by Maxey, Phil
Jess was sure she heard a scream of anguish some distance beyond her, which fell like a weight upon her own shoulders.
Rackham continued, while a smug smile emerged across the face of the other mass murderer at his side. “But you have nothing to fear anymore, mother Keller. You, your daughter and son will be well…” The older man’s head tilted to the side, his attention momentarily elsewhere. Finn did the same, but had already turned completely around to face the other end of the parking lot from where Jess could also now hear a noise. A roaring, but this wasn’t organic in nature. No, this was… an engine?
The sound of screeching breaks came from a street nearby, beyond the wall of creatures in front of her. She held her son close, her head flicking left and right, then quickly behind for any gap, but the creatures were too tightly packed.
A vehicle was approaching at speed.
“Who the fuck is that?” said Finn, walking towards the noise, the mass of creatures slowly separating until even Jess could see the sedan speeding towards the parking lot. “Ha. Who would have thought the fat nerd would have had it in him?” He looked back at Rackham. “Can I kill him now?”
Rackham nodded as the car bumped up a curb, lifting into the air, traveling at seventy at least and heading straight for the super solider and crazed scientist behind him.
Finn walked forward then stood in the center of the cleared route as the car now moving even faster charged towards him.
“Arlo… no…” said Jess under her breath now seeing who the driver was. She pulled Josh behind her.
Finn sprinted towards the oncoming few tons of metal, its screaming engine the only noise across the expanse of concrete and just as the collision was inevitable shifted to the side, throwing his arm out which tore through the fender, then the entire left side of the car, causing it to flip, then tumble, again and again through a swathe of the creatures which dived out of the way, eventually smashing up against other parked cars until it slid to a stop.
“Well, that was entertaining, wasn’t—”
Arlo’s sacrifice was all the distraction she needed. She smashed the three small vaccine bottles in her right hand across Rackham’s face, the affect immediate, a cry of pain being cut short as his mouth, then nose then entire skull crumpled, dissolving as the contents of the bottles she had discovered in the school library ate, acid like through his body. A claw swung from an appendage which had sprouted from somewhere on his torso but without eyes it missed its target, swiping the air above Jess as she ducked, then quickly grabbing another bottle from her pocket cracked the glass into the exposed skin. There was a squeal as skin stretched and retracted turning dark with decay, then becoming ash as the thing known as Rackham shrunk in form and size, the bones and muscle that had made it, becoming nothing more than a heap of dark brown bubbling sludge on the concrete…
She fell backwards, almost tripping over her own feet, not believing her plan had worked. She reached behind her, looking for her son, not noticing the blur which slammed into her shoulder, hurling her across the lot, landing ten-feet away, semiconscious and bleeding. Josh cried out, running to her.
“Finally!” shouted Finn. He paced left and right, not being able to contain his excitement, his eyes wide and bloodshot. “Thank you! Thank, fucking… you! For killing that pompous ass!” Josh shook his mother, trying to wake her, while shooting glances at the insane soldier just fifteen-feet away who continued his rant. “He got what he deserved! All these plans of making the world in his image! Bullshit! Typical nerd shit! Now I can do what he should have done, but was too blind and stupid to do! I can kill all of you!” He took in a lungful of air. “I knew this was going to be a good day!” He looked at his creatures, the mass of malformed things that stood in rows, many of which were shuddering, their heads flicking from side to side, their limbs flailing at invisible enemies. “His children, my ass. They were always my army, and I’m going to use them, control them to kill every last human I can find. Starting with that little bitch daughter of yours. Time to get rid of my competition!” He sped across the concrete, shoving Josh to one side and picking Jess up by her hair. She groaned as Josh screamed, running forward, punching and kicking at the soldier, who shoved him away again, this time harder, the boy thumping his head on the solid ground. Jess’s eyes flicked open as blood ran down her face and she threw a clenched fist at her attacker. The punch connected and the bones broke in her fist, causing her to cry out in pain as he smiled. He dragged her higher, like a doll, then with his other hand grabbed her face and pointed it back towards the mental health block of the hospital. “I want you to see my soldiers bring her to me and see what happens next…”
Jess clawed and kicked but each movement only elicited a snort of laughter as the creatures started to move towards the multi-storey building. Gunfire erupted from the first-floor windows, hitting the first creatures to get to the entrance. He was distracted. This was her chance. She reached down and pushed her distorted fingers into her pocket to find… The final three bottles had broken in her fall, the contents already evaporating.
He let go, dropping her like trash to the ground. She scrambled to Josh, pulling him to her, then looked back at the soldier who seemed confused by something.
“What the hell…”
Jess couldn’t see what was happening from the ground and didn’t care. She needed to get Josh out of here. She threw her hand to the ground, pushing down to get to her knees, but instantly burning pain surged across her back and neck, making her drop back down.
“Mom! Mom!”
“Run, Josh. R…” Jess realized something was wrong. She swung her head around to a wall of creatures standing in front of Finn, each one looking back, not at her but at him. And the soldier, he was shaking, both hands by his side, clenched in fists, trembling.
He fell back out of breath. “Agh! So you control some. Good for you!” He spun around, his arms outstretched. “But the rest. The other few thousand. They’re… all… mine…”
The ground thundered as clawed feet, limbs, spider-like torsos surged forward, across the lot into a wall of similar things sprinting the other way. A cacophony of screeches and roars filled the air as fangs and talons came together filling the air with blood and sinew as the creatures tore into each other. As the maelstrom flooded past, Jess with Josh crawled across the concrete, stopping, pausing, ducking then moving again, trying to avoid the stampede that shook the ground all around them. Her hand pushed into something solid, a wall, and with all the strength left in her she lifted herself up, and with Josh fell over it, into bushes surrounded by palm trees.
“Mom! Mom! Look! The bad ones are winning!”
She looked up at Josh standing at the wall, looking at the storm flashing past. Despite the pain in her shoulder almost being to much for her to form any thoughts, she grabbed the wall and pulled herself to her knees. It was like witnessing a swarm of ants, except these insects were fighting each other. Josh was right, and so was Finn. His creatures outnumbered the others, four to one, and the soldier himself was tearing through them as well, felling two at a time as if they were made of paper. Despite everything she had achieved, that all of them had achieved, they were still going to lose. Finn and his army were going to kill them all and there was nothing that…
Blood and guts exploded as streaks of projectiles flashed across the lot, dropping creature after creature to the ground. The sound was deafening but she was sure she could see a truck, more than one across the far left edge of the lot? The direction the gunfire was—
A hand touched her back and she swung around with a fist completely missing Landon.
“Jess! We have to get out of here!”
Across the lot, at the first-floor window of the mental health building, Sam stood, watching, concentrating, moving the mutated beings in front of her like pieces on a game board, sending them at the others, utilizing their mutated claws and limbs to exact revenge, but she knew what her mother had guessed. Her side was losing, even with Lu
ci and the others showing up with guns, big guns. Her eyes flicked to the soldier inflicting so much damage, as he smashed through another of the multi-limbed abominations, rendering it lifeless. She had to take care of the soldier. Before Scott could stop her she unlatched the window, pushing it open and slipped through the gap falling the ten-feet to the ground, creatures fighting creatures all around her. She sprinted forward, diving to the side, to avoid a claw thrust in her direction then rolling, standing and leaping entirely over a mass of tentacles which stretched and swiped at her. She could see Finn, he was finishing off another of her pawns, which were almost depleted. As she ran towards him, she mustered her concentration for one final effort.
The handful of things left under her power suddenly whipped around in the soldier’s direction and thundered towards him, but he saw the threat. A galloping beast, tendrils dragging on the floor was slammed into by a spider-like thing with eyes on stalks. Another of her creatures, tumbled and was set upon by three others. She was running out of soldiers as his, launched themselves at the building and trucks.
He stood back, his arms open wide. “Yes! Yes! Come at me! Do your worst!”
She only had one advantage over him. Something she hoped was true, but didn’t know would work until she tried it.
She skidded to a stop and focused every part of her mind on him. The effect was immediate. All of the things stopped dead in their tracks, returning to their quivering, bewildered state as Scott, Luci and the others continued firing, tearing the things apart, bullets slicing through them, dropping tens of them at a time from the array of weaponry ranged at them.
Finn grimaced, his own body paralysed by the teenager just yards away. His muscles twitched as he fought against her influence over his brain and slowly but surely feeling returned to his neck, then shoulders, the sensation creeping across his body, until his arms become his, then his legs. A smile broke out across his face as frustration then exhaustion came from Sam. “Now I get to—”
Finn never heard the boom or felt the front of his skull explode. His final thoughts were of sweet victory and what he would do to those he hated. He fell face forward into the concrete as Landon looked down on him from behind. His shaking hand, holding a shotgun.
“Die…”
He collapsed to his knees. As Sam ran towards him, throwing her arms around his shoulders, but as the bullets continued to rain down upon the frozen things across the lot she knew something was wrong with her father. He felt limp in her arms. She pulled back, tears in her eyes. “Dad? Dad?” she screamed. Others were running to her from the buildings, but her only focus was on the man she was holding, his eyes open, wide, glassy. “Dad!” she screamed again, as Scott then Barker ran to her side, the elderly man falling to his knees, immediately feeling for a pulse.
“No pulse. I’m starting CPR!”
Sam let go as Jess limped to her side, Josh with her, both desperate to get near Landon.
Alternating between chest compressions and trying to get air into his lungs, Barker kept repeating the same technique, over and over as the sounds of screeches and roars finally diminished and only sobs could be heard across the parking lot.
He looked back to the remaining Keller’s. “I’m sorry… the infection must have…”
Josh grabbed his mother, sobbing. She sat on her knees in shock. The world started to spin for Sam and she staggered backwards, looking for support and on not finding any, fell to the ground, laying on her back, looking up at a blazing blue sky.
In years to come she would have no idea how the idea came to her of what she did next. No idea that what Rackham did to her could also be used for good, despite the fact that as long as she lived she would spread his disease.
She scrambled to her feet, stumbled forward, then fell again to her knees, placing her hands on her father’s chest.
“He’s gone, child,” said Barker. “There’s nothing you can...” Words left him as her hands had dissolved into something else, something that flowed into Landon’s exposed chest. Her eyes were closed and her lips were muttering, but when she was done, Landon took in an almighty breath of air.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Five years, three months, one week and two days later. Galveston.
Jess looked out of the living room window to the cobalt blue ocean and frothy surf behind the white sandy beach. A seagull screeched and for a moment nightmares threatened to return, but her fear was quickly extinguished by Josh’s laughter. He was playing volleyball with Agatha, Toby, Brad and Landon. Her husband managing to do well even with one hand. Helen and Toby sat in a circle on the sand with Arlo, parked in his wheel chair nearby, all happily eating homemade ice cream.
Despite the joy the scene gave her, there was someone missing. She sighed just as Donnie barked from the hallway behind her. Someone was coming up the path to the front of the house.
She made her way to the front door, opening it and looking down at doc Barker at the bottom of the stone steps.
“Hey Jess!”
“Hi… I didn’t know we were due a checkup?”
“Oh, not here for anything like that.” He looked up at her. “Sanchez just got back from his run to Newhope.” He lifted an old ragged sealed envelope then walked up a few more steps so he was level with her. “Said another trucker who came down from the north gave him this. It’s got your name on it.”
Jess took the envelope from him, reading the front.
‘To Jessica Keller. Galveston, Texas.’ Her heart raced.
“I’ll leave you to it then.” He descended to the bottom then stopped, turning. “Oh, are you, Landon and Josh coming to the fair later?”
She nodded with a smile, words becoming stuck in her throat.
“Great, we’ll see you all there.”
She looked back down at the frail piece of thin card, turning, not being able to take her eyes from it and closed the front door then moved back into the living room. As she carefully pulled the top open, then pulled out the single piece of paper, something else fell to the ground. She bent down, picking up the black-and-white image of a young woman and a sob she had suppressed for over five years erupted from her as she put her hand to her mouth.
She opened the double folded piece of paper filled with a handwritten letter.
‘Hi Mom.
I hope this letter finds you. I don’t know what date it is as I write this, but I can tell you I sent it in the winter. I’m safe and happy with Lachlan. It was a tough first year but eventually we found a place in an abandoned mountain town in Wyoming. It has fresh streams (Lachlan tried fishing, but that didn’t work out, so I had to do it for him!) and lots of food from the old world, and we found a great place to call our home. I’m sorry I left. It was too much for me being so young and it took many years for me to make peace with what I caused to happen in Galveston and what I am. But now I accept being different and to be honest it has helped us many times in this ruined world. Do you like the photo? We found some books on photography and after many attempts with chemicals we found at the local pharmacy, managed to produce that photo from a pin-hole camera. I think I want to keep doing that. The new world needs to be documented just as the old one was.
I hope you, dad and Josh… ha, Josh must be really tall now! I hope you are all well. Maybe one day soon it will be possible for you to come here, but for obvious reasons I cannot ever leave.
Love you always.
Sam.
P.s. There is going to be a new Keller in about seven months.’
A commotion came from the back of the house. Landon walked up the stairs with Josh in tow, and pushed open the rear door, his laugher at Josh complaining about losing abruptly becoming concern at his wife’s red eyes and wet cheeks. He rushed forward. “What is it?”
As more sobs came, she handed him the letter and photo.
The end.
Thank you for reading the Extinction Gene! I hope you enjoyed it.
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Phil.
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About the Author
Phil Maxey is an author who resides in the UK. Formally a game developer he now spends his time putting his love of sci-fi and the paranormal into words.
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Acknowledgements
I would like to say a big thank you to the beta readers, Val and Sam and everyone else who helped!
Book cover design by www.starbookcovers.com.