“To start with, I wasn’t sure I could trust you. Then, because I didn’t want to get your hopes up, just in case, oh, I don’t know, if the room was trashed or something, ya know?”
Emma whistled as she was passed an M4. This is more like it,” she whispered as she stroked the weapon as if it was made of gold. She was only a lab monkey, and she had never fired a real weapon. But she was eager to learn.
Tes was checking out a strange-looking rifle. “How’d you get your hands on a Russian ADS Bullpup Amphibious Assault Rifle?” She clipped the M74 rounds in a mag, which would fit into the rifle.
“I used to collect weapons as a hobby. When I was selected for the bunker, I got permission to bring them with me.”
“They let you just store them in your room?” Bachman asked as he picked up a black rifle. “I have no idea what their names are, but I like this one.”
“That’s a Barrett REC7. And no, I gave them most of my weapons, to store in the armoury, which I could use any time I liked at the range, but I kept a few for myself.” He clipped an ammo belt around his ample waist, which was studded with bullets. It had two holsters; he dropped a Jericho 941F 9 mm into each holster. He started to fill his overalls pockets with clips.
“A few, Emma laughed. She leaned the M4A1 Carbine against a wall and picked up a shorter, lighter rifle. Feels perfect.
“That’s an Israeli Galil ACE. Nice and light,” he said. Ralph then lifted a small metal box from the bottom of the couch and placed it on the floor.
“What’s that?” Tes asked.
Ralph flipped open the lid. “Dessert,” he said. It was full of grenades. “There are some fragmentation, illumination and chemical ones in here.”
“Hallelujah,” Emma sung. “Here, this ones for you Pete,” Emma said passing Pete the M4. Then everyone noticed him for the first time since they started running.
“Are you okay, you look like shit?” Bachman asked.
“I just feel a little light-headed,” Pete replied as he went to sit on a seat he missed – he landed hard on the floor.
“Jesus,” Emma said rushing to his side.
“What’s wrong with his arm?” Tes asked, noticing the tear. “Is that blood?”
Emma pulled Pete’s tattered sleeve up to reveal a rip in his flesh; about five inches long. It was no longer bleeding, instead, there were small black tentacles growing out of it.
304
Smokie and Frank
Inside the superstructure of the cargo ship
Somewhere off the shore in New York State
Smokie led the way down the internal steps, leading to the lower levels. With the way everything was going, another two out looking for the creatures couldn’t hurt, especially now Frank seemed to have awoken from his dazed slumber.
She was a little concerned that so many were wandering around with weapons; it would only be so long before an accident happened, especially now they were all jumpy, what with the new strain turning their own people against them.
For a moment, she wondered if Stu was safe, or whether he was lying dead on the beach somewhere. Smokie tried to get the image out of her head. She could hear Frank’s heavy breathing behind.
“So, do I get the full story, or do I have to make one up in my head?” Smokie asked.
“We all have our secrets,” Frank said as he followed closely behind, still clutching a machete in one hand and a handgun in the other, with spare clips in his pockets.
“Mine used to be that I ate a hell of a lot more chocolate than I ever let on.”
Frank snorted.
“That was about the extent of my secretive lifestyle. However, I have a feeling yours goes much deeper than hoarding chocolate?”
“I, like many, have a chequered past. One I’m not too proud of.” He sniffed. “But my time of hiding is over. I need to take responsibility and not leave my fate in the hands of an invisible, so-called deity, who has done fuck all to help this world is our time of greatest need.”
It was strange to hear the priest swear.
Is he a priest any more? He said he wasn’t. Was it that easy just to renounce his faith? Boom, one minute a Shepard to the Lords flock, the next an average Joe, Smokie wondered.
She knew it took years of learning and seminars to become a pastor; it seemed wrong to be able to just say I’m not, and it was all over.
Then again, what use was he as a priest? He wasn’t really useful in the fighting department until his startling change. Then again, I don’t ever remember him being very good as a priest either. If it wasn’t for the bible and white collar, he could’ve been just another overweight middle-aged man with a drinking problem.
“Once I was in the army,” he said.
Smokie’s eyebrows stood up. “As in an army cleric?”
“No, this was before I became a priest.” He was silent for a moment.
The only sound was their shoes scuffing on the worn steps, along with Frank’s heavy breathing.
“I did many things I vowed I would never do again… I killed many men. Many… people…”
“That was war. People die on both sides. Wars are never easy. No one truly wins.”
“But I liked killing…”
Smokie wasn’t quite sure how to reply to that statement. It sounded like something a serial killer would say as he was leading someone into a dark room.
“That’s when I decided I had to change, or else it would get to the stage where I wouldn’t be able to tell the good guys from the bad.”
“That’s good right. You know you needed to stop.” She let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding.
“That’s when I thought God had stepped in,” he muttered.
Jesus, Troy turned into a zealot, while Frank’s gone in the complete opposite direction.
They were nearing the bottom of the steps.
“I think–” Smokie started to say, just before Frank shhhed her.
He silently stepped past her and stopped next to the corner.
“I smell spent bullets and blood,” he whispered.
How the hell can he smell that? she reasoned. All she could smell was salt water in the air and a little diesel from the engine room below.
Hmm, maybe something tangy as well, with a hint of metal, now that he’s mentioned it.
They both stood silent for a few seconds. The only sound was their breathing.
“I know you’re there,” came a loud voice from around the corner. “Walk out with your hands up.”
Who the hell is that giving us orders on our ship? She wondered.
Frank quickly glanced around the corner. He pulled his head back.
“Shit!” he muttered.
“What? Who is it?”
“Follow me, and follow my lead,” he said, and then he vanished around the corner.
What the fuck? Jesus I’m going to have to have a word with him about his conversation skills.
Smokie raised the gun in one hand and gripped the handle of an axe in the other. She took a deep breath and then walked around the corner.
Frank stood with his handgun pointing at two strangers halfway down the corridor.
Kneeling between them, facing Smokie and Frank, with their weapons in a pile and their hands knotted behind their heads, were Lindell, Terrance, Mollee, Alex, Donna and Caroline. Gordon lay dead next to the remains of a creature.
Did they kill Gordon? Who the hell are they, and where did they come from? Smokie thought as she stepped up next to Frank, with her weapon already pointed at the two men dressed in wet black clothes.
“Hi Smokie, remember me, sweetheart?” the one who was obviously in command said.
Then the face registered. The last time she saw it was from a long way away, but she would never forget that face.
“Holy shit, now you didn’t go and survive?”
“I’m afraid so,” he said with a smirk. He stared at their raised weapons.
“How the hell did you get on my ship? I saw your pie
ce of shit boat sink – I made sure of that. I hoped the fishes would be feeding on you right about now.”
“Your words make my heart flutter,” he replied.
“I’d rather hoped your heart had stopped pumping.”
He laughed. His head then twisted to one side as one eye spasmed.
Smokie could see the dejected looks on her peoples faces as they were forced to kneel before these two intruders.
“Does this mean we are at a stalemate?” He laughed.
“The fuck it does,” Smokie said as she pulled the trigger.
305
Naomi
Down inside the hull of the cargo ship
Somewhere off the shore in New York State
They’ve left me, was all Naomi could think about. The Bastards! She didn’t want to concentrate on what was in front of her. For a few precious seconds, she had seen Lindell and the others through the open hatch before it slammed shut just after Troy was folded in half.
The stranger called Cain held her in his strong grip. There was no way she could fight him off, not with how weak she was feeling. It was almost as if the fear was sapping all her strength – as if the creature fed on it, along with the bodies strewn around her shaking feet.
Her mind flashed back through her life. She had heard images flashed before a person’s eyes before they died.
Is it the same for everyone?
Her lonely childhood flashed in her mind’s eye, when she was nine years old, as she was shifted from one children’s home to another.
She was told two different stories about what happened to her parents. One was that they died in a car crash. Another that they died of carbon monoxide poisoning in their sleep. She later found out – when she snuck into the matron’s office – that they simply left her outside a church in freezing cold weather. There was a footnote on the same page, stating, If the child wasn’t so fat, it would have surely frozen to death.
A scene flashed before her eyes. It was so vivid it was almost as if she was back there.
No adopters wanted an overweight child. She had even heard one woman say, “We cannot afford to feed her. Look at the size of her. It’s not right. That’s child abuse!” The nun in charge of the home stated, “She gets fed just the same as every other child. It’s possibly something to do with her thyroid gland.” Then added. “Maybe she’s just big boned?” The nun and the two adopters walked off laughing. The man said as they walked away, “Seriously though, I would check your supplies, she must be sneaking down in the night.”
Her mind flashed to when she was thirteen, and a boy had snuck across the school into the girl’s section. They stood in a dim alley behind the toilets. He held her hand. She was so in love. She thought she was in love; she had never felt this way before. He had been dating her for six days, while sneaking letters to each other, and today they had arranged to kiss, to show how deep each other’s love was. He leaned in. It was perfect. It was just like she’d dreamed, after reading so many romance novels.
Suddenly, he pulled back, and made a pretend sick sound.
“You did it Johnny,” shouted a voice followed by cheering.
Naomi hadn’t seen the five boys who had snuck around the corner; she was too busy closing her eyes and becoming engrossed in the moment.
“God that was gross.” Johnny spat on the ground. “You all owe me a dollar each,” he said while wiping his mouth on the back of his hand.
“Lucky she didn’t eat you!” one boy said.
“Johnny, what’s happening?” She reached out to him. This must be a mistake.
“Get off me, you fat pig!” He slapped her hand away. “Fucking gross bitch!” He turned toward the others. “I told you I would do it; no dare is too gross for me! I kissed the Walrus!”
The boys ran off around the corner, leaving her crying.
The Walrus became her nickname for the rest of her teen years.
The next minute she was seventeen, and she had stayed at home and not gone to the prom the night before, not that anyone had asked her. She sat eating a pastrami sandwich when her MSN Messenger pinged on the desktop computer in the corner. It was strange because she only had two friends on it, and both had already said goodnight.
She had snuck down into the kitchen of the children’s home to make a sandwich, then into the room where the computers were kept.
Naomi clicked on the MSN Messenger. A video clip appeared. She clicked play. It took a few minutes to download then start. It was from the prom the night before. After the prom King and Queen had been crowned, one more award had apparently been given out.
“And the award to the Fat Queen goes to…” The boy opened an envelope. “Naomi the Walrus!”
A person in a fake fat suit wobbled onto stage. She held a pizza box in one hand and a gallon coke jug in the other. She fake burped and wiped ketchup off her face as she chewed on a pizza slice. Food dribbled out of her mouth. The crowd was in stitches. She later found out the video went viral – everyone in her school and neighbourhood had seen it. She even caught one of her teachers watching it.
Everything was so vivid. Cain couldn’t hold her weight as she dropped to her knees.
‘Why?” she screamed as she opened her eyes.
She was rewarded by seeing a huge egg shaped pod standing on large incest-like legs, over the bodies on the floor. One side of the creature was burnt, as if in a fire. Large tentacles thrashed from its underside.
“Behold the Queen” Cain shouted as he held Naomi’s face, so she couldn’t look away.
“She boarded us in Madagascar, as the Americas bombed the country into oblivion, before we had chance to get the boat away. The Americans gave us no warning. But she knew. She had been racing across the land, looking for a way to escape the nuclear cleansing.” He gripped Naomi’s head harder. “She selected us!” he screamed.
PART TWELVE
Alliance
306
Stu, Soozie and young girl
On the cargo ship.
Somewhere off the shore in New York State
Stu waved his arms frantically above his head, managing to knock several birds to the sides. As they hit the deck, he stomped on them with his heavy boots, killing them with a sickening crunch – the deck became slippery with their blood and guts. He used the rifle like a club to batter them away from his face.
Swirling the rifle reminded Stu of his older daughter Amber spinning her baton, dressed in her shiny outfit, as she proudly walked past with the rest of the girls from her school, with the band at the rear.
He blocked the image from his mind. He needed to concentrate.
They managed to climb from the metal steps over the side onto the deck and past the two motionless bodies that had creatures attached to their faces.
Soozie was doing no better, as she frantically waved the frenzied birds away from her head. One got tangled in her hair. As she wrenched it free, she pulled a clump of hair out with it.
The air was black with them. Fluttering feathers, clawing feet and whipping tentacles danced around their heads. The strangest part was the silence, as they dive-bombed them. The only sound was the adult’s heavy breathing and the young girls screaming.
Soozie gripped the girl’s hand and dragged her along as she followed Stu to the closest hatch they stepped on the avian bodies as they jerked around on the deck.
She had failed to save the girls parents, and the slow motion image of the boy jumping from the boat was still fresh in her mind. Five lives snuffed out within minutes.
I am going to save this child, if it’s the last thing I do, Soozie reasoned.
They knew the creatures obviously needed to attach to the face, if the two men’s bodies were anything to go by, so they made sure no tentacles came within reach, and they kept their heads down and their arms up. The birds flapped their wings against them, and clawed at them with frantic feet, but they couldn’t get to their faces.
A bird latched onto Soozie’s neck. She yanked it off,
as its claws gouged her shoulder, shredding her clothing and drawing blood.
Stu pulled a hatch open and dived in, as more birds slammed against the metal hull, causing dull thuds.
As Soozie was following Stu she realized the girl was no longer running, rather, she was dragging her along the deck by her thin wrist. As she turned to see if the girl had stumbled, she could see one of the birds had latched onto the girl’s face, with a tentacle pushing into one of her eye orbits, she could see blood pouring down her small delicate features.
Stu used the rifle butt to smack the other deformed birds away as Soozie dragged the girl through the hatch. Stu slammed the barrier closed, while Soozie quickly knelt beside the twitching girl, trying to decide what to do as she watched the alien-like creature slithering on the child’s face.
She could see a thick tentacle had pushed through an eye socket, and the feathers had sloughed away, leaving a crab-like creature with thick armour, which was now resting on the girl’s chest, as a long tentacle withered deeper into her skull like a thick sinuous snake.
Just then, the crab-like creature raised several legs and slammed one down, punching into the girl’s chest cavity. It then started to force a leg in one at a time.
“I cannot just sit and watch!” Soozie shouted at Stu.
“I don’t know what to do!” he replied while staring in horror as the alien creature made the girls body into a host.
“We do what we have to,” Soozie replied softy. She then gripped the long, pulsating tentacle that was forced into the girl’s eye socket and started to pull it out.
307
Bachman, Emma, Ralph, Pete and Tes
Zone 6
The underground bunker
Quirauk Mountain, Pennsylvania
“Fuck!” Emma said as she fell backwards away from the infected wound.
Pete’s five inches gash didn’t bleed; instead, it had small black tentacles growing out of it, which were moving about. The cut was festering with dripping black pus, which oozed out of the wound.
The Sixth Extinction America Omnibus [Books 1-12] Page 62
