Emergence (Book 4): Eradication

by Sawyer, JT

  Kelly pulled her head back, her eyebrows flaring up. “Says the woman who’s always givin’ me shit.” She mouthed the last word silently.

  “Yeah, sorry about that. I get a little edgy without nicotine.” Erica glanced down at Cassie. “She’s a resilient kid. I think she’ll be OK—she’s got you.” She leaned back on her cot, thrusting her hands behind her head and staring at the ceiling. “I wonder sometimes what it would’ve been like having a good mom—or even dad—in my life when I was little.”

  “You never knew your real parents?”

  “My old man walked out when I was two. As for my mom,” she dragged out the words, “she was a prostitute who was addicted to crack and died in prison.” Erica bit down on her lip, glancing over at Kelly. “Probably better I didn’t know her, though my foster parents were barely a notch above her.”

  Kelly was shocked Erica had peeled back her coarse veneer to reveal something so personal but realized that Erica hadn’t once mentioned anything about losing anyone dear to her since they’d met. She glanced down at Erica’s scarred knuckles and strong hands then up at the grainy tattoos on her forearms. She’s been surviving her entire life, not just during these past few weeks. “No one should have to endure such horrors in their childhood. I’m sorry you went through that, Erica.”

  The lanky woman let out a faint frown, looking at Kelly for a long moment, then turned over and pulled the blanket up past her shoulders. Kelly moved back onto her cot and sank her head onto the pillow, relishing the simple pleasure of something so comfortable. A second later, she heard a faint knock on the door followed by Jared’s voice.

  She got up and pulled a blue sweatshirt on over her tank top and buttoned up her jeans, then quietly stepped out into the hallway in her bare feet. Jared was standing off to the side, his back to the gray wall.

  “Came across this in one of the bins downstairs.” He handed Kelly a small Raggedy Ann doll with yellow hair. “Thought Cassie might like to have it.”

  Kelly smiled, taking the small figure in her hands and staring at it as if it was real. “That’s so sweet. Thanks, Jared.” She looked up into his hazel eyes. “You’ve treated us really well since we first met—looking out for us all this time. I can’t thank you enough.”

  He thrust his hands into his pockets, shrugging his shoulders. “Not a problem.” He turned to face her, his face growing stern. “Look, keep Cassie close, OK?” He glanced over his shoulder then back to Kelly. “This place can be…”

  He paused as they both turned at the startling sound of someone running in their direction. It was Engel, and the whites of his eyes nearly blotted out the rest of his face. He was clutching a laptop and stopped next to Jared. The man flipped open the screen while trying to catch his breath.

  “They’re coming—thousands of them.” He tapped his finger on the monitor, which revealed the areal footage of the region in a two-mile radius around the dam. “I sent up a remote-controlled drone ten minutes ago—they’re everywhere, even from the south, where there aren’t supposed to be any creatures.” He clutched Jared’s meaty forearm. “And the alpha below is dead—killed itself somehow.” The man was hyperventilating, his eyes darting around the hall.

  Jared clutched the laptop, enhancing the image and focusing on the southern boundary near the highway. There were three fast-moving creatures leading a legion of drones that must have numbered over five thousand strong. “Jesus—this is an entirely new group from the ones in Lake Havasu.” He zoomed out and refocused on the area to the north, which showed an even larger formation of drones marching towards the dam. “They’ll be on us in a few minutes at this rate.”

  “What should we do?” said Engel, who had recoiled into the wall, his hands pressing back into the concrete like he was holding it up.

  “Get everyone up and to the boats. I’ll gather up my shooters and head up top to the walkway to hold them off,” said Jared.

  Erica had stepped through the door, her face taut. “What’s going on?”

  “Looks like paradise is lost to us after all,” said Kelly as she whisked by her to grab her daughter and alert Mary and the other women.

  Jared’s voice flooded over the speakers above as he made a hasty announcement about the impending attack and the need to evacuate to the dock outside the dam.

  “What’s happening, Mommy?” said Cassie as she clung to her mother’s side while they ran down the hallway.

  “We gotta leave here, baby, but we’ll be fine—we just have to get to the boats.” Her voice cracked as she climbed the cement steps to the courtyard then ran into the dining hall. She thought a shadow had passed before the moon, obscuring the light inside the building. She stopped to get her bearing in the darkness then turned and saw that the edges of the cliffs above were filled with rows of creatures in every direction, as if the canyon walls had sprouted a new lifeform intent on obliterating the manmade structure. The ground began to shake under her feet as the creatures moved in on both sides of the canyon. She felt Mary grab her arm as they navigated through the jumble of tables and chairs, watching in horror as the drones began leaping wildly from above.

  The staccato of gunfire rang out along the spillway as Jared and a dozen other men began unleashing a barrage of rounds into the oncoming horde. As Mary shoved open the double doors that led down to the final rampart before the river, Kelly saw Engel bounding past them, shoving others out of the way as he made a dash for the exit. He stopped to punch in a code on the wall that sealed off the dining hall entrance by the courtyard, trapping dozens of desperate people. Engel pried open the hefty iron door that led to the boat launch and disappeared into the darkness. Kelly stopped by the control panel, thrusting Cassie back into position at her side then staring in horror as a tangle of drones began mauling the trapped residents on the other side of the glass. “We have to help them,” she shouted.

  “It’s too late,” muttered Mary as she saw Janice’s arms being separated from her torso. The woman went down screaming while a dozen creatures savagely consumed her. “God, we have to go.” She and Kelly turned and ran for the exit, rushing out onto the concrete boat launch. Kelly heard the roar of an engine to her left and saw Engel speeding off to the south. You bastard!

  She ran down to the end of the last tie-up point and set Cassie down inside a small speedboat while Mary rushed to untie the bow. The night air was filled with the deafening sound of animalistic howls and violent shrieks accompanied by intermittent gunfire until the latter grew faint. Kelly knelt down and flung open a weapon crate on the floor, removing a scoped .308 SCAR rifle and racking a round in the chamber as Mary fired up the engine.

  “We can’t leave yet—there could still be others that get out,” said Kelly as she knelt down, fixing the nightvision scope on the walkway of the dam, fifty yards away. She could see Jared and a handful of others shooting wildly in every direction. Then she caught sight of Erica in the thick of it as the mob of ravenous freaks closed in on either side of the spillway.

  ***

  “Out of ammo—reloading,” screamed Jared, shoving in his last AK magazine as he slipped behind a portly man. He saw Erica to his right, blasting away with an AR into a growing horde of enraged drones pouring down the steps of the walkway. The group of ten shooters were now reduced to four, trapped in the middle with no way out. Jared shot two creatures running to his left then pressed his back against the railing, staring over the edge at the dark expanse of the gorge, where the rushing waters from the dam’s discharge melded with the Colorado River below. “We need to jump into the spillway—it’s our only chance.” He saw another man go down, his head twisted off like a freshly plucked berry off a vine. He fired into the frenzied creatures, but their mangled corpses were quickly bypassed by a dozen more that were swiftly closing the thirty-foot gap.

  He felt his shoulder press into something and saw Erica butting up against him as she fired off the last rounds from her AR then flung it to the ground and removed the Beretta from her waist. The
other three shooters were nowhere to be seen, and the creatures slowed their pace, taking stock of the prey they were about to finish off.

  “Let’s go—jump, now,” he said, firing another barrage into the crowd to his right as Erica squeezed off shots until the slide locked back. She pistol-whipped a creature as it clambered over the pile of corpses, busting a fissure into the forehead, which caused a pool of worms to spurt out. She turned swiftly, grabbing the railing and holding her breath as she jumped into the darkness. The sound of Jared’s rifle disappeared as she plunged into the cold, frothy surface of the rushing water. She felt something drop into the waves behind her. Surfacing, she saw it was Jared swimming towards her. He pointed at the speedboat ahead, its exterior lights illuminating the figures of Kelly and Mary inside.

  “Keep moving—I’ve got a stocked houseboat stowed eighteen miles upriver in the marsh. We’ll head there.”

  Erica began swimming but heard the sound of water plunking behind them. With each forward stroke of her arms, she darted a glance over her shoulder at the sight of hundreds of creatures jumping off the rim of the dam into the spillway. She was almost at the boat, the distance feeling like it was growing as her lungs burned from the pace. She reached the side and saw Mary reaching down to hoist her up. Kelly began firing into the approaching mass of creatures who were struggling to reach the boat. Some of them were drowning while others had climbed onto nearby rocks, exhausted. Mary revved the engine in preparation to flee while Erica leaned over the edge to grab Jared’s hand. Clutching his thick wrist, she pulled him up only to have his hand slip away as he was taken under by two creatures tugging at his legs. His face contorted as his lungs belched out a gasp, followed by his mouth quickly filling with water, his head disappearing beneath the inky waves. Kelly rushed over, steadying her rifle on the water, which bled a web of crimson tendrils followed by a mass of entrails that floated to the surface, illuminated by the boat’s rear spotlight.

  “No!” Erica, shouted at the indifferent river.

  “He’s gone,” Kelly said, yanking the woman back into the boat.

  Mary thrust the controls forward, arcing the boat out to the left as the engines roared. Kelly sank back onto the corner of the deck next to Cassie, pulling her close and resting the rifle across her lap. Erica recoiled into the sidewall next to the console, clutching her knees into her chest and sobbing. As the boat sped away towards the center of the Colorado, the two women stared back at the Parker Dam in the moonlight. Thousands of creatures flitted over the massive structure, flowing in from the side canyon and surrounding mesas like termites descending on a rotting tree in the forest.

  Chapter 41

  The sun rising over the Gulf of Mexico was a sight Reisner wasn’t sure he—or anyone at MacDill—would live to see when he first landed at the base twenty-two hours ago. Now, as the small boat anchored off the stern of the Lachesis, he watched the orange disk emerging over the tip of Florida like it was his first sunrise. He climbed up the rear ladder and onto the deck. Despite his numerous injuries and aching joints, he had a quickness to his step and eagerly jaunted across the cargo deck, past workers unloading medical supplies. Reisner felt his heart racing like he was about to begin a footrace, and he paused outside the bridge door, glancing at his reflection in the small porthole. His face was a deeper brown than he had seen it, and he had more furrows than he did several weeks ago, but the stress lines along his face melted away as he looked through the porthole at the young woman inside speaking with the captain. She was four years younger than him, and it was good to see she still had her comforting smile and soft eyes. He unlatched the door hesitantly, like he was walking into a cathedral, the air rushing around him as he stepped inside.

  Jody turned and saw him, both of them standing frozen in place as their eyes welled up with tears. He rushed forward, throwing his arms around her as she cried out his name, burying her head in his chest.

  “I told you I would come back home—back to you,” he said as he stroked her sandy brown hair.

  “I know—I just wasn’t sure if this world would ever allow it.” She wept as she pulled her arms tighter around his waist.

  “Well, I’m here now, and I’m not letting you out of my sight anytime soon, no matter how much you get on my nerves.”

  “Pff…I doubt you have any nerves left to rattle from what Runa has told me about your work.”

  He felt his sides shudder as he pressed his chin against the top of her head. She brushed against the Glock on his hip and then pulled back, looking at the weapon then up at him. “I’m still not used to you being this secret agent guy Runa’s told me about.” She brushed her hand along a bruise below his ear. “Do I even want to know what this is from, Will?”

  Reisner thought back to the battle on the airfield against the alphas before he boarded the Cessna. “Probably not, but the important thing is that it ended well.” He put his arm around her shoulder as they walked through the hallway that led to the crew quarters. He paused by the steel door that sealed off the stairwell heading down to the laboratory. “After we’ve had time to catch up, there’s someone I’d like you to meet.”

  “Selene—I mean, Doctor Munroe?” she said with a coy smile. “Already ahead of you, big brother. She greeted me when I arrived an hour ago after Runa requested that I be here.”

  He blew out a strained breath through his tight lips. “Ooh, that could either be really good or extremely crippling, depending on how much she told you.”

  Jody stopped and looked up at him. “Now you’ve got another woman in your life who is going to keep you in line, instead of just me.” She punched him lightly in the right bicep. “Just promise me: no more secrets, Will. At least, you know, not the kind you can’t share with me.”

  Reisner chuckled and flared an eyebrow. “I’m not sure that made sense, but I got the gist of it.”

  They walked onto the side deck and stood next to one another, staring to the east. Jody looked out at a flock of seagulls flying towards the sun, which had risen higher over the Gulf. Southern Florida was still billowing clouds of gray smoke from the battle, and it curled into a finger over the ocean that looked like the heavens were trying to liberate the peninsula from the mainland. “Do you think we’re going to make it?” she said as a gentle breeze blew through her hair.

  He wanted to tell her he wasn’t sure—that the answer he gave today could change by sunrise tomorrow. Each battle seemed so unpredictable and chaotic, against an enemy who was constantly evolving. Reisner saw an array of pained faces flit across his weary mind as he tried to shut out the losses he had endured since the pandemic began. He tightened his grip on the railing while resting his other hand on top of hers. “We’ll make it. We’ve spent too many millions of years clawing our way to the top to go out overnight.” He smiled, staring into her eyes with confidence. We have to make it.

  Chapter 42

  That evening, Ivins walked into the conference room on the Lachesis and sat down at the end of the table beside the remaining commanders for MARSOC and the Ranger Battalion along with a handful of other key personnel from MacDill. Joining them on the wall monitor were four other base commanders from around the U.S.

  General Dorr was sitting opposite Ivins, sifting through a report on his laptop. He sat up, removing the reading glasses off his thick nose and glancing at each individual present.

  “Gentlemen, it’s good to see you all before me. You are the fortunate ones who rode out this storm. I cannot say that for three of our other bases—Mountain Home in Idaho and Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado were decimated along with our army contingent at Fort Polk in Alabama. The remaining air bases that were attacked were able to relocate their air assets and critical personnel to more isolated regions, which prevented more catastrophic losses. The emphasis seemed to be on attacking our air assets. We believe this was a deliberate attempt to prevent dispersal of the aerosol.” He steepled his fingers, resting his elbows on the table as he sighed. “As for MacDill, the
re was a twenty-percent mortality rate from combat operations on and off the base during the attack.” He let out a deep exhale while standing up. “We lost many fine men and women, and their sacrifices will not go unnoticed.” He paused to look at each man. “But we are still here and will take the fight back to the enemy once we regroup. MacDill is still operational but has suffered significant loss of its air arsenal and ordinance. For now, General Vaccaro and his personnel will remain behind along with a division of soldiers. In the meantime, we will have a mobile command center aboard this vessel along with keeping POTUS and other critical staff at sea with this armada until the day when MacDill’s armaments and air assets have been restored.”

  He walked around the table, his arms folded. “Doctor Munroe and her staff will continue with their efforts in manufacturing more of the aerosol, and we will coordinate our production efforts with our remaining allied forces around the world.” He pounded his fist on the table near Ivins. “The drones can be defeated—and on a massive scale. Once their numbers have been greatly reduced, we will continue the hunt for the alphas—but their eradication will not happen overnight unless some other bioagent specific to them is discovered.”

  Door stood before the center of the room. “Unconventional warfare will be the norm, and I will be taking a hard look at what we need to do to restructure our existing units along those lines as well as asking for input from all of you. We must take the fight to the enemy, and I know of no better way of dealing death to them than at the hands of experienced guerilla fighters like you men here today.”

  When he had finished outlining his plan, Dorr asked for a SITREP from the four base commanders on the monitor. Ivins’ over-fatigued brain absorbed the salient points, but it was a comment from the Air Force commander at Creech in Nevada that caught his attention, causing him to shoot upright in his chair.

  “Can you repeat that again,” said Ivins.