Where the Dead Men Lie (10 page)

"That about sums it up."

"Why?" Kenji asked "Why would we never find it?"

"It’s hidden. It was designed never to be found."

"So how did you find it?"

"I got lucky."

"What do you mean? You just stumbled across it?"

"Yeah, sort of."

"What the hell were you doing out in the desert anyway?"

"I grew up out here. Spent most of my younger years working as a drover."

"Drover?" Kenji asked.

"Yeah, you know, herding cattle. I worked out on the bigger properties. The ones out in the middle of nowhere, bigger than some European countries. But that was a long time ago."

"So you came out here to get away from the virus and the infected?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah. I was in Melbourne when the virus first appeared. I was stupid enough to stay there right up until they started dropping the firebombs. But when things got real bad, when they started herding people like cattle, killing people like cattle, I got the hell out."

"Is it true?" Kenji asked. "Did they really drop a nuclear bomb on Melbourne?"

"I don’t know. I got out before that happened. Wouldn’t be talking to you right now if I didn’t."

He had a good point.

"So, you’ve just been wandering around out here all by yourself?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah, pretty much."

"How the hell have you survived out here on your own?"

"Like I said, I grew up out here. But I’m not gonna lie, this is a hard place. Hard to find food, even harder to find water. But that’s why it’s the perfect place to hide. It’s kind of a double edged sword. I was struggling, but I was doing OK. Until the dust storm hit a couple of weeks ago. That’s when things started to get real interesting."

"Interesting?"

"Yeah. Let’s just say, the infected ain’t the only things that goes bump in the night. Not anymore."

"What do you mean?" Daniel asked.

He looked at Daniel, at all of us. He smiled again. A smug little smirk. "You know what I mean. You’ve already seen it. The dust storm. It changed things. For the worse."

It was like he could read our minds. He knew we had seen it. He knew we wouldn’t have made it this far, stayed alive for this long without seeing it.

The thing in the middle of Sydney.

The spider monster made from scrap metal and spare car parts.

The bones in the mine pit.

It’s not just the infected anymore. The Oz virus was just the beginning. There’s something else going on.

"If I didn’t make it to the Fortress," he continued "I wouldn’t be breathing right now."

"Wait a minute," Jack said. "If the Fortress can’t be found, how the hell did you find it?"

"I didn’t. I was hiding in a one street, one horse town. It had been evacuated early on. I was hiding in the local post office. Waiting for the dust storm to blow over. Ended up waiting two weeks. I was starving and dying of thirst when they found me."

"The infected found you?"

"No. It was a recon team."

"A recon team?" Kenji asked. "Out here?"

"Yeah. The Fortress is their base of operations. They had been tracking and monitoring some activity in this area. ‘Anomalies’ is the word they use to describe them. The recon team had been out on patrol when they found me and took me in. Initially I couldn’t believe it. I thought I was delirious from dehydration. I thought I was hallucinating."

"Wow, that’s lucky." Kenji said.

"Yeah. If I’d spent anymore time in that town, I would’ve died."

"From dehydration?"

"No. The recon team had tracked something big to the area. They said it was a miracle it hadn’t found me."

"What was their target?" Daniel asked. "What were they tracking?"

He shrugged his massive shoulders. "All I know is they call them ‘anomalies’. Something to do with the dust storm that hit. Judging by the way they were acting, I’d say it was something big, bad and scary."

"What the hell does the dust storm have to do with anything?" Maria asked.

"The dust storm was man-made. And now because of that, the outback is no safer than the cities and the towns."

"A man-made dust storm?" I asked. "That’s impossible."

"Is it?"

"Yeah," I answered even though I wasn’t sure.

I mean, the dust storm was huge. It covered the entire eastern seaboard of Australia and stretched way out west into the outback. Daniel had told me that there had never been one like it before. Ever. That’s why it was initially thought to be nuclear fallout or some sort of nuclear winter.

But it wasn’t.

It was something else.

"So the recon team took you back to the Fortress?" Daniel continued.

"Yeah. They were convinced I was contaminated or something. They couldn’t believe I was still breathing. They locked me up in quarantine for a few days. But they eventually gave me the all clear and let me out."

"And then you joined one of the scavenger teams."

He nodded. "Met with General Spears. He told me that in order to stay, I had to earn my keep."

"General Spears?" Kenji said. "He was in charge of operations in Woomera."

"That’s right. He is the boss man. I told him I didn’t have a problem with earning my keep. Told him I’d be happy to do it. I got in his good books. Joined up with a few other people local to this area. We knew the towns, knew the terrain. As a result, we were the best scavenger team the General had at his disposal. So we were afforded certain luxuries."

"Like what?"

"Extra food. Booze if we wanted. We got to keep any money or anything valuable we found. Not that there was any point to keeping that stuff."

"How many scavenger teams were there?"

"Not sure. We were all kept in different sections, isolated from each other. Just in case there was an outbreak."

"What did you scavenge for?"

"Anything and everything. Food and water. Fuel. We’d usually leave just before sunrise. Make sure we were back before sunset. We’d been out most days for the past month. We had some close calls but like I said, nothing bad ever went down. Until today."

"What happened?"

"I guess our number was up. We found a town. It appeared to be empty. She vouched for it," he said motioning towards the dead woman. "She said it had been evacuated early on. And from our vantage point it looked to be deserted. But it wasn’t. They came outta nowhere. The buildings, the storm water drains. In a matter of minutes we were completely surrounded. Everyone freaked. Complete panic. Complete chaos. We were separated."

My heart was beating loud as the stranger told his story. It was all too familiar.

"I just hope she had the guts to end it quick," he added.

"She did," I said.

He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Good for her."

"So what now?" Jack asked. "Are you going back to the Fortress?"

"Not sure. I’m starting to think I’m better off on my own."

"You can’t be serious," I said. "You nearly died on your own."

He nodded slowly. "I’m aware of that."

"Why?" Maria asked. "Why would you want to be alone?"

"These people, the people at the Fortress, they won’t last long," he said.

"Why not?"

"It’s only a matter of time. There’s barely any food out here. Barely any water. This place becomes more and more dangerous with each passing day. These people will probably end up killing each other first."

"Not everyone is evil," I said. "Not everyone will forsake who they are just to survive."

"Believe me," he said. "We’re all gonna die out here."

"These people are just scared," I continued, trying to convince myself more than anyone else. "They’re just being careful. We’re on the same side."

"Maybe I wasn’t clear before," the stranger said. "But it’s like this folks. When the virus first hit, people lost. They lost big. They lost everything. You’re right about these people being scared. They are scared out of their minds. Fear is what motivates them. That is why they hit you. That is why none of us are getting out of this town alive."

I was shaking my head as the stranger spoke. I did not want to believe him.

"There will come a time," he said. "When your survival and your friend’s survival will make you do things you never thought you were capable of."

CHAPTER 16

After we realized there was nothing we could do about the corpse of the dreadlocked woman we were all silent for a few minutes. Eventually, the adrenalin rush of being on the run all night and surrounded by the infected and then captured and blindfolded wore off. Exhaustion brought on by dehydration and starvation took over.

Jack then remembered that he’d left Doctor Hunter’s computer back at the farmhouse. I told him not to worry about it. When we get out of here, we could go back and get it.

We sat down and tried to rest and conserve our energy. We sat down on the opposite side of the vault to the stranger. Nothing was said between us, but we made sure Maria was completely surrounded and protected by the guys.

I felt like saying something to the stranger. Something like, ‘hey, don’t you dare try anything. Kenji is a martial arts expert and a U.S. Marine. And Daniel is an elite Special Forces soldier’. But I didn’t say that. I was too scared it would just provoke him.

A few hours passed and I began drifting in and out of consciousness. Daniel and Kenji both managed to keep themselves awake, still not trusting the stranger or the people upstairs. But I could tell they were both fighting off sleep. Every now and then their eyes would close and their heads would dip. But they remained awake. Daniel once told me that they trained for situations like this. Well maybe not exactly like this. But sleep deprivation was an important part of their training. It was called ‘hell week’. He said that during ‘hell week’ he slept for a total of maybe three hours. I initially thought he meant three hours a night. Not so bad, right?

But no. He meant three hours in total. For the whole week.

Sounded more like torture than training to me.

I had just closed my eyes and felt myself falling into dreamland when the vault door clicked loudly as it was unlocked. Once again, the heavy door slowly swung open. Everyone was immediately wide awake. I wondered if they were going to throw another dead body in with us.

I actually scuttled back away from the door.

Kenji and Daniel jumped to their feet, making sure that Jack, Maria and I were behind them. Jack held Maria tightly. The stranger continued to sit in the corner, on the pallet of cash. He had barely moved.

Four armed men entered the room. They were all carrying rifles. They may very well have been our rifles.

One of them spoke. I recognized the voice. It was the guy who’d told me to stop talking. The guy who had hit me in the face. He was a fairly large man. Not compared to the stranger, but still not someone you’d want to come across in a dark alley. He was completely bald and slightly overweight. He had multiple tattoos on both arms.

"Don’t get any wild ideas," he said as he pointed his rifle directly at the stranger. "Especially you, big guy."

"Wouldn’t dream of it," the stranger replied.

The three other men seemed to have various injuries. Black eyes, broken noses. Fat, bloodied lips. These injuries were no doubt inflicted by the stranger.

Both Kenji and Daniel held their hands up to let the men know they weren’t a threat.

A few seconds later another man entered. He was wearing a black robe.

It was the priest.

The first thing he did when he entered the vault was kneel down next to the woman. He stayed there for a few minutes. After awhile I thought I could hear him whispering. I couldn’t be sure, but it sounded like he was asking for forgiveness.

Begging for forgiveness.

He then made the symbol of the cross over the woman’s disfigured face.

In the name of the Father.

The Son.

The Holy Spirit.

Now and forever.

Amen.

He stood slowly, his knees cracking as he did. He then held his hands out to greet us. "My children," he said quietly. "Welcome to Hope."

I can’t speak for the others but I for one was getting mixed signals from these people. One minute they had rescued us, the next minute we were their prisoners. One minute they were giving us water and the next minute they had thrown a dead body in with us. And now the priest was welcoming us with open arms as four guys with rifles stood behind him.

Mixed signals.

"OK, enough with the niceties," Daniel said, getting straight to business. "What do you want with us?"

The priest tilted his head to the side as if he was confused. "Want? We don’t want anything from you."

"Then why did you lock us up?" Daniel asked. "Don’t get me wrong, we appreciate what you did for us back there and we’re grateful for the water. But why did you take us prisoner? Why tie us up? Why blindfold us?"