Salvation: Secret Apocalypse Book 5 (A Secret Apocalypse Story) (6 page)

The man in the gas mask has me cornered again and I think he just saved my life
and I have no idea why.

His shirtless body makes me feel sick. It is mutilated. It is covered in
scars. Blood has dripped down his neck and shoulders from where he stitched the
gas mask into his scalp.

Why doesn’t he just kill me?

“You are looking for NVX,” he says. “For Kimberly Richards. Test Subject
Zero.”

When he speaks his voice is altered through the air filters of the mask.
The sound, the voice terrifies me. And for a second I am speechless.

“Yes,” I finally answer. “How... how do you know that?”

He ignores my question. “Do you know why we called her Test Subject
Zero?”

We?

I shake my head. I have no idea what he is talking about. And I am still
too scared to get up or move or fight back.

I am too confused.

He doesn’t look like he is going to harm me.

“She is called TS Zero because it was unplanned. It was a kind of
accident. A fortunate accident. And she was the first. The very first person to
receive the new nano-virus. Much like the mythical Oz virus patient zero that
we could never find. And never will find.”

I slide back on my ass. “What the hell are you talking about? Who the
hell are you? How do you know this?”

“The NVX injecting pens are locked up. They are locked up in that room.
To access that room you need to enter a code into that keypad. He did not give
you the code did he?”

“Who?”

I ask this question because I am not thinking straight because I am
scared and confused.

The man in the gas mask clicks his fingers together and says, “Focus.”

He kneels down next to me. He looks at me and it terrifies me because I
can’t see his eyes.

I can’t see his face.

He looks like a monster.
He is a
monster
.

He says, “George Walters. The prison administrator. The warden. He did
not give you the access code.”

“No. He didn’t.”

“Do you know why?”

He forgot.

No.

He didn’t forget.

He wanted to kill me.

He sent me to my death.

He has access to the cameras. He knew there was an infected person in
here.

“He knew there was an infected man in here,” I finally say. “He knew
they were loose.”

“Yes. There are three.”

“Three?”

I tense up and my head snaps in the direction of the hospital room. I am
expecting to see another infected man charging at us. Another doctor. A
patient. A soldier. A prisoner.

But the room is empty.

“It is trapped in the bathroom,” the man in the gas mask says. “We are
safe for the moment. Now do you know why George Walters sent you here? Alone?
No access code?”

I nod my head. And I slowly come to the realization that people are
capable of great evil things and the Oz virus is not the only thing I have to
fear and fight and survive.

And I am angry with myself because I had learnt this lesson on the
streets of Sydney. Courtesy of the military. I had learnt this lesson in the
town of Hope. Courtesy of Father Damon. But it would appear I need a refresher.
It would appear I need to learn this lesson again.

And again.

And again.

Until it costs me my life.

“He wanted to kill me,” I whisper.

“Yes. He sent you to your death.”

“Why are you helping me? What the hell are you doing? Who the hell are
you?
What
the hell are you?”

The man in the gas mask moves over to the keypad and enters a code. The
glass door opens with a hiss. He retrieves one NVX injecting pen and hands it
to me.

“Who am I? I am the world’s savior. I am
your
savior. I have followed you. I have seen what you are capable
of. You will not die alone. You will not die in vain.”

“Why don’t you just kill me?”

“You are too strong to go quietly. You will die. But it will be a good
death. It will be remembered. People will talk about it. For a long time. And
then they will see.”

He kneels down next to me again and grabs my wrist. My watch. “I chose
you. Do you not see? You are chosen. You are worthy. You took down a nano-virus
swarm. You have survived the inferno of this plague. You took a stand against
me. You stood up. Toe to toe. Face to face. You shot me. You shot to kill. It
was perfect.”

As he grabs my wrist, I don’t fight back or tense up. I do absolutely
nothing.

But I answer him, and I say, “No. It wasn’t perfect. Not at all. I
missed. I failed. I should’ve finished you off. I should’ve killed you when I
had the chance.”

“Do not live in the past. Remember what we are trying to achieve here.
We want to create a new history. A new world. Remember this.”

“We? No. I don’t want that. I don’t want what you want. You’re crazy.
You’re insane.”

“You do want it. You do not want to go back. And you know we cannot go
back. And right now, you want to kill George Walters. The warden.”

I shake my head. “No. I don’t want to kill him.”

“Yes, you do. And you
need
to
kill him. And you understand this simple fact. Kill or be killed. You
understand better than anyone. You are stronger and getting stronger. And only
the strong deserve to survive. This is why Maria cannot be allowed to live. Not
when she has the power to save the weak. I cannot let that happen.
You
cannot let that happen.”

I am still shaking my head. And my whole body is shaking. “You’re a
madman. Where is Maria? What have you done with her? Where have you taken her?
Why don’t you just kill me? Just do it. Get it over with!”

“I have taken Maria to the Control Center. From there I will show the
world. I will set them free. They will no longer live in denial.”

A public execution.

Maria is going to be executed in public.

“And no,” he continues. “I will not just kill you. You are too strong
for that. You are too... worthy. And you must see what I have planned for the
world. Do you not want to see it? Do you not want to see what I am going to do?
What I have in store for the world? I want you to see it. I will burn it down.
I will burn it all down. And before you die, before the nano-virus consumes you
from the inside, you can watch the flames. You can watch a world on fire. And
from this purging fire we will start a new world. A better world. A stronger
world. Is this not what you want?”

“You’re insane. And I want... I want to kill you. I want to stop you. I
need to stop you.”

“Exactly. You want to kill me. You want to end it. Death is the only
way. When you started on this journey you were innocent. And you thought you
could save everyone. You thought you could save me. You thought you could save
the big man. You thought you could save all you friends and all those nearest
and dearest to you.”

“Stop talking.”

“That was so long ago,” he says.

“Stop it.”

“And now? Now you will do whatever it takes. You have killed. And you
will kill again. You will kill anyone who gets in your way. Anyone who
threatens you and your friends. This is pure. This is perfect. This is the
genius of the Oz virus. It changes you. It changes us. For the better. It wipes
out and kills the weak. But you are strong. You are one of the strongest.”

“Shut the hell up. I’m done listening to you.”

“A purging fire. You know it is what we need. You know it is what the
world needs.”

“All I know is you’re a goddamn psychopath.”

I say this. I say that he is a psychopath, a madman. I say that he is insane.
I tell him. I repeat it over and over and over because I don’t want to listen
to what he is saying.

I don’t want to
believe
what
he is saying.

“And I want to kill you. I want to end you.”

“Good. This is good.”

He grabs my wrist again and holds my watch up. “You need to get moving.
I will not wait for you. Death will not wait for you. Get out of here. They are
coming.”

And as soon as he says, ‘they are coming’, the door to the bathroom
flies off its hinges, and an infected man who is absolutely covered from head
to toe in blood, stumbles out.

He is coming for us. Coming right for us.

I shuffle back on my hands and ass.

The man in the
gas mask leaps forward, and jams the tip of the machete into the thing’s face
and forehead. He jams it all the way in.

He twists the
handle.

The infected man
goes limp.

No more energy.

No more
aggression.

“Face George,” the man in the gas mask says. “Face the warden. Tell him
you know everything. Do what you need to do.”

The man in the gas mask disappears and I am left alone in the sick bay.

I am in shock. I am in shock because I am still alive.

Why doesn’t he just kill me?

“Why don’t you just kill me?”

I whisper this and no one hears me. Maybe God does. But I have a feeling
God is not listening. He hasn’t been listening for a long time.

I move one of the beds underneath the air-conditioning manhole so I can
climb back up into the air vents. I slide along, back through the five
junctions. I make it back to George’s office and I prepare myself to confront
him. But when I climb down into the room the first thing I do is check on Kim.

And the first thing George says is, “I thought you were dead.” And he
pauses, he swallows hard. “I mean, I saw you. I saw the infected. The man in the
gas mask. The camera cut out. I thought you were dead.”

I lean down next to Kim and give her the NVX injection and I don’t know
what to say to George. I feel my heart rate increase. I am in the room with a
killer. A murderer. Someone who wants to kill me. Someone who
tried
to kill me. This is an uneasy
feeling.

“Why didn’t you give me the code?” I ask.

“What code?”

“The code for the restricted room. The room that contains the restricted
antibiotics. Pain killers. NVX.”

“Restricted room? No. There should’ve been some in the sick bay. In the
medical supply closet. Not locked up. It’s not restricted. They, the doctors,
the research scientists were coming in here all the time. It wasn’t under lock
and key. I swear.”

He is lying and he is very good at it. I want to ask him about the
infected people who were hiding in the room, behind the curtains.

Did he see them? Did they show up on the CCTV?

Why didn’t he warn me about them?

Why does he want to kill me?

I know he will lie. He will try and weasel his way out. He will try and
blind me from the truth. And if I don’t buy it, if I call his bluff, he will be
backed into a corner. A wild animal, backed into a corner.

A snake.

A reptile.

He has a gun. I’m not sure if it’s loaded. But I do not want to find
out. So I don’t ask him any more questions. I stop interrogating him. I pretend
like I’m not on to him. I pretend like he didn’t just try and kill me.

I turn my attention back to Kim.

“How did you get inside the lock box?” George asks.

“The man in the gas mask knew the code,” I answer.

“How the hell did he know the code?”

“I have no idea.”

“Why is he helping you?”

“I have no idea.”

I brush Kim’s hair out of her face. Her breathing has slowed, it is less
labored. Her body seems to have responded well to the injection.

“All right,” I say. “As soon as she can move, we’re out of here.”

I say this because it is genuinely what we need to do. And I have no
idea what to do about George.

When do we part ways? Do I tie him up? How the hell am I going to do
that? How the hell am I going to take the warden, the Prison Administrator, as
my goddamn prisoner?

The impossibility and the irony of the situation is making me dizzy and
I can’t figure it out. I have no idea what to do. Maybe I really am going to
have to kill him. Maybe the man in the gas mask is right.

Maybe he is right about everything.

I shake my head and I blink my eyes. I order myself to stop thinking
like that. Do not let him seduce you. Do not let him cloud your thoughts. Your
morality. Do not let him poison your goddamn soul.

I should probably wait for Kim to wake up. I hope she wakes up soon
because I’m getting more and more uneasy. I am trapped in a room with a person
who tried to kill me, who sent me on my merry way to be eaten.

George has proven himself to be ruthless and I’m getting anxious.

When is he going to strike?

I am tense. And I keep my distance.

“We can’t leave,” he says. “Not yet.”

“What? Why not? We need to leave. We can’t stay here. I know we’re safe
for the moment, but we can’t stay here. We need to move. I need to find Maria
before it’s too late. We need to get out of here before they find us. We can
bring the blueprints with us, plan our escape as we go.”

“We can’t leave,” he repeats.

“Why the hell not?”

He turns the computer screen around. “Look.”

On the computer screen are shots of the holding cells. They are full of
infected.

But the last holding cell is not full of infected.

It contains one person. Not infected.

The person is sitting down on the floor, sitting against the wall. Head
buried in his hands.

It is Jack.