Salvation: Secret Apocalypse Book 5 (A Secret Apocalypse Story) (23 page)

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Blood: Type A.

Results:

No resistance to
current strain of the Oz virus.

Blood contains
no effective anti-bodies.

Not resistant to
the Tokyo Strain.

Conclusion:

Test Subject
Maria Marsh is not immune to the Oz virus.

“What the hell
does this mean?” I ask. “Did he infect her? Did he turn her into a goddamn
zombie?”

“No,” Doctor
Hunter says. “He took blood samples.”

And I think to
myself, he wouldn’t kill Maria in a lab. It’s not public enough.

“So she’s not
immune?” I ask. “She’s not immune to the current strain? What the hell does
that mean?”

“The virus
mutates quickly,” Doctor Hunter says. “Sometimes on a daily basis. In terms of
evolution, this rate of mutation is simply unheard of. The fact that Maria is
no longer immune does not surprise me.”

Doctor Hunter
doesn’t seem to care. And he is not surprised. He has given up.

“It’s over,” I
say. “We’re done. There’s no stopping it.”

“Wake up,
Rebecca. You were never going to stop it. You were never going to save people.
Maria was never going to cure people or vaccinate people. Not as long as
he
is alive. The virus has already
spread. It is too late. It is over. It was over before it began. We never stood
a chance.”

“The virus has
already spread?” I ask. “How do you know that?”

“Think about
it,” he says. “
Think
. How long did it
take for Australia to become overrun? A week? Two weeks? It moves fast. No one
can stop this thing. No one. It is inevitable. It has already happened.”

I feel like my
whole world is falling apart. I feel like I have just learnt that Santa Clause
and the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny are not real.

Maria
is not immune.

“How did she
survive a bite?” I ask. “I saw it. I saw the whole thing. I saw the bite mark.
The blood. I’ve seen the scar. She was dying. She was turning…”

But she lived.
She survived.

“Like I said,
the virus mutates. In the lab, it would change and mutate faster than we could
keep track. We could barely keep up with it. Once we lost control, we had no
hope of ever containing it. Who knows how fast it mutates in the real world?
Once we could no longer contain it, once he released it into the wild and freed
it from the lab, we were all doomed.”

“Who knows about
this?”

“No one. Me.
You. Him. Maybe Maria. No one. Not another living soul.”

“The whole world
is looking for Maria Marsh,” I whisper. “The rest of the world still thinks she
is immune.”

“Probably.”

“He is still
going to execute her.”

“Yes.”

“I have to stop
him.”

“Why?”

“Why? Are you
kidding me? She’s my friend.”

And my friends
are all that I have left in this world. And I have thirty minutes to live. And
I have thirty minutes to die. And I will not lose myself. I will not lose my
soul. I will not turn into a monster. I will not turn into a snake. I am going
to help my friend. I am going to help Maria. I am going to save her from a
psychopath. I am going to save her from a public execution.

I am going to
kill the man in the gas mask.

And that’s all
there is to it.

“Do you know
where he is now?” I ask.

“Yes.”

“Where?”

Doctor Hunter
motions up with his eyes, points to the ceiling. “The nerve center. The
communications room. The Control Center. It is closer to the surface. High
above us.”

“He has Maria,”
I say. “Do you know what he is going to do?”

“Yes.”

“I have to stop
him.”

“I don’t think
you have time. You should stay.”

“Not an option.”

“Through those
doors there are machines that could fix you,” he says, looking at my watch.
“There are machines that could stop that nano-virus from ever activating.”

“What are you
talking about?”

“Come on, you’re
a smart girl. You should be able to figure this out.”

“What the hell
are you talking about? You can’t kill a nano-swarm.”

Once
it is activated, it will kill you. There is no stopping it.

“You disappoint
me,” he says.

“The only thing
that can stop a nano-swarm is an electromagnetic pulse,” I answer.

“Ah, so you have
been paying attention.”

“Stop messing
around. Tell me. Will an EMP kill the nano-swarm inside me?”

“Yes. A strong
EMP.”

“But I don’t
have any EMP weapons.”

“Not a weapon.
It is an MRI machine.”

“A what?”

“It is a machine
that uses powerful electro magnets. It is used for scanning and diagnostics. It
comes in very handy when scanning brains. That is why we have one here.”

“Well, where the
hell is it?”

He looks over
his shoulder. “Back there, through those doors. It is the big machine with a
circular tube in the middle.”

“How does it
work?” I ask.

How
do I cure myself? How do I save myself?

“It doesn’t
matter. You do not have time. Not to do both. To save Maria or save yourself. I
already know which one you will choose. So there is no point in telling you how
to operate an MRI machine.”

I look at my
watch, at the countdown, and I know he is right.

“In twenty
minutes, you will be dead,” Doctor Hunter says. “But maybe, just maybe, Maria
will be alive.”

I am about to
leave, I am about to make my way to the Control Center when Kim grabs me by the
wrist. She is awake. Barely. “Go,” she whispers. “Get Maria. You have to stop
him.”

I move out of the lab and back into the long dark corridor with the flickering
lights. I find the blood trail and I follow it.

It
eventually leads to the end of the corridor. It eventually leads to an
elevator.

I
step inside.

The
buttons are not labeled with numbers. They are labeled with the names of each
floor.

Research
sub-basement.

Morgue.

Storage.

Research
Level One.

Research
Level Two.

Research
Level Three.

Control
Center.

The
button for the Control Center has a keyhole next to it.

I do
not have a key.

And
nothing happens when I press the button labeled, ‘Control Center’.

I am
stuck.

But
I’m not.

The
doors close and the elevator starts rising because I am being watched and my
strings are being pulled by the puppet master. At my feet is a small pool of
blood. And I follow this blood trail all the way to Maria. I follow it out of
the elevator and down another long corridor. I follow it to a solid steel door
labeled ‘Control Center’. I approach the door and it magically opens. I step
through. And the thick electronic doors close behind me with a hiss and a thud.

I am
standing on the top level of the Control Center. And I can’t help but think
that this room looks a whole lot like the NASA mission control room. It is
absolutely full of computers, but the first thing I see is the massive
cinematic screen. It is directly opposite from where I am standing. And at the
moment the only thing the screen shows is a countdown.

Eighteen
minutes. Thirty-three seconds.

Thirty-two.

Thirty-one.

Thirty.

The
countdown is synchronized with my watch.

Underneath the
countdown the screen reads, ‘Codes have been confirmed. Ignition sequence
activated’.

The room is
bright. Every single light is on and all the computers are on. And the
computers all show the countdown.

Eighteen minutes
and twenty seconds.

The
rest of the room consists of descending rows of computers and work stations. A
stairway, a center aisle leads down to the main floor. So I guess the room is
like a movie theater. But instead of big comfy chairs with drink holders, there
are computers and work stations.

Down
below, on the floor between the workstations and the cinematic screen is Maria.

She
is tied to a chair with electrical tape.

For a
few seconds I am hypnotized by the countdown on the massive screen.

Eighteen
minutes.

This
is all the time I have left in the world.

I
snap out of my hypnotic state and I run down the stairs to Maria.

She appears to
be asleep or unconscious. I know she has been drugged. It is the preferred
method for keeping control of hostages down here in this Fortress. She is tied
to the chair with roll after roll of electrical tape. She is also shackled like
a prisoner from a maximum security prison. Her hands are cuffed behind her
back. And the hand cuffs are attached to a chain that has shackled her feet
together.

There is
absolutely no way I can free her.

Her head is
drooped forward so that her chin is resting against her chest.

I can’t see the
man in the gas mask anywhere. But again, I know he is near.

I shake her
gently by the shoulders. “Maria.”

No response.

“Maria, wake
up!”

She slowly opens
her eyes. She smiles. “
Heeeey
buddy.”

She looks and
sounds drunk.

“Are you OK?” I
ask. “Did he hurt you?”

“Hurt me? No.
He’s been an absolute gentleman. He’s fed me. Given me plenty of water. I even
had ice cream. Can you believe that? Ice cream!”

“Maria, keep
your voice down. He’s somewhere down here. I know he is.”

She tries to
lift her arms but she can’t. “It doesn’t matter. He’s got the keys. I’m not
going anywhere.”

I slice through
the duct tape so she can at least stand up and move away from the chair.

“I need to get
you somewhere safe,” I whisper.

Maria stays
seated in the chair. “Safe? Where? There’s nowhere. We’re so dead.”

“Don’t say
that.”

“
Shh
. It’s OK. I understand now. I know what he’s done. I
know what he did to you.”

“What do you
mean?”

“I know about the
nano-virus inside you. I know.” She lowers her head. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t
mean for any of this to happen.”

“It’s not your
fault.”

“I know. But I
don’t want you to die. And I don’t want to die. I didn’t want any of us to
die.”

“You’re not
going to die. I’m going to get you out of here.”

Again she shakes
her head. “Stop. Just stop. We’re trapped in here. The doors are locked. We’re
not going anywhere. You might as well be shackled with me.”

I quickly scan
the room. Maria is right. The main entrance is sealed shut. I can’t see any
other exits. We are trapped. In a tomb.

Sixteen minutes.

“I’m sorry,”
Maria says. “This was part of his plan. Me. You. The nano-virus. The cameras.
I’m not even immune anymore. But it doesn’t matter. Not to him. He’s still going
to kill me. Us. He keeps saying that people will remember us.”

“He’s crazy,” I
say. “You can’t listen to him. You can’t.”

“I know. I tried
not to listen to him. But I was all alone. All alone in the world. Just him. I
couldn’t help but listen. And I know this sounds selfish, but I’m glad you’re
here. I’m so glad. I didn’t want to die alone.”

Again her head
drops forward.

“Maria?”

Her eyes are
closed.

“Maria, wake
up.”

She’s out cold.

I pick her up
and drag her over to the first row of computers. I hide her under one of the
work stations. I realize this is pathetic. I realize that he is probably
watching us. And that maybe the whole world is watching us. But this is how I’m
going out. This is how I’m going to be remembered.

I am going to
save Maria.

I am going to
kill the man in the gas mask.

I try and
convince myself that I can do this. That I am strong. That I am a survivor.
That I am a fighter. But suddenly the lights go out and the Control Room goes
completely dark.

The darkness
presses against me and I am not strong enough. I am not ready for this. I am
absolutely terrified.

The red
emergency lights come on a few seconds later.

The cinematic
screen comes back to life.

The countdown
has not missed a beat.

Thirteen
minutes.

And sitting on
the ground floor, kneeling in front of the huge cinematic screen, silhouetted
by the glow of the screen, is the man in the gas mask.

He just
appeared. Like a ghost.

The man in the
gas mask.

Doctor Tariq
Sayid
.

Doctor Kumar
Singh.

Lucifer.

The third member
of the ‘holy trinity’.

The puppet
master.

The creator of
the Oz virus.

The architect of
the outbreak.

He is kneeling
in front of the massive cinematic screen with his back to me. He waves his hand
at the screen and suddenly the screen is divided up into a thousand smaller
screens. He waves his hand again, and these screens, these images, begin to
slowly scroll through.

He is
controlling the images. He is controlling everything.

Each screen is
showing a different television channel from a different country.

And they all show
the same thing.

The outbreak.

The plague.

The Oz virus
spreading.

The death toll
rising.

The infected.

The images show
terrified, innocent people.

They show smoke
plumes over major cities.

Mass
evacuations.

The images show
an extinction level event.

An apocalypse.

“Beautiful,” he
whispers. “Is it not?”

I grip the knife
tight in my right hand. “No.”

I walk up beside
the man in the gas mask and he remains kneeling, looking up at the images of
the apocalypse. Dark blood is pouring from where I stabbed him with the knife.

“Allah Akbar,”
he says. “God is great. But God is not listening. He has not been listening for
a long time. We are on our own. Like the astronaut who flies off into space. He
looks around but he does not see God. He sees a planet. A blue planet that is
all alone. A planet that we all share. And he realizes that we are all in this
together.”

I think to
myself that I will never see the sun or the moon or the sky again.

“Who are you?” I
ask. “Why are you doing this? What is your name? What is your real goddamn
name?”

Again, I’m not
sure why his name matters so much. Maybe it’s because I want to hold him
accountable for everything that he’s done. Or maybe it’s because I just want a
straight answer. No more lies. No more bullshit.

“My name does not
matter,” he repeats. “I do not matter.”

I look up at the
images. Most of the screens show live feeds from dedicated news channels.

And the
headlines are all the same.

Outbreak.

Killer virus
spreads.

Death toll
rising.

Millions dead.

Whole cities
quarantined.

The dead rise.

And all the
images are the same.

Cities on fire.
Cities burning.

Militaries
trying to contain the virus.

Militaries
killing innocent people.

Doctor Hunter
was right. We were never going to stop it. We never stood a chance.

“Then why are
you doing this?” I ask.

“You already
know the answer to this question. You already know that we can never go back to
the way things were. But we can start over. We can have our freedom. A world on
fire. We purge. This is how a forest grows.”

“You can’t do
this. You’re talking about genocide. You’re talking about…”

I trail off
because I don’t even know what to call it.

Mass murder?

Genocide?

Mass Genocide?

He is the
creator of an extinction level event.

“Once upon a
time, I was a field surgeon,” he says. “I dealt with death from both sides on a
daily basis. This changed me. Irrevocably. And from this perspective I could
see clearly. I knew the killing would never end. I knew that we needed to start
over. So I created the Oz virus. And I set it loose.”

I look at the
gas mask that is messily stitched into his scalp. I listen to his breathing
through the air filters.

“At first I
wanted to kill everyone,” he continues. “I wanted to wipe them out. The
history, the wars. Religion. It is all meaningless. But now I see that I am not
just killing them. I am setting them free. I am saving them.”

He is insane and
he looks like a monster.
He is a monster.

He is the devil.

“People will
come to understand,” he continues. “Not at first. But slowly, eventually, they
will see. This is why Maria can no longer live. Because as long as they believe
she can stop the plague, they will never move forward. They will never see the
truth.”

I look at the
knife in my hand and all the images from the cinematic screen are being
reflected in the blade. “You won’t kill Maria. You can’t kill Maria. You’re
dying. You’re weak. I stopped you.”

He waves his
hand at the screen. “Did you?”

He points to one
of the smaller screens. And then this image is enlarged. It is an image of us.
It is a live image from one of the security cameras.

And in this live
image is…

Me with a knife
in my hand.

The man in the
gas mask, pointing to the live image.

Maria,
unconscious and hidden.

And this is
repeated. Times infinity.

“Why are you
recording this?” I ask. “Why are you recording your own death? Your plan
failed. You don’t get to publicly execute Maria. You don’t get a chance to
terrorize the world any more than you already have.”