The Sixth Level (13 page)

I shook my head. I needed to stay positive. I needed to drown out and ignore the fear that was seconds away from paralyzing me.

"I can make it," I whispered again.

Yeah right. What if you get surrounded? What if they start chasing you? Where are you gonna go? What are you gonna do? You can't even see.

"Shut up, shut up."

I suddenly wondered if the guys would leave me here. If they couldn't find me or if I couldn't make it to them, would they just pack up and leave? No they wouldn't do that, would they? I'm their insurance policy, their ace in the hole. I'm here to make sure that Maria and the others don’t run away at the first sight of them. I was valuable, wasn't I? They needed me, right?

Stay positive, I reminded myself. Daniel wouldn't leave you. There's no way.

I looked at the little blue ball again on the map. Two kilometers. Not far at all.

I was about to make a move but just then I heard something. A twig snapping, followed by footsteps. Fast footsteps. Running footsteps.

The infected. They were here. They were right freakin here.

I held my breath. I froze. I didn’t dare move in case they saw me, even though they seemed to be focused on something else. They hadn't seen me, or smelt me. Or whatever sense they use to interact with the world around them. At that moment, they were just ghosts, corpses running through the oppressive red dust.

I wondered where they were running too. It looked like they were running towards the harbor, in the opposite direction to where the Osprey crash landed. Maybe there was something else or someone else in the area? Someone less fortunate than me.

Another group of about ten or twenty sprinted past. And then thirty and then more and more until it was a stampede. I couldn't take it any longer. I turned and ran. I ran as fast as I could back through the trees, snapping and breaking branches again. I was trying to avoid the trees, trying to be as quiet as possible but it was no use. I was going too fast. I wondered if they heard me. I wonder if the stampeded had suddenly changed direction and was now coming for me. Even if they weren’t I was convinced that they were. In my mind’s eye, they were right behind me.

After about a full minute of sprinting I finally felt like I'd put enough distance between myself and the infected. Surprisingly though, I hadn't run out of breath and my muscles were barely fatigued. I remembered the last time I was here in the middle of Sydney, running for my life. I clearly remembered the burning sensation of lactic acid, my legs, my arms feeling like lead. My lungs feeling like they were about to explode out of my chest. Now, thanks to the NBC suit, I didn't feel any of that. I guess I probably wouldn't have survived if I wasn’t wearing it.

I looked over my shoulder to make sure they hadn’t followed me. I was alone again. At least, I thought I was alone. There was really no way to tell with zero visibility.

But it was strange, apart from the few hundred that just ran past, it was eerily quiet. I wondered where the hell the rest of them were hiding? Maybe the military had actually done a decent job of clearing out the city before they abandoned it?

A few seconds later I stepped out of the botanical gardens and on to a street. It was a shock to go from being surrounded by trees to the cityscape so quickly and suddenly.

It was a main street, a motorway or something. There were four lanes going both directions, with other roadways snaking in and around and all over the place.

It was the road that led out of the Sydney Harbor Tunnel.

The mouth of the tunnel had collapsed in, destroyed by the explosive charges set off by the military as part of the containment protocol. This was the end of the tunnel they blew up first. They didn’t want anyone to get through here. And they did a damn good job of making sure no one did. But in the end what did it even matter?

I walked up to the collapsed mouth of the tunnel, to the concrete rubble. Amazingly, there was still some heat coming off the smoldering ruins. There was a small gap between two crushed cars that led into the tunnel. They were squashed up against a bus.

I looked inside. It was dark. I couldn’t see anything. But my mind showed me things, horrific things that I hoped I would never see again. I thought I heard something coming from the darkness of the tunnel. A scream maybe. It was hard to tell if it was real or if I was imagining it.

I decided not to hang around to find out. I turned and walked away, trying desperately to force the images and the memories of that day from my mind.

But I couldn’t.

Chapter 14

I couldn’t stop thinking about the massacre of all those people on the bridge and in the tunnel. I couldn’t help but think ‘what if’. What if we had been forced to walk through the tunnel?

I remember the vendetta I made to Kenji as we were fleeing the harbor. We were treading water, we were exhausted. And for some weird reason I told Kenji we would find whoever was responsible and we’d make them pay. It was crazy; I knew that at the time. But I couldn’t help how I felt. I wanted revenge.

And right now, I felt like renewing that vendetta.

I shook my head. I had to stop thinking about that day. I had to focus.

I looked at the GPS device. It told me I was less than a kilometer away from Hyde Park. I checked my immediate surroundings. I was following a road. On my left was grassland that seemed to slope downwards.

I checked the GPS again. It was the Domain, a special park that was used for outdoor concerts. It had an amphitheater down one end.

I remembered being here on Christmas Eve for the ‘Carols in the Park’ concert. I went with Jack and Maria. It’s hard to believe that was only two months ago. And it’s hard to believe how much fun we had. I remember we all dressed up. Maria and I wore Santa hats and Jack dressed up as Rudolf the reindeer. He had antlers on his head and a red nose.

It was my first ever summer Christmas. I was amazed at how warm it was at night.

Kids were running around, over excited, waiting for Santa to show up. Everyone sang along with the Christmas carols.

It’s hard to imagine now, but the crowd, the people, everyone was so happy. Everyone was in good spirits. They were completely and blissfully unaware how their lives would change forever in only a few short weeks time.

It’s hard to imagine that all those people are now dead or infected.

I wondered if Christmas would ever return to this place.

Off in the distance, I heard a low rumbling noise. I could feel the ground shake. I couldn’t see clearly through the dust but it looked like a building was beginning to crumble and collapse.

A second later the rumbling stopped and a plume of lighter colored dust, that seemed to come from somewhere in the middle of the city, billowed up into the sky.

I turned away from the Domain, from one of the last happy memories of this place, one of my last happy memories before the virus took over and continued towards Hyde Park.

I’d only taken a few steps when suddenly I heard the unmistakable pop, pop, pop of machine gun fire. They sounded like small controlled bursts.

Professional.

It had to be them.

I picked up the pace and started jogging towards the sound. The gunfire ceased. I hesitated for a split second; what were they firing at? I listened for a few minutes but the shooting had definitely stopped. Whatever they were shooting at was either dead or gone.

I started jogging again, when suddenly something hit me in the chest, a huge invisible force. I fell backwards landing on my ass and screamed in shock.

"Hold you’re fire!", someone shouted.

The voice sounded like Smitty.

I wanted to yell out but I was still in shock. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t breathe. I was patting myself down, checking for the bullet hole. Checking for blood. Surprisingly I was fine. Completely fine. But then I freaked out as I thought, what if they decide to unleash with their grenade launchers or that Javelin missile launcher thingy Griffin had mentioned earlier? Could the suit stop that kind of fire power? I did not want to find out.

Luckily, I didn’t have to. A few seconds later Griffin and Smitty were kneeling over me.

Chapter 15

I finally figured out I wasn't shot, that the suit had protected me yet again. "Good thing I’m wearing the NBC suit," I said. "Ironman, eat your heart out."

Griffin and Smitty let out a nervous laugh.

I slowly regained my composure. But then I realized Ethan and Daniel were nowhere to be seen.

"Where are the others?" I asked. "Where’s Daniel?"

"They’ve taken up defensive positions around the Osprey," Smitty answered. "Or what's left of it. They're on the other side of the park. We’ve called for backup. Ramirez is on her way. We’re trying to get an ETA but we’re having some trouble getting in contact with her now. It seems the closer she gets to Sydney the worse the interference from the storm gets."

They helped me to my feet and we made our way across the park to the twisted remains of the Osprey.

Daniel was near the cockpit. He was on the radio, trying to contact Ramirez. Ethan was next to him, keeping watch.

The radio seemed to be full of static. Daniel threw the speaker into the cock pit and swore. "It's no use. Too much interference."

He lowered his head, defeated.

"Got something to cheer you up," Griffin said.

Daniel looked up and saw me. "Rebecca! Oh my God! You're.."

"Alive?" I said.

"Yeah. And... and you're OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I was able to pull my chute after I was sucked out of the Osprey. I hit the ground pretty hard, but the NBC suit must've absorbed most of the impact."

I got the feeling that Daniel wanted to jump up and give me a hug or something. He couldn't contain the smile on his face. But he held back, maybe he didn't want to show his emotions in front of the guys. Or maybe I was just reading into it too much.

Ethan moved over to me and put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. He was smiling as well. "You're a tough girl, Rebecca. Glad to have you back. Glad to have you on the team."

I guess my fears of being left behind were completely unfounded.

I looked at the mangled, smoking remains of the Osprey. "So what the hell hit us?"

"We don’t know." Ethan answered.

"Did someone shoot us? Was it a missile or something?" I asked.

"We don't know. There's no evidence of artillery fire or anything like that. If we were hit by a missile there would be burn marks. But there's nothing."

I looked closely at the wreckage and noticed there were no bullet holes, no blackened scorch marks from any explosives. Maybe we collided with something? A communications tower? A crane?

Whatever it was, it did quite a number on the Osprey.

"All right, let's get it together," Ethan continued. "We can only assume Ramirez is on her way. We need to get to an extraction point. Our best chance is to make our way to one of the helipads in the city. The closest building is the Queen Victoria Building. It's a long building with a large helipad on the roof. It's only a few blocks from here. The sooner we get there, the better. We get to high ground; we can consolidate, gather ourselves, check our supplies and continue with the mission. Any questions?"

"No, sir." The men said in unison.

Before we left the wreckage, the guys were able to salvage a few supplies. Mostly bandages and hand towels and other first aid supplies. But luckily we were able to make some improvised bandanas with the towels to cover our mouths and noses. They even found some protective goggles. The guys were pretty happy about that. Apparently prolonged exposure to this kind of dust was bad for your airways and could do permanent damage to your eyeballs if you were unlucky. And now that I thought about it, my mouth was a little dry and tasted a little gritty. I hadn’t noticed it before because I think I was just too damn terrified.

When everyone had their goggles on and their bandannas around their faces, I thought to myself that they kind of looked like modern day ninja. Heavily armed, futuristic ninja.

I was extremely glad I had found them. It was nice having the soldiers on my side instead of running for my life from them.

The guys did one more quick check of their rifles and their ammo before we set off for the Queen Victoria Building. We made our way slowly but purposefully through the city streets. We moved in pairs. Griffin and Ethan would run ahead about twenty yards or to the next point of cover. Then they would wave Daniel and myself forward as they provided cover for us. Smitty brought up the rear.

There was a few times where Ethan and Griffin disappeared completely from view when they ran ahead and we had to wait for them to whistle us up. It was a tense wait whenever they disappeared.

Apparently this method of moving was called 'leapfrogging'. It was slow going but we were deep behind enemy lines and we needed to take every precaution. To make matters worse the dust storm showed no signs of letting up, which slowed us down even more. Visibility was still only a few feet.