The Rule of Three: An Extinction Cycle Novella

CHAPTER NINE

Jack could hear Ben yelling into a handheld radio, but he wasn’t paying too much attention. He focused on the spreading fire and the rolling black mass of monsters. The fire did its job in slowing down the vanguard, giving them the precious time they needed. Dee had driven them out into the middle of the runway. He heard Ben tell her to head for the fenceline surrounding the bush-clad mountain. Jack dared to have a little hope again. Having volunteered on the mountain, he knew it well. The whole mountain was surrounded by a three-meter-high pest-proof fence. Several New Zealand flightless birds, such as Takahe and the North Island brown Kiwi, had been reintroduced to great success.

The 4x4 bounced over the rough farmland toward the fence. Jack spotted the service road running along it.

“Dee, head left. There’s a entry gate on that ridge.”

He watched, mesmerised, as another mass of the monsters closed in from below the gate.

This is going to be close.

Jack tapped Ben’s shoulder. “There’s a shed next to the gate. That’s where they keep some quad bikes.”

Ben nodded as he gripped the door handles. “Just take your guns. We have to hightail it up to the summit. The boys in the chopper are going to meet us there, okay?”

Everyone murmured understanding.

Jack watched as the mass of monsters flowed ever closer. They had perhaps only a few minutes to get the bikes and go. A chance is better than no chance at all.

Dee drove right up to the gate. She could see a small enclosure built through the fence with doors at either end. She remembered coming here with Jack when they were first dating.

It was designed so only one door could be opened at any given time, a pest prevention safeguard. Dee jumped out and, grabbing George by the hand, headed for the enclosure. She could hear the howls and screeches getting louder.

Dee looked over at the others. “Hurry!”

Ben raised his rifle up and fired off a few rounds. “Go! Go! Inside.”

Dee didn't hesitate, and pulled George through the first door. Boss, Ben, and Jack followed. She could see sweat dripping off Boss as he watched the nearing mass of Variants. “Boss! Go with Jack, hurry!”

She watched them head to the shed. Refocusing, she raised her borrowed rifle.

Looking through the scope at the Variants, Dee couldn’t help but admire them a little. The Hemorrhage Virus had changed humans. Modified them into something else. Something almost beautiful, in an evil way. Killing machines. Perfect killing machines. The great white shark of the new world order.

Man’s arrogance had finally led to his downfall.

Dee heard engines revving in the background. She fired off a few rounds as the lead monsters slammed into the fence. Dee lost herself in the heat of battle and held her finger down on the trigger, screaming at the beasts.

Ben grabbed her shoulder. “Let it go! There’s too many of them!”

Dee let Ben pull her away from the fence. She climbed onto one of the quad bikes with Jack, little George jammed in between them.

Jack gunned the engine, then tore off up the track leading to the summit. Dee watched, shocked, as the rest of the Variant horde reached the fence, and started to climb after the fleeing human survivors.

Jack worked his way through the gears, willing the Honda 420cc engine to go faster. His nerves were frayed beyond anything he could ever have imagined. Blissfully unaware of the virus for the first couple of days, it hadn’t been until he’d reached the hut and cell phone coverage that the nightmare had begun.

Then the mad dash across the road-clogged countryside, his first encounter with the monsters, the family getting torn apart… His escape down the river, his capture and escape from the dam. And finding Dee, who had come to rescue him. He choked up at the thought, tears threatening. It would all be for nothing if he didn’t get them up this mountain.

Shaking off the emotions, he concentrated on taking the bends of the road as fast as he could. He could feel George wrapping his arms around him. Dee had wrapped her arms around them both, and leant into the corners with him.

Jack risked a glance to the side. Ben and Boss sped along behind him. This was a dash to the top, a dash to live, to fight another day.

Flying around another bend, Jack saw the stairs he was looking for, which would take them the last few meters to the lookout platform. Screeches and howls greeted him as he brought the quad bike to a stop. Leaping off the bike, he grabbed George and took the stairs two at a time, his injured leg screaming in pain. Boss bounded up ahead. Jack didn’t blame him for it. The kid was running for his life.

Dee watched Jack, Boss, and George head up the stairs. Checking her rifle, she looked back down the road. Already some of the Variants were charging toward them, their reptilian eyes fixed on her and Ben. Inexplicably, they stopped about a hundred meters away, as if assessing Ben and herself. Dee wondered if they were contemplating which limb to rip off first.

Ben bumped into her as they backed up the stairs. She kept a bead on the massing horde.

Whispering, Ben said, “Aim for the middle of the head. Take the one on the left. Remember, squeeze the trigger, nice and gentle.”

Dee heard a deep, angry bellow. Then the lumbering frame of the Alpha Variant, bones protruding from his shoulders, came into view. She stared horrified at the decapitated heads alongside his own. So that’s what they’re waiting for. We are for him to kill. His meal to devour.

“Run, Dee! Now!” yelled Ben.

Dee reacted. Spinning around, she tore up the stairs toward the lookout. Ahead, the others were already clambering onto the platform. Jack yelled something to her, but she couldn’t hear him. The last few days of running, fighting, and surviving were catching up to her. She was emotionally and physically drained, spent. Willing her body on for one last shot at safety, she reached the ladder to the lookout platform. Jack was reaching down, hand outstretched, his blue eyes willing her on. She grasped his hand. Jack pulled her up and onto the platform. Dee scrambled to her feet and spun, searching for Ben.

Jack watched in horror as the monster leader bounded up the stairs after them. It moved incredibly fast. He had just hauled Dee up onto the platform when he heard the thump thump thump of the chopper. Boss stood in the middle of the platform, waving a flare.

Just a few moments more. Ben reached the ladder, turning and firing over his shoulder as he went. The leader was now only meters away, his minions fanning out behind him.

When Ben reached the top of the ladder, Jack rushed to help haul him over the lip. A ferocious bellow sounded out, and Jack watched in horror as the giant creature leapt ten meters into the air and landed on the ladder behind Ben. He pulled back one of his huge arms and speared Ben with a claw, right in his side.

Ben screamed in agony as Jack tried to pull him to safety. Jack yelled for assistance, his eyes finding Boss’s. The teenager rushed over. Digging his feet against the railing, he tried to help Jack pull Ben onto the platform.

The Alpha swung his other arm at Boss, and a huge claw speared Boss through his calf muscle. With a savage bellow, and an insane glint in his eyes, he ripped off Boss’s lower leg, spraying blood over the poor kid. Warm, red blood arched, hitting Ben and Jack.

Thump, thump, thump.

The chopper hovered above the lookout, the wash of its spinning rotors sweeping over Jack as he hung onto Ben. The blessed sounds of the minigun firing pounded in Jack’s ears. The gunner swept the blazing rounds of hot metal death at the gathering mass of creatures.

Brrrrooooootttttttt.

Jack saw Dee push George toward the lowering chopper, but the little boy looked back frantically, clearly searching for Jack.

“Take the kid and go, Jack!” Ben yelled, in obvious pain.

Jack looked at George, conflicted. He wanted to get to safety, but he didn’t want to leave this man to such a horrible fate. With an angry yell, he let go of Ben’s arm and reached over to pull Boss away from the Alpha. The poor kid was shaking from the shock of his injuries.

Dee screamed as George broke loose from her grip. Pulling the screwdriver he still had in his tool belt, he charged, screaming at the Alpha, and jammed the screwdriver into its eye.

The Alpha let out a deafening bellow and released Ben. Dee ran over and helped to pull him up and toward the chopper.

The minigun operators let loose, firing upon the Alpha, bullets slamming into his tough bark hide. He howled up at the helicopter, swiping his huge claws at it in frustration. The gunner continued to fire. The Alpha howled once more, saliva dripping from its sucker. Then it jumped from the ladder, and retreated into the forest below.

Strong hands grabbed Jack, helping to haul him and Ben into the chopper. Dazed and confused, he sat on the cold metal floor as the chopper lifted away from the platform.

Jack could see monsters covering the road and stairs. They streamed out of the bush, howling up at their escaping prey. The fire they had lit still burned on the airfield, thick black smoke rising into the air.

He was alive. He had found Dee. He had found a little soul. He had found hope amongst the tragedy of the last couple of weeks. Jack looked over to George, and couldn’t help but smile at him. The little kid had saved them all. The smallest of souls can have the greatest of effects.

He looked over at his wife. She leant against the wall of the chopper, cradling the teenager’s head in her lap. One of the minigun operators was attempting to stem the flow of blood from his leg. Their eyes met and they smiled at each other.

Jack found Ben’s eyes; the man with the long wizard beard had risked his life to reunite Dee with Jack. Jack moved over and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Thanks, mate. Thanks for coming to get me.”

“No one left behind, mate. You go and be with your family, Jack.”

They exchanged a look of respect, of shared experience. Is this what all soldiers experience?

Jack looked at the medic tending Ben’s wounds. “Is he going to be okay?”

“He’s losing a lot of blood. All I can do is stabilise him until we get back to base.”

Jack patted the medic and slid over to Dee, taking her hand in his. He just stared at her, tears of joy, mixed with sorrow, welling up in his eyes. I made it. I found her.

Dee watched Jack looking at her. No words needed to be said. They knew how lucky they were. They had survived. They had found each other amongst the chaos. Battered, bruised, wrung out, but alive.

Stroking Boss’s head, she tried to reassure the kid it was going to be all right. She was no medical professional, but even she knew he had lost a lot of blood.

She watched as the man in Army fatigues tied a strap around Boss’s torn leg. Without looking at her, he said, “He’s going to need blood, and lots of it. What blood type are you, Ma’am?”

“Umm, O negative, I think,” Dee replied.

“Perfect. Universal donor. I’ll get set up.”

Dee looked into Boss’s eyes. “You hear that, kiddo? You’re going to be fine.”

Boss murmured something. Leaning closer, Dee heard him say, with a smirk, “I’m Samaritan, so don’t bury me in the Jewish section.”

A sobbing laugh escaped Dee’s lips. Even when facing death, the cheeky kid quoted Monty Python.