Surviving Extinction - The Extinction Series Book 6: A Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Survival Series Read online

  SURVIVING

  EXTINCTION

  The Extinction Series

  Book 6

  By

  Tara Ellis

  Mike Kraus

  © 2021 Muonic Press Inc

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  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, without the permission in writing from the author.

  Table of Contents

  Preface

  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

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  Special Thanks

  Special thanks to my awesome beta team, without whom this book wouldn’t be nearly as great.

  Thank you!

  Preface

  The unstoppable power of nature was unleashed upon the Earth in an accident spurred by greed, ravaging everything from the oceans to the continents. In its wake an ancient, insidious killer was freed to claim those that were left alive. The objective of the disease wasn’t to snuff out the last remnants of life, but to change mankind into the perfect evolutionary hunter, where morals and feelings wouldn’t interfere with the desire to survive.

  In a desperate race to stay ahead of the unfolding events, marine geophysicist Peta Kelly found herself partnered with an unusual group, pulled together by common goals. It all began with the collapse of the seafloor into the Mohorovicic Discontinuity (MOHO). As one of the lead scientists studying the mysterious layer far beneath the surface of the Earth, Peta had a front-row view to the ensuing eruption, which then set off an inexplicable chain of tragic geological events.

  Barely escaping the island on which she’d been based, Peta and her associate, Devon, were plucked from the catastrophe by the International Coalition Of Natural Sciences (ICONS), working in collaboration with the United States and other international governments. With her own emotional hurdles to overcome, Peta is burdened with chasing down the link to the unexplainable disasters, which then evolves into locating the source of a deadly pathogen.

  Jason Hunter’s apocalypse began with a different but nonetheless powerful event. The unzipping of the Cascadia Subduction Zone and historic earthquake centered beneath the Pacific Northwest of the United States wasn’t unexpected, but the timing of the utter devastation it created couldn’t have been worse. With the world already reeling in the wake of the eruption in the Indian ocean, help wasn’t readily available.

  As an ER trauma physician and former Marine medic, Jason wasn’t a stranger to mass casualty response. But as the hundreds of patients that flocked to the hospital in downtown Seattle in Washington State started falling victim to a mysterious illness, even Jason was at a loss.

  Once The Kuru was identified, a new and bizarre strain of prion disease, there was nothing left to do by those who were immune, except to watch everyone else die. That wasn’t acceptable to Jason, so he gathered what information he could from those he’d treated, and set out to find anyone left who could help, as well as attempt to locate a daughter he’d never met.

  After his arrival at a CDC lab in southern California, Jason encountered Peta and her group, including Tyler Edmonds. At sixteen, Tyler was a valuable member of Peta’s team. After losing his mom during their plight, his dad then fell ill to The Kuru, making Tyler’s part in their journey extremely personal. They had to find a cure, and as time ran out, they fled for the jungle of the Amazon, to where the source of the prions was believed to be located.

  The Libi Nati was part of an unusual geothermal feature, known to the indigenous Lokono natives in the region as the “Life Waters”. Fourteen-year-old Jess lived near the hot springs with her scientist father, Dr. Davies. He’d devoted half of his life to studying and protecting the Libi Nati, creating the preserve, and raising his daughter.

  Jess explored the Amazon like another child would their own backyard, so when things began to change following the MOHO eruption and the unprecedented geyser formation at the Libi Nati, she knew her life had also been transformed.

  Her dad was among one of the first to become sick, and after he fell into a coma, Jess was forced to grow up fast. With the help of her life-long nanny, Akuba, a Lokono native, she vowed to do whatever it took to remain at her home on the preserve. Even after her father woke up and began to carry out an old Lokono legend about a soul-taking illness called the Kra Puru, she refused to give up on him, or her extended family in the jungles of South America.

  Their intersecting paths lead the bands of survivors to the preserve where the scientist, doctor, and teen meet Jess. Not only is she their link to the Lokono and a possible cure for the destruction of mankind, she’s also Jason’s daughter. Together, they face adversaries both seen and unseen, as well as long-buried demons of their own making.

  What they don’t know is that they weren’t the only ones to make the journey. Thought dead, Dr. Madeline Schaefer is not only alive, but has joined forces with Jess’s father to unlock all the secrets of The Kuru. Her fractured mind struggles to keep her on course, and the previous head scientist with ICONS teeters on a thin ledge between clarity and madness. As she draws nearer to the source of her obsession, the limits of her morality will be exposed.

  The stunning conclusion will take place deep in the Amazon jungle, at an ancient site buried by time but not forgotten. There, a primordial predator will either be defeated, or the world’s last hope will be destroyed, allowing it to complete its purpose: to spawn a new species, grown in the aftermath of the extinction of mankind.

  Chapter 1

  SAM

  Mountainous Region

  Near Calgary, Canada

  Sam’s heartbeat thudded in her ears as she sucked in a slow, steady breath of pine-laced air. “Come on…” she whispered, her voice tinged with a panic bred out of desperation. Crouched low behind a fallen log, she struggled to brace herself and hold the rifle steady. She was weak.

  So weak.

  The diffused sunlight lent an ethereal cast to the wooded glen, and if Sam used only a little bit of her imaginati
on, she could make out the shape of a dragon lingering in the shadows, or a faerie flittering amongst the billowing pines above her.

  Fighting against the overwhelming desire to get lost in the blissful daydream, she instead took another deep breath and focused on the sight of her rifle. It wasn’t a dragon, but a bear. A large black bear that could feed what she’d come to think of as ‘the colony’, for at least a week.

  They were going to starve. There was no denying the inevitable anymore, and when Sam had been the only one capable of or willing to get out of bed that morning to put her boots on, she’d headed out to hunt on her own.

  An owl hooted, making her flinch, and Sam reacted out of instinct before the bear could spook. Years of hunting with her dad and older brothers had primed her for that moment and her aim was true.

  Snap!

  A barely audible grunt was the only indication she’d hit her target, and Sam sprang up to follow the bear when it fell back into the underbrush.

  And then she promptly sat back down. Hard.

  “Umph!” Her butt hit the ground as her head spun, and the edges of her vision greyed out as the sounds of the woods faded until all she could hear was the heartbeat again. Her heartbeat, tapping out the seconds as they sped by and raced into an oblivion she wasn’t ready for. Not yet.

  Grabbing at her head, Sam pulled at what was left of her blond hair, frantic to stay conscious. She’d cut the long locks off the first week after they’d fled to the mountains surrounding their hometown of Calgary. Normally a source of envy for the seventeen-year-old, Sam figured out quickly that aesthetics didn’t matter in the new world.

  “Come on, Sam!” she yelled, slapping her own face. “Not yet.” Her blood sugar had to be dangerously low, and the hike had used up whatever reserve she had left. “Get up! You can’t give up.”

  A tortured sob slid past her lips as she rolled to her hands and knees, panting for a moment before grabbing at the nearby log. Baby steps.

  As her blood pressure crept back up to level off and her vision cleared, Sam became aware of thrashing sounds from the trees where the bear had bolted. Encouraged, she shoved off of the mossy tree and cautiously rose to her feet. She hadn’t eaten in over three days. None of the twenty-six people back at the hunting camp had.

  They were a ragtag group of people that consisted of her immediate family, her uncle’s family, a close neighbor, and some random groups that had already been up on the mountain spot when they arrived. Her dad tried and failed to convince all of the campers there to stay. Without any cell coverage, they were unaware of how the disease was spreading through the cities, and understandably wanted to return home and see for themselves before bugging out. Only, they didn’t get it. They couldn’t possibly realize how accurate her father’s claim of the nearly one-hundred percent death rate was.

  They found out the hard way. And Sam and her colony were reassured they’d done the right thing, in a twisted and sick turn of events, when one of the guys tried to come back. They found him walking up the logging road four days later, dragging one of his legs, begging to be let back in. He’d died there after collapsing, and they’d refused to get close enough to risk being infected. What wasn’t scattered by scavengers in the following days still rotted where he fell, and served as a poignant reminder of what lay beyond.

  The thought of her own body decomposing in the quiet, idyllic glen compelled Sam to start moving. Her calorie-starved brain was slow to respond, but she managed to reach the wooded edge and found where the blood-trail started.

  It was a good shot, and it wasn’t long before she found the bear. It was already dead, sparing her from having to use another bullet to dispose of it. She had a bow back at the camp, and would have liked to save their ammo, but had decided not to risk it. Not when they were all so hungry. If someone didn’t come up with food in the next day or so, they’d be forced to venture close to town and start going through houses. It would be a gamble with their lives.

  They had several vehicles and enough gas to make a few trips, but it’d only been two weeks since they left, and they had no idea how long The Kuru would be present or contagious. But they’d grossly underestimated their ability to gather enough to eat from the land. Her father had insisted they avoid going to any stores before they left, which had probably saved them from the disease, but the meager boxed goods they’d piled into the truck ran out after eight days.

  Her brothers caught some fish the first week, and then the only river that was close by stopped providing. Animals that would normally be present that time of year disappeared, and the predators became bold and aggressive.

  Sam felt it. They all did. Something else was off, and it involved more than the disease spreading through the human population. It was as if nature herself was fighting back, and the mountains they’d grown up in were suddenly a place of fear and constant tension, instead of a safe retreat. Even the glen where she’d shot the bear felt like some vile illusion, meant to lull her into a false sense of security where she was meant to pass out and drift off into a void—

  Blinking rapidly, Sam realized she was still standing there, staring down at the bear. How many minutes had passed?

  Squinting, she looked up at the orange-hued sky, unable to determine where the sun was. She shook her head. It didn’t matter. She was a few miles from the colony, and while there was no way to possibly drag the two-hundred-plus pound animal back by herself, she wouldn’t go empty-handed.

  There was a good chance that most of whatever she left behind would be gone by the time she could return with help, so Sam withdrew her knife from its sheath and got to work. An hour later, her lips were smeared with blood as she hefted the heavy backpack full of fresh meat and globs of fat. With the rifle slung across her shoulders, she looked primitive and wild.

  It was a risk to eat raw bear meat. Sam couldn’t remember the name of the parasite, but if the bear had it, she’d soon be suffering some serious stomach issues. It was a risk she was willing to take. There was no way she’d make the hike without the calories, let-alone be able to carry the bag.

  The terrain was a mix of steep, wooded hillsides interspersed with deep canyons and open valleys. The final mile would be the easiest, but first she had to get around a rocky outcropping and waterfall.

  She almost made it. Maybe it was the thrill of the hunt, or the rush from the food, but Sam became overconfident as she picked her way across the slick rocks and took the final step for the other side of the ledge.

  The waterfall roared at her back, cascading down the ravine and carving its way through the mountain range. When her foot slipped on the damp, mossy surface, her only thought was to avoid falling backward. Instead, she plunged to the side and rolled off a huge boulder, to land in a heap on the smaller rocks below.

  The pain was immediate, blossoming from her left arm and reverberating through her body until it stole her breath away. Bile rose to Sam’s mouth and she almost lost her precious meal of raw meat.

  Seconds turned to minutes, and as the initial agony subsided, she accepted that it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter how severe the injury was. She either pressed on, or died.

  Forcing herself to look, Sam saw that her upper arm was deformed and blood was already pooled beneath her. The grotesque, fleshy matter jutting out of her skin was most likely the muscle, forced through ahead of the jagged bone.

  Screaming as she scooped the injured arm up in her right hand and then held it against her chest, she braced it the only way she could. Staggering to her feet, Sam swallowed the vomit down for a second time before stumbling into the woods, her shirt soaked with blood and rapidly spreading to her pants.

  The colony. The fog had returned to muddy her thoughts, only this time Sam suspected it had as much to do with blood loss as it did malnutrition. Could you bleed to death from an injury to your arm? She didn’t know for sure, but it seemed possible.

  The thought spurred Sam on, driven by fear then as much as a sense of responsibility to
her parents and brothers. She didn’t want to die. Not alone. Not out in the woods where the animals would rip her apart and drag her entrails out across the forest floor, like the man they’d left out on the road.

  The bag was so heavy. It weighed her down, but Sam refused to take it off. Falling into a dazed stupor, she became focused on her feet and the sound they made as they struck the ground, which was covered in pine needles turned brown by the summer sun. It was one of her favorite smells; what she called nature’s perfume.

  “Sam!”

  Her brother. Where was he?

  Stopping, Sam stared into the trees where shadows were rapidly gathering, and finally saw movement coming toward her. “Erin?” she moaned, falling to her knees. The jarring motion sent a fresh burst of pain through her body. It was so encompassing that she wasn’t aware of its source anymore.

  Sam couldn’t hold her head up to watch when her brother approached, and as her gaze fell, she saw that her pants were stained crimson. She was drenched in blood.

  Too much blood.

  As the ground rushed toward her, Sam didn’t feel her brother’s hands as they caught her. The oblivion had found her. And it wasn’t The Kuru, mother nature, or even another person that let it in, but a simple accident. A trap so easily sprung for the ones left still wanting to fight. She closed her eyes.

  The dragons and faeries were calling…

  Chapter 2

  PETA

  Suriname, South America

  Deep in the Amazon

  The night air was heavy with a warm moisture that pressed in from all around, creating what seemed to be an impenetrable darkness. Peta’s feet pounded against the jungle floor in a rhythm that faltered, and the sound made her cringe. They would hear them.