The Sixth Level (24 page)

The gate was about fifteen feet high and consisted of black metal bars that had been sharpened into spikes. I remembered hearing a story on the news about a drunken guy who tried to break in one night because his friend dared him to. He climbed to the top of the gate, lost his balance and his grip. He fell and sliced of his pinkie. To make matters worse, on the way down one of the metal spikes stabbed his leg, impaling his calf muscle. He was stuck there, hanging upside down for an hour before the security guard found him and called an ambulance. Apparently the grounds keeper found his pinkie the next morning.

I braced myself for impact as we sped towards the gate.
We must’ve been going at least sixty or seventy when we smashed into it. The gate never stood a chance.

Unfortunately, when we smashed into the gate, it went flying back into the tunnel and bounced off the walls. It landed awkwardly. When we ran over it, it got stuck up underneath the body of the Humvee.

We had to stop. We had to dislodge it.

Both Kenji and Daniel jumped out, wasting precious seconds. But eventually they were able to remove it.

They got back in the car and Jack accelerated for the secondary gate and the makeshift barricade they had put there. But we couldn’t just smash into it. The barricade would destroy the car.
Jack had to slow down so we could try and nudge it and push it out of the way.

Again, this was wasting precious time. It was kind of ironic that something that was put there to protect could now cost us our lives.

It was taking too long. Any second now the horde would catch up with us. They would come charging into the tunnel. And we’d be done for. And how much longer was Maria prepared to wait out in the open for us? What if she had freaked out and gone back into hiding?

I don’t know what came over me. I wasn’t trying to be a hero or anything. Looking back on it now, I guess it was pretty stupid. But in my mind, at that point there was just no other option. I had to go in and get Maria. Before it was too late.

I was wearing the NBC suit. I could get in. I could squeeze through the tiny gap in the makeshift barricade.

I got out of the Humvee without even telling anyone what I had planned. Another stupid thing to do. But I didn’t want to waste anymore time arguing over whether or not I should go. Besides, I was pretty sure I was the only one who’d be able to squeeze through the tiny gap anyway.

Kenji initially opened the car door to protest and to get me back in the Humvee. But I was up on the barricade, squeezing through before he could say anything. And once I was half way through, I think he realized what I was doing and that I was the only one who was able to do it.

"Just be careful," he finally said.

After I was through, Jack revved the engine again and continued pushing the barricade out of the way inch by inch.

I landed on the ground on the other side of the barricade. The dust seemed to have intensified again. There were actually mini-tornadoes and mini-twisters swirling around inside the stadium arena. I couldn’t see Maria at all. But I couldn’t see very far. Visibility was back to a few feet.

I had no choice but to keep going. And like so many cricket players and football stars before me, I made my way to the middle of the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Chapter 30

A few seconds later, I’d run from the boundary fence into the middle of the field. Probably some sort of world record I thought to myself. And as I was thinking about that stupid thought, I nearly ran over and stepped on Maria.

To my surprise she was lying on her belly. It looked like she’d rolled around in the dust to completely cover and camouflage herself. It was pretty clever. I almost didn’t see her.

When she saw me she jumped up. "Rebecca! You came! Bloody hell, I was so freakin scared. They're everywhere in here. It’s not safe."

We hugged and I cried. I suddenly realized how much I missed her. I mean, I missed Jack and of course I missed Kenji but I think because we had become so close over the past year and maybe because she was a girl I felt like I was closer to her than I was to Jack. I guess she was my bestie. My BFF.

"What the hell are you wearing?" she asked.

I could see that she was crying. Her tears were actually turning the dust on her face into red mud.

"It’s a protective suit," I said. "I’ll explain later."

"Where are the others?"

"They're still in the tunnel. They’re trying to get past the barricade but it’s proving to be quite difficult."

"Yeah, that steam roller thing would be pretty damn heavy. Wait, maybe we can drive it out of the way. It’ll probably still work. That’s how we got it there in the first place."

Of course! It was so simple. We could just drive it out of the way.

But just as we were about to head back to the barricade we heard the screaming howl of the infected.

"We better hurry," Maria said. "Some of them are in here."

Just then we heard rapid footsteps. Out of the dust, maybe twenty feet to my right was an infected and undead monster. Its arms outstretched, broken teeth bared and ready to bite.

For some reason, the cricket stumps were still in the ground. I guess they were about to play a match before everything went to hell.

I grabbed one of the wooden stumps, sliding it out of the ground. I’m not sure what happened next. I think I stepped in front of Maria, acting as a shield. I closed my eyes, that much I do remember. I know you’re supposed to keep your eyes on the ball, eyes on the prize but I couldn’t help it. I guess I kind of flinched as I stabbed outwards with the pointy end of the cricket stump. The infected man ran at full sprint impaling himself really. The wooden stump went straight through his mouth and out the back of his skull. As it was impaled I sidestepped out of the way and its own body weight sent it crashing to the ground, sliding half way down the cricket pitch.

I think we were both in shock. I don’t think I’d ever killed one before like that. Certainly not up close and personal. Maybe I’d gotten lucky with a stray bullet but this was totally different.

"Well, we’ll have to go to the third umpire but I’d say that was a run out," Maria said.

"What?"

"Oh, sorry. I keep forgetting you don’t know anything about cricket."

"You’re making jokes?"

"No. Well, maybe. Look, we better get out of here. There’ll be more coming soon."

We ran back to the barricaded tunnel. In no time at all I was at least thirty yards in front of Maria. When I got to the barricade I could see that Jack had made some headway. The Humvee almost had at least half of its hood past the barricade. But it still wasn’t enough.

I shifted a ride on lawn mower out of the way. The ease of moving it surprised me and I nearly lost my balance.

Kenji had his door open slightly. I could see him through the gap between the tunnel and the barricade. "Did she make it? Did you get her?" he asked.

"Yeah. She’s fine. We’re gonna try and move this steam roller. Maria should be able to drive it out of the way."

"Yes! Good. Hurry. They’re coming."

Just then I heard gunshots. And screaming.

Daniel was standing up through the man hole in the roof of the Humvee. He was providing cover fire. I heard Kenji tell Jack to stop driving while we moved the roller. And then Kenji started shooting as well. At first he was shooting in short and controlled bursts like Daniel. But then after a few seconds they started to unleash. They both reloaded and started shooting again. They couldn’t keep that up. There was no way. We didn’t have the ammo. I really wished that giant machine gun was working.

Maria jumped up on to the steam roller and sat in the driver’s seat. She was out of breath.
"Damn, you’re fast!"

She fumbled the keys for a bit and then finally turned them.

The steam roller came to life and she was able to slowly drive it out of the way.

Once she was clear, I gave Jack a wave and a thumbs up to let him know he could try and break through again. But the rest of the barricade was still pretty heavy. It consisted of a couple of trailers, another ride on lawn mower, a vending machine, tables and chairs, even a fridge.

Jack tapped Kenji on the shoulder and signaled something with his hands.

Kenji nodded and then turned to me.
"Stand clear! We’re gonna ram it!" he shouted.

Kenji closed his door. Daniel remained standing up, firing away.

The screams were getting louder now as more and more infected crammed into the tunnel.

Jack reversed the Humvee so he could get a run at the barricade.

Maria and I moved to the side of the tunnel. We ducked behind the boundary fence, hiding in the first row of seats to make sure we were protected from any flying debris.

I guess because we were too focused on the tunnel and the barricade and everything that was chasing us through the tunnel, we kind of neglected our surroundings. We didn’t even see this guy until he spoke.

"Hey," he said.

We turned around in shock. We had been taken completely by surprise. Maria screamed.

But for some reason I wasn’t totally scared. I think it was the way he said ‘hey’.

It just wasn’t threatening at all.

The man was a soldier. He looked to be in about his mid twenties. He was wearing military fatigues. He was lying down, pressed against the fence. He was jumpy as hell.
He was scared just like anyone would be in this situation.

His eyes were darting all over the place. But his body remained still. Clutched In his hands was a rifle. Again I moved in front of Maria, acting as a shield. "Please don’t shoot!" I blurted out.
"We’re not infected."

He shook his head. "It’s OK. I’m not gonna shoot you. Relax."

It was only after he said that I realized there was no ammo clip in his rifle.

"Who are you?" I asked, almost demanded. "What are you doing here?"

He coughed, shut his eyes and seemed to grimace in pain before regaining his composure.
"I was part of a convoy," he said. "We were escorting some doctor or some VIP. I wasn’t even really sure. Nobody tells the grunts, you know? We got separated. Something attacked us. A horde. They were hiding. It was almost like they were waiting for us. And it wasn’t just the infected, something else, something bigger and smarter attacked us. They attacked as a pack, split our group."

He suddenly inhaled sharply like he was in pain. He coughed again.

"What’s wrong," I asked. "What is it?"

"Look, you gotta get to the airport. That's you're only hope."

"The airport?"

"Yeah, command set up a base of operations there. It’s heavily fortified, heavily guarded. It’s the only safe place left."

"OK, well let's go," Maria said. "Come with us. We’ve got an armored Humvee."

"No. I can’t. I gotta wait for my squad. This was the emergency rendezvous point. I gotta wait."

"You're kidding right? There's no one left, they're gone. The city is completely overrun, completely abandoned."

The man opened his shirt to reveal a bite mark on his ribcage. He was infected.

I took a deep breath. "Do you want me to help?" I asked as I vividly remembered the last time I attempted to put a soldier out of his misery, back in the morgue of the North Sydney hospital.

The soldier shook his head. He said he wanted to go out with a bang. He showed me the grenades strapped to his chest.

A second later, the Humvee smashed through the barricade. Bits of wood and metal and glass, shattered and exploded. The Humvee skidded to a stop on the dusty grass.

Daniel stuck his head out of the man hole. "Come on!"

"Looks like your ride is here," the soldier said.

I wanted to take him with us. But the bite, the infection. I knew it was hopeless. There was no point. Which sucked. Felt like I’d been kicked in the guts.

The soldier pulled the pins on his grenades. All four of them. "Go!"

We didn’t need any more telling. We both remembered the grenades from the police station. Maria was there. We’d both been shell shocked.

We moved quickly. We jumped over the boundary fence and sprinted for the Humvee as both Daniel and Kenji fired their last bullets into the unstoppable river of infected pouring out of the tunnel towards us.

As soon as we were in, Jack floored it.