Sixth Extinction

By S. A. Stephenson

What would you do in order to survive?
In a broken world, alien forces are on the rise to wipe out the human race in the sixth extinction. A race of genetically altered humans is the world's only way to survive but they are being hunted and targeted by their own government as secrets and lies to the American people begin to unfold.
Kit Valletta and Evie Fox get swept up in the war that will change the face of a generation, but when the vow to restore America to the nation it once was, they enter a deadly battle as they try and save their country from falling into the grasp of a President determined to kill them all.
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This thrilling debut from speculative writer S.A. Stephenson is a new story set in a dystopian America. Themes of war, survival, friendship and queer romance weaves its way through the pages. The second novel Redux is due for release in 2019.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Franklin and Akaroa Publishing
• Release date: Mar 15, 2019

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www.sastephenson.com

Chapter One

NEW YORK CITY WAS HIDEOUS in the rain, it was as though people forgot how to function and Evie Fox was running late. Evie wasn’t used to being behind schedule, and the packed trains on the D Line wasn't helping her mood. She looked around at the other commuters; the African-American woman who she saw nearly every morning was staring into space like normal. Next to her was a young man in his twenties, bobbing his head to music from his headphones. Nearby was a woman on her tablet, she punched a few keys and a hologram floated up with an image of a handsome young man. She adjusted her headphones in as she spoke to him.

'It's going to be a great lecture,' she said. The man must have replied because she scoffed. 'Just because you're stuck in the dark ages doesn't mean I have to be.'

The train stopped and the woman, and her conversation, filtered through the doors. Evie was jostled down to the other end of the train, she looked out the window to a billboard with her face plastered on it.

Dr. Evelyn Fox. Keynote lecture at New York's University of Genetic Research. She’d heard of the posters, but hadn't actually seen one. It was a little surreal seeing her face on the wall and she was grateful no one in the train recognized her. She looked at the poster for a moment, the picture was a promotional one that had been organised by her bosses, her long brown hair was tied up in a neat low bun, her blue eyes looked as empty as the rest of her expression. Her only direction for the photo had been to look like she worked for President Galen, and apparently looking miserable was the way to achieve that.

Getting off at the corner of 2nd Avenue and 81st Street on the Upper East Side of New York, Evie walked up the sidewalk, she smelt the early morning smell of chicken cooking at the local deli, across the street was the old restaurant that had been in the neighborhood for years still had boards up outside of the window and had been sprayed at new graffiti. A cool breeze brushed past her as the heavy rain lightened. Evie stepped out of the crowd for a moment to find her bearings. Upon their own instinct her eyes widened and zoomed in on the buildings ahead of her, blurring the people around her from view and as she looked across the street she saw the old stoned government building that was one of the few to survive during the days of the bombs. The University of Genetics had become a landmark on its own merit in New York, a building of research for Galen’s government and assurance to those who were opposed to Genics living in their country. Being able to heighten her vision was a skill she had developed long ago in Volt’s Institute and had come in handy on multiple occasions. When she made it to the crosswalk and saw that she saw the lights were broken she sighed. Everything was broken since the Blast. The government had implemented a spending freeze when President Galen great-grandfather’s government absolved all local governing bodies, if it wasn’t a program relating to the military or research, it wasn’t a priority. Any spare dollar they had was going to the military and advancing the genetics program. It was as though they had forgotten about the rest of the country who were still trying to get by. Evie followed the crowd dodging the cars and buses. Vehicles all looked the same, broken and beaten. Most ended up being left at the side of the road, burnt out shells that had been stripped for parts long ago. People made do with what they could scrounge together and somehow the city still ran. Not every major city had been as fortunate, when the first invasion had happened Los Angeles had been hit first, the airships had all but destroyed the city and when the plague was unleashed from the craft it spread across America before anyone could contain it. After Los Angeles fell, other cities soon followed before America became forever changed

Life soon found a way to return to normal, or as normal as it could do, and Evie was grateful she could live outside the wired fences of the Volt Institutions. Growing up there had almost broken her and so many others, taking what freedom she could was a blessing.

Winding her way through the crowd Evie made it to the University. Walking into the foyer, she took a moment to compose herself. She was windswept and drenched from the downpour. The foyer’s massive entry way was made from gray marble. There were two security check points, everyone’s bags were being checked and then their arms. On their forearms was the EKG line that marked them as humans. She walked forward to join the queue, put her bag on the sorting belt, and rolled up her jacket’s sleeve.

'Morning Dr. Fox,' the security guard. For as long as she had been there Joshua was the first person she saw every day, and always greeted her with a smile.

'Morning Mr. Adams,' she said, and he hid a goofy grin at the title. 'Do we have to do this every time? Surely you know me by now.'

'I do,' he said. 'But you know the law, humans have to be processed. Don't want to be letting any Genics into these walls now do we?'

'No,' she said, subdued.

'You ready for your big night tonight? Pretty impressive poster they've got up there.' He nodded to the large hanging advertising her latest paper: Genetic Interpretation and Modern Law Reform for Genetically Alerted Humans. It was something she was proud of, something she believed could make a change, but there was an apprehensive knot in her stomach. A sense that something was going to happen.

'What if people hate me for it?' She stepped out of the line so he could process Emily Harker, one of the researchers

'You're already a controversial scientist.' Emily grabbed her bag. 'People would expect nothing less. Personally, I'm looking forward to it.'

Emily's comment was supposed to be kind, but Evie didn't feel comforted. Joshua noticed her concern. 'If anyone from that Volt place comes after you, they'll have me to get through first.'

Evie smiled at him as she shouldered her bag. 'Thank you, Mr. Adams. Best get to work. See you tonight?'

'Will do. Mom's coming in specially to see you.'

Evie smiled at the thought of getting to see Marianne and hoped she would bring one of her delicious lasagne’s.

Evie made her way to the large laboratory in the basement. She traveled in the elevator alone, grateful that few people ever came down to this part of the University. The lab doubled as a bone grave and as a Forensic Pathologist it was her job to figure out what happened to the people they originally belonged to. There were hundreds and thousands of unclaimed bones laying in boxes waiting to be identified. They had arrived at the Institute as corpses, their bodies were examined for viral contaminations and deceased Genics were studied to see the change in genome mapping since the evolution of humans began all those years ago. The doors opened and Evie felt knots in her gut unwind, and her mind became calm at the sight of the workstations and her team’s familiar faces. Instead of going up to the table to see the latest body that’d been sent to them from Volt, Evie headed to the stairs for her office. Volt was a place that always made Evie’s stomach squirm, America’s capitol that had been born out of the last invasion was expansive and deeply controlled by President Galen and her guards. Volt also owned the University and in effect, Evie.

In the exam room nestled off to the side Cara Fields was bent over the gurney. If the lab made Evie feel settled, then seeing her childhood friend made her feel at home. Cara's red hair was braided and she was looking closely at the body through her glasses. Evie appreciated Cara's meticulous attention to detail, her care for those who came through their morgue and her compassion for Genics disregarded in life and death. Evie knocked on the door before opening it.

'Hey,' Cara said, still half distracted by her task. Her blue eyes flickered over to Evie. 'You look like you had a fun commute.’

'You know what the city's like,' Evie said. ‘On the plus side the train hasn’t fallen apart all week so that’s something to be happy about.’

‘You gotta appreciate the small things when you’re living in a world that’s been beaten up and broken,’ Cara commented.

'So much for Galen’s government creating a bright new tomorrow,' Evie said dryly as she took off her wet coat, replacing it with a white lab jacket. 'What do we have here?'

‘Genic,' Cara said. 'Looks like he tried to escape but died from exposure. Must have been on the run looking for the Stacks but never made it there.'

Evie looked at the man. 'How many do they think have escaped this month?'

'This would make thirteen,' Cara said. 'Things must be getting bad at Volt.'

'And still the government does nothing to stop it.'

'Why would they? Men like him are valuable. They can do things us humans can't. Which means the Government wants to use them to their advantage.'

'Let me know if you find anything in his blood-work,' Evie said. 'We have a report to write about any advances we've made in locating the origins or the virus.’

The virus was dropped on the US all those years ago, by ships that they would later learn to be extra-terrestrial. The victims of the virus only knew they had it in their system when it became too late, when the deadly disease had mangled their organs and shut down their immune system. However, there were a select few who were considered lucky, instead of killing them the virus fused with its victim’s genome and manipulated it so a new wave of human evolution began. The virus caused the mass genocide of so many Americans, but a different strain of the virus had also created the first Genics and brought America into a new era.

‘They really think we can find a cure when they're the ones creating their so called 'monsters'?' Cara asked.

Evie looked at her. She’d grown used to Cara's outbursts against their superiors absurdity, sharing her exasperation. But they couldn’t fight them, Evie was a Genic posing as human, and there was only so much they could push back on. Evie had seen enough mangled bodies to know what happened when a group of humans found a Genic. There was still fear out there about the people who lived in the Institutions and Evie hoped that her work could help ease those concerns so Genics could be free of living behind the barbed wire. ‘I agree with you, but this keeps us out of having to live in the Institute so for now I’ll take it.’

Cara sighed. 'I'll send you my results. Are you prepared for tonight?'

'I will be.'

Cara saw her playing mindlessly with loose skin around her fingernails, a habit born out of anxiety that had persisted since childhood. 'Trying to convince a crowd we should accept Genics as their own is going to be a tall order.'

'But needed, if it means more people like him don't end up on our table.' Evie nodded at the man in front of them and felt knots grow in her stomach again.

Cara looked down at the body in front of her and her eyes drooped. 'He was so close to freedom.'

Evie bowed her head and went back to her office. She walked into the large room and flipped the blinds to cover the windows looking onto the floor below. She slipped behind her desk and turned on her computer. She had a video message from her brother; her heart raced as she opened it.

Jack Fox was ten years older than Evie. Aside from the same goofy smile, they shared little in common. Jack was a well-built man, his physique and attitude developed for Volt's military. Evie had always been slender, hardly athletic, even her brunette hair contrasted from Jack's dark blond. Their differences in profession, however, made life difficult.

She pulled up the video on her screen, Jack was dressed in dark military uniform and in his bunker. 'Hey kiddo. Wanted to send a message on your big day.' He hesitated and looked away from the screen before his deep brown eyes flitted back to the camera. 'Be careful tonight. There's a lot of tension in Volt. Genics are attempting to escape and promoting the continuation of the genetics program won’t help keep things calm things.'

Evie frowned at the screen.

'Keep yourself safe. If any Genics try and get past the sector patrol, it'll be tonight. I'm sure they'll have heard about you in the Stacks. If I had my way, I'd want you to be here. Home.'

Evie's frown lessened, leaving Jack in Volt had never been her original intention and leaving him behind felt like she was incomplete. She missed seeing him every day, hearing about his day, the latest training that they were doing and the missions that were happening across the country. Her heart twanged at the thought, that used to be her world, she used to be out in the field as a soldier, running with a troop during training, assembling weaponry quicker than anyone else in her squad and sharing the world with people who made her feel whole. But all that had changed, she had made it change and her heart fell as she knew she should be there by his side, the way their parents always wanted them to be. She had been assigned a new path, a consequence of falling for someone she shouldn’t have. It could have been worse, they had been talking about execution but she had been saved from the gauntlet and graced with being reassigned to the University. She got up and walked around her office as Jack's message continued. 'Things here are tense. The President is trying to keep her stronghold and Hawk is riding everyone hard. They want you and Cara to come back.'

She looked back at the screen. Jack’s eyes were narrowed at her, wrinkles burrowed in his brow. 'I want you to come back, seek an appeal against what happen. What would happen if someone finds out your secret?'

Evie paused the video and ran her hands through her hair as she walked around her office. The pen holders began to rattle on her shelf, the old snow globe her father had given her when she was a child began to move of its own accord and when she looked down to her hands she could see the wisps of magical energy swirl up around her arms. She squeezed shut her eyes, drowning her world behind the darkness that lay behind them, she could feel her arms prickle as she tried to control the white and gold color energy. This mix of power had been with her since she was a child, she knew how to control them, how to bend them to her will, it was only recently objects around her were moving more, the magic inside of her forming against her control. The energy inside her moved. It felt like a riptide coursing through her blood, sometimes it would swirl and grow to the point it took her over completely and she would have to silence her body and mind in order for it to pass and there were other times when it made her feel like the strongest person in the world.

When the energy ebbed into the flow of calm once more, Evie took a deep breath. Dizziness swept over her. This had happened before, but it had been so long ago, after Lux had died. As the grief had worked its way through her, so did it change the way the energy moved within her, like other Genics her energy was linked to her physiology, controlled by her emotions, her genetic makeup, it may have been something that had developed in her before she was born, but it was part of her and something she had control over. So she couldn’t figure out why lately it was different.

There was a knock on the door as Cara entered.

'Are you okay?' Her brow furrowed.

'Fine,' Evie said. 'Just getting a lecture from my brother about how I should be home.'

Cara shut the door. 'You are home. You've lived in New York for the last five years. This is where you belong, where we belong. It’s much better than being behind the wire.'

'We still check in every week. And it's not like our lives are our own.'

Cara was quiet. Evie knew Cara longed for freedom as much as she did and was grasping onto whatever she could in New York. 'Can Jack make us go back?'

'He can't,' Evie said. 'But if Hawk convinces Galen we're needed back in Volt we'll be out of here before we know it.'

Cara sat on one of the couches. 'I can't go back there,' she said quietly. 'I get we're not our own people here, but, despite the odd review by our superiors, it’s better than working under constant surveillance and military rule.'

Evie sat next to her. 'I'll make sure we don't have to go back. If tonight's speech goes well, there'll be enough investment in our research that means we get to stay.'

Cara got up and walked over to the map on Evie's wall. 'You know it was once considered a great nation.'

Evie approached her and looked at the outline of what used to be North America. Their history lessons in Volt told them their world was destroyed through disasters. Other nations envied their power and attacked them, and a combined power from Asia and Europe created the Blast, a nuclear electromagnetic pulse, that killed the electric grid across the country and resulted in the United Nations annexing America and declaring it an isolated nation until it was safe for others to travel to and from the country. President Galen's great-grandfather agreed to close the borders and the country became completely self-sufficient. But survivors began to whisper of rumours that while Galen wanted to contain the virus and stop it spreading to other countries, he also wanted to create a new America. One where the military was the strongest it could be and launch a revenge attack on those who had set out to destroy the States, and one where he could control every aspect of American life. His vision became twisted, and changed over the years as his son and now grand-daughter succeeded him, but America remained forever changed and on its own. ‘It's still a great nation,' Evie said gravely. 'We can't forget that.'

Cara nodded. 'You have a speech to write, and I have a body to examine.'

'Let me know if you need help,' said Evie. Cara smiled at her before she left, and Evie looked back at the map. Evie struggled to imagine what America could have been like. Their teacher had shouted and beat a student who once asked in their geography class. There’d been so much blood on the classroom floor. America may have once been a great nation, but this new version was the country they had to work with and Evie was determined that she would find a way to make Genics accepted and bridge the divide that had lasted for too long.

Chapter Two

WHEN EVIE WALKED OUT of her office, she stopped by Cara's exam room as she was wrapping up the body. 'Did you find anything useful?'

'Something intriguing,' Cara said. 'His genetic makeup shows he has Genic DNA but it's not the normal strain we're used to.'

'Meaning the genome is evolving again?' Evie asked.

'And becoming more powerful,' Cara said. 'He likely had powers we've not seen in any of our other research.'

'That is intriguing. Any way we could find out what powers they were?’

Cara turned off the light and they walked out of the office. ‘I can try and see but it’s not likely, powers are only active if the person is active.’

Evie nodded. 'So, Volt are creating Genics that are stronger, powerful. Last time they did that was when they wanted to strengthen their army.'

'No wonder Jack wants us to go home,' Cara said. 'The lab will become a target for any Genic wanting to get their hands-on infusions, the stronger they make them the worse it is for the body to handle.’

Evie felt her stomach flutter slightly and she remembered that she was due an injection soon, the infusion they had developed was to help when there were days when having their powers made them shake uncontrollably, and made them so weak they couldn’t do anything. Having extra DNA in your system may have some advantages but the human body was still developing and so there were days when it tried to reject the new genomes. Evie’s last experience had been particularly bad and the infusion was the only thing that brought her back to feeling normal. ’We need to keep it on a need-to-know basis for now,' Evie said. 'At least until we learn more about it.'

They walked into the main auditorium; the large room was filling with people. Evie felt her powers shake under her skin, and she could feel sweat forming on her brow as she looked at the empty stage.

'You'll be fine,' Cara told her. 'You've done this plenty of times before.'

Evie let out a deep breath and nodded. 'I'll head downstairs.'

She took the route hidden from the public to get to the main stage. Waiting in the wings was Astrid Jenks, one of the leading Press Secretaries for the Galen President’s. Evie had grown up watching Jenks on the news and the woman hadn’t changed in years. Her brunette hair was cut to a short bob and had multiple blond highlights running through it, her pin stripe suit fit perfectly, and her expression was blank, as ever.

'Do you understand your objective?' Jenks asked, skipping unnecessary pleasantries.

Evie narrowed her eyes. 'Do you understand yours?'

'Do you always have to be this difficult?' Jenks asked.

'I have to have some fun.'

Jenks shook her head. 'Scientists,' she muttered. 'Just don't do anything contradicting Galen’s message. Try to come across as nice. People will listen better if they like you.'

Evie didn't say anything, not trusting herself to be civil. Jenks was all about propaganda—there’d been no other media outlet apart from PGOAN, President Galen One America Network, in the States for the last several decades. Galen’s grandfather had declared all other media providers posed a significant threat to his Presidential rule and after establishing his own outlet he made it illegal for any other reporters to publish news that hadn’t been approved through their organisation. The Galen family only wanted writers who’d promote what they wanted.

Evie looked out to the stage; the lights dimmed, and the audience hushed. Jenks took a moment before she walked onto the main stage and was welcomed by a loud applause. Despite being insufferable, she was undeniably popular.

'Good evening ladies and gentlemen,' said Jenks into the microphone. 'We'll start tonight's proceedings with a message from our esteemed leader. Please rise for