Torn Apart (3 page)

We stepped up and into the attic of the barn.
We were standing in the doorway. But they ignored us
completely.

The unarmed guy was sitting down against a
stack of hay. “Do it,” he said. “I’m ready.”

The guy with the gun aimed it. Finger on the
trigger.

“
Whoa, hold up,” I said. “What the
hell is going on?”

“
Stay back,” they both said at the
same time.

The man with the gun took the shot. No
hesitation. He put the bullet right between the other guy’s eyes. I
guess he was infected.

“
Stay back!” the man
repeated.

“
What are you doing?” I asked. “Are
you infected? Was he infected?”

“
I’m dying. He was dying. We drew
straws. I lost. It was my duty to put him out of his
misery.”

The man was holding a revolver. And old cowboy
style revolver.

He put the barrel of the gun against the
underside of his chin. He squeezed the trigger.

Click.

He looked at the gun. Heartbroken.

He swore.

He felt around his pockets. Searching each one.
Slowly, clumsily. His fingers and most of his hands were black,
like he was suffering from frostbite.

“
What are you looking for?” Maria
asked.

“
I’m gone,” the man answered. “I’m
too far gone.”

“
Have you been bitten?”

“
No. But the swarm got to us. It’s
hard to breathe. Can’t move my legs.”

His fingers were black. His skin was discolored
and bruised, like he had been beaten, like he was bleeding
internally.

His muscles, his neck muscles, and shoulders,
and mouth, were twitching.

“
What are you doing out here?” I
asked.

“
I know, right?” he answered. “Why
would anyone come out here?” he paused. “Before the world ended, I
was a FIFO worker.”

“
A what?”

“
FIFO. Fly In, Fly Out. I worked all
over the outback. South Australia, Northern Territory, Western
Australia, Queensland. Lived in Melbourne. Was hardly ever home.
Had a girlfriend. A great girl. She was too good for me. Treated me
like a king. And I… I didn’t treat her like anything. I cheated on
her so many times. I didn’t even think twice about it. I just… I
couldn’t stop. Do you believe in Karma? Am I being punished? I just
hope she didn’t suffer.”

Melbourne. Ben told us that when they lost
control, when the virus took over, they started herding people
together like cattle. Killing people like cattle. Did she
suffer?

Probably.

“
Too far gone,” he
repeated.

“
What are you looking for?” I asked
again.

“
A bullet.”

He then leant to the side and threw up. The
vomit was black, like oil.

He looked up at us, at me. Looked at the rifle
in my hands. “Hey, that thing loaded? That’s a military grade
rifle. Where the hell did you get that? No way you’re a
soldier.”

“
I found it.”

“
Finders keepers,” he whispered,
struggling to speak. “That’s the way it is now.”

“
I guess so.”

He tossed the revolver over to me. It landed at
my feet. “Take it. Who knows, maybe you will find some bullets for
it.”

Maria leant down and picked it up. “It’s kinda
heavy for a small hand gun.”

“
Take this as well,” he said as he
produced a hand grenade. “It’s not much. But it might
help.”

“
Is that an EMP grenade?” I
asked.

“
Impressive. How do you know that?
You must’ve been through some shit.”

I nodded. “You could say that.”

He dropped the grenade accidentally and it
rolled away from him, his fingers tensed up and twitched. “Goddamn.
It’s getting worse.”

I wanted to tell this guy that everything was
going to be all right. I think it was just a reflex, trying to
comfort someone in pain. But the truth was, everything was not
going to be all right. Especially not for this guy.

“
What happened here?” I asked even
though I had a pretty good idea of what happened. But I figured if
I could get this guy talking, it might keep him alive just a little
bit longer. It might take his mind off the pain.

“
We were ambushed,” he said. “It was
waiting for us in the barn. It was hiding. It knew.”

“
It?”

“
The swarm. Took us by surprise. Two
more flanked us. Surrounded us. They were so fast. Too damn fast.
There was nothing we could do. We couldn’t get a clear shot. Not
with three of them out there. We couldn’t trap them.”

“
Were you part of the tank convoy
that came through here?” I asked.

“
Eight days,” he whispered, ignoring
my question. “Eight goddamn days. Longer than a week. You can't be
gone longer than a week. You’re gone a week, you're gone for
good.”

“
What are you talking
about?”

“
I guess because it was a rescue
mission, I figured we'd be out of harm’s way. Not like volunteering
to go out with the recon teams. Survival rate for those missions
was practically zero. There was a rumor floating around that the
teams would use civilians as bait. Can you believe
that?”

Yeah, I could.

“
Bait?” Maria asked. “For
what?”

“
For the infected. And the other
things. And the black clouds. That's what got us. They hunted us
down. It’s the only way to describe it. I wonder if the swarms got
the rest of the convoy before they made it back.”

“
So you were part of the convoy?” I
repeated.

“
Yeah. We went to a small town. Not
far from here. About a hundred miles or so. Apparently the Special
Forces soldiers had vital intel from the surveillance drones.
Apparently they had identified a target. I don't know who the
target was. They never tell us civilians anything. There was a
rumor going around about a girl. Immune to the Oz virus. This is
why I volunteered. I wanted to help. If there really was someone
immune to the virus, then we needed to go and get them. Make sure
they were safe. But we didn't find a girl. We found a guy. A
teenager. He was alone. Dehydrated.”

“
Jack,” Maria whispered under her
breath.

The man looked down at his hands. He tried to
move his fingers. “I can't believe we risked all this for one kid.
So many people died on this mission. I'm starting to think they
left us to die out here on purpose.”

“
So where did they take this guy?”
Maria asked, desperate for any information. Desperate for
answers.

“
Back to base. Apparently he was
still considered important. They wanted to use him.” He shook his
head again. “Don't know why. Doesn't make sense.”

It did make sense, I thought.

They had surveillance of Jack. And Kim must’ve
known about it somehow. If I had to guess, I'd say she would've
convinced the powers to be, the military commanders and Doctor
Hunter that Jack was worth saving.

“
I'm such an idiot,” the man said.
“Should’ve stayed low. I was wrong. There is no hope left. Not in
the desert. Not out here. Not anywhere.”

He was grimacing in pain. I noticed he had a
barcode on his wrist. Like the dreadlocked woman. Like
Ben.

“
What's the deal with the barcode?”
I asked.

He looked at his wrist. “That was my ticket to
freedom. It's irrelevant now. It's useless. I was a guest. Now I'm
an outcast. I don't know why I volunteered. So stupid. I should’ve
kept my mouth shut. Although I suppose we are all screwed now. Code
Black. It's over.”

“
Code Black?” I said.

“
Yeah. Can you believe it? How does
this keep happening?”

“
What the hell is a Code Black?”
Maria asked. “What are you talking about?”

The man retrieved a small walkie-talkie from
his top pocket. “Shh. Listen.” He turned it on. Fiddled with the
knobs, tuned it to a specific frequency.

We heard a soothing female voice. Emotionless.
Almost robotic. It was a recorded message. “A Code Black has been
issued for the following areas: Residential. And. Research. That is
all. Code Black initiates Lockdown procedure and evacuation. Please
be advised of evacuation protocol. The time for evacuation has
expired. Code Black. Code Black. Code Black.”

The message repeated again and again. Over and
over. I got the impression that the message had been playing for
awhile, like a broken record.

Then we heard another voice. A male voice. He
was calm and serene like the recorded voice. But with more
authority and more menace. It was not a recording.

“
Turn that off,” the voice said.
“Tell the men there will be no evacuation. Tell the men there is no
turning back. We will win this war. We do not need an army. We only
need the brave, the committed.”

“
Who is that?” Maria
asked.

The man held up his black fingers, telling us
to be quiet. He had a look of anger and concentration on his
face.

“
I want napalm,” the voice said.
“Lots of napalm”

“
Napalm, sir? Inside?”

“
Yes. Lots of napalm. We need to
burn it. Burn the air.”

Static took over and the voices faded
away.

The man’s hand seized up and he dropped the
walkie-talkie. “See? It's over. Code Black. The entire residential
area is in Lockdown. Same with the research area. They were working
on a cure. I guess they failed. Another goddamn containment
failure. How? How does this keep happening? This virus is pure
death.”

Blood began bubbling out of his lips as he
spoke. His voice sounded rough and coarse, like it had been dragged
over a gravel road.

He was dying.

“
Who was that?” Maria asked. “On the
radio?”

“
That was General Spears. He's in
charge.”

“
General Spears?” I asked. “Wait,
was that transmission, was that coming from the
Fortress?”

“
Yeah. I’d never thought the
Fortress would be compromised. It had been an oasis in this desert.
An oasis in this goddamn apocalypse.”

“
But if we can hear the
transmission,” I said. “That means it has to be close,
right?”

The man shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. You
heard the message. Code Black. Lockdown. It’s over. No one gets in.
No one.”

“
What is a Code Black?” Maria
asked.

“
Code Black is infection. An
outbreak. How? The Fortress is so goddamn secure. How the hell did
the virus get loose? They have so many security measures. So many
fail safes.”

“
Are we close?” I asked. “Do you
know where it is?”

He nodded. “Yeah. You’re close. Less than a
day. But you won’t find it. Hell, I wouldn’t even be able to find
it. And you should stay the hell away from it. You heard. Code
Black. Lockdown. It’s all over. See?” he said, pointing out the
barn window.

“
What?”

“
He’s watching.”

Maria and I moved slowly over to the window. We
had to look really hard and shield our eyes from the dull glare of
the overcast sky. And even then, the damn thing looked like a bird,
a large eagle. But it wasn’t. It was the Predator drone we had seen
earlier.

“
There’s one of the drones,” the man
said. “They are always watching. He is always watching. But he
doesn't send help. He never sends help.”

“
We have to find it,” I said. “We
have friends there. We need to get them out.”

“
No. Forget them. They’re already
dead.”

I stepped forward. “We are not leaving them
behind! Tell us where it is.”

His head drooped forward. “No.”

“
Tell me! Where is it?”

I leant down, grabbed his collar. “Look at me!
Where is the goddamn Fortress!?”

“
Rebecca, calm down,” Maria
said.

“
No. I will not calm down. This guy
is gonna tell me where the Fortress is or else.”

“
Or else what?” she
asked.

“
I’ll ask the hard way. Ben taught
me a few things. I can ask pretty hard.” I shook him by the collar
again. “Do you want that?”

“
Rebecca, stop! Look at him. He’s
dying. He’s been through hell.”

Just then I thought I saw a black mark move
under his collar bone, into his chest. Like a moving bruise or a
shadow or something. I let go of him and jumped back. His shoulder
seemed to spasm and twitch.

The man’s eyes rolled back into his skull. He
was gone.

We were back to square one. We would have to find the tank tracks
again, keep following them. Hopefully they would lead somewhere.
Hopefully they weren’t just leading us to our deaths.

“
What the hell was that?” I asked
about the moving bruise. “Did you see that?”