Adrian Smith - The Rule of Three - An Extinction Cycle Novella

Ben reached down and hauled her to her feet. “We have to keep going.” He pointed down the long corridor.

Dee wiped away her tears. “Sorry. I thought it was him for a moment.”

Dee and Ben made their way down the corridor, Ben covering as Dee searched the faces. The stench of death and decay became overpowering as they reached a large green door. It stood ajar, splintered on both sides of the door jamb.

Ben poked his head around the door. She saw his eyes go wide in horror.

Screeching erupted from the room, chilling her. Ben spun to Dee. “Run now, fast! Go!”

Dee turned to run. The screeching grew louder. Ben slammed the useless door, and brought his rifle up to his shoulder.

The Variants smashed through the broken door, and Ben opened fire. Firing quick bursts, he quickly took down the first three. Dee raised her shotgun as she turned to help, and aimed for a Variant crawling up the wall beside them. She fired, hitting it right in its torso and taking off one of its weird claw-like appendages. She watched, amazed, as it kept coming at her. Firing again, she blasted it straight in the throat. The Variant slumped to the ground, dead. More Variants replaced it.

Man, these things are fast.

The next few minutes became a blur of terror. Dee fired again and again into the writhing mass of hell, but still they came.

She went into an automatic trance state. Aim, fire, reload, repeat.

While she was reloading, a Variant crawled over the body of one she had dropped, and raked its claws down her leg.

Screaming out in agony, Dee dropped her shotgun, lunged out with her Katana, and speared the Variant through the throat. The black, gunky blood gushed out over her hands. She watched the demon light leave its eyes, and grunted in satisfaction.

Dee looked around for Ben, but he was too busy firing into the last group. He finally dropped the last two Variants with a quick burst, and looked over to Dee clutching her leg.

“You all right?”

“I’ll live, I think.”

“Good. C’mon. Time to leave.”

Dee shook her head. “I need to find Jack.”

“I’m sorry Dee, I really am, but I think he’s gone.”

“You don’t know that!” shouted Dee.

Ben moved over to her, and placed a hand on her shoulder. “No, I don’t, but you need to live. If not for you, then do it for Jack. Carry on, for him.”

Dee shook her head again, harder this time. “I’m not leaving without knowing,” and brushed past Ben.

Dee had taken a few steps down the corridor when a terrifying screech caused both of them to turn. Several Variants were approaching from the direction they had entered. More screeches and howls answered them. Looking over Ben’s shoulder, she could see a door with a red sign. The walls had been smashed in on both sides of the door.

Ben turned and saw what Dee was looking at. “Go! Yes!”

Bursting into the room through one of the holes in the wall, Dee saw a barricade made from metal lockers. Jack? Hope at finding her husband alive in this den of terror returned. She clambered up on top of the lockers, turning to Ben. Ben started firing at the screeching Variants.

“Ben, up here!”

She racked her shotgun and blasted at the Variants as they clambered through the holes. Ben was struggling to haul himself up as he turned and fired another burst.

She blasted another Variant, the sound deafening her as it echoed off the walls of the small room.

A Variant screeched and, launching itself through the air, latched onto Ben’s back, digging its claws in deep.

Dee let out a howl in frustration and anger, jammed her shotgun into its sucker and blew its head off, showering both of them in brains and black gunk.

Helping Ben up, they climbed into the ceiling, turning and firing as they went. Variants continued to pour through the holes, chasing after them.

Dee reached a small tunnel with light shining through. Blood had pooled on the floor next to the entrance.

Jack? Are you alive?

“Get in the tunnel, NOW!” Ben yelled at her, pulling her back into reality.

Dee didn’t argue. She threw herself into the tunnel, crawling through to the end.

Ben jumped in after her. The Variants pursuing them tore at the concrete surrounding the tunnel. To her relief, it was too small for them to crawl into.

One of the Variants crammed itself in, shrieking while doing its best to rip them to shreds. Ben fired into its head point blank, silencing it.

“Dee, get ready to jump, okay? Into the river!”

Shell-shocked from the last twenty minutes, she nodded.

Ben reached into his vest, took out a small grenade, and threw it back down the tunnel. Then, joining Dee at entrance, he grabbed her in a hug and launched them into the river.

Dee felt the shockwave of the grenade as she fell toward the river wrapped in the embrace of this gentle giant. Before she hit the water, she saw Boss coming up river in the boat. She grimaced as the cold shock of the water hit her.

She was still alive.

Jack took out the last of his meager supplies and shared them with George. The poor kid sat hugging his knees, rocking back and forth. Jack wasn’t surprised. It had been a hell-filled few days for them both; he felt like hugging his own knees and rocking. Watching George, Jack wanted more than anything to survive, to find Dee. To keep George safe.

After going through so much, and fighting every step of the way, he didn't want to give in now, no matter how hopeless it seemed.

There is always a way out.

Jack sat listening for the creatures’ howls, but could only hear them in the distance. Crawling out of their muddy root cave, he pulled George up and lifted him onto the bank.

Pop… Pop… Pop.

Jack spun around, back toward the dam. That was gunfire. Muffled, but definitely gunfire.

Hesitating, he listened as it intensified. The sounds of two distinct gunshots came down the river, reverberating off the limestone cliffs. Perhaps some kind of rifle? Jack couldn’t be sure. Then the unmistakable boom of a shotgun rang out. He recognised it straight away.

Those idiots are going to bring that whole nest out…

Jack stood rooted to the spot, listening to the battle. Finally, having decided what to do, he gave George his pack. “Hang on to this, buddy.” Then he grabbed George’s hand.

The two of them waded back out into the river. He nestled George in the lifesaver’s embrace once again, to keep both their heads above the water, then let the current take them downstream, away from the gunfight.

He could see the sun poking through the fluffy white clouds, its rays reflecting off the river and into his eyes.

A loud BOOM echoed down the river. He grimaced. Was that explosives? Hell. Whoever was at the dam, they were serious. He heard the motorboat engine revving and, looking back, he saw it tearing around the corner, heading straight for them.

The monsters’ howls and screeches followed, piercing through the roar of the engine. Jack looked to the tops of the cliffs. Fascinated, he watched as a black mass flowed over the tops. There had to be hundreds of them now. Standing near the back of the mass, closer to the dam, he could see the Alpha leader towering above them, arms outstretched, urging his brethren on.

The motorboat was coming up fast now. Jack raised his free arm, signalling to it as best he could.

The boat swerved around him. Slowing, it fishtailed around. Jack could see the tall teenager and a bearded man looking at him. Slumped in the back of the boat was a smaller figure.

Finding his voice, Jack yelled, “Help, please… I have a boy.”

The boat floated toward him. Or was he floating toward it? Coaxing his tired arms, he held George up. The bearded man, who somehow managed to remind Jack of Gandalf, hauled George into the boat, then reached back for him. Strong, gnarled hands yanked him out of the water.