The Lost Journal Part 2 (A Secret Apocalypse Story) (7 page)

"Bloody
hell," Jack whispered.

Maria had
her hands over her mouth, shaking her head. "What do we do?" she said quietly.
"There’s so many of them."

"Get down.
Stay calm," I said to them both. "They haven’t seen us yet."

We crouched
down behind an abandoned car.

"Where did
they come from?" Maria asked.

"There might
have been an evacuation route through here," I explained. "Bad news if you have
a lot of people in a confined area. The virus would’ve spread from person to
person in a matter of minutes."

"We’ll never
make it to Center Point," Jack said. "Not with that many infected running wild
through the city."

"We need
another place to hide," I said. "Somewhere close. Something we can fortify."

Jack
motioned with his head over my shoulder, back down the road, away from the
infected. "The Town Hall. It’s an old building. Solid stone walls. If we can
board it up, secure the doors and the exits, it might be all right. At least
for a while."

"Perfect.
Let’s go. We don’t have much time."

We stayed
low to the ground, sneaking between the abandoned cars as we made our way to the
Town Hall.

"It should
be another block or so," Jack said.

We had come
to another main intersection. But then Jack stopped. He looked left. Then he
looked right.

"What are
you doing?" Maria asked. "It’s straight ahead."

But Jack
didn’t answer. He was staring at something.

I followed
his gaze.

There was a
group of about fifty people. They were definitely infected. They were feeding
on a horse.

Multiple
horses.

At first I
thought I was seeing things. Why would there be horses in the middle of the
city? But then I saw a whole squad of police officers. They were dressed in
riot gear. They were wearing big bullet proof vests. Helmets. Face masks. Even
with all of that protective gear they had still been overwhelmed. Bitten.
Infected.

And now,
they were eating, feeding on their own horses.

They were all
kneeling down, hunched and huddled together over the huge animals.

Blood and
guts sprawled out all over the road.

They
reminded me of a bunch of hyenas feeding on a carcass.

I pushed
Jack, urging him forward. The group of infected hadn’t seen us yet. If we could
cross the intersection as quickly and as quietly as possible we might just make
it.

Unfortunately
we weren’t fast enough.

We were
about half way across the intersection when they saw us.

It’s not safe on the streets.

We were way out in the open of the intersection. No cover. Nothing to hide
behind. Not even any abandoned cars.

No man’s
land.

One of them
turned towards us.

It was a
police officer in full riot gear. His face was hidden behind a helmet and
protective mask.

More of them
turned towards us.

Our only
option was to run.

Run as fast
as we could.

"Go," I
whispered. "Go!"

Jack was out
in front. I was hoping he knew the way. Maria was right behind Jack. She snuck
a glance over her shoulder. I told her not to look. I told her to keep running.

We were
coming up to another intersection. "Hold it!" I said. "Move against the wall."

Jack skidded
to a stop.

"We can’t
just go running out into the open," I said.

He nodded as
he looked back down the road. The fear of being chased was clouding our judgment,
making us do stupid things.

I peeked
around the corner of the intersection. Looking left and then right. The street
was deserted. "OK, it’s clear. Let’s go."

We started
off at a sprint once more. Maria was lagging behind.

"Come on,
Maria," I said. "We’re nearly there. We can rest when we get inside."

She leant
forward, forcing her legs to go faster. Digging deep. Calling on every last
reserve of energy. We picked up the pace, trying desperately to get away from
the chasing infected. We needed to be as far out in front as possible when we
got to the Town Hall. If they knew where we were hiding, they would follow us.
They would not stop.

Unfortunately,
as we ran deeper into the city, the streets became more and more congested with
rubble and cars. All of the cars had been abandoned. Some had their doors left
open. Some of them had been crushed. Some of them had their windows blown out
and some were peppered with bullet holes.

There was no
time to stop and check if there was anything hiding in or behind them, or under
them.

We just had
to push through.

Eventually
though, the street became too congested.

There were
too many cars. Too much rubble and debris.

There was
half a building lying across the road. It had collapsed and crumbled across
street, blocking both lanes, like a giant had taken a sledge hammer to it. It
was like we could see the skeleton of the building, its spine exposed. More paper
drifted down on us.

It must’ve
taken fire from an Apache, I thought. Or maybe some F22’s or an A10 bomber. A
couple of air to surface missiles would be enough to do it. More than enough.
Huge chunks of concrete covered the street. A few blocks ahead, it was
completely cut off by more crumbled buildings.

This section
of the city was lying in ruin. It had been utterly destroyed.

We had to
take a detour.

Jack took
the lead again. Maria and I followed without question. I risked a glance over
my shoulder. The group of infected were still chasing. The former riot squad
was out in front. We turned down another street. We seemed to be running
faster. I don’t know how. We were all exhausted. Maybe it was because the gaps
between all the abandoned cars, and taxis, and trucks were so narrow it felt
like we were running faster. I don’t know.

Despite all
of the obstacles, we were putting good distance between us and the chasing
infected. The trade off was that we were being less and less careful. We were
basically running blindly through the streets. We could’ve been ambushed at any
turn. I think we all ignored that cold, terrifying thought. Our goal was the
sanctuary of the Town Hall. Hopefully it was still standing. Hopefully it was
empty.

"Not far
now," Jack said to us over his shoulder.

We turned
another corner and finally, the Town Hall came into view. The Town Hall was a
big square building with solid stone walls and a large set of stairs leading up
to the entrance.

Most
importantly it was still in one piece.

We climbed
the stairs at the front of the building and made it inside without incident. I
slid a couple of long wooden bench seats in front of the door to barricade
them.

"I think
we’ve lost them," Jack said, doubled over, trying desperately to catch his
breath.

Maria had
dropped to her knees, breathing deeply in through her nose and out through her
mouth. Her eyes were closed. "It’s not safe on the streets. Not safe."

As we locked
the huge wooden doors of the entrance and barricaded it with tables and chairs,
we could still hear the constant chatter of machine guns in the distance.

Hopefully
the infected would continue to pursue the remaining soldiers.

It was a
gruesome thought. A selfish thought. But I couldn’t help thinking it.

The Sydney Town Hall

I inspected our hastily put together barricade of tables and chairs. It wasn’t
much but it was something.

"I can’t
believe it," Maria said. "I just can’t believe it. The city. It’s so messed
up."

"Yeah, it’s
not good." Jack mumbled almost to himself.

We wasted no
time in securing the rest of the building. We moved through the Town Hall in
silence, trying to ignore the fact we were in the middle of a warzone. We
checked the side entrances and emergency exits. We made sure they were all
locked. I made sure we had a way out in case we needed to leave in a hurry.

We decided
to rest up in the main function room. According to the sign on the huge wooden
double doors, it was called the Centennial Hall.

Jack and
Maria moved behind me and I pushed open the doors.

I scanned
the room quickly, rifle armed and ready.

The room was
deserted. It appeared to have been set up for some kind of function. It was
full of round dinner tables that were all covered with white table cloths.
Bottles of wine and champagne were sitting on the tables. And empty glasses.

There was a
sign just inside the main door that read:

North Sydney
Grammar Debutante Ball.

Welcome
Debutantes and partners.

"What the
hell is a debutante ball?" I asked

"It’s like a
fancy prom or high school dance," Maria answered. "It’s an old tradition. It’s
supposed to symbolize a young girl coming out into society or something. Personally,
think it’s load of crap."

"You do
not," Jack said.

"Well, maybe
not all of it," Maria replied. "OK, sure, it would be fun to dress up and dance
and all that stuff. But the whole thing, the whole tradition. It’s sexist or
something. I don’t know."

Jack shook
his head. "It’s not sexist. It’s just an excuse to party."

I moved over
to the nearest table and picked up a menu. Dinner was to be a three course
meal.

King Prawns
and Seared Scallops for the entrée.

Wagyu beef
and Atlantic salmon for the main course.

Crème brulee
and chocolate lava cake for dessert.

Underneath
the menu was the wine list and a warning that alcohol was not available for
debutantes or partners who were under the age of eighteen.

I doubt that
would’ve stopped anyone.

Reading the
menu had made me hungry.

Without
saying a word between us we all moved over to the main bar that was located at
the rear of the room. We were all hungry and thirsty. Luckily we found some
bottled water. But unfortunately the only food we found were bar snacks. Salted
peanuts. Potato chips.

Not good.

"There’s a
small supermarket across the road," Jack said. "It should have some canned food
or something."

"Do you
really want to go back outside?" Maria asked. "With those things? I’m more than
happy with potato chips for dinner."

"We can’t
survive on potato chips forever," Jack answered.

"Who said
anything about forever? I just think it’s not worth the risk to go back outside
right now."

"Yeah,
Maria’s right," I said. "We should wait. Make sure the infected have cleared
out. Go first thing in the morning."

Jack didn’t
look convinced. "And what if they don’t clear out?"

"Then we
wait."

"For how
long? Until we starve to death? News flash, we’re in the middle of the city.
We’re completely surrounded. There are hundreds of them out there. And that
number is growing by the minute."

"I
understand that," I answered. "But we just ran a good couple of miles. We need
to rest up first. We can go hungry for one night."

I think Jack
knew we couldn’t go back outside at that point. He was just voicing his fears.
The biggest fear being that we were trapped in the city, that we were
surrounded, that we weren’t going to make it out of Sydney alive. And I have to
admit, I was scared of the exact same thing. I had no idea how many people had
been infected. And I had no idea how many infected people were in the middle of
the city.

We were in a
bad place. A very bad place. Would there ever be a safe time to make a raid on
the supermarket? Or would it just be a suicide mission?

I had a
feeling it would be the latter.

And I guess
that’s maybe the main reason I wanted to leave it for tomorrow.

I wasn’t
ready to risk my life again. Not yet.

Feb 9th - Grocery store raid. And more
conversations with the dead.

We moved upstairs into an office of some sort and spent the night. I slept with
my back against the door. At first light, we moved out to the main balcony on
the second floor. It was a huge stone balcony that looked out over the city and
the intersection below. Jack told me that across the road from the Town Hall
was another historic building – the queen Victoria building. Apparently it was
heritage listed or historically important or something. Recently it had been
transformed into a prestigious shopping center.

I looked
through the scope on my rifle down at the Queen Victoria building. The store
front windows had mostly been blown apart. Some were still intact.