Extinction End by Smith Nicholas Sansbury

Author:Smith, Nicholas Sansbury [Smith, Nicholas Sansbury]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Horror, Science Fiction, thriller
Amazon: B0163LPIT2
Goodreads: 26855264
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Published: 2016-02-29T08:00:00+00:00

Kate stood outside the hatch to Lab A in a snug CBRN suit. The extra layers were designed to prevent direct contact with a range of contaminates, but she doubted it would protect her from the juvenile venom.

The lab was spotless. Every inch of floor, wall, and ceiling had been scrubbed. At first glance, the average onlooker would have had no idea what had occurred hours earlier.

In her mind’s eye, she pictured Yokoyama’s final moments. His screams in Japanese and the reek of his smoldering flesh would stick with her forever. State-of-the-art air filtration systems and buckets of bleach couldn’t remove that stench from her mind. She knew the phantom smell wasn’t real, but it was just as powerful as the real thing.

Kate continued across the room to a station where Ellis and Ronnie were already working. They were huddled around a computer monitor, their bulky suits blocking the screen from view.

“Hey, Kate,” Ellis said without turning. “Did you get some sleep?”

“Too much.”

“Good, because I’m about to drop a bomb on you.” He craned his helmet up from the monitor. “We already found a weakness. Ronnie, you want to explain?”

The technician stepped away from the computer to make room for Kate. “It’s pretty simple. We ran panels of chemical analyses and exposed tissue samples to a broad range of radiation. Remember how the adults are sensitive to ultra-violet light?”

“Yes, of course,” Kate replied.

“Well the juveniles seem to be extremely sensitive to gamma radiation. The ionized radiation tests revealed something remarkable. Watch this.”

On screen, a dime-sized sample of Lucy’s flesh rattled and shook inside the radiation delivery machine. Within minutes, the sample began to hiss.

“I’m only using a few rads,” Ronnie said.

Kate couldn’t believe her eyes. That much radiation would have little short-term effect on a normal human, but it was cooking the sample right in front of them.

“Do we know if their armor will shield them?”

Ellis nodded. “It does, to an extent, but not by much.”

Kate continued to study the screen. “Tests on the adult Variants have shown the exact opposite—a strong resilience to a wide range of radiation. So why are the offspring more sensitive?

“You’re right,” Ellis said. “It doesn’t make much sense.”

“Well that’s just the beginning. We found something else, too.” Ronnie looked at Ellis.

“I think I can now prove that the eggs aren’t a self-destruct system,” Ellis said.

Both men gave Kate meaningful looks—the type that told her they were about to give her some very bad news.

“Take a look,” Ellis said. He punched at his keyboard and pulled up the results from the CT scan. An overlay of Lucy’s vascular and glandular systems filled the computer screen. “We got the results back from the CT scan that we ran before the autopsy. Remember those glands that we pumped the contrast into? They weren’t all glands, Kate.”

She processed the development quickly. “It’s connected to the venom, isn’t it?”

Using a gloved finger, Ellis pointed to shadows. “I think what we thought were glands, in some cases, were the eggs holding the venom.

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