The World After (17 page)

Despite their lucky escape from the swamps, they were not fooling themselves that it was over. Very soon they heard the sound of more helicopters heading their way. They knew that it was a matter of minutes before the forest would be swarmed by soldiers seeking revenge.

They kept running up the hill as fast they could for about ten minutes, but after that their tanks were empty, and they simply collapsed on the soft moss gasping for air.

“That was great with the chopper,” Jinhun said through two deep breaths.

“Thanks.”

“Our way takes us only upwards from now on. We have to reach the other end of this forest.”

“After that?”

“After that there is open ground with a huge number of rocks scattered around. The mountain had rolled them down for centuries. There we'll find the entrance to the labyrinth of caves, and once inside, I'll feel safer, I know many ways to escape pursuers.”

“Five more minutes and we move.”

Jinhun nodded. The two men leaned back and closed their eyes, trying to restore some energy to their battered bodies.

Taylor allowed his mind to drift. His eyes noticed a white orchid flowering just right of him and this evoked a smile on his face. A long forgotten past emerged in his mind. He remembered the porch of his house where his wife always had a dozen orchids in full bloom, they were always pure white, and it was her favorite color.

Taylor was roughly dragged back to the present situation when two soldiers emerged from behind a nearby tree, their guns pointing at the two helpless men's chests. Left with no choice, Jinhun and Taylor lifted their hands in the air and slowly got up. The soldiers didn't let them out of sight as they slowly moved closer. At this moment, the sound of a broken branch came from right behind the soldiers.

Carolina cried loudly and instinctively sheltered her head with her hands as the ceiling above them was cracking quickly. As suddenly as it had started, the grinding noise coming from inside the solid rock stopped and an eerie silence descended.

MacGeady was the one that kept his cool and calmly ushered them to quickly make it out of the tunnel, as any minute tons of rock could collapse over them, despite the fact that everything looked calm. Ademar Gamejro was badly hit on the shoulder by a falling rock. The agent that was supposed to kill him picked him up and carried him the last few steps, with the two women following closely.

They made it safely to the big cavity where the other survivors were also recovering after the strenuous walk and the scare some had to endure in the last few seconds when the explosion back in the city nearly collapsed the ceiling over them.

MacGeady and Grossmayer tended to Ademar Gamejro's shoulder, and after popping it back in its socket, they made him a strap in which to keep it. They just finished that when John Masterson's voice echoed through the empty space, “We must move on. Time is pressing us.”

The survivors of the attack split in two as they discussed earlier, and everyone followed their tunnel wishing each other good luck. They were hurrying, but still the progress they were making through the damp, slippery and dark tunnels wasn't as quick as they would like. Adding to that the heavy computer equipment that needed to be carried, as Akio Fukuzawa needed it to set the plan
Apocalypse
in motion, made them really struggled to cover the required five miles per hour.

After three hours of hard walking, the group led by Fukuzawa stopped for a break. He lifted the radio to his mouth and soon made contact with Apalikov, the leader of the other group of escapees.

“We need to stop,” Fukuzawa said. “The people are too tired and also several are wounded.”

“It's the same here; we'll take a break too.”

They spent the next twenty minutes recovering and eating some of the food taken with them. After that the two groups informed each other that they were on the move again.

An hour more of the same slow walking and Masterson knew that a tough decision had to be made. Walking at the front of the group, he waved Carolina to join him. They talked for a while and then she dropped back to the rear of the group where her father was carried on a stretcher by two men.

“Pa, I'll have to leave you. I and a few others important for our plan
Apocalypse
will hurry forward, while you'll make it with the rest of the survivors.”

“I understand,” Ademar Gamejro said in a very weak voice, much weaker than one bang on the knee and one hit on the shoulder might suggest. A while ago, he suddenly said that he felt very weak and an improvised stretcher had to be made for him.

“You obviously suffered a lot over the past few days and taking it slower will make you feel better.” She gave him an encouraging smile.

“I think I'm getting too old for such adventures.”

“I love you.” She kissed his forehead as her eyes filled with tears.

His hand trembled unnaturally as he stroked her white face and answered with the same. A few minutes later, Carolina, accompanied by Fabiana and Ian MacGeady, made their way to the front of the group and several hundred people there upped the tempo as the others stopped for a short break.

Ademar Gamejro followed from his stretcher the quickly fading lights of the solar lamps that were moving further and further away, and closing his eyes after he was no longer able to see them, he thought, “
Forgive me God for the sacrifice I'm about to make just for the righteous cause.
”

Soon after, the painkillers he was given kicked in and the minister fell asleep.

* * *

Several miles back, drama had developed after the bombs pretty much destroyed the entire underground city. Thick clouds of smoke billowed out of the lake for over an hour after the explosion, while the whole surface was covered with burned corpses and boats searching for survivors. The decks of the boats and the nearby shores were filled with agonized and screaming people; some of them had been burned so badly that they looked unrecognizable. Around most of them there were paramedics trying to help, but one in every five soldiers looked like a lost cause.

Shimi Levy looked at the scene with a dark expression from one of the shores of the lake. His thunderous eyes moved across the bodies lined up in front of him. He was still refusing to accept what had happened. All those years of waiting and preparation and, when everything finally seemed to be happening, he was caught by surprise.

The seven archangels and the recently magnificent-looking Lucifer lay on the grass in front of him, their bodies very badly burnt. Gabriel and Rafael also had what looked like fatal wounds after sharp objects had hit them. The young men cried with pain as careful medical staff tended them. Lucifer's perfect face, blond hair and hypnotizing eyes were now replaced by a blood-red skull and big ugly bubbles on his skin.

Shimi Levy heard a louder noise than usual coming from above and looked. He saw the big medical helicopter approaching them slowly. He knew who was coming with it; after all, he called for him.

Shimi Levy kept his lips pressed tight as the big white helicopter equipped better than an ambulance turned surprisingly quickly in midair and soon landed not very far away from them. Immediately, six people dressed in white coats jumped from its belly. Carrying three stretchers, they hurried towards Shimi Levy and the bodies in front of him. Behind them a much smaller man came out. Doctor Yao wasn't happy.

He walked slowly towards the edge of the grass; his eyes narrowed even more as he soaked in the surrounding carnage and the amount of devastation caused by the explosion. Shimi Levy had called him immediately after the incident, requesting his presence. After all he knew the anatomy and physical features of the unique men better than anyone.

He made his way to where the archangels were. After only narrowing his snaky-eyes even more when he looked at Shimi Levy, he knelt without saying a word and started examining the hurt bodies. He stopped longer with Rafael, who seemed to have suffered the most damage. Yao examined the thick blood that kept coming out of his stomach and his head shook negatively.

Three of the injured were already on the stretchers and Yao waved his men to take them quickly. He continued to walk from archangel to archangel, while Shimi Levy stood motionless nearby and only watched. When Yao's doctors returned to take three more injured, the pissed-off Chinese doctor turned sharply to head towards the helicopter, but before leaving he said loud enough to be heard by everyone near, “I told you they were not ready.”

Without saying anything else or waiting for an answer, Yao disappeared inside the helicopter to start work on the wounded men. When all of them were on board, the machine lifted off and disappeared over the horizon.

While all this was happening, Shimi Levy didn't move from his place or say anything. This is how his agent found him, standing motionless, and his eyes avoiding looking at the dark stains of blood on the grass around.

“Boss,” the nervous young man started cautiously his first ever conversation with the main director of the agency he worked for with such passion, “the Indians just informed us that Jinhun Sun and Taylor Swansea managed to exit the swamps and entered the forest. The soldiers are narrowing the ring around them though, and any minute news of their capture is expected.”

“They won't catch them,” Shimi Levy answered with conviction, without lifting his eyes from the drying blood of his archangels. “How many agents can we send to the area within an hour?”

“Only three, sir.” The man swallowed hard. “You said earlier that we didn't need to redirect more men.”

“Yes, I trusted the future too much.” After a short pause, he added, “Find me a chopper that will take me back to our building in New Delhi. Meanwhile, I want you to send a message to all local directors of the Agency to fly immediately to New Delhi for an urgent meeting. Tell them also to bring with them as many agents as they can spare.”

“Right away, sir.” The young man ran towards the far end of the lake where three helicopters stood waiting.

Shimi Levy followed him for a second, and after that his eyes were again drawn by the dark stains of blood in front of him. He shook his head, turned, and with long strides followed his young agent. He knew that the time for experiments was over, the time for decisive actions had come, and it was his responsibility to prevent the promised apocalypse.

* * *

Jinhun and Taylor stood with hands held high as the two soldiers slowly walked towards them, their guns ready to fire. Naturally, when a branch snapped right behind the two young military men, they turned to check the source of the sound. This mistake gave Taylor and Jinhun just enough time to leap forward and, after that, to collide with the soldiers, preventing them using their weapons.

Two pairs of fighting people appeared, and as the slope was quite steep, a tangle of arms and legs started rolling downwards. During their very dangerous roll, both Taylor and Jinhun found themselves in a very difficult situation. All four men took hits from trees and other heavy objects. Jinhun and the soldier trying to choke him stopped their decent when they bumped into a massive rock. Luckily for the Chinaman, the Indian soldier took the entire weight of the blow and numerous bones in his body cracked. When Jinhun got up, the soldier in front of him was unconscious, maybe even dead.

Taylor had a much bigger problem with his man. The two of them were entangled and fighting about ten feet up the hill. The trained soldier had managed to take his gun out of his holster, and despite all the effort put in by Taylor, the young man was simply stronger, and slowly but surely he was turning the barrel towards his opponent's head.

The soldier had Taylor pinned down, with an iron hand holding one of his to the ground and a knee placed on his throat. This was a massive advantage for the trained killer. The gun was slowly turning towards Taylor's head, and despite all the effort he was putting in, the red-haired man knew that he couldn't prevail. As a final act of despair, Taylor managed to free a leg and tried to plant his knee somewhere in the body of his opponent, but he reached only the side of his thigh. The few times he hit the place, he felt something hard. This was when the decision was made.

Suddenly Taylor released his grip on the wrist holding the gun and, with his free hand, reached down to immediately feel between his fingers the handle of a knife. He pulled it out and blindly stabbed just as a gunshot echoed in his ear. Taylor felt excruciating pain in his left ear; he passed out almost immediately.

When he opened his eyes again, he couldn't focus for a good two minutes. His ears were whistling with awful magnitude, which was only intensified by the dreadful headache. He soon regained just enough of his senses to see Jinhun standing next to him and, just to his left, the dead body of the soldier, a knife handle sticking out of his bloody stomach.

“Are you all right?” Taylor was only able to nod in response. “You were lucky; the bullet missed your ear by the smallest of margins. You'll get away with just an awful headache. Can you stand up?”

“I think so.”

“We must get out of here fast. Very soon the place will be swarmed by soldiers; I know how closely they follow orders when one of theirs is killed.”

Taylor took his time getting up. In the meantime, Jinhun collected the weapons of the two soldiers before they continued their interrupted run up the mountain side. After half an hour of running, Taylor's head was feeling better, plenty of blood was pumping, and they continued their progress much quicker.

“What do you think caused the sound in the woods that saved us?” Taylor asked, during one of their short periods in which they were just walking.

“Does it matter?”

“I don't know.” They pressed hard again and the conversation was over.

Two hours later, the forest's density decreased seriously, and another half an hour later, they left it behind completely. The landscape through which Jinhun was confidently leading them was haphazard because of the rocks of all sizes spread around, and only that saved them a few times when soldiers appeared in the distance. Luckily for the two runaways, every time their pursuers were heading in the other direction.

Soon darkness started taking over the sky, and this also helped them to remain undetected.

“We must use the cover of the night to reach the caves,” Jinhun said as they sought shelter behind one rock, while a group of six soldiers ran parallel with their position.

“They'll start scanning the whole area soon and then we'll be detected.”

“I know how we can become invisible to the choppers. Come.” Jinhun ran to his left followed suit by his companion.

Soon Taylor's nose was filled with the awful smell of rotting corpses and he nearly vomited, but clearly Jinhun was leading them towards the source of the stench.

“These we call mud holes,” he explained as they reached a brown thick layer from which the awful smell was coming. “These are very deep holes which gathered water from the rains and the snow over centuries, carrying with it mud, grass, moss and dead animals. The slow decaying process and mixing of all that created what you see in front of you. It's a death trap if you drop in it without anyone to help you out.”

“And what exactly do you want us to do here?”

“This.” Jinhun jumped without hesitation in the awful vomit-like mud and made sure to cover all his face and head with it before asking Taylor to pull him out.

“Once this dries on us, we'll be invisible to the scanners. Now it's your turn.” The white teeth that showed when he smiled looked unnatural on his black face.

Taylor sighed and muttered, “This could have been all over if that shot had hit my head.” But the next minute he jumped and, with great displeasure, followed his partner's example covering every inch of his body with the sticky mess that smelled as if someone had left their fridge full and unplugged for a year before checking on it.