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

Authors: Glen Johnson

Tags: #zombies

The Sixth Extinction (Book 4): The Ark (3 page)

BOOK: The Sixth Extinction (Book 4): The Ark
9.28Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

 

5

 

Noah, Red, Betty, Lennie, and the Squad

Dartmoor National Park

Princetown

Main Street

3:04 PM GMT

 

 

B
ull drove past the mass of undulating bodies, all seemingly clawing at the stonewalls with bloody hands. The creatures were oblivious to the truck roaring past so close.

“I don’t see how they are going to make a difference,” Echo stated over the mask’s microphone, as she looked down at the naked bodies from her advantage point in the truck.

The Captain agreed with her.

It does not make sense. It seemed like a hive mind is in control.
How else could they all suddenly decide to head for the prison at the same time, while ignoring everything else?
However, if that were the case,
he decided,
then how would making all the creatures scratch at the walls accomplish anything?

The truck had to slow down, due to a
petrol tanker having jackknifed, blocking off most of the road.

“Jesus!” Coco shouted.

The tanker took up the Captains attention, while they shunted a small Smart Car out of the way, so they could squeeze the truck through the gap. He swung his head around; trying to see what alarmed Coco.

“What are they doing?” Echo said.

The Captain could see a large number of creatures, that was close to the prison walls to the right across the road, had all turned on each other. Or, it would be correct to state, had turned on a few. A handful of creatures did not defend themselves as those around them ripped them apart.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Coco announced. “They have been ignoring us, and everything else,
and then suddenly they start to attack each other?”

“Shit!” the Captain announced. “We haven’t got long. Get us to that museum Bull, we need to get inside.”

“I don’t understand,” Echo said.

With a final
shove, the truck pushed the small car out of the way.

Behind
, the creatures continued gorging themselves on their own kind.

“You know what happens once they are
full, and their stomachs rupture?” The Captain let the statement hang in the air.

“They become powerful, exploding bombs!” Echo stated.

“Something is controlling them. How else is this possible?” Coco said. “They are actively planning on breaching the prison walls!”

 

6

 

Doctor Lazaro and Doctor Hall

Dartmoor National Park

Princetown

Dartmoor Prison in the Hub Control Room

3:05 PM GMT

 

 

T
he lift did not go to the helipad; rather, it led directly to the main control room of the military part of the prison – the hub building.

The two soldiers stepped out of the lift and stood with their backs
against the wall on either side, allowing the two doctors to walk past into the large room.

The room
is the size of a tennis court, designed in a semicircle, filled with tables in semicircle rows, on tiered steps, all facing a huge wall sized bank of monitors. Each table has its own collection of monitors and phone. Soldiers sat monitoring the television news feeds, the internet, mobile, and landline phones, as well as CCTV camera feeds. The whole of the country is being monitored. The hum of machines, the ringing of phones, and the buzz of conversations fill the room.

Melanie stare
d at the large main screen. The wall is sectioned into almost a hundred different feeds; the monitors around the edge of the display are from street surveillance cameras, mounted up high, looking down across the carnage of dead bodies, littered about among smashed up cars and trashed shop fronts. A dozen different cities scattered all across England, now all looking the same – abandoned and dead.

There is
what looks like a riot in Trafalgar Square. However, there is no police to quell what seems like an angry mob, which is, in fact, people, running for their lives as naked creatures swarm from side streets, almost looking like the people have been herded together for the slaughter.

The main section of the large wall sized screen though is taken up by camera images from around the perimeter of the prison. Melanie could see what look
s like thousands of the infected swarming towards, and around the towering stonewalls. The creatures were climbing over themselves to reach the impenetrable, thick walls. It seemed like a hopeless endeavor.

“Look!” Doctor Hall said, while nodding toward an image in the top left of the main display. “They are eating each other!”

Melanie watched in morbid fascination as groups knelt around in circles, consuming their own kind. However, unlike the previous attacks she had witnessed, this spectacle seemed organized. It did not make sense.

“They are planning on breaching the walls,” a voice stated,
a matter of fact.

The two doctors turned to see a tall man in his fifties, decked in a military uniform,
marching towards them from a sliding door to the right of the large room. Through the open door, Melanie caught a glimpse of an oval table.

“We all know what happens once they gorge themselves senseless.”

A small group of people scurried along behind the General. A couple were in military uniforms, showing rank. Others wore doctor’s lab coats. A few looked like office staff, donning blouses and tight fitting skirts. Some carried paperwork, other’s computer tablets, or walkie-talkies. None of the nine people were talking.

“At the rate they are devouring the
meat; they could be ready to explode within...” he stopped talking, waiting for one of his aids to fill the silence.

A tubby, balding man in his mid-forties, who was sweating as if just having finished a marathon stated, “Um, we have witnessed – that is, test results coming from our labs all over the country, state, that the process can be reached, that is, in the perfect conditions, within twenty minutes. Um, sir.” He gulped loudly, and then wiped some sweat from his top lip.

The General turned to stare at the feasting horde. “And I would say that is the perfect conditions, wouldn’t you?”

The
General swung around. “Doctor Simi, what is your estimate for having all the finalists injected, screened, and ready to send down into The Ark?”

The doctor was slim and short, with Asian characteristics. Her hair was so black and straight it looked like an oil slick down her back.

“Doctor Banks stated she would be ready to start sending them down within the next three hours.” She stood ramrod straight, holding a clipboard to her flat chest.

“Unacceptable!” the
General stated. “I want them all underground, and sealed off within the hour.” He stared at the doctor. “Well, why are you still here?”

The doctor turned slowly,
ignoring the General’s mood swing. She strolled off towards a sliding door, without saying a word, and apparently without much haste.

“Baker,” the
General said, while quickly scanning the wall of screens.

A man in m
ilitary uniform stepped forward, saluting. “Sir, yes sir!” the man barked.

“Forget the rotations; I want every available soldier holding a weapon within the next five minutes!” He was still looking at the creatures feasting next to the
soaring walls. “Get them up on the towers, targeting those groups of eaters.”

“Sir, yes sir!” The soldier
strode off to carry out his orders.

The
General turned to stare at Doctor Hall.

“I see you’ve made a friend?” he stated with a smirk.
“Wife number two maybe?”

There seems to be history between them. The General doesn’t like him much
,
Melanie thought.

“Doctor Lazaro, if you would be so kind as to follow me.” He turned and headed back towards the sliding door and the office beyond. His group of supporting staff parted to allow him passage.

“Oh,” he said over his shoulder. “You might as well join us Doctor Hall, seems you have nothing better to do.”

 

7

 

Noah, Red, Betty, Lennie, and the Squad

Dartmoor National Park

Princetown

Dartmoor Prison Museum

3:09 PM GMT

 

 

T
he road snaked out past the prisons towering walls. To the right across the road was a large warehouse complex, where the food supplies were located. A forklift truck was on its side, with a pallet full of baked bean tins spilt across the concrete.

The large warehouse
doors were wide open. No one was around; as if there had been a warning of the approaching horde and everyone had run for cover.

There was a
big white house on the left with the front door and windows sealed with planks of wood nailed to the frames. There was even a car on the drive with a protective covering over it, as if it would protect it from the end of the world, and after someone would simply throw back the cover and use it as if nothing had happened.

“There it is,” the Captain said.

On the left was a blue sign attached to an old stonewall, stating the museum was in the next group of buildings.

A row of imposing structures ran along the
left-hand side of the road. It looked like a converted barn, very old and solidly built.

Red was awake, and sat up. She no longer leaned against Noah. Her head was pounding like a kettledrum, but apart from the headache, she felt a lot better. She watched
out the front windscreen as the truck pulled into the car park. Gravel crunched beneath the wheels.

In her deluded, comatose
d state, she thought of nothing else apart from her sister, Jasmine. How she let her down. How she had spent almost every waking hour working to support them, when it should have been her stepfather’s responsibility. She felt no remorse for what she did to Colin. She would do it again in a second, if given the chance. Red wondered if her sister’s body was still in her bed. Or did the police arrive to sort it out before the world turned to shit?

Noah did not know what Red was thinking. For the last half
an hour, she was snuggled up against him. Now she sat staring through the front windscreen. He wanted to reach for her hand, but decided against it. After all, he had not even known her for a whole day yet.

Red did not talk about her family. He decided she would when she was ready. She had dodged the questions he asked in the mortgage company’s breakroom.

We all have history;
he reasoned.
Some sadder than others.
He watched her face as she studied the museum out of the window.

There
were a handful of creatures flinging themselves against the museum’s front door. The infected ignored the truck as it pulled up outside.

I will never hurt you,
Noah thought looking at Red.
But would you hurt me?

Betty made a whimpering sound.

“Are you okay Betty?” Noah asked, leaning across Red to touch Betty’s arm.

Betty recoiled away from his touch.

Gunshots resounded across the car park as Coco and Echo killed the ten creatures near the museum. None of them turned to defend themselves.

“This is getting creepy,” Echo said into her microphone.

“Their whole body language and aggression levels have completely changed within the last hour or so, as if something has clicked, and taken over,” the Captain stated.

Lennie noticed they had stopped, and pulled the tarp off his head.

The small dog wiggled out of Lennie’s grasp and jumped to the ground. He peed up against a tyre. Charlie then shook his coat, as if shaking off water, and stood wagging his tail, waiting for someone to do something.

Echo
walked over to one side, so she could cover everyone while Coco dragged the bodies away from the doorway.

“The entrance to the hidden tunnel is
in the ‘Black Museum’ section,” the Captain stated. He stood stretching the kinks out of his back.

Bull slammed his door shut. He did not feel like crawling down a hidden tunnel. In the distance, he could see the prison. Safety was just on the other side of those towering walls.

But for how long?
He reasoned.
At least when I get down inside The Ark, and it is sealed, all this would be just a bad memory.

Noah helped Red out of the truck.

Red seemed fragile, as if her swagger had faded. Her smile and happy countenance was replaced with a scowl and squinting eyes.

Lennie slowly climbed out of the back of the truck. He stretched, making him look impossibly tall. He dragged his backpack across the bed of the truck and shrugged i
t on. He stood motionless, waiting for instructions. He wiped a large hand across his nose, smearing snot up his sleeve.

“Nana,” he muttered softly, looking through the thick window where his grandmother sat hunched under the blanket.

Noah noticed Betty had not attempted to move out of the truck. He opened her door.

“Are you okay Betty,” he asked.

Betty groaned.

“Betty?” Noah said, as he raised the edge of the blanket.

BOOK: The Sixth Extinction (Book 4): The Ark
9.28Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Gilda's Locket by T. L. Ingham
Attack Alarm by Hammond Innes
Vee by Alyssa Linn Palmer
Fire by Kristin Cashore
Simple Man by Michaels, Lydia
The Fall by Annelie Wendeberg
Lady Rogue by Kathryn Kramer
The Battle of Bayport by Franklin W. Dixon