Extinction End (Extinction Cycle Book 5) Read online

  Extinction Cycle, Book V

  Nicholas Sansbury Smith

  Copyright February 2016 by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

  All Rights Reserved

  Cover Design by Eloise Knapp

  http://www.ekcoverdesign.com

  Edited by Aaron Sikes and Erin Elizabeth Long

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events locales or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the author.

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  A percentage of all sales from the Extinction Cycle books are donated to the Wounded Warrior Project.

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  Books by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

  The Orbs Series (Offered by Simon451/Simon and Schuster)

  Solar Storms (An Orbs Prequel)

  White Sands (An Orbs Prequel)

  Red Sands (An Orbs Prequel)

  Orbs

  Orbs II: Stranded

  Orbs III: Redemption

  The Extinction Cycle Series

  Extinction Horizon

  Extinction Edge

  Extinction Age

  Extinction Evolution

  Extinction End

  The Hell Divers Trilogy (Offered by Blackstone Publishing)

  Book I (July 19th, 2016 Pre-order here)

  Book II (TBA)

  Book III (TBA)

  The Tisaian Chronicles

  The Biomass Revolution

  Squad 19: A Short Story

  A Royal Knight: A Short Story

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Epilogue

  About Nicholas Sansbury Smith

  For my readers—this one’s for you guys.

  Thank you for coming along on this journey with me. I hope you enjoy the ‘end’.

  If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships—the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace.

  —Franklin D. Roosevelt

  -1-

  Sheets of rain poured down, half blinding Dr. Kate Lovato as she stared up into the swollen, dark sky. A clap of thunder echoed through the derelict city streets. In the respite from the noise came the squawks of starving Variants and the screams of their human prisoners.

  It took Kate a moment to remember she was one of those prisoners.

  All around her, she saw the distorted, skeletal shapes of Variants. They clambered over abandoned vehicles and skittered up the walls of nearby buildings. Snapping joints clicked and popped as the monsters lugged their prey through the dark streets.

  At first Kate didn’t even recognize her own wailing voice. She felt disconnected from everything, like she wasn’t even there. She couldn’t feel much besides her irregular heartbeat and the cold rain pattering against her clammy skin.

  As Kate struggled to focus, everything came collapsing down around her. After all she had been through, it was now, as she was being carried through the ash-covered streets of New York City on the back of a Variant, that she had finally lost her sanity. Memories flooded her mind from the attack on Plum Island just hours ago. She’d lost a piece of her soul when Staff Sergeant Alex Riley had been killed by the gargantuan beast covered in bone-plated armor.

  Everything seemed so surreal, and as she slipped deeper into shock, the city, the Variants, and the prisoners became more and more distant.

  It was the screams of Tasha and Jenny that yanked Kate back to reality.

  “Daddy!” Jenny shrieked.

  “Tasha, Jenny!” Kate yelled back. Staff Sergeant Parker Horn’s girls were back there. Kate couldn’t see them, but when she twisted around, she saw Meg Pratt. The firefighter was to Kate’s right; a pair of male Variants with long limbs and hunched backs were dragging her through the streets by her injured legs. Meg was still fighting—squirming and swatting at her captors, screaming, “You killed Riley! You killed Riley!”

  Kate reached over to her when she heard Jenny wail for her sister.

  “Tasha! Tasha!”

  The voices broke Kate’s heart. Upside down, she raised her head to scan the darkness for the girls, gasping in air that smelled of sour lemons and rotting fruit. The monster carrying her bled the wretched scent. She held her breath and looked to the skyline.

  Reed, where are you?

  Even now, when all seemed lost, her thoughts gravitated to the father of their unborn child. The Delta Force Operator had saved her so many times before. And while she knew he was out there fighting his way to New York, the chances of him arriving in time….

  Kate’s thoughts drifted to the other people Reed hadn’t been able to save. Riley was gone. They’d lost Fitz and Apollo. It was just a matter of time before she and the other prisoners were killed too.

  The click-clack of snapping maws and the screeches of the monsters rose into an evil cacophony as the small army worked deeper into Manhattan. They had been on the move for what felt like hours, but Kate wasn’t sure what time it was. It could be the middle of the night, or nearing sunrise. She shifted in and out of reality, lost in memories.

  Sometimes, in order to kill a monster, you will have to create one.

  Dr. Michael Allen’s final words echoed in her thoughts. In her mind’s eye, she watched her mentor and boss sacrificing himself by jumping out of the Blackhawk onto the lawn outside the CDC building, Variants closing in from all directions.

  Her eyes snapped open to see the moon peeking through the clouds drifting over Manhattan. The rays carpeted the streets, and Kate finally glimpsed Tasha and Jenny in a fleeting moment before the clouds swallowed the glow. The girls were both slung over the back of the same beast. It sniffed at their tiny legs with a nose frayed down the middle, flesh hanging loosely to both sides. A pointed tongue shot out of the monster’s wormy lips, circled, then licked Tasha’s right leg.

  Kate reared in disgust. She had to do something. She wouldn’t let the abomination kill the girls.

  “Let me down!” she yelled, pounding the beast’s lower back in a fit of rage. The creature howled and tightened a talon around her ankle, slicing into her flesh.

  Kate bit back a scream of agony. She needed a plan—a way out of this. There had to be a way to escape. She looked back to Meg. The monsters had pulled her onto the sidewalk, but she was still fighting. Meg kicked one of the beasts in the face and crawled away. Her fingernails dragged across the concrete as the second Variant reached out with a skeletal arm and grabbed her feet.

  “No! No!” Meg screamed.

  A high-pitched wail from the monster carrying Kate answered. It w
as then Kate realized she was still pounding the beast with her fists. Meg wasn’t the only one fighting.

  Thunder cracked like a bomb exploding in the clouds. Kate paused her futile assault to look skyward, her gaze flitting up the sides of dark buildings. The towers extended to the heavens, and there, in the meat of the bulbous clouds, soared a winged creature.

  An angel watching over them.

  Kate was hallucinating. The shock was too much. She couldn’t concentrate. She couldn’t….

  “Help me!” Tasha shouted.

  “Let them go!” Meg screamed.

  Kate kneed the Variant holding her in the throat. The impact caught the beast off guard. It swung her to the side, loosening its grip around her ankles. She reached out to brace herself with her right hand, and covered her stomach with her left as she plummeted to the concrete.

  The fall happened in slow motion, the ash and ground slowly rising toward her. She landed on her right palm and rolled to her back. She was kicking as soon as she was on the ground.

  “No!” she shouted. “Leave us alone!” She knew how insane the words sounded. The Variants couldn’t reason. They wouldn’t show mercy to her or anyone else. They were designed to kill—designed to feed. And her bioweapon had only made them stronger.

  The beast perched in front of her. Rain pattered on its bald skull as it tilted its misshapen head from side to side. It blinked, thick eyelids clicking over yellow eyes. Kate scooted backward across the concrete, prompting the creature to slash at her with one hand. It grabbed at her feet with the other. Talons scraped her shoes just as the beast carrying Tasha and Jenny lumbered by, tongue swaying from its mouth like the thumping tail of a dog.

  A rattling sound pulled Kate’s gaze to a third creature that strode away from the pack. The beast limped into a sliver of moonlight. Kate brushed her wet hair from her face, gasping when she saw the macabre armor plates of human bones covering the monster that had killed Riley.

  The grip of talons pulled on her left boot again, but Kate was barely paying attention. A guttural roar louder than the others sounded through the city as the creature grasping Kate’s feet dragged her across the ground.

  The armored beast lumbered over on two feet, raised an arm severed at the elbow, and jammed the jagged bone into the skull of the beast holding Kate’s left boot. The sharp tip popped through the monster’s lips, a gurgling sound reverberating from its throat.

  Kate pulled free of the dead creature’s grip and fell to her back. The Alpha limped over to her and towered overhead, a thick strand of saliva dripping from its open lips.

  Defeated, Kate didn’t fight back. Her mind disconnected from her body. She just stared at the clouds, praying and searching for an angel that she knew wasn’t coming.

  Drops of rain plopped on her face. She flinched as one landed in her eye, blurring her vision. Above the ethereal screeches from the Alpha and the screams of the other prisoners came a different noise—a deep rumble, growing with every second.

  The cloud cover split in two as if a curtain had been pulled back to expose a window. In the moonlight soared the same winged creature she had seen before. Two others flew into view, their wings gliding through the darkness.

  Heart pounding, breathing labored, and body shivering, Kate knew she was slipping back into shock. This was nothing but a hallucination.

  The Alpha grabbed her with its good arm and lugged her over its shoulder. Kate’s face hit the plate of human bones draped over the monster’s back, air bursting from her lungs. She put her hand on her stomach to protect the little one growing inside her, praying that it hadn’t been hurt. Then she looked skyward to watch the angels that she knew couldn’t be real.

  A raucous roar split the air overhead as the winged apparitions soared past once again. She blinked the rain from her eyes, and stilled her breathing, but her heart continued to thump loudly in her ears, relentless. Steam rose off the bloody flesh of the creature carrying her. Kate caught a drift of the rancid, sour scent radiating off the wounds that should have killed it.

  The Alpha suddenly stopped mid-stride to look at the sky. In a moment of clarity, Kate saw the winged creatures for what they really were.

  Not angels.

  Jets.

  An entire squadron of them.

  Raised voices woke President Jan Ringgold. They were distant, but familiar. Exhausted and confused, she struggled to open her eyes. A shroud of overwhelming fatigue had imprisoned her. She cracked a lid to blurry tunnel vision, like she was looking into a portal framed on both sides by walls of blue. There was a potent smell—the scent of antiseptics.

  “She’s sleeping, Mr. Vice President, and she needs her rest.”

  “I need to talk to her now, Captain. I don’t care if she’s out, wake her up.”

  A hatch clicked shut, drowning out the voices.

  The white light grew brighter, and the walls came into focus. They weren’t bulkheads—they were curtains. Gripped by a wave of anxiety, she remembered Lieutenant Brett’s haggard face in the seconds before he pulled the trigger and shot her. It was amazing what she could recall, the small details—the demented look in his eyes, the bead of sweat dripping down his forehead. Yet she couldn’t remember much before that. There were fragmented memories of Dr. Carmen being stabbed to death, Kate holding her hand, soldiers rushing into the room. And blood. There had been so much blood.

  Ringgold struggled to sit up in bed. Her right collarbone caught fire from the sudden movement, another reminder of the bullet Brett had fired.

  The hatch to the infirmary opened again, the sound of footsteps following. Grimacing, she palmed the bed and put her weight on her good hand, using it to push herself up. By the time the drape was pulled back, she was sitting up, defiant and ready for whatever news was so important that Johnson wanted to wake her up.

  The Vice President stood there sandwiched between Doctor Klinger and Captain Humphrey. All three men were staring at her with incredulous looks.

  “You’re supposed to be asleep, Madame President,” Klinger said.

  Johnson took a step toward her bed, but before he could get out a word she said, “Don’t sugarcoat it. Tell me why you look like you just put down your dog.”

  There was no hint of amusement on Johnson’s face, only the distraught look of a man who was losing a war. “I have some important news, Madame President.”

  Ringgold struggled to straighten her back. The EKG machine beeped faster, her heart rate elevating. Klinger walked to her side and checked her vitals on the monitor.

  “Condor was a success, thanks to Team Ghost and the Variant Hunters. They succeeded where every other strike team failed. They captured a live juvenile specimen,” Johnson continued.

  Ringgold afforded all the men that had lost their lives a moment of silence. It was a tragic loss, but the mission had been successful. She wasn’t stupid. If they had caught a juvenile offspring, then there was something else on Johnson’s mind.

  “Why are you really here?” Ringgold said, growing more irritated and anxious.

  Johnson crunched his forehead together and tugged at his right cuff. “It’s Plum Island, Madame President.” There was a slight hesitation before his next words that Ringgold picked up on instantly. She gripped the bed sheets with her good hand to brace herself.

  “There was a Variant attack facilitated by human collaborators.”

  A helpless squeak she couldn’t hold in escaped her mouth. She thought of the innocents there, the women and children she had thought would be protected. Johnson continued before she could ask about Kate.

  “The bioreactors are safe, and we are in the process of moving them to the GW. However, the Variants overwhelmed the island, killing Major Smith and capturing Dr. Lovato and a handful of civilians. We’re still searching for them, but intel indicates they are being taken back to a lair in New York City.”

  Ringgold’s shock turned to anger. “Why are you down here wasting time telling me? Send every damn soldier you have at
your disposal to get them back.”

  Johnson exchanged a look with Humphrey. The Captain had his hat cupped under his arm. He took it out and flicked it with his finger, avoiding Ringgold’s gaze.

  “Well?” she asked. “What are you waiting for?”

  “We are low on resources, Madame President. We lost almost all of our strike teams during Operation Condor —” Johnson began to say, but she cut him off.

  “Do I look like President Mitchell to you, Johnson?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  “Mitchell may have written a blank check to General Kennor, but I have not given you one. Dr. Lovato is the most important piece of Operation Extinction. We have to get her back. Now, I want you to conjure up every soldier you can find and send them to New York City to rescue her.”

  Johnson nodded. “Team Ghost and the Variant Hunters are already gearing up.”

  “Good,” Ringgold said, sighing. “Give them whatever they want. And tell Beckham I have specific orders for him.”

  “What’s that, ma’am?”

  “Bring Kate back. Alive.”

  Blood. Tears. Sweat.

  Heartbreak and hope.

  The past six weeks had been one hell of a roller coaster ride. With the development of Kryptonite and the capture of a juvenile Variant, Master Sergeant Reed Beckham had thought the war was close to being over, that humanity had a hope of defeating the monsters. Then, in a night of shattering terror, the grim reality of the new world had come crashing down.

  Kate, Meg, and Horn’s girls had been kidnapped. Major Smith had been murdered by human collaborators, and Riley, Team Ghost’s little brother, was dead. There were a hundred things going on in Beckham’s head, and none of them were good.

  The dream of a better life with the woman he loved and their child had been all but destroyed. He wanted revenge for Riley, but he had to save Kate and Horn’s girls. If he couldn’t, then there wasn’t anything left to fight for.

  No, you piece of shit. There’s always something worth fighting for.