The Sixth Extinction: The First Three Weeks – Red’s Story

By Glen Johnson

The Sixth Extinction Series is an apocalyptic tale about a pandemic that sweeps the globe, decimating the human race, leaving humanity struggling to survive. Within three weeks, everything has changed. Social structure has collapsed. The police are non-existent, and the army concentrates on the cities. Gangs of yobs rule the streets.

Red is a nineteen-year-old who struggles to put food on the table for her younger sister, Jasmine, after her mother passed away from cancer, and her stepfather turned to drink to cope. Red’s life turns upside-down when she returns from a double shift to find her stepfather has done something inconceivable. Red reacts in the heat of the moment, and then runs away to hide in the local woods, while trying to come to turns with what happened and what she has become.

While hiding from the authorities, and grieving, a virus ravishes the world. By the time she walks out of the woods, to hand herself in, life, as she knows it has changed forever, and not in the way she expected. The world is in chaos, and it is everyone for themselves.

Red has to put her grieving aside; it is now fight or die.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Glen Johnson
• Release date: Jun 5, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310204944

Glen Johnson

Glen Johnson was born in Devon, England in 1973. He is the author of 55 fiction and non-fiction books. In August 2014, he gave away all his belongings and bought a backpack and he started travelling around Southeast Asia. While he travels, he helps charitable organizations, writing and releasing books about their foundations, leaving them with all the royalties. His first charity book is called Soi Dog: The Story Behind Asia’s Largest Animal Welfare Shelter and it’s available in ebook and paperback worldwide. He has also started to release a series of books about his travel adventures as they unfold, and Living the Dream: Part One – Khaosan Road, Thailand, and Part Two – Krabi, Thailand is available from all good ebook retailers. He also loves to travel and has spent over eleven years living and travelling around the world – so far, he has explored forty-three different countries. At present, he lives in Bangkok, Thailand, but he has also lived in Mexico, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, and Singapore. He is also the lead writer on the development team for a new computer game called The Seed (2018), from the creators of the award-winning S.T.A.L.K.E.R Misery mod.Why not add Glen as a friend on Facebook. From his author’s page, you can keep up to date with all his new releases and when his kindle books are free on Amazon. He checks it daily, so pop on and say hello. Don’t be shy, he’s friendly and accepts friend requests.www.facebook.com/GlenJohnsonAuthorwww.facebook.com/RedSkullPublishing and all good ebook retailers.Glen has published 174 books worldwide (via two publishing companies he owns). 55 are his own work; the other 119 are modern-classic-fiction books that can be found on all good eBook and paperback retailers.Books Released by Sinuous Mind Books, and Coming Soon –Books released under his real name Glen JohnsonNON-FICTION BOOKS –CHARITY BOOKS (with Gary Johnson)Soi Dog – The Story Behind Asia’s Largest Animal Welfare Shelter (2015)BEES Elephants Sanctuary: A Haven for Old and Retired Elephants (Coming Soon)TRAVEL BOOKS (with Gary Johnson)Living the Dream 1 – Khaosan Road – Thailand (2015)Living the Dream 2 – Krabi – Thailand (2019)Living the Dream 3 – Penang – Malaysia (Coming Soon)FICTION BOOKS –APOCALYPTIC/DYSTOPIAN/HORRORTHE SIXTH EXTINCTION SERIES (A #1 Best Seller on Amazon UK Horror Short Stories)The Sixth Extinction 1 – Outbreak (2013)The Sixth Extinction 2 – Ruin (2013)The Sixth Extinction 3 – Infested (2013)The Sixth Extinction 4 – The Ark (2013)The Sixth Extinction 1-4 – Omnibus Edition (2013)THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: THE FIRST THREE WEEKS SERIES (A #1 Best Seller on Amazon UK Horror Short stories)The Sixth Extinction Series: The First Three Weeks 1 – Noah’s Story (2013)The Sixth Extinction Series: The First Three Weeks 2 – Red’s Story (2013)The Sixth Extinction Series: The First Three Weeks 3 – Betty and Lennie’s Story (2013)The Sixth Extinction Series: The First Three Weeks 4 – Doctor Lazaro’s Story (2013)The First Three Weeks 1-4 – Omnibus Edition (2013)THE SIXTH EXTINCTION & THE FIRST THREE WEEKS SERIES OMNIBUS (A #1 Best Seller on Amazon UK Horror Short stories)The Sixth Extinction & The First Three Weeks 1-8 – Omnibus Edition (2013)The Sixth Extinction & The First Three Weeks & The Sixth Extinction America 1-12 – Omnibus Edition (2014)The Sixth Extinction & The First Three Weeks & The First Three Weeks The Squads Stories & The Sixth Extinction America & The Seven Seeds of the Gods 1-23 – Omnibus Edition (2017)THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: THE FIRST THREE WEEKS – THE SQUADThe Sixth Extinction Series: The First Three Weeks – The Squad – Echo’s Story (2014)The Sixth Extinction Series: The First Three Weeks – The Squad – Coco’s Story (2014)THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: AMERICA SERIES (A #1 Best Seller on Amazon UK Horror Short stories)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part One: The Black Spores (2014)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part Two: False Hope (2014)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part Three: The Pods (2014)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part Four: The Long Road (2014)The Sixth Extinction: America – 1-4 Omnibus Edition (2014)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part Five: No Turning Back (2015)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part Six: A Friend in Need (2015)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part Seven: All Aboard (2015)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part Eight: New Hope (2015)The Sixth Extinction: America – 1-8 Omnibus Edition (2015)The Sixth Extinction: America – 1-20 Omnibus Edition (2016)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part Nine: Keep Running (2016)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part Ten: Don’t Look Back (2016)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part Eleven: Resurrection (2016)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part Twelve: Alliance (2018)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part Thirteen: Abandon (2019)The Sixth Extinction: America – Part Fourteen: Burn (Coming Soon)THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: BOOK EXTRASThe Sixth Extinction: The Seven Seeds of the Gods. Book One – Ancient Egypt (2016)The Sixth Extinction: The Seven Seeds of the Gods. Book Two – Ancient Mayan (Coming Soon)The Sixth Extinction: One Year On (England) (Coming Soon)The Sixth Extinction: Clarkson’s Discovery (Coming Soon)THE ENDLESS SERIESEndless: Part One – Sorrow (2019)Endless: Part Two – Fear (Coming Soon)Endless: Part Three - Anger (Coming Soon)THE EVENT SERIESThe Event: Part One – The Last Hope (2019)The Event: Part Two – Crashing Down (Coming Soon)THE HUMAN NATURE SERIES (A #1 Best Seller on Amazon UK Horror Short Stories)Lamb Chops and Chainsaws – Vol.1 (2012)Lobsters and Landmines – Vol.2 (2012)French Fries and Flamethrowers – Vol.3 (2014)The Human Nature Series 1-3 – Omnibus Edition (2014)Backpacks and Body Bags – Vol.4 (Coming Soon)THE EXTREME HUMAN NATURE SERIES (Extreme Horror Short Stories)Condoms and Cabbages (2015)GHOST (Short Stories)Sea of Trees (2017)Child Angels (2018)Tall Ghosts (2020)The Lost Cat (2023)HORROR (Short Stories)Quarantine (2020)Laugh Out Loud (2021)Secrets and Lies (2021)Blood Lotus (With Hathairat Phuekhiran – 2023)HORRORThe Watchers (2014)THE WAR OF THE GOD’S SERIESWar of the Gods 1 – The Devil’s Tarots (2012)War of the Gods 2 – Lilith’s Revenge (Coming Soon)THE SEVEN WORLDS SERIES (with Gary Johnson)The Gateway – World One (2014)The Keystone – World Two (2015)Even Jewel – World Three (2017)The Sleeping Gods – World Four (Coming Soon)The Turquoise Abyss – World Five (Coming Soon)Oceans of Fire – World Six (Coming Soon)Journeys End – World Seven (Coming Soon)THE SPELL OF BINDING SERIESThe Spell of Binding – Part One (2012)The Spell of Binding – Part Two (Coming Soon)THE PARKINGDOM SERIESParkingdom – Book One (2012)Parkingdom – Book Two (Coming Soon)OTHER BOOKSTales from the Lake Vol.2. Short Story: Prime Cuts (A mixed horror anthology with 18 other writers – published by Crystal Lake Publishing. 2016)Books released under the pseudonym J.G. NewtonEROTIC PLEASURES SERIES (#1 Best Seller on Amazon USA and UK Erotic/Suspense)Guilty Pleasures: Erotic Pleasures Series (2014)Dirty Pleasures: Erotic Pleasures Series (2014)Secret Pleasures: Erotic Pleasures Series (2014)Kinky Pleasures: Erotic Pleasures Series (2014)Erotic Pleasures Series 1-4 – Omnibus Edition (2014)EROTIC MONSTERS SERIES (#1 Best Seller on Amazon USA and UK Erotic/Suspense/Horror/Humorous)Frankenstein’s Monster: Erotic Monsters Series (2014)Dracula’s Lover: Erotic Monsters Series (2014)Mummy’s Desire: Erotic Monsters Series (Coming Soon)Werewolf’s Lust: Erotic Monsters Series (Coming Soon)COMPUTER GAMETHE SEEDGlen Johnson is on the development team as the lead writer (eight writers) for a new computer game series called The Seed. The Seed is a story-driven post-apocalyptic video game set in Eastern Europe in 2026. It’s a single-player 2D interactive novel, deeply rooted in HEXACO psychology – it showcases the gravity of choice. It’s by the same team that created the award-winning game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Misery mod.The Seed: Act 1 (2018)The Seed: Act 2 (Coming Soon)The Seed: Act 3 (Coming Soon)If you need to get hold of Glen Johnson, email him on: [e-mail]

Book preview

Prologue

The Sixth Extinction is a period of time from present to around 10,000 BCE – where a large number of extinctions span numerous plants and animals, including birds, amphibians, arthropods, and mammals.

The main reason for the hundreds of thousands of extinctions, which is speeding the sixth extinction along, is due to one mammal – the homosapien. Without intervention, the human race will cause the next mass extinction.

Set three weeks before

THE SIXTH EXTINCTION

Part One – Outbreak

And running parallel with

THE SIXTH EXTINCTION

THE FIRST THREE WEEKS

Noah’s Story

Nicola Arusha Breslan

Nineteen-year-old female

317 Barton Drive

Newton Abbot

South Devon

England

Works at Newton Abbot Specsavers, as an Optical Technician.

1

Saturday 15th December 2012

The Day of the Outbreak

Nicola Breslan’s hand swung in an arc and whacked the alarm clock. It read 6:15 AM.

Just ten more minutes! she muttered as she rolled over and buried herself under the thick duvet.

Work was a fairly new concept to her. Going from being a lazy student of leisure, to the main breadwinner of the household was a shock to her system.

In addition – along with the shock to her system with having to support her sister and stepfather – was anger. It smoldered inside her. Each early morning, each long day at work, each bill that dropped through the letterbox stoked the flame.

She couldn’t understand how adults didn’t go crazy with all the responsibilities – working, bills, cleaning the house, shopping, and a thousand other small things that all built up into one huge heavy cloud that hangs over their heads. The fact she was only nineteen did not help.

She decided she should be enjoying herself.

Before the devastating news of her mothers’ illness, she was a student, studying BEd (Hons) Primary Education with QTS in Plymouths University of St Mark & St John. She always wanted to become a primary school teacher. She was on her third and final year before she was given special permission to pause her education due to her mother’s illness. The window for her to resume her studies in the university was fast approaching, and she saw no way of being able to return.

She loved it at university. Living on campus, going out with friends, getting drunk, sleeping in, dating, making mistakes, and arguing with her mum over how much money she was wasting.

Whereas she was the one earning the money now, doing the overtime, adding up the bills, and watching someone who was meant to be looking after her, waste all the funds.

Nicola’s mother died two months ago. She was diagnosed with lung cancer, and she slowly watched her mother battle the disease until it took her from them, over a lingering five-month period. She was diagnosed too late; she already had stage-four cancer. They tried chemotherapy, but it was simply going through the motions. There would be only one outcome.

It was bad enough that she had lost her mother, with the devastating realization that she was not around anymore – sometimes it didn’t seem real. However, she knew it was. She stood at the front row of the funeral service with her arm around her twelve-year-old sister’s shoulders.

Her stepfather Colin was the cause for her building problems and smoldering anger. Colin completely broke down after the funeral. He stopped working. He was an electrician, and used to work hard, providing for them all. Now he was a drain. When he wasn’t sleeping, he sat drunk in front of the TV.

Colin was forty-six and short with tuffs of hair to either side of a bald head, with a large paunch, which was getting bigger each week due to his binge drinking. He was now so unfit, that just getting up and stumbling to the toilet made him break out in a sweat.

Nicola took the first job she was offered, an Optical Technician for Specsavers. The work was repetitive, doing the same thing all day long. She stood in front of the fining and polishing machines, padding up tools with different fining pads, depending upon the type of lens, and positioned them in the large machines. As the outdated piece of equipment ground down the lens to its particular thickness, she was changing the pads on another set of tools. She swapped the jobs from one machine to another, a conveyor belt of work, continuous and mind-numbingly boring.

Even so, she could not let her mind wander too much, because she had to keep her eyes on the tools. There were thousands of different metal tools, each a particular curvature, and she had to check each one against the job sheet, to make sure that the man, whose job it was to place them in the tray, had picked the right ones.

The job was messy and cold. The fining machine poured cold water over the tools as they fined, and the polishing machine poured a thick white polishing cream over them after. She had to wear rubber gloves to protect her skin. In addition, the optical laboratory had to be kept cold – very cold, to keep the lens stuck to the metal blocks with the blue wax.

As she worked she got covered in freezing cold water and polishing liquid, and she could see her breath billowing out in front of her.

However, the money was good, and she had no choice.

The alarm blared again, announcing another five minutes had passed.

6:20 AM.

Nicola could not remember the last time she had a lie in. She rolled back over after whacking the alarm clock for the second time.

She did not have to be at work until 8 AM, but she had things she needed to do before she could leave for work. Jasmine needed breakfast, and even though she was old enough to sort it out herself, it was the one thing in the morning that Nicola liked to do.

Their mother used to have a spread each morning, to prepare them for the day. She missed a big breakfast when she was at college. Mainly, because hangovers and food did not mix well