Extinction Age

by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

  The civilians hesitated, and Beckham bellowed, “GO!”

  In the next instant, Beckham was running toward the Humvee. He picked off the Variants closest to the truck in mid-stride. His internal processor kicked into overdrive. He nailed headshot after headshot, plastering the walls and floor with gore.

  It took Beckham thirty seconds to reach the truck. He flung his rifle over his back and pulled his pistol as he approached the driver’s side. An emaciated male Variant perched on the hood snarled at him and narrowed its yellow eyes on Beckham’s neck. Everything froze in that moment. It was like his world had been placed under a microscope. He could detect the smallest details, from the drops of sweat on the monster’s face to the blood on the tips of its brown, jagged teeth. Beckham could even smell the rancid scent of rotting fruit radiating off the thing’s filthy skin.

  Beckham strode forward and executed the Variant with a shot to the temple. Its limp body slid off the hood and onto the ground. Beckham stepped over it, opened the door, and jumped inside. Horn shredded three more of the Variants before he climbed into the backseat.

  “Let’s roll!” Horn shouted.

  “Get in the turret,” Beckham yelled back. He put the truck into reverse and stomped the gas. The vehicle jerked backward, the tires crunching over corpses. A moment later, the mechanical whine of the M260 filled the cabin with the reassuring sound of 7.62mm rounds.

  Beckham threw the Humvee into drive, and it lurched forward. He gripped the steering wheel tightly and sped after the group of civilians. The Variants grew smaller in the side mirrors as Beckham left them in a thin cloud of smoke from burning rubber.

  He smacked the steering wheel. We’re going to make it. We’re actually going to get out of here!

  But at what cost? Were the lives of Mikesell, Lombardi, and the soldiers whose names Beckham didn’t even know worth it?

  Beckham blinked and eased off the gas as they approached the civilians. Chow had waved the group to the side of the tunnel.

  “Get in!” Beckham yelled.

  The survivors scrambled inside, and a moment later the Humvee was hauling ass down the tunnel. Beckham tried his comm as the first signs of natural light from Portal A spilled across the road.

  “Echo 2, Echo 3, Charlie team leader. Do you copy? Over.”

  The reply from one of the pilots was almost instantaneous. “Echo 2 here. Good to hear your voice, Charlie 1.”

  Beckham looked in the rearview mirror, counting the people piled into the truck. “Echo 2, we need extraction for ten people. Repeat, need extraction for ten.”

  Past the frightened faces, Beckham saw the army of Variants galloping down the tunnel after them. His eyes flicked back to the road and the green fence in the distance. Flooring the gas, Beckham drove like a man possessed, his focus on their salvation.

  He squinted into the sunlight that he’d thought he would never see again. Through the glare, he could see the sleek outline of two circling choppers. Although he’d lost another piece of himself inside Raven Rock, he’d helped secure the drugs and saved lives—and he was returning to Kate. They were going to live. They were going home.

  Fitz watched a seagull soar across the golden horizon. He was so bored he considered shooting it out of the sky. The highlight of his day had been pissing over the side of the tower. Operation Extinction had taken most of the soldiers into the field. That forced him to pull a twelve-hour shift with no one to relieve him for a latrine run. A bucket and a bag full of sand waited behind him, and he knew he’d be using them soon.

  He sighed when he looked at his watch. Still another two hours before he would finally be relieved from his post.

  “Apollo, how you doing down there, boy?” Fitz said. He looked over the side and searched for the dog. He found him sleeping on a patch of grass that looked so comfy it made Fitz tired.

  “Don’t worry, Beckham will be back soon,” Fitz whispered, more to himself than the dog. He had just hoisted his MK11 back to the other side of the tower for a sweep of the post when he heard a trace of mechanical noise on the wind. He raised his rifle and centered the crosshairs on a single Blackhawk.

  Fitz quickly scanned the horizon. One glance confirmed what he feared.

  The bird was alone.

  He followed it to the tarmac, where a four-man fire-team spilled out and began unloading boxes. He zoomed in on the face of each soldier, confirming that it was Bravo team. No Beckham. No Horn or Chow.

  He checked the boxes next, focusing his scope on the crates that were marked Fragile. At least they’d secured the objective, but where the hell was Alpha and Charlie?

  He waited thirty minutes for the other birds to show up. Valentine’s men continued unloading the chopper and carrying the crates to Building 1. The sun sank on the horizon, the warm golden glow losing the battle to the carpet of darkness spreading over the water. Fitz had to force himself to look away from the sky. He checked on Apollo to kill the time. The dog wagged his tail and glanced up when Fitz called his name.

  In some ways, Fitz was jealous of Apollo. The dog had seen a lot of death, but there was no way it could comprehend the extent of the devastation. Fitz was envious of that. Some days, he wished he was in the dark. Today was one of them.

  An hour passed and the light poles clicked on across the post. When Fitz was about to give up his search, he heard the faint whipping of chopper blades. The sniper in Tower 1 radioed two choppers in to command, but Fitz was hardly listening. He felt a smile forming on his face and hustled to the opposite side of the box to glass the darkness. Two red dots were growing larger in the sky, beacons of hope in an ocean of black.

  Fitz focused on the troop holds as the Blackhawks set down on the tarmac. Something was off about the birds. Their markings were unusual, and their doors were closed.

  He centered his crosshairs on one of the aircraft as soldiers in black fatigues swarmed out. Mikesell’s men had all worn black, Fitz thought. But these don’t look like the same guys. Who were they? And where was Charlie team?

  The soldiers huddled around a central figure as they jogged away from the crafts. The sight reminded him of secret service surrounding the president. Whoever this person was, they were important.

  Fitz zoomed in on the central figure’s face. He tensed his fingers around the handle of the gun when he saw it was Colonel Wood. This didn’t make any sense. Why would his men be guarding him like he was the most significant person left in the world?

  Unless…

  Fitz gritted his teeth and lowered his rifle. He was a grunt and therefore not worthy of the SITREP that would have informed him if Colonel Wood had suddenly been promoted up the chain of command. But he was smart enough to know that something had gone terribly wrong—and if Wood was running the show, things were about to get a whole hell of a lot worse.

  -25-

  A cold draft of air blew on Kate as she sat waiting at the war table in the command center. She shivered, wrapped her arms across her chest, and sank a few inches in her chair.

  “It’s going to be okay,” Ellis said.

  Kate wanted to believe him. God, she wanted to. Beckham had surprised her in the past. She’d thought he was dead so many times before and then—because of a miracle, luck, or divine intervention—he’d come home. Battered and bloody, but alive. This time, though, she wasn’t just worried about her own happiness. If she was carrying his child, she couldn’t bear the thought of raising it alone. Especially in this new world.

  She sat there with her head lowered, feeling defeated. The chatter of voices sounded in the hallway outside the room. She wasn’t listening to the discussion. Part of her didn’t care anymore. After thirty minutes of waiting, the doors finally swung open and Colonel Wood entered the room. Ellis stood, but Kate remained in her chair.

  Wood walked to the observation window as his team sat around the table. Jensen took a seat next to Kate.

  “Beckham will be back,” he said quietly. “He’s a hard man to kill.”

 
Kate simply nodded.

  “Everyone knows by now that Central Command has fallen,” Wood said from the window. “That’s the bad news.”

  Wood turned and then slowly strolled over to the table. Raising a finger, he said, “But there’s good news too. Early reports indicate that the first stage of Operation Extinction has been an overwhelming success. We have recovered payloads of chemotherapeutics from around the country.” Wood turned to look at Kate. “Dr. Lovato, am I boring you? I presumed you would be pleased to learn that our men secured the drugs you asked for.”

  “Good news,” Kate managed to reply. She looked ahead, afraid to say anything else that might make her look even weaker than she did now. Despite her despair, she had to remain strong. Humanity was still counting on her. It was a burden she no longer wanted, a burden she would gladly hand to anyone—anyone, that is, except the man who stood in front of her.

  “I’m told you have an update on Kryptonite,” Wood said.

  “We do,” Ellis replied when Kate didn’t answer. “Patients 1 and 2 succumbed to the drugs a few hours ago.”

  “Excellent,” Wood said, sounding pleased for the first time since the briefing began. “How about the human testing?”

  “I was injected this morning,” Ellis replied, faking a grin. “And I’m still here.”

  Wood’s eyes flicked to Kate again. “Do you have anything to add, Dr. Lovato?”

  “The weapon will work, Colonel. All I need is time to produce the batches of antibodies and for you to help coordinate the production before it’s deployed,” Kate said.

  “Confidence,” Wood replied. “Nice to finally see that you have a backbone under that lab coat.” He scratched his cheek and said, “As for the deployment. There’s been a change—”

  A rap on the door cut him off mid-sentence. Kate whirled to see Cooper and Berg enter the room.

  “Sorry to interrupt, sir,” Berg said. “But we just got word from Echo 2 and Echo 3. They’re en route to the island.”

  Wood looked at the men like they were stupid. “We’re in the middle of a briefing here,” he snarled.

  “But, sir,” Berg said. “Bravo and Charlie teams found survivors at Raven Rock. I’m told they have the Secretary of State with them.”

  Kate’s heart thumped hard. So hard she felt dizzy. She wanted to ask if Beckham was on one of the birds, but she knew he had to be. She couldn’t accept the alternative.

  Wood’s blue eyes widened ever so slightly. He looked to the floor and then back to Berg. “Prepare your men. We’ll meet Madam Secretary Ringgold on the tarmac.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me you were the Secretary of State?” Beckham asked the woman sitting opposite him.

  Secretary Ringgold shivered in the cold wind and wrapped her arms across a white dress shirt caked with dried blood. Beckham focused on the US flag pin on her lapel. He’d known she was important, but he’d had no idea she was next in line to the presidency.

  “I’ve never liked preferential treatment. Besides, what would you have done? Given me a bulletproof vest? Carried me over your shoulder?” she said.

  Beckham felt his lips forming a smile, but he didn’t let them. It would have felt like a betrayal to Lombardi and everyone else they lost at Raven Rock. He reached inside his rucksack and pulled out a rain jacket.

  “It’s not a bullet proof vest, but it might help with the cold, ma’am,” Beckham said. “Glad to have you with us.”

  “Thank you,” she said with a warm, sincere smile.

  “Plum Island, ETA ten minutes,” one of the pilots said over the comm.

  Beckham worked his way to the open door and took a seat next to Horn. His best friend sat at the edge of the troop hold, his M249 angled into the darkness. Chow was camped against the wall behind them, a toothpick flicking back and forth in his mouth.

  None of them said a single word for the rest of the flight. Beckham listened to the whoosh of the blades and stared at the empty cities, wondering just how many people were left to save down there.

  Kate and Ellis stopped by Building 1 to pick up Tasha and Jenny on their way to the tarmac. Word had traveled fast about the homecoming of Echo 2 and Echo 3. By the time they arrived, a crowd had gathered. Riley and Meg were there. Red and Donna were standing next to them with Bo perched on his father’s shoulders. It looked like every civilian at the post had emerged from their quarters to see the troops return.

  It should have been a happy occasion, but Wood’s men patrolled the area, their eyes hidden by the shadows their black helmets cast. She counted a half dozen of them, all carrying the same model of weapon. Berg and Cooper continued to tail Kate and Ellis, and she was beginning to feel like a prisoner. She pushed the anger aside, focusing on how good it would feel to wrap her arms around Beckham.

  “Miss Kate, do you know when my dad is gonna be home?” Tasha asked.

  Riley wheeled over to them and gave Kate a meaningful look. Neither of them seemed to know what to say. Kate leaned down and brushed the hair out of Tasha’s face.

  “Come here,” Kate said. She scooped Tasha up and carried her. Kate could feel the small girl’s heart beating against her arm.

  “What’s with all the firepower?” Meg asked. “Those two goons with the mustaches keep looking at your butt, by the way.”

  “Wood’s men,” Kate replied. “With Central Command gone, he’s pretty high up on the ladder now.”

  Riley’s hand shifted toward the pistol he had tucked into his pants. His boyish features took on a hard cast.

  “There,” Meg said. She kept her crutches tucked under her armpits and pointed at the incoming helicopters.

  “Daddy,” Jenny chirped.

  Wood, Jensen, Smith, and Valentine pushed past the crowd. Berg and Cooper followed them onto the tarmac.

  Kate put Tasha on the ground and said, “Stay here, okay?”

  Ellis took Jenny and Tasha’s hands, and Kate ran after Wood and his men. Halfway across she saw Fitz and Apollo walking down a path leading from the beach. He flung his rifle over his shoulder as he continued toward the buildings.

  Kate caught up to the group and stood next to Jensen. He nodded at her and gave his mustache a quick, nervous swipe as the choppers descended. A blast of wind slammed into the group a second later. Kate shielded her face from the gust, her eyes searching the troop holds anxiously. She couldn’t hold back a smile when she finally saw Beckham. He raised a hand and dropped it as the landing skids connected with asphalt.

  Beckham, Chow, and Horn jumped out of the first bird and turned to help a middle-aged woman who Kate assumed was Secretary Ringgold. Five civilians and an injured soldier poured out of the other bird. Her heart skipped when she saw Lombardi was not amongst them.

  The pilots shut the Blackhawks down a moment later. Kate couldn’t hold herself back any longer. She raced forward, ducking under the slowing blades, and wrapped her arms around Beckham. He kissed her on the cheek and then pulled from her grasp.

  “Later,” he whispered. “I need to know what the hell is going on. I heard that Central…” His voice trailed off as Wood approached.

  “Welcome to Plum Island, Secretary Ringgold,” Wood said, reaching out a hand. He didn’t even look at Beckham or the other soldiers. “I’m Colonel Wood. I’m in charge of this facility.”

  ‘Thank you, Colonel,” Ringgold said, shaking his hand. “You have no idea how happy I am to be here.”

  Wood waved two more of his soldiers away from the barriers. The men came running across the pavement. “And we’re happy to have you. I’ll make sure you have escorts at all times. My men will personally ensure your safety.”

  “I’d like an update. I’ve been trapped inside that tomb for far too long,” she said. “What’s the status of Central Command? I heard it was attacked.”

  “The Variants overran Command earlier today. I was there. Not many of us made it out.”

  “My god.”,” she said.

  “It was a real tragedy,” Wood replied with a
rueful nod. “But the good news is that the first stage of Operation Extinction has been an overwhelming success.”

  “Operation Extinction?”

  Wood ran a finger over his chin. “The operation to take back the country from the Variants. Our very own team of medical geniuses has designed a weapon that will be deployed all across the United States in the coming weeks.”

  He acknowledged Kate with a wave. Kate wasn’t sure she understood him correctly and said, “Just the United States?”

  Wood frowned slightly. “That’s right, Doctor. As I was saying earlier, there’s been a change of plans. We’ll be deploying the weapon over our nation and select territories. I’m sure you understand. It’s a matter of resources and priorities.”

  Kate thought of her parents, who could still be alive in Europe. “No, I don’t understand, Colonel.”

  Wood addressed Secretary Ringgold as if Kate hadn’t spoken. “My men will escort you to Building 1, where you will find a hot shower, a change of clothes, and a meal waiting for you.”

  “Thank you, Colonel,” Ringgold replied. She glanced over at Kate, her keen eyes questioning, before two Medical Corps soldiers led her away.

  Wood turned on Kate. “Doctor, if you ever undermine me like that again…”

  Beckham took a step forward and Wood froze, his eyes flicking to the operator. He seemed to think better of threatening Kate with Beckham standing between them.

  “Lieutenant Colonel Jensen,” Wood said. “I want you to load a chopper with half of the drugs and prepare them for a flight.”

  “A flight to where?” Jensen asked.

  “That’s classified,” Wood said.

  “I’m not sure I understand, sir.”

  “Did I ask you to understand, or did I order you to load that chopper?”

  “Sir,” Jensen said, “Operation Extinction was to be a worldwide effort. Am I correct in that understanding, sir?”