The Sixth Level (14 page)

Luckily the dust wasn't radioactive. I had to admit, I hadn’t given it much thought since I crash landed. I guess I was a little distracted. But apparently Daniel had checked the radiation levels when we first flew into the city. He said there was no fallout from the nuclear warheads the military had used. It was possible that the prevailing winds had taken the fallout further out west away from the city. From what he could tell this dust storm was natural. I asked him if a prolonged dust storm like this was normal and he said he’d never seen anything like it.

The hardest part of moving through the city streets was all the abandoned cars. On the one hand they provided pretty good cover. But on the other hand, anything could’ve been hiding inside them. All the windows were caked in dust so we couldn’t see inside. We just had to be ultra careful.

After about thirty minutes of leapfrogging and slow going we had made it all the way into the middle of Sydney. We were standing directly opposite the Queen Victoria Building, right next to a giant bronze statue of Queen Victoria herself. She was sitting on her throne with a giant scepter. It was the most life like bronze statue I'd ever seen. I was sort of half expecting her to stand up and shout, ‘off with their heads!’ or ‘who dares disturb my slumber!’ or something like that. I don't know why I imagined her as being evil. Maybe I was starting to expect the worst in people.

We were standing in the middle of a main intersection. According to the street signs the roads that intersected were George Street and Park Street.

Ethan was looking up at the Queen Victoria Building. I could see why he’d chosen this building for the extraction point. It was extremely long, at least the length of an entire city block. It would be a nice big target for Ramirez to land on.

Ethan was trying to see if there was an easy way up on to the roof when suddenly the red dust stopped swirling and the roar of the wind died down to a whisper.

We could hear the engines and the thumping of rotor blades. It had to be the backup Osprey.

Ramirez had made it.

And in world record time, I thought. The twin rotors blades were loud, the noise amplified by the buildings and skyscrapers. The sounds of the aircraft were bouncing and echoing off the concrete structures. But even though the Osprey sounded like it was right on top of us, we still couldn't see it through the dust.

All we needed to do was get to the top of the Queen Victoria Building. Then we would be on board and off the streets.

"Come on," Ethan said. "We need to get to the roof. We need to make sure Ramirez can see us."

We were about to move when suddenly we heard what sounded like metal shrieking and breaking. It was the same awful sound we heard when we crashed, the same awful metallic sound I heard when the military blew up the Sydney Harbor Bridge. It was the piercing sound of metal moving and twisting unnaturally.

Then we heard an explosion. We could just make out a fireball through the thick red dust.

And then the Osprey appeared, hurtling towards us.

"Take cover!" Ethan shouted.

We dived out of the way as the awkward looking aircraft smashed into the gridlock of cars in the middle of the road, right in the middle of the intersection. Daniel pulled me down and I covered my head as the twin rotor blades chopped up great, big chunks of the road.

Chapter 16

The dust began swirling again and the wind picked back up. We could still only see a few feet in front of our faces. Ethan and Smitty were on the other side of the road. We could barely see them.

"Is that ours?" Smitty asked. "Please God, tell me that isn't Ramirez."

Ethan checked through the scope on his rifle. "Not sure. It's hard to see through the dust from this distance. But it's badly damaged."

"Of course it's ours," Griffin said. "Who the hell else would it be?
 
The military have backed off. We're the only ones operating in here. You know it. I know it. And guess what? Now were freakin stranded here."

Daniel turned around to face Griffin. "Keep it together, man."

"Oh, I'm together. I'm perfectly together. I'm just making sure, that everyone knows that's our goddamn Osprey. Ramirez is gone, man! Something aint' right, man. Something hit us back there. And something hit this bird as well."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Daniel asked.

"Look at the damage! It didn't just fall outta the sky."

"Maybe it's the dust?" Smitty suggested. "Maybe it's clogging up the engines or the blades or something?"

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that," Griffin replied.

"Quiet, everyone," Ethan ordered as he moved out and away from the car he was taking cover behind. He moved closer to the wreckage to see if anyone had survived the crash.

Daniel and I were crouched down in the gutter behind what looked like a Toyota Prius. Griffin was kneeling down near the trunk, checking back down the road. His eyes and head were moving frantically from side to side.

To our immediate right was some sort of computer store. The front window was completely covered in dust. The door to the shop had been broken off its hinges. I guess maybe the store had been looted before things got really bad. It was probably a looters paradise. Full of laptops and iPads. It was unfortunate, but looters were an inevitable part of any disaster. You hope that everyone would come together in a crisis, whatever the situation. But I guess there's always a small minority of people who want to do their own thing.

I tried to look inside the store. But even though the door was open I couldn't see inside. It was too dark. I was about to turn away when I thought I saw something move across the window, a shadow. But I couldn’t be sure what it was with all the dust.

I stared intently for a few seconds but there was nothing. Although I thought I could hear this weird sound coming from the back of the store. I guess it sounded like maybe a low grumbling noise.

I tapped Daniel on the shoulder and motioned with my head towards the computer store.

He looked inside. Looked back at me. Shook his head and turned his attention back in the direction of where the Osprey had crashed.

I tapped his shoulder again. "I think something is in there," I whispered.

He took another look. He raised his rifle up and pointed it at the door. He looked through the scope and swore under his breath.

"What is it?" I asked as my heart skipped a beat. "Is there something in there?"

"No," he answered. But then he paused. He looked all around, up at the buildings, at all the windows, the side streets and alleyways. He looked again back through the door. "Actually, I don't know," he added. "There could be. We're sitting ducks here. We need to move."

He removed one of the hand guns from the holster on his leg. It was a Desert Eagle. He then holstered that gun and removed another smaller one and handed it to me. My eyes widened. Holding a gun, did not make me feel safe. Daniel feeling the need to give me a gun did not make me feel safe. Why would he feel the need to give me a gun?

I flicked the safety switch off and my heart began to beat faster.

Ethan stood up and lowered his rifle. He had seen enough of the wreckage. His face looked grim. "Let’s head for high ground," he said. "We need to get off the streets. We need to get our bearings and see what's going on."

We were about to make a move, but Daniel grabbed my arm and pulled me back down.

Ethan had also frozen. A quick hand signal told the other guys to take cover.

"What is it?" I asked

Daniel held his index finger up to his lips urging me to be quiet. Griffin had dropped to his stomach and was crawling towards us. He moved up next to Daniel.

Daniel pointed back down the road. He had his head titled to the side, listening.

I focused, straining my ears. After a few seconds I could hear it. We could all hear it. It was the screaming howl of the infected. They sounded like they were everywhere but we couldn't see them. The dust was too thick.

Ethan told us to run and head for cover.

Adrenalin hit me like an electric charge. Just as we were about to get up and run, something seemed to hit Griffin in the back. His chest was pushed forward, his back arched in agony. Something pierced through his body, through the goddamn NBC suit, the ironman suit, spraying blood on Daniel and me. Griffin was then pulled off his feet and into the doorway of the computer store. And just like that he was gone.

Daniel grabbed me by the arm and pulled me along with him. Not that he needed to. I was already sprinting.

Chapter 17

And the smell. The wind carried it and it seemed to cling to the dust particles. It was the smell of rotting, putrid flesh.

Daniel was maybe a step in front of me. I risked a glance over my shoulder to see where the others were but I couldn't see them through the dust. I couldn't hear them over the noise of gunfire and howling infected.

I looked back at the computer store. There was no sign of Griffin. I couldn't see clearly but it looked like there were loose wires or tentacles or something flailing wildly from the doorway of the store. A few of the wire things pierced the windows of the Toyota Prius we were only just hiding behind. The tentacles then lifted the car clear off the ground and flipped it over.

I continued running. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Something had just killed Griffin and dragged him into the store, to its lair.

I ran harder, almost tripped over. I dropped the handgun that Daniel had given me and it skidded underneath a car. I left it. There was no time to stop and pick it up.

The noise was driving me insane. It was coming from all around us, yet we couldn't see anything.

Suddenly Daniel shoulder barged into one of the infected. I screamed in shock. It came out of nowhere.

Daniel squeezed my hand tighter and pulled me along, making sure I didn't stop. There was no time to kill it. No time to take up a position and return fire. We just had to run.

We ran past a truck, a big semi trailer that had jack-knifed across half of the road. It was a McDonald’s truck. On the side of the trailer, just under the big golden M were the words, ‘Over a billion burgers sold. 100% Aussie beef. And real chicken breast,’

I remember hearing somewhere; maybe it was Kenji that told me, the golden arches were more recognizable than any other symbol on earth, even more recognizable than the Christian Cross or the peace sign.

"Climb up!" Daniel shouted at me.

I didn't have time to ask why or to argue that if we climb up there and get stranded we'd be absolutely screwed. I just did what he said. He climbed up on to the roof of the cabin, just above the driver’s seat and reached down to help me up. We crouched on top of the roof to see if we could see the others through the dust. But again, we couldn't see anything. Even from our vantage point, the dust was too thick.

Just then I heard one of the loudest screams of pain I’ve ever heard. This was followed by choking noises. The scream seemed to come from back down the road, back in the direction we had just run from.

Daniel was about to call out to the Ethan and Smitty when something came flying through the air and smashed into the windscreen of the truck.

I didn’t fully understand what it was at first. Maybe my brain was playing a trick on me. Maybe it was trying to protect me from the reality of what it was. But then my brain caught on. The thing that smashed into the front windshield of the truck; it was Ethan. Or what was left of Ethan. His legs were missing; his guts were hanging out if his torso. He had a look of absolute horror frozen on his face.

A roar erupted from back down the road, in the direction from where Ethan had been thrown. It was different to the screaming howl of the infected. It was louder than the wind, louder than anything. It was loud enough that I could feel it in my chest. The windows of the surrounding buildings shattered. Glass fell from high above our heads, smashing on to the streets below.

None of this made sense.

The roar ceased and then we could hear Smitty shouting something. We heard the sound of a grenade launcher and his machine gun, his m249 mini-me on full automatic fire. Two hundred rounds, I thought to myself.

Then we heard Smitty scream. It was blood chilling, heart stopping. It was full of pain and agony.

Daniel looked through the scope on his rifle.

"What the hell was that?" I shouted. "What happened to Ethan!? What did that to him!? Where are the others!?"

Daniel didn't answer. He was scanning back and forth with his rifle. He was frantic. He fired off multiple shots in all directions, into the nothingness of the dust.

"Can you see anything?" I asked.

"I don't know! Something big. It’s... it's huge. We have to go!"

I looked around. "Go? Go where? What about the others?"

"They're dead. Ethan's dead. He's...he's in half. Smitty is gone. Griffin..."