The Lost Journal Part 2 (A Secret Apocalypse Story) (3 page)

The men in
black were losing their ground support.

I could hear
the two closest soldiers behind the concrete slab, shouting at each other in
confusion. They knew if they lost the tank they were in big trouble.

"What the
hell is going on?" one of them shouted. "Where are the goddamn choppers?"

They’re busy
elsewhere, I thought. I knew how they felt. I could see the soldiers hesitate.
All of a sudden they weren’t firing at me. They weren’t targeting me. They
weren’t even looking at me.

The horde.

It was just
a few at first.

The tank
fired another wayward shot. The shell rocked into the casino building. More
concrete and more glass showered the street and the harbor. The tank was slowly
moving away. The driver probably had no idea where he was going. It wouldn’t be
long until it crashed into the side of the casino building. Maybe even the
harbor. The driver should stop. Wait for reinforcements to pick off the
infected. He should stay calm.

Easier said
than done.

A crowd of
infected rushed into the street closest to the harbor.

The men in
black opened fire.

I was no
longer a priority.

In the
confusion, I made my move. I headed for a bigger boat. One of the harbor cruise
boats. It had suffered a lot of damage in the missile strike from yesterday and
had taken on water. It was listing to one side. I made my way to one of the
upper floors, climbing the narrow stairwell. I climbed three floors and
crouched under a window so I could keep an eye on everything. I checked my
ammo. I had two magazines left.

Sixty
bullets.

I peeked out
the window. The men in black were getting overrun. I took aim, fired at the
infected. And for a few minutes the Special Forces team and I were fighting on
the same side. Fighting a common enemy.

I could hear
the soldiers screaming though. Confusion and panic spreading through the team
like wildfire.

I could hear
them on the radio as well. Calling for an extraction. Calling for aerial
support.

"Where is
the target?" one of the soldiers asked.

"Target is
secure," someone answered.

They were
talking about Maria. They came for her. She was their target.

"Get to the
extraction point. Now!"

The Special
Forces soldiers moved back across the bridge. They were going to try and get to
wherever their extraction point was. The problem with their plan was the
extraction point was probably crawling with infected.

Suddenly the
thumping of rotor blades filled the sky.

A Blackhawk
helicopter flew in low over the surrounding buildings and set down at the city
end of the harbor. A group of men in black were running for their lives towards
it. In the middle of the group was Maria. She was protected on all sides by the
soldiers.

They carried
and hurried her towards the waiting chopper.

Maria was
running hunched over. She was not trying to escape. The rest of the soldiers
provided cover fire and so did I. If anything was to happen to Maria, I
wouldn’t be able to live with myself. I made the call to leave her. And at that
moment I thought she wasn’t going to make it.

"She’s not
going to make it."

They are
being chased by hundreds of infected. And for a second I think to myself there
is no way.

It’s all my
fault.

They are not
going to make it.

There’s too
many.

Missiles
streaked in from high above the city skyline, slamming into the road outside of
the casino. The warheads erupted in a wall of fire.

The
foundations of the casino building were rocked again and the whole building was
partially destroyed. The whole building began to sway.

More
missiles.

The force of
the warheads pressed into my body. The heat from the explosions burned my face
and I had to look away. When I looked back the tank had been completely blown
apart. Armored steel and iron had been scattered in all directions, all over
the road and the harbor.

The missiles
were heavy duty. Tank busting missiles. Hellfire missiles. Hovering above the
sky scrapers, out near the main harbor were the gunships.

The Apache
helicopters.

Two more
hellfire missiles streaked towards the horde of infected, dangerously close to
the Blackhawk and Maria. The missiles cleared out a large number of infected.
The gunships hovered in closer, using their chain guns to pick off the
remaining infected.

The chase
was over.

The Apaches
fell back in a hurry. They flew up and out of the harbor. Towards the inner
city. Their job was not over. Nowhere near over.

The men in
black carried Maria into the chopper.

They took
off immediately.

And I
actually let out a cheer.

I looked
around for another point of cover. Maybe I could even make a run for it to one
of the skyscrapers in the city, I thought. Rest up for a few days.

I decided to
wait until all of the soldiers had completely fallen back. I did not want to
risk being spotted.

The
Blackhawk took off slowly and moved out over the water. But then once again,
everything went straight to hell.

The tail of
the Blackhawk swung out violently. The whole chopper began to spiral. It was
out of control like the damn thing had been hit by an RPG, or one of those
hellfire missiles.

It continued
to spiral.

There was no
stopping it. The pilot had lost control.

A split
second later the Blackhawk crashed in the harbor. Right in the water.

Only the strong survive

The rest of the men in black had cleared out. They were either dead or had
retreated, under the impression that their target was secure.

I was
scanning the water, looking for survivors.

All I could
see were bodies.

Infected or
not. I couldn’t tell.

I fired off
a couple of rounds but then realized there was really no point. Before I even
realized what I was doing, I was up and running for the chopper. I’d left the
safety of my hiding spot, exposed for any sniper or any soldier with a half
decent aim. Exposed to the infected.

I braced
myself for a bullet in the back. But the shot never came.

I kept
running.

The voice in
my head kept yelling at me. Blaming me.

"This is all
your fault."

"You left
her."

"You made
the call."

"If she’s
dead now, it’s all on you."

"Her blood.
Your head."

"No. It was
the right thing. We had to leave her. It was the right thing to do. Maria needs
out of here, out of this city, out of this country. She is special. Immune.
Resistant. She was bitten but she didn’t die."

My head was
a mess. Fear and self-doubt and panic on the verge of crippling me.

I was
finding it hard to breathe.

But I kept
running.

The chopper
had crashed right next to the footbridge that cut across this end of the
harbor.

If I could
make it over there I’d have a much better chance of helping any survivors.
Finding Maria. There had to be survivors, I thought. The chopper wasn’t that
high up when the pilot lost control.

Up near the
casino, I saw a man on fire, stumbling towards the harbor and the wreckage of
the chopper.

I raised my
rifle, took careful aim.

Squeezed the
trigger.

I nailed him
in the chest, knocked him off his feet.

But he got
back up and started running towards me.

I dropped to
one knee. Took aim.

I waited.

And waited.

Focused on
my breathing.

In and out.

I waited for
the man on fire to get closer.

I drowned
out the voice in my head.

Fear.

Self-doubt.

"If you miss
now, he will run you down. Tackle you. Burn you. He will bite you. Infect you."

"Do not
miss."

I lowered my
aim at the last second and took out his legs. He fell to the ground and skidded
to my feet. One more shot to the head finished him off. I was about to stand up
and make my way to the chopper. But then I saw someone climb on to the jetty on
the opposite side of the harbor.

They climbed
up, took a few steps and then collapsed.

I looked
through my scope.

It was a
girl.

Not a
soldier.

It was
Maria.

Hope

I couldn’t believe it.

She was
alive.

She was the
only one. None of the soldiers had made it.

I shook my
head. I could not believe it. I looked through my scope just to make sure she
was all right. She had pulled herself up and out of the water, on to the jetty. She
was drenched. She brushed her blonde hair out of her face, wiped the water out
of her eyes.

How she
avoided all those floating bodies, I’ll never know. She must’ve dived for the
bottom of the harbor, picked out clear spot, swum up to the surface. I was
still in denial. Maybe I had already convinced myself she was dead.

More
infected piled out from the casino. Some of them were on fire. Some of them
were missing limbs. Regardless of their injuries and disfigurements, they were
all running faster than humanly possible.

Maria saw
them and started backing away. A split second later she started running.
Luckily she ran in my direction.

I took aim
at the infected. I unloaded the rest of the magazine. Full automatic.

I reloaded.
Kept firing.

Maria looked
up and saw me. She ran over.

She made it
over to me in world record time.

She doubled
over, breathing hard. "Kenij! I can’t… I can’t believe it."

"It’s OK.
Just breathe."

"Where did
you guys go? What happened?"

"They got
out," I answered. "I had to stay behind. I had to cover their escape."

"What? What
happened back in the casino?"

I fired off
a few more rounds, making sure they were head shots, making sure they counted.

"We had to
leave you," I said.

And as I
said it, Maria looked like someone had sucker punched her. "What?" she
repeated.

"I’m sorry,"
I said. "We had to leave. I made the call."

Her face
went pale. Her knees were starting to buckle. It was then I remembered she was
probably still very weak from being bitten.

"Where is
Jack?" she asked.

"Look, we
have to hide. I’ll explain everything but right now we need to get out of the
open. We’re not safe here."

She shook
her head. "No. Where is Jack!?" she asked again, ignoring everything that was
happening around us.

"He’s safe.
They’re all safe. We gotta go."

I scanned
our immediate area. We did not have long.

Maria’s
knees continued to buckle. It was taking her considerable effort to stand. I
went to put my arm around her, to support her but she pushed me away.

"Please,
just tell me! Where is Jack?"

She began to
collapse. I caught her and picked her up.

"I’ll
explain everything," I whispered. "But we need to get out of here. It’s not
safe."

We made our
way back to the boat I had been hiding in. I laid Maria on the floor. She kept
asking for Jack.

And I kept
telling myself I did the right thing.

 
Calm on the outside. Freaking out on the inside.

The boat we were hiding in was a harbor cruise boat. It had multiple levels and
lots of windows. If the military were still looking for Maria it would not take
them long to find us. Although at that moment it appeared that the men in black,
the Special Forces soldiers had left the area. And for some reason the number
of infected had thinned quite a bit. I looked around the boat. The floor we
were on had a bar. I found some bottled water and forced Maria to drink it.

She grabbed
the bottle and downed it in one go. And then she threw it all back up.

"Slow down,"
I said as I gave her another bottle. "Small sips."

She
reluctantly took my advice.

"Where are
the others?" she asked between deep breaths. "Where is Jack?"

I lowered my
head. This would be hard for her. But there was no point in sugar coating it.
No point in lying. "We made, well, I made the decision to leave you back at the
casino," I said. "I figured the soldiers wanted you. And only you. I figured
they knew you were resistant to the virus. I don’t know how they knew but they
knew. It was obvious that you were their target. They wanted you alive. The
rest of us were expendable. If we stayed, if we tried to fight those soldiers,
we would’ve been killed. Even if we surrendered peacefully they still would’ve
executed us."