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

Collapsing into the boat, Jack looked up. “Thank you,” he gasped.

The howls and screeches of the creatures became deafening, but a splashing sound made Jack turn his head to the cliffs. More splashes followed. The monsters had lost their fear of the water. His heart sank.

“Boss! GO!” yelled the bearded man.

Jack felt the bow of the boat lift as the teenager opened the throttle, and grabbed whatever he could hold on to.

He watched in horror as more and more monsters threw themselves off the cliffs, trying to reach the fleeing boat. Some managed to actually land on the edge of the boat. Digging their claws in, they moved toward the people.

The bearded man lifted his rifle and started firing. Then he yelled back over his shoulder, “Dee! Get it together! We need you!”

Despite everything happening around him, time slowed down for Jack. Dee? Here after all that? Is this real?

Turning to the stern of the boat, Jack looked into those beautiful eyes staring back at him.

As covered in mud, blood, and God knows what else as he was, he launched himself into the arms of the one person who meant the most to him in the world. His rock, his shelter from the storm.

All those years alone had been worth it to spend the last three with her. She was a woman of beauty, intelligence, and magic. She had taught Jack so much about life, about ways to appreciate it.

Even after these nightmares had torn his world apart, he had never given up the hope of finding her again. It had been his motivation, his energy.

Jack and Dee embraced each other sobbing, afraid to let go.

“Dee! Come on!” shouted the bearded man.

Dee pulled herself out of Jack’s embrace and, racking her shotgun, she started blasting at anything that moved in the water.

“Jack! In that bag! Grab a gun!” she yelled at him.

Looking down, Jack saw the bag she was indicating. He hadn’t fired a shotgun for a few months, not since that day at the firing range shooting clay pigeons. Jack gritted his teeth in anger.

He looked around him. At the howling monsters, throwing themselves into the river. At the little red-haired boy, George, huddled against a seat. At his wife, Dee, firing into the black mass of monsters. At the teenager steering the boat down the river. At the bearded man, rifle held to his shoulder, firing quick, controlled bursts.

Each of these people was fighting, fighting to stay alive. Fighting for the human race.

Jack checked that the safety was off, that shells were loaded. Then, planting his feet, he tried to get his balance in the moving boat. Frustration boiling up, he joined the fight.

The Variants continued to throw themselves off the cliffs, aiming for the boat. A couple more managed to land on the bow of the boat, but between himself, the bearded man, and Dee, they dealt with them quickly.

The boat swung from side to side, dodging the beasts. Jack fired at a creature swimming toward him, taking off part of its head. He watched as it sank under the waves. Looking up, he could see a clear path. The teenager driving saw it too, and pulled the throttle hard down, launching the boat free of the raining terrors.

As the boat pulled away, a loud bellow echoed down the cliffs. They all looked upwards and saw the Alpha, glaring down at them. With one last bellow, he turned, and his army of demons followed him, howling and screeching. Jack saw the bearded man raise his rifle. Jack figured he was looking through his scope at the Alpha.

Dee was holding on to Jack once more. She watched Ben as he lowered his rifle.

“Why didn’t you shoot?”

“No point. I don’t think this calibre would penetrate through all that bone and hide.” Looking at the mud-covered man in Dee’s embrace, Ben added, “I guess this is Jack?”

A smile broke out on Dee’s face, so wide she felt her muscles complaining. “Yeah, it sure is. After all that, he was floating away downriver!”

Dee didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Her Jack was alive! He was back in her arms, his bright blue eyes smiling at her.

“Ben, Jack, Jack, Ben. And the tall one driving is Boss.”

Jack and Ben acknowledged each other with a nod. Dee could see a bemused look on Jack’s face.

“Boss?”

“Another time, Highlander.”

Jack grinned at her, smiling wide.

Boss turned. “Hey. We’ve been waiting for you.”

“You have? Well, I would’ve got here a bit sooner, but I ran into a bit of bother with some locals.”

Jack reached down and ruffled George’s hair. “This little fighter is George. He saved me.”

Dee crouched down to George. “Hey, little guy.”

Jack’s heart skipped a beat when the little red-haired kid wrapped his arms around her. He’d known she would like him. Perhaps, in spite of the apocalypse and the horrors they had faced, he and Dee had found that missing piece.

Jack could hear the howls of the monsters in the distance. The high limestone cliffs had finally given way to tree-lined banks. Boss turned the boat for shore, heading toward a 4x4 parked under the trees.

Ben turned from scanning the bank with his scope. “All right everyone, stay frosty. We need a quick transition to the 4x4, no dawdling.” Seeing everyone understood, he carried on, “Dee, you drive. I’m going to radio the chopper. With those pursuing Variants, that LZ is going to be hot as hell.”

Jack felt the keel of the boat nudge the bank. Wrapping George in his arms, he picked him up. Then he followed the others into the waiting 4x4. Jack liked this guy, Ben. The waiting vehicle was planned, the boat in the river, everything. A chopper, coming to get us? To where? Safety? Jack had so many questions buzzing around in his head, but the ever-closer howls and screeches meant they had more pressing matters to be concerned about.

The 4x4 tore up the middle of the country road. Glancing in her side mirrors, Dee could see the Variants closing in from the sides and rear. Urging the vehicle faster, she jammed the accelerator to the floor. “Guys, we got company!”

A couple of lead Variants slammed into the back of the 4x4, rocking it from side to side. Their claws tore into the fleeing vehicle, trying to get a purchase.

Dee looked over at Ben just as he jammed a fresh magazine into his rifle.

He leant out the passenger side window and tried to get a bead on the chasing pack.

She could see the two Variants clinging to the back of the vehicle. “Boss, Jack, see if you can get these bastards off us!”

Jack twisted around in the back seat, and saw the two monsters clinging on. One started smashing its head into the rear window, causing it to crack. He pushed George down into the footwell. “Cover your ears!” he urged the boy.

He blasted the headbutting monster. The boom of the shotgun rattled his brain. Jack looked at the shattered window. The monster still clung to the back of the vehicle, mocking him.

Then it began to crawl in through the back, howling, its sucker mouth smacking so close Jack could see the rows of tiny sharp teeth. He pulled the trigger again, this time taking off half its head. The black gunk sprayed all over him. He heard another boom of a shotgun and saw the last one fall onto the road behind them, tumbling over and over before righting itself. It started to chase them again, sprinting down the road in rabid pursuit.

Hell, these things are hard to kill.

Jack crawled into the back. Using the shotgun, he pushed the corpse of the beast out. Beyond, he could see hundreds of them chasing, moving in a weird wave as they scrambled over the fields, hunting them tirelessly.

“How much farther? These things are gaining fast!” he yelled.

Without putting down his rifle, Ben replied, “About half a click. It’s just up over that rise.” Ben let off another shot. “This is going to be tight. Chopper is still ten minutes out.”