The Sixth Level (Secret Apocalypse Book 2)

by James Harden

  "But Kim is all right?" Jack asked again.

  "I think so, but..." I hesitated and looked at Daniel to see if it was all right to say anything. I don't know why it wouldn't be OK. Maybe I thought the news would crush him, make him unnecessarily stressed or upset or distracted when he needed to be clear headed and focused on staying alive. But I couldn't keep this from Jack. If I did, I'd be just as bad as the military and the government.

  "There's been an outbreak in New Zealand," I finally said.

  Jack's eyes widened. "An outbreak? Of the Oz virus? What do you mean? While you were there in the quarantine facility?"

  "No. It must've happened after I left. We only heard about it yesterday." A few hours ago I thought to myself.

  Jack sat down against the massive tire of the Humvee with his head in his hands.

  "I'm sure she's all right," I said. "She was in the quarantine facility. That's gotta be a safe place, right?" And even as I said it I realized there really were no safe places.

  "Come on, Jack," Kenji said. "It's gonna be all right. But you need stay positive, you need to stay strong. Thinking about what might’ve happened without actually knowing will drive you mad. And you can't let that happen. We need you."

  "And Maria needs you," I added. "You have to be strong for her."

  "Speaking of Maria," Daniel said. "Where is she?"

  Jack and Kenji exchanged this weird look and I got the feeling something was wrong. I got this sinking feeling in my gut and my chest tightened. Something was indeed wrong. Something bad. Was Maria dead? Were we too late?

  "Where is Maria Marsh?" Daniel asked again, more forcefully. He knew the importance of this. He knew it was a matter of survival for the entire human race.

  "Maria," Jack whispered her name like he was savoring it, like it hurt him to say it. "She’s trapped. We can’t get to her."

  Chapter 25

  My chest tightened up even more. The breath had been crushed from my lungs. We were so close. We had miraculously found Jack and Kenji, or rather they’d found us and saved us from a certain death. But the point was we'd found them. And amongst the ruins of a crumbling, apocalyptic city no less. After everything that had happened, after everything that had gone wrong, the hard part should be over, right? It should be smooth sailing from here, right?

  We couldn't catch a break.

  "What do you mean, she’s trapped?" Daniel asked. "What do you mean you can’t get to her? What the hell happened?"

  "It seems so stupid now," Jack said. "We should've stuck together. We should never have left her behind."

  I don’t know about the guys but I was on the verge of tears.

  "Just start from the beginning," Daniel said. "Where is she?"

  "She's at the Sydney Cricket Ground."

  "The what? Where?"

  "It's a sports stadium, not far from here."

  "We figured it was a safe place," Kenji added. "Well, it was safe. I mean, compared to the city, the stadium was like a five star resort. It was paradise. It was secure. It was completely abandoned."

  "So what went wrong?" Daniel asked.

  "Well, it's complicated," Kenji answered.

  "We found a room in the member’s stand," Jack added. "We bunkered down for a few days, just to recover and rest. We were running on empty. Well, I know I was. We’d only just escaped from the city with our lives. We needed to chill out for a bit."

  "Back up," I said. "How did you get out the city? The last thing I remember we were all separated. Maria had been captured. Kenji was on the jetty of the marina all by himself and Jack; you had jumped out of our escape boat and were swimming back into the city. How the hell did you even find each other?"

  "After I jumped out of the boat, I swam for shore," Jack explained. "As soon as I hit land, I started sprinting back towards Darling Harbor. I don’t know where I got the energy from, I just... I couldn’t stop thinking about Maria. It’s weird but when I try and remember specific details, I can’t. It’s like a dream. I must’ve ran like, ten K's. Luckily, I didn’t see any infected. I think the military still had some sort of stronghold on the city at that point.

  "I eventually made it back to Darling harbor," he continued. "And that’s when Kenji nearly ambushed me. He jumped out of a boat he was hiding in with his rifle pointed right at my head. Scared the hell out of me. But even more surprising was that Maria was with him."

  "How did you get Maria away from those men in black?" I asked Kenji.

  "I didn’t," he answered. "The men in black, the soldiers who had been sent into retrieve her ran into some trouble. I think the military had been overwhelmed out in the western suburbs. And as a result, the infected were making their way into the city. There were thousands of them just on the other side of Darling Harbor, right near the casino, right where we had been hiding. I guess it was pretty lucky we got out when we did.

  "Anyway, after Maria was captured, the men in black tried to get her out in a chopper. There was a Blackhawk waiting for her at the city end of Darling Harbor. Maria told me that one of the soldiers on the chopper was infected. But nobody knew, nobody realized. And as soon as they took off he went crazy. He bit down on the pilot’s neck. Maria said the infected guy almost bit the pilot’s head clean off. They were about twenty or thirty feet in the air when the pilot lost control. The chopper went down in Darling Harbor."

  "Like, in the water?" I asked.

  "Yeah, it crash landed right in the water. I guess it was probably the best case scenario. Water is a lot softer than landing on solid ground. Probably saved her life."

  "Was she hurt at all?" I asked.

  "No. Amazingly, she was fine. I don't think I've ever met anyone as tough as Maria. But after the crash, all hell broke loose. Maria was able to escape. She managed to swim out by herself, somehow avoiding all those floating bodies in the water. She made it to dry land and ran for it. She was being chased by a group of infected. They were about to get her, they were close. Luckily they were close enough to me as well so I had a clear line of fire. When she realized I was still there, she quickly made her way over to me. We got on board a wreckage of a boat, one of the big ones. A harbor cruise boat, I think it was. I made sure we had a good defensive position," he pointed out.

  "I made a quick pass of the surrounding area and managed to scavenge some ammo. I was getting ready for the onslaught of infected, for the rush of the coming horde or at least another assault from the men in black. But it never came. I don’t know why the infected never arrived but it appeared that by this stage the military were in the process of falling back, retreating out of the city."

  "Where do you think the infected disappeared to?" Daniel asked.

  "I'm not entirely sure, but I think they were too busy chasing the retreating soldiers to worry about us. I mean, we couldn't really see what was happening but we could definitely hear it. The action was only a few blocks away. We could hear constant gun fire, and shelling and mortar rounds. It was just a constant barrage of heavy artillery and non-stop explosions."

  "So how did Jack make it through all that?" I asked.

  Jack just shook his head. "I think I just got lucky. If I had run down a different street, I might not be here right now."

  "About an hour or two later," Kenji continued. "Maria and I were about to make a move. We could see the infected on the other side of the harbor, more and more of them. It would only be a matter of time before they made their way over to where we were hiding. The problem was we didn’t know what was waiting for us in the city. For all we knew the city might’ve been worse. Maybe the boat was the safest place to be. I must admit, at that point, I was kinda hoping the military would come back for Maria. It didn’t really matter what happened to me but Maria needed to get out alive. But the military never came back."

  Jack put his hand up. "For the record, I never wanted the military to come back."

  "Anyway," Kenji said. "We were about to make a move when Jack came running along the marina. He was running at fu
ll sprint. We could hear his heavy footsteps about a mile away. It was so surreal. When we saw him the first thing we noticed was how he kept looking over his shoulder, like he was being chased, like he was scared."

  "Scared shitless more like it." Jack said. "I can’t even begin to describe how relieved I was to see you guys. I just couldn’t believe that Maria had gotten away. I... I just held her for what felt like forever. I think I was in shock."

  "Shock and exhaustion," Kenji explained.

  "Yeah that too."

  "So what did you do next?" Daniel asked, still wanting to get to the point, to the exact, precise location of Maria.

  "We continued to hide out on the boat," Kenji said. "We waited a few more hours for the military to come back but again they never showed. We knew we couldn’t stay there on the boat forever. We were too exposed. So we made the decision to head for the city. We took refuge in one of the buildings right in the middle of the CBD. There’s a shopping complex. A few of the buildings are connected. So we figured that was our best option. We were able to hide there for a few days but as the military continued to retreat, the more overrun the streets became with the infected. We had to get out."

  "How did you get out?" I asked.

  "In the parking lot of the shopping complex we found a working cop car," Jack said. "It was the perfect getaway car, especially since the keys were still in the ignition. There was even a shotgun and a bullet proof vest in the trunk. But as soon as we got out on to the streets we quickly realized we wouldn’t' be able to simply drive out of the city. The roads were too congested. Every second street was blocked with rubble and debris and broken down cars. Not to mention all the bomb craters. We eventually found the Cross City Tunnel, just like you guys did. We didn't know any better so we headed into the tunnel. And let me tell you, that was a big, huge mistake. It was full of infected. I mean it was wall to wall in there."

  "Jack just floored it," Kenji said. "And we were able to smash through. It was a good thing the cop car had reinforced windows. Otherwise we'd be dead for sure. That's why we tried to warn you from going in there. I'm not entirely sure but it seems like the infected hide underground or out of the sun. It’s like, where they live or something. Like a nest or a hive. We only just made it out of their alive."

  "You really think the infected hide underground?" Daniel asked

  "I personally think the virus is starting to adapt to its surroundings," Kenji explained. "Self preservation, feeding, spreading. That’s the only thing the virus cares about. Keeping its host bodies out of the sun will slow down the rate of decomposition. Prolong the 'life' of the corpse or host, if you will. Basically, a host is better able to spread the virus if all its limbs are still attached."

  Daniel nodded his head as he thought about the implications of Kenji’s theory.

  "Anyway, once we got out of the tunnel," Jack continued. "We ended up near the stadium. So we decided to check it out. Lucky for us, it was abandoned."

  "The cop car was on its last legs so we ditched it," Kenji explained. "Left it out the front of the main entrance. We ran inside the stadium and spent at least a couple of hours closing all the entry doors and roller doors and all the gates. And double checking that the place was actually empty. That was pretty nerve wracking. Just knowing that we had to seal everything up as quickly as possible before anything had the chance to get in. Once we were sure it was as secure as it could be we headed for one of the grandstands, up in the higher levels. We found a room and basically just collapsed. It was the safest place we'd been in since we'd spent that first night in the casino. Before it became overrun."

  "We slept for like, two days straight," Jack said. "And after that we spent the next couple of days just resting and recovering and catching our breath."

  "Maybe a week or so later, we heard some activity," Kenji said. "Sounded mainly like choppers but there were also a few jets flying over. The noises were pretty noticeable because it had been so quiet."

  "Yeah, it had been quiet ever since we got out of the city," Jack said.

  "I wanted to check it out," Kenji explained. "I managed to climb on to the roof of the northern stand. I’m not sure what I expected to see. I guess I thought there would be an increased military presence. Maybe more Apache helicopters, maybe some more tanks. But there was nothing. They may have just been doing a fly over or something. Maybe reconnaissance. But then early the next morning, must've been at dawn or close to it there was a huge explosion. I mean, it was massive."

  "Like, earth shattering," Jack said. "Sounded like the sky was falling or something. It was big."

  "All of us went up to the roof of the stand to check it out this time," Kenji explained. "We saw this huge red mushroom cloud. It just kept getting bigger and bigger, until it didn’t even look like a mushroom cloud anymore. You couldn’t even see where it started and where it ended. It was like the whole city was covered in red dust."

  "The only time I've ever seen anything like it," Jack said. "Was a couple of years back. There was a massive dust storm that blew in from the desert. It turned everything red. And I mean everything. It was up and down the entire coast. Looked like the end of the world. This was similar but different," he explained. "It didn’t just blow in from the west. It kinda looked like the dust was coming from the center of the city."

  "So what is it?" Daniel asked.

  "Not sure," Kenji answered. "But if I was to have a guess, I’d say it was some sort of weapon. Probably designed to stop the infection. It didn’t seem to have much of an impact on the infrastructure. And most of the buildings are still intact. So I’m guessing that was by design."

  "But unfortunately it doesn’t seem to have had much of an impact on the infection either," Jack said. "And as you can see the red dust is still here."

  "Is it poisonous?" I asked.

  "If it was poisonous, we'd be dead by now," Jack said. "I mean look at us. We're covered in it."

  I guess he had a point.

  "A couple days after the explosion we heard some more activity," Kenji said. "A few more jets flew over, a few choppers. Then we heard more explosions. We argued about going back into the city to check it out but we were still too tired and too weak. So we stayed put. But then two days ago we heard what sounded like another chopper fly over and then we heard more explosions. We had to go and check it out, we just had to. Curiosity got the better of us, I suppose."

  "Plus we were running low on food," Jack said. And as he mentioned food I remembered just how much he loved to eat. "We figured if we could find someone, anyone, even if they were military it would be worth it. Maybe we could even find a working phone or a walkie-talkie with a bigger range then the piece of crap ones we had. If we could find any of these items it would've been totally worth it."

  "We all agreed on going," Kenji said. "But we decided that Maria was too valuable. It was too risky after everything we'd been through. I mean, we'd only just barely made it out of the city. We decided it was best to use extreme caution, stop pushing our luck. Taking Maria back out into the streets was just too risky."

  "So you left her behind? All by herself?" Daniel asked.

  "Yeah," Jack answered, defending their decision. "The stadium was the safest place. It was a fortress. So Kenji and I went out exploring. The cop car was still out the front of the stadium. It hadn't been touched, so we took it. Drove it all the way back to the city. We had to find a different route in and that probably took us longer than we would've liked. But it was unavoidable. It was getting bad, the streets, the mess, the infected. But we kept going. Our plan was to look for help. Unfortunately we didn't find any. All we found was this Humvee. Which we thought was pretty cool. We were thinking maybe we could use it to finally get out of the city, to get out west. I mean, look at it. It’s a freakin tank. We were pretty excited, especially since the cop car was starting to make noises and starting to smoke. I guess that was to be expected after our crash derby in the tunnel. We must have run over at least a thousand infected,
maybe more. So yeah, at this point we were pretty excited. Finally a bit of luck. Finally our ticket out of the city."

  "But when we went back to the stadium," Kenji continued. "We saw a group of vehicles and some people at the front entry point. First people we had seen in two weeks. It was almost like a convoy of cars and motorcycles. Maybe they were survivors. Maybe they were military. We never found out who they were because at that moment they were being chased by a very large horde of infected. Pretty soon they were trapped. Soon after that they became overrun."

  "And now thanks to those idiots, the stadium is completely surrounded with the infected," Jack said.

  "We watched the whole thing," Kenji added. "It was awful knowing we couldn’t do anything. Knowing we were helpless."

  "Did the infected get inside?" Daniel asked.

  "We don’t know," Kenji answered. "We were watching the horde, trying to figure out what to do. Then we heard another chopper, another explosion. We figured something was happening in the city. We thought maybe the military was trying to take it back or something. Our plan was to find help, or at the very least, find weapons, explosives. The bigger the better. We already had one Humvee with a fifty cal machine gun. Maybe we could find another one and shoot our way through and secure the stadium again."

  "So we went looking but we found you guys instead," Jack explained.

  "And Maria is still trapped?" Daniel asked.

  "Yes. Maria is still trapped," Jack answered. "And if we don’t get to her soon, I have no doubt in my mind the horde will eventually break into the stadium. They’ll break in and they’ll find her."

  Chapter 26

  It all made sense. And in reality Daniel and I probably would've done the exact same thing. Any normal, sane person would’ve done the exact same thing.

  Maria was incredibly valuable, more important than any one of us. No one could've foreseen a runaway convoy acting as a beacon to a horde of infected. It was unfortunate. But it had happened. And no amount of arguing or playing the blame game was going to change that. We needed to go and get her. And we needed to do it now.