Extinction Gene Box Set | Books 1-6

by Maxey, Phil

  The creature in the passenger’s seat looked back to the front.

  “You sure you don’t need to rest, or… heal or something before we—”

  An orchestra of groans emanated from the creature making Josh and even the driver jolt. The sound then became a single gravelly word…. “No…”

  If Josh could have got closer to the rear left door he would have, but his arm on that side was already turning red from how hard he was pushing it into the suede and plastic. He rested his head on the glass, exhaustion suddenly enveloping him. He wasn’t sure what was the last time he slept properly. When Daryl…

  His eyes moistened.

  He was my friend…

  Josh gripped the door handle and squeezed, anger rising inside of him. The plastic creaked and he let go, letting out a breath. He had no idea why the soldier killed all those people, why he killed his friends.

  He looked at the single-story wooden homes passing by, their paint chipped planks and infrequently tiled roofs soon fading back into the night. They were out of the city now, the glass and steel towers far behind, the surrounding area, more rural with hints of beige fields on the right of the two-lane road.

  Leaving home…

  He wondered where his parents were. Had they found his sister? Could they be out there somewhere still?

  He frowned with a sigh. Even if they were, even if they somehow found him, how could they rescue him from…

  Dark shapes were gliding below the clouds. It was the creatures, he was sure of it. They were returning to them. He had almost forgotten about the other monsters. The ones that used to be normal people, the ones that had devoured their way across the country.

  A noise came from the thing in the passenger’s seat. If Josh didn’t know any better he would have said it was the sound of excitement.

  They took a right, driving up a road which dissected abandoned warehouses and homes with metal fences, arriving at the end where a large, modern white building sat. Screeches and roars filled the air.

  Josh wanted to jump out and run. If the door wasn’t locked he would have done so, but instead he did his best not to look at what existed within the glow of the headlights, sat across the muddy ground, between the infrequent old buildings, across—

  The thing in the front threw his hands up in the air, as if in celebration and in turn the noise outside increased. “Ssssttttoooppp!” bellowed from decayed lips.

  Finn looked at his passenger. “I thought we were in a rush to get south?”

  The creature turned his head slowly, without further comment.

  Josh couldn’t see but he was sure the man driving frowned and the car slowed then stopped. The creature then pushed open the door and awkwardly got out, immediately raising his hands again and the brown and beige masses of awkward limbs emerged from the darkness, moving towards him, roaring, screeching, lifting their own claws into the air. Josh couldn’t believe what he was seeing, the things were accumulating in their dozens, around whatever the passenger was as if he were their leader… or something.

  A grunt came from the man in the front, pulling Josh’s attention from the madness outside. Whoever the soldier was, he didn’t seem happy.

  *****

  5: 28 p.m. Outskirts of Southeastern Denver.

  The metal staircase clanged and rattled as Luci and Millar pushed their legs to race to the top. They weren’t sure if it would lead to the roof of the cavernous warehouse, but they needed to find out as quickly as possible in case the car they had just followed to the motherload of monsters, drove off. A scout had seen it emerge from Biochron and a few minutes later they were in a pickup, driving east trying to locate it, which they soon did.

  Luci held her fist up as they came to a small landing, a metal ladder visible within her flashlight’s beam. The roars and growls of the things outside reverberated through the walls, leaving them in no doubt that death was only a few walls away. They moved forward slowly, then looked upwards to a hatch. Without hesitation she climbed, the other soldier behind her and slowly slid the latch across on the metal door, then pushed it up. A snowflake fluttered through the gap as did a stench. Lifting it further she climbed out onto the slope of the metal roof, crouching behind an air con unit, and looked out across the few acres of graveyard which was bathed in moonlight. The stones were easy to spot but harder were the dark shapes amongst the patches of grass. The things were congregating, all moving steadily towards an area below her view.

  She switched her flashlight off and without exchanging a word they walked forward as quietly as walking on a metal surface would allow until they reached a point where they could see the twenty or so feet to the ground and the road which ran along the side of the building. A sedan sat at the center of a swarm so thick it looked like a swirling oily liquid.

  “What the hell…” said Miller.

  Luci had already produced a small set of binoculars from her backpack and focused them on the vehicle. “Too damn… dark… Looks like two… nope, three occupants… Damn…”

  “What?” said Miller.

  “I think there’s a kid in back.”

  Miller scrunched his face. “Why is there a kid in the middle of a monster convention?” He looked down the iron sight of his weapon, focusing on the things that were visible within the arc of the headlights, moving from the head of one amalgamation of misshapen body parts to another. “No way we can do an extraction. There must be a few hundred of them down there… and these seem real excited about something.”

  The car door opened and out clambered… Luci wasn’t sure what it was. It was human shaped and similar in size, but even lit by the light from the cabin of the car, its features were blurred. Its arms hung from an assortment of rags which covered most but not all of its lumps and angular forms and it appeared to stand with some effort. Despite that, it raised its arms and bellowed out words which were more grunt and roar than language. The crowed of things instantly quietened which was the most shocking thing the two watching soldiers had seen so far.

  “What is it saying?” said Luci.

  “Hell if I know. I don’t talk freak.”

  Luci shook her head. “Poor kid…”

  He glanced at her. “I know what you’re thinking, but don’t. We go in guns blazing, those things tear us apart before we get near the car. Best thing we can…”

  She looked at him, but he wasn’t looking down anymore but past her to her left.

  “Hand me the eyepieces.” She did and he immediately slid the view across the dark forms of the landscape then highway, resting on a small nondescript shape sat atop the highest point of the road a few miles off.

  Luci looked in the same direction but couldn’t make out anything of interest. “What?”

  Miller waited and then he saw it. A small spark of light or perhaps a reflection of something moving. “Something or someone’s on that overpass.”

  “Who’s gonna be stupid enough to be up there? Let me see.” He handed her the binoculars and she looked for herself and waited as the king of the things below continued its screeches and grunts, seemingly to an attentive audience. A glint appeared on the raised highway and Luci focused best she could on it. “It’s a vehicle… someone’s inside. Like they’re watching the circus below… Here, I’ve got an idea.” She handed the binoculars back and retrieved her flashlight from her jacket.

  “You think that’s wise? What if one of those things see you?”

  She raised the plastic tube, being sure to angle it away from the graveyard. “I want to know why they think it’s worth risking their life to witness what’s below.” With a flick of the switch, she turned the light on and off, then again and waited.

  As the ice flakes fell they waited, then suddenly the engine of the car below fired up. They both flicked their view back to the road nearby.

  “They’re leaving,” said Luci.

  “And the things. You were right, it’s a traveling circus.”

  They watched the twin beams of the sedan
drive in a straight line for some seconds then disappear behind groups of trees.

  “Looks like they’re heading—”

  “Hey look!” said Miller, looking at the overpass and the newly appeared two dots of light. “It is a car!”

  Luci was already focusing her view through the eyepieces at the small vehicle, which was turning in an arc to face the opposite way.

  “Don’t tell me that dumb bastard is following them?”

  Luci stood, quickly moving back to the ladder while placing the binoculars inside her pack. “Come on, we’re doing the same.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  7: 04 p.m. Town of Newgrove.

  Dale Hamstead swung his old flashlight’s beam across the assorted abandoned kitchen appliances, furniture and even rusting cars of the junkyard he had taken up residence in. His home had been thirty or so miles to the west, but he had made the journey east a few days earlier hoping to find other survivors like himself. The chain linked fence with the two-story house near the entrance was the first he saw of the town he later found others in, and with Owen’s agreement, became his new place of residence. He had been an engineer in a former life and the forgotten pieces of electronics and pieces of metal and plastic that lay scattered over a few acres looked like useful pieces of a puzzle which he would find a use for. The town was going to need ways to generate energy and he had already drawn up plans for a wind farm just outside its borders.

  The house also doubled as a lookout post for when ‘zombies’ as he called what people had become, would try and enter the town from the north or west, being located on the main route into the town from those directions. He had watched a few dozen of the things leave, wishing them good riddance just a day before and since then there had been no new danger to Newgrove.

  Kicking the deflated tire on an old pickup, he turned back to the house. One more sleep and if what people told him was true, people could start putting their lives back together. And despite his seventy-two years he would be part of that effort. He smiled as he walked carefully between the muddy ground and tufts of long grass, looking at the flickering candlelight visible through the drapes on the ground floor of his home and almost made it back to the front door before hearing a noise which was different to the wind buffeting his ears.

  He turned to the fence which ran along the two-lane road and the darkness beyond. His reading glasses sat on the table in the kitchen but for distances he could see as well as someone half his age and he strained to better see past the rail tracks which followed the road, and the fields and groups of trees which covered a few miles to the north. He stepped off the porch and walked closer to the main gate and swung his light across the concrete hoping the beam would illuminate further, but beyond there were just dark shapes of a rural landscape against the lighter sky.

  He shook his head and looked down, relying upon his hearing to detect what his eyes couldn’t. Pulling the radio handset from his jacket he held it to his mouth and held down the transmit button.

  “Ford. You out there? Over.”

  There were a few seconds of crackle before the young man replied. “I’m here Dale. What’s up? Over.”

  “Have they started up the old locomotive? I’m hearing something… like a rumbling or something. Over.”

  “Umm… hold on. Over.”

  Dale looked to the north again. The distant trees were shaking.

  “Nope. The next engine test won’t be until noon tomorrow, at least that’s what it say’s here on the schedule. Why? Over.”

  Three miles away, Ford Grozer held the earbud on his headset. “Dale? You hearing me? I said nothing’s happening with the train until tomorrow. Over.”

  A noise came from behind as Owen and a similarly aged woman that Ford knew as Gale entered the station, both brushing flakes of ice from their coats and hats.

  Ford tried again. “Dale?” His eyes flicked to the dials. The signal strength was good despite the weather.

  “You got Dale on there?” said Owen from the room next door.

  “Had Dale. But I can’t seem to get him back. He asked a weird question about the train. Wondered if—”

  A rhythmic clang of bells bellowed out from nearby. The eyes of the occupants of the small radio room grew large.

  “That’s Floyd!” said Owen then looked to Ford. “Keep trying to get Dale.” As the young man tried, Owen held his personal radio to his mouth. “Floyd? What you seeing? Over.”

  The racket of cast iron pieces clashing against each other streamed from Owen’s radio. “At the north edge of town. Lots of movement! I can’t reach Dale. He should be right in amongst it! Over.”

  “Code red!” Owen shouted into the microphone. “Same drill as before. Stay up there as long as you can and tell me where they are.”

  “Will do. Over.”

  He looked back to Ford. “Anything?”

  Ford shook his head.

  “Okay, we’re in an emergency situation. Transmit code red to everyone listening.” He handed Gale the keys to his vehicle. “You know what to do, get everyone in the bunker.”

  She nodded, running to the exit, opening it then passing three men coming the other way. They quickly made their way to the back room.

  “We’re code red,” said Owen to them. “They’re coming from the north. Get everyone to their positions on the roofs.”

  “What’s Dale saying?” said a slim man, almost lost behind a winter green coat.

  “We can’t reach him.”

  “We should—”

  “Just get to your positions! Dale can take care of himself!”

  As the men ran back outside, Owen looked at the young man with sweat on his brow and panic in his eyes. He placed his hand on Ford’s shoulder. “Nothing more we can do here. We need to—”

  A crackle then a hushed voice came from one of the speakers on the desk.

  “Dale?” said Ford.

  “I…” A sigh came from the speaker, accompanied with the sound of crack’s and crunches. “Code…”

  Owen pulled the headset from the young man, holding it to his ear. “We know. Can you get—”

  “Ain’t going anywhere… I’m in the basement… took some damage… bleeding pretty bad…”

  The two in the station exchanged a brief look. “How many are there?”

  “It…. Dark… too dark… I dunno… the fields were full of them.”

  “Stay hidden. Hopefully they just pass thr—” Booms and the clatter of automatic fire echoed around the street outside the station. “— Stay hidden! Over and out!” Owen dropped the headset, virtually pulling Ford out of his seat. The younger man grabbed his coat on the way through the office and both burst onto the sidewalk into a chorus of screeches.

  “There!” shouted Ford, spotting a dark horse like shape within the parking lot across the way. It moved under one of the few working street lights and a misshapen head flicked in their direction, the rest of its body rearing up then charged towards them.

  Owen again dragged Ford with him along the sidewalk as hoofs or claws thumped the inches of newly laid snow. “We got to get to the courthouse!” He strained his muscles, his arms pumping, both running for their lives as they sprinted across the road towards the neoclassical building, its four pillars standing tall above two rows of stone steps. Shadows shifted around them as Owen fumbled to pull his pistol from its holster, his lungs burning from the ice cold and ran up the steps. Just as he was halfway to the large wooden door he looked back and gasped as the creature, its form mostly lost to the darkness, scampered up the bottom steps. He desperately turned, knowing they wouldn’t make it to salvation when a stream of bullets fell from above, pinging off the stone but some hitting their target and the creature let out a howl, falling back, trying to stop the projectiles from inflicting more damage.

  Ford pushed open the heavy door. “Come on!” he shouted to the older man who bumbled past him, both slamming the door closed and sliding the latch across.

  Owen immediately held
his radio to his mouth, while trying to catch his breath and running towards the wide grand staircase in the gloom. “Good shooting, Floyd!”

  Clatter of gunfire came from the speaker and outside. “That’s why you put me up here, Owen!”

  Something hit up against the door, shaking the hinges but the two men were already ascending to the first floor. Turning, they moved past oil paintings and doors with important sounding names on metal plaques and raced up again to the second landing until finally entering a narrow stairwell. As they reached the top they could already hear the crack of Floyd’s semi-automatic and they emerged onto the balcony which wrapped around the large dome a hundred feet above the street.

  “There’s too many!” shouted the thirty something with the rifle, angling it best he could downwards but Owen didn’t hear for he stood at the wall, mouth agape at what was flowing through the small town. Most of the streets and small, single-story homes were lost to shadow but even through the blanket of darkness the dark forms, scampering over the yards and sidewalks were obvious. A few blocks over a roof suddenly lit up from the people firing from it, neon streaks striking the street below, but unlike the town hall, this building was far too close to the ground.

  Owen held his radio to his mouth. “Connor? Braydon? Anyone out th—”

  Gunfire burst from the radio, causing him to move it away from his ear as Floyd also continued firing at the creatures running through the street below. “We… There…. Can’t…”

  Owen grabbed the binoculars sitting on the small wall and focused on the battle half a mile away, immediately seeing the desperate fight coming from the radio’s speaker.

  “We got to get over there!” said Ford, his hands gripping the ice covered bricks.

  Owen saw what the young man couldn’t. Things… multi-limbed things were clambering up the side of the old row of stores on Main Street, and despite the hail of gunfire hitting the spider-like shapes, their progress wasn’t being slowed. The spindly dark masses climbed over the top, onto the far-off roof and immediately the gunfire stopped.