by Maxey, Phil
Contents
Title page
Copyright
Disclaimer
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Thank you
5 DAYS TO ENDURE
Extinction Gene Book 2
by
Phil Maxey
Copyright © 2021 by Philip Maxey
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
First Printing, 2021.
https://www.philmaxeyauthor.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales, is purely coincidental.
CHAPTER ONE
7: 42 p.m, December 15th.
Just outside Rocky Pine, highway 34.
Day 2.
Meg’s pickup lifted slightly as Landon and Daryl jumped down from the back. Jess watched them through a steamed up window, run up the small snow-covered bank towards the white-blue 80s pickup. It was parked alongside the silhouette of a house. Its dark windows as dead as the forest which bordered the highway they were on. Their headlights lit the falling snow, which tried to gather on the vehicle’s windows, but quickly melted due to the seven people desperately trying to stay warm inside the cabin.
Josh shivered. He was sat on her lap while Sam was to her right. Her son was twice his size due to the triple layer of clothes he wore, including a woolen hat and gloves.
“Rub your hands together.” Josh sleepily did and Jess watched Landon outside use the stock of his rifle to break the driver’s side window of the old truck. The sound was muted due to the wind and the idling engine, but each person in the cabin strained their eyes to see the slightest of movements in the void around them.
Daryl who was standing at the back of the abandoned truck looked nervous.
“How long we going to be here,” said Sam to anyone with an answer.
“Daryl and Dad can’t stay in the back any longer. It’s too cold,” said Jess. “We need another vehicle.”
“But we’re not far from the—”
A screeching sound, distant but distinct came from somewhere beyond the house. Daryl and Landon appeared from behind the other pickup, waving their weapons at the two-story structure, then backtracked all the way to Meg’s pickup. Her window was already open.
“We can’t get it started,” said Landon. His head flicked to the wall of darkness which lay just beyond the two-lane road. “And we can’t stay here any longer. We need to go.” He noticed Jess’s pained expression in the seat behind Meg. “There’ll be another truck.” She nodded and he joined Daryl in the bed in the back, immediately wrapping themselves in sheets and tarpaulin to try to keep the weather at bay. Meg pulled off as fast as she could with the weight her pickup was carrying, and was soon leaving the unnatural sounds behind.
Jess wasn’t the only one to sigh in relief once a few moments had passed and they were back moving at speed along the highway.
Twelve hours…
That’s how long she calculated it would take for them to get to Missouri. If it were a normal road trip, they would have a few breaks and be there by 10 a.m. But she had no idea what was ‘out there.’ The radio was just constant white noise. Not exactly encouraging.
Convincing the others for the need for the journey had been easy. She and Landon showed the video to the rest in the shack, and each realized there was no choice but to leave, and sooner the better. To trek across three states to find a vaccine that would stop them from turning into monsters. It was an easy sell and the clock was ticking on all of them.
As they moved along a sweeping bend, the pickup’s headlights slid past a large cabin style building, nestled amongst the pines. A wide sign on its front proudly announced ‘bed and breakfast.’
“I would kill for a bed, right now,” said Arlene, scrunched up to the right of Sam, Grace the same near the window.
“I know… knew the owners,” said Meg. She quickly moved her eyes from the dark windows, back to the road. “Good people…”
Jess wanted to suggest they could still be alive. Perhaps they were hunkered down in a basement, with supplies, perhaps… But no words left her lips.
“What’s that?” said Sam, her eyes spotting the dark block-like shape directly ahead of them before anyone else.
A bang came on the small rear window, a signal that had already been agreed to indicate that those in the back had seen something, and Meg should stop the pickup. She slowed as the headlights revealed the back of a motorhome, roughly twenty yards ahead. The cream and brown colored vehicle was parked across the lanes.
Landon and Daryl jumped down, both wrapping their gloved hands around their elbows to keep warm. Meg pulled down her window, inviting the swirling flecks of snow inside once again.
“We’re going to check it out,” said Landon. Meg nodded and he unslung his rifle, then with Daryl, slowly walked forward. He looked out into the wall of darkness surrounding them, the peaks of mountains just visible against the slightly lighter sky.
“Side door’s open!” said Daryl, looking down the right side of the twenty-foot long vehicle.
As they neared the back, Landon noticed a brown smear which glistened in the lights from Meg’s pickup. “The thing’s have been—”
A noise came from within the motorhome, making them both flick their weapons towards it. Landon pointed for Daryl to go down one side, while he would move along the opposite, and both men crunched through the few inches of snow as quietly as they could. Drapes covered the left side window, and what gaps to the interior there were lacked any light. The noise repeated and he was sure he detected a slight waver of the vehicle on its wheels. Something was moving inside. He kept on moving, quickly getting to the driver’s window and looked in. A drape sat at the partition between the cab and the living quarters, but that’s not what caught his eye, for just visible in the gloom were a set of keys in the ignition.
Light suddenly came from behind the cab’s curtain.
“Landon!” said Daryl. “Got someone alive back here.”
Taking a chance, Landon pulled the driver’s door open and climbed inside. The change in temperature brought with it the stench he was now used to. The mark that the creatures had been inside the motorhome. He pushed the curtain to one side.
Daryl was kneeled next to a thirtysomething man, more dead than alive. Daryl swept his flashlight across the more complete parts of the person’s anatomy, then back up to the poor man’s blinking eyes. “It’s okay buddy, you sleep now.” A rasp came from the man’s throat. Daryl leaned in closer.
“Have… they… gone…”
Daryl looked at Landon then back to the man. “Yeah, think—” The man’s eyes were closed, his chest static.
“Must have been im
mune,” said Landon. “The others turned and attacked him…”
As the wind howled outside, Daryl remained looking at the body. “I know what you’re thinking… Arlene’s going to change.”
“You should know better than any of us, what that means if it happens while we’re driving.”
Daryl looked up at the older man. “How do you know she’s not immune also? And what we gonna do? Just leave her on the side of the—”
A roar, not dissimilar to what they heard a few miles back echoed around the hills. Daryl stood and both men looked through the open doorway to the darkness outside.
“They’re probably not far. Might be tracking us,” said Landon. He turned to the cab. “The keys are still in the ignition. I’ll see how much fuel is left. Tell the others.”
Daryl crouched again, grabbing the shoulders of the man, pulling him outside. Footsteps made him spin around, dropping the body.
Arlene stopped abruptly on seeing the dead man, then looked at Daryl. “Is it working?”
Another roar came from much closer, the sound of branches breaking coming with it. Daryl went to reply when the tailgate lights lit up, followed by the engine.
“Get in!” shouted Landon from inside.
Arlene ran forward, her boot moving to the bottom step just as a guttural screech split the air. Daryl bundled her inside, pulling the door closed behind him. “Drive!” he shouted.
CHAPTER TWO
8: 15 p.m. Highway 34.
Static burst from Landon’s radio. “We’re approaching the west side of the town of Walland,” said Meg. “We can go around, but it will add at least another hour to the journey. Over.”
He looked at Jess in the motorhome’s passenger’s seat. “What do you want to do?” She knew they had the time if it had been just another trip, but she wanted to arrive in Missouri with hours to spare. She gestured for the radio and he gave it to her.
“How long will it take us to get through it? Over.”
“Normally, ten minutes. There’s another small town just after. Usually five for that. We should be back on the highway in twenty… Over.”
Jess looked at the dark single-story warehouses and barns they were already passing. She clicked the ‘talk’ button again. “Let’s do it. Over.” Landon looked at her with a nod.
Steering around a long bend they immediately had to slow. Dark shapes of vehicles sat across the two-lane road. To the right, the motorhome’s headlights illuminated a green sign.
‘Shepards elementary school.’
The three-story building sat solemnly to their left as they slowly drove past. A silver sedan was perched on the base of a statue’s plinth, its fender crunched, its passenger’s door open.
They kept on going.
In the surrounding fields, distant rectangular shapes were dark against the sky, which was awash with heavy clumps of swirling snow. A smart looking farm house passed by.
“Hey, stop! There’s a light!” said Arlene, from somewhere in the back of the motorhome.
“Light? Where?” said Landon, easing down on the breaks.
“The house we just passed. There was a light in the upstairs window. It went off as soon as I saw it, but it was there.”
He looked to Jess. “Maybe we should stop? See who’s there?”
Jess looked at her watch then nodded. After letting those in the other vehicle know, they stopped, then backed up to the entrance to the small farmstead. A sign advertized logs and fresh eggs for sale, and farm equipment was parked alongside open barns.
Landon slid his window down and looked back at the house, which was almost lost to shadow and the wall of white flakes. “I can’t see anymore movement back…” A light sparkled in the window above the wrap around porch.
“Did you see it?”
“Yeah. I think someone’s trying to get our attention.” He looked back again to Daryl seated behind the small drop down table. “Stay here, I’ll go check it—”
A commotion came from Meg’s vehicle, shouting followed by a door being opened and closed. Landon’s radio came to life. “Owen’s conscious. Wants to know where Abby is…” said Meg.
Landon sighed just as a heavy knocking came on the side door. “Let him in,” he said to Daryl. Jess quickly got out of her seat and joined Josh and Sam on the padded seat opposite the table.
As soon as Daryl unlatched the door it flung open, a flurry of snow entering the confined space. Owen, with a bandage over the side of his head, his eyes sunken, angrily started to move up the steps, but grimaced and grabbed the frame for support. He leaned inside, looking left and right at the faces looking back at him. “Where is she! Where’s Abby!”
Meg’s voice came from Landon’s radio. “I’m going to see what’s up with the light in this house. Over.”
“Hold on. I’ll go with you. Over,” said Landon.
Owen awkwardly walked up the steps. “Where…” He grimaced in pain again. “Is she!” He looked for answers amongst those around him, but only Landon would meet his gaze.
“She’s dead…”
“What?”
“The things got her back in Rocky Pine,” said Jess. Owen’s head flicked back to her. He then fell backwards against the small wall to the driving cabin. “There was nothing we could do for her… I’m sorry.”
Landon pushed open the driver’s door. “I’m going to check out the house.” He then got out. The icy flakes stung his face, making him immediately pull his hood over his head. He looked out into the gloom and spotted Meg’s form moving through the open gate, towards the house, her shotgun barrel’s already leading the way to the front door. He scampered after her, stomping through the foot of snow, eventually catching up just as she arrived at the deck. Both pulled their hood’s down on stepping on the frozen wooden steps.
Meg reached for the handle then slowly turned it. The door opened and she let it swing back. They both listened best they could against the wind for any sign of life, but only silence inhabited the hallway. Framed pictures of an elderly couple wearing boots, holding shovels, smiling happily while surrounded by various farm animals looked back at Landon as he shone his flashlight across them. A creak made him flick it towards the stairs, some ten feet away.
Silently they stepped across the rugs, then hardwood boards, and shifted their expectations to the steps, raising the light to the top, where a young boy stood.
“Have you come to rescue me?”
“What’s your name?”
“Tye McKinley, sir.”
“You alone in this house?”
He nodded.
“Where’s your parents?” said Meg.
“They… are in the city. I was staying here with my grandparents, but… they left.”
“Left?” said Landon.
“They went outside… and never came back. That was this morning…”
Meg looked at Landon. “We could stock up on supplies here.”
He nodded then looked back to the boy. “I’m Landon, this is Meg. You got a bag to pack some things in? Clothes and stuff?” He nodded. “Good, get packing. Yes, we’re here to rescue you.”
*****
8: 48 p.m. Outskirts of Walland.
Jess looked at her watch. She couldn’t believe that an hour had passed since she last looked at it. It felt like a few minutes. It didn’t help that there was nothing to see outside, due to the increasing blanket of white flakes amongst the absolute dark. The world’s mood which started with an angry storm in Denver had become a resigned whiteout. Her map told her they were passing through the town of Walland, but beyond the hardworking windshield wipers the motorhome’s headlights provided no confirmation.
The cold will keep the monsters away…
There was no certainty in the thought, just hope that the darkness inches from their windows contained nothing of danger.
Their engine pitch increased as the wheels fought for grip, and Landon steered left and right to correct the lateral movement that kept threatening to take over.
He looked at the fuel gauge. The needle had fallen from orange into red. “We should look for a gas station,” he said to Jess. “Or at least syphon some fuel from parked vehicles.” She nodded and he passed the idea to Meg on the radio.
At the outer edges of the cones of light from the two vehicles, sidewalks slid by with the occasional glimpse of a partially snow submerged advertising boarding, mentioning rooms to rent or ten percent off the lunch buffet.
“Should be gas stations around here,” she said. “We’re on the main route through the—”
Landon slammed on the brakes, causing the back of the vehicle to move out while sliding towards the fallen traffic light poles that stretched across their path. They slid to a stop, gently bumping up against the metal constructions which creaked and clanged on contact. He looked to his wife then the others behind. “Everyone alright?”
The kids, Arlene and Daryl nodded they were. Owen had decided to stay in Meg’s pickup.
He went to click on his radio when the sound of the other vehicle came from his left, pulling up alongside.
“You all okay in there? Over,” said Meg. She was just visible leaning across Grace in the passenger’s seat.
He nodded to her then held his radio to his mouth. “We’re low on fuel. There should be a gas station on one of these corners. Can you see any? Over.” He saw her leaning forward to better see through the ice built up on her windshield.
“Looks like something to the left. I’ll drive there. Over.”
Landon looked to his wife. “How we doing on time?”
She forced a smile. “Fine.” It was a truth that felt wrong. She wanted to be in Missouri already, or at least on the highway moving away from the blizzard. She looked outside to the torrent of falling snow. “Be happier when we’re moving again.”