The Sixth Extinction (Book 4): The Ark by Glen Johnson Read Free Book Online Page B

to arrive as scheduled. The General believes either their helicopters crashed, or they simply never got the chance to board.”
    The long white hallway ended in a series of three thick doors. Heather pulled a card from her clipboard and scanned it on the center door. It hissed open.
    Doctor Hall flicked his cigarette to the floor before following the two women inside.
    Melanie found herself inside another contamination vault. The memories of the last one rushed back. She used a hand to steady herself against the cold metal wall.
    A white mist hissed from vents in the ceiling, enveloping the whole chamber. Powerful fans kicked in, and the mist was sucked away.
    As the thick door slid open, screaming filled the vault they just stepped out of.
    “What the...” Heather’s words died on her lips when a naked teenager, who was saturated with blood and masonry dust, tackled her, knocking her sideways like a ragdoll.
    Melanie was pulled back by Doctor Hall, just as a group of creatures noticed them.
    Doctor Hall slammed his hand on the close button. The door gracefully slid shut. The creatures slammed against the thick metal door.
    Through a small window, Melanie could see that one side of the large room had collapsed, with creatures pouring through. The handful of soldiers were already dead, with the remains of the Adam and Eve Finalists – men, women and children – being ripped limb from limb. It was a blood bath.
    Her view was partially blocked when blood was smeared over the thick glass by a naked arm. She jumped when the hiss of the white mist filled the room, blocking her view out of the window.
     

 
    20
     
    Noah, Red, and the Squad
    Dartmoor National Park
    Princetown
    Outside the Dartmoor Prison Chapel
    3:4 5 PM GMT
     
     
    “ R un!” the Captain screamed.
    The fence was starting to buckle under the mass of bodies trying to climb over. The creatures surged across the compact dirt.
    “Into the hub building,” Coco shouted as he led the way along the thin path.
    The fence finally gave way. The creatures tipped, rolled, and then righted themselves in one move, while racing towards the soldiers.
    Coco and Bull ra n along the path, with Red and Noah close behind. Echo and the Captain jogged backwards while firing into the mass of surging bodies.
    The line of soldiers fragmented; they knew they had no chance against the multitude racing towards them.
    Noah gripped Red’s hand as if both their lives c ounted on him never letting go. Suddenly, movement caught Noah’s attention out of his peripheral vision. He instinctively stopped running, pulling Red to one side.
    Naked bodies were pouring over the walls on either side of the thin pathway.
    They were blocked in.
     

 
    21
     
    General Philips
    Dartmoor National Park
    Princetown
    Dartmoor Prison in the Hub Control Room
    3:46 PM GMT
     
     
    T he General could see, via the bank of monitors, that every major part of the prison’s main wall was breached; creatures were pouring in by the thousands; all called from miles around by some higher, hive mind.
    He just received confirmation that the Tibetan, Cambodian, Canadian, and Mexican pods had been tactically nuked. The Americans had evacuated Groom Lake and had remotely detonated a controlled nuclear device to destroy their pod. The only one remaining was the Madagascan pod – the cause of all the trouble.
    The American president had given up waiting, and had approved complete blanket coverage of thermal nuclear warheads over the two hundred and twenty-two thousand square mile island of Madagascar. All eighteen Ohio-classed ballistic missile submarines had been diverted with their seventeen hundred warheads. It was estimated that it would take two days of nonstop firing to complete the mission. The projected twenty-two million casualties (if that many were still alive) would be chalked up as casualties of war.
    The Genera l was glad one world leader had the balls to do something.
    The British Prime Minister, David