Extinction Gene | Book 3 | 4 Days To Protect

by Maxey, Phil

  He looked outside to the last vestiges of light. “I’ll go out the back way, get a good look at the roofs and escape route. Might be useful if I make it back in time, and if I’m seen I have an excuse.”

  He took one last look to those waiting then made his way to the rear door, then quickly out into the yard.

  Wooden benches and tables sat covered in red and brown leaves. As he passed them, moving closer to the gate at the back of the property, he could feel the pull of his family behind, and a feeling of dread which grew with each step.

  Have to get back to them.

  He pulled the gate open then jogged along an alley, and into one of a few side streets which fanned out from the central area of the town. Pretty single story homes bordered the road. As he jogged towards the wall of vehicles which had been placed to block the western approach, he scanned the dark shadows which resided behind the innocent looking homes for any movement, but nothing suggested danger, despite his instincts telling him he was being watched. Were there still creatures in the town? Since he first saw the things his brain couldn’t quite make sense of, they had always been mindless beasts, intent on attacking, killing and later he discovered, absorbing their prey, but what he saw in Jefferson and earlier, a few blocks over, was being cautious, hiding, waiting… at least until it knew it was surrounded. He wasn’t so sure the creatures were as ‘mindless’ as he first thought. It was almost as if they were…

  Evolving… Jess might have something to say about that.

  In a different time, a different situation, it would make for an interesting discussion with his wife, but right now he felt he needed to be ready for anything. Nothing could be taken for granted.

  Jess…

  Despite her efforts to hide her change, he had been aware of it. The speed she moved at the boarding house, pulling him into the room with a strength of someone twice her size was something that initially shocked him, but then made sense. She hadn’t told him that something had happened to her, similar to what his daughter had gone through, but the incident in the boardinghouse room, confirmed it. The virus has altered her physically. That much was obvious, but what he wanted to know was, had it changed her in other ways… was she the same person? She appeared to be. She sounded the same, smelled the same, reacted the same, but…

  It was a nagging doubt to be tabled for another time. For now, she was his wife, and just like with his children, he would die to protect her.

  He clambered over the hood of a blue sedan then across the back of an old pickup and stepped down onto the road, surprising a woman with a rifle, who waved it in his direction. He held his hands up. “All human.”

  She sneered, continuing her duty of keeping watch and he quickly moved past her then increased his pace, jogging onto the sidewalk of Main, then north, past the wagons and their detached horses which were drinking from various containers that had been placed at the curbs, until finally moving past the City Hall building, arriving at the barrier of trucks, vans and sedans at the beginning of the street.

  A group of four people, three men and a woman were talking then promptly stopped on seeing him approach. “What’s going on?” he said.

  “Jim here, said he saw one of the things at the end of the road, a mile off,” said a woman in a large padded, red winter coat.

  A bearded, taller, middle-aged man, frowned. “I know what I saw, Sarah. It was as clear as you are here to me now. It slid across the street, like some kind of snake… thing.” He pointed into the distance. “Went into the trees down there.”

  Now it was the woman’s turn to frown. She looked back at Landon. “You’re Landon?” He nodded. “Isiah, wants you to keep a lookout at the church over there. Get up in the spire, like that other one you were in. See what you can see.”

  He scanned across the hoods of the pickups and cars, past the parking lot on the other side of the junction to the wooden white church, which looked older than even the rest of the town, then back to the woman. “He say how long he want me out here? I got shit to do.”

  The woman frowned. “I know you’re new here, but we all gotta pull out weight. You being a lawman should know that better than anyone.” She looked away. “He just said you gotta be in that church.”

  The hairs were now standing on the back of Landon’s neck. Something was off. Maybe everything Gregg told them was a lie. But he had no choice. He wondered if he could make of show of going to the old building a hundred yards away, then slip out the back. Soon it would be dark. Vision limited to a few yards at best. He looked back to the small group and nodded, then climbed over the hoods, dropped down to the concrete and ran across the junction, pushing his sight as far as it would stretch for any sign of what Jim may had seen. As he walked across a small lawn, its grass already needing to be cut, he thought about everyone waiting back at the boarding house.

  Not staying here for too long. Ten minutes then I’m out.

  He looked back at the group, who were all watching and waved. Some turned away, but Sarah kept her eyes fixed on him.

  He turned to the paint chipped door of the church and pushed it open. As he pulled the flashlight from his pocket, heavy hands pushed him forward into the darkness. Spinning around to fight the assailant, others grabbed him from behind.

  *****

  4: 12 p.m. Main Street. Boarding house.

  A single lantern lit the dining room of the old house. It revealed the anxious faces of those seated at the table, none more so than Jess, whose foot bounced up and down.

  She looked at her watch.

  Been over half an hour. Maybe he’s on—

  Meg shook her head. “Something’s wrong. I can feel it.”

  “But you said—”

  “I know what I said and I hold to it. Gregg was telling us the truth.”

  “We haven’t heard from him, either,” said Arlo. He patted the small dog, whose leash he was holding. “It’s not looking good…”

  Anger threatened to bubble up within Jess. She had tried not to notice how her emotions were always on a hair-trigger. And had put it down to… well, trying not to die. But since her change it was worse. As if there was a part of her fighting to be set free to rage. To destroy, to…

  “We’re not going, are we?” said Sam.

  “I—”

  Arlo leaned forward. “Let’s just leave. Make a run for it. You can’t see your hand in front of your face out there. We do what Meg originally suggested. Small groups. That way—”

  The impact of Jess’s fist on the table surface, split the wood and made everyone including the dog, jump. “We… don’t… leave… until…” She looked towards the front windows, their drapes now closed. “Footsteps… someone’s coming…”

  “Is it Dad?” said Josh.

  Jess concentrated, holding her hand to the side of her head. “One… two… no, three sets of boots.” She sprang up and ran to the window, pulling the drape slightly back. “Fuck.” She whirled around to the others. “People with guns, heading this way!”

  Arlo stood. “They know! We can leave out the back!”

  Even as the suggestion was leaving his lips, Jess was already picking up more sets of boots, coming from the opposite direction. She looked to the rear of the house. “There’s more out the back.”

  Meg took her rifle from her shoulder, standing in front of the children who were now huddled together at the back of the room. Donnie started growling towards the front door, as the sound of boots came up the steps.

  A heavy knock reverberated from the hallway.

  “We got your husband, Mrs. Keller,” said Isiah. “Best you come and open this door.”

  A whimper came from some of the children, as Jess tried to think of a good way out of the situation. Science wasn’t going to get her out of this. She looked at the others. “Take your coats off, quickly! All of you—”

  Another heavy knock came from the front door. “I know about the vaccine—”

  Jess didn’t hear the rest of Isiah’s sentence,
as a storm of fear and confusion raged in her mind.

  It’s over… they’re here to kill us… no…

  Just as the single defiant word crystallized in her mind, the sound of splintered wood came from the hallway, followed by the sound of heavy boots from the hardwood floors. The dining room door flung open, but Beau didn’t get a chance to speak as his teeth were already flying from his mouth before he realized Jess had hit him. She bundled into him, pushing him back against the others behind and slammed the door closed, then with one hand grabbed the sideboard that was nearby and dragged it, to everyone’s astonishment, across the doorway. Without stopping she ran past the others, most frozen in shock. “We’re going out the back. Follow—” She almost didn’t see the large piece of metal pipe flying towards her face, as she entered the kitchen, but the man wielding it was older than her, slower, not that it would have made any difference. She ducked, catching it with one hand, then slammed her other into his stomach, knocking any chance of retaliation from him. He fell to the floor in pain as she with the others ran to the rear door and pushed it open…

  “Uh uh…” said Isiah, somewhere behind her.

  “Mom!” screamed Josh.

  All hope started to drain from Jess, but she whipped around with fury regardless. Standing in the doorway to the dining room was a man she hated. Isiah had his hand around her son’s neck. “If you hurt him, I’ll kill you,” she said, calmly.

  Isiah smirked, as those around him and then others within the doorway to the outside, raised their weapons towards the frightened group in the kitchen. “You and me need to have a conversation about how you ain’t a monster.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  5: 10 p.m. Main Street. City Hall, building. Courtroom.

  The smell of carpet and vanish wafted through the hessian bag over Jess’s head. She knew she was in the courtroom. The same room as the day before, this time though the game was up. Isiah knew the secret, that she and the others had failed to keep. And now they were all going to die because of it.

  She had been surprised he didn’t kill them all in the boarding house. At least those who weren’t naturally immune, but instead they were bound and hooded, then marched outside into the cold night, where hushed voices discussed what should happen next. She had pleaded for clemency for the children, but her cries were only met with laughter, derision and presumedly from Beau, a swift punch to her midriff.

  She was seated alone, waiting to be judged and sentenced, which oddly left her feeling… nothing.

  The door opened to her left and boots walked across the soft floor, then onto the wooden boards at the front of the room, and finally, someone fell back against the leather seats.

  “Take her hood off,” said Isiah.

  Jess’s view of the world was blurred by the sudden brightness of the lanterns in the room, but when that cleared she was looking up into the toothless grin of the old man that had tried to take her car, a day or two before. “You…”

  Clint giggled. “Ha, me! Yeah, you remember, don’t you! I remembered you! I remembered what you said about a vaccine!”

  It was him… He told Isiah…

  She had presumed it was Tracey, or possibly Gregg. She swung her head around to the counter at the front. The other man, younger, was stood in front of the row of seats, and in the central throne was Isiah.

  “Clint and Jay came back. Good thing they did, because they had a real interesting story about a woman who was looking for her husband. And something about a…” He held up a small glass bottle. “Vaccine…”

  “Yeah! That stuff’s going to be worth millions!”

  “I’m thinking billions,” said Isiah.

  Pretending it was all a lie flashed as a possibility through her mind, but maybe that would make everything worse. Instead, another idea came to her. It was lodged inside an explanation as to why Isiah hadn’t killed her yet. He still needed her. “And I know who will pay you for it…”

  His eyes became more apparent under his pronounce brow. He slowly put the bottle down.

  Clint sneered. “She’s lying. She don’t know shit. Just trying to keep her skinny ass alive.”

  Jess straightened in her chair. “I stole it from the company I work for. They tried to get it back in Kansas, but we got away. That’s why we were in that church… not just because of the things, but because we were hiding from my company…”

  “Leave.”

  Clint and Jay both looked at him, shocked. “You said we could have more time with her!” said Clint. He looked back to her. “I want to see how she hurts.”

  She suppressed the wave of nausea that came with his comment.

  “Leave!”

  Clint frowned, while Jay almost hopped. Both though made their reluctant way to the exit and left.

  Isiah smiled. “You know… when I was younger… I would go into the city… into the bars there, where the fancy girls would hang out. The ones whose daddies paid for their lives. The apartments, the cars, the fancy bags. They went to the universities… Hmm,” he made the sound of a man who was remembering a good meal. “Always wanted me one of those fancy girls… but, bitches always saw me as just some farm hand.” He pulled his right glove off and sniffed his fingers. Another wave of nausea threatened to make itself real for Jess. “Must be the cow shit… you can never quite get it out of your skin.” He stood and started to walk past the other leather seats. Jess resisted making her unease obvious but shifted in her seat anyway. “After Clint mentioned you and the vaccine, I thought to myself. She’s gonna have it hidden somewhere in that old house, and hey, there it was, under some boards. Eleven teeny weeny bottles of what could be just plain old water. But I knew… just knew it was more… much more important.” He was now only ten or so feet away, and still moving towards her. She stiffened her back even more, while pulling even harder on the rope binding her wrists. “You see, there are still people out there. I heard them on the radios. Military, government people, still trying to avoid catching this virus. And if they ain’t already got one of those little bottles. Boy, are they going to pay for them…” He was standing directly in front of her, just a foot away. “Talking of which… For you to still have them, I reckon what’s in those bottles don’t last too long… a week? A day?” He moved closer. She could feel the water swilling in the back of her mouth. “What would you do to have one of those bottles again? Or for one of your little rats?”

  Jess looked down. Throwing up over him seemed like a good idea.

  A knock came from one of the double doors. Isiah sighed. “What?” he shouted.

  “We got problems.”

  “What? What problems?”

  “One of the things just tried to break through the southern barricade and Warren says he’s trapped in the water tower. He said… ‘They’re everywhere’”

  *****

  5: 40 p.m. Main Street. Bank. Basement.

  The void Landon saw around him was reflected in his mind. A numbness had settled within his skull, with only the occasional spark of regret for the choices he had made.

  Why didn’t I leave with them…

  Why didn’t I trust my instincts…

  Is my family still alive?

  Questions he steadfastly refused to even attempt to answer, for doing so would sap any remaining stamina he needed to survive.

  He wasn’t sure how long he had been inside the bank’s vault, but he could feel the air growing thin. He had awoken inside the makeshift prison cell, in the complete darkness, and fumbled against the shelves and smooth walls until he gained some sense of where he was. Perhaps this was his fate. To be forgotten. Not even looked in upon to make sure he had died. Just left until one day, maybe in years to come once the world had returned to some semblance of normality, the heavy door would be—

  A ringing noise came from the area in front of him, which he was fairly sure was the entrance. It was quickly followed by clanks and dull booms until a single bright line appeared and fresh cool air wafted over him.


  The door slowly opened and a barrel was visible in front of a beam from a flashlight. Beyond that he had no idea, for his eyes were watering.

  “Get on your pheet,” said Beau, slurring his words.

  Landon awkwardly stood, still not having a good look at the taller man, lost to the shadows behind the light.

  “Now come out. Real sslow.”

  He staggered forward.

  This is it… execution… be with Jess and the kids soon…

  “You try any funny business. I got orders to phut you down. You got that?”

  “Uh?”

  “You got that!”

  “Yes, yes.” Landon could now see other figures in the small room and as he followed the man with the gun, he was sure he could also pickup the distant sound of gunfire and screeching.

  “You’re good with a gun, right?” said Isiah, standing with three others. All well armed.

  The question made no sense to Landon. He was going to be given a gun?

  “Well, lawman? Speak, or you’re going back in the vault.”

  “Yeah. Where’s my wife? My kids?”

  A smirk creeped across Isiah’s face. “Somewhere where you will never find them, if you don’t do what I say. I know about the vaccine. I know you’re not like me and the other immunes.” He took a shotgun from one of the nearby men and handed it to Landon, who took it cautiously.

  “I need people who can kill those things. I’m already down two people and if they keep coming at us, like they are, there’ll be no one left by daylight. Figure might as well make use of you, as you’re be dead soon anyway without that vaccine.”

  He knows?

  “I’m only helping you if you let my wife and children go.”

  “You ain’t getting it, lawman. Ain’t no one going anywhere. The towns full of those creatures. We’re just about keeping them away from Main Street. So you helping or not?”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN