The Sixth Extinction: The First Three Weeks – Betty and Lennie’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.

Betty is an eighty-six-year-old woman who spends her days annoying the carers in the nursing home, where she was forced to move when the government deemed her unfit to look after herself and her mentally disabled, giant of a grandson, Lennie. Lennie is placed in a home for adults with special-needs and developmental disabilities. They get to see each other only once a week, when a care worker takes Lennie on the train to visit his grandmother.

Then the world changes. The virus outbreak spreads like wildfire, consuming country after country, until it reaches the shores of Great Britain. The government locks the country down. No one is allowed to wander the streets – everyone is under house arrest, to try to stop the virus from spreading.

However, the care home is forgotten in all the turmoil. The carers stop turning up for work, and the old residents are left to fend for themselves. As the older, sicker occupants start dying, Betty is forced to do things, things which only days before would have seemed impossible.

Unable to reach her grandson, Betty is struggling with her emotions and her body’s limitations. Things go from bad to worse when one night the unimaginable happens, and as people are dying all around her, she has to fight to stay alive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Glen Johnson
• Release date: Jun 5, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310666018

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/GlenJohnsonAuthor www.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 Johnson NON-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/HORROR THE SIXTH EXTINCTION SERIES (A #1 Best Seller on Amazon UK Horror Short Stories)...

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

and

Red’s Story

Betty Roselyn Temple

Eighty-six year old female

Park View (Old People’s Nursing Home)

Forde Park

Newton Abbot

South Devon

England

Abel Jr Lawrence Temple

Thirty-four year old male (Betty’s grandson)

Redwood House (Home for Adults with Special-Needs and Developmental Disabilities)

181 Vansittart Road

Torquay

South Devon

England

1

Betty Roselyn Temple

Park View (Old People’s Nursing Home)

Forde Park

Newton Abbot

South Devon

England

Saturday 15th December 2012

The Day of the Outbreak

Day 1

The alarm bell was a muted ringing that was supposed to wake up the residences softly, to prepare them for another long boring day, until they left this mortal plane behind.

Ah, I see you’re up Mrs. Temple, said the blonde haired, early twenties, heavyset female, who was dressed in a dull pink, tight uniform that turned her stomach into a collection of chubby rolls. Stuck to her upside-down watch that was pinned on her chest, was a clump of green tinsel. She also wore snowman earrings.

Aren’t I always? Betty gruffly answered.

The young woman said the same line every morning when she entered after lightly knocking, even though Betty was always up and waiting.

A little tetchy this morning, aren’t we?

Betty grunted, as she sat fully dressed on a tall wingback green chair by the window, which overlooked the manicured garden. She would prefer to be on the other side of the building, so she could look out across the park, but she was waiting for Mr. Grant to die so she could have his room. The old codger just kept going like a Duracell battery.

Betty was tetchy, because she didn’t like the way they were made to get up at a certain time.

We’re all old, why do we need to be up at seven? We have nowhere we need to be. Dress, eat, then wander into the large lounge and sit, comatose in front of the telly all day, watching endless daytime programs – all time filling crap.

I will just tuck those in for you.

It’s just fine the way it is, Betty mumbled, as the young spotty carer went around retucking the bedding in. Betty did her best, but her arthritis made it impossible to do it properly.

You know, Mrs. Temple; you wanna get some nice ornaments, and some more pictures. It looks a little stark in here.

Mind your own beeswax. I’m happy the way things are.

I don’t understand why people collect such trinkets. Why they surrounded themselves with small china objects that collect dust and look gaudy?

Mrs. Simons in the room opposite had every inch of her room covered in china teddy bears – small figurines no more than a few inches high, all doing something different. One was reading a book, another making a cake, another dressed as father Christmas – hundreds depicting human actions and personalities.

Why? She has spent possibly thousands of pounds on inanimate objects, when she was coherent. It’s simply mind-boggling.

Betty sometimes pops in to see Mrs. Simons. She rarely leaves her bed; they simply prop her up like an old manikin doll – it’s too much trouble to dress and move her everyday, when she doesn’t even know what’s happening around her. Once they have fed and wiped her mouth and chin clean, and turned on the TV next to her bed, they would hand her one of her china teddy bears, and she would spend the rest of the day stroking it, and rolling it gently around in her frail hands while staring at the wall away from the loud television.

Well at least let us put up a few decorations.

Betty ignored her comment.

The rest of the nursing home was saturated with Christmas decorations; tinsel hung from every possible surface where it could be attached. Large weird, possible representations of snowflakes, which were the size of footballs and made from reflective who knows what, hung from the ceilings like alien pods. And in the main lounge there was a Christmas tree that would make the attempt in Trafalgar Square look measly. It was so tall it touched the seventeen-foot ceiling and the angel on top looked like it was having a bit of a lie-down.

Betty kept her room clear, so she had somewhere where her eyes didn’t hurt from all the glinting reflections.

It’s Saturday! You know what that means? It’s full English breakfast today, the carer said all chirpy, to change the subject. She refluffed one of the pillows by whacking it unnecessarily hard, as if it had in someway offended her.

Sounds drifted in from the hallway, as other carers prepared the old people for another day.

Betty did, in fact, like Saturdays, but not because of the food, but because her grandson would be here around 11 AM so she could spend the day with him.

Betty rolled her eyes.

Full English! More like cold food sliding around a plate of congealing grease.

Oh, behave, she said while chuckling. You know you love Eddy’s gastronomic delights!

Betty was surprised the young woman knew such a long word.

Eddy was the nursing homes full time cook. In other words, he’s the guy who has