Extinction Shadow

by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

  Extinction Cycle: Dark Age

  Book 1: Extinction Shadow

  By Nicholas Sansbury Smith and Anthony J. Melchiorri

  Cover Design by Deranged Doctor Design

  Edited by AJ Sikes

  Copyright © January 1st, 2019

  All Rights Reserved

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events locales or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the authors.

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  For my co-author and good friend Dr. Anthony J. Melchiorri. Your scientific input helped bring the Extinction Cycle saga to life, and I’m thrilled to work with you again in bringing readers the next chapter.

  The boundaries which divide life from death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?

  – Edgar Allan Poe

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  About the Authors

  Introduction to the Extinction Cycle and Historical Recap:

  From Extinction Cycle creator Nicholas Sansbury Smith

  Dear Reader,

  For those of you that are new to the Extinction Cycle storyline, you are about to embark on a completely new saga based on the original award winning, Amazon top-rated, and half a million copy best-selling seven book series. Critics have called the Extinction Cycle, “World War Z and The Walking Dead meets the Hot Zone.” Publisher’s Weekly added, “Smith has realized that the way to rekindle interest in zombie apocalypse fiction is to make it louder, longer, and bloodier … Smith intensifies the disaster efficiently as the pages flip by, and readers who enjoy juicy blood-and-guts action will find a lot of it here.”

  Extinction Cycle: Dark Age is the continuation of the original story, taking place eight years after the events of book seven, Extinction War. Before you dive in, please read this for a brief history of the series, and what to expect for new and old readers.

  In creating the Extinction Cycle, my goal was to use authentic military action and real science to take the zombie and post-apocalyptic genres in an exciting new direction. Forget everything you know about zombies. In this story, they aren’t created by black magic or other supernatural means. The infected are a result of a military bio-weapon called VX-99, first used in Vietnam in a government program to design a super soldier. Chemicals from VX-99 activate proteins encoded by dormant genes that separate humans from wild animals—a real process known as epigenetic changes. In other words, these weapons turned men into monsters.

  Known as Variants, these creatures become the perfect predator as they evolve from epigenetic changes. The result in the Extinction Cycle is catastrophic, and the infection spreads worldwide. Governments and militaries fall and civilization is destroyed in a matter of months. Scrambling to find a cure and defeat the monsters, humanity is brought to the brink of extinction. By the end of book 7, the human race hangs on by a thread.

  Now, eight years later, the survivors in the United States (now called the Allied States) have migrated and settled into approximately one hundred outposts. Most of these walled off cities are in the Midwest and the East Coast, with the West Coast largely abandoned due to the severity of the damage from the war. President Jan Ringgold and her administration have worked tirelessly to rebuild, bringing back basic infrastructure, the agricultural industry, manufacturing, and the energy grid.

  A few other key players helped humanity survive the Great War of Extinction and continue to drive progress in the aftermath. Team Ghost, an Army Delta Force team, played a vital role in winning the war and pushing back the Variant scourge. They are still in action under the leadership of Master Sergeant Joe “Fitz” Fitzpatrick. For eight years they have run missions into enemy territory to hunt Variants and rescue human prisoners.

  Other heroes from the era include Captain Reed Beckham and Doctor Kate Lovato. They are now married and live in Outpost Portland, Maine with their son, Javier Riley; Master Sergeant Parker Horn; and his daughters.

  With President Jan Ringgold’s term coming to an end, a new election looms on the horizon, an election candidate and current Vice President Dan Lemke should win easily due to the tremendous progress their administration has made. The country is recovering, and aside from random Variant and raider attacks, the outposts are safe.

  The surviving Variants and the human collaborators remain in the shadows, starving and dying off. At least, that’s what the military thinks… In Extinction Cycle Dark Age, they are about to find out how wrong they are.

  Strap in, you’re about to re-enter the world of Variants and the heroes that stand in their way, in the next chapter of the Extinction Cycle. Welcome back to all of the old readers. I’m so glad you encouraged me to return to this storyline. I promise, you’re in for a ride with some of your favorite characters and new twists.

  To new readers, we invite you to embark on this post-apocalyptic adventure and hope you enjoy the science, action, and characters in this expanding universe.

  Thank you to all for reading. Please feel free to reach out to me or Tony if you have questions or comments. Our contact info is provided in the back of the book.

  Best wishes,

  Nicholas Sansbury Smith, New York Times Bestselling Author of Hell Divers and the Extinction Cycle.

  Anthony J. Melchiorri, Bestselling Author of The Tide.

  For your convenience, here is the official reading order for the Extinction Cycle World.

  Season 1: The Extinction Cycle by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

  The worst of nature and the worst of science will bring the human race to the brink of extinction in this bestselling and award-winning series about one team’s mission to save the world.

  Prequel – Extinction Red Line

  Book 1 – Extinction Horizon

  Book 2 – Extinction Edge

  Book 3- Extinction Age

  Book 4 – Extinction Evolution

  Book 5- Extinction End

  Book 6 – Extinction Aftermath

  Book 6.5 – Extinction Lost

  Book 7 – Extinction War

  Extinction Cycle Side Stories

  The Extinction Cycle universe expands with novels, novellas, and short stories about heroic last stands, the transformation of men into beasts, hardened warriors engaging in battle against overwhelming odds, and much more. All from some of the leading voices in the post-apocalyptic genre. These tales take place during the
first season of the Extinction Cycle.

  Season 2: The Extinction Cycle: Dark Age

  By Nicholas Sansbury Smith and Anthony J. Melchiorri

  Survivors thought the extinction cycle had ended, but evil and intelligent forces dwell in the shadows, scheming to restart the Extinction Cycle and end humanity forever. Eight years after the events of Extinction War, Team Ghost will join forces with new heroes to try and save what’s left of the world.

  Book 1: Extinction Shadow

  Book 2: Extinction Inferno

  Book 3: Extinction Ashes

  Foreword from DJ Molles,

  NYT Bestselling Author of The Remaining

  Trust.

  If you were to go out into the wilderness, and you had to pick a guide, you’d want one you felt you could trust. You’d want to know that he’ll accurately read the weather, choose the right trails, and get you from point A to point B, all the while keeping you from being washed down some rapids, eaten by wolves, or using that poison ivy leaf as toilet paper.

  Picking up a new book is kind of like that. You have to trust the author, just like you trust a guide. You want to know that the author can deliver on their promises, pull your mind into a crazy world of their creation, and get you from point A to point B, all the while keeping you engaged and throwing in a few twists and turns to keep things spicy.

  Nicholas Sansbury Smith is the grizzled old pro guide. The wilderness that you are about to head into? The universe of Extinction Cycle. Your traveling companions? Team Ghost. The paths that you’re going to take? Ha ha! There are no paths out here, buttercup. We’re bushwhacking into unknown terrain this time.

  Extinction Shadow is an all-new continuation of the bestselling Extinction Cycle series, and though Smith is going to take you into some uncharted territory, you can rest assured that he knows what he’s doing. The journey might be hair-raising, but he’ll get you there in one piece (mostly).

  If you’re picking up Extinction Shadow after already being a fan of the original series, then hold onto your favorite characters--maybe utter a prayer for them and remember all the good times you had following their adventures in the other series. This one is going to thrust them straight into the thick of it, where no quarter is given, and the chances for survival are slim.

  If you’re brand new to the Extinction Cycle Universe, don’t worry! You don’t have to be an expert in the original universe. Just trust your seasoned guide. Through a combination of fast-paced action, military realism, and credible science (which makes the whole thing just a hair freakier), Smith delivers the goods to old readers and new ones alike.

  So trust your grizzled old guide, and head out into the wilderness of Extinction Shadow. But keep your head on a swivel. And keep sniffing the air for the smell of rotting fruit…

  Good luck out there,

  D.J. Molles, NYT Bestselling author of The Remaining series.

  — 1 —

  The crackle of a bonfire was a familiar sound at Outpost Turkey River, and would be even more common now that autumn had set in. The smoke was supposed to keep bugs away, but it didn’t always work.

  Retired Master Sergeant Cedric Long swatted a mosquito away from the cavity where his left eye had once been, smearing the damn insect across his cheek. It was already swollen with blood. The little vampires reminded him of the monsters beyond the walls. The same type that took his eye during the war.

  Variants.

  The result of a chemical weapon gone wrong. Former humans that had turned into the perfect predators would do far worse than a swarm of bloodthirsty mosquitoes if they got into the outpost.

  But that wasn’t going to happen.

  Not on this eve, and not on any other day that Cedric held watch.

  Outpost Turkey River was one of the most secure townships in what was now called the Allied States because of the men that served here before Cedric arrived, and it was even stronger now that he was here.

  That’s what Commander Justin Bell had told him, and Commander Bell was no liar. Now in his late thirties, Bell was just a young man during the Great War of Extinction that ended eight years ago. But he was no stranger to the monsters that lurked deep in what had once been the United States of America.

  The commander had fought and bled to keep this outpost secure and safe.

  Cedric squinted into the darkness. There hadn’t been an attack for over three months. He knew the Variants still dwelled in the shadows, but it was mostly humans they had to worry about now.

  Bandits. Raiders. Collaborators.

  Whatever people wanted to call them, they would always rather take something that didn’t belong to them instead of working to get it themselves, and the most evil among them worked with the Variants.

  Many outposts weren’t lucky like Turkey River with a plentiful supply of fresh food and clear water provided by the fertile land. Supplies were abundant here, which made them a target, not to mention a political hotspot.

  President Jan Ringgold had stopped by a week earlier with Vice President Dan Lemke. Now that their two terms were almost up, Lemke was running to succeed her. Retired General Mark Cornelius, Lemke’s opponent and leader of the Freedom Party, was slated to stop by in another week.

  Cedric sat at a picnic table in the center of the communal area, enjoying a late supper of mashed potatoes, corn, bread, and water from the neighboring river their community was named for.

  Two trucks were parked across the street, their beds nearly overfilling with harvested corn from the surrounding fields. The food within their walls was more than enough to support the three hundred people that lived in the compound. Most of the grain, corn, and beans they produced were shipped by rail to the nearly hundred other outposts in the Allied States.

  He thought of the mass migration from the Western states to places like Turkey River over eight years ago, when the government focused on consolidating, protecting, and rebuilding the agricultural industry in the Midwest and manufacturing factories on the East Coast.

  Now most of the population lived in places like Turkey River. Families of those who had made that migration ate quietly at the other tables around him.

  He sat alone and enjoyed his meal. He didn’t mind the solitude, but it wasn’t always that way. In his former life he had once looked forward to meals with his wife and sons.

  But they were gone now, and he was here. Besides, most of the kids were scared of him, whispering behind his back about the ‘pirate’ with a patch over his eye.

  He didn’t mind that either. He was a kid once and remembered how his own boys would have reacted. They might have thought he was a monster with his scarred skin and missing eye. But the truth was they had died knowing there were far worse monsters than a deformed old man.

  Most of the kids under eight at Outpost Turkey River were lucky to have never even seen the creatures Cedric fought. They no doubt heard the gunshots and the lone cries of a dying Variant, but they had never come face to face with one of the scab-covered, fanged creatures.

  Not like his sons.

  Cedric pushed aside the painful memories. His job was no longer to be a father and a husband. He was just a simple soldier protecting the people that lived here, and the food they harvested. At least it gave him purpose.

  A bell dinged as the moon rose higher in the autumn sky. Cedric wolfed down the rest of his supper. He took a flask from his ballistic vest and washed the food down with a shot of whiskey.

  The liquor warmed his gut. He stood, well-fed and relaxed. Grabbing his M4A1 carbine, he set off for a patrol with the other half-dozen men on night perimeter duty. The team was just one cog helping spin the security wheel at the outpost.

  Two soldiers manned the M240 fighting position outside town hall. Guards walked on flat rooftops, their weapons cradled, looking out over the sleeping outpost. Everywhere Cedric looked the soldiers seemed relaxed.

  There wasn’t much to be stressed about out here.

  Most of the men hadn’t seen action for year
s besides skirmishes with raiders.

  Hell, this was the best gig of Cedric’s career. And he’d had a ton of assignments since the Hemorrhage Virus first raced across the world, from a cruise ship sailing in the Atlantic during the first year of the outbreak to security duty in the relocated White House at the Greenbrier.

  Cedric had even guarded Captain Reed Beckham; his wife, Doctor Kate Lovato Beckham; and their son, Javier Riley, back when the boy was just a toddler. After Cedric hit retirement age, they transferred him here.

  “Turkey River is a modern-day retirement community, my friend,” Beckham had said, patting Cedric on the shoulder with his prosthetic hand. “Plenty of food, good neighbors, and peaceful enough you can actually enjoy a well-earned nap in the afternoon.”

  President Ringgold had even thanked Cedric for his service, and the next week he boarded a train to northern Iowa.

  Field of Dreams didn’t seem so far from the truth.

  Cedric considered pulling his flask out and taking another slug of whiskey, but he was old enough and smart enough to know evil never slept. The Variants might not have attacked recently, but beyond the wall, guard towers, razor wire fences, sensors, and mine fields, they were still out there.

  Waiting…

  He continued the trek through town square and past the houses and businesses. Like most outposts this one had everything from a general store to a post office with solar panels mounted on most of the roofs. He walked by both buildings and moved to the sidewalk to let a pickup truck down the narrow road.