The Lost Journal Part 2 (A Secret Apocalypse Story) Page 3

  She continued to drink the water, taking small sips. Her eyes flicking back and forth as she thought about the implications of what I was saying, replaying the events in her mind’s eye.

  "We fled the casino," I continued. "We made it to one of the boats in the harbor. The problem with our escape plan was that we were completely surrounded by those soldiers. They were enforcing the containment protocol. They wanted us dead. I put Rebecca and Kim and Jack on the boat. I provided cover fire for them as they made their escape out of the harbor. If I hadn’t done that, we would’ve been blown apart. We wouldn’t have gotten two feet without being torn to shreds. I mean, we were completely surrounded; they were above us on the bridge. They would’ve killed us."

  "Did they make it?" Maria asked, worry all over her face.

  I nodded. "I think so. They made it out of Darling Harbor."

  "You think so? But you can’t be sure?"

  I lowered my head.

  "Did they make it!?"

  "I…I can’t be sure."

  Maria started crying. Her jaw was clenched. She was trying to keep it together. She looked out the windows of our cruise boat. She looked out towards the main harbor.

  "I had no choice," I said, defending myself.

  She didn’t answer me. She started shivering. She was going into shock. "Where will they go? What will they do?"

  I shook my head. "I don’t know. Hopefully they can get away from the city. Find a quiet beach somewhere up the coast and come to shore."

  "We need to find them."

  "No. We can’t. We need to keep you safe. We need to hide."

  Pass the ammunition

  Maria was sitting down against the wall, knees to her chest, head tucked into her arms. The whole harbor seemed to be deserted now.

  The casino building was leaning at an angle. It looked like it was about to fall over. The wreckage of the tank was still smoldering. Bodies were everywhere.

  Infected.

  Soldiers.

  Innocent people.

  I wondered how long it would take for more infected to make their way through here. I wondered if the soldiers would be back to clean up this mess.

  One thing was obvious, I needed more ammo. Maybe a spare rifle for Maria. She probably didn’t know how to fire a gun but she would have to learn. Necessity was a great teacher.

  I walked over to Maria and knelt down beside her. "Maria," I whispered.

  No response.

  "Maria. I need to leave you for a few minutes. I need to go down there and look for some ammunition. I’ve only got half a mag left. It’s not enough if any more infected come through here. It’s not enough to defend ourselves. I’ll only be gone a few minutes."

  She raised her head slowly. "Don’t," she whispered. "Don’t leave me."

  "I need to do this. We need the ammo. If more infected come through here we’ll need to defend ourselves. We need to be prepared."

  The infected would indeed come through here, I thought. They would probably make their way into the city from the western suburbs.

  She tucked her head back into her arms and kept saying, "Don’t leave me."

  But I had to. She knew it. I knew it. I patted her on the shoulder. "I’ll be right back."

  Exposed

  I made a quick pass of the surrounding area and made my way back up to the footbridge. I managed to scavenge five more magazines of ammunition.

  From the vantage point of the footbridge I could see back out to the main harbor. I could see the smoke rising from the ruins of north Sydney and the main bridge. There was more smoke from other areas of the inner city as well. The smoke billowed up into the blue summer sky, giving the whole city a weird hazy orange look. It was then I realized I could hear more gunfire coming from the city.

  The military were in the process of falling back. And if my experience in Woomera was anything to go by, they would be leaving those last soldiers behind. Leaving them as a distraction, a diversion so the rest of the forces could get away unscathed.

  Poor bastards.

  The gunfire continued to intensify as I made my way back to our boat.

  Heavy machine guns.

  Chain guns.

  Mortar rounds.

  Rockets.

  Hellfire missiles.

  It sounded like a pretty big force. This could only mean they were being pursued by a very large number of infected.

  I knelt down on the footbridge and listened to the noises. I tried to zero in on the location of the fire fight. It was difficult. The gun shots were echoing off the city buildings. The only thing I could tell is that they were close. Maybe a few blocks away. Maybe less.

  As I listened to the sounds of a new kind of war I wondered about what to do with Maria. I needed to get her to the military, I thought. I don’t care if they execute me. Maria needed to get out of this city and the military were the only ones capable of doing that. It was the right thing to do, the only logical thing to do.

  There had to be a radio around here somewhere. I could get the radio. Call for help. Simple.

  Right on cue, there was a blast of static from the radio of a fallen soldier.

  The noise was coming from behind me. I turned around. Lying underneath a huge slab of concrete was a body of one of the men in black. The body was partially crushed by the slab.

  His legs were too far away from his upper body.

  Somehow his radio was still working. I could hear static. Every now and then I could make out voices on the other end.

  Scared voices.

  Terrified and panicked voices.

  "There’s too many!"

  "Fall back! Fall back!"

  "Get to the extraction point. NOW!"

  "They’re coming!"

  In between the shouting I could hear gunshots and explosions. The screams of dying men. The howling moans of infected.

  We weren’t safe here, I thought.

  I could hear static from another radio. There must’ve been another fallen soldier close by, but I couldn’t see him. I moved a plank of wood that used to be part of the footbridge. I expected the body to be underneath.

  Nothing.

  He had to be close.

  I lifted another piece of rubble. And then I finally found him.

  And then it was clear to me.

  The reason I was having a hard time finding the body.

  It was slowly crawling away.

  But when I’d moved the piece of wood it saw me or heard me or whatever.

  It knew I was there.

  The body. The infected.

  Moments ago this thing was a soldier. A Special Forces soldier. He was smart and skilled. Highly trained. His mission was to rescue Maria. Kill the rest of us. But a human being none the less. His legs were bent at sickening angles. His intestines had been dragged behind him.

  His weapon, an M4 carbine with an infra red scope and a 40mm grenade launcher was still gripped in his hand. The hand was still attached to most of his arm. It was several feet away on the other side of the footbridge.

  Now the thing was slowly turning back towards me. It was crawling. But then it got back up.

  I took a step back. My heart stopped.

  When they get back up. A human. A person that in all probability should be dead. Someone that has been blown apart, their legs shattered and their guts and major organs hanging out in the world. When they get back up…

  It shook me to my core.

  If I wasn’t a trained soldier, if it wasn’t just a reflex, I probably would’ve frozen up completely. I probably would’ve died.

  The infected soldier took a few stumbling steps towards me.

  I heard a loud crack as one of its leg bones, its tibia maybe, snapped clean in half. A sliver of extremely sharp bone stuck right out through the skin, right through his pants.

  The thing stumbled to its knees. But he kept shuffling forward, arms outstretched. Mouth wide, wide open.

  My training kicked in.

  I raised the rifle. Fired two shots into its chest and one into its head.

  I destroyed the radio in the process but at that point I didn’t really care about the radio. Would the military even come back if I called them? I doubt it.

  They were in the process of retreating. They had their hands full.

  I grabbed the fallen soldier’s hand, pried his cold fingers apart and relieved him of his rifle and spare ammo.

  "Look at us," the dead soldier said. "Two of a kind. Two peas in a pod."

  I dropped the arm. Took a big step back.

  "Yes," the dead soldier said.

  I shook my head. Took another step back. "What?"

  "Yes, to whatever. Yes, you did the right thing. Yes, you screwed up. Yes, you had no choice. Yes, we were a Special Forces team. Yes, we are two peas in a pod."

  "I’m not a Special Forces soldier," I said to the corpse.

  "Sure ya not. And I’m a goddamn china man."

  "I’m Japanese."

  "Whatever. Turn away."

  "What? Why?"

  "Turn away and describe what I’m wearing, describe me, my facial features."

  "I’m not turning away."

  "Of course not. That would be dangerous. I could hit you. I could attack you. Hell, I could even bite you. But that wasn’t the point of my little exercise. The point was; if you were to turn away or close your eyes, you could still remember everything I was wearing. You would know my eye color. Hair color. Skin tone. I bet if someone asked you to describe this harbor you could do it with autistic savant like detail. You know the exits. You know the points of cover. You know everything."

  "Who are you?"

  "You mean, who was I?"

  "Whatever."

  "I’m nobody. I’m a ghost."

  "What
?"

  "Exactly. No one knows about us. We don’t exist. I’m only telling you because, well, you’ll be dead soon anyways. Dead men tell no tales, right?"

  "What were you doing here? What was your objective?"

  "You already know. Our primary target was Doctor West. Secondary target was the girl. Maria Marsh. Approximately sixteen years of age. Caucasian. Blonde hair. Blue eyes. Apparently she’s immune. No one believed Doctor West when he called it in. We figured he just wanted to be rescued. But he was adamant. Command sent us in because Doctor West was in charge of the research. He knows everything. If anyone can save us, it's Doctor West. That's why he was our priority."

  I shook my head. "You should’ve left that guy to die. And trust me, Maria is immune. She was bitten. She was dying. But her body, her immune system fought the virus. And won. You need to get back on the airways. Tell your people to send reinforcements. You need to get Maria out of here. She is special. She can put a stop to this madness."

  "Don’t you think I’ve already tried calling for a goddamn extraction. There was no response."

  I remembered back to that night in the unofficial immigration center. The slum in the outback.

  Drake calling for an extraction. Over and over.

  No response.

  We had been left for dead.

  The man, the corpse chuckled. "You already know, don’t you?"

  "Know what?"

  "You already know they’ve left. There is no extraction. Command is not responding. They’re falling back. They’re pulling out. You already know. And you already know what comes next."

  "An airstrike," I whispered.

  "Yeah. That’s right. They’re gonna burn this city. They’re gonna burn it to the ground." He pointed with his one good arm to a spare ammo mag. "You might wanna save the last one."

  I made my way back to Maria, trying desperately to focus.

  Come on Kenji. Switch on.

  This is no time to check out.

  You need to protect Maria at all costs.

  Get it together.

  We’re gonna need a bigger boat

  I made it back to the boat. Maria was waiting for me. She was anxious.

  "What the hell is going on in there?" she said, asking about the city and the noise, the fire fight and the explosions.

  "The military are falling back," I said. "They’re trying to take out as many infected as possible."

  "So what do we do? We can’t just stay here. We’re too exposed."

  "I’m not sure. I’d say the infected are chasing the military. And this might actually work in our favor. It could give us a chance to find a new hiding spot. A new building. One of the sky scrapers would be ideal. We could get up nice and high. Make sure it’s secure."

  The gunfire continued to intensify. I concentrated on the different noises. The different weapons.

  M4. M60.

  50cal.

  Mortar rounds.

  RPG’s .

  Apache attack helicopters. Firing every last one of their hellfire missiles.

  Hydra rocket pods.

  It was an impressive display of firepower. And it was about to get a whole lot more impressive. In the distance, we could hear the all too familiar sound of jet engines. The soldiers on the ground were getting even more aerial support. Maybe getting to a skyscraper was pointless, I thought to myself. If they kept up this rate of fire, they would reduce this city to rubble.

  "Kenji, are you even listening to me?" Maria said.

  "Huh? What?"

  "I asked you a question. Where should we go?"

  "Sorry. I was just…" I trailed off as I looked up to the sky. It took me a few seconds but I finally saw them. Three F22 raptors. And two A10 bombers. They were flying in perfect formation. Circling the city. They appeared to be in a holding pattern.

  "Well?"

  "I don’t know," I finally said.

  "What do you mean? You’re the soldier! You need to make a decision. I can’t do this. I can’t. I don’t know what I’m doing here. I don’t know why or how I’m even still alive."

  She broke down then. I can’t blame her. She had been through a lot.

  "Maria, listen to me."

  She kept crying.

  I grabbed her by the shoulders. "Listen to me."

  But she kept crying. And in the distance the shelling intensified. The military were tearing this city apart.

  I hugged her. And at that moment I felt like we were in some sort of storm, the eye of a hurricane. It was weird and terrifying and surreal.

  We were alone in this huge city. Home to millions of people. It was now a warzone. And all those people were dead. Or soon to be. This picturesque, iconic harbor was supposed to be a tourist hot spot for crying out loud. Maria was breaking down right in front of me. She was falling apart. And I wasn’t sure if I had the strength to keep her together. I wasn’t even sure if I had the strength to keep myself together.

  High above us I saw the Raptors and the A10’s follow the main harbor back out to sea.

  "Listen to me," I whispered. "We have to be honest with each other, OK? It’s the only way we’re going to survive this. We have to talk to each other. We have to keep each other sane. I’m being honest with you when I say; I don’t know what to do. Because honestly, I have no freakin idea what to do. There’s a huge force of soldiers and tanks and choppers only a few blocks away. They’re being chased by an even bigger horde of infected. We need to avoid that. At all costs."

  She nodded her head and whispered something that I think was an agreement.

  "This could work in our favor," I said. "Actually, I know it will. Those poor soldiers in there…"

  I choked up as I remembered the soldiers that were left behind in the temporary immigration center. They were sacrificed and used as a distraction. "Those men," I continued. "They’re keeping the infected occupied while the rest of the military make their escape. While this is happening we need to make our escape as well. Or at least find a suitable hiding spot. The only problem is if they decide to send in another airstrike. If those jets come back. They could level this city. And no matter where we hide we won’t survive."

  I thought hearing this piece of news would upset her even further. But it didn’t. She actually stopped crying.

  She lowered her head. "You’re right. I’m sorry," she said, wiping the tears away from her face. "We need to stick together. We can do this."

  I breathed a sigh of relief.

  Outside more explosions rocked the city. We could feel the force from the blast waves. More smoke billowed up into the sky, high above the buildings.

  Maria looked out the window. "Well not if they nuke the joint," she added. "But we can’t control that. What we can control is finding a hiding spot. Getting to high ground, fortifying our position."

  I was speechless for a few seconds. "Wow. You sound like a real soldier, a master strategist."

  "Hey, I’m a fast learner."

  "I’m impressed," I said, smiling. "And you’re absolutely right. But the timing is crucial. We should wait it out. At least until the bombing dies down. At least until those jets bug out. There’s no point in finding a good spot to hide if all they’re going to do is blow it up."

  I just hope they don’t destroy this city, I thought to myself. If that happened it was game over for everyone.

  Timing is everything

  Two of the longest hours of my life passed.

  The gunfire and the bombing had been steady during the whole time. And the worst part? We were now seeing more and more infected on the other side of the harbor, back towards the casino which was now leaning at even more of an angle.

  Our time was up. We had to make a move.

  "Do you think the military; those men in black will come back through here?" Maria asked.

  "I’m not sure. Not for a while at least. I mean, ideally it would be great if they could get you out of here. But I don’t know."

  "I don’t want to go with them," she said quietly. "I know I probably should. But I don’t."

  "Maria. You’re different. You’re special. You heard what Doctor West said. No one is immune. Everyone dies. Everyone turns. You need to get out of here alive."

  "Yeah I heard him. Doesn’t change the way I feel though."

  I eventually convinced Maria that she needed to be rescued. And the only way that was going to happen was if the military came back for her. Ideally it would be great if we could contact the military and then dictate terms to them.