Nicholas Smith - Extinction Edge

The emergency alarm system at Plum Island wailed so loud that Kate had to clap her hands over her ears. It had started seconds after a massive explosion shook the entire facility. She had still been in the conference room, polishing up the report for Cindy and Ellis to look through in the morning, when the first detonation had rocked the post.

The alarm took her back to the evacuation of the CDC headquarters in Atlanta. Plum Island no longer felt like the safe maximum-security facility Colonel Gibson had claimed it to be. Then again, she’d never really believed his bullshit.

The pop of gunfire snapped Kate into motion. She rushed into the hallway. Frightened and confused scientists poked their heads out of their rooms, their features accented by the red glow of emergency lights.

A technician from Chamber 3 stood in the middle of the hall. He grabbed Kate as she passed. “What the hell is happening?”

“I don’t know!” Kate yelled. She pushed past a woman from toxicology and swung the door open to her room. Tasha and Jenny were curled up in the corner.

“What’s that sound?” Tasha cried.

She grabbed them by the hands and then led them back into the corridor. She had no idea where she would take them or what was happening. But they couldn’t stay here. It wasn’t safe. They needed to find soldiers.

The distant crack of automatic gunfire deep in the base made her pause. The noise was getting louder and more rapid. A battle was raging outside.

Kate never considered it before, but what if a hostile force found their safe little island? Not of Variants, but of other survivors. The facility had food, water, and medicine—things people would kill for at the end of the world. The thought terrified her almost as much as the thought of Variants.

A familiar voice emerged from the screams of scared scientists. “Kate!”

Ellis was waiting for her at the end of the hallway. He beckoned to her urgently. “This way!”

Another distant explosion reverberated through the post. Panicked scientists and other civilians cried out, some slamming the doors to their rooms while others crowded the hallway in a wild frenzy. Kate pulled the girls through the mass.

“What’s happening?” she yelled when they reached Ellis.

“Follow me!”

He pushed the door open to the lobby, and they piled out onto the tile floor with a few other people from the hallway. Four soldiers waited near the front doors, their weapons aimed at the glass. Intermittent red light flickered over their stoic stances.

Outside, orange flames licked the night sky. They rose and fell from what looked like the skeleton of a large helicopter. Darkened shapes rushed away from the wreckage.

She gasped when she saw one of them was on fire. “Oh my God,” Kate whispered. The figures continued forward, leaving the burning one behind.

Flashes from machine guns illuminated the armored fatigues of Marines on the edge of the tarmac.

“Variants,” Ellis whispered.

“Hold the line!” one of the Marines guarding the door shouted into his headset.

Tasha let out a whimper, and the man twisted his helmet in their direction. “Get back! Return to your rooms!”

Kate retreated a few steps, but Ellis stood his ground. His eyes were glued to the chaos.

Gunfire lit up the runway. Several of the creatures racing away from the chopper dropped to the ground. But more shapes appeared, charging at the Marines.

The flashes from the rifles vanished one by one, like candles blown out by a strong breath. The Variants overwhelmed the line of Marines and then pushed on into the darkness.

“Move!” shouted the Marine at the front door. He waved his team back to the atrium’s central desk. They shoved a computer monitor and stacks of paper onto the floor and set up their machine guns.

He turned to Kate. “I said get the fuck out of here!”

Kate glanced down at Tasha and Jenny. “Remember that game you wanted to play earlier?”

“Hide and go seek?”

“Yes,” Kate whispered. “We’re going to hide.”

Fitz scoped the runway. He’d taken out three of the Variants himself and the Marines dropped another three before they were overrun. That left another dozen—and they were on their way toward the civilian buildings. He had to stop the monsters before they reached Building 1.

“Why the fuck would they bring so many to the island?” Fitz muttered. It seemed stupid, but he figured the scientists had their reasons. Throwing the strap of the rifle over his shoulder, he grabbed the railing and climbed to the ground. Gunfire cracked in the distance. The reassuring sound told him there were still Marines left in the fight.

Fitz followed the trail back to the base, running as fast as he could on his metal blades. They clicked on the concrete as he moved, filling him with an odd satisfaction. Years ago, when he’d arrived at Walter Reed Medical Facility, he never thought he would walk again. A couple months later he wasn’t just walking, he was running.

Darkness shrouded him as he made his way across the island. He clung to the shadows and flipped his NVG into place, probing the green-hued path for contacts. The street twisted around the north edge of the tarmac. He slowed to a trot as the glistening pools of blood around the Marines came into focus. He could feel the heat of the fire raging behind him, small explosions still rocking the downed Chinook.

Fitz didn’t stop to check the bodies. He knew they were all dead. The Variants never left injured behind. They would be back, though, after they’d killed everyone on the base. They would return to feed and drag the bodies away. He couldn’t do anything for the dead Marines, but he could still save Kate and Horn’s girls. Fitz spat on the concrete and ran faster.

“Wait up!”

The guard from Tower 3 was jogging behind him. The man was heavyset and panted loudly as he ran. Fitz had met him just hours before but couldn’t remember his name.

“Hurry up, man,” Fitz shouted.

“Where are you going?”

“Building 1. That’s where those things were headed.”

“Shit. No way those things get in.”

Fitz shot the man a look as he ran. “Have you seen the way they move? They’re not exactly easy to bring down either.”

The Medical Corps guard wheezed. “No.”

“Better prepare yourself,” Fitz said.

The other man changed the subject. “What’s your name?”

“Fitz.”

“Cole.”

Fitz filed it away, focusing on the night around them as they moved across the base.

A few minutes later, they arrived outside Building 1. One of the creatures lay in a twisted heap on the concrete steps, clutching a bullet wound on its neck. Blood gurgled from its grotesque sucker mouth. The injured Variant swiped at them with its other hand.

Cole aimed his carbine at the monster’s face, but Fitz pushed the muzzle away.

“No,” he said. “We don’t want to draw attention.” Fitz pulled his knife and jammed it into the creature’s skull with a crunch. Without hesitation, Fitz continued on. Cole followed him up the steps into the building. The glass doors were blown out. The body of another dead Marine lay slumped over the front desk, a pistol hanging loosely from a gloved hand. The lights were dim but still working.

“Clear,” Fitz said, inching the door open with the barrel of his rifle. Inside, he swung the weapon over his shoulder and pulled out his pistol.

Together the two men covered the space, following a trail of blood leading to a dark intersection. The hallway to the left led to the conference rooms and labs; the one to the right led to the personnel quarters. That’s where Kate and the girls would be.