Where The Dead Men Lie (The Secret Apocalypse) (28 page)

"And then?"

"I don’t know. But it beats being stuck on this footbridge."

He had a good point.

We were about to make a move, but just then the monster ducked underneath the walkway. It must’ve brushed its back against the structure because the whole thing rose up about a foot in the air, rocking back and forth. Once the monster was clear of the footbridge, the whole structure abruptly and violently shifted back into its original place. The monster stood up on the other side, looking out and away from us.

As the structure moved, Maria let out another yelp.

Again, this noise caught the attention of the monster. We couldn’t see it clearly through the spray-painted windows; it was just a shadow, silhouetted against the harsh desert sun. And we were pretty confident it couldn’t see us but just to be sure we quickly scrambled to the other side and hid under the windows as it turned around to inspect the walkway.

The monster moved in closer. The shadow of its giant head scanned up and down the entire length of the walkway. Its mouth was slightly open, exposing foot long, razor sharp, samurai sword teeth.

I closed my eyes at that point, hoping it would just keep walking and leave us alone. Praying that the damn walkway would hold.

My prayers went unanswered.

The monster brushed up against the walkway again, gently at first but then more forcefully. The whole structure shook. The floor tilted further and further with each blow. Suddenly, it began to break away from the research side of the facility. The windows began to shatter.

"We need to go," Kenji said.

But before we could move, a giant, powerful arm and a hand full of claws punched through the window, breaking the reinforced glass like it was rice-paper.

I covered my head and held my breath so I didn’t scream.

The monster was feeling around, searching.

Kenji then stood up from his position to get a look at the monster; he knelt back down and dived out of the way as the monster’s other hand came crashing through the window. Kenji stood up again and took aim with the shotgun. He unloaded two shells at point blank range, right at the monsters eyes.

The monster roared in pain. It was a frightening, earsplitting, earth shattering noise. Fortunately the shotgun blast had stunned the monster momentarily.

"Everybody out!" Kenji shouted. "Let’s go!"

Daniel was already on the other side and Jack got to his feet in a flash.

We were almost out. We were so close. I had grabbed on to Maria who had been lying down next to me.

But we were too slow.

Maybe we were worried about the broken glass on the floor. Maybe I tripped. Maybe Maria tripped. For the life of me, I can’t remember. All I remember is seeing the giant shadow of the monster through the black windows. It was charging at us.

It was coming in fast.

I realized in a heartbeat that we weren’t going to make it to the other side in time.

I looked up and saw the guys standing there at the entrance to the military compound, waving us forward, urging us forward.

I grabbed Maria in a bear hug, tackled her to the ground and braced for impact.

CHAPTER 43

As I dived for the floor, all I could think about was the damn self-destruct clock. In my mind’s eye it was a huge scoreboard inside a sports stadium with the clock rapidly approaching zero.

We were wasting precious minutes and time would not wait for us.

The impact of the monster smashing into the walkway was ridiculously loud. The force of the blow had knocked Maria and me clear to the opposite side. We hit the wall, and then hit the grated floor. We hit hard. I could feel the broken glass and the metal floor cut, graze and otherwise destroy any exposed section of my skin. Luckily, Maria was protected by the NBC suit.

Every single one of the windows was now shattered. Next time the monster looked inside, it would find us. Find its dinner.

The walkway continued to tilt and break away. The metal structure began to twist and warp out of shape. Suddenly, giant claws appeared through where the windows used to be. It took a firm grip on the walkway and began to pull. The footbridge broke away from the research compound.

We tried getting to our feet, but it was no use. Each time we stood we were knocked back to the floor. It was like an earthquake. A big freakin earthquake.

The walkway tilted again, the wall became the floor. I nearly fell out of the broken window.

Down below I could see the infected. Mindless. Relentless.

The monster roared and brushed them aside like they were ants, squashing them, flattening them and ripping them in half.

It wanted us all for itself.

I still had Maria gripped tightly in both arms and she had her legs braced against one of the window sills, making sure we didn’t fall out. We needed to get moving. In my mind’s eye the giant scoreboard with the self-destruct clock continued counting down to zero. Faster and Faster.

"Hold on," I said to Maria. "We can do this."

As I spoke, I tasted blood. It was gushing out of a cut to my forehead, blurring my vision. The ground below turned dark and for a second I thought I was going to pass out and fall to my death. But just then I heard a hissing sound.

The dark ground began to move. It looked like black quicksand.

The monster paused, halting its attack on the walkway. The mutation moved away from us. Sniffing. Grunting. Growling.

The hissing sound grew louder.

"Quick! Take my hand!" It was Daniel.

The guys had formed a human chain to get us. Jack was at the top, then Kenji, then Daniel.

"Hurry!"

I grabbed Daniel’s hand and grabbed Maria and the guys pulled us up and out of the walkway. Once we were clear we collapsed on the floor of the military facility.

I was on my back, desperately trying to catch my breath, wiping blood out of my eyes.

"Where did it go?" Kenji asked.

We had lost sight of the monster; its footsteps were softer now.

"Tariq, where is it?" Daniel asked.

"It is backing away from your position."

"What? Why?"

"The nano-swarm."

"It’s here already?"

"Yes. It came in fast. It must have been attracted by all the noise."

Daniel swore under his breath and checked his watch.

"How long before this place blows?" I asked.

"Fifteen minutes."

"We need to go." Kenji said.

"Yeah," I answered between deep breaths.

We heard another roar from outside. Louder than anything we’d heard so far. Some of the windows cracked and shattered. Then we heard a huge crash, like something had either exploded or fallen from a great height.

I ran up to one of the blackened windows and peeked outside. "Wait. It’s gone!"

"What? Daniel asked.

"The monster; it’s gone," I said in amazement.

Daniel spoke into the walkie-talkie. "Tariq, can you see it?"

"I do not believe it," Tariq said.

"What? What’s going on out there?"

"It’s gone. The monster, the swarm. They are gone. The nano-swarm, it rose up in front of the monster, engulfing it, tripping it over, taking its legs."

"Where are they now?"

"I do not know how to explain this," he paused. "It … the nano-swarm, it dragged the monster back out into the desert."

"So where is it now?"

"I am searching for it. I just picked up some movement. It would appear it has moved outside of the motion sensors."

"That’s ten miles out?" Kenji said. "Damn that was fast."

"Good," Daniel said. "At least that will give us time. Let’s get to the armory and get this over with. It won’t be long before the swarm comes back."

CHAPTER 44

The military side of the outpost was basically a mirrored version of the research facility. The only difference we could see was that there were no laboratories on the military side.

"That’s a good thing, right?" Maria asked. "No lab on this side means no nasty viruses."

No one answered her.

We made our way into the armory. It was located on the ground floor, next to the garage. In the garage we found two Humvees parked side by side, just like on the research side.

"Got the keys," Jack said excitedly. "Time for some rally-car driving action."

This was good news. Not only was our entire plan dependent on the use of Humvees, but it meant that we could use them to get out of here.

But they also posed a troubling question.

Why were they still here? Why didn’t the surviving soldiers take them when they left?

Daniel radioed to Tariq, informing him that we could use one of these vehicles to get away from here.

"Wait," I said, wiping more blood out of my eyes. "If there’s two Humvees parked on this side, then that means the soldiers didn’t take any vehicles when they left?"

"I guess not," Kenji said. "Hey, are you all right?"

"Yeah, I’m fine." I answered, wiping blood on my jeans. "Tariq said the soldiers had just vanished, right?"

"Yeah. Although the ones that had been infected are supposedly locked up in the research lab."

"So they must’ve taken off on foot."

"Yeah."

"Why would they do that when they had four perfectly good Humvees at their disposal?"

"I don’t know," Daniel said. "But we can worry about that later. For all we know the soldiers are dead. Or infected. We just don’t know. But look," he said as he held up his watch. "We’ve only got eleven minutes to get this done and get out of here."

Time kept slipping away. We were cutting this way to close for comfort.

We quickly helped ourselves to what felt like all the guns in the world. There were rows and rows of rifles, hand guns. Shotguns. Grenade launchers. Rocket launchers.

Kenji took a sniper rifle and another smaller rifle. And a grenade launcher.

Jack armed himself with two hand guns and a rifle. They each had a small backpack worth of ammunition.

"OK," Jack continued, "Just like we did back at the SCG. After the sentinels clear out the infected, I’ll drive around and distract the remaining ones. While I’m doing that, you guys get the EMP generators back online. Easy, right?"

Daniel handed Jack a spare walkie-talkie. "Before you drive outside, we will need to disarm the sentinels."

"Got it." Jack said, nodding.

"This is important," Daniel continued. "The sentinels will fire upon moving targets. They will not discriminate. Do not go outside until we have turned them off."

"I got this," Jack answered as he took the walkie-talkie. "This ain’t my first time. Just give me the all clear."

"So basically we turn the security system on and kill as many infected possible," Maria said quickly and nervously as she recapped our hastily put together plan for the hundredth time. "Then we turn it off, Jack drives out into the open, and distracts the remaining infected, Kenji covers us, and then we turn on the EMP field. Is that right?"

"Correct," Daniel said, checking his watch again. "Ten minutes."

"This is gonna be close," I said.

"I’ll get up to the nearest gun tower and provide cover," Kenji said as he picked up his backpack of spare ammunition.

As he was leaving, he gave me a slight nod, which I think meant, ‘good luck’, or ‘I’ll be fine’, or maybe something more. I’m not sure. I haven’t had the chance to ask him. Looking back, I really wish I’d said something. Or hugged him.

Jack had already jumped into the nearest Humvee. "Let me know when," he said over the radio.

"What about weapons for the nano-swarm?" I asked.

"Huh?"

"Ben had that harpoon gun thing. And EMP grenades. There might be some here as well. At the end of the row of assault rifles we found a small section, simply labeled ‘prototypes’.

"Good idea," Daniel said. "I hadn’t even thought to look for these."

I held up a belt of EMP grenades. "We can use these as a back up," I said. "In case plan ‘A’ fails."

"Yeah," Daniel said. "You’re starting to think more and more like a soldier."

Next to the EMP grenades I found one of the harpoon guns. I picked it up. It was heavy. Daniel would have to be the one to use it. If it came down to that.

"Are there any harpoons to load it with?" Maria asked.

We checked a few of the containers but there didn’t seem to be any.

I was about to put the harpoon gun down and grab as many EMP grenades as I could hold, when I noticed some Japanese writing on the side of the weapon.

I couldn’t read the Japanese writing. But just below that it read:

MX1

YoshidaCorp.