Torn Apart (21 page)

“
I learnt strength a long time ago,”
the General said. “I learnt it from the rocks. And the mountains.
The old things. I learnt it from these people,” he said, motioning
to the tribe of Aboriginals. “A true strength. A man like that
could never know what true strength is.”

I wanted to ask him where they were taking Ben.
But I couldn’t speak. I was too scared.

“
We are miles below the earth’s
surface,” he continued. “And yet the indigenous inhabitants of this
land found this cave, this cavern. They are nothing more than
hunter-gatherers. Nomadic tribes. They are primitive and yet
advanced and balanced. They had achieved an equilibrium with this
world that can only be described as utopian. When they found this
place, long ago, they were scared. They were alone. They were
blind. But their fear did not stop them. It did not cripple them.
They persisted. And they were rewarded with this, this
inner-sanctum. This temple. These cave paintings are over forty
thousand years old. They tell a story. The land. The dreamtime. The
spirit world. The physical world. Everything in harmony.
Everything.”

The General knelt down again. On both knees. On
the rocks. He placed his hands in his lap, like he was meditating.
He began to breathe deeply.

“
No one knew about this place,” he
said. “It had been long forgotten. When we built this facility, we
had no obligation to tell anyone. No obligation to save it. But who
could destroy this? Who in their right mind would destroy this
shrine? It is history. A testament to the spirit and the strength
of man’s potential. To ignore fear, to persist in the face of
absolute darkness. This is what we must do. We are facing absolute
darkness and we must endure. We must persist.”

Kim was still standing between Maria and me.
She was still holding both of our hands. I think she was doing this
to make it absolutely clear that we were with her, that we were not
trespassing.

After the General’s speech about the Aboriginal
tribe I wanted to speak out, tell him that we had delivered Maria
Marsh. She was immune. Stop wasting time. We’re on the same side.
Let’s get to work.

I actually opened my mouth.

But Kim squeezed my hand. It was a subtle
gesture that told me not to speak out of line.

Weirdly, the General hadn’t looked at us yet.
He hadn’t made eye contact.

But he kept talking.

“
The original idea and design of
this facility came from Albert Einstein. He knew the destructive
effects of nuclear war. He knew better than anyone. Nuclear
winters. Long term and short term. In every simulation, Australia
is spared the worst. Construction began after World War Two.
Expanded during the Cold War. This is the result of combined
resources. Years and decade’s worth of construction and human
endurance.”

He paused. Thinking. He finally looked at us.
“Are you soldiers?”

I looked at Kim. She nodded to say it was all
right to speak. “Are we soldiers?” I said. “No? We're just regular
people. We're just survivors.”

“
You look like soldiers. The way you
walk, your eyes. Your hands. You can tell. Your shoulders and your
neck. Do you know what I mean?”

I had no idea what he meant. And I had no idea
what to say. Neither did Maria.

“
Where did you take Ben?” I
asked.

The General stared at me for a long
time.

After a while he said, “He was taken to the
prison. He was locked up. Descent will not be
tolerated.”

I swallowed some excess saliva. An awkward
silence followed.

“
The company wants me dead,” he
continued. “They have sent people to kill me. Assassins. The so
called, Evo Agents.”

“
We're here to help,” I
said.

“
Evo Agents are supposed to
represent the next phase of the evolution of the soldier,” he said,
ignoring me. “A super soldier. They have sent them here to kill me.
The company and the military have cut me off. I'm no longer part of
their plans. Can you believe that? They threw me to the wolves.
They sent me down here. And now they're cutting me off. I should've
expected it though. I had meetings with the Joint Chiefs. The CIA,
the NSA. Spy masters. All of them. And all they do is lie. To each
other. To themselves. Lie and deceive. Do you know what it’s like
to be in a room full of liars and conmen?”

He lowered his head and took another deep
breath. “Which one of you is Maria?”

“
I am, sir,” Maria answered,
quickly.

He pointed his finger at Maria. Again, he
stared and stared at her for a long time. It was incredibly
unnerving and intimidating. “I want a no bullshit answer,” he said.
“Are you immune to the Oz virus?”

Maria nodded. “Yes. I think.”

“
You think?”

Wow, wrong answer, I thought. Come on, Maria.
Keep it together. We've been through too much to be scared and
bullied by this guy. Be strong.

“
Were you bitten?” the General
asked.

“
Yes.”

“
Where?”

“
On the ankle. Just above the
ankle.”

“
Well, which one is it?”

“
Just above.”

“
Were you aware at the time of what
happens to someone once they are bitten?”

“
Yes. We had seen it. I
knew.”

“
What happened after you were
bitten?”

“
I felt weak. I had a fever. I was
hot and cold at the same time. I had chills. My joints ached. My
bones felt like they were on fire. I was passing in and out of
consciousness.”

“
Were you alone?”

“
No. My friends were with me. Kim.
Rebecca.”

“
And they did nothing?”

“
What?”

“
Did they know the effects of the Oz
virus?”

“
Yes. They knew.”

“
And there was no action? Only
inaction. They let you suffer.”

“
No.”

“
No? Then what were they
doing?”

He shifted his gaze onto me.

“
We knew what we had to do,” I said,
unable to hold my tongue, unable to give this man the respect he
thought he deserved. “Of course we knew. We were in the middle of
Sydney for crying out loud. The infected were
everywhere.”

“
So why did you let her
suffer?”

I shook my head. “It wasn't like that. We gave
her time. What else were we supposed to do?”

“
My boyfriend, Jack,” Maria said.
“He stood up. He was prepared to take the shot. To take care of me.
But he couldn't. He waited. And eventually, I started getting
better. I didn't turn. My body fought the infection.”

The General paused for awhile. He whispered to
himself, “We have Jack. He was discovered in a town not far from
here. One hundred clicks south of here.” He then looked back at
Maria. “The doctor assured me we could use him to lure you here.
Sun Tzu states that you must always lure your enemy out of hiding
with something to gain. Something that he wants. This is why I
agreed to Doctor Hunter’s ridiculous plan. This is why I have let
the doctor live.”

He talked casually about Doctor Hunter’s life.
Right in front of him. The doctor surprisingly didn’t seem to care.
But then again, I guess he already knew he was on thin
ice.

“
I am not your enemy,” Maria said.
“I want to help.”

“
Where are you from, Maria?” he
asked, seemingly changing the topic at random.

“
Sydney,” she answered.

“
What part?”

“
North Sydney.”

“
Your home is gone. How did you
survive the firebombing? How did you survive the containment
protocol?”

Maria shook her head. “I don't know. We got
lucky. Maybe it was fate. We had help from Kim. And Kenji. A
soldier. Yeah, we were lucky.”

“
Yes,” the General said. “Kim is
strong. Even stronger now. Sydney was one of my biggest failures. I
should've ordered a nuclear strike. I should've reduced the entire
eastern sea board to ash.”

He lowered his head and was silent for a
moment, like he was thinking back, remembering the outbreak, the
moment the Oz virus reached Sydney.

And I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I
quickly looked back at the blast doors. They were firmly closed.
And there did not appear to be any other exits. None that I could
see.

“
Do you want to know why I stayed my
hand?” he asked. “Do you want to know why I hesitated?” He looked
away. At the cave walls, at the paintings of the rainbow snake. He
shrugged his shoulders. “Powerful beings are supposed to be
decisive. I do not know why I hesitated. I do not know why I chose
not to use nuclear options. Maybe because I am weak. Or was weak.
But I made sure not to make that mistake again. I ordered a nuclear
strike the following day, on the city of Melbourne. I was sad yet
defiant. I had learnt from my mistake. I was getting stronger. My
convictions, my fortitude. I was doing necessary evil. They would
write stories about me one day. I would go down in history. But the
virus had already spread further and wider and faster. So fast. We
couldn't contain it. We couldn't stop it. Nuclear weapons became
useless. The wrong weapon.”

Another long pause. Another awkward
silence.

“
So now, I think that you surviving
in an environment where you should not have survived, and my
hesitation, my moment of weakness, my decision not to drop a
nuclear warhead on Sydney, on you, was divine intervention. What
else could it be? Do you believe in divine
intervention?”

“
I'm not sure anymore,” Maria
answered. “We were tied up, nearly killed by a priest. He had gone
mad. He had changed into the worst possible version of
himself.”

“
How did you get out here?” the
General asked. “Why did you walk off into the desert?”

“
We had no choice,” I said. “It’s
too dangerous in the cities. They’re overrun with
infected.”

“
The desert is a dangerous place,”
he said. “Death comes easy here. Are any of you
infected?”

“
No, sir,” Maria and I answered at
the same time.

“
Time will tell. Time does not
lie.”

“
We’re not infected,” I repeated.
“We wouldn’t have made it this far...”

He held his hand up to silence me. “Kimberly,
take these three away. Lock them up.”

“
What? Where are you taking us?” I
asked. “What are you doing? Maria is immune! We need to act. We
need to do something.”

“
You will be locked up. I need to
make sure you are not infected. I need to make sure you are not
lying to me.”

Kim gave us a look that said she was sorry.
“It’s going to be OK,” she whispered.

Again, I wanted to believe her. But I didn’t. I
was too damn scared. Scared of a General who had gone mad from
pressure and death.

He was fighting an unwinnable war. His mission
was unachievable. His goals were too unrealistic.

Like he said, he had been thrown to the
wolves.

He had been placed in a vice.

And now the pressure had changed
him.

I mean, I felt different from killing one
individual. One individual who deserved to be killed. So how did he
feel?

He ordered nuclear strikes. He ordered mass
killings.

Did he carry the burden of the dead?

Could he feel the weight on his
shoulders?

Civilians.

Women and children.

Innocent people.

Soldiers.

I think that he did.

And I think this weight had pushed him over the
edge.

And now we were trapped down here with him. We
were helpless. We were at his mercy.

We were locked up for six days in total. Maria, Doctor Hunter and
myself. The whole time we had no food. And only a few mouthfuls of
water. We were getting weaker by the minute. And every day we were
locked up, we were wasting time. As we were getting weaker, the
virus was getting stronger, it was spreading further. More people
were dying.

We had no idea where they had taken Ben. We had
no idea if he was still alive.

Our makeshift prison cell was a shipping
container. I guess the container was once used to transport
supplies. Ammunition. Food.

A few holes had been drilled into the roof to
let air in. But other than that, it was completely dark in there.
It took a whole day for my eyes to adjust. It was like we were
trapped in a black hole. We were cut off from reality.

And I very nearly lost my mind in
there.

For the first few hours that we were locked up,
we thought we were alone.

But then someone coughed.

They were curled up at the far end of the
container. They were wearing black. They hadn’t moved or said a
word since we had been locked up. And they were barely breathing.
If he hadn’t coughed, we would never have even known he was
there.