Nicholas Smith - Extinction Edge

Rex grabbed the Marine by his arm. “Keep it down. Are you crazy? They’ll hear you.”

Meg watched with gritted teeth. “There isn’t anything we can do. Not from here.”

Rex was right. He was a paranoid son of a bitch, but he was right. The infected were drawn to noises—and the scent of flesh. From the safety of their boarded-up room, she’d seen the creatures sniffing the air, hunting other survivors.

And here she was again, helplessly watching the three unsuspecting soldiers as the monsters advanced. There was no running from them. No escape. Hiding was the only option.

Blinking red lights on the skyline pulled her gaze away from the roof. The sleek outline of a Black Hawk descended over the building. There was no way Meg and the others would make it to the rooftop, even if they tried. They were stranded.

Jed pulled out of Rex’s grip and moved back to the two-by-fours. “Oh my God,” he whispered.

The creatures spilled over the top of the billboard. They slid down the side, and then Meg lost sight of them. Gunfire lit up the south ledge as the soldiers opened fire.

Adrenaline flooded Meg’s system with each shot. She was used to running into fires. It was almost worse being on the opposite side of the fence. She had joined the New York City Fire Department to help people, not watch them die.

The chopper hovered low and tracer rounds streaked through the night, each one impacting on its target as the soldiers fought back the infected swarm. Meg strained to see, but the gunfire ceased almost as fast as it started. The chopper pulled to the right and then traversed the skyline. Just like that it was gone, the red light blinking one last time before there was only darkness.

Meg cursed their luck. They hadn’t seen a chopper in days, let alone one so close.

“Great,” Jed said. “That’s fucking great.” He scratched his closely trimmed crew cut and then slammed his hand into the boards.

Meg glared at the Marine. “Keep it down.”

Jed shrugged and muttered an apology. He turned away and started walking back to his bunk when the sound of shattering glass came from below.

The three of them froze.

A guttural screech ripped through the building. Pounding followed. The walls shook from the impact. It sounded like a wild animal was loose on the first floor.

Rex grabbed Meg’s arm as she stepped away from the window.

“Don’t go down there,” he said.

Meg shook free and exchanged nods with Jed. Together, they crossed the room cautiously. She eyed the empty M16 on Jed’s bunk. Without a gun, Meg felt naked. Her axe slowed the creatures down, but bullets were much more effective.

A second scream echoed through the fire station, the sound lingering in the sultry night. Meg gritted her teeth and stopped. The axe slipped in her grip, sweat bleeding off her palm.

“Guys,” Rex said. “Guys, come back.”

Meg held up a hand to silence him. Then she heard the clicking. It was the sound of snapping joints, and it wasn’t coming from inside the building. It was coming from the streets, like they were surrounded by hundreds of oversized crickets. Rex stood with his eye pressed against one of the gaps.

“Oh no,” he said.

Meg scanned the bookshelves and boxes in front of the door. If the monsters found them, the barricade wouldn’t hold for long. She took in a breath and then moved back to the windows, the floor creaking with every step.

“Let me see,” Meg said. She tapped Rex on the shoulder. The man’s thick arms were trembling.

As her eyes adjusted to the dark beyond the dusty glass, her heart skipped a beat. She’d never seen so many infected in one spot. The entire street and even the walls of the buildings had come alive with the blur of white flesh.

“Holy shit,” Meg gasped.

“They must have been drawn to the gunfire,” Jed said.

“What do we do?” Rex asked, his words a panicked slur.

Meg shook her head. “We pray.”

The room erupted with applause as Dr. Kate Lovato entered the mess hall. Uniformed men and women from every branch of the military stood and clapped, cheering as she walked past.

The sound took Kate’s breath away. Ever since her bioweapon, VariantX9H9, had been deployed, she had been hailed as the ‘savior’ of the world, the woman who had stopped the Hemorrhage Virus in its tracks. But there were others in the audience who glared at her with resentment. She knew what they were thinking: she wasn’t a savior, she was a monster. And she felt like one. The burden of so much death rested solely on her shoulders. The weight made it difficult to breathe.

Her gaze gravitated to the commander of Plum Island, Lieutenant Colonel Ray Jensen. The African-American man narrowed his eyes as she approached. He clapped with the others, but he was sizing her up, too, seeing if she was mentally fit to address the crowd. They had only let her out of quarantine a day earlier, and she was still a bit groggy.

“Good morning, everyone,” Jensen said, bringing a mic to his mouth. “I think all of you know Dr. Kate Lovato with the CDC.”

More cheering rang through the room. Kate scanned the faces for someone familiar but soon realized she was alone. Her friends were all working. Dr. Pat Ellis was in the lab, and Master Sergeant Reed Beckham and Staff Sergeant Parker Horn were in the hospital with their injured teammate, Staff Sergeant Alex Riley. The kid had come back from New York with two shattered legs. He was evidence that her weapon hadn’t killed all of the monsters. A new threat had emerged in the blood-soaked streets.

The Variants.

Kate shivered at the thought. The memory of the Variant that attacked her two days ago was fresh on her mind. She could still hear the creature’s claws skittering across the ceiling. It was an experience she would never forget.

“Thank you for coming, Doctor,” Jensen said. He handed Kate the mic and gestured toward a podium with the Medical Corps insignia on the front.

Kate knew what he wanted from her. He wanted her to reassure the staff on Plum Island that there was still hope, that the Variants could be defeated.

Clearing her throat, she said, “Good morning, everyone. I was told to give you all a SITREP on what’s happening outside. There is good news and bad news. The good news is that VariantX9H9 is still being deployed in every major city. Ninety percent of the infected are dying. The weapon attacks their endothelial cells and causes massive internal bleeding. It’s a relatively quick death.”

Kate paused and scanned the crowd, focusing on a woman in the front row. She was dressed in a neatly pressed Navy uniform. The officer couldn’t have been more than twenty-five years old. When she saw Kate looking at her, she stiffened her back and smiled. Her eyes pleaded with Kate to say something encouraging, that things were going to be okay.

But Kate couldn’t lie. She couldn’t feed these people false hope. After a brief pause she continued. “The bad news is the other ten percent of the infected are recovering from the Ebola virus, but not the effects of VX-99. Those epigenetic changes seem to be irreversible at this point.”

The word hung on the air, and nervous voices broke from the crowd. A familiar feeling of dread crept into her thoughts and caused her mind to drift. It threatened to steal her sanity, to break her.

Closing her eyes, she said, “I don’t believe there is anything we can do to bring these people back.” She shook her head. As she handed the mic back to Jensen, she muttered two final words: “I’m sorry.”

She rushed out of the room with her eyes downcast, avoiding every single glare. No one stopped her or protested her departure. They were still digesting what she had just told them. Learning that VariantX9H9 had only delayed the inevitable was difficult to stomach even for the most hardened of soldiers.