Extinction Aftermath (Extinction Cycle Book 6)

by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

  Mature trees framed the road on both sides, blocking out the view of the ocean and the rooftops of the new housing development nestled behind the harbor. The white-domed roofs of the Medical Corps facilities were all gone now, bulldozed at President Ringgold’s orders. Only two laboratories remained for Kate and her team to work in.

  Leaves cartwheeled to the ground in the rear view mirror, swirling in a colorful collage of yellow, brown, and orange. Like the changing seasons, the future of humanity was hanging in the balance of life and death.

  Static from the radio crackled and pulled Beckham back to reality.

  “All hands to Dock 3,” came a female voice. “Repeat. All hands report to Dock 3.”

  Horn looked at Beckham’s missing hand and grinned. “Don’t worry, boss, they still mean you.”

  Beckham almost rolled his eyes. “A little too soon, Big Horn.”

  Horn laughed again. “Gun it, boss!”

  Beckham punched the gas and raced down the final stretch of road, kicking up a tornado of exhaust behind them. The trees thinned, replaced by more fields and the tan roofs of houses tucked behind the harbor. Guard towers protruded over the growing town. Several M1A1 Abrams Tanks were positioned along the shoreline, their guns angled out over the ocean. One of them swerved toward the destroyer docking at the harbor. A cluster of civilians were waiting inside the cage on board, guarded by dozens of Marines in CBRN suits. More soldiers were running toward the three electric fence barriers separating the docks from the town.

  “Looks like a lot of mouths to feed,” Horn said.

  “Every one of those mouths means something. They’re more than pie holes, Big Horn. We’re sitting at two percent of the pre-Variant human population. Worldwide.”

  Horn ran a finger over his freshly shaved face. “Two percent? Jesus. We really were on the edge, weren’t we?”

  Beckham let off the gas as they pulled into the town. He took a left on the main street and drove toward the barracks. Soldiers were coming and going, some reporting for duty, others returning home to crash. He parked outside the single story building and pulled up the parking brake. Then he craned his neck to look at his best friend.

  “We still are on the edge, Big Horn. That’s why every single life we can save matters.” He patted Horn with his prosthetic hand, then grabbed his rifle.

  The thump of helicopter blades commanded his attention to the sky. Two Black Hawks soared over the island, moving toward the harbor at combat speed.

  Beckham put his hand to his eyes to shield them from the sun. The blinding rays made it difficult to see the scientists and Marines inside the open door of the Black Hawk, especially since they were all wearing biohazard suits, but he knew one of them was Kate.

  “Goddammit,” Beckham whispered.

  Horn wiped his nose with the back his hand. “Why are they wearing suits?”

  Beckham didn’t reply, but he knew the answer. Typhoid, dysentery, and Malaria weren’t the only threats to Plum Island. The Hemorrhage Virus was still out there. Kate was one of the most experienced scientists left in the world, if not the most experienced. She was the perfect person to help the government protect the SZTs from infection including their own Plum Island, but she was also going to be the mother of his child—and his wife someday soon, he hoped. She wanted to keep working, and he respected that. But it didn’t mean he had to be happy about it.

  The Black Hawk flew overhead and prepared to land on a pad adjacent to the docks. Beckham grabbed Horn’s sleeve and pulled him to the back of the jeep, where they kept their own CBRN gear.

  “Suit up,” Beckham said. “We’re heading to the decon zone.”

  -2-

  Doctor Kate Lovato forced herself to look away from Reed. Although she was a hundred feet off the ground, she could still see the pained look on his face. It wasn’t from his injuries—it was from concern. Kate didn’t blame him, but this was her duty, even though she didn’t particularly want to be out here today. Her body hurt, and she was exhausted from countless sleepless nights. The nightmares, the pain in her lower back, and the sporadic sound of gunfire kept her up nearly every night.

  She dreamed often of her parents. Sometimes they were alive; sometimes they were dead. Other times they were Variants.

  She knew Fitz and the new Team Ghost would probably be too late to save them. Europe had reverted back to the Dark Ages, and her parents were almost certainly dead somewhere in Italy. She had been put in charge of a team researching the new monsters popping up across the globe; beasts with wings and pincher claws. Creatures with webbed hands and gills that allowed them to swim underwater for hours. Armored monstrosities the size of horses.

  But it wasn’t the monsters that kept her up every night. It was rumors of the virus that had created them creeping back into rural areas across the States. If the Hemorrhage Virus was really back…

  A hand pulled Kate gently away from the open door of the Black Hawk. It was her partner, Doctor Pat Ellis. A strand of black hair had fallen across his forehead behind his CBRN visor. He jerked his head to move the hair away from his eyes.

  “You read the report this morning?” he asked.

  “Didn’t have a chance.”

  Ellis reached for a handhold above him. “The Medical Corps issued a statement about outbreaks popping up in the SZTs.”

  “Hemorrhage?”

  He nodded. “There have been several documented cases.”

  The words made Kate draw back. She scanned the troop hold and put a finger to her visor to signal that Ellis should be quiet.

  Several of their six Marine escorts glanced up from their seats to look out the door.

  “Damn, that’s a lot of civvies,” one of them said.

  “Hope they’ve been checked out,” said another.

  “Those are Marines down there. Not some turd Army grunts,” added a third man.

  Kate held back the cutting remark she longed to make. She’d never understood the need to speak that way about another branch of service. It was just macho nonsense, she knew, but it still felt wrong to her ears.

  The Black Hawk flew over the deck of the USS Monterey. It was full of Marines in CBRN suits, all armed to the teeth. They were directing a line of civilians onto the deck as they streamed out of a massive cage the size of a school gymnasium. Inside were the tents where the people had been living in for several days. There were several portable toilets, but she could also see buckets littering the deck. The conditions, from above, looked horrid.

  “They’ve been checked for infection,” Ellis said. “I’m more worried about the weapons they could be carrying.”

  The Marine on the door gun chuckled, his breathing apparatus making his voice raspy.

  “Shit,” he said. “Those civvies were checked for weapons long before they ever made it on the ship.” He glanced at Kate and then Ellis. “Sounds like the real weapon is the Hemorrhage Virus. I heard what you said, Doc. You think anyone down there could be infected?”

  Ellis started to speak, but Kate cut him off.

  “No. Those people have already been through decon, and if someone was infected with Hemorrhage we would know it.”

  “But we are testing people,” Ellis added. “Just to be sure.”

  Kate looked at her partner, and he shrugged back at her.

  The door gunner stared at them for a few seconds before centering his weapon on the single-file line of survivors. They moved like prisoners being led down a plank as they slowly filed down the ramp. The Marines then directed the civilians to a wide dock raised twenty feet out of the water by steel stilts and framed on both sides by a fence topped with razor wire. From there they followed arrows toward a much smaller metal cage built on a central platform about three hundred feet from the shore. Inside, two doctors and three Marines had set up a checkpoint.

  That’s where Kate and Ellis were
headed. Today their job wasn’t researching new monsters. It was making sure they detected and isolated anyone with a disease or virus.

  The door gunner continued roving his gun over the crowd. “Largest group yet. Look at all of those kids.”

  Kate followed the path the civilians would have to take to get to safety. She had been part of the planning committee, but seeing the system in operation was different than what it looked like on paper. It was only meant for about fifty people at a time, but there were easily double that many moving down the ramps.

  “Like fish in a barrel,” one of the Marines said. The grin on his face bothered Kate, and she turned away to watch as the Black Hawk circled the port. Everyone on the dock would have to pass through the three chained doors in the twenty-by-twenty cage. If they were cleared, they would be escorted through a gate that opened to a final dock leading to the island. Anyone not cleared would be escorted to a biosafety level four facility built on a large platform on the water. A bridge allowed vehicles to drive up to the building after they had passed through several security gates.

  The white dome and the windowless exterior was a chilling reminder of the Medical Corps buildings Kate and Ellis had worked in. She looked toward the area in the distance where the old compound had once stood. Only one building remained—the Command Center where Lieutenant Colonel Jensen and Major Smith had held meetings.

  “Prepare for touchdown,” the pilot said over the comms.

  Ellis glanced over his shoulder as the bird descended toward the helipad on a wide dock next to the USS Monterey.

  “Ellis,” Kate said. She put her hand on his shoulder and turned him toward her. “What did that report say? Is it bad?”

  “It isn’t good, Kate.”

  Her spirits sank further at the news, her tired heart sick of the abuse. After several months of relative peace, anything that threatened their fragile existence on Plum Island made Kate feel both exhausted and angry.

  She had known before they deployed VX9H9 that it wouldn’t completely eradicate the Hemorrhage Virus. Kryptonite wasn’t a one hundred percent solution either. The virus was still out there. Hiding on ships in the ocean, in bunkers buried beneath the earth, and now apparently popping up around the SZTs.

  The crew chief waved them away from the door as the Black Hawk landed on a pad adjacent to the ship. He jumped out, ducked down, and reached for Kate’s hand. She took it and kept low. The six Marines jumped out of the chopper and followed with their M4s angled at the ground.

  “Go, go, go!” one of them yelled. He gestured toward the metal gate.

  The Black Hawk took back to the sky as soon as they were clear. The draft slammed into Kate, wrinkling her CBRN suit and putting pressure on her already strained back. She moved as fast as she could, but she was carrying a lot of extra weight now. Every morning she made an effort to jog or walk with Reed. He was getting stronger and faster every day, and she was getting slower by the minute. She wasn’t sure how women ran marathons pregnant, but several of her friends had proved the female body was capable of anything.

  Kate eyed the adjacent dock where the line of survivors slowly made their way toward the central cage. The civilians had mostly looked the same from the sky, but now, up close, she could see the diversity in the group. There were young and old, men and women, and a mix of races here. Some wore fatigues, others t-shirts and jeans. Everyone was emaciated and filthy. A few wore dust masks and even garbage bags over their clothing like some sort of haphazard CBRN suit. If it weren’t for her own suit, Kate imagined she would smell them from this distance. Flies buzzed around the crowd as it inched toward the first checkpoint.

  Kate focused on a woman in a wheelchair and the gentleman pushing her down the dock. How some of these people had survived out there for so long was hard to understand. But they were finally safe. Plum Island was their new home.

  A year ago she had watched a video about the average American. Fifty-one percent of the country had been female at that time. There were forty million senior citizens and twenty-seven million disabled people. Those were just some of the numbers she remembered. She could see from the group in front of her that things hadn’t changed much. America was still diverse, and while many from the older generations had perished, there were still some left, despite all odds.

  She heard the grumble of Zodiac engines and looked to the water again. A trio of the boats slapped over the waves. Soldiers manning machine guns angled them at the civilians on the dock. Above, on the USS Monterey, Marines in CBRN suits stood along the deck with automatic rifles. Snipers in guard towers zoomed in with their rifles. Two tanks centered their turrets at the raised docks.

  There were a hundred guns of various sizes trained on the civilians, and Kate still didn’t feel safe. She wasn’t worried about anyone infected with Hemorrhage—she was worried about the other diseases and the potential of human collaborators. Bad people getting onto Plum Island was supposed to be nearly impossible.

  But now, she wasn’t so sure.

  Normally she was more empathetic, but there were terrible people out there. What if there was a human collaborator amongst these people? What if someone was infected with…

  Don’t go there, Kate. Just do your job. These people need your help.

  She looked to the children as a reminder of why she was really here. Most of these kids were probably orphans, but thanks to President Ringgold, they were guaranteed a better life here. The new school on the island was nearing completion. With twenty classrooms, a nursery, and a room that slept over one hundred kids, Plum Island wasn’t just a beacon of hope—it was the future of America. The next generation of scientists, engineers, architects, doctors, and teachers would grow up here, including Kate and Reed’s child.

  Three of the Marines ran ahead of Kate and Ellis as they approached the cage. The platform curved toward the central checkpoint, where the first of the civilians were waiting at the gate. The Zodiacs coasted to a stop two hundred feet away on both sides.

  One of the soldiers pulled a bullhorn from the boat. “Stop at the red line. Stay five feet apart from one another unless you are a family. Do not approach the checkpoint until you are instructed. Parents and children must proceed separately.”

  There were a few raised voices and shaking heads in the crowd, but most of the civilians remained calm. Some shuffled forward, heads down, shoulders sagging. She could see the exhaustion and desperation in their eyes. But there was also hope. After surviving over seven months behind enemy lines, they were the lucky ones. The terror they had experienced ended here.

  Clouds swallowed the sun, casting a shadow over the entire island. Kate guessed a storm was headed their way, but she hoped she was wrong. It was going to be a long night out here for these people, and for her team.

  The squad leader waved Kate and Ellis forward into the first checkpoint. Marines on the other side of the fence unlocked the gate and let them into the cage. Two Medical Corps doctors were unloading their supplies and gear inside.

  “Doctors Lovato and Ellis reporting for duty,” Kate said.

  “About time,” one of doctors said in a thick French accent without taking his gaze off his computer. The voice belonged to Doctor Aldric Durand. The Frenchman had been giving a lecture at John Hopkins when the Hemorrhage Virus outbreak stranded him in the United States. Since then he had been working with the Medical Corps and had just recently been transferred to Plum Island.

  Doctor Leslie Case looked up from the crates she was unloading and nodded at Kate and Ellis.

  “Do you know the routine?” she asked. “This is our biggest group yet.”

  “Which is why we are here to help,” Ellis said warmly. “Just tell us where you want us and what to do.”

  Durand glanced over his shoulder. “I’d like you two to be in charge of the blood testing. Doctor Case and I will conduct the interviews.”

  Kate woul
d have preferred to be on interview duty, and she knew that Reed didn’t want her anywhere near potential pathogens. But this was Durand’s show, and she had volunteered to help.

  “On it,” Ellis said.

  He walked over to help Leslie unload the medical crates, but Kate stood her ground, looking out over the civilians beyond the red line. There were so many children, and most of them were alone. Some swatted at flies, others stifled coughs and attempted to stand tall in an effort not to look sick. She had seen kids like this before, in Africa and South America when she worked with the CDC. But she never thought she would see something like this here in the United States.

  A man with wild brown hair and a thick beard with streaks of gray approached the gate. He was dressed in a New York City Police Officer uniform and had his arm around a small boy, no older than seven or eight. They looked familiar, but she couldn’t remember where she had seen them.

  Kate walked over to Ellis. He grabbed his medical kit and pulled out the volumetric bar-chart chips—a device that could run fifty blood tests in seconds, including one for the Hemorrhage Virus. Kate had used the device many times in developing nations. The results weren’t immediate for everything, but this was only the first checkpoint. If these people made it past this point, they would be isolated in a well-guarded facility on the shore to await the results of the other tests.

  “Are we all set?” Durand asked.

  “Hold up!” someone yelled.

  Kate knew that voice. Two men in CBRN suits were lumbering across the dock, their boots pounding the metal surface. Make that three boots and one prosthetic blade.

  “Reed, what the hell?” She worked her way to the back gate, but the two Marines there blocked her way.

  “Back up, bucko,” Horn said from the other side. “We got access.”

  Reed held up his badge, and one of the Marines stepped up to examine it. He nodded and unlocked the gate to let Reed and Horn through.