The Lost Journal Part 2 (A Secret Apocalypse Story) (4 page)

She
continued to drink the water, taking small sips. Her eyes flicking back and
forth as she thought about the implications of what I was saying, replaying the
events in her mind’s eye.

"We fled the
casino," I continued. "We made it to one of the boats in the harbor. The
problem with our escape plan was that we were completely surrounded by those
soldiers. They were enforcing the containment protocol. They wanted us dead. I
put Rebecca and Kim and Jack on the boat. I provided cover fire for them as
they made their escape out of the harbor. If I hadn’t done that, we would’ve
been blown apart. We wouldn’t have gotten two feet without being torn to
shreds. I mean, we were completely surrounded; they were above us on the
bridge. They would’ve killed us."

"Did they
make it?" Maria asked, worry all over her face.

I nodded. "I
think so. They made it out of Darling Harbor."

"You think
so? But you can’t be sure?"

I lowered my
head.

"Did they
make it!?"

"I…I can’t
be sure."

Maria
started crying. Her jaw was clenched. She was trying to keep it together. She
looked out the windows of our cruise boat. She looked out towards the main
harbor.

"I had no
choice," I said, defending myself.

She didn’t
answer me. She started shivering. She was going into shock. "Where will they
go? What will they do?"

I shook my
head. "I don’t know. Hopefully they can get away from the city. Find a quiet
beach somewhere up the coast and come to shore."

"We need to
find them."

"No. We
can’t. We need to keep you safe. We need to hide."

Pass the ammunition

Maria was sitting down against the wall, knees to her chest, head tucked into
her arms. The whole harbor seemed to be deserted now.

The casino
building was leaning at an angle. It looked like it was about to fall over. The
wreckage of the tank was still smoldering. Bodies were everywhere.

Infected.

Soldiers.

Innocent
people.

I wondered
how long it would take for more infected to make their way through here. I
wondered if the soldiers would be back to clean up this mess.

One thing
was obvious, I needed more ammo. Maybe a spare rifle for Maria. She probably
didn’t know how to fire a gun but she would have to learn. Necessity was a
great teacher.

I walked
over to Maria and knelt down beside her. "Maria," I whispered.

No response.

"Maria. I
need to leave you for a few minutes. I need to go down there and look for some ammunition.
I’ve only got half a mag left. It’s not enough if any more infected come
through here. It’s not enough to defend ourselves. I’ll only be gone a few
minutes."

She raised
her head slowly. "Don’t," she whispered. "Don’t leave me."

"I need to
do this. We need the ammo. If more infected come through here we’ll need to
defend ourselves. We need to be prepared."

The infected
would indeed come through here, I thought. They would probably make their way
into the city from the western suburbs.

She tucked
her head back into her arms and kept saying, "Don’t leave me."

But I had
to. She knew it. I knew it. I patted her on the shoulder. "I’ll be right back."

Exposed

I made a quick pass of the surrounding area and made my way back up to the
footbridge. I managed to scavenge five more magazines of ammunition.

From the
vantage point of the footbridge I could see back out to the main harbor. I
could see the smoke rising from the ruins of north Sydney and the main bridge.
There was more smoke from other areas of the inner city as well. The smoke
billowed up into the blue summer sky, giving the whole city a weird hazy orange
look. It was then I realized I could hear more gunfire coming from the city.

The military
were in the process of falling back. And if my experience in Woomera was
anything to go by, they would be leaving those last soldiers behind. Leaving
them as a distraction, a diversion so the rest of the forces could get away
unscathed.

Poor
bastards.

The gunfire
continued to intensify as I made my way back to our boat.

Heavy
machine guns.

Chain guns.

Mortar
rounds.

Rockets.

Hellfire
missiles.

It sounded
like a pretty big force. This could only mean they were being pursued by a very
large number of infected.

I knelt down
on the footbridge and listened to the noises. I tried to zero in on the
location of the fire fight. It was difficult. The gun shots were echoing off
the city buildings. The only thing I could tell is that they were close. Maybe
a few blocks away. Maybe less.

As I
listened to the sounds of a new kind of war I wondered about what to do with
Maria. I needed to get her to the military, I thought. I don’t care if they
execute me. Maria needed to get out of this city and the military were the only
ones capable of doing that. It was the right thing to do, the only logical
thing to do.

There had to
be a radio around here somewhere. I could get the radio. Call for help. Simple.

Right on
cue, there was a blast of static from the radio of a fallen soldier.

The noise
was coming from behind me. I turned around. Lying underneath a huge slab of
concrete was a body of one of the men in black. The body was partially crushed
by the slab.

His legs
were too far away from his upper body.

Somehow his
radio was still working. I could hear static. Every now and then I could make
out voices on the other end.

Scared
voices.

Terrified
and panicked voices.

"There’s too
many!"

"Fall back!
Fall back!"

"Get to the
extraction point. NOW!"

"They’re
coming!"

In between
the shouting I could hear gunshots and explosions. The screams of dying men.
The howling moans of infected.

We weren’t
safe here, I thought.

I could hear
static from another radio. There must’ve been another fallen soldier close by,
but I couldn’t see him. I moved a plank of wood that used to be part of the
footbridge. I expected the body to be underneath.

Nothing.

He had to be
close.

I lifted
another piece of rubble. And then I finally found him.

And then it
was clear to me.

The reason I
was having a hard time finding the body.

It was
slowly crawling away.

But when I’d
moved the piece of wood it saw me or heard me or whatever.

It knew I
was there.

The body.
The infected.

Moments ago
this thing was a soldier. A Special Forces soldier. He was smart and skilled.
Highly trained. His mission was to rescue Maria. Kill the rest of us. But a
human being none the less. His legs were bent at sickening angles. His
intestines had been dragged behind him.

His weapon,
an M4 carbine with an infra red scope and a 40mm grenade launcher was still
gripped in his hand. The hand was still attached to most of his arm. It was several
feet away on the other side of the footbridge.

Now the thing
was slowly turning back towards me. It was crawling. But then it got back up.

I took a
step back. My heart stopped.

When they get
back up. A human. A person that in all probability should be dead. Someone that
has been blown apart, their legs shattered and their guts and major organs
hanging out in the world. When they get back up…

It shook me
to my core.

If I wasn’t
a trained soldier, if it wasn’t just a reflex, I probably would’ve frozen up
completely. I probably would’ve died.

The infected
soldier took a few stumbling steps towards me.

I heard a
loud crack as one of its leg bones, its tibia maybe, snapped clean in half. A
sliver of extremely sharp bone stuck right out through the skin, right through
his pants.

The thing
stumbled to its knees. But he kept shuffling forward, arms outstretched. Mouth
wide, wide open.

My training
kicked in.

I raised the
rifle. Fired two shots into its chest and one into its head.

I destroyed
the radio in the process but at that point I didn’t really care about the radio.
Would the military even come back if I called them? I doubt it.

They were in
the process of retreating. They had their hands full.

I grabbed the
fallen soldier’s hand, pried his cold fingers apart and relieved him of his
rifle and spare ammo.

"Look at
us," the dead soldier said. "Two of a kind. Two peas in a pod."

I dropped
the arm. Took a big step back.

"Yes," the
dead soldier said.

I shook my
head. Took another step back. "What?"

"Yes, to
whatever. Yes, you did the right thing. Yes, you screwed up. Yes, you had no
choice. Yes, we were a Special Forces team. Yes, we are two peas in a pod."

"I’m not a
Special Forces soldier," I said to the corpse.

"Sure ya
not. And I’m a goddamn china man."

"I’m
Japanese."

"Whatever. Turn
away."

"What? Why?"

"Turn away
and describe what I’m wearing, describe me, my facial features."

"I’m not
turning away."

"Of course
not. That would be dangerous. I could hit you. I could attack you. Hell, I
could even bite you. But that wasn’t the point of my little exercise. The point
was; if you were to turn away or close your eyes, you could still remember
everything I was wearing. You would know my eye color. Hair color. Skin tone. I
bet if someone asked you to describe this harbor you could do it with autistic
savant like detail. You know the exits. You know the points of cover. You know
everything."

"Who are
you?"

"You mean,
who was I?"

"Whatever."

"I’m nobody.
I’m a ghost."

"What?"

"Exactly. No
one knows about us. We don’t exist. I’m only telling you because, well, you’ll
be dead soon anyways. Dead men tell no tales, right?"

"What were
you doing here? What was your objective?"

"You already
know. Our primary target was Doctor West. Secondary target was the girl. Maria
Marsh. Approximately sixteen years of age. Caucasian. Blonde hair. Blue eyes.
Apparently she’s immune. No one believed Doctor West when he called it in. We
figured he just wanted to be rescued. But he was adamant. Command sent us in
because Doctor West was in charge of the research. He knows everything. If
anyone can save us, it's Doctor West. That's why he was our priority."

I shook my
head. "You should’ve left that guy to die. And trust me, Maria is immune.
She was bitten. She was dying. But her body, her immune system fought the
virus. And won. You need to get back on the airways. Tell your people to send
reinforcements. You need to get Maria out of here. She is special. She can put
a stop to this madness."

"Don’t you
think I’ve already tried calling for a goddamn extraction. There was no
response."

I remembered
back to that night in the unofficial immigration center. The slum in the
outback.

Drake
calling for an extraction. Over and over.

No response.

We had been
left for dead.

The man, the
corpse chuckled. "You already know, don’t you?"

"Know what?"

"You already
know they’ve left. There is no extraction. Command is not responding. They’re
falling back. They’re pulling out. You already know. And you already know what
comes next."

"An
airstrike," I whispered.

"Yeah.
That’s right. They’re gonna burn this city. They’re gonna burn it to the
ground." He pointed with his one good arm to a spare ammo mag. "You might wanna
save the last one."

I made my
way back to Maria, trying desperately to focus.

Come on
Kenji. Switch on.

This is no
time to check out.

You need to
protect Maria at all costs.

Get it
together.

We’re gonna need a bigger boat

I made it back to the boat. Maria was waiting for me. She was anxious.

"What the
hell is going on in there?" she said, asking about the city and the noise, the
fire fight and the explosions.

"The
military are falling back," I said. "They’re trying to take out as many
infected as possible."

"So what do
we do? We can’t just stay here. We’re too exposed."