The Sixth Level (3 page)

I found Daniel’s laptop on the kitchen bench. It was open. There were a couple of images on the screen. One was a satellite image of Australia. It showed a huge red cloud or storm that covered pretty much the entire country.

"Hey, are you all right?" Daniel asked from behind me.

I jumped and spun around at the same time. "Jesus! You scared the hell out of me."

He moved over to the computer and turned it off. "Sorry. What are you doing up so late?"

"Couldn’t sleep. What was that?" I asked motioning towards the computer.

"Nothing. Just a few satellite images the military has released."

"Oh."

I wanted to ask him a million questions then. Did he think my friends were alive? Did he know? But I didn’t say anything. I felt strangely exposed standing there in my pajamas. I was just about to get my bottle of water and go back to bed when Daniel did the weirdest thing.

He kissed me.

And I don’t just mean a kiss good night, because that would’ve been just as weird and just as awkward but I mean a real kiss. A heart stopping, toe curling kind of kiss.

He leant forward kind of awkwardly like he was going to pull out at the last second. But then he closed his eyes and just went for it. At first I didn’t know what was going on.

Was this against some sort of law? How old was he? Nineteen? I was sixteen turning seventeen. It wasn't that bad right? It wasn't wrong was it? And then all of a sudden I didn't care if it was wrong because it felt so freakin good.

After a few heartbeats Daniel stepped back and apologized immediately. He had this weird look on his face like he’d been bewitched or put under a spell. He was dazed and confused and worried all at the same time.

And then
his phone rang. He looked at the screen on his phone and swore. He then looked at me and apologized again. He answered the phone. I could hear him talking in a hushed tone as he walked down the corridor to the elevator.

I
was left standing in the kitchen wondering what the hell had just happened and whether or not I was dreaming.

The next day I asked if we could go to the shooting range again. I felt like it was the only thing that could sufficiently distract me and occupy my mind. I figured it would help me get over that brief moment of insanity or whatever it was.

So we went to the shooting range one last time. We ended up spending the entire afternoon there. I didn't even realize we were there for that long. We had the whole place to ourselves.

It would've been about six o'clock when Daniel said we had to go. But I wasn't ready to leave just yet. I wanted to get a few more shots off. I hadn't been able to get in the zone.

I aimed the handgun I was using, a berretta I think it was, at the black target hanging up thirty yards away. I held my breath. I heard Kenji’s voice in my head, 'squeeze the trigger. Don’t pull.’

I fired one round and it pierced the paper target a few inches left of the bull’s-eye.

I was having trouble focusing, which was weird, because I felt like I’d really been improving this past week. And
when I use to practice in Kenji's basement I could always hit the bull's-eye whenever I concentrated hard enough.

Kenji was such a good teacher, an eternally patient teacher.

I think I was being extra hard on myself that day because maybe I was preparing for the worst case scenario, the day when the virus spread to the rest of the world and completely took over. I wanted to be ready. I did not want to end up infected, a walking corpse.

And after I froze up in the hospital morgue, when that soldier begged me to put him out of his misery, I quickly learnt the difference between practice and real life. It's hard to even think about what that soldier asked me to do, what I needed to do. After that incident I was determined to get better. So it was more of a reflex than a conscious act.

I fired another shot and barely even clipped the target.

Then again maybe I was being hard on myself because of what happened the night before, because I kissed Daniel.

The next shot missed completely. Yep, it was official. My mind was a mess.

It was that damn kiss. I felt weird. I felt different.

Daniel moved over to my booth and reminded me that it was closing time and we had to go. I could feel his eyes watching me from behind. And it was distracting.

I put the hand gun down on the shelf and picked up a bolt action rifle. Kenji once told me that this old, simple rifle was a favorite for hunters and snipers. It was reliable, accurate and deadly.

I reached for the control panel in my little booth that adjusted the distance of the target. I pressed the button that moved it further back down the shooting range to a distance of one hundred yards.

I shouldered the rifle and took aim. I concentrated on my breathing. And without even realizing it, I started to recite the Marines Rifle Code. Kenji use to say it all the time. He would even sing it sometimes, or turn it into this stupid freestyle rap thing where he would do this impression of Snoop Dogg.

I whispered the code to myself under my breath as I squeezed the trigger. "This is my rifle."

Bang.

I didn't check to see if I hit the target. I just reloaded.

I remembered when Kenji taught it to me, right before he left for military school, right before he ran away and joined the Marines. I didn't pay it any attention at the time, but now that I look back, maybe he already knew he'd be leaving for military school. Maybe he was already planning on his escape to the marine corp.

I took another deep breath. Aimed. "There are many others like it."

Bang

"But this one..."

I paused. Closed my eyes. I saw the eyes of dying men, of dead men. I opened my eyes.

"This one is mine."

Boom.

I exhaled slowly. Time had completely stopped. I felt warm. My fingers were tingling. Daniel was standing next to me. He pushed the button that retrieved the target. All three shots were dead center, straight through the bull’s-eye.

Daniel whistled his approval. "So who taught you how to shoot?"

I didn't answer him. I hadn't been able to look him in the eyes all day. I felt like such an idiot. Just as I was wondering how the hell we were going to get past this awkwardness, he confronted me.

"Rebecca, I’m sorry about last night. It was wrong to take advantage of you like that. I wasn't thinking straight. It's just that... you're such a great person. You’re so strong."

Why were guys always apologizing to me? And what did he mean by taking advantage? I’m pretty sure I kissed him back.

I turned to face him. "Don’t apologize. You didn’t take advantage. I’m not some stupid girl who doesn’t know any better. I kissed you back." I paused, trying to think of the right words. "But it’s just not right. The timing and everything. We can’t do that. Not when so much is going wrong." And not when Kenji could still be alive, I thought to myself.

Daniel’s phone rang and he answered it immediately. "Yes, sir. She's right here. Got it. We’ll be there in ten."

"What is it?"

Daniel ran his hands through his shaggy blonde hair. Since yesterday he had been looking more and more stressed out. Maybe that’s why he kissed me. Maybe it was the stress.

"The military have organized a press conference," he said, "And they want you front and center. They’re about to announce their rescue plan to the world."

"Rescue plan?" I asked.

"Yeah. They’re going back in. They’re going to rescue Maria Marsh."

Chapter 2

I couldn't believe it. The military were announcing their rescue plan. And they were announcing it to the world.
Whatever happened to 'top secret’? A matter of national security? I guess my YouTube stunt had forced them into action. And now they were finally breaking their media silence.

But what did this mean for my friends? Did it mean the military knew they were alive?

Did they know where they were hiding?

How? How did they know this?

I felt like I was setting myself up for more disappointment, more heart ache. But I couldn't help it. My spirits were immediately lifted. The small light of hope for my friend's survival had been all but extinguished. But now, after the announcement of a rescue plan, it was a full on
raging inferno
deep inside my belly.

They were going to rescue Maria. And they were telling the world about it. This was good news. It had to be.

The military were the only ones who could do it. They had the man power and the resources. And now that they were about to tell the world; the world would demand results. The world would hold them accountable for their success or for their failure.

They knew this. They had to. Which meant they were confident in their ability to achieve this goal, they were confident the rescue would be a success.

Maybe they had already rescued her! Maybe this was all a ploy to make themselves look good, to win back the public’s trust. So in a couple of days or whenever they could say something like, ‘the rescue mission was a success! We have Maria Marsh and our best scientists and Doctors are working on an anti-virus as we speak!’

The more I thought about this flight of fantasy the more I started to believe it. In my mind the plan made perfect sense. They knew the public would expect results. So announcing it after they had already rescued her meant there was no risk of failure.

But then again, maybe they were just acting because I had forced their hand. Maybe they could no longer hold their silence.

This line of reasoning was enough to keep me worried.

Why? I don't know. Maybe it was because the military had already failed once. Maybe it was because they had failed so completely, and so quickly lost control of the situation there. But they would learn from their mistakes right? They would get in and out before they could be surrounded or swarmed or overrun. They wouldn't take any risks.

It would be a simple rescue mission. In and out.

And I guess it would be easier for the military to find Maria this time around since the last time we were hiding from them and trying to run away. All they had to do was take a short chopper ride in and extract them from the area.

In and out.

It was a simple plan with a simple goal.

The press conference was held at the 'Staples Centre’. I think I remember something about how they had to post-pone a basketball game between the Lakers and the Celtics. Fans were not happy.

When we arrived there the parking lot was jam packed with trucks and news vans and trailers with large satellite dishes on their roofs.

Whatever plans were about to be announced, the rest of the world would know about it in real time, live off the satellite feed. People wanted to know what was going on and they wanted to know right now.

It didn't take long for the global media to become suspicious of the US military's involvement in the quarantine procedure.

They had blockaded the entire Australian coastline, preventing anyone, even aid ships like the Red Cross from getting in. Naturally they said it was part of the quarantine measure. But the real reason was they didn't want any camera crews or journalists getting in. They didn't want any leaked footage of what it was really like on Australian soil. And they didn't want any more blood on their hands. They knew if anyone got passed their blockade they were done for. They weren't coming back. Not alive anyway.

Blockading the entire coastline was no easy feat especially since Australia is the largest island on the planet. It was a huge effort and took the combined forces of the US Navy, the British Navy, and what was left of the Australian Navy.

There's a well known saying that Kenji's father use to drill into Kenji. It was posted on their fridge in their kitchen and on Kenji's bedroom door.

Those with the most invested are the last to surrender.

The military had invested everything. They had invested billions of dollars, soldiers, innocent people. They now had twenty-two million lives on their hands. You can't get anymore invested than that. It was one of the worst disasters in human history. An extinction level event. And the scary thing was a whole lot more people could die. Millions more. Billions more.

So yeah, the military were invested. And they were going to do everything in their considerable power to stop this thing.

The weird thing was the military or the allied forces if you will, they were the fall guy, the patsy. Who was in charge?

Kenji said the military's mission in Australia was the quarantine. He said they were on clean up and containment duty. Someone else was pulling the strings. So who was it? Was it some secret organization? Maybe a multi-national pharmaceutical company? How much were they paying the military to be the face of this disaster? What was the benefit? Was it a new biological weapon, like Doctor West said it was? Or something else? Something worse?

I know I sound like a crazy old conspiracy theorist but in my mind there was no other logical explanation. The military must have had a damn good reason to be taking this kind of heat.