Emergence (Book 4): Eradication

by Sawyer, JT

  “We picked up a man in his fifties, floating in his boat on the upper Colorado River. He said he was a survivor who escaped from a place called Raven’s Keep—a dam south of Lake Havasu City. Sounded like he was the leader of the place.”

  “What did he say during his debriefing?” said Ivins, who was standing now.

  “He told one of my medics that there were around eighty other people—women, kids, people from all over—at the dam, but it wasn’t clear if they made it out or not. The guy disappeared a few hours ago, sorry. Took off into the desert on a motorcycle after he snuck off the base.” He leaned back in his chair. “I can tell you that the area near the dam was overrun with a massive force of drones heading towards Creech. Fortunately, we had enough of the aerosol and good weather conditions to prevent them from overrunning the facility at Creech, but I haven’t seen any satellite imagery of the regions to the south to know which settlements made it.”

  “But it is possible that there are still survivors out there, is that correct?”

  “It’s possible alright, but we don’t have the manpower to investigate. If there is anyone left at the dam then they’re on their own for now.”

  Ivins knew it was another long shot, but he had to hold out hope. One day at a time—until the day comes when I can find out on my own if they are still alive.

  Chapter 43

  Selene entered the small galley on the second level of the Lachesis and sat down next to Reisner and his team, who were just finishing their meals of canned ham and green beans.

  “You all look like I feel, though I haven’t been through anything close to what you’ve endured physically,” she said, resting her right hand on Reisner’s shoulder. He settled back in his chair, placing his arm around her shoulders, his mind still reeling from the scope and outcome of the massive assault they had just experienced.

  “The computer models indicate that there was a ninety-seven-percent mortality rate amongst the drones in Florida from the aerosol and the air assaults to the south. With the exception of some small pockets, that state is pretty much cleared out of the paras.”

  “Dorr said that the remaining creatures were last seen moving in the vicinity of southeast Georgia,” said Nash.

  “Savannah, to be precise,” said Reisner, taking a swig of his coffee from a Virginia Tech mug. “Pacelle indicated that there has been some unusual activity up there with the drones for the past few days.” He looked around at the faces of Connelly, Porter, and Nash. “That will be our next AO—Dorr already agreed that we need eyes on the ground there. If that’s where this super-alpha is located then we need to know.”

  Selene pivoted in her seat, facing him with a stern look. “You’re not going back out there.” She raised her hand up, waving it around towards the others. “You all need to rest for a while, at least—you look terrible.”

  “Nothing that a shot of Jack Daniels won’t fix,” said Porter with a wink.

  “Or a bottle of Jack Daniels,” said Connelly.

  Reisner leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. “We can’t do anything until we get regrouped here and get some air assets to insert us off the Atlantic Coast outside of Savannah, so we’re probably looking at next week at the earliest, given how thin everyone is spread. Ivins and a new team he is assembling are supposed to be heading to Washington to secure that last nuke plant once the weather clears there enough for the aerosol to be effective.” He let out a sigh. “With the loss of our other bases around the nation, Dorr concurred that, from here on out, our remaining military units will need to operate as isolated cells, just like the resistance groups found amongst rebel militia we’ve worked with overseas. He is restructuring central command and will be giving out new orders in two days. Guerilla warfare is our next step now. We will keep using the aerosol to eliminate the drones then surgically take out the alphas using small tac-teams on the ground—this is the next evolution in this war.”

  “We still don’t know what the paras were doing with those poor women we found in Phoenix,” said Connelly. “Any more leads on that, Doc?”

  Selene raised an eyebrow, her lips tensing. “I wish I knew—there wasn’t enough time to complete further studies at the CDC. That’s one mystery Tso and I have been mulling over since we got here, but I’m at a loss.”

  After a long silence, Reisner glanced up at the rest of his team, giving them each a firm nod. “Why don’t you find that bottle of whiskey then, or whatever it is you need, and take some time out for yourselves tonight—you’ve surely earned it.” The three of them heartily agreed, with an assortment of nods and grunts, before hoisting their beaten bodies out of the chairs and exiting the galley.

  Selene leaned her head on Reisner’s shoulder, staring at the tiny sliver of blue through the small porthole ahead. He thought about the past two weeks of non-stop combat missions and the frenetic events leading up to the most recent assault at MacDill. His mind raced between images of carnage, explosions, and endless gunfights. His body was still wired for action, and he couldn’t bring himself down from that elevated state enough to relax. He kept balling and unballing his fist underneath the table and wondered how they were going to continue on with the fight with the loss of so many military capabilities around the country. What the hell is going to be left of the human race even if we destroy all of the creatures?

  He slid his empty coffee cup around in a half-circle. “By your estimates, do you think that we can…” He felt Selene’s fingers press against his lips as she moved in closer to him. She placed both her hands on his face, gently turning his head towards hers.

  “I don’t want to do this right now. I can’t think about this war anymore—not tonight, anyway.” She pulled him closer, kissing him. “I just want to be with you and forget about the outside world for a while.” She kissed him again and then slid her arms around his neck for a hug. “Is that OK?”

  He placed his arms around her, pulling her in close and inhaling her lovely fragrance as he ran his fingers through her soft blond hair. “Yes, I can’t think of a better place to be than next to you.” He felt the knot in his neck ease and his shoulders soften as he leaned back further, his eyes closing and his memories of the past seventy-two hours slowly washing away.

  Chapter 44

  After they had spent the night anchored in an isolated cove with steep walls twelve miles upriver from the dam, Kelly, Cassie, Erica, and Mary slowly made their way along the Colorado. It was slow going, as Mary kept the motor at a low speed to avoid creating engine noise. Later that evening, they found the location of Jared’s houseboat with the help of the dash-mounted GPS unit, and Mary guided them into the remote marshlands north of the eerily silent city of Lake Havasu. The legions of drones that Kelly remembered seeing on their trip to Raven’s Keep two days before were gone, the shoreline and buildings devoid of even seagulls. They’ve all gone—but to where? Was the dam their sole focus? Surely that wasn’t worth sending tens of thousands of creatures to attack.

  The signs on the river along the way indicated that they were entering a national wildlife refuge and that the next services were over twenty miles away. They remained silent like the rugged cliffs around them, reeling from the loss of their new friends and the short-lived refuge of Raven’s Keep. Seems like there is nothing secure to grasp onto in this world anymore, Kelly thought as she looked over the miles of cattails, a peach-colored sun rising over the wilderness surrounding them. Kelly watched redwing blackbirds flitting from tree to tree along the isolated coves and saw what looked to be a river otter lazily swimming down current. The setting would have made an otherwise peaceful retreat to canoe in and reminded Kelly of a fly-in fishing trip she and Tom had taken to Ontario, Canada, years ago, before Cassie was born. As she nervously scoured the boulder-strewn ridgelines in the distance for any signs of movement, she hoped there were only four-legged creatures roaming about and, out of habit, kept her right hand resting on the SCAR rifle strung across her chest.

  At exactly
mile 18.2, they saw the welcoming sight of a twenty-four-foot houseboat anchored along the shoreline in a thick swath of waist-high bulrush. Kelly climbed on board and swept inside the kitchen area then peered inside the tiny bathroom, moving past a rack of fishing poles and into the two back berths. Climbing up the spiral stairs on the rear deck, she checked the pilot’s room then retraced her steps back to the stern. She motioned with her thumb over her shoulder. “Looks like he stowed a few months of MREs in the kitchen, and there’s plenty of propane for cooking and heating plus gasoline for this rig.” She thought of Jared and wished he was there to share in his efforts. Because of him, we escaped and made it this far. He should be here with us. He seemed like a conflicted man; he had followed Engel’s orders but she could sense a goodness about him that maybe even he had locked away and forgotten with the chaos of this new world.

  Kelly looked into her daughter’s eyes, wondering how much more of this insanity she could take, then glanced over at Mary and Erica, both of whom had the same forlorn expressions on their faces as she probably did. Kelly pushed her shoulders back and planted her feet firmly on the deck of the houseboat. “I’m not going to make you any promises like Engel did. We have enough food, medical supplies, and ammo to last here for a while, plus we can fish off the river. This place is remote and surrounded by miles of marsh that I doubt will be disturbed by anyone or anything. We must focus on the life we have here—and we will make it through each day.” She didn’t know what else to say and knew she was making some of this up as she went along, but Kelly felt like she had to hold things together for her own sanity and for Cassie’s wellbeing.

  “Let’s get the supplies from the speedboat unloaded and figure out exactly how much of everything we have.” Kelly rested a hand on Mary’s shoulder as she walked past the woman, whose hands were still trembling. They exchanged glances then Mary nodded and picked up a green duffle bag and hoisted it onto the deck of the houseboat. Kelly moved to the weapons crate beside Erica, offering her a hand up from the deck. “Being a nurse, I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but I saw a pack of Marlboros on the kitchen counter.”

  Erica offered her a firm grip as she stood and then let out a pleased sigh before stepping onto the houseboat.

  Kelly remembered the Raggedy Ann doll she had tucked in between her shirts. She carefully removed it, pulling the crumpled figure out and handing it to Cassie. The weary child ran a single finger along the yarn-like locks of yellow hair without any expression, then pulled the doll into her side the way that Kelly had carried her during their escape. Kelly put her arm around Cassie, looking up at the morning sky and staring at the low cumulus clouds in the distance. She kept searching the horizon in vain for some glimmer of hope that they would ever find their way back to the husband and father they both loved. She remembered her husband’s words during their last phone conversation as the pandemic was unfolding.

  I will get home to you and Cassie—no matter how long it takes or how far away you are. I will find you!

  Kelly let her shoulders sag as she unleashed a sigh that seemed to take her soul with it. I will never see you again, will I? This world has taken so much, even hope—even you, Tom. She clenched her fist, hoping she was wrong as she fought back the tears, staring at the horizon again one last time for some sign that he was coming—the vision of a helicopter swooping down to rescue them, or Ivins walking in on foot with his SEALs. She prayed for his arrival as she had in days past, then felt his consoling words slowly trickle away. When she could bear the thought of his absence no more, she released her grip and turned around to rejoin the others, who were sorting through crates in the kitchen. Looking down at Cassie, she felt grateful that her daughter was still by her side. This is our life now. We must focus on the present if we are to make it through each day. This is how your life is going to be, Kelly—survive each day until that time when we can live again.

  Chapter 45

  Two days after the battles around the nation, Roland was sitting in the darkness at the rear of the wine cellar on the third level of his estate. His mind was recovering from the massive output of energy required to orchestrate the attack on MacDill, and he had found it necessary to triple his intake of the synthetic hormones to meet his daily requirements. He had just completed collating the information obtained around the world from his other alphas and had informed them of their orders for the coming days. There were more military strongholds and bases to assess, this time in Western Europe, Africa, and Russia, so he could slow the spread of the deadly aerosol on a large scale. He knew that the Others would continue to manufacture the bioweapon, and his goal now was the prevention of widespread destruction of his brood rather than an attempt at all-out extermination of the Others. The battle for MacDill had taught him many things about fighting tactics, but it had also shown him the limitations of his telepathic abilities while his mind was pulled in so many directions. It had also shown him that it was possible to reduce the heat signatures of the alphas to prevent their detection, though he had discovered that immersion in cold water wasn’t the only way to achieve that effect. He glanced down at his thick forearm and mentally withdrew the teeming river of parasites from beneath his flesh; the sudden absence of their friction in his surface capillaries caused an immediate cooling effect on his skin. Roland had been manipulating the presence of worms in his extremities for some time this morning and could now grasp how much parasitic activity he required in each limb to keep it from growing numb from cold, even down to being able to control micro-sections of skin or the tips of his fingers. He could then extend this ability to his chest, causing the considerable mass of worms writhing in his midsection to slow their passage long enough to drop his core temperature. When he had determined the correct flow rate in his capillaries to substantially alter his heat output, he sat back and opened his mind to the other alphas throughout the world to relay the information.

  His mind pulled back from his other alphas around the nation as the door of the cellar creaked open. He saw blackened fingers on the handle followed by the charred form of Katherine emerging into the light. Her face was no longer smooth and instead showed dark fissures that resembled plowed soil. There was a crater where her nose had been, and her hair was completely gone except for a burnt clump behind her right ear. He saw the stump where her shoulder socket had once been, the end of which had sealed up with a mass of parasites forming a latticework over the wound. She hobbled into the cellar, extending her only arm up to him as she moved forward.

  Roland held her hand, then ran his fingers over her carbonized cheeks, staring into her eyes. “This battle has been too costly,” he whispered as he turned and walked alongside her. He motioned for her to sit down then handed her a vial of synthetic hormone. She greedily tore off the lid as the thick parasite burst out of her mouth and lapped up the contents, then she reached for another and consumed it in seconds.

  “Our enemy’s capabilities at the base are depleted.” He looked away, lowering his head. “But we have suffered greatly—tens of thousands of our brood are gone forever, leaving our border to the south exposed.” He pounded his fist on the table, rocking the glass vials. “This new weapon of theirs has taken too many. We will not be able to engage in large-scale assaults like this again. Instead we must splinter off into smaller groups that are spread out to prevent the complete annihilation of the brood throughout the world.”

  The others like me that were at the base—they are all dead too, Katherine whispered regretfully into his mind.

  “I know.” He took her hand, helping her to stand, then walked beside her to the dim recesses of the cellar. Stepping behind a row of wine casks, he stood next to a steel table where the body of Rose was lying. Attached to her arm was an IV; her breath was barely evident as they moved closer. Roland stroked the young woman’s auburn hair then traced his fingers up the tubing to the IV bag, which contained a gray solution that wriggled with parasites. He glanced down at the old puncture mark in his own forearm then b
ack to his sister.

  “She and others like her will enable us to grow stronger again and will be the gateway to an army of superior beings—even beyond my abilities.”

  THE END

  Take a sneak peek at Book 5 in the series:

  EMERGENCE

  Extinction

  By JT Sawyer

  Prologue

  Six Days after the Battle for MacDill

  The airborne landing in the grassy meadow had gone smoothly, and Reisner coiled up his parachute, stowing it under a fallen maple tree near the edge of the forest. He waited in the dark for the rest of the twelve-man team to regroup at his location. Along with Connelly, Nash, and Porter, the remainder of his new assault team was comprised of a mish-mash of personnel from the Army Rangers, Air Force Para-Rescue, and MARSOC. Two days ago, Dorr had tasked his group with one objective: discover if there was indeed a super-alpha at the secluded countryside estate on the outskirts of Savannah, Georgia. However, fourteen hours ago that changed when the heat signatures of all of the drones and a dozen alphas suddenly disappeared. Reisner’s mind still swirled with theories on what had happened, and it was disconcerting that even Selene was unsure what had occurred that instantly obliterated any trace of the paras or their current whereabouts. The same thing had occurred in dozens of other locations around the world where there had been prominent clusters of creatures, and Reisner was in search of the answer. The surrounding countryside near Savannah had been the scene of numerous attacks on civilian and military convoys before the attack on MacDill, which led General Dorr’s intel staff to focus on this region. Further investigation revealed that a number of straggling drones and alphas had crossed into Georgia after the battle, with their direction of travel leaning towards Savannah. Whatever was going on here was enough to raise plenty of red flags for Dorr, and Reisner agreed that they needed boots on the ground to determine if this was the para epicenter. Reisner’s teams, along with a Predator drone overhead for support, would hopefully be the surgical instruments for slicing through the mysteries engulfing this area.