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

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Escaping Extinction - The Extinction Series Book 5: A Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Survival Series Page 8

by Tara Ellis


  She had bigger problems. As expected, the shots were only part of a planned ambush. It wasn’t the first one she’d encountered during her two days of driving across three states, but it was the most organized. Two cars and a truck were angled across the four lanes of the road ahead of her, with two people standing in the narrow space left in the middle. Though Madeline couldn’t see them that well in the swelling light of early dawn, she had to assume they were also armed. Though it didn’t matter.

  Stopping wasn’t an option.

  The irony that she was less than three miles from her destination wasn’t lost on Madeline. Of all the mountainous roads with perfect places for an attack, and open desert where there was nowhere to run, she would end up being threatened on a US Route going through the middle of a town.

  “Everything’s bigger in Texas,” Madeline muttered as she withdrew the gun again. Without letting her foot off the accelerator, she lined up her shot as best she could. Before they had a chance to realize she wasn’t slowing, Madeline opened fire.

  Where the bullets landed was insignificant. It still had the desired effect as the two shapes dove out of the way. Tsking, Madeline shook her head and tramped down on the peddle, further increasing her speed.

  “You should have waited for something smaller,” she said with a fervor that bordered on glee. Madeline already had her seatbelt on, so when the front of her Hummer connected with the bumper of the smaller car at over seventy-miles per hour, she was only momentarily blinded by the anticipated airbag deployment.

  Barely slowing, she squinted against the pain blossoming in her nose, and the acrid smoke that filled the Hummer. Coughing, Madeline batted the deflated airbag away from her face and repositioned her hands on the steering wheel. Aside from some scattered, abandoned cars, she didn’t see any further signs of a backup plan to the roadblock.

  Glancing in the rearview mirror, she didn’t even see anyone trying to leave her with a parting shot. Huffing, Madeline re-focused her attention. Yet another example of the deplorable depths human nature had plummeted to once the vestiges of order and civility were removed. Without a reigning force to tell everyone how to behave, they were already turning on each other. A small percentage of the population was left alive, and instead of working to survive, they were already targeting each other.

  Well, not everyone.

  The road she wanted should be coming up in another block or two. There!

  “Commercial Street,” Madeline read from the street sign at the intersection. Driving around a large bus, she went through the intersection and continued down the lesser-used stretch of road that led to a park and marina. Palm trees lined the entrance, which seemed rather out of place. Ocean or not, she hadn’t expected palm trees in Texas.

  Fortunately, the park was much like everything else in Texas; wide open, big, and lots of space. There were several parking areas leading up to the docks, making it easy to spot the only one idling near the far end.

  As Madeline pulled up, a large Hispanic man with greying hair approached, waving a hand in greeting. “You must be Dr. Madeline Schaffer? I’m Antonio Latoya. I’ve been expecting you.”

  The sun had just broken over the horizon and was painting a patchwork of colors across the expanse of water in the distance. She imagined the vibrant hues were more intense due to the ash, and it flowed over into the space around them, setting the proper stage for the end of the world.

  “I am,” she said simply, turning off the Hummer and stepping out. As Madeline dropped to the ground, she saw that the other man was studying the recent damage with a raised brow.

  “Run into some trouble?” he asked.

  Madeline shrugged. “Nothing worth mentioning. Are you ready? I’d like to leave as soon as possible.”

  “We’ll be done getting the fuel onboard shortly,” Antonio said before gesturing to the SUV. “I’ll have them load your things once they are finished. We’ll leave within the hour.”

  The sound of rattling glass and a grunt drew Madeline’s attention, and she saw that another man was lifting what must have been a heavy box into the back of the idling truck. There was a woman in the passenger seat, watching them closely.

  “How do you know Dr. Davies?” Madeline asked, leaning to the side to get a better view of some other crates stacked nearby.

  “I don’t,” Antonio said with a bluntness that Madeline found refreshing. “Five days ago, a man came here from Texas A&M, looking for a boat. He’s the one who spoke with Davies on the radio there. I don’t believe he knew him prior to that either, but he liked what the man had to say. As did I. So…here we are.”

  “Here we are,” Madeline repeated, somewhat distracted as she took a few steps away from the Hummer to get a closer look. It appeared that the crates were full of glass jars. Jars with a clear liquid in them.

  She studied the woman behind the windshield and noted her flat affect, much the same as Antonio. “You’re all The Cured,” she said, not really asking it as a question.

  “Of course, we are,” Antonio confirmed. “Why else would we be here?”

  As the nameless man hefted another box, tendrils of orange sunlight crawled between the palm trees and danced across the parking lot to caress the jars, fracturing into a prismatic display. It almost…felt like an abomination. For something so lethal to look so beautiful.

  I’m complicit.

  Madeline scowled at the unwanted voice in her head before she could stop herself. Antonio was still watching her, and she didn’t want or need to defend herself to random strangers that had been pulled into a venture she knew more about than they could ever hope to imagine.

  “You’ve already been to Suriname,” she snapped, before he had a chance to say anything.

  Antonio turned away and began to walk, beckoning for her to follow. Grabbing her backpack from the backseat, Madeline then hurried to catch up. As she came alongside him, he glanced over. “This will be my second trip. The Cured are coming together in the Amazon in ways not seen here, yet. But we will…in time.”

  Madeline looked back as the last crate was lifted into the truck, and she wasn’t sure what to think about it. “It seems rather pointless,” she finally said to Antonio. “The Kuru seems to be doing well enough on its own. I don’t think the prions need our help.”

  They stepped from the cement onto the wooden dock, and Madeline’s face crinkled in reaction to the rough-looking boat tethered at the end. It might have qualified as a yacht by some people’s standards, but she was used to multi-million-dollar research vessels. Her confidence in a rapid and safe trip dropped considerably.

  Antonio stopped and narrowed his eyes at her again before uttering a sound of mild dissatisfaction. “You will understand once you have spoken with the doctor.”

  “Understand what?” Madeline pushed, not one for games, even before she’d been stripped of her emotions.

  “The Kuru.” Antonio gestured to the truck in the distance, and then back at the boat. “The Kuru was only the beginning.”

  Madeline shook her head and did her best to suppress the “old ways” bubbling close to the surface. The urge to tear into the man with a dialogue that would expose his ignorance, while elevating her own intellectual dominance. She needed sleep. After driving for over twenty-four hours, she needed sleep and some food to clear her thoughts.

  Taking a breath, she instead kept her voice level and looked away from the man’s irritating face and out at the ocean. “You’re wrong. The Kuru is the end of everything.”

  “With nature, in order for something to grow, at times something else must die,” Antonio pressed, speaking to her back.

  Madeline didn’t disagree, but she still failed to see his point. Eric Davies was a remote, outdated field scientist who’d devoted his life to one work. And he was going to help her understand The Kuru. In order to manipulate, control, or exploit something, you had to first understand it. She failed to see how shipping infected Libi Nati water to the states was doing him any good
down in Suriname.

  “The Kuru is what brought the end,” Antonio repeated. “But the Kra Puru is the true beginning.”

  Chapter 11

  JESS

  Amazon Jungle near Kumalu, Suriname

  The Libi Nati Preserve

  Jess had never really believed in omens. But she knew there was stuff out there in the world that couldn’t always be explained. And that there was maybe a certain, extra kind of power in the jungle that the Lokono and other native people understood, while science didn’t have a name for it. But omens and superstitions were something her dad had pretty much hammered out of her vocabulary.

  However, as Jess sat in her window seat watching the driveway for any signs of her dad or his “followers”, she knew absolutely, one-hundred-precent, without a doubt that the earthquake the day before was an undeniable omen.

  She wished knowing that would somehow help, or make her feel like she understood and had more control. Instead, it chipped away at whatever confidence she had left. It was becoming harder to recognize things. Even though she was sitting in her room, surrounded by her favorite things, it didn’t feel that way.

  And Jess was afraid that whatever happened when her dad showed up, was only going to make all of that worse. Seeing him…listening to him, would take away those final daydreams she was clinging to of things going back to the way they were. That he would get better. That he didn’t really mean it. That she was actually caught up in a bizarre, pizza-induced nightmare that he’d make fun of her over for months to come.

  But the earthquake was an omen. And it told her that there was no going back. It was the sound of a large, cosmic door slamming shut on everything she used to be, and it meant she had to either accept who she was now becoming…what the world was becoming, or else get left behind. Jess wished she could laugh it off as being overly-dramatic, as her dad often accused her of. But when there were earthquakes, and killer monkeys and jaguars, and weird prophesized plagues that changed people into cruel shadows of themselves, it was hard to overreact.

  She clung to the one hope that Peta and Jason would pull off a miracle with their friends, and find what they were looking for. It might be too late for her own dad, but Tyler’s was still alive.

  Sucking in a breath at the thought, Jess turned from the window and stood. She’d heard about the radio transmission over an early breakfast and it was impossible not to be caught up in some of the emotions. She already cared about those people. She had to, when there were so few of them left. But the message they’d received wasn’t all good. It set an extra layer of burden and importance on the encounter with her dad, and Jess was taking it personally.

  Peta and Jason might think it was up to them to convince him, but he was her dad. Jess knew him better than anyone, and if someone was going to get through to him, it would be her.

  “Uh-oh,” Amisha said, whistling under her breath as she pulled on a dirty pair of jeans. “I recognize that look on your face. It’s the same one you had the day we snuck down the trail to the Libi Nati. What’s up?”

  Jess frowned and pointed at the other girl’s pants. “Those are filthy! I know we aren’t running the washing machine, but you can still take a few minutes to soak them. I think that’s what I smelled last night when I was trying to go to sleep.” She bent over and picked up some disgusting-looking socks. “Or, maybe it was these.”

  “Nope!” Amisha scolded as she grabbed the stiff socks out of her hand. “Deflection isn’t going to work. My personal hygiene aside, something stinks. I know seeing your dad will be hard,” she added more gently. “He might not even come himself, you know. I’m kinda hoping he doesn’t, so this whole big meet doesn’t happen. Why not just send your jar of water back to that lab, or go take whatever else they need? We’re the ones with the bigger guns.”

  Jess squinted at the older girl, trying to determine how serious she was. Sometimes it was hard to tell. Hadn’t she been listening to anything the scientists had been saying since they got there? “They already had a water sample,” she reminded Amisha. “They need a fresh one, so they can compare it and also analyze stuff before it dies off or mutates. And Peta wants to get plant samples, and a bunch of other readings. I guess she brought some of the PH test kits with her, but they’ll need to either find equipment around here, or figure out a way to get it back to that lab.”

  Amisha scoffed. “How are they supposed to do that?”

  Jess shrugged. “Tyler said this Garrett guy is still connected to what’s left of the military, so he’s working on it.”

  “So then what’s got you looking like a rabbit trying to get out of a snare?” Amisha pushed.

  “They need my dad!” Jess said, getting frustrated with Amisha’s inability to see the bigger picture. “He knows more about the water, the jungle around it, and the Lokono people than anyone else. If there’s one person who could sit down with Peta and her team and give them valuable information, it’s him.”

  “And?” Amisha stared at her, waiting for more. “That’s why they’re going to try and talk to him.”

  Jess was shaking her head. “He isn’t going to help them. But it’s more than that. He’s going to try and stop them, Amisha. Everything that’s happened is bad enough. Having him leave…getting all weird. I might be able to move on from this, you know? But if I can’t convince my own dad to help save people, to help save Tyler’s dad and everyone else—” she turned away and went back to the window, determined not to cry. “I have to stop it. But the earthquake…”

  Amisha was at her side, grasping her by the arms. Jess realized the girl had pushed her intentionally. “You don’t have to do anything. This isn’t your responsibility. And the earthquake was just an earthquake.”

  Setting her jaw, Jess turned back around and gave a curt nod before walking away. “Come on. I want to carry the stuff out to the driveway. The sun’s been up for a couple of hours now. They’ll be coming soon.”

  When Jess walked out into the kitchen area, the scene struck her as so normal, that her step faltered and her breath caught. Akuba was at the stove with Devon, where she was chuckling over his attempt to scramble eggs. Through the open glass door, she could see Kamal sitting in the grass while Pikin ran in circles around her, being chased by Marty. The little girl’s laughter was like pure musical notes that made the subdued sunshine seem a little brighter, and eased the ache in her chest as she breathed in against the constant anxiety.

  “Do you want something more to eat?” Akuba was asking.

  Blinking, Jess took a hard hit of reality as she noticed the guns leaning against the back wall, and some missed bloodstains on the wooden floor under the dining room table. “Nah,” she said absently, feeling like she was walking a fine line between the two vastly different worlds.

  “I haven’t eaten yet!” Amisha chimed, pulling out a chair from the island.

  Hefting one of the boxes packed with fresh vegetables, Jess took it outside before she could be pressed by Akuba into a conversation. Tyler was seated on one of the patio chairs and he looked away from where he was watching Jason and Eddy talking nearby.

  “No sign of ‘em yet,” Tyler said. “Paul’s out near the end of the driveway with a radio. He’s going to let us know when someone’s coming.”

  Sitting on one of the other chairs with the box in her lap, Jess did her best to focus on the renewing energy of the sun, the familiar sounds of the jungle, and the sweet smell of hyacinth and other exotic plants growing nearby. Gripping the box tightly, she tried to stay centered as she offered a small smile to Tyler. They hadn’t really gotten a chance to talk earlier. “I’m going to do everything I can to make him help you.”

  Tyler looked surprised. “What, you mean your dad?” He shrugged. “One thing I’ve learned is that these prions aren’t about whether a person is good or not. They just destroy. I think we got lucky with Eddy. Whether it’s because he was so far away it mutated or something before it got him, I don’t know. But it sounds like it did a r
eal number on your dad. It’s not his fault.”

  It was the last thing Jess expected him to say, and she wasn’t sure how to answer. “You haven’t met him yet,” she finally said.

  A radio squawked from nearby, and Jason jumped into action. “They’re coming!” he shouted, before running for the barn.

  Tyler jumped up and waved Kamal and Pikin into the house before grabbing Marty by the collar. “We’ll be inside,” he said to Jess, and she knew he meant she wasn’t alone.

  Akuba and Amisha both stepped out onto the patio, each of them with a box. The three of them carried the supplies over to the driveway, where several other crates were already stacked. Peta and Eddy hovered near the barn doors, and Jess knew Jason and Mavi were stationed in the loft, watching from the window, both armed with the automatic rifles. Devon had another rifle, and was watching from a location in the house. She couldn’t think of a reason they’d have to actually use the guns, and Jess prayed she didn’t find out.

  Paul appeared around the curve in the gravel driveway just before the first truck pulled up. Behind it was a second car, and then a third. Jess’s feeling of unease grew as another truck brought up the rear, and it looked like all of the vehicles were full. They pulled into the parking area and stopped in a line, before opening their doors all at once.

  Any apprehension she had disappeared as her father was the first to emerge from the driver’s seat of the truck he’d driven long before The Kuru changed him. Now that he was there, Jess didn’t have any doubts about talking to him.

  She was the first to step forward, and tried to ignore the presence of the dozen or so followers gathering behind her father. They all wore similar terry-cloth shirts, and carried either a rifle or handgun. Although their neutral expressions weren’t necessarily threatening, the way they silently assembled and stood staring at them was a clear show of force.

 

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