Extinction Age Read Free

image his eyes relayed to his brain went unprocessed. It
had to be a trick of the light, a mirage. An illusion fired off by his
over-tired brain. Or at least, that’s what he wanted it to be.
    But this was no illusion.
    This was real.
    A half dozen other tunnels dumped into a central chamber,
feeding a pool of sewage below. The walls and ceiling of the massive room were
covered with hundreds of human prisoners, their bodies plastered to the walls
with thick vines of webbing that crisscrossed their flesh like bloated veins.
Some were mutilated beyond recognition. Others were missing limbs.
    Variants crawled across the walls, their backs hunched,
clinging to the bricks with talons and the hair-like fibers Kate’s team had
discovered. One of them clawed its way through the sticky film covering an
unconscious man. His eyes shot open when the creature clamped down on his
stomach and ripped into his flesh. He screamed, but his voice was quickly lost
in the roar of the waterfall.
    “Let’s go,” Chow whispered.
    Beckham swallowed, unable to formulate a response. He backed
away from the ledge only to see a woman attached to the wall on his right. Her
eyes met his and she reached out with a trembling hand.
    “Please. Please help me,” she whispered, her lips trembling.
    Beckham brought a finger to his mouth, but it was already too
late. Their whispers had attracted the nearest creature. It let out a
high-pitched roar that made Beckham’s heart kick. The clicking of joints and
the scratching of claws followed as the sleeping Variants stirred and searched
the darkness.
    “We need to move,” Chow said. “Now, man.”
    Footsteps pounded the platforms as the team retreated, but
Beckham hesitated. His eyes shifted from the prisoner to the Variants racing
across the ceiling.
    “Please,” the woman cried. “Please don’t leave me.”
    Beckham threw a glance over his shoulder. The other men were
halfway down the hall. Only Chow remained.
    “Come on,” he said, waving frantically.
    “No,” Beckham said. “Help me.” He wasn’t going to leave
someone behind. Not when she was in arm’s reach.
    Chow hustled over without further hesitation. “You’re fucking
crazy.”
    “Hold my belt,” Beckham said. He drew his knife and crouched,
using the blade to cut away the sticky vines across the woman’s feet and legs.
When those were free, he slit through the webbing across her stomach and chest.
Her body sagged forward, but Chow grabbed her before she plummeted into the
water below. He pulled her to safety and she collapsed to the ground in a CBR
suit. Beckham bent down to help her when he saw the deep gashes on her legs
beneath the torn suit.
    “You’re going to be okay,” Beckham assured her, hoping it
wasn’t a lie. He caught a glimpse of the pack charging across the ceiling and
walls. They were close now. Seconds away.
    “Beckham, Chow, where the hell are you?” Jensen said over the
comm.
    “On our way,” Beckham replied. He grabbed the two grenades
off Chow’s vest and considered what he was about to do. The decision only took
a split second. If he couldn’t save the mutilated captives, he was going to
make sure they didn’t suffer any longer.
    “Get her out of here,” Beckham said. “I’m right behind you.”
    Chow looked at him and nodded. The woman moaned in agony as
he bent down and scooped her up.
    Beckham cradled the grenades in one arm and fired off a
flurry of well-aimed shots with the .45 to buy him a few seconds. When the
Variants scattered, he jammed the pistol into his belt and plucked the pin off
one of the grenades with his teeth. He launched it into the air with his good
arm and watched it stick to the webbing of a prisoner. Then he pulled the pin
off the second grenade and tossed it over his shoulder as he ran, like so many
times before, away from the monsters.  

    Steam surrounded Dr. Kate Lovato in
the shower stall.
    “It’s hot,” Jenny whimpered in the adjacent stall.
    “Do you girls