by James Harden
It was as simple as that.
Kenji knelt down and drew a detailed map in the dust that had settled on the concrete ground of the parking lot. It was pretty amazing the stuff he remembered. Everything from the entry points to the emergency exits and the names of the grandstands. He remembered it all.
After he was finished drawing the map with his finger, we studied it intently.
Apparently Maria should be hiding in the western grandstand, near the western entry point. Assuming she hadn’t moved. The western entry point was adjacent to Moore Park, a huge area of wide open grassland. The field closest to the stadium was choked full of infected. That’s where the convoy had ended up. That’s where those poor people had made their final stand.
"We don't know if anyone made it inside the stadium," Kenji said. "It didn't seem likely. But it’s possible. And that means the security of the stadium may be compromised."
"So there could be infected inside the stadium?" I asked.
"It’s possible," Jack said. "Although we did spend about a day barricading the main entry points."
"What did you barricade them with?" Daniel asked.
"Anything we could find. We used chairs, vending machines, ride on lawn mowers. Even the grass roller things the grounds keepers use to flatten the cricket pitch with."
Kenji said it was possible the horde of infected had dispersed since this morning but from the looks of it, they were definitely trying to get inside the stadium. And if we assumed the infected did see survivors make it inside, well, we all know they wouldn’t stop.
"So our initial plan was basically to shoot them all," Kenji said. "Find a safe place to pick them all off from. We figured we already had one Humvee equipped with a fifty cal Machine gun. So we were going to try and find another one. Then we were going to park them in secure locations and open fire. The idea was to take out as many as possible so we could make a run at the stadium."
Jack shook his head. "But we weren't sure if that would work. There’s a lot of infected. More infected than we have bullets."
"How many rounds does this fifty cal have?" Daniel asked.
"Nowhere near enough," Kenji said. "The ammo drum is practically full. But that's only about four hundred rounds."
"You think there is more than four hundred infected at the stadium?" I asked.
"Lots more."
Daniel stepped up on to the Humvee to check the ammunition of the machine gun. "Oh great. I think we can rule out using this gun completely."
"Why? What's wrong?" Kenji asked.
"The barrel. It’s been sliced in half."
"What?"
"It’s been sliced clean through."
Kenji climbed up and had a look as well. "How? What did this?"
"Maybe it was those wires," Jack offered. "They were whipping and moving around pretty fast."
"So it’s useless?" I asked.
"Yeah," Daniel answered. "It’s no good. What’s Plan B?"
"Well, we thought maybe we could sneak around to the other side of the stadium," Jack said. "Like, we could try and contact Maria with the walkie-talkie and tell her to get to one of the exits where there's not as many infected. That way we could pick her up and get the hell out before they even realized we were there."
"She should have the radio on her," Kenji added. "We were pretty specific about having the radio with her at all times when we left."
"That sounds like a good idea," I said. "The less resistance the better, right?"
"The problem with this plan is we'd have to get pretty close for these stupid walkie-talkies to work," Jack explained.
"But at least if we could do that then we wouldn't need to waste any more ammo," I said. "And besides, the big machine gun is busted."
"Maybe we could go back and get that other machine gun," Jack suggested. "The one on the other abandoned Humvee."
"Yeah, maybe," Kenji said. "But I’m not convinced shooting at them will even make any difference to their numbers. It might be better to just go for a smash and grab. And I don't really feel like going all the way back into the city, do you?"
He had a very good point about not going back into the city.
"But what if they've completely surrounded the entire stadium," I asked.
"Yeah, that's what we're afraid of." Kenji replied.
"What if we use stealth," Daniel offered. "What if we sneak inside?"
"How?"
"Check it out. These NBC suits have an inbuilt cloaking device."
Daniel pressed a button on his left wrist and his suit; his whole body seemed to shimmer and then sort of fade. Then it completely disappeared, leaving his head floating in mid air. He then unzipped a compartment at the base of his neck, the collar of the suit, and put a mesh hood over his head. A second later his face and his entire head faded and then disappeared.
You could still kind of see him. If you concentrated and looked really hard you could still see his outline shimmering. But he was basically invisible. From a distance, there’s no way you would be able to see him at all. It was amazing.
"Holy mother of God." Jack said. "That is ridiculous!"
Kenji shook his head in amazement. "I... I've never seen anything like this. I've never even heard of anything like this. Where did you get this thing?"
"Like I said before," Daniel answered. "It’s not standard issue."
It was weird hearing Daniel speak but not being able to see him.
I was pretty excited when he’d first mentioned the cloaking device back at the camp. But the problem was we didn't even know if being invisible made any difference to the infected. I mean, do they rely solely on sight like most humans do? Or could they smell their prey as well? We just didn't know.
"How does it work," Kenji asked.
Daniel gave a brief explanation about the tiny cameras and the tiny monitors.
"The suit constantly takes images and projects them like a video screen."
Kenji and Jack were dumbfounded. Jack moved behind Daniel and his whole body seemed to distort, like he was standing in front of a fun house mirror. But when he stopped moving his image began to take a proper shape.
"But wait a second," I said, feeling the need to voice my concerns before we committed to his plan. "We don't even know if the infected rely on their sight. I think it’s safe to say that they can see but what if they also use their sense of smell? What if it’s something completely different, like pheromones or something? If that was the case, being invisible wouldn't make a damn difference. If they can smell you, you're a dead man walking anyway. No amount of sneaking around would matter."
"But look at it," Jack said. "It’s freakin amazing. Daniel could run in and run out before the infected even knew what was going on."
Daniel clicked his wrist and he shimmered back into sight. "She's right. We don't know how they interact with their surroundings. Like you guys said earlier, the virus is designed to find life. We don't exactly know how it finds life, it might be sight, it might be smell or it might be a combination of the senses. Now would not be the time to find out. We need to be smarter."
I'm glad Daniel realized this. I'd hate for him to go running in by himself under the impression that he was totally invisible. When in reality he could've been completely exposed. We would've sent him to his death.
"OK, so maybe we're going about this the wrong way," Jack said "What if instead of sneaking around the back, we just barge through the front entry in this thing," he said pointing to the Humvee. "Or through the emergency vehicle access."
"Yeah," Daniel said agreeing. "All major stadiums have one, in case an athlete seriously injures themselves on the field and they need to get an ambulance out there."
"What are you suggesting?" Kenji asked.
"Maybe instead of trying to meet her outside we barge into the stadium," Jack said, with an excited look on his face. "We meet Maria inside, on the field."
"And then what?"
"And then, depending on what end of the fiel
d we’re closest to, we can either keep driving in the same direction and aim for an exit on the opposite side to the one we entered in. Or we'd have to turn around and basically smash into the crowd of infected that would be chasing us. I’m guessing the horde would probably chase us into the stadium, right?"
Kenji was nodding, visualizing the plan in his head. "That might work. There's an access tunnel here," he said pointing to his map. "We bolted the outside gate and we barricaded the end of the tunnel just before it opens up onto the field."
"What did you use to barricade it with, again?" Daniel asked.
"Trailers, ride on lawn mowers, the grass roller thing. The roller might be a bit difficult to move. It’s extremely heavy. Probably won't be able to just smash through it. We'd have to nudge it or push it out the way with the hood of the Humvee. It’s basically a steam roller thing."
"A steam roller?" I asked. "Where did you get that?"
"They use the roller to flatten the cricket pitch," Jack explained. "There were a couple of them. We placed one at each main access tunnel."
Kenji pointed to the map in the dust again. "But if we smashed through, it might act as a bit of a bottleneck to slow down the horde. It won't slow them down much but it might give us just enough time to get Maria into the Humvee."
"Of course, if we get stuck there or trapped or whatever we're done for." I said.
But I think we all knew that. We knew if the Humvee broke down or if it flipped over or became stuck. We were dead with a capital D. At that moment it was our life raft, an indestructible force field, a bubble of safety. But if anything happened to it, if the force field broke, if the bubble burst we’d be screwed.
"We have to try," Jack said with a hint of desperation in his voice. "It’s simple. We call Maria with the radio and tell her to meet us in the middle of the field. We ram the gates. We barge through, pick her up and get the hell out before they have a chance to swarm. Speed is our key here. And the armored Humvee of course."
We all stared at the dusty map for a few minutes. It slowly sank in that this was our best chance to get Maria. It wasn't much but it was something. It was hope. And in the desperation of life and death, hope was everything.
Chapter 27
We didn't waste any time. Once we agreed on the plan we were back in the Humvee making our way to the Sydney Cricket Ground, to Maria.
On the bumpy ride towards the stadium, I felt the familiar surge of adrenalin through my veins. I started to worry that I was getting addicted to the feeling. I remembered reading an article on the internet, right about the time the movie; 'The Hurt Locker' was released. The article was about ex-soldiers who had finished their tour of duty but wanted to go back, needed to go back because they missed it. They missed the rush and the camaraderie. It seems bizarre but I guess you have to walk in their shoes to understand that feeling. I guess that's why my father went back time and time again.
Whenever I thought about that, I tried my best to understand it rationally. But I never could. I can’t help but feel like he left me and my mom. And that hurts me. So I try not to think about it too much.
And now I was thinking about my mother, which was no good either. Not at a time like this. So I decided to focus on the adrenalin, my increased heart rate and my sweaty palms. Maybe I was beginning to understand the addiction to the rush after all, even though the rush was fear induced.
I was starting to wonder where I was getting the courage to overcome this fear. And I guess my friends were sort of becoming my source of strength. Whenever I felt like I was in too deep, which was pretty much all the time, all I had to do was think about my friends. We were in this together. We were a team and we were all relying on each other to survive. We all knew there was no tomorrow. We had to rescue Maria. When I thought about that and reminded myself that Maria was more important than any of us, that she was the only thing that mattered right now, the fear and the stress of being eaten or killed or infected just melted away and all of a sudden my own safety didn't seem so important. All of a sudden, I felt stronger.
We approached the park across from the stadium slowly. The dust made it difficult to see anything. It wasn’t as bad as it was in the middle of the city but visibility was still poor. We could only just make out the outline of the stadium.
There didn’t seem to be any infected in the immediate vicinity and there didn’t appear to be any out in the middle of the park area. Maybe Kenji’s theory about the infected avoiding the sunlight was correct. Or maybe it was a primitive survival instinct. Like some base survival technique hardwired into a part of the brain that was unaffected by the Oz virus. I guess being out in the open made our caveman ancestors vulnerable to predators. Maybe this was the reason the infected seemed to avoid wide open spaces. Maybe that’s why they crowded together in massive groups. Safety in numbers, I guess.
"OK, that’s close enough," Kenji said to Jack.
Jack applied pressure to the brakes, slowing the car to a stop just at the far edge of the park. The stadium loomed, barely visible through the dusty red sky, just on the other side of about half a mile or so of overgrown grass and park land. There was a road that ran beside the stadium and lining the road were giant fig trees. It was hard to see from this distance but through the trees we could just make out the horde of infected. Strangely from back here, it almost looked like they were normal people, going to football game or a cricket match. Almost.
Kenji had the radio in his hand. He switched it on. "Maria, can you hear me. It’s Kenji."
We waited for a response but there was nothing. Just static and silence.
"Maria. Are you there? Are you all right?"
Again, the only reply was static followed by more silence.
"We’re gonna have to get closer," Daniel said.
"We get any closer they're gonna see us." Jack pointed out.
"Not if we’re quiet."
"Quiet? Have you seen the size of the engine? It’s not capable of being quiet. This Humvee wasn't designed for stealth missions."
"Give me the radio," Daniel said. "I’ll go. I’ll sneak to the tree line. I’ll climb up as high as I can and try from there."
"Are you nuts?"
"It’s OK. If they see me I’ll make a run for it. If you see me running back here, pick me up. And we’ll retreat for the time being. Maybe all the way back to the parking lot. I’ll be fine. Who knows, if they spot me and chase me away from the entrance to the stadium that might actually make it easier to get inside."
"Yeah or it could get us all killed." Jack said.
"It’s the only way we’ll have a chance of contacting Maria," Daniel replied. "She needs to be in the middle of the ground. She needs to be ready. Otherwise this whole thing won’t work."
Daniel was right. But he couldn’t go by himself. Maria doesn’t even know who he is. What if she doesn’t believe him? What if she thinks it’s a trap?
"I’m going with you," I said.
"No way. This is a one person job. There’s no point in risking your life as well. It’s unnecessary. Remember what I said about taking calculated risks, and being smart?"
"As a matter of fact I do remember. But did you stop and think that maybe Maria won’t believe you when you tell her you’re here to rescue her? That maybe she’ll think you’re crazy for asking her to stand in the middle of the cricket pitch, out in the open, exposed for the whole world to see?"
"She’s got a point," Kenji agreed.
"She’ll believe me," I added.
"No," Jack said. "One of us will go."
"I’ve got the NBC suit," I reminded them. "I’ll be safer than either of you. Faster too."
I could tell they were hesitant, especially since they were probably used to being a lot more careful than this. But we had to contact Maria. If she wasn’t ready the plan wouldn't work. We needed the timing to be perfect. And we needed Maria to be in the middle of the field.
"OK," Kenji finally said. "I’ll be on the roof of the Humvee providing c
over. We’ll keep the engine running. But if there’s any sign of trouble, anything at all, you get the hell out, all right?"
We both nodded our heads as I felt my adrenalin levels spike even higher. I'm doing this for my friends, I reminded myself. For Maria.
Chapter 28
Fast and silent. That was Daniel’s advice to me before we opened the car doors and started walking at a brisk pace towards the tree line. I’d never felt so exposed in my life being out in the open like that.
"Shouldn’t we be running to the tree line?" I asked in a whisper.
"Not yet," Daniel answered.
Behind us, Kenji climbed on to the roof of the Humvee, lying flat on his belly in a sniper’s position. "Good luck," he said.
We’d picked out the tree we were going try for; it was directly in front of us about five hundred yards away, maybe more, maybe a little to the left. It looked big enough so that we could climb up and hide among its leaves and branches. And there were enough footholds to climb up to a decent height so we could get a better signal for the radio. Hopefully once we were that close, the height wouldn’t matter so much.
Daniel stopped and scanned the surrounding area. He turned around to Kenji. "We’re going stealth. Keep your weapon on the tree line. If we get in trouble, we’ll disengage our cloaking devices."
"Understood."
Daniel told me to unzip a small compartment at the base of my collar. He told me to put the hood over my head. The hood was made of an extremely fine mesh-like material. It was like a stocking or panty hose. It fit over my head and completely covered my face and neck, like a balaclava.
"On your left wrist, on the control screen, there should be a small icon, a little picture of an eye."
"Yeah."
"Press that. That’s the cloaking device."
Sure enough there was a little icon that looked like an eye. I looked up to see Daniel already shimmering, and fading into invisibility. I did the same. A second later, we were ghosts.
I heard Kenji swear in disbelief. "OK, I can’t see you anymore. At all. So if you want covering fire you’ll totally need to disengage your cloaking devices."
