The Sixth Extinction (Book 4): The Ark (6 page)

16

Noah, Red, and the Squad

Dartmoor National Park

Princetown

In a Tunnel Under Dartmoor Prison

3:33 PM GMT

“
C
rap,” Echo muttered, as she hit her head for the third time. “How much further? I’m gonna brain myself before we get there.”

“We have
moved under the road, the warehouse, and I think we are under the main prison wall as we speak.” The Captain kept his torch pointed down.

“All this for a Chaplin, in case he got spooked?” Bull muttered.

They all ignored his question. They were thinking about Betty and Lennie, and how they had abandoned them. They all knew there was nothing they could have done.

Red was once again holding Noah’s hand. She squeezed it so tight he was afraid no blood was reaching his fingers.

Coco gave them his torch, and Noah pointed it at Red’s feet, guiding the way. Noah was not claustrophobic, but the tunnel was making his blood run cold. It felt even more depressing than the museum.

“Hello daughter!”
a voice said over the soldier’s headsets. “I will roll the welcoming mat out for your arrival.”

“Hello sir,” Echo replied. Her voice
changed from her cocky attitude to respectful tones.

“
Ah, Captain, I see the twenty soldiers I sent on a simple mission have reduced to four, along with two hitchhikers.”

“I’m afraid you’re breaking up, General Philips,” the Captain said, a hint that he did not want to speak to the General. He switched the radio off. So did the other three.

They walked through puddles and over chunks of rock, which had fallen away from the wall. The beams of light crisscrossed the tunnel.

The Captain almost warned the General that the walls were about to be breached, but he knew the General would already know what was happening.

A concussion boom echoed down the dark tunnel, quickly followed by a series of others. It sounded like a firework display rattling off in the distance.

“The main attack has started,” the Captain shouted, to be heard through his mask now he had turned the microphone off.

The Captain shined his light against the closest wall. Cracks had appeared, running down the wall, with dusts and small stones raining down from the roof of the tunnel.

17

Doctor Lazaro
, Doctor Hall, and General Philips

Dartmoor National Park

Princetown

Dartmoor Prison in the Hub Control Room

3:34 PM GMT

“
T
he walls are breached,” a soldier stated.

No one needed to be told, they could all hear the loud booms that shook the room they stood inside. The monitors on the walls flickered. The lights dimmed for the briefest of moments before flaring back up.

“Are the men not in position, like requested?” the General asked, spinning around to confront one of his advisors.

“Yes sir.” The soldier looked nervous. “They have been firing
on the crowds since you gave the order.”

“I’ve heard no grenades or missile launchers exploding?” His eyes pierced the officer.

“We thought it might damage the walls to use explosives so close to the perimeter.”

Melanie could see the officer gulping.

“Do you really think that matters now?” The General hollered. “Unleash everything we have. Try to contain them near the walls, while we get the people underground.” He turned and marched out of the room.

Melanie and Doctor Hall followed the General and his group of lackeys.

The main control room was in chaos. There were people shouting orders, with others running back and forth.

Melanie noticed the main bank of monitors. It showed the walls had collapsed in several areas. The hordes were pouring through the gaps of tumbling masonry. Soldiers stood in rows, firing into the mass of undulating bodies.

Large M2 Browning machineguns stood on tripods at intervals along the line. Their destructive .50 caliber bullets shredded everything in their path. The creatures behind climbed over the remains of their companions.

“I want those people injected and underground now!” the General screamed.
He then sprung around to the two doctors. “Doctor Hall, get Doctor Lazaro over to the preparation area, and get her injected and send her underground with the first batch!” He sprung around.

“Heather, go with
them and get yourself injected and underground. Oh, and make sure Doctor Hall doesn’t screw this up.”

Heather
was one of the people who followed the General around like a lost puppy. She looked flustered, as if she believed her place was in the main building, helping to direct operations, not baby-sitting two doctors. She had shoulder length blonde hair and a kindly face. She could have been anything from forty to fifty, and could have passed as a midwife in a maternity ward of any hospital, if it was not for her expensive taste in clothes – she wore a Dolce and Gabbana cream blouse and an auburn, knee-length Fendi skirt, with Manolo Blahnik shoes.

Melanie ha
d also noticed that Doctor Hall had been flicking glances over at the woman since they entered the control room.

“
My names Heather Kennedy.” She held out a hand to Melanie, while giving Doctor Hall an evil glare.

With all the shouting, the booms of explosions, and the muted sound of gunfire through the walls, Melanie found it strange that this woman wanted to shake her hand.

“For god’s sake Heather, we haven’t got time for fucking pleasantries,” Doctor Hall said through clenched teeth.

Heather dropped her hand before Melanie could grasp it.

“Jesus, Albert, do you always have to be such a cock!” She marched off towards a set of sliding doors, not caring if either of them was following her.

“You’ll have to excuse my ex-wife; she always was such a bitch!” Doctor Hall stated, as he took a cigarette out of the packet from his breast pocket. He followed Heather out into the hallway, while lighting the cigarette and inhaling deeply.

“What?” Doctor Hall said as Melanie caught up and walked along next to him.

“I think a little cigarette smoke is the least of everyone’s problems
.”

18

Noah, Red, and the Squad

Dartmoor National Park

Princetown

In Dartmoor Prisons Chapel

3:4
1 PM GMT

“
B
ull help me,” the Captain said, as he wedged his shoulder against a wooden barrier. However, just as they were both about to push, the hidden entrance swung open.

“Bull,” a voice said. A soldier stood in the glaring light
from the exit, which was a wooden panel in the small antechamber next to the main chapel.

“Clint?” Bull said.

“I’ve been sent to take you directly to the General,” the soldier stated. He looked at the six people exiting the tunnel.

“Only four of you made it back, along with two
civilians?” Clint asked. He was young and tall, and covered in masonry dust.

“It is crazy out there,” Echo said as she pushed by
, glad to be out of the claustrophobic tunnel.

The booms of exploding poppers were much louder
aboveground. The rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire echoed around inside the chapel, with the screams of dying soldiers mixed in. Different blasts could now be heard, not the dull popping of bloated bodies, but the sound of grenades and missile launchers.

“The way is clear for now, but they are swarming into the prison through multiple breaches.” The soldier pushed open the thick chapel door. The sounds triple
d in loudness.

The chapel was close to the back wall, which
was breached. However, even though the thick wall had caved in, a tall security, metal linked fence was still holding the swarming creatures back.

The chapel’s back door exited onto
a forty-foot compact dirt area, used for storage that had a few smaller stone huts against one side, along with a long polythene greenhouse. A thin concrete path led to the back of the hub building, next to a row of what looks like prison warden houses.

A line of soldiers
stood in the dirt, firing repeatedly through the fence, cutting the creatures down.

The Captain noticed what was happening.

“Stop firing!” he hollered. The sound of the rifles and large M2 miniguns drowned his cries out.

The Captain could not understand how the soldiers were so blind. The horde was climb
ing on the dead, using them like a mound, and now they could reach the top of the fence. They swarmed over.

19

Doctor Lazaro and Doctor Hall

Dartmoor National Park

Princetown

The Preparation Area
in Dartmoor Prison

3:42 PM GMT

“
Y
ou know you’re not meant to smoke inside?” Heather said over her shoulder, without bothering to turn around.

Doctor Hall simply ignored her
, and his next exhalation was even louder.

Heather returned the favour and ignored
him.

The sound of fighting was dull but could still be heard through the thick walls. The muted explosions vibrated through the soles of their shoes.

“The Preparation Area is in the center of the building, right above the main lift shaft,” Heather explained for Melanie’s benefit. “Sadly though, almost a hundred Adam and Eve Finalists failed to arrive as scheduled. The General believes either their helicopters crashed, or they simply never got the chance to board.”

The long white hallway ended in a series of three thick doors. Heather pulled a card from her clipboard and scanned it on the center door. It hissed open.

Doctor Hall flicked his cigarette to the floor before following the two women inside.

Melanie found herself inside another contamination vault. The memories of the last one rushed back. She used a hand to steady herself against the cold metal wall.

A white mist hissed from vents in the ceiling, enveloping the whole chamber. Powerful fans kicked in, and the mist was sucked away.

As the thick door slid
open, screaming filled the vault they just stepped out of.

“What the...”
Heather’s words died on her lips when a naked teenager, who was saturated with blood and masonry dust, tackled her, knocking her sideways like a ragdoll.

Melanie was pulled back by Doctor Hall, just as a group of creatures noticed them.

Doctor Hall slammed his hand on the close button. The door gracefully slid shut. The creatures slammed against the thick metal door.

Through a small window, Melanie could see that one side of the large room had collapsed, with creatures pouring through. The handful of soldiers were already dead, with the remains of the Adam and Eve Finalists – men, women and children – being ripped limb from limb.
It was a blood bath.

Her view was
partially blocked when blood was smeared over the thick glass by a naked arm. She jumped when the hiss of the white mist filled the room, blocking her view out of the window.

20

Noah, Red, and the Squad

Dartmoor National Park

Princetown

Outside the
Dartmoor Prison Chapel

3:4
5 PM GMT

“
R
un!” the Captain screamed.

The fence was starting to buckle under the mass of bodies trying to climb over. The
creatures surged across the compact dirt.

“Into the hub building,” Coco shouted as he led the way along the thin path.

The fence finally gave way. The creatures tipped, rolled, and then righted themselves in one move, while racing towards the soldiers.

Coco and Bull ra
n along the path, with Red and Noah close behind. Echo and the Captain jogged backwards while firing into the mass of surging bodies.

The line of soldiers
fragmented; they knew they had no chance against the multitude racing towards them.

Noah gripped Red’s hand as if both their lives c
ounted on him never letting go. Suddenly, movement caught Noah’s attention out of his peripheral vision. He instinctively stopped running, pulling Red to one side.

Naked bodies were pouring over the walls on either side of the thin pathway.

They were blocked in.