The Sixth Extinction (Book 4): The Ark Read online

  THE SIXTH EXTINCTION

  AN APOCALYPTIC TALE OF SURVIVAL

  Part Four: The Ark

  By Glen Johnson

  www.sinuousmindbooks.com

  Published by Sinuous Mind Books

  www.sinuousmindbooks.com

  Also available as a paperback from Amazon

  Copyright © Glen Johnson 2013

  Cover design by www.sinuousminddesigns.com

  Glen Johnson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names and characters are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living, dead or undead is entirely coincidental.

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not be, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form without Sinuous Mind Books or Glen Johnson’s prior consent. Except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles.

  Typeset: Caecilia LT Std/Italic

  Also by Glen Johnson from Sinuous Mind Books

  (Available in ebook or paperback from Amazon)

  Horror

  Lamb Chops and Chainsaws: Nine Disturbing Short Stories About the Darker Side of Human Nature.

  Lobsters and Landmines: Another Nine Disturbing Short Stories About the Darker Side of Human Nature.

  The Devils Harvest: The End of All Flesh.

  Horror/Occult/Supernatural

  War of the Gods: Part One – The Devils Tarots.

  Horror/Apocalyptic/Zombie

  The Sixth Extinction: An Apocalyptic Tale of Survival. Part One: Outbreak.

  The Sixth Extinction: An Apocalyptic Tale of Survival. Part Two: Ruin.

  The Sixth Extinction: An Apocalyptic Tale of Survival. Part Three: Infested.

  Fantasy

  The Gateway: Close the World Enter the Next. World One of the Seven Worlds.

  The Spell of Binding: Part One.

  Children/Young Adult

  Parkingdom: You Can Be Small and Still Make a Big Difference.

  For my friends –

  Pete & Jo Butchers

  Acknowledgments

  I would like to thank my older brother, Gary Johnson who went over the raw manuscript with many read-throughs, editorial help, and suggestions. Also to Matthew Chilcott, Kate Pike, Anthony Pike, Victoria Tamkin, Sarah Shapter, Rachel Shapter, Christina Shapter, Sarah Kelly, and Pete and Jo Butchers.

  In addition, I would like to thank a handful of readers who have faithfully followed me on this apocalyptic journey, and whom I have enjoyed chatting with on my Facebook Page. Lisa Cleveland, Heather Christina Kennedy, Sarah Cole, Marie Ryan, Carol Patrick, Alex Young, Lisa Loyd, Natalie Bleau, Jenny West, Patty A. Finn-Hill, Christine Watkin, Charley Pieri, Rachael Harvey, Jan Shadbolt, and Ciara Greene Fournier.

  The locations in this book are a fusion of real and imagined, but the events and characters are merely a fabrication of my overactive imagination.

  Any mistakes are of my own making.

  In addition, I would like to thank everyone who has purchased Part One, Two, and Three and who have found me on my Facebook page to show their appreciation.

  Glen Johnson

  “It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”

  Charles Darwin

  Please note that I am an English author, so I use English spelling throughout. You will see doubled letters (cancelled), ou’s (colour), ‘re’ (centre) ce’s (licence), ise’s (realise), yse’s (paralyse) as well as a few other slight variations from American spelling.

  In addition, a few slang words used in England to describe people. Chav: a young lower-class person typified by brash and loutish behaviour and the wearing of (real or imitation) designer clothes. Yob: a rude, noisy, and aggressive youth.

  Prologue

  The Sixth Extinction is a period of time from present to around 10,000 BCE – where a large number of extinctions span numerous plants and animals, including birds, amphibians, arthropods, and mammals.

  The main reason for the hundreds of thousands of extinctions, which is speeding the sixth extinction along, is due to one mammal – the homosapien. Without intervention, the human race will cause the next mass extinction.

  However, it would seem that Mother Nature has a way of making sure that one species does not overpopulate and dominate her planet at the expense of everything else. Viruses and plagues are her way of culling and controlling.

  Part One: Outbreak

  Part One followed three people as they struggled to come to terms, and survive in the changing world. The outbreak started in a remote part of the Madagascan jungle. Within three weeks, it had spread across the globe, affecting people on every continent, and killing hundreds of millions of people, and in the process turning them into a spore filled delivery device to help spread the infection.

  Noah Morgan was just an ordinary twenty-one-year-old. He had no girlfriend, few friends, and a dead-end job. He was forced from his flat when a gang of yobs set light to the building next door. He took what he could carry and fled. He ended up hiding in a mortgage company’s breakroom, where he ran into Red.

  Red recognized Noah from school, and they came to an agreement to share the building.

  Noah left Red to go and locate some kind of masked filter in a paint store next door to protect her from the spores. While there, he ran into some stage three, infected eaters. As he tried to escape he made it out onto a fire escape, only to realize the alleyway was full of stage four bloated bodies, which were about to explode, releasing spores into the air.

  Red is a nineteen-year-old who ran away from home, using the outbreak as the excuse she needed to escape. However, she harbors a disturbing secret. She remained in the breakroom while Noah went scavenging. In his absence, some unknown person had just broken the door down.

  Doctor Melanie Lazaro is a biomedical scientist, who was drafted in by the military to work in Exeter University’s Biomedical Sciences Department, to try to find a cure. She identified the strain of the disease on the host’s genetic code that was turning humans into animalistic predators.

  The General in command of the South West of England arranged for Doctor Lazaro to be transported to the military medical research compound on Dartmoor. While waiting for the helicopter the doctor was shown around the bio-pods, where infected people with the four stages of the strain were being held. The university came under a coordinated attack by a horde of over a hundred stage three eaters, and Doctor Lazaro was caught in the middle.

  While unconscious the transportation arrived, and twenty soldiers fought their way through the mutated humans to find the doctor and a file containing her findings. During the fighting, the helicopter was damaged. While en route to the military research facility, located in Dartmoor prison, the helicopter crash-landed in Newton Abbot, about a quarter of a mile away from Noah and Red’s position.

  The sound of the crash brought eaters running to the site’s location.

  Part Two: Ruin

  Part Two finds Doctor Melanie Lazaro, and a group of nine soldiers barricaded inside a dentist’s surgery on the fringe of Courtney Park.

  The Squad, who were sent to collect the Doc and take her to the military base on Dartmoor, fights off a mass of eaters who attack the clinic after hearing three guns shots.

  Echo, a female soldier, (and daughter of General Philips) sets off a controlled explosion to defend their position, while they retreat to the top floor of the clinic.

  The soldiers gain entry to the house next door, where they climb out of a first-floor win
dow onto the roof of a lorry, driven by Coco, another soldier, along with Franco and Trev.

  An eater knocks Spice and Rogers off the roof; the Captain had to shoot them to put them out of their misery.

  The lorry cuts across the park, while being chased by an animalistic horde of turned humans, it crashes into the large pond, sending everyone flying, and killing Franco and Trev. Jimmy was knocked unconscious and given CPR by Melanie.

  An old woman called Betty, and her special needs – giant of a grandson – Lennie, joins forces with Red and Noah.

  Together the four of them run away from two eaters, which Lennie turns and fights off with a shopping trolley that he uses as a weapon. The four run into an empty house.

  Noah decided to leave Red with the old woman and her grandson while he goes in search of help, following the sound of gunfire to the park. When he arrives, he strips off his clothing to mingle in with the naked creatures, while he runs towards the soldiers. Echo sees him, and lines up her rifle and takes a shot.

  Meanwhile, Red, Betty, and Lennie are forced from the house when it comes under attack. Red turns on the gas in the kitchen, and while they all climb out onto the roof next door, the side of the house explodes. As the three run across to an old people’s housing complex, Red disturbs two poppers in a small bedroom, and she is found by Betty lying on the floor.

  Part Three: Infested

  Noah found the soldiers fighting for their lives, surrounded by a converging horde of naked creatures. He strips off his clothing, hoping to blend in. Along with all the creatures, he runs in the soldier’s direction, hoping not to be shot. With luck on his side, Echo noticed he was still human and defended him while he ran towards them.

  Coco survived the crash of the truck, but Franco, and Trev’s remains are left in the vehicle while he joins the others.

  There only remains five of the original twenty of the squad – and Jimmy is unconscious. It seems hopeless, as they are all suffering from the cold, stress, and fatigue.

  Then, in true, last minute rescue fashion, help arrives in the form of another helicopter, redirected by Echo’s father. Using the choppers 50.mm miniguns the creatures are obliterated in their tracks. A Husky was suspended beneath the helicopter. The Captain, Noah, Bull, and Echo are left with the vehicle, while Doctor Lazaro and Jimmy are taken via the chopper to the Dartmoor base.

  Betty finds Red unconscious and covered in blood and guts from the exploding infected.

  After cleaning Red up, Betty, along with Lennie and the small dog, head to the roof of the building. Lennie carries Red’s comatosed body. They cannot leave via the lobby due to eaters swarming around the corridors. They climb up the collapsed rubble from the floor above, and make their way along another hallway. As they do, their presence sets off another bloated popper. They rush along the corridor to a fire door, with the spores racing along the ceiling in their direction. Once they are safe in the stairwell, eaters start to charge up the steps to their location.

  They make it to the roof, and Lennie holds them back, using his bulk against the door.

  Those inside the armoured Husky first stop off to find Noah’s friends. They discover the inside of the building all scorched, where a fire was started on purpose, with dead, burnt bodies in the hallway. The facts point to an old people’s housing complex. An exploding popper confirms their theory.

  The soldiers arrive on the roof seconds after the eaters had broken through. Echo and Bull kill the creatures, but not before one bit Betty. However, fearful that they would leave her behind, and her grandson would refuse to leave her; Betty keeps the bite a secret, hoping by the time they find out, Lennie would have reached safety.

  While being transported to the base, Doctor Lazaro is confused by the other passengers on the flight. The strangely calm female sat next to her explains that they are part of the Adam and Eve Project.

  Doctor Lazaro arrives at the prison, which turns out to be England’s largest underground bunker. The prison is a front for a top-secret government base. Those of authority have known about the coming pandemic for over a hundred years after a British explorer, working for the British Museum in Tibet, found a strange pod in 1898.

  Doctor Lazaro is filled in on all the details. Doctor Hall, the scientist responsible for the bio-laboratories in the bunker, explains everything. The large bunker, code-named The Ark has everything needed to hold two thousand people for twenty years.

  She is told that ancient civilizations knew about the pods and what they were capable of, and built pyramids and temples over the four that they had located. However, the ancient carvings and scripts described Seven Seeds of the Gods. The ancestors found four. Clarkson, the British Museum explorer, discovered the fifth. The American Government held the sixth at Groom Lake, Nevada, found by a well digger in 1947. Loggers in the Madagascan forest disturbed the seventh.

  After passing through towns and villages, the truck arrives on Dartmoor, looking down at Princetown and the prison from above. The whole area is riddled with eaters, all converging on the prison as if guided by a hive mind.

  Below ground, inside The Ark, Doctor Lazaro and Doctor Hall argue about returning to the surface after a warning is issued that the prison is under attack.

  Doctor Lazaro wants to remain within the safety of the bunker, but Doctor Hall informs her, that unless she has received a vital injection, then once the bunker is secured, a gas pumped through the ventilation system would kill her.

  1

  Noah, Red, Betty, Lennie, and the Squad

  Dartmoor National Park

  In the Husky Looking Down Over Princetown

  Friday 5th January 2013

  2:41 PM GMT

  “This can’t be happening,” Bull said as he slammed his palm against the steering wheel.

  It’s right there. Safety and a cushy babysitting mission for the next twenty years. Right on the other side of those walls, Bull thought. Sod’s-fucking-law!

  The Captain just sat staring out through the windscreen at all the naked bodies running full pelt towards the large circular walls of the prison. Unlike Bull, who was selfishly worried about his comfortable future, the Captain was more concerned with the questions: What made them all come here? Is there a hive mind at work?

  Coco could not believe his eyes. He stood in the back with Echo, looking down over the countryside, with the wide-open landscape marred by the running creatures.

  We are so close. It is right there! He reasoned.

  Why didn’t I get on the chopper; Echo mused? Oh well, it is not going to be as boring as I first thought. She scanned the hills around the prison. The naked creatures were converging from every direction; like metal shavings drawn to a powerful magnet.

  Noah tried to peer between the seats, but Red was asleep on his shoulder, recovering from a concussion. He could see why they had stopped. However, he was wondering why there was a problem. Yes, there were thousands heading towards the prison, but it is built like a medieval fort, there was no way they would get in unless they were let in. If he was driving, he would put his foot down and drive through the lot of them.

  Betty was aching all over. It felt like the blood in her veins had turned to acid. The pain was making her grit her teeth. She had to stop herself from screaming out. She was blinking so hard and fast, that her eyes were raw and bleeding.

  Not long now, she thought. Just get us to the prison, and get Lennie inside, even if it means leaving me by the roadside. Betty knew she was becoming delusional from the spores, because she could hear voices in her head. She pulled the blanket tighter around herself, and stifled a whimper.

  The Captain formulated a plan.

  The main prison entrance was an arch into a courtyard, with building’s housing the guardhouse and delivery point. The main gateway was double walled, and you had to drive through a squat building, leading into the prison, then out onto the main road that led straight into the main hub building that all the others fanned off from, like spokes from a wheel. The cor
e hub building was where the main lift for large loads was situated for transporting materials down into The Ark.

  “Head around to the far side. Get us to the museum,” the Captain said.

  Dartmoor prison is the only prison in the country with its own museum. Rooms full of documents, manacles, weapons, memorabilia, clothing and uniforms, and information about famous prisoners, as well as photos and paintings of the prison going back to the year it was built, in 1806, to house the prisoners of the Napoleonic War and the thirty-two month war of 1812, between America and the British Empire.

  “There is an old tunnel from the prison’s rectory to a hidden entrance in the museum. Apparently, the prison’s chaplain was not a hundred percent convinced his congregation were fully repentant, and required an escape route just in case.

  “We will use the tunnel to get us to the rectory, and then we will be right next to the hub building,” the Captain stated.

  A series of gunshots announced a couple of creatures had ventured too close to the truck, and Echo or Coco had taken them down.

  To Echo the infected seemed different, they were not so interested in feeding as reaching the prison. She only shot the three running by, in case their hunger kicked in, and they swung around to attack. She realized it was a waste of ammo, because one of the creatures was not killed instantly, her shot hit the middle-aged woman in the neck, but rather than turning and attacking, she was still trying to crawl in the direction of the prison, smearing a long pool of blood along the road in her wake.