot his parents in the water.

  Soozie was sat close, in case he tried to jump overboard again. She also used one hand to gently stroke the young girl’s fiery red hair.

  The girl hadn’t moved a muscle since she curled up into a tight ball. But Soozie could see her little back rising and falling.

  At least she is breathing.

  Soozie knew she had no choice. If she didn’t let the two adults go, the boat would’ve grounded up the beach by now, and they would be overrun with the infected.

  Even so, she felt like shit. She knew the woman was dead, there was no way she could survive a head wound like that, but the man was still alive, merely in shock.

  If only he had let her go…

  She forced the thought from her mind; it would do no good dwelling on what ifs.

  The boat was making good time.

  Stu didn’t know anything about speed on the water. He knew about miles per hour, not knots. He had no idea as to how fast the small boat was traveling.

  What if the cargo ship has moved? How fast does that ship go? Faster than this boat? If it has moved, will we have enough fuel to catch up with it?

  “Where’s the vessel?” Soozie asked.

  Stu wiped mist from his sweating face.

  “I have no idea,” he shouted over the whine of the engine. “I wasn’t really paying much attention when I left.” He spat water from his mouth. “But it shouldn’t be that hard to spot; it’s huge.”

  The small boat cut around the cove. The open ocean spread out before them. However, a fog shrouded everything over a few hundred meters.

  “It can’t have gone that far,” Soozie shouted. “And if they have moved it, my guess is it would’ve gone that way.” She pointed along the coast.

  It stood to reason, why would Smokie ask Emma to sail the boat to colder climates, or even bother to turn the massive vessel around. The obvious course was straight ahead, hugging the coastline, heading down to a warmer climate.

  If we keep the engine turning over, we will see it soon enough, she hoped.

  266

  Troy

  Down inside the hull of the cargo ship

  Somewhere off the shore in New York State

  The loud horn echoed around the enclosed corridor. It made Troy’s head pound.

  “What the hell is Emma playing at?”

  Just as suddenly, the horn stopped.

  Is there another ship attacking us, or one on the horizon? Why would she sound the horn, unless it’s some kind of warning? Maybe to let the stranger know they are coming for him.

  Troy wiped a hand across his sweaty forehead.

  This bloody passageway never ends.

  He checked his watch. 9:36 AM. He has no idea what time he headed below deck, so he doesn’t know how long he has been walking.

  Twenty minutes, maybe.

  He knows the ship is big, over six hundred foot long.

  Surely, I have to meet up with the stranger and Naomi soon; the ship doesn’t go on forever.

  Troy’s pace sped up.

  I don’t want the others to catch up with me. This is my responsibility. My mission.

  Then, in the distance, he sees movement. He can just make out two figures. It looks like one is dragging the other.

  About time.

  Troy starts to jog. But he doesn’t want to give his position away. He doesn’t want the stranger to know he’s close. He starts to hug the hull closer.

  The two figures vanish through a hatch heading into one of the large cargo holds.

  I have you now.

  He hears the door slam shut, and the mechanism clicked into place.

  As soon as he hears the door slam, he starts to run full pelt.

  I don’t want to give them time to vanish inside the massive hold. There are hundreds of nooks and crannies they can hide inside.

  His feet pounds on the metal.

  The sound of the powerful engine hides his footfalls.

  As he gets closer, he can hear something else – someone else’s voice.

  One of them sounds like Alex.

  He sees two figures in the distance, also running towards the closed hatch.

  Shit, they must’ve also seen them enter the hold. They cannot reach them before me. I won’t allow it. This is my mission.

  Troy raises the gun and starts to fire down the passageway.

  267

  Alex and Terrance

  Down inside the cargo ship

  Somewhere off the shore in New York State

  Alex’s feet ache.

  Jesus, I’m so tired.

  He hardly slept on the island, because he could hear the creatures rattling the fence on the bridge, and their high-pitched screams echoed across the island they so desperately wanted to get on to.

  How anyone could sleep knowing the infected were only a chain-link fence away, amazed him. He tossed and turned for hours before he must’ve dozed off, because the next thing he knew people were shouting and screaming.

  Why can’t we get a break? No one has this much bad luck.

  He cannot remember the last time he slept all night.

  He had a cabin assigned to him, and he had a choice of four beds.

  Why the hell didn’t I catch an hour’s sleep before the shit hit the fan?

  Instead, he decided to go for a walk, unsure of his surroundings and that the vessel was truly safe.

  He wished Smokie had picked someone else. He could have showered, found some clean clothes and be curled up in his narrow bunk in his cabin right now, instead of searching the belly of the ship looking for an infected man with the rudest per
son left alive.

  Then again, he reasoned, the reason I didn’t try to get some sleep is because of the strange reoccurring dream. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw a long road, desolate and bare, everything brown and dead – no living colours. Just brown, withered grass and bare trees. As if all the life has been sucked out of everything.

  “Up ahead,” Terrance whispered.

  Alex’s exhausted mind snapped back to the moment at hand.

  “There’s two people,” Terrance muttered.

  Alex squinted his eyes. He could just make out movement in the far distance.

  Then they could hear a hatch slam shut and the mechanism click into place.

  “Let’s go.” Terrance then started to jog towards the hatch.

  Alex followed as best he could.

  “Who’s that?” Alex said. “Is that Lindell?” he realized he was shouting.

  “Down!” Terrance shouted, just as the sound of gunfire echoed down the passageway, quickly followed by the sound of the bullets ricocheting off the metal hull.

  “It’s Troy. He’s shooting at us!” Alex shouted, as he crouched.

  “No shit!” Terrance’s shotgun was useless at such a long distance. “Return fire,” he shouted at Alex.

  “What?”

  “Shoot the asshole before he shoots us!”

  268

  Mollee and Lindell

  Down inside the cargo ship

  Somewhere off the shore in New York State

  Mollee followed behind Lindell. She kept pace easily. Her bare feet made no sound, and there was only the slightest rustle of her dirty summer dress.

  Why would Troy head down without letting anyone else know? Why would he care? It’s only Naomi. No one can honestly say they’d miss the bitch if anything happens to her. Shit, I’ve wanted to gut the bitch more than once.

  Her hair waved in front of her lowered head.

  They headed the other way from Alex and Lindell’s brother.

  “We should be reaching my bro and Alex any minute now. Either they’ve found them, or we’re closing the gap,” Lindell whispered.

  Sound carried in the metal passageway.

  Mollee didn’t bother replying. It was a rhetorical statement.

  Her muscles burned from fatigue, but she found it difficult to sleep. Pain was good; it kept her going. Pain and anger. Anger at this dying world for taking everything away – everyone she has ever loved.

  She watched her whole family die.

  Her father did his best to protect them, as he barricaded the front door of the three-story brownstone. However, his ammo soon ran out, as the family home was overrun with the infected.

  Mollee had been cowering upstairs along with her mother, two younger sisters and her grandparents. She listened as her father’s weapon ran dry. The sound of the creatures breaking down the door and ripping him to shreds. How they filled the house looking for more warm flesh.

  The sound of their feet stomping on the stairs made her piss herself. She could hear their animalistic screams fill the building. Their frantic movements trashing the rooms. The sound of breaking furniture and shattering glass echoed around them.

  Her youngest sister screeched in fear. It was all the infected needed to zone into them.

  Her mother stood in front with two of her husbands hunting knives. They glinted, never used. Her thin arms looked so fragile holding them.

  Her mother jumped when the first body slammed against the locked bedroom door. Then another.

  They were all crying. Screams filled the room. They didn’t have to muffle their cries any more.

  The wood of the thick door splinted. A swollen bloodshot eye peered in. The screaming intensified. A dirty, blood-soaked thin arm reached in, thrashing about. More wood splintered as other creatures helped batter the door down.

  Mollee covered her ears as her mother tried to defend them against such overwhelming odds. Her father failed. Her mother was their last hope.

  Then a loud ringing filled Mollee’s ears. It sent a chill through her body. She could hear her family dying around her – their blood curdling cries for help, begging for mercy from creatures that didn’t care.

  Mollee woke up an hour later, cradled in her grandmother’s arms. Her mother, sisters, and grandfather were dead. Somehow, she survived along with her grandmother.

  “Thank you sweetheart,” her grandmother repeated as she rocked her.

  Mollee could not recall what happened. All she knew was the creatures lay dead around her, and she held her fathers two knives in her blood-soaked hands.

  A gunshot pulled her back to the moment at hand.

  Who’s firing at who?

  Mollee could just make out the back of a man in the distance.

  It’s Troy, and he’s firing his gun.

  “I can’t shoot. He’s firing at someone. Either the stranger and Naomi, or my bro and Alex. If I fire I could hit one of them,” Lindell said while crouching down against the wall, staring done the barrel of his rifle.

  Mollee sniffed, and then took off racing around Lindell and down the passageway at full pelt. Her thin dress and long hair billowed behind her as she charged directly at Troy’s back.

  269

  Smokie and the others

  Inside the superstructure of the cargo ship

  Somewhere off the shore in New York State

  “What in the hell…?” Smokie muttered as she stood staring out the window.

  All the windows have been closed, and the superstructure secured. However, the people safe inside were now stood up against the windows staring out onto the walkway outside.

  An eerie silence fell over the watchers.

  “What the fuck is happening?” Caroline said, breaking the silence.

  No one answered; they were too engrossed watching the withering people on the walkway.

  The six people lay on their backs.

  A few of the deformed seagulls flapped around on the metal walkways before tumbling off. A few managed to fly away again.

  However, the ones that were latched onto their friend’s faces drew their attention.

  One of the bird’s long head tentacles punched through the right eye socket and into the brain. The rest of the tentacles gripped the face like a black, squirming octopus.

  The bird’s body thrashed and withered until the creature growing inside was free of the outer casing. The feathers and skin sloughed off the black insect like creature inside. This then unfolded ten long thin spider-like black legs that were covered in thick black armour. They gripped around the chest, digging the spiked ends deep into the flesh. On the back of the creature was a throbbing, swollen membrane that was growing by the minute.

  “Jesus Christ,” Someone muttered to Smokie’s right.

  The bodies stopped thrashing. A few twitched every now and then.

  “We have to put them out of their misery,” Sue muttered.

  “No!” Smokie said. “We have to know what they’re becoming, so we can be prepared.”

  “It must be the next stage of the virus, or whatever it is,” someone said behind her.

  They had no way of knowing it was because a few hundred miles away a crow had consumed a section of tentacle, creating a new strain, which has spread faster than the first wave.

  “We keep watch and see what they become. As soon as they get up to move, we shoot them,” Smokie stated.

  “Those are our friends out there,” Sherry muttered.

  “That’s right,” Donna agreed.

  “They would do the same for us,” Frank stated.

  “We have to know what they will become.” Smokie said. “Their deaths will not be in vain.”

  No one moved away from the windows.

  Smokie pulled the radio from her belt. She turned the knob.

  “Terrance, Lindell, can you hear me? Over.” She waited for a reply. “Terrance. Lindell. Can you read me? Over.”

  After waiting for twenty seconds, she changed the number on the dial.


  “Emma. Come in Emma. Over”

  After a ten second wait.

  “I’m here. Over.”

  “Can you see any more birds from your vantage point?”

  “There’s a shit load of them in a huge circling pattern to the stern, behind the superstructure.”

  270

  Stu, Soozie and the children

  Out to sea

  Somewhere off the shore in New York State

  Stu stood as high as he dared on the wooden seat as he surveyed the distance. The engine was turning over but not spinning the propeller. He needed to get his bearings.

  The thick mist that had settled just off the shore was making it difficult to see more than a few hundred meters.

  Surely, they couldn’t have moved that far? Stu thought. Just as he did, the mist parted, and he could see churning smoke in the distance.

  Shit! I hope everything’s okay?

  He sat back down and throttled the engine, and the bow raised up as he gunned the motor. Fine mist washed over them all.

  Why so much smoke? Did they light the fire on deck again so I could find my way back in the mist? Or could there be a serious problem?

  “Jesus, is that our ship?” Soozie said when she noticed the smoke. “Why have they still got the signal fire burning? It seems bigger.”

  “Let’s find out,” Stu replied.

  The young girl hadn’t moved a muscle. The boy was sat staring back towards the distant shoreline. Every now and then, he would study Stu and Soozie. He was probably wondering why Stu was wearing a glove puppet.

  Now we have two children to look after, Stu thought. And after they witnessed their parents either ripped to pieces or drowned.

  He felt sorry for the kids. This was no world to grow up in. However, saying that, he would give anything to have his children with him in the boat right now.

  I went looking for Hanna and came back with two other children and Soozie. It was lucky I had a breakdown, or the children would’ve died along side their parents, and Soozie would still be wandering around on land.