Torn Apart (15 page)

The pain. White hot. It felt like heated knives and bamboo
splinters had been inserted under my fingernails all the way up to
my knuckles.

But I held on.

Everything was still
happening in slow motion.

We were clear of the
unstoppable runaway train. We were clear of the tracks. I saw the
bridge. Saw where it had been blown up. The train fell majestically
into the lake at over two hundred miles per hour. It practically
disintegrated upon hitting the water, causing a giant wall of white
wash.

I was instantly reminded of
the destruction of the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

The massacre.

For a moment we were in the
clear. We were floating and falling. We had been pulled out of the
train carriage and the wind had taken the chute. There was enough
drag to slow us down and pull us out into the enormous cavern. But
as far as I could tell, we might as well have been falling into the
night sky, we might as well have been outside, over the Pacific
ocean. I can’t adequately describe the enormity of this cavern. It
was endless. It was a universe.

We picked up speed and
floated and descended towards the lake. At this point all I wanted
to do was keep Ben from drowning. Keep myself from drowning. Where
is Jack when you need him? He was the strongest swimmer in our
group, and he had practically saved me from drowning in Sydney
Harbor. I quickly scanned the immediate area, looking for Maria.
But I couldn’t see her. It was too dark.

All of a sudden Ben’s
shoulders slipped out from the belt that I had strapped around the
both of us. I still had a hold of him in a bear hug, but my hands
and fingers were numb from pain and exhaustion.

He was starting to
slip.

Suddenly my hands seized up
and I could no longer hold on. I let go of Ben
involuntarily.

He fell away.

I screamed and the enormous
never ending cavern swallowed my voice.

“
I’m sorry,” I
said to Ben and to myself.

I closed my eyes as Ben
fell back-first into the water. He was unconscious.

I started to cry as I
realized that in a matter of seconds, water would fill his lungs.
In a matter of seconds, he would drown.

I continued to fall and
float.

I eventually hit the water.
I hit hard. I must’ve been falling faster than I thought. I was
surprised at how warm the water was. I looked around in a daze. I
couldn’t see Maria. I couldn’t see Ben.

I was alone.

The parachute had a built
in life jacket. The life jacket no doubt saved me from
drowning.

I must’ve hit my head, or
maybe I snapped my neck awkwardly. I don’t really remember. I
must’ve passed out. The next thing I knew, I was on a boat. An old
fishing trawler.

I thought I had been
saved.

I was wrong.

I had floated and drifted to a dark place.

I was trapped there. In the darkness. For a
long time.

I found myself sitting in a chair. I was
strapped into the chair. My arms were tied to the armrests. My legs
were tied to the legs of the chair.

I constantly felt like I was drowning.
Suffocating and choking.

Suddenly my arms were stretched out. My
shoulders were dislocated.

I was strung up in front of a crowd of faceless
people.

I was being crucified.

Questions were shouted from the
crowd.

“
Why did you do it?”

“
Do what?” I replied.

“
Why did you enter the Fortress? Why
did you walk off into the desert? You had Maria Marsh. She is the
only person on record to have survived a bite. She is the only
person immune to the Oz virus. You had her. And instead of getting
her the hell out of Australia, you put her back in harm’s way. You
took her out into the Australian outback with barely any water.
Hardly any food. What the hell were you thinking? You weren't
thinking. Now you are in hell. A labyrinth. A prison for bodies and
souls. You are being hunted by nano-swarms and infected undead
monsters. You are being hunted by a psychopath in a gas mask. You
couldn't even kill him when you had the chance. Why did you do
it?”

“
For my friends,” I answered. “For
Jack. For Kim. For Kenji.”

“
You don’t even know if Jack is
alive. You don't even know if Kenji is alive. You should never have
come down here. The Fortress. You were warned. You were told to
stay away, to forget about it. This is not a sanctuary. This is not
a place of refuge. Not anymore. It is hell. It is a place of
torture. Do you think you will find salvation down
here?”

“
I will find my friends,” I
repeated. “They are my strength.”

“
Love leads to loss and fear and
pain and suffering. You should let go of these attachments. Let go
of them. They are better off. Dead.”

“
No.”

“
You cannot save them. You will die
down here.”

I woke up suddenly. I felt like I
was falling. I
woke up on my back, on a
hard, wooden surface. My head throbbed and ached.
Maria was next to me. She was asleep. Her head was
propped up on what appeared to be a back pack. She looked so
peaceful.
Her right arm was bandaged and in
a sling. She was no longer wearing her NBC suit. Just her jeans and
a t-shirt.

I tried to sit up but it was hard to
move.

And then I realized someone was
standing over me. An old man. He wore a short messy beard. It
was
stained with food and drink and
dirt.
He was wearing denim overalls and big
rubber boots. He was holding a giant iron hook.

A fishing hook?

My heart skipped a beat and I tried to move
back, but I was dizzy and faint and weak. I couldn’t focus my
eyes.

“
Her shoulder was dislocated,” the
man said. His voice was gentle. Patient. “I re-positioned it for
her. Put the joint back into place. Back into the socket. She’ll
need to keep it in a sling for a few days. Too early to tell if
there’s any ligament damage.”

I touched my forehead. There was a fresh
bandaged wrapped securely around my head. It still hurt. “Where am
I?” I asked. “We. Where are we?”

The old man swung his hook, impaling the
underbelly of what had to be a large fish or chunk of meat. He
dragged it into an industrial sized ice box and slammed the door
shut.

“
We are lucky,” he said. “It’s hard
to catch these fish without the right tools.”

“
There’s fish down here?”

“
Yes. Lots of little fishies. Some
big ones.”

“
Where are we?” I
repeated.

“
You’re on my boat. It’s a shark in
these waters. It’s the only safe place left down here.”

I looked around slowly. It was an older boat.
It appeared to be a fishing trawler. On the roof of the cabin, or
the bridge, was a radar dish and some other technical
equipment.

My head throbbed. My vision narrowed. I closed
my eyes.

“
I stitched your head wound up,” the
man said. “It was very deep. Ten stitches in total. No need to
thank me.”

He placed the hook on top of the ice box. He
then locked it with a large, heavy duty padlock. He took out a
small torch from his top pocket and shined it in my
eyes.

The light was bright.

“
What are you doing?” I
asked.

“
Checking your vision. Pupil
dilation.”

“
How do you know how to do this? Are
you a doctor? And why is there a fishing trawler down
here?”

“
Your pupils are reacting nicely.
And it’s not a fishing boat anymore. It’s been converted into a
research vessel. The military was interested in the marine
ecosystem of this lake. And no, I’m not a doctor. I’ve had help. A
teacher.”

“
A teacher?” I asked.
“Who?”

I was so disorientated at this point. I had a
feeling like I was stuck on a roller coaster and I couldn’t get
off. “How did we get here? What happened? Where is Ben?”

“
The big man? He is alive. He is
below deck. He needed a blood transfusion.”

“
He survived? He’s
alive?”

“
Yes. He is strong. I saw the train.
Saw the explosion. The big man, he was clinging to a piece of drift
wood. A part of the train. Clinging to life. You two girls were
barely conscious. Your parachute harnesses were keeping you afloat.
You should thank the design. Thank god that they came built in with
a floatation device. And her protective suit. It protected her
body. Her bones. Her organs. I have seen the Special Forces
soldiers wear them. Where did she get one?”

I stood. My knees were shaking. It was hard to
get my balance. I noticed there was a steady stream of white wash,
leaving a trail behind the boat. The engine was chugging
along.

“
You need rest,” the man
said.

“
Where are we going?”

“
A safe place.”

“
I need to get to the head quarters.
I need to find my friends.”

“
All in due time. First, you rest.
Eat. Get your strength. First we make sure your friend, the big
man, does not die.”

“
No. I need to go now.”

“
Why are you in such a
hurry?”

“
Because I need to be. I need to get
my friends.” I pointed to Maria. “I need to get her to
safety.”

“
You were close to death. You
should’ve died on that train. You should’ve drowned. This boat is a
safe place. Probably the only safe place left down
here.”

“
Yeah, yeah. I know. There was a
Code Black. The General ordered a Lockdown. But trust me; I need to
get her out of here.”

“
And where would you go? To the
General? You would speak with him?”

“
I will do whatever I have to
do.”

“
Why are you so desperate? Why are
you so ready to die, to risk your life and your friend’s life? You
should stay on this boat. Never get off this boat. You should
follow my advice if you do not want to meet your end at the hands
of the General.”

I shook my head. I didn’t know whether to tell
him that Maria was immune. Would it make any difference? His mind
seemed to be made up. But like he said, I was desperate. I had come
this far.

“
She’s immune,” I said. “To the Oz
virus.”

“
So the rumors are true?”

“
What rumors?”

“
Rumors floating around this place.
A young girl. An angel. Immune to the Oz virus. A living, breathing
miracle. A savior. A cure.”

“
Yeah, it’s all true,” I said. “She
was bitten. Back in Sydney. She didn’t die. She didn’t turn into a
monster. She survived.”

“
You have come all the way from
Sydney?”

“
Yes. We were trying to get her to
safety, trying to get her out of the country.”

“
We?”

“
My friends. We were travelling in a
group. We were strong as a group. We had two soldiers with us. We
were so close to getting out of here.”

“
But fate has brought you back. It
has brought you down here. I wonder why?”

“
We had no choice. Our friends, some
of our group, they were captured.”

“
That is beside the point. If she is
indeed immune to the Oz virus, you should’ve stayed away from this
place. Once we were cut off from the rest of the world, the walls
of solid rock began closing in. The desert consumed the General and
his soldiers. It changed them. The pressure of containing this
virus, the burden of all the lives that have been lost. The
isolation. In a matter of days, weeks, months, this place became
their prison. It became a literal, physical hell. A prison of their
minds and their bodies. And their very souls.”

He was right. Of course he was right. Any
rational person knew that Maria needed to be evacuated. She needed
to be wrapped in a bubble, kept out of harm’s way. But how? What
the hell was I supposed to do? Leave my friends?

Leave Jack?

Leave Kenji?

Abandon Kim?

Abandon everyone?

I didn’t have the strength to make that
call.

And neither did Maria.

Call us selfish. Call us whatever you
want.

But we couldn’t just leave.

“
You had hope,” the man continued.
“Hope that your friends are alive. Hope that you would find
something down here worth fighting for. Worth dying for. I am sorry
to be the bearer of bad news. I am sorry to inform you…”

“
What? Inform me what?”

“
That you should abandon
hope.”

I shook my head. “No. They are down here. I
know they are. I can’t just leave them. It was Maria’s idea. She
didn’t want to leave either. We had no way out of the country
anyway. We were stuck. We were screwed. This was our only choice!
You need to help us. You need to take us to…”