The Sixth Extinction & The First Three Weeks & The Squads First Three Weeks Omnibus [Books 1-10]

by Johnson, Glen

“Keep in radio contact,” the Captain said as the group he was leading reached the front of the Great Hall.

  Trev was circling the helicopter with Jimmy, while trying to check all three hundred and sixty degrees around their only means of transport. He also saw the naked people pouring towards the buildings.

  A group of frenzied naked runners was heading straight towards the car park – they were drawn by the sound.

  “Shit, what are they?” Jimmy shouted raising his rifle, as he realized as they got closer he could see their deformed heads, with the face all split open, with jagged teeth protruding from the ripped open circular mouth, and their swollen necks, and also that they were covered in blood and grime.

  “Just shoot!” Trev screamed back as he pulled the trigger, filling the deformed creatures with lead, as their animalistic screams filled the air.

  Echo was heading around to one side of the largest building, with the four other members of her small group behind her. Her group had already encountered the creatures that were once humans.

  So this is what the virus does to a human host. She was angry at her father; he obviously knew what was happening, what they were becoming after the comatose state ended, and yet he hadn’t passed that information on to the people who needed it the most – people like her who was out with them.

  Then again, she reasoned, would I have believed anyone if they had told me?

  There was gunfire right by her left ear, as Spice took down some charging creatures that were pouring over some parked cars.

  Echo was amazed at their speed and agility.

  Suddenly Spice spun around.

  A naked blur flew from behind a wall. It hit a soldier in the face. Echo didn’t recognise him; he was one of the other squad members drafted in to help with the protection detail of the munitions drop.

  The soldier went down hard, as the creature frantically took bites from his unprotected face. It reminded Echo of a rabid dog, as it bit deep into the neck and shook the man like a piece of meat, tearing away chunks of flesh.

  The remaining four soldiers recovered from the shock and fired into the creatures back.

  Echo was quickly at the man’s side. She rolled the blood covered infected person off the soldier. It was too late; his jugular was severed.

  While trying to hold the mans neck together with her bare hands, he died as blood spurted from his mouth. He held eye contact with her as the last breath rattled from his lips.

  “Get inside,” Echo shouted to knock the soldiers out of their stupor. She knew how they felt; it was as if they had stepped into a movie, or video game – it was all so surreal.

  Spice slammed into a fire exit that was already open. They entered a large hall that at one time was the university’s gym. However, now it was full of equipment. There were machines everywhere, with what looked like bio-pods scattered between different sections. One-half of the room was separated off from the other by a large shielded wall. There was a contamination prevention vault-like entrance to get through to the other section. It was obviously some kind of laboratory.

  It only took a second to register everything. The sounds of screaming and shouting, along with a pulsing alarm rang throughout the cavernous room. There was also the clamor of objects being knocked over as people ran from one end, away from the containment wall.

  There were soldiers inside, who were already fighting off naked creatures of all sizes, from adults to young children.

  “Spread out, find Doctor Lazaro. Check all name tags,” she shouted.

  There were people in hazmat suits, all suited up with oxygen tanks on their backs, looking like they belonged on some faraway alien planet. These made them easy targets for creatures that were pouring through a breach in the large containment wall.

  Echo watched as two small naked creatures, which looked like twin children attack a person in a hazmat suit and drag him to the ground.

  She tried to ignore the shouting in her earpiece; obviously, the others had run into the creatures and were in trouble.

  However, no one, as of yet, had announced they had found the doctor.

  Echo fired at a couple of infected adults that were ripping into a nurse as she screamed and struggled on the gym’s shiny floor – a floor that was slowly becoming dulled by blood.

  She bent to check bodies that were unconscious or dead. Some had been ripped open; others had succumbed to friendly fire.

  She then started scanning a few people who seemed unconscious on stretchers over by the back wall. On the fourth try, she found the doctor.

  “I have the doctor. Repeat, Doctor Melanie Lazaro is inside the large gym. Over.”

  “Roger that Echo. Get her to the chopper, ASAP,” the Captain ordered.

  “Roger that!”

  Echo spun around to shout at the three remaining people in her group. She had to shout twice to be heard over the top of the bloodcurdling screams of pain and fear echoing around inside the room.

  “This is who we came to get. Spice, and you – Gilson, get her to the chopper.” Echo shouted. She didn’t know the other soldier, but she could read his name on the tag on his uniform over his left breast pocket.

  They nodded, slung their weapons over their shoulders and grabbed an end each of the gurney trolley. Spice kicked the brakes off and started pulling the gurney table.

  Tom stood to one side, firing into the mass of surging creatures that were pouring through the breached hole in the separating, makeshift laboratory wall.

  Tom’s face was covered in blood; it dripped from his wide sideburns.

  Spice’s perfect uniform was also covered in blood and globs of flesh and chips of bone. Echo hoped none of it belonged to him.

  Echo and Tom covered their retreat.

  Outside she rattled off a burst of bullets to clear the way. The creatures were appearing from every direction as if some unknown force had called them.

  One flew from seemingly nowhere, taking Tom down, ripping into his stomach before even hitting the ground.

  Echo kicked the creature in the side of the head, and then as it twisted to attack her, she forced her rifle into its gaping mouth and pulled the trigger.

  There was no chance of helping Tom; his intestines were spilled all over his chest and the ground. His eyes were already rolled back in his head. The only movement from him was the slithering of his guts as it came to rest in piles around him.

  Echo’s finger was constantly tapping the trigger, taking down one after another. The area was overrun. The creatures were charging from every direction.

  There was gunfire from her right. Bull was zoning in on them to help. He was alone. It looked like what was left of his four-team members were all over his uniform.

  The Captain appeared from around another corner. He only had one person with him, who as she watched, was jumped by three creatures.

  It seemed to be complete chaos.

  Echo could see Jimmy and Trev defending the helicopter. There was even a creature up on the tail section. But not for long, as it went to jump over, onto Jimmy, the rotor blades caught its head.

  Spice and Gilson were rushing the gurney along the path. Gilson tripped and was lunged upon by a naked woman who only had one arm. Even so, she managed to pull him down and sink her deformed mouth around his face.

  Echo fired as she ran. She was surviving on pure adrenaline. Her mind was blank. The horrors around her numbed her to the bone. It was almost as if she moved in slow motion, everything blurring together.

  She could hear orders being shouted in the device in her ear, also the screams around her, both the animalistic roars of the creatures and the calls for help from fallen soldiers.

  Bullets whizzed passed.

  Naked bodies dived and charged – they were inhumanly fast and fierce.

  Echo scrambled for the helicopter, the only thing her mind could register in all the madness.

  She looked down at the woman they were here to collect. The dark-haired female looked as if she was drug
ged, her eyes were fluttering open and closed, but it looked like she had no idea of what was transpiring around her.

  Echo helped Spice lift the woman from the gurney into the helicopter as the remainder of the group made a semicircle to keep the creatures back.

  “Everyone in,” the Captain shouted, as Echo and Coco covered them as they climbed aboard.

  As Bull and Trev climbed in last, the chopper was already lifting into the air.

  Suddenly, there was an explosion. Something either exploded by being hit by random bullets, or someone inside the building had detonated a hand grenade – from the force of the detonation; Echo would bet it was the latter. She could hear the sound of solid objects striking the tail section.

  The helicopter pitched to one side from the shockwave, but then righted itself. If they had still been on the ground, the tail section would have been destroyed by the blast.

  Echo watched as the creatures continued to charge as they jumped, trying to reach the rising target.

  Echo pumped bullets into the creature’s heads. She was aware that Jimmy was administering to someone who was bleeding out on the deck.

  Echo stared down as the naked infected became just cream and black dots on the concrete of the car park.

  What the fuck is happening? Her mind was screaming, as she turned and looked into the hull at the remaining soldiers, who were covered in blood and looked like they were all in shock. She tried to do a quick headcount. It was hard because people had literally fallen to the deck and into the seats from exhaustion. She would guess between fifteen and twenty people were missing. The missing were mostly the new arrivals, who were assigned just for the day. However, there were also six members of her squad that she couldn’t find.

  God help us all; Echo thought, as she realized this same scene would be playing out all across the country, and around the world, as the tens of millions of people who were in the comatose state started to wake up, after being changed into frenzied killing machines.

  She pulled the sliding door closed and moved over and dropped down next to Coco.

  She watched as Jimmy forced an IV drip into a soldier’s arm. The soldier was laid upon a stretcher next to another who Jimmy had just stabilised.

  Bull and the Captain were strapping the doctor into the seat webbing. She looked like she was slowly coming around.

  All this because of one woman, Echo thought. I hope she’s worth it?

  Echo could see the Captain talking to her, even though she couldn’t hear the words.

  Time was all stretched together. Echo couldn’t tell if she had climbed into the helicopter two minutes ago or twenty.

  She was just getting her thoughts together, working through the last half an hour or so, when a loud pinging sound started to echo throughout the hull. A young soldier Echo didn’t recognise stood and went into the cockpit. Within seconds, he was back.

  “Brace yourselves everyone,” he screamed, “we’re going down!”

  COCO’S STORY

  Travis Wade Franklin (Coco)

  11, Block D

  Zone 6

  The Ark

  Below Dartmoor Prison

  Dartmoor National Park

  Princetown

  England

  Works for the British army as an Intelligence Linguist in a clandestine unit in an undisclosed military base called The Ark, situated below Dartmoor Prison, in Princetown, Dartmoor, England.

  1

  Travis Wade Franklin (Coco)

  11, Block D

  Zone 6

  The Ark

  Below Dartmoor Prison

  Dartmoor National Park

  Princetown

  England

  Saturday 15th December 2012

  The Day of the Outbreak

  Day 1

  Coco rolled over and hit the alarm clock with a sideswipe, knocking the device to the wooden floor with a clatter. He slowly lifted his head from the warm pillow and peered over the edge of the bed to check the time.

  6:30 AM, he read from the upside-down clock.

  He was exhausted.

  Yesterday he dropped Echo off at Heathrow airport, for her flight to Mexico. He didn't get back until just after 2 AM.

  He lay on his back and ran his hands through his short dark hair. He dropped his arms onto the bed and sighed like a teenager having to get up for school.

  The double bed was always a reminder that he slept alone.

  Why didn't I book two days off? One for dropping Echo off, and one for staying in bed all the next day.

  Coco had to think hard to remember what day it was.

  Saturday.

  Only in the army is Saturday like any other, he reasoned as he sat up and swung his muscular legs over the side of the bed.

  Jesus, I'm twenty-eight and I still can't wake up properly in the morning.

  With the attitude of a person doing something against their will, he slowly shuffled to the toilet. He pulled off his boxers and tossed them into the washing basket.

  After his morning wake-up shower, flossing and brushing routine, and trimming his nose and ear hair, which he was shocked at how fast it was growing with each passing birthday, he dressed in his army fatigues and laced up his boots.

  He checked his watch.

  6:55 AM.

  God, I'm slow today. Maybe if I get chopper duty, I can catch some shuteye. He hoped.

  He had thirty-five minutes before he had to meet the rest of the squad for breakfast in the large mess hall.

  Coco pulled his door shut and headed down the stairs and along the stark corridor to the Block Ds exit.

  "Morning Coco."

  Coco turned as if in a daze.

  "Morning Jinks," he muttered in reply as he held the door open for the pilot of one of the other two units permanently stationed at The Ark.

  "Jesus man, you look terrible first thing in the morning," Jinks said as he followed Coco towards the shuttle train station. "I didn't realize black men could look so ill and pale?"

  "Screw you Jinks, ya sheep-shagger."

  "Whoa there fella, bringing your girlfriend into the argument won't help any!"

  Coco spun to swing a joking punch, but the nimble Jinks was faster.

  "Oh, I see, resorting to violence huh?" Jinks, a skinny mid-thirties man, with arms and legs that seemed too long for his body, put up his fists and started skipping around, as if in a 1930s movie.

  "I warn you; I am trained by the best the military has to offer," Jinks said as he skipped back and forth and around Coco as they kept moving toward the shuttle train, while making silly thrusting and hissing sounds as he jabbed out a fist.

  A few other soldiers were heading to the mess hall. They ignored Jinks.

  "And what constitutes Welsh Special Forces training; do you ignore the sheep and wrestle a goat instead?"

  "Oh, you're a grump when your girlfriends not around," Jinks stated while dropping his fists.

  "She's not my girlfriend."

  "Whatever man. Grow some balls and ask her out. Or are you afraid of her father?"

  The shuttle station loomed into view as they walked past manicured gardens and fountains, and roads so clean you could eat off them.

  "I'm not afraid of Philips." Coco scratched an itch on the back of his neck.

  "That's General to you soldier," Jinks said, mimicking General Philip's voice. "Now drop and give me fifty, maggot!"

  "You're a douche bag Jinks."

  The small shuttle train was just pulling in. They climbed aboard and dropped into the seats.

  "You know I hear Philips is looking for a new shoeshine boy; you should head up there, get your CV in while there's an opening." Jinks was sat in the seat in front and spun around to face Coco.

  "You know, get in close, butter him up before popping the question."

  "Question?" Coco was looking out the window over the station.

  "Yeah, question." Jinks got off the seat and knelt in front of Coco.

  "Ah, jerk!" Coco said
when he turned and realised what Jinks was doing.

  Another solider was at the other end of the shuttle train, was laughing at Jinks's joke.

  "And you can shut up to, Woodrow."

  The other soldier stuck up his middle finger and continued laughing.

  Jinks sat back down.

  "What do you thinks gonna happen if you don't step up and pop the question? I will tell you what will happen, if you don't ask her out, someone else will. Come to think of it, she has a nice ass.

  Coco stared out the window, ignoring Jinks trying to wind him up. It was pitch black outside in the tunnel as the train sped under the zones.

  "You do realize there are forty-five military personnel down here at the moment, and she's the only female? And we all know she's only here because her fathers the top dog."

  Coco turned back to Jinks. "Your point is?"

  "There's forty-three other single, horny men down here." Jinks raised his eyebrows. "Do I need to draw you a picture?"

  "Everything happens for a reason," Coco muttered.

  "What was that?" Jinks questioned.

  "I said, when the times right."

  "We are all handpicked because we have no family or lovers, and we can't tell anyone about this place – obviously – so the fact there's someone, who I might add, is hot as hell, and is great eye candy, and technically a relationship isn't against our orders, because she's in the same boat, so to speak."

  "As I said," Coco muttered, "when the times right."

  "Whatever, Horlicks," Jinks said as he stood as the train pulled up to the station.

  "Anyway, what're you doing in Zone 1, why aren't you grabbing some breakfast?"

  "Ah, can't a man have any secrets down here?" Coco said as he gently tapped Jinks in the gut, before getting off the train. "Breakfast isn't until 7:30, and I have someone I need to see first."

  2

  Jinks headed towards the main lift, while Coco took a right and headed towards the Science Block.

  Zone 1, just like all the zones, apart from 11 and 12, were kept at a comfortable level, making the air pleasant like a perfect summer's day.