Nicholas Smith - Extinction Edge

“That was the point of VX-99.”

“How do you mean?”

Gibson returned his gaze to the ceiling. “Isn’t it obvious by now?”

Kate didn’t reply. The biomonitor chirped louder.

“VX-99 started off as a serum that was supposed to turn men into super soldiers. Lieutenant Trevor Brett was one of the first ever to be exposed to the chemicals. The result was horrific. His entire platoon died in some rotting jungle, along with a hillside of VCs. He was the only survivor. Spent ten years wandering that godforsaken jungle.”

“And he changed over that time, didn’t he?” Ellis asked.

Gibson coughed again and wiped an arm attached to cords across his face. “Yes,” he said. “He became a monster. Those—what do you call them, Variants? They aren’t much different.” He held up a finger and said, “The Ebola virus would have caused brain damage, so I doubt any of them can speak like he did. There may be some, however, that display higher levels of intelligence.”

Kate pursed her lips, wanting to ask more questions, but she waited. Gibson clearly had more to say.

“During the lieutenant’s isolation we ran hundreds of tests on that poor bastard,” he continued. “He was an animal. Rabid, deadly and forever changed. We couldn’t control him. It was then my vision changed from creating the perfect soldier to creating the perfect weapon. A bioweapon that could be dropped over foreign soil, do its job, and fizzle out. Efficient. Untraceable. And no more American soldiers—our boys, our sons —would need to die in hellholes halfway around the world.”

Gibson blinked several times. If Kate didn’t know better, she’d think he was crying. “But that’s not what happened, Colonel,” Kate said.

The biomonitor chirped again. His heart rate was elevating. Jensen strolled over and nudged Kate’s arm.

“Help me understand,” Kate pleaded. She began to speak more rapidly. “I’m not sure you realize how dire the situation is outside Plum Island. The world is dying . The human species could very well plummet into extinction if we don’t stop the Variant threat. I need to know how Brett evolved. I need to know what these things are capable of.”

Gibson tilted his head in her direction. She held his gaze for several seconds, but his blue eyes had gone dull. They were the eyes of a broken soldier.

“Like Lieutenant Brett, the Variants will change,” he said grimly. “Dr. Medford was supposed to solve that by creating a weapon that would kill its host. That’s why he used Ebola. But instead he created something that was too contagious, something that didn’t kill the host. That’s why I sent in a team to get a sample of his research, and that’s why I wanted to bring Dr. Michael Allen to Plum Island.”

Kate held back her anger. She spoke just loud enough for everyone around her to hear. “Dr. Medford created a monster. Void of emotion. Void of humanity . I need to know how to stop them.”

“How do we bring them back?” Ellis asked.

Gibson laughed at that. “Bring them back? You can’t bring them back.”

“Do you understand what you’ve done?” came a voice full of anger. At first, Kate thought it was Ellis, but then Jensen approached the bed and leaned close.

Gibson glanced at the man that had replaced him. “I’m sorry.”

“You tried to play God.”

“I wanted to save our soldiers!” Gibson snapped. “I didn’t want other fathers to go through what I did when I lost my son.”

Kate and Ellis exchanged glances. The biomonitor beeped again, faster and louder this time.

“Congratulations. You killed billions of people instead,” Jensen said.

Gibson closed his eyes, agony filling his features as he burst into another coughing fit. The nurse rushed into the room. Kate took a step back to let the woman through.

“He needs to rest,” the nurse insisted.

“Yeah,” Jensen replied. “Rest up, Colonel. You’ll have to answer for your sins soon.”

Beckham took a long, deep breath. The faint plastic smell of his gas mask had never smelled so good. Hours of taking in smoke and the stench of the decaying world had numbed his senses.

He concentrated on his breathing as he struggled to keep up with the rest of the group. The smoke and the battle minutes before had left him unsteady, groggy. A fog latched onto his brain. He couldn’t seem to shake it.

Palming his helmet, he blinked away the stars floating before his vision, and the team that had saved his ass came into focus. Chow and Jinx took point, and the four Ranger snipers fell in line behind them. Horn was a few steps ahead, fueled by the determination of a father who knew his daughters were still alive.

Just when Beckham thought the mental cloud was beginning to pass, he saw a female in the middle of the street. She stood there under the moonlight, her arms at her sides.

“Sheila,” he whispered. He squinted and slowed to a trot as he approached yet another ghost. And then she was gone. Blowing away like a cloud of dust.

Beckham smacked his head harder. He was hallucinating, no doubt the effect of smoke inhalation. Pushing on, he wondered if he was still seeing things when Chow flashed a hand movement north toward the gray wall of smoke along Zabitosky Road. Beckham followed the group around the turn. The cloud swirled through the center of the street. It was coming from all directions, not just the hospital.

Chow balled his hand into a fist and stopped a hundred feet away from the hospital. Jinx and the Rangers took up positions nearby. Horn seemed ready to keep moving by himself, but he settled against an overturned Humvee and watched the area. The thick black vortex they’d seen from the sky was from Womack, but there were other fires licking the skyline.

“How long have they been burning?” Beckham asked.

“A few days,” Chow said. “The hospital wasn’t the only thing the bombs hit. They also took out the ammunition depots, the fuel station, and a few admin buildings. Fire’s been burning out of control ever since.”

Adjusting his gas mask, Chow asked, “Want the bad news or good news first?”

“Bad,” Beckham replied.

Chow pointed to the smoke. “Tunnels are through there.”

“What’s the good news?” Horn asked.

“Those things won’t follow us,” Jinx said.

Beckham understood now. There had always been rumors about Soviet-era tunnels that ran beneath parts of the post. He’d even seen pictures of the damp concrete corridors under the Womack Army Medical Center. The Army had spent millions of dollars on supplies in the event the post was ever bombed.

Chow waved the team forward and vanished into the smoke, the dense cloud swallowing him. Jinx and the Rangers followed.

Horn approached and then turned to look at Beckham. “Let’s find my girls,” he said.

Beckham nodded, flipped his NVGs over his visor, and took the plunge into the green-hued darkness. The world changed drastically inside the cloud. He’d only trained in smoky conditions with the ‘four-eyes’ a handful of times and had forgotten how eerie the experience was. They ran for what seemed like an hour, following Zabitosky Road under the Expressway. The fires at Womack raged in the distance, flickering in the sky. Without anyone to put them out, they would continue until the entire area was consumed.

Chow jogged ahead, leading the team off the street and toward a three-story building with a partially collapsed roof. Several bodies lay on the lawn; puddles of now dried blood had formed in the grass around them. Bullet casings littered the sidewalk.

Another slaughter.

Jinx dragged a body out of the way and Chow kicked in the door.