The Lost Journal Part 2 (A Secret Apocalypse Story) (10 page)

The soldier
from the driver’s seat then held his index finger up to his ear. "Say again?"

The two
heavily armed soldiers kept unloading equipment from the trunk. They appeared
to be large suitcases.

The soldier
up front said, "Ah guys, they said this area is too hot for a pick up. They
can’t guarantee an extraction. They can’t give you an ETA. They want you to
acknowledge this."

The two
heavily armed soldiers both nodded again.

One of them
said. "Just get him the hell out of here. He’s too valuable. He is all that
matters. We’ll be fine."

The driver
jumped back in the car and slammed the door shut. The engine revved loudly and
the Rolls Royce sped off. The back end of the huge luxury car slid out as it
maneuvered around a pile of debris. The driver finally got the car back under
control as it fish-tailed back and forth. The car straightened and took off at
a hundred miles an hour. The driver kept his foot to the floor, driving straight
for another block; before he realized the street was cut off up ahead. He then
turned sharply down another side street and the noise faded away.

"Was that
the car we saw at the casino?" Maria whispered.

"I don’t
know," Jack answered. "But how many other bright pink Rolls Royce’s would there
be in the city?"

I told them
both to be quiet. I had no idea what these two soldiers were up to but I didn’t
want to draw their attention. Not while they were packing enough heat to equip
a small army.

It was
getting dark. More storm clouds.

The soldiers
were both wearing black. They both put on gas masks. And night vision goggles.
Why gas masks? I don’t know. Maybe they figured the virus was airborne or
something. I really hoped that wasn’t the case. If it was, we were all screwed.

They smashed
open the windows of a couple of cars parked on the side of the street. They
reached in and released the handbrake. They then pushed these cars together,
making a barricade across the street.

They opened
the large suitcases that they had removed from the trunk of the Rolls Royce.
The suitcases contained sentry guns. M134 sentinels. Extremely heavy duty. They
were automatic machine guns that fired autonomously at moving targets.

They set
these up further down the road.

The soldiers
then took up firing positions behind their barricade of cars. They loaded up
all their rifles, placing each so they could get to them easily. There would be
no time to reload.

One of them
checked their watch. Held his finger up to his ear. "Copy that. ETA five
minutes. Green smoke indicates our location."

Off in the
distance we could hear the howling, screaming moan of the infected.

One of the
soldiers lit a flare and green smoke billowed up into the sky between the
buildings.

"What do we
do?" Jack whispered.

"We wait," I
said. "If they get in deep, I’ll provide covering fire."

"Shouldn’t
we tell them to get up here?" Maria asked.

"No," Jack
whispered. "Do not call out to them. They’ll kill us."

"I… I don’t
know," I said. "It’s too risky."

I genuinely
did not know what to do at that point. If we called out would they enforce the
containment protocol?

Would they
shoot to kill?

I did not
know.

One of the
machine gun sentinels came to life. Its multiple barrels spinning and firing.

Like I said,
the sentinels track movement and fire upon moving targets. These particular
sentinels were capable of firing over three thousand rounds of ammunition per
minute. It was firing on full automatic.

It was not
enough.

The infected
came charging around the corner. A lot of them were being completely torn apart
by the barrage of bullets.

But a lot
were still getting through.

The second
sentinel came to life.

It was an
extremely effective line of fire. The infected were piling up in the street. It
was an unbelievable display of power. Both Jack and Maria were watching in awe.
But there was a problem. As good as these automatic weapons were; they were
designed to shoot human beings.

Normal human
beings.

None of the
shots were headshots.

Every now
and then, the bullet would hit square in the chest, and completely destroy the
upper body, including the head. But most of the time, it wouldn’t. So most of
the shots were not kill shots. A lot of the infected still managed to crawl
through.

I guess this
was better than having them run at full speed.

The sheer
number of infected that now filled the streets, meant that a lot had slipped
through the sentinels line of fire.

They charged
right for the men in black.

"We should
get out of here," Jack said over the machine gun fire. "It’s not safe."

"I need to
help them," I answered.

"Help them?
Their orders are to kill us!"

"They’re
soldiers," I said. "They’re people. I need to help them."

Once the
infected had run through the sentinels, the soldiers opened fire. They were
good. Way better than I was. They were obviously trained snipers. They had most
likely volunteered to stay behind and distract the chasing horde while the
others made their getaway.

They had
made the ultimate sacrifice.

The soldiers
continued firing. When they ran out of bullets, they didn’t bother reloading
the rifle they had. They just picked up the next one.

When the
horde got too close for comfort they would put down their sniper rifles, and
pick up one of their bigger automatic machine guns. They would aim for the legs
and bring them down so they could take them out.

For a minute
it looked like they were going to make it.

They had
created a little bit of breathing room.

One of the
soldiers lit another green flare. Checked his watch. "Three minutes!"

But then
another group of infected appeared from the other end of the street. They were
about to be surrounded.

I told Jack
and Maria to get inside the building.

Jack looked at
me confused. "What? Why?"

I didn’t
answer him. I pushed him inside, told them both to move back and stay down. I
told Jack if anything comes out of the dark, shoot. If there’s more than one,
come back out on to the track.

He nodded
and moved inside the entrance to the building.

I opened
fire.

The soldiers
immediately looked up. I knew they could decide in a heartbeat to enforce the
containment protocol. But I was hoping they would use their common sense and
realize I was helping them.

I covered
their rear. I managed to take out three infected with successive shots. Hopefully
this would prove my worth to them.

It did.

They
continued firing at the rapidly approaching infected.

Another
thirty seconds passed. They kept the infected at bay. But eventually they had
to reload. This wasted a lot of time for them. The infected covered a lot of
ground in a short amount of time.

The
sentinels ran dry. They were knocked over.

In the
distance, over the chatter of machine gun fire, I could hear the thumping of
rotor blades.

It was their
ride out of here.

It was too
late.

The infected
continued to cram into the streets. There were just too damn many of them. They
rushed the soldiers. In the end, they didn’t stand a chance. The soldiers had
been overwhelmed. The infected had completely overrun their position.

They were swarming,
like ants.

The soldiers
were set upon. Bitten. Their limbs were being ripped apart.

I lined them
up in my sights.

I took aim.

I breathed
in.

I exhaled
and ended their suffering with a single bullet to the brain.

I slide
along the mono-rail track so that I was just inside the station.

A few
seconds later a Blackhawk helicopter appeared in the street. It hovered over
the green smoke. I stayed hidden, just inside the monorail station, wondering
if I should get their attention.

The chopper unleashed
with its chain guns and all of its rockets, destroying a large chunk of the
horde and completely destroying the road.

The chopper rose
vertically up and out of the city.

The chance for
flagging them down was gone.

Next to me,
Jack and Maria were huddled together.

"Come on," I
said. "Let’s get inside before the infected realize we’re here."

The Tower

According to Maria and Jack we were now inside the
Center Point Shopping Complex. It was completely dark. We waited a few minutes
for our eyes to adjust. The shopping center connected a number of buildings in
the very heart of Sydney, one of them being the Sydney Tower.

The tower
was our destination. It would offer us protection, safety and shelter from all
of the dangers lurking on the streets.

"How are these
buildings connected?" I whispered.

"Enclosed
walkways, like footbridges," Jack answered. "They criss-cross from one building
to the next. Plus I think they’re also connected underground."

"There’s no
way we can secure this place," Maria said. "It’s too big."

"So what
now?" Jack asked. "We don’t really have a lot of options."

"We stick to
the plan," I said. "We go up. Secure a few of the upper floors. This is a
commercial area. It would’ve been shut down a few days ago. So I’m guessing there
wouldn’t be many people left in here."

Not after
they were forced to evacuate, I thought.

Not after
the military initiated their containment protocol.

Not after
the Oz virus took over.

Once we made
our way inside the shopping complex we had to zig-zag our way to the Sydney Tower.
We passed through two buildings, crossing over a couple of enclosed walkways
that were two or three stories above the street level. After about an hour of
sneaking around in the dark we finally found the emergency stairwell that would
lead to the upper floors of the Sydney Tower.

According to
the signage on the wall, we had another ninety-four floors to climb. Straight
up.

Lucky for us
the emergency lighting in the stairwell was still working.

"I wonder
how long before the power runs out," Jack said.

"Not long,"
I answered.

"We should
barricade this door, right?" Maria said. "I mean, we’ll never be able to secure
this place. It’s way too big. It’s all connected anyway. This whole complex is
like, five times as big as the casino."

"But like
you said before, Kenji. This is a commercial district," Jack pointed out. "These
buildings and all the shops and stores and businesses would’ve been evacuated
days ago. Plus the good thing about this tower is there are really only about
eight levels up there."

I nodded.
"So as long as we lock this door to the stairwell, we should be pretty safe."

"I hope so."

We shut the
door and locked it as we entered the stairwell. We began the long, arduous
climb to the top. Ninety-four freakin flights. I had to stop thinking about
that and just concentrate on each step. One foot after the other. My dad used
to always say, a thousand mile journey begins with a single step.

We had to
stop and rest a couple of times. Catch our breath; drink some water. Stretch
our legs. We continued to climb. We climbed in silence. Lost in our own
thoughts. I’m not sure what the others were thinking about, but I could’ve
guessed.

What the
hell was going on?

What the
hell do we do?

How are we
going to survive?

Did Rebecca
and Kim make it out alive?

Simple
questions with not so simple answers.

Eventually,
we made it to the upper floors of the tower. We pushed open the fire doors and
found ourselves in one of the restaurants. According to the sign on the door it
was the Sydney Tower Buffet. It was a big, expansive room. It had floor to
ceiling windows for walls, with complete panoramic views of the entire city and
the surrounding area. However, at that point in time we could only see the
closest buildings. Everything else was obscured by the clouds and the rain. I
was disappointed. The view was one of the reasons I wanted to come up here, one
of the reasons we climbed all those stairs. I guess it was still good to be up
high above the reach of the infected. But I still wanted to know what else was
going on in the other parts of the city.

Were the
military still operating in here?