The Lost Journal Part 2 (A Secret Apocalypse Story) (9 page)

Time to Go

Maria had woken. "Why? What happened? What’s going on?"

They could
both tell by the terrified look on my face why we had to leave. They could read
me like a book. I would’ve made a terrible poker player.

"I can’t be
sure, but it looks like they’re coming back into the city."

"What do you
mean, coming back?"

"Like I said
before, I think they would’ve chased the military as the fell back to the
coast. Or maybe even the airport."

"And they’ve
stopped chasing?" Maria asked.

I nodded.

"So they’re
all dead? The military?"

"Maybe. I
don’t know. What I do know is that the infected are slowly making their way
back into the city. They’re basically following the main roadways."

"Why would
they come back?" Maria asked. "I mean, aren’t they brain dead?"

"Maybe they
know we’re here," Jack whispered.

"What? How
would they know?"

"Maybe they
can smell us? Maybe they can hear us? I don’t know."

"That’s
stupid. They can’t hear us. You would need super human hearing to be able to
hear us. They can’t see us. We’re hidden."

"Look, who
knows what this virus is capable of?" Jack said. "The weirdo doctor said it was
designed to find life. Well guess what? We’re it. We’re alive. We’re breathing.
They’re coming for us."

Jack was
right. I wish to god that he wasn’t but he was.

We couldn’t
explain it. But those damn infected, mindless, zombies were shuffling their way
back into the city.

And they
were coming for us.

High Ground

"So what the hell do we do?" Maria asked "Where do we go? How do we get there?
I don’t really feel like walking around on the streets."

"High
ground," I answered. "We have to get to high ground. We’ll be safe up there. Plus
we’ll be able to see what’s going on in the rest of the city."

"A
skyscraper." Maria said.

"Yeah. The
bigger the better."

"The Sydney
Center Point Tower," Jack said. "It’s the tallest building in Sydney. It’ll
have panoramic views of the whole city."

"What about
what happened at casino?" Maria said. "We were trapped. I don’t want to be
trapped again."

"That was a
freak incident," I said trying to convince myself more than anyone.

But what
were the alternatives? Fly out of the city. Swim out? Walk out? We couldn’t do
any of those things. Not now. So the next best thing and really the only thing
to do was to get to high ground.

"We can’t go
back out into the streets," Maria said. "It’s a mess. It’s too dangerous. There
was so many of them yesterday. And more today."

"Well, what
are our options?" I asked.

"We could go
underground," Jack suggested. "There’s a train station not far from here. We
could go down there. It’ll lead us to the tower."

Maria shook
her head. "You really want to go underground? Where it’s dark? Completely
dark?"

"It couldn’t
be any worse than the streets."

"Yeah it
could. It could be a lot worse."

Jack thought
it over for a minute. "What about the monorail track? It’s about twenty, thirty
feet above the road. We could walk along the track, follow it to Center Point.
The infected won’t be able to reach us. And it will lead us right to the
tower."

Maria smiled.
"Yeah. Much better than the dark underground train station."

"That could
work," I said. "Where’s the nearest monorail station."

"Down this
main road," Jack answered. "If we go now, we can make it."

"We should
exit out towards the rear of the Town Hall," I said. "That way the building
will hide us from the horde."

We gathered
a few bottles of water from the bar downstairs, and then left the safety of the
Town Hall. We headed for the nearest monorail station about a block away. We
used one of the emergency exits on the side of the Town Hall building and crept
as quietly as possible through the abandoned cars in the surrounding streets,
using them as cover

We had come
to another main intersection. I motioned for Jack and Maria to get behind me.

"Which way?"
I asked.

Jack pointed
to the right.

I moved over
to the wall of the building. I flattened myself against it and peeked around
the corner.

I held my
breath. My heart began thumping in my chest.

They were
there.

It looked
like all of them. Every single last person of the city of Sydney. I knew it
wasn’t, but there was so damn many of them. I ducked quickly back behind the
wall and motioned for Jack and Maria to move. We would have to find another
way.

We crawled
back the way we had come and crouched in the doorway of an apartment building.

"We can’t go
that way," I whispered. "There’s way too many of them. We need to get out of
here. If they come around that corner we’re done for."

Jack pointed
over his shoulder. "If we go back and go around the block we can still get
there."

"OK, let’s
go," I said. "Quietly."

We were
about to go. We nearly didn’t see it.

One, lone
infected man walked across the intersection. We froze.

It was just
one at first. But then more and more followed him until the whole horde was
moving across the intersection. We all pressed ourselves into the doorway of
the apartment building, holding our breath, looking at each other as if to say
‘what the hell do we do now?’

The infected
hadn’t seen us yet. But it would only take one. And if one saw us, the rest
would follow.

I gripped my
rifle and flicked the safety off. I placed my index finger on the trigger. I
knew we didn’t have nearly enough ammo to deal with them. But I was determined
to put up a fight if they charged us.

Jack
motioned with his head in the direction of the monorail station. "It’s just
around the corner," he whispered. "It’s close. About fifty feet away. Two
flights of stairs lead up the station."

Maybe there
was a gate up there, I thought. Maybe we could run for it. Get up the stairs, barricade
the gate. Keep running and follow the track. I wondered if they would be able
to climb up to us from the ground. God, I hoped they couldn’t climb.

In the end
we had to wait. It was too dangerous to try anything else. We waited for them to
pass. The whole horde. It felt like I held my breath the entire time. We were
completely at their mercy at that point. But we didn’t dare move. If we moved they
would see us. And we sure as hell couldn’t shoot them all. So we had to wait.
We pressed ourselves into the doorway of the apartment building and we waited.

We kept
perfectly still.

An hour
passed. Maybe more. At one point the horde was so thick I couldn’t see through
the crowd. But it eventually began to thin out.

Once we were
sure they had all moved on, we made a run for the mono-rail station. I stopped
at the bottom of the stairwell that led up to the station. I had to make sure
we hadn’t been seen. I waved Jack and Maria up the stairs. They took off,
taking three steps at a time.

I waited. I
had to be sure. I had my rifle up to my shoulder, finger on the trigger, barrel
pointed at the intersection.

Nothing.

Jack was at
the top of the stair case, urging me forward. "Come on, hurry!" he whispered.

I lowered my
rifle and followed them up to the monorail station.

Mono means one. And rail means rail.

I love that Simpson’s episode. The one with the
monorail. I had the song stuck in my head. I know, I know. I should’ve been
focused but I couldn’t help it.

We had to
move inside the building to actually get to the monorail station. That was
pretty damn terrifying, especially since the inside of the building was dark,
almost pitch black. We moved inside the building and we had to wait a few
minutes for our eyes to adjust to the dark. I had the torch on my rifle, but I
didn’t want to use it just in case I attracted any of the infected. So we
waited until our eyes adjusted to the dark. And then we made our move. We
climbed two flights of stairs to get to the level where the monorail station
was. From there we climbed on to the track.

It was kind
of weird walking along the track, above the streets. It was like we were giants
or something. It was a whole different perspective to view the city from.

The monorail
track was about twenty to thirty feet above the road. It was good because we
were above the reach of the infected that were running around on the streets.
The downside was that as we walked along the track we were out in the open. We
were completely exposed. So if any of the infected bothered to look up, they
would see us clearly. Another thing, the track was still wet from the
thunderstorm. So we had to walk really, really slowly, paying careful attention
to each step we took.

Jack was
leading the way. He paused and held his hand up, motioning for us to stop.

"What is it?"
I asked as I looked around. I really did not want to hang around on the wet, slippery
monorail track any longer than was absolutely necessary.

"The track
disappears into another building," Jack answered.

"What?"

"The
monorail track. It goes into the building. The station is probably inside."

I looked
over Jack’s shoulder and saw that the monorail track cut into the building and
then re-emerged on the other side.

"I think you
should take the lead," Jack said. "You know, just in case."

"Good idea.
Is this the building that connects to the Sydney Tower?"

"Yeah."

We shimmied
passed each other, careful not to fall off the track. Falling off the track, at
a height of about twenty feet wouldn’t kill you, but you’d probably break an
ankle or a leg. And in an environment like this – a broken leg was a death
sentence.

I finally
eased myself to the front of our little group.

I had my rifle
at the ready. I tried to look inside where the track disappeared into the building
but it was too dark. I really wish I had some night vision goggles. Wish I had
a lot of things.

I turned to
Jack and Maria who were both anxiously looking around, making sure we weren’t being
followed, making sure nothing was down in the streets, looking up at us, watching
us.

"All right,"
I said. "We gotta go in. There’s not much we can do but stay quiet and stay
alert. If anything is inside, we’ll have to make our exit back along the
monorail track. If anything chases us along here, we should be able pick them
off pretty easily. One shot should be enough to knock them off the track. Not
enough to kill them but enough to knock them off."

I inched
forward, pausing at the entrance to the monorail station. There was a small
platform that was maybe three of four carriages long. There was a small amount
of dull light that illuminated the station and the immediate area. But beyond
the station, further into the building it was completely dark.

I was about
to wave Jack and Maria forward but then we heard the piercing sound of car tires
screeching on bitumen. It was the sound of a car racing through the streets.

A Final Stand

We all froze. We looked left and right, up and down the city street but there
was nothing. The sound of the car’s engine and the tires bounced and echoed off
the buildings, giving the impression that it was all around us.

"Lay flat!"
I said, not knowing what else to do.

We moved
over as close to the mono-rail station as we dared. And then we kind of
awkwardly laid down on the track. We had to hug the track with our legs and
arms so that we didn’t fall.

A second
later, a car came skidding around the corner. And not just any car. It was a
bright pink Rolls Royce. It was severely damaged. The chassis was dented and
scratched. Some of the windows were shattered. The headlights were smashed in.
The famous Rolls Royce grill had been completely destroyed. The luxury car came
to an abrupt stop, almost directly below us. Both rear doors opened at the same
time and two soldiers exited the car. They were both heavily armed. Each
soldier had at least four rifles slung over his back.

Sniper
rifles.

And automatic
weapons.

One of the
soldiers opened the trunk. The other stood guard, watching the street in the
direction they had just come from. He had one of his sniper rifles at the
ready.

Another
soldier appeared from the driver’s side door. "Hold them here for as long as
you can," he said. "Blackhawk is inbound for extraction. You’ve got ten
minutes."

The two
other soldiers nodded. No questions asked.