Escaping Extinction - The Extinction Series Book 5: A Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Survival Series

by Tara Ellis

  There was a clicking sound from behind him, and a long beam of light exposed the empty space up ahead. Glancing back over his shoulder, Tyler saw that Jess had picked up a huge flashlight that must have been left just inside the door. Relieved, he relaxed his shoulders and grinned at her. “Um…it looks clear, I guess.”

  Jess smiled back and then panned the light around the room. “Agreed. Thanks, Rambo.”

  Embarrassed, he lowered the rifle and narrowed his eyes at her, still unsure of how to read her sarcasm. With Devon it was easy, but not so much with Jess. To avoid any further eye-contact, he instead looked around at the tables and cabinets that filled the space. It looked like mostly junk to him.

  “This way,” Jess ordered, walking toward one of three doors that lined the far wall. Relieved to move beyond the moment, Tyler scurried after her.

  Outside the storeroom was a large floodlight set up with a battery to power it. “Help me drag it in,” Jess said, grabbing one side of the battery pack. Surprised by the weight, Tyler helped carry it into the room, and then winced at the harsh light when she turned it on.

  “There’s a generator around back,” she explained, shifting the lamp so that it shone directly onto the boxes and shelves that lined the walls. “But it’s a big gas-guzzler, and since no one is sleeping out here right now, I don’t know if it even has any gas in it. It’s easier just to use this.”

  “How do you know what to take from here, and what to leave?” Tyler asked, looking over the supplies. He wouldn’t even know where to begin.

  Walking over to the nearest shelf, Jess grabbed a notebook from it and waved it in the air. “Not because I’m super-smart or anything. More like obsessed. I’ve been dreaming about cans of tuna and jars of peanut butter attacking me for the past week. I guess now at least I’ll be dreaming about jaguars.”

  Tyler’s eyes widened as he took the notepad and saw the handwritten lines of information. He relaxed a little more, deciding her style of sarcasm was most definitely like Devon’s. “You’re very, um…thorough.”

  Chortling, Jess took the list back. “You don’t have to try so hard to be nice to me. Here,” she gave him an empty box. “Can you go to the numbered section I tell you to, and grab the things we need?”

  The next hour passed quickly, with them working easily and methodically together. Jess didn’t try to fill the empty gaps with needless conversation, which was a huge relief to Tyler. He’d often felt awkward when he was around other kids and they expected him to keep them entertained.

  Carrying the fourth full box out into the main room, he sat it down next to the others and stretched. He was hoping everyone else would have been back by then, so they could have made faster work of everything. While they still had a couple of hours left before it was dark, it was close to dinnertime and he wanted to be inside before twilight. After being around Peta, Jason, and Eddy for so long, Tyler found himself constantly looking for them. It was weird, how strangers could become so dependent on each other like that.

  “I hope they find the radio,” Jess said. Turning, he saw she was leaning against the doorway, holding a new box. “This should be the last one,” she said, holding it up. “We’re almost done.”

  “Ugh, it’s about time.” Taking the empty box, his brows furrowed as he thought about the radio. “Do you really think it’ll still be at the police station?”

  Jess nodded her head, flipping to the next page in her book. “One bag of flour, section ten,” she directed. She tapped the page with her finger as Tyler went to the proper shelf. “I think it’ll be there. There aren’t many people around here that would even want a radio, let alone know how to use it. I went there once with my dad, to get their frequency. It isn’t the normal radio they used to communicate with each other around town, of course, so it was kept in a cabinet. It should be there.”

  Tyler paused with the bag of flour still in his hand. He hadn’t allowed himself to think much about the radio, and what getting one back there and working would mean. His stomach suddenly felt unsettled again.

  “You said earlier that you’d lost both of your parents,” Jess said, her voice lacking its normal conviction. “But I heard Peta saying something to Devon about your dad before they left. That he’s at that CDC lab?”

  Tyler dropped the flour in the box and then set it on the floor before turning around. “He’s sick. With The Kuru. We…I left him at the lab because the guy there had come up with a sort of treatment that might—” he looked away, and then busied himself with picking the box back up. “I don’t know if he’s still alive, but that’s why finding a cure is so important to me.”

  Jess was silent for so long, that Tyler looked back to make sure she was still in the room. She was staring down at the notebook, wiping at her nose. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. Shifting her head, she squinted at him like she was in physical pain. “You must think I’m pretty selfish, being all upset when at least my dad is still alive, and now I also have Jason here wanting to help me. I’m glad you guys are here, but I’m sorry it’s because all that stuff happened to you.” Her face settling into an expression of determination, she crossed the space between them and grabbed hold of his arm. “We’re going to find the cure. I know we will.”

  Tyler knew it was silly to believe her. She was a fourteen-year-old girl he’d known for less than a day. But as he found himself nodding his head in agreement, he felt better than he had since the first day of the eruption. Jess’s unwavering certainty was contagious, and it was as if everything he’d been through had brought him to that place and time, and he was where he was meant to be.

  “We’re going to find it,” Tyler repeated. As she dropped his arm, he lifted the box, eager to finish before they returned with the radio. He was suddenly overwhelmed with the need to contact Garrett at the CDC.

  He was ready to find out if his dad was dead or alive.

  Chapter 8

  PETA

  Amazon Jungle near Kumalu, Suriname

  The road to the Libi Nati Preserve

  Her growing hunger was the first thing to alert Peta that it was getting late in the day. Until then she’d been able to lose herself in the manual labor of dragging car parts off the road, after the nasty task of carrying the bodies into the jungle was done.

  Peta had been shocked to see that they were still there, right where they’d fallen the night before. It was twelve hours since the attack, so Jason and Paul both agreed it was very unlikely anyone was coming to claim them. After a brief discussion it was decided to find a spot a decent distance from the road, and cover them as best they could with rocks. Burying them at the preserve would be a risk, if anyone did come looking for them. For the same reason, they couldn’t really go driving around with three bodies in the bed of the truck to find another patch of ground to dig up.

  Peta shuddered, unable to shake off the feeling that they’d done something horribly wrong. She knew, logically, that those men were dead because they’d tried to kill them first. That they were still showing them as much respect as they could. Yet, it didn’t matter. She’d never be able to rid herself of the memories from that afternoon, and it was one more experience she’d have to try and bury…literally.

  “Hey.”

  Peta looked up to find Jason staring at her, not bothering to try and hide his concern. He gestured to the piece of bumper she had clasped tightly in her hands. “Want me to take that for you?”

  Glancing over at the truck they’d left parked in the middle of the road, she then looked down at her hands. The deep gashes in her fingers from where the rifle cut into them during the accident were starting to scab over. She should have listened to Jason and put Band-Aids on them, but she’d been as stubborn as usual, and said they were fine. They weren’t fine, and her shoulder and ribs weren’t fine, and nothing about their current situation was fine.

  “Peta?” Jason tried again, stepping in closer and taking hold of the wreckage. “I wish you hadn’t come out here. You didn’t need
to.”

  A flash of anger caused her to yank the bumper back, and she stomped away with it toward the truck. “Then who? If I didn’t do it, someone else would have had to, or else it wouldn’t get done today. If we want to keep a low-profile and get along with the people left out here, having dead bodies in the driveway isn’t a good way to start off.” Throwing the piece of hard plastic, she flinched when it crashed against the metal scraps already in the bed.

  Instantly regretting her outburst, Peta went through the practiced motion of pulling her fingers through her hair and then bringing her elbows together in front of her face as she clenched her jaw. Taking a long, slow breath through her nose, she counted to five before letting it out and lowering her arms as she faced Jason. “I’m sorry,” she said simply, when she saw that he was still watching her. “I’m hungry, running on fumes, and frustrated that we’re waiting until tomorrow to talk with Eric Davies.”

  Jason squinted up at what they could see of the setting sun and then looked at the empty road behind them. “I think we’re good here. Let’s get moving. I don’t like having Paul out there alone.”

  Paul had taken the strangers’ abandoned truck and was using it to tow the car that ambushed them. After dragging it back out onto the main road and a couple miles further from town, he’d leave both vehicles and start walking. They were to go pick him up once they were done clearing the rest of the debris. Without a flatbed or tow truck, the best they could do with the jeep was to get it out of the roadway. At least with everything else cleared away, it looked more like a simple accident.

  As Peta climbed into the passenger seat, she was acutely aware how Jason had avoided addressing her other concern. “I get some of your reasoning for not going to the resort today,” she said, trying to keep her voice level. “And I trust your experience in this area,” Peta added, making a sweeping motion with her hand at the road. “I really do.”

  Jason put the truck in gear, and grunted as they accelerated. “But?”

  “But we’re here, Jason!” Peta shifted on the seat and searched his face for a sign that he was experiencing even a trace of the same anxiety that was consuming her. “After running for two weeks, and being barely a step ahead of death on so many occasions I’ve lost count, when we’re literally a few miles away from what we need, we’ve suddenly put on the brakes. Why bother covering up our trail, or getting sleep, or playing nice with people when it’s within our grasp?”

  Jason’s fluctuating grip on the steering wheel was the only indication that he was processing her questions. Peta recognized that he was in what she thought of as his “soldier mode”, and had been since the shootout the night before. She accepted his tactical mentality, and had meant it when she said she trusted him, but she didn’t understand him. And with so much at stake, she had to understand.

  “Because of the fact that it’s within our grasp,” he said matter-of-factly. Sun-dappled mosaic patterns of the jungle canopy flittered through the windshield, creating almost a strobe-like effect. It leant a certain ominous cast to Jason’s already rough features, so that when he finally looked over at Peta, she was struck by the dangerous aura hovering near the surface. “For the same reason that logistics and intel are so vital to any operation, especially one of this magnitude. Being able to fall back here at the preserve for a day to get our bearings gives us the opportunity of being on higher ground, so to say. You just pointed out how we’ve been on the run.”

  “Yes,” Peta answered, already nodding as she saw where he was headed.

  “That’s an automatic strategic disadvantage,” he confirmed. They turned onto the main road where the jungle wasn’t as dense. The cab filled with more light, so when Jason grinned at her and continued talking, she was reminded again of the good-hearted man behind the tough façade. “As you pointed out, this is too important to take any unnecessary chances. Being hungry, tired, and behind the ball on information sets us up for failure. And we can’t fail, Peta.”

  Laughing lightly at herself, Peta held her hands up to show off the angry, red cuts. “I think it’s safe to say that I’m a walking example of what you mean.”

  Jason raised an eyebrow at her before reaching out to take one of her hands. Turning it over, he ran his thumb across the palm, surprising her. “You’re an intelligent woman. What you’ve been through would have broken most people, including a lot of the soldiers I’ve fought beside. There’s nothing wrong with still feeling passionate about this. It’s part of what’s kept us all going.”

  She could still feel the pressure of his hand after he pulled it away, and it made her pause in her self-recrimination. “That’s the thing, Jason. I’m not normally like this. Ask Devon if you have any doubt, but I imagine most of my colleague’s would have described me as calculated, precise, and probably a perfectionist to the point of bordering on narcissism. But compulsive and compassionate?” She snorted, and then stuck her hand out the window to catch the cooler breeze, shaking her head. “No. I get it, now. Time to re-group. Bandage our wounds, take a deep breath, and figure out the best way to get what we want, so we don’t screw it up.”

  Before Jason could answer, they both spotted another car approaching at the same time. A surge of new anxiety began to blossom in Peta’s chest, but she sucked in a breath and smiled as she realized the vehicle was familiar.

  “It’s Eddy and Mavi!” Jason exclaimed. Slamming on the breaks, he then leapt from the truck and flagged them down.

  As Peta got out, her smile broadened when she saw they’d picked Paul up on their way back. With everyone safe, her other concerns were momentarily lifted.

  “We found it!” Mavi shouted, as soon as he exited the vehicle. “We got the radio!”

  Eddy emerged from the passenger side looking much less enthusiastic, though he had what Peta figured could pass as a smile for him. “It took some searching, as most of the building was destroyed, but we were fortunate. The cabinet it was stored in was metal and didn’t burn.”

  “We’ll need to splice in a new power cord,” Mavi explained. “But I believe we have the necessary parts at the preserve.”

  “I can fix it,” Jason said, after taking the radio from Paul and briefly examining it. “This is pretty straight-forward. Even if there isn’t any wiring in storage, I can salvage some from something in the house.”

  Peta’s breath caught as the reality set in. “We can call the CDC?”

  Jason turned to her, and the smile on his face was answer enough.

  “So long as there is someone left alive to man the radio,” Eddy pointed out. “They were experiencing a containment failure when we left, and it has been five days.”

  Jason frowned at him. “Love your optimism.”

  Tilting his head, Eddy’s brows drew together and Peta wondered if it was actual concern he was feeling to a certain degree, or if he was simply confused by Jason’s sarcasm.

  “What were you doing driving from that direction?” Peta asked, gesturing back the way they’d come. “The town is the other way.”

  Mavi shifted his feet and looked at Jason. “Eddy had me drive us out to the turnoff for the resort.”

  “I was able to accurately mark the road on our map,” Eddy explained, taking the map out and handing it to Jason. “And estimate its length, based on Mavi’s description.”

  Peta’s initial reaction of suspicion was immediately replaced by curiosity, as she crowded in next to Jason to get a look at it. Her heart sped up at the confirmation of how close it was.

  “This is good,” Jason said with a curt nod at Eddy. “Now, if we can get the radio working and get some updates, we’ll be in an even better position to talk with Davies in the morning.”

  Peta hadn’t given that aspect much thought. Her excitement grew at the possibility of speaking with Garrett and learning what else he’d been able to determine about The Kuru, and how his treatments were working. She was definitely feeling much better about taking another night at the preserve to figure out how to proceed.
Jason had been right all along. “We should get—”

  A sudden shifting under her feet caused Peta to stop mid-sentence, and she threw her arms out to balance herself as she crouched down. An abrupt and complete silence within the jungle reminded her of the vacuum of sound created by the MOHO eruption, and underscored the massive geological event that was about to occur.

  “Earthquake!” she screamed, throwing herself to the ground beside the truck before anyone else had even had a chance to react.

  The first rumbling came from deep inside the Earth and as it neared the surface, grew in volume. The jungle responded with an explosion of noise and motion, as all of the birds in the canopy took flight. The sky clouded in a roiling mass of color, adding to the confusion.

  Jason was kneeling beside her, and Peta was vaguely aware that she was cowering with her arms over her head, legs pulled into a fetal position. It was a reaction born from experience, and something she couldn’t control. After spending so many hours in the underground room on Mauritius island, fearing each new quake would bury them alive, it wasn’t even a matter of fear, but stark terror.

  The seconds ticked by, and the tremor grew until they could feel the motion in their bodies. Although the trees swayed as if caressed by a gentle breeze, it wasn’t enough to knock anyone from their feet, or to move the cars from their spots in the road.

  “Peta,” Jason said, setting a hand on her back. “I think it’s passing.”

  She knew he was right. Peta was watching it all unfold, peeking out from between her arms, and she knew he was right. It wasn’t much as far as earthquakes went, but it was still taking a mountain of effort for her to get herself back under control. Pushing herself up, she sat looking sheepishly at everyone and tried her best to smile. “Sorry, I’ve been though some rough ones lately.”