Erebus: An Apocalyptic Thriller

by Steven Bird

  As the aircraft crossed over dry land for the first time in many hours, the left engine went silent and the propeller slowed.

  ���Shit,��� Mark said as he pulled the prop control lever into the feather position, turning the blade into the wind, allowing the engine to reduce its aerodynamic drag from the windmilling effect it was creating.

  Seeing that the propeller next to her was no longer moving, Tasha became very nervous and tightened her seatbelt.

  ���It won���t just fall out of the sky,��� Mason explained as he looked to the right, seeing that the right engine was still running.

  ���No joy in getting a response,��� Brett said. ���I���ve tried them all.���

  Applying rudder pressure into the side with the good engine, Mark straightened the aircraft in order to reduce the drag associated with a side-slipping tendency, caused by the off-center thrust condition of being down to only one engine.

  ���There she is,��� Mark said. ���There���s Mount Pleasant.���

  No sooner than the words left his lips did the right engine go silent, windmilling in the air.

  ���Shit!��� Mark said as he feathered the prop on the right engine as well. Pitching the aircraft to control his airspeed to his best-glide speed and turning the plane back toward the sea, he said, ���I���m gonna make for that sandy strip of beach beside that old white barn with the red roof. It may be a little rocky, but it���s the closest thing to a runway that we���ve got.���

  Turning to Brett, he dialed a frequency into the radio and said, ���Start transmitting a MAYDAY call. Don���t stop transmitting until you need to cover your head and brace.���

  Turning to the passengers behind them, Mark said, ���I want everyone to cinch their seatbelts down tightly. When we are near touchdown, put your head down below the seats and cover your head with the your hands. This may be uneventful, but it may not be, either.���

  Gliding the now silent DHC-6 toward the shoreline, Mark turned to Brett and said, ���That���s enough, mate. Those buggers aren���t going to answer. Prepare yourself.���

  Looking over his shoulder one final time, he said to those in the back, ���Again, folks, I���m terribly sorry. Brace yourselves, and God bless.���

  As the Twin Otter flew over the shoreline, gliding silently along, Dr. Graves fought through the pain in her knee to bend her leg in order to get into the brace position. Taking one last look out the window, she could see they were just about to touch down. What appeared to be a sandy beach from a distance, was now clearly strewn with large, jagged rocks amidst the sand.

  As the main wheels touched down, her heart sank as she felt an impact, shearing the nose gear off, and sending the aircraft into a violent, devastating tumble.

  Bashing her head against a hard object, she saw the brilliant morning sun, and then, darkness…

  Chapter Thirty-One

  ���Dr. Graves. Dr. Graves, can you hear me?��� a man���s voice said as a light shone into her right eye, moving quickly to her left. The pain in her head was severe. It was unlike any headache she had ever felt.

  ���Dr. Graves, can you hear me?��� the voice again said, followed by unintelligible mumbling in the background.

  With the blurriness in her eyes starting to clear, she could make out the figure of a man standing over her with a bright light behind him.

  Attempting to move her arm to shield herself from the light, the man gently stopped her and said, ���Now, now, don���t you be moving around too much just yet.���

  Reaching up and turning off the light above him, he said, ���Can you hear me?���

  Nodding yes in reply, she heard him say, ���Good. Very good.���

  As the room swirled around her, she saw figures moving about, and heard voices; yet, she couldn���t make out who they were or what they were saying.

  Leaning in closer, the voice that had spoken directly to her only moments ago, said, ���Just lie still. We���re going to give you something for the pain.���

  With the room still spinning, Dr. Graves once again drifted off into darkness.

  ~~~~

  ���Dr. Graves. Are you awake?��� she heard. Feeling less pain, she opened her eyes to find that her focus was now coming back to her. Seeing a man in his mid-fifties, with peppery gray hair and wearing a physician���s coat, she managed to say, ���Nathan. Where���s Nathan and the others?���

  ���Dr. Hunter is in the room next door. He���s going to be fine, but he���s a little banged up, as you are.���

  ���Who are you? Where am I?��� she asked.

  ���I���m Dr. Harrison. I���m a flight surgeon with the RAF here in Mount Pleasant. You are at our RAF medical facility. You���ve been unconscious for quite some time.���

  ���What? How long?��� she asked.

  ���Almost three weeks, I���m afraid. You suffered quite a serious blow to your head. We were afraid you wouldn���t come out of it, but your friend, Dr. Gerald Bentley, spoke very highly of you and said nothing could keep you down.���

  ���Gerald? Where is Gerald?���

  ���I���m afraid you���ve missed him,��� Dr. Harrison explained. ���He was able to catch a ride on an RAF transport back to England, or what���s left of it, anyway. He wanted to assist with the efforts back there with the new-found information your detailed work provided.���

  ���My work? What?��� she asked, still in a daze from her pain medicine.

  Seeing a nurse push a wheelchair through the door, Dr. Harrison said, ���Well, I���ve taken up enough of your time. It seems you have a visitor.��� Turning to walk away, he said, ���I���ll come back to check on you later.���

  Looking toward the door, her eyes welled up with tears of joy as she saw Nathan Hunter being wheeled into the room. Reaching out from her bed, she cried and said, ���Oh, Nathan! Thank God!���

  Embracing her from his chair, he hugged her and then felt her push him back, as she began frantically looking him over.

  ���I���m going to be fine,��� he said. ���I���m a bit banged up, but it���s nothing a few screws, a cast, and staples couldn���t fix.���

  ���What about the others? Where are the others?��� she asked, desperately wanting to know.

  Looking away for a moment, Dr. Hunter wiped a tear from his eye and said, ���Mark and Brett… they were in the front, so, they didn���t have a chance. Walt Perkins was thrown clear of the aircraft. He was in the ICU for several days, but has been moved to a regular room. He suffered quite a few internal injuries, but is expected to recover. Mason, that lucky bastard, somehow walked away unscathed. Tasha is fine other than some bumps and bruises, and so is Gerald. He has a broken arm, but that���s nothing, considering the possible outcomes. You were thrown from the fuselage, just as Walt was when the airplane started to tumble. It seems you hit your head quite hard. Luckily, for those of us who remained trapped inside, there was no fire, since the plane had completely exhausted its fuel.���

  Taking a moment to contemplate the deaths of both Mark and Brett, she asked, ���What did he mean when he referred to the new-found information that Gerald ran off to England with? And what did he mean when he said, ���what���s left of England���?���

  ���The world is in pretty rough shape. The microbes���well, they spread like wildfire once they got to warmer climates just as we���d feared. New Zealand, which was basically ground zero once you got off Antarctica, was completely decimated. It���s a no-go zone. It spread from there as they unknowingly transferred patients back to their home countries, spreading it even further. The
re almost isn���t a place on this entire planet that hasn���t been touched by it now. The death toll is staggering. I… I just can���t imagine what the future will hold, and the battle isn���t over yet.���

  Hearing a knock at the door, Dr. Hunter turned to see someone patiently waiting to enter. Waving him in, Dr. Hunter pushed his wheelchair back from her bed to give the man room. Introducing him, he said, ���Linda, this is Dr. Simon Kelly. He���s made great advancements with your work.���

  ���Dr. Graves,��� the man said, taking her hand. ���I���m so glad to finally meet you. As Dr. Hunter was saying, your very detailed notes from your studies, taken while hiding away in the Crary Lab and beyond, have had a profound impact on our work here. No matter what we tried, we just couldn���t make any headway in trying to figure out how to stop this menace.

  ���Your notes, though, and the samples you recovered, throughout their various stages of development, well, that���s just something we didn���t have. Most of the specimens obtainable beyond New Zealand had already morphed into what they are today, erasing the clues we needed to discover their weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Your work has led us to be ever so close to solving the problem of how to eradicate them without killing our entire planet in the process. With your help, once you feel up to it, of course, I know we can fill in the gaps and get on with the business of saving what���s left of the world.���

  Giving her a moment to process it all, he looked her in the eye and asked, ���Can we count you in? Will you join our team?���

  ���Under one condition,��� she replied.

  Taken aback by her statement, Dr. Kelly asked, ���And what might that be?���

  ���The project must be named in honor of Vasily Fedorov. Without him… without him willingly sacrificing himself so that the rest of us could escape, there would be no hope for the future. We owe him everything.���

  ~~~~The End~~~~

  A Note from the Author

  Unless you skipped to the end, you���ve just completed Erebus. Erebus had been clawing its way out of my brain for quite some time, even while I was working on other books. It had been so persistent, I had to finally set it free. To be honest, it has become my favorite work to date. I fell in love with Antarctica, MEVO, McMurdo Station, Black Island, and the brave and adventurous men and women who call it their temporary home while working on important research projects that are sure to benefit us all. I owe them all a debt of gratitude for being my inspiration.

  I���ve got several more uncompleted books trying to burst out of my head that will make the shelves in the coming year. In no particular order of release, they consist of a third book in the Society Lost Series, an addition to The New Homefront Series, and another apocalyptic sci-fi thriller based on particle physics. Give me a shout and let me know what you want to see next.

  If I have not had the honor of making your acquaintance and if you like my work, please find me on Facebook at http://facebook.com/stvbird

  and at my blog/website at http://www.stevencbird.com. You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/stevencbird. In addition, my Amazon author page can be found at http://www.amazon.com/Steven-Bird/e/B00LRYYBDU/ where you can see all my available work.

  I look forward to hearing from each and every one of you, and may God bless you and your loved ones in all of your future endeavors.

  Respectfully,

  Steven C. Bird

  About the Author

  Steven Bird was born in 1973, deep in the Appalachian Mountains of Harlan County, Kentucky. Upon graduation from high school, he joined the U. S. Navy where he served eleven years on active duty, obtaining the rank of Chief Petty Officer before transferring to the Navy Reserves. Transferring to the reserves allowed him to pursue a professional flying career while continuing to serve his country. He ultimately retired with just over twenty years of service.

  While on active duty, he earned a BS degree in eBusiness, as well as all the professional flight certificates necessary to begin his new career. Once in the reserves, he worked as a flight instructor, charter pilot, airline first officer, airline captain, and is currently the captain of a super-midsized business jet based out of Knoxville, Tennessee.

  Steven, along with his wife, son, and two young daughters, currently lives on a farm on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee where they raise horses, cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks, turkeys, and bees, as well as grow their own fruits and vegetables.

  In addition, they are currently pursuing their dream of building an off-grid, self-sustainable home, as well as developing the land to suit their desire for a true self-sufficient lifestyle.

  Over the years, he has been heavily involved in competitive shooting, off-road motorcycle racing, snowboarding, hiking, camping, hunting, fishing, and, of course, writing.

  Steven Bird is a self-sufficiency-minded individual with a passion for independence and individual liberty. He puts his passion into his writing where he conveys the things that he feels are important in life, intertwined with action-packed adventure and the struggles of humanity.

  More from the Author

  Full-Length Novels (Note: All full-length novels are available on Kindle, Paperback, and Audiobook via Audible, Amazon, and iTunes)

  The Last Layover: The New Homefront, Volume One

  My first work, written casually on a smartphone, and the book that sent my life in a new direction.

  The Guardians: The New Homefront, Volume Two

  The Blue Ridge Resistance: The New Homefront, Volume Three

  The Resolution: The New Homefront, Volume Four

  Viking One: A New Homefront Novel

  The Shepherd: Society Lost, Volume One

  Betrayal: Society Lost, Volume Two

  Kindle Worlds Novellas: (Note: Amazon���s Kindle Worlds novellas are only available on Kindle, as well as tablets and smartphones with the Amazon Kindle app.)

  Civility Lost: A Perseid Collapse Novella

  JET: Dangerous Prey