Land of Dust and Bones: The Secret Apocalypse Book 7 Read online

  Ninety-nine percent…

  My jaw physically drops.

  I knew it would be bad, after all, the Oz virus wiped out pretty much the entire population of Australia in a matter of weeks. But Australia had no warning, no time to prepare. The rest of the world? No way. I can’t wrap my head around it. It’s too much.

  And I was never any good at math, but my brain can’t help but do the sums. And even in my exhausted state of mind, I see numbers, percentages.

  Ninety-nine percent of the world’s population.

  Ninety-nine percent of seven billion people.

  Doctor Hunter is telling us that six billion, nine hundred and thirty million people will die.

  I don’t believe him. I can’t believe him.

  The number is too big to comprehend.

  “Are you scared?” he asks me. “Are you hungry?”

  “Ninety-nine per cent?” I ask in disbelief, ignoring his questions about fear and hunger.

  “Maybe more,” he says.

  “It can’t be stopped?”

  “No.”

  “And there’s no chance of creating an anti-virus?”

  He looks at Maria. He shakes his head. “Not in this lifetime. Not in a thousand lifetimes. And I’m not sure if the company knows. Maybe they do, maybe they don’t. But if the company does know, then I’d say that Maria is no longer a priority.”

  “So why did the company attempt to rescue you?” I ask. “Why did they extract you?”

  I am asking these questions even though they are largely irrelevant. Even though I can probably guess the answer. I am asking these questions because I want to know the company’s motivation. I want to know what their next move is.

  “Maybe because the company still believes they can stop it,” Doctor Hunter says. “Maybe they need to believe. Or maybe the company just wants to understand it. Maybe they still want to control it one day.” He closes his eyes and nods his head slowly. “That makes the most sense. They want control.”

  “What do you mean?” Maria asks. “What do they want to control?”

  “The virus,” he answers. “They want to control it because they will survive this. They will be a part of the one percent. And they will rule the ruins. They will rule the survivors. So my guess is, maybe they want to understand the virus. Maybe they want to conquer it. Or maybe they want to create another one. Maybe they want to manufacture more.” He opens his eyes and looks up at Kim. “You will need another injection soon,” he says, changing the subject. “Or you won’t survive.”

  Kim doesn’t respond. She already knows she’s on borrowed time. And I have no idea how we’re going to get her more NVX. If I had to guess, I’d say there would be a distinct shortage of such a unique and powerful medicine out here in the Australian outback. There might be some supplies down in the Fortress. But there’s no way we’re going back down there.

  “The company,” Doctor Hunter says. “YoshidaCorp.” He looks at Kenji, he still has a hold of his shirt. His hand is balled up in a fist and it is shaking. I wonder if he is angry. “Your father’s company. They are just as responsible. They didn’t create it. They didn’t set it loose. But they made it possible. They provided the environment. They supplied the resources. Endless resources. Endless capital. The more I think about it, the more I realize they came to us with a war chest. A war chest of gold and riches. Your father was always quoting Sun Tzu. Do you know what Sun Tzu says about the price of war?”

  Kenji nods his head. “Yes.”

  Doctor Hunter smiles a weak smile. “Of course you do. You are your father’s son.”

  Kim steps forward. “Cut the crap. Kenji doesn’t need this from you.”

  Doctor Hunter lets go of Kenji’s shirt. “I meant nothing by it. I’m just trying to warn you.”

  “Warn us about what?”

  “You… you have to consider all possibilities,” he says, struggling to speak. “You have to consider the possibility that maybe Kenji’s father was never outsmarted. Maybe he was never played for a fool. Maybe he knew everything.”

  “What the hell are you saying?” Kenji asks.

  “I’ve been dying for two days and two nights. I cannot move. I can barely breathe. The only thing left for me to do, is to think about my life, my mistakes. My own mortality. There are questions that I do not know the answer to, questions that I will never know the answers to. And one of those questions is Commander Satoru Yoshida.”

  Kenji’s father. YoshidaCorp. What is their next move? Kenji’s father had always scared me. And even though I barely knew the guy, and now that I think about it, I really only saw him a handful of times, he always had this air of seriousness around him. Like whatever he was doing was super important and he was not to be disturbed. He certainly had no time for a silly neighbor girl.

  “The one thing I do know for certain,” Doctor Hunter continues. “The company wants to rule the ruins. They will rule the ruins. Because as dangerous as Kumar is, he cannot reach the company. Not anymore.”

  “You don’t know that,” I say. “You don’t know what YoshidaCorp is planning. You don’t even know why they tried to rescue you.” And for some reason I feel like I’m defending Kenji and his father and his father’s company. I have no idea why.

  “I do know. I know because he told me. Kumar. He goes by many names. He is a liar. But he was telling the truth. After years, after decades of lying to me, he finally told me the truth.”

  Kim snatches the gun out of Kenji’s hand and aims it at Doctor Hunter’s head. “You don’t know a goddamn thing, old man. Now start making sense or else.”

  Doctor Hunter is completely unafraid of the gun. He is knocking on death’s door. He’s been trapped here, dying slowly and painfully for two days and two nights. He would probably welcome a bullet at this point. “He’s still out there, you know. In the desert. He’s still alive.”

  An image of the man in the gas mask appears in my mind’s eye.

  He looks inhuman. He looks like a monster.

  “He’s stronger than anyone. Smarter. He is driven. He can survive anything.”

  He can’t be killed.

  “Do you know how he escaped?” Doctor Hunter asks. “He got the jump on two super soldiers. He was handcuffed, but they made the mistake of taking his blindfold off. They did this because they wanted to question him. They wanted to check his vitals. A mad man with vision, with sight, is a very dangerous thing. In an instant, he had a weapon. In an instant he had slit the throats of two Evo Agents, two NVX strengthened super soldiers. With one hand he held a gun, just like the gun you are holding now. He held this gun and he aimed it at the pilots. He placed his other hand over the throat of one of the Evo Agents. He told the pilots he could save the soldier. If they obeyed his commands. If they changed course. The pilots did as they were told. And then he shot them. He shot the radio so they could not transmit, so they could not communicate with their dying breaths. He shot the pilots, shot the controls because it was the only way. He knew this. He knew that crashing this aircraft was the only way to get what he wanted. And so he did it. No hesitation. In the blink of an eye, he had killed four men. I was blindfolded, but I could see it. I could see it before it happened. We fell from the sky. Heavy. And fast. I was knocked out. Unconscious from the crash. I woke to the sound of more gunfire. One of the pilots had survived. Or maybe it was one of the Evo Agents. It does not matter. The fight was over in seconds. And so I woke to the sounds of men bleeding and choking to death. You see, he did not stop when the chopper crashed into the Earth. He kept moving. He kept killing.”

  “Why did he spare your life?” I ask.

  “I don’t think he did. He disabled the GPS tracking device on the Blackhawk. He disabled the NBC suits. He then threw an invisibility cloak over the wreckage. He knew the company would never find us. Not for a long time. He knew I was a dead man.”

  Doctor Hunter winces in pain. He has a piece of metal that looks like a warrior’s spear stuck in his abdomen. He is skewered. Like a shish kebob. He is dying. “Before he left, he welcomed me to the new world. He said that he was sorry that I would not get to live in it for much longer.”

  “Which way did he go?” I ask. “What’s his next move?”

  He shakes his head. “It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters anymore. He has won. It’s over.”

  “I stabbed him with a hunting knife,” I say, boasting. My voice bursting with pride and bloodlust and desperation. “He is dying a very slow and painful death. Just like you. He won’t make it far.”

  Doctor Hunter laughs. He is mocking me. “You haven’t learnt anything, have you? Even after all this time. After everything that you have witnessed. You have learnt nothing.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Why are you still underestimating him?”

  “He can’t survive this. He won’t.”

  “Tell me, when you handcuffed me to the morgue freezer, when you left me in a room full of infected people, did you expect me to live?”

  No one answers him.

  “We are capable of so much,” he continues. “And he is capable of everything. Do not underestimate his power. Do not underestimate his ability to survive. To live. To kill.”

  I should’ve killed him, I think to myself. I should’ve ended his terrible and wicked life.

  “He is driven,” Doctor Hunter says. “He is so driven. And now… now he gets to live in the world he created. He gets to live… and we… we get to die.”

  These are Doctor Hunter’s last words.

  We get to die.

  Like death is this great thing.

  A privilege.

  He breathes his last breath.

  And then he dies in the new world.

  And secrets die with him.
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  And knowledge dies with him.

  Doctor Hunter was a parasite. But even parasites cannot survive in the desert, in this new world.

  Kenji covers Doctor Hunter’s face. And maybe we should’ve killed him all that time ago, all those months ago. Maybe we should’ve killed him in the morgue of North Sydney hospital.

  Maybe that would’ve been the more merciful option.

  Chapter 4

  “What the hell do we do now?” I ask.

  “What do you mean?” Kim says. “This doesn’t change anything.”

  “Yes, it does. He’s still out there. He’s still alive. How the hell is he still alive?”

  I start freaking out. I start to believe the man in the gas mask is immortal. I start to believe that he can’t be killed. I believe this because I stabbed him. I stabbed him in the stomach with a hunting knife.

  This knife had a serrated edge, a slightly curved tip.

  This knife would’ve torn his insides apart.

  And this wound should’ve killed him by now.

  It should’ve at least slowed him down.

  And yet when I stabbed him, he showed no pain, felt no pain. He didn’t scream. He did not flinch. He grabbed the knife.

  He held onto it.

  Pushed it in deeper.

  He is not human. He is a monster. He is immortal.

  Kenji puts his hand on my shoulder. “He won’t last long on his own. Not out here. He can’t hurt you anymore.”

  I want to believe Kenji… but I don’t.

  “Kim is right,” Jack says. “It doesn’t matter if he’s still out there. It doesn’t change the fact that we need to get to this town. It doesn’t change the fact that we need to walk through this desert with almost no food or water.”

  “Maybe we should just wait here,” I say, completely not thinking straight. “Yeah, we can just wait here. They’ll send out another rescue.”

  Kenji shakes his head. “It’s too risky. The company won’t care who we are. Maybe they take Kim and Maria. And maybe they let them live. Maybe they let them live for as long as they prove to be useful. But the rest of us are dead.”

  “And what about you?” I ask. “YoshidaCorp is your father’s company. It might as well be your company. They won’t kill you.”

  “It doesn’t matter who I am,” Kenji says quietly. “I haven’t spoken to my father in a very long time. I don’t think my life or my safety is a priority for him right now. I don’t even know if he knows I’m alive. I don’t even know if he cares.”

  “And besides,” Kim says. “They won’t come. They won’t find this. Doctor Hunter said he made the pilot fly off course before crashing the chopper. He then disabled all the GPS tracking devices. I know we’re not that far from the Fortress, but it’s far enough. Out here, in the desert. They won’t find this. Not for a long time. And that’s assuming they’re even looking. Face it, we are alone. We are so alone.”

  Both Kim and Kenji were right. Of course they were right. I knew this. I knew the company wouldn’t think twice about executing us. And I knew we would have to walk out of this desert on our own terms.

  But fear is clouding my judgement. Fear is making me panic.

  Rational thought is almost impossible at this point.

  I take a deep breath. I try and slow my heart rate. I try and control my fear.

  Kim once again confronts Sarah. “Tell me about this town.”

  “There’s not much to tell,” Sarah says. “And I already told you, the only thing that matters are the walls. They’re big. They’re strong. They keep the town and the people safe. They’re made out of… something. It’s not steel and it’s not concrete. But it’s strong, whatever it is.”

  Kim has a look on her face that says she’s not buying it. And she’s not going to let Sarah off the hook so easy. Kim wants to know the specifics. She wants to know everything.

  “What’s the name of the town?” Kim asks.

  “Can’t tell you that, remember? Can’t tell anyone.”

  “How did they build the walls so fast?” Kim says, her voice becoming angrier, her patience running thin. “How did they build them in time to stop the infected? I mean, the Oz virus moved so quickly, like a goddamn grass fire. The speed of it caught everyone by surprise. Everyone was completely unprepared. Why was this town different?”

  “Did they know what was coming?” Maria asks. “Were they warned or something? Were they tipped off?”

  “They, the townspeople, they didn’t build the walls,” Sarah answers calmly. “The military did. They flew in these great big slabs of black… black material. Black diamond. I don’t know what it is. They raised them in a day. In less than a day. Within a few hours.”

  “Why would the military do that?” Kim asks. “Why this town?”

  Sarah shrugs her shoulders. “Beats me.”

  “Because the town is relatively close to a number of military installations,” Kenji says, thinking out loud to himself.

  “Like the Fortress?” I ask.

  “Among other things.”

  “So these walls,” Kim continues. “They go right around the town?”

  “No. Only around a few blocks. Near the center of the town.”

  “What about the rest of the town?”

  Sarah shakes her head. “The rest of the town is just like everywhere else. Overrun.”

  “So how did you make it inside?” Kim asks, her voice now dripping with suspicion.

  “I already told you…”

  “Tell me again.”

  “My sister and I, we got lucky. We ran into a group of people from the town, from behind the walls. They were on a raid for supplies. Actually, it was more like a scouting mission. They were looking to see where they could expand the walls to. Looking to see how much work it would take. How many infected they would need to clear out. Anyway, they took pity on us. They took us in.”

  Kenji nods along. “OK, so, if we make it there…” he trails off. “I mean, when we make it there, we’ll have to be alert. We’ll have to be careful as we move through the outer suburbs and the outer blocks.”

  “Exactly,” Sarah says. “Although it might not be so bad. Like I said, just before I left, there was a lot of talk about trying to expand the perimeter and clearing out the infected from the town. Who knows? Maybe they’ve already done it.”

  “It’s possible,” Kenji says. “But we should plan for the worst. We’ll have to assume the town is overrun.”

  “How would they expand the walls?” I ask.

  “They wanted to build outer walls,” Sarah answers. “They would have to make these from whatever they could get their hands on. Old tires. Cars. Trucks. Sandbags. Whatever building materials they could find. But then again, maybe the military… or the company, or whoever built the original walls, maybe they’ve come back, maybe they expanded the walls. Maybe this is what they’re doing all over?”

  This is a pipe dream. This is a fantasy.

  “How many infected in the town?” Kenji asks. “How big was the town’s population before the outbreak?”

  “About five thousand people. Maybe more. Maybe less. I’m not really sure.”

  Kim rolls her eyes. “Well that’s real helpful, Sarah. Thank you.”

  “Hey, I’m doing my best here. You guys are asking me questions, and I’m answering them. What more do you want from me?”

  Kim has no comeback.

  “That’s what I thought,” Sarah says. “Look, I know we all got off on the wrong foot. But you have to leave that shit buried in the Fortress. That place… it’s a different world down there. You know it is. You all experienced it. I did what I did to survive. And you all did the exact same thing.”

  Sarah is right. We all experienced terrible things. We all did terrible things. I killed people. I stabbed people, in the gut, in the back. And if we hadn’t done those terrible things, we wouldn’t have made it out alive.

  “So what now?” I ask.

  Kenji takes a deep breath. “We’re going to have to split up.”

  My eyes go wide and I can’t believe Kenji just said what he said. “What? You want us to split up? No way. No goddamn way. Nothing ever good happens when we split up.”