The Sixth Level (11 page)

"See," Griffin said to me, boasting. "Best armor money can buy. It absorbs and disperses the force of the blow."

When the guys were suited up and ready to go they looked like hulking modern day warriors. They looked like Gods of war. Their already impressive bulk and muscle was amplified and exaggerated. The black and grey color of the suits seemed to change color slightly in the light, absorbing it rather than reflecting it.

I wondered how much each of these suits cost. I guess there's no way an army could afford to outfit all their soldiers with these, as much as they would like to. But for a small team like this who was being funded by a secret employer with a lot of capital, I guess money wasn't an issue. Especially when the pay off was the survival of the human race, a cure for the deadliest virus in recorded history.

I for one was extremely grateful.

When Griffin and Smitty were fully suited up they left the safety of the camp. They moved outside the perimeter fence and reloaded the sentinels.

Daniel made his way to the cockpit of the Osprey. Ramirez positioned herself in front of the laptops, making sure the surveillance cameras showed her the full 360 degree view of the surrounding area.

Ethan reminded her that if the dogs came back or if the perimeter was breached by whoever or whatever, she was to evacuate immediately and leave everything. The whole camp was set to blow. If the military moved in on the camp, they didn't want to leave any trace of them ever being there.

Ramirez nodded and told Ethan that she had everything under control. The second Osprey was prepped and ready for takeoff at a moment’s notice. The sentinels were locked and loaded. The perimeter fence was live. The camp was Fort Knox she said.

Once Ethan was satisfied everything was under control he led me out of the tent back into the oppressive and unrelenting dust storm. We made our way to the Osprey. And Ethan told me to put on my helmet.

Griffin and Smitty were busy covering the tent and the storage container and the vehicles; the Humvee, the backup Osprey and the X-wing with what appeared to be a mesh camouflage net. But it seemed to be a dark green in color. Not very subtle I thought.

"Won't people be able to see that?" I asked. "Won't it stand out against the red dusty ground?"

"No. It’s not a cammo net," Ethan replied.
 
"It’s a cloak. Uses the same technology as our NBC suits," he explained. He then spoke into a mic built into his helmet. "Ramirez, activate the cloak."

 
The cammo net seemed to shimmer in the light and then turn transparent. The camp disappeared.

As we arrived at the Osprey the rotor blades on each wing were beginning to spin slowly, gaining speed. It was an awkward looking aircraft. It didn't really look like it could fly, let alone hover like a helicopter.

We moved to the rear of the Osprey and a ramp was lowered. We walked up and into the wide and deceptively spacious cabin area. It was actually a bigger area than we really needed. The seats lined the sides of the cabin and there were a couple of small portal style windows above each one.

Once I was strapped into my seat Ethan moved back over to the ramp which was still lowered. The engines and the noise of the blades were steadily increasing.

"Let's move it ladies!" he shouted to Griffin and Smitty. "We're not getting paid by the hour."

A few seconds later Griffin and Smitty made their way up the ramp. Ethan spoke into his mic again. "We're in. Cleared for takeoff."

I guess he was speaking to Daniel.

Ethan moved over to a foot locker under the row of seats while Griffin and Smitty closed the ramp. Daniel didn't wait for the ramp to close before taking off. We were already in the air. In a matter of seconds we were at least a hundred feet up.

The ramp closed and the others took a seat.

Ethan moved up next to me. "Here, you'll need to put this on."

He was holding a parachute. My jaw physically dropped. "We're not jumping out are we?"

"No, it's just a precaution. If we run into any heat, we jump. No questions asked, OK?"

Griffin and Smitty were smiling at my obvious discomfort and fear as they put on their own parachutes.

"What kind of heat?" I asked.

"The bad kind. Military jets, surface to air missiles. Anything we can’t outrun. We’ll need to bail out."

The blood drain from my face and I suddenly felt light headed. Skydiving was definitely not in the brochure. Daniel never mentioned anything about it.

"And if we jump," Ethan continued. "When you land, you'll need to clip off your chute immediately so you don't get dragged by the wind. Also, parachutes are big. Which means they are a big target. Easily spotted from the air or ground. If anyone sees it, the first thing they'll do is converge on the chute. You don't want to be anywhere near it when they get there."

I nodded my head letting him know that I understood, even though I was completely unsure of myself. I slid the pack on over my shoulders and clipped the harnesses across the front of my body.

"We probably won't need to jump," Ethan added. "But if it does come down to it, you pull this handle immediately got it?" he said as he pointed to the handle thingy on my left shoulder.

"OK."

"And if your main chute fails to open you will need to pull this handle. It’ll release your back up chute."

I nodded my head again, hoping desperately that I would never have to pull either one of these handles.

"I mean it," Ethan said. "If something happens while we're dropping in you won't have a lot of time before you hit the ground. Pulling the chute could mean the difference between a broken leg and a broken everything. Your NBC suit should absorb some of the impact but gravity is a real bitch and it will kill you if given the chance."

I felt like I'd just been sucker punched. This was a lot to take in all at once. And while I was already in the air, past the point of no return. Why didn't they tell me earlier? Like when we were on solid ground for example. I guess they didn't want to take the chance that I'd back out. It was a smart move on their behalf.

At any rate, there was nothing I could do now. So we continued flying towards Sydney in the dead of night. It was eerie looking out the tiny windows of the Osprey and not being able to see anything. It started to make me a little air sick. Then again, maybe I was feeling sick in my stomach because I felt like I shouldn’t be doing this. Running straight into a blazing inferno, straight back into hell. No one willingly walks up to the gates of hell, no one in their right mind. It went against all common sense.

But I knew I had to do this I reminded myself for the millionth time. We had to get Maria. The military had failed. We were the last chance, the only hope. I had to make sure that my friends didn’t run away when they saw these soldiers. I mean, that’s what I’d do if I was in their situation. Especially after everything we’d been through.

But the thing that made me feel most uneasy, the thing that made me want to throw up every time I thought about it, was that all this; this whole mission was based on the assumption that my friends were still alive. And that was a huge assumption.

It had been over a week since their call for help. Which means they’d spent just over two weeks right in the middle of Sydney, right in the heart of a warzone, living amongst the infection.

How they even made it from Darling Harbor to another building was a miracle in itself. It means somehow Maria had escaped from those men in black who had abducted her. Or more likely, something had happened to those men. Something bad. And Maria was forced to run. And Jack. Jack had somehow found them. It would’ve been a herculean effort on his behalf. It’s amazing the lengths that people will go to for the people they love.

I shook my head as I thought about the insanity of it all. I wanted to sit in cockpit with Daniel. I wanted to talk to him. I think I needed him to tell me it was going to be all right. That this was just a regular mission for these guys, nothing out of the ordinary, nothing they couldn’t handle. I wanted him to tell me that we were going to find my friends, that they were still alive, this whole mission would be a walk in the park and that we’d be back in LA, back in my luxurious penthouse suite in no time.

But of course, I knew he wouldn’t say that if I asked. So I stayed put, strapped into my seat. And we continued to fly for the east coast of Australia. The most populated area of the entire country. The most dangerous, the most deadly.

Chapter 11

The guys didn't talk much. Ethan had actually fallen asleep. Maybe they knew this was their last chance for some peace and quiet so they were making the most of it. I wondered how Ramirez was doing by herself back at the camp. I don’t know how she did it. I’d be scared senseless all by myself, in the middle of the outback. Especially with killer dogs on the loose and God knows what else out there. I suppose she was protected by automatic machine guns and a super charged electric fence. But still, there was no way I would let anyone leave me alone in a place like that.

Daniel’s voice came over the PA system. "ETA, thirty minutes. Coming up on the eastern seaboard."

We banked sharply to the left and began flying north to follow the shoreline towards Sydney. It was still too dark outside to see anything but I knew that approximately a hundred miles to our right, over the eastern horizon, was the military blockade. They would be waiting and watching, evaluating their position and planning their next move. To our left was the east coast of Australia. A stretch of coast that was overrun with millions of infected. What’s that saying about a rock and a hard place? I think that’s where we were at that point in time.

Griffin unstrapped himself from his seat. "All right! Time to get it on!" he shouted as he started walking up and down the cabin area. He seemed to be stretching his legs, waking himself up, psyching himself up.

"Woo! Yeah," he shouted as he slapped himself in the face."Hey Smitty, wake up the Major."

"You wake him up," Smitty replied, obviously not wanting to disturb Ethan from his slumber.

Griffin made his way towards me. "You look nervous, little lady," he said in his rough as guts voice. "Don't be. We're the best of the best. Ain’t no one or nothing gonna hurt you while we’re around. Check it out. The Osprey here is armed with two M134’s. AKA the mini gun, AKA the gattling gun, AKA Ol’ Painless. Made famous in such movies as Terminator 2 and Predator. It fires over six thousand rounds per minute, one hundred rounds per second. You can take out an entire army with just one of those. We got M4 carbines with pump action grenade launchers and infra red scopes. My main man Smitty over here is packing a mini-me M249 machine gun. That baby's got a two hundred round ammo pouch, just in case you got a whole lot of bad guys to kill. We got javelin missile launchers. We got automatic shot guns for close encounters. And let’s not forget the cult classic, the iconic, Desert Eagle," he said as he slid a handgun out of the holster on his leg. "This is one of the largest hand guns in the world. Practically a hand held cannon."

"Don't forget the suits," Smitty reminded Griffin from his seat. He was obviously enjoying Griffin’s little show.

"How could I forget the next generation NBC suits? I mean, we’re practically invincible in these bad boys. Ironman can eat his heart out. We're the real deal."

He started banging his chest like a gorilla. "And when you put us all together you get what's called a fire team. Because we're hot. And we're here to save the day. Gonna take the villains down to zero."

At that point he started to perform an adlibbed version of the 'Captain Planet' theme song. If I didn't know any better, if I didn’t know we were all on a razor's edge and fuelled with adrenalin, I would've sworn he was on crack.

"OK, that’s enough, Griffin," Smitty said. "You're scaring the girl."

"It's fine," I said. "I’m cool."

"Don't worry. You'll be staying out of harm's way for the most part," Smitty reassured me.

And in a weird way I knew Griffin was just doing his whole performance routine thing to lighten the mood, to calm everyone down, including himself. Actually, mainly himself. To remind himself, that he was a total badass, that he was the best. That he was trained and strong enough to deal with whatever we faced. Despite what we'd already seen, despite what we'd already been through.

About twenty-five minutes later we flew in closer to the shore line and dropped in altitude. The familiar sinking feeling in my stomach returned. My ears popped as the pressure changed. We were following the beaches and the cliffs. It felt like we were so low we were skimming the waves. The sun was peeking over the horizon, turning the ocean and the sky a bright pinkish orange.

We banked to the left and headed inland.

"We should be flying over the coastline now," Daniel said over the PA system. "Bondi beach should be directly below us."

I turned awkwardly in my seat and craned my neck to take a look out the small window. We should've been able to see Bondi beach below us but we couldn't see anything because of the red dust. It seemed to spew out into the ocean.