Nicholas Smith - Extinction Age

By the time the team caught up, Jinx was gone. Beckham bowed his head and closed Jinx’s eyelids as more gunshots broke over the high-pitched screeches of the Variants.

Chow dropped to his knees and shook Jinx’s body. “Jinx! Jinx! We’re going to get you out of here.” He felt for a pulse, knocking Jinx’s limp hands away from his throat and revealing a deep gash that stretched across his neck.

Beckham pulled Chow away. “We’ve got to move!”

“I got us a Humvee,” shouted Valdez over the comm. The cough of a diesel engine confirmed it.

“Help me with him,” Beckham said.

Together, Chow and Beckham carried Jinx’s body to the truck. As soon as the team was inside, Valdez pounded the gas, the tires squealing as they left the army of Variants in a cloud of dust and ash.

Ten minutes had passed since Kate had watched Horn kneel next to his girls and tell them he was going to pick up Beckham. They had begged him not to go, but Kate had known by the blazing look of fury in his eyes that he wasn’t going to leave his best friend in the field again. Horn had hugged his daughters goodbye, knocked fists with Riley, and followed the other soldiers through the crowded lobby, shouting, “Move, move!”

“He’s going to be okay. I promise,” Kate reassured the girls after their father had bolted out of the building. She wanted more than anything to follow the men onto the tarmac and watch the chopper fly into the darkness. For a moment she considered it, but then a voice echoed down the hallway behind her, calling her name.

“Doctors, there’s something I need you to see.” It was Major Smith, and he was standing in the corridor with his arms crossed.

“Just a minute,” Kate said. She strained to see outside the windows of the crowded atrium one last time and then glanced down at Tasha and Jenny. Both girls were sobbing uncontrollably. She couldn’t leave them.

“Bring ‘em with,” Smith said.

Kate grabbed Tasha’s hand and squeezed it. “Come on.”

Riley leaned over his wheelchair and snagged Jenny in his arms. He placed her gently on his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his chest. Ellis was already halfway down the hall by the time Kate managed to convince Tasha to come with her.

Smith sat at the head of the war table, typing his credentials into the main computer. “Don’t worry, girls, your father is going to be just fine,” he said, hardly looking away from the screen.

The major’s words did nothing to comfort either of them, and Tasha yanked on Kate’s hand. “When’s my daddy coming back?”

Smith looked up. “Actually, they probably shouldn’t see this,” he said.

“I’ll take ‘em,” Riley said. He offered a reassuring nod, and Kate joined Ellis and the major at the table.

“One of the Variants survived the attack,” Smith said.

The monitor flickered on and Kate saw a female Variant on the floor of a holding cell, hands and feet bound by chains. The bone on her right leg was exposed under a flap of skin and muscle. Bright ribbons of flesh hung loosely from her left arm, and her face was a mess. One of her eye sockets was caved in, the eyeball missing. Kate couldn’t stop staring at the monster as it squirmed in a puddle of its own blood.

“Awful,” Kate whispered.

Smith scratched his chin. “I’ve ordered one of my technicians to try and keep it alive.”

“What… why? We already have two others,” Kate said.

The door to the holding cell slowly opened and a man in riot gear took a careful step inside. He glanced up at the camera, his eyes hidden by a mirrored visor. After flashing a thumbs up, he crouched down with a box of medical supplies.

“Neither of the other specimens is injured,” Ellis said as they watched. “If this one survives, it could prove to be very useful in our research. Just think about how much it could tell us about their healing abilities.”

“That’s precisely what I was thinking,” Smith said.

The Variant jerked toward the technician, snarling through broken teeth as he bent down to tighten the chains. Staggering backwards, he hit the wall and held out an armored arm like he was about to fend off a rabid dog. The creature pushed itself to its feet and used its good leg to spring toward him. He batted it away with an arm and reached for the Taser on his belt. Before he could grab it, the Variant was on him again. This time it clamped onto his armored wrist with its swollen lips. He hit the creature with his free hand, pummeling its broken eye socket with his fist.

“My God,” Ellis said. “It’s like it feels no pain.”

The technician hit the monster again and again, his fist striking harder each time. He finally knocked its lips off his armor. Instead of pulling his Taser, he scrambled back to the door, grabbed a tranquilizer gun from his supplies, and shot the creature in the neck.

Smith crossed his arms and shook his head. “I hope you can find a way to kill these things.”

“We will,” Kate said, staring at the screen. The female Variant collapsed face first onto the concrete. Her body twitched several times before finally going limp.

“I need a guarantee the Variants won’t get out again,” Kate said. She realized how insane she sounded. Each time the Variants had been brought to the island, they had escaped. Too many innocent lives had already been lost, but Smith was right—they had to continue their research. Kate knew what she had to do, and what she had to ask for. It meant putting humanity’s dwindling survivors in jeopardy, but without a live specimen, her research would be limited to observations from other facilities.

“I want a third of your remaining forces posted at Building 4. The Variants need to be sedated and monitored at all times,” Kate said.

The major seemed to consider her words and said, “Okay, Doctor.”

Kate nodded and brushed away a strand of hair that had fallen over her face as she focused on the monitor. The technician was working on the unconscious Variant. He dressed its wounds and then injected something into its chest.

“Why don’t you snag a few hours of sleep before you begin?” Smith said. “Report back here at 0900 for the call with Central.”

“No time for sleep,” Kate said. “And tell General Kennor I don’t have anything to say to him.”

Smith raised a brow. “He requested to talk to you specifically.”

“And I requested that he reconsider his tactics for Operation Liberty. How many died because of his stubbornness? The man is clearly too egotistical to listen to reason. I’m not wasting another minute with men like Gibson or Kennor.”

“Gibson’s dead,” Smith said coldly.

The shocking memory of shutting the doors to the ICU and sealing Gibson and the others inside sent a chill down Kate’s entire body. The past few hours had been so chaotic she’d almost forgotten about the colonel’s fate. Hearing it now brought satisfaction she couldn’t hold back. She was glad he had perished at the hands of one of the monsters he created.

Kate didn’t reply. There was too much on her mind, too many things she could say. She turned to stare out the observation window, imagining the burned Variant that had ended Gibson’s life, plunging its talons into the man’s soft flesh. It was odd, taking pleasure in death, especially now that every human life was so precious. A month ago she would never have felt anything short of horror. But the apocalypse had changed her. Hardened her. She was no longer the same woman she’d been before the Hemorrhage virus emerged.

“Look at that!” Tasha said. She stood at the window, her finger pointing out over the waves. The sun emerged on the horizon, breaking over the ocean with a brilliant orange glow.