by James Harden
A bit over three miles. They were just standing there. They were completely still.”
“They won’t be still for long,” I say. “They’ll find us. They always find us.”
The Oz virus is designed to find life.
Doctor West’s chilling warning has proven to be true. Time and time again.
“Did they see you?” Daniel asks. “Did they follow you?”
“No, sir.”
“Any sign of Miller?”
“No, sir.”
Daniel is shaking his head. He knows we are running out of options. He knows we are running out of time. “And you’re absolutely sure we can’t seal that blast door?”
“We’re working on it, sir. But it seems unlikely.”
The blast door is a massive circular door. It is made of concrete and solid steel. There’s no way we would be able to move that thing. It’s too big. Too heavy.
“We’ve found the manual override,” Parker says. “It’s basically a crank system. But the gears, the whole thing is rusted. It looks like it hasn't been used in years. Decades. Maybe longer.”
“Don’t care. Get it working. We need that door closed.”
“Yes, sir.”
“If we can’t seal that door, then we’ll have to barricade it,” I say. “We’ll have to move those Humvees in front of the doorway and try and block it off.”
Daniel looks over at the Humvees and then looks at the entrance to the subway tunnel. “That won’t work. The doorway is too big. They’ll climb right over them.”
“Well, we have to do something,” I say. “We’re too exposed. Both doors are open. If we don’t get out of here soon, if your people don’t come back for us, we’ll be trapped. We’ll be surrounded by the infected.”
“She’s right,” Kenji says. “We need an exit strategy.”
“Our exit strategy is up there,” Daniel says, pointing to the ceiling, pointing to the surface.
I look up. The blast doors are so very high, so far away. When it was open the sky looked so distant. Blue and distant. Like something from a picture book. Something from a postcard.
Something too good to be true.
“We have to hold this Vehicle Access Point at all costs,” Daniel says. “I want a team at each tunnel. Constant surveillance. Constant vigilance. And tell everyone to be quiet. Hand signals only. We have to stay hidden for as long as possible.”
Parker nods his head. “Yes, sir.”
He then runs off to inform the rest of the men. The last surviving men.
Daniel finishes taking blood samples from Maria and Kim.
He then brings us some food and water. Energy bars and MRE’s, like the ones Maria and I had on the boat. I hesitate. I almost throw up at the sight of the cold, pre-cooked, prepackaged food. I then look over at Doctor Hunter, sitting alone in his Humvee.
Did he turn to cannibalism?
Or was it just the old man?
I lose my appetite. I know I should eat. But I can’t. Not while that parasite is still here.
The others eat quickly. Hungrily.
Maria nearly chokes on the water.
“Slow down,” Daniel says.
They try and follow his advice, but it’s hard. We are all so unbelievably dehydrated and malnourished.
“What happened to you?” Maria asks Daniel.
“Excuse me?”
“What happened to you at your camp? I thought you had lost it. I thought you were sick. Or dying. I thought you were going to kill us.”
“I was dying,” he says without a trace of emotion in his voice. “I was going through NVX withdrawal.”
“What exactly is NVX?” Maria asks.
I look at Kim, but she doesn’t seem interested in answering Maria. She is too busy eating.
“It’s something they give us,” Daniel answers. “To make us stronger. To make us better. The downside is you can’t just stop taking it. You need to be weaned off. Anyway, as you know, we had been on the run for weeks. We usually get monthly injections. But we were all alone. We were cut off. I didn’t have any NVX. We weren’t supposed to be there for that long. It was supposed to be a rescue mission. In and out. I just wasn’t prepared.”
“So you were withdrawing?” Maria asks.
“Yeah. I’m sorry, if I did anything…”
“So how did you get out?” she asks.
“I was rescued. They eventually heard my call for help.”
“How big is the company?” I ask. “And who exactly is the company?”
Daniel shakes his head. “I’m not allowed to say. You know I’m not.”
I wonder if Kenji knows that his father’s company could be involved. I wonder if he knows that the name of his father’s company is engraved and etched onto the EMP prototype weapons.
And does it even matter?
“We need to do an inventory of ammo and weapons,” Kenji says to Daniel as he finishes off a canteen of water, changing the subject.
Again, Kenji is thinking ahead, planning ahead. And instead of worrying about something the he has no control over, he is looking out for us.
“How much ammo do we have?” he asks.
“Not enough,” Daniel says. “We have five M4 rifles. Five handguns. One shotgun.”
“Only five?”
“The rest we’re destroyed in the crash.”
“How much ammo?”
“Again, not enough. We’ve got about two hundred rounds each. But you all know how quickly that can disappear.”
“What about EMP weapons?” I ask.
“We could only salvage the grenades. We’ve got twelve of them.”
“No harpoon guns?”
“We have one launcher. But no harpoons. Like I said, the rest were destroyed in the crash and the explosion.”
“Well that’s just great,” Jack says. “Do we know how many nano-swarms are down here?”
I was only certain of the one. But there could be more.
“No,” Daniel answers. “We have no idea.”
Kenji lowers his voice and then says to Daniel, “We need to be armed. We need something to defend ourselves with. We’re no good to you or anyone if we’re defenseless.”
“He’s right,” I say, backing up Kenji. “It’s not safe down here. We need to be armed. All of us do. Even me. Even Maria. Kenji is a soldier, he’s the best sniper we’ve got. You need to get him a rifle. Ben is a one man army. And Jack can hold his own.
Daniel shakes his head. “I’m sorry. I can’t do it. We don’t have the weapons to spare. Arming you would mean disarming one of my men. I can’t do it.”
“At least a sidearm,” Kenji says. “A handgun. Something.”
“Here,” he says, taking out his sidearm, checking the magazine. “It’s not much but it’s all we can spare.”
He gives me the gun for some reason. And I take it. I feel its weight.
He’s right. It’s not much. Not much at all.
But as soon as Daniel gives the gun to me he takes it back off me. He then hands the gun to Kenji. I guess Daniel still doesn’t trust me with a weapon around Doctor Hunter and the man in the gas mask. And again, I can’t blame him.
Kenji slides the magazine out of the handle and checks to see that it is fully loaded and then he slides it back in.
Yeah it’s definitely not enough. Nowhere near enough.
I feel like saying to Kenji that maybe he should save them.
For us.
But I don’t get to say this
Parker runs over again, and even though he is breathing hard he seems to have an endless amount of energy. “Sir, they’re here.”
We all jump to our feet as adrenalin begins to flow through our veins.
They’re here.
“Who?” I ask. “Where? Which way?”
Kenji holds the gun with both hands. He is ready.
“The recon team,” Parker says. “They’ve arrived. They’re making their way down through the maintenance access point in the eastern t
unnel.”
I look over to the eastern blast door. It is still wide, wide open. And right on cue, a team of four men come shimmering into view as their invisibility cloaks are deactivated.
They are wearing full NBC suits. Helmets. Facemasks. Breathing equipment. They look like they could survive in outer space.
The recon team moves quickly towards us. They move as one. As a unit. They move with purpose.
We can’t see their faces. We can’t see their eyes.
They look inhuman.
They look like heartless, soulless, killer robots.
They are heavily armed.
And I can’t help but think that they do not look like a rescue team.
Chapter 4
The recon team makes their way over to us quickly, silently. They never once remove their helmets, or their face masks, or their breathing apparatus.
We can’t see their faces. We can’t see their eyes.
This gives them an inhuman appearance, a cold blooded feeling.
And the first thing the lead man says is, “Why are none of you wearing your breathing equipment? Why are you all exposed?”
Not, how are you? Are you hurt? Do you have any wounded?
Where are the rest of the men?
Why are you all exposed?
“Exposed?” Daniel asks.
“To the airborne strain?”
“There is no airborne strain. Not here. It’s confined to the residential sector.”
There’s a pause. A weird silence.
“What’s your name?” Daniel asks. “What’s your rank?”
The leader shakes his head. He ignores Daniel’s questions. “We’re not equipped to deal with this,” the leader says. “We’re not equipped to deal with this many contaminated individuals.”
“Not equipped?” I ask. “What the hell does that mean?”
“We’ve only got room for two. Our primary targets are Doctor Hunter and Doctor Kumar Singh. And we are to retrieve blood samples from Maria Marsh and Kim Richards.”
And I can’t believe it, the doctors, those murderers were their priority.
Well, I can believe it. And I knew it was going to happen. I knew they would come for the doctor’s first. Knowledge is power after all. Knowledge is a ticket out of the apocalypse, out of hell.
But it’s still a shock to hear them actually say it out loud. It’s weird. It’s depressing. It’s maddening.
It is soul crushingly painful.
“Did you collect blood samples?” the leader asks Daniel.
“Yes, sir,” Daniel answers quickly.
Daniel says ‘sir’. He has begun treating these men as his superior even though we don’t know their rank. We don’t know their names. We can’t see their faces.
Daniel hands over a black case.
The leader takes the blood samples and then hands the case to one of the other men. “How many?” he asks Daniel.
“How many what?” Daniel replies.
“How many men did you lose?”
Not how many men did we lose, but how many men did you lose.
“These men are all that are left of the three squads,” Daniel answers.
“This is all that’s left?”
“What’s the condition above ground?” Daniel asks. “What’s the damage? How bad is the fallout?”
“We’re not sure yet. But we advise you to stay below ground until we can confirm the fallout patterns.”
“Are you serious?” I say. “We can’t stay down here.”
“Exposure to nuclear fallout is a death sentence,” the killer robot says.
Again, I try to remember what the man in the gas mask said.
No fallout. The warheads were detonated in the upper atmosphere.
I try and figure out if he was lying.
The other killer robots have collected Doctor Hunter and the man in the gas mask.
One of the recon soldiers hands them a HAZMAT suit. “Put this on.”
Doctor Hunter does so immediately. Fumbling around with his one good hand until he eventually slips it on. One of the Evo Agents zips him up.
The man in the gas mask refuses to put the protective suit on. He doesn’t even acknowledge the recon soldiers. He says nothing. Does nothing.
“Just throw a poncho over him,” the leaders says. “He’s already wearing a gas mask.”
“But what about the fallout?”
“We’ll only be outside for a few seconds.”
The doctors are then handcuffed with their hands in front of their bodies, and are led out of the hangar at gun point. Like prisoners of war.
Is prisoner the right word?
Probably not.
The recon team heads for the eastern subway tunnel, for the maintenance access shaft.
“Stay here,” the leader says. “We will be back for the rest of you.”
“How long?” Daniel asks.
“You’ll have to wait another day at least. I’ll call for a pick up immediately.”
“What if we can't fit?” I ask. “What if the next rescue team isn’t equipped to deal with all of us contaminated individuals? Who gets the golden ticket then?”
He doesn't answer.
He doesn’t need to.
I already know.
Maria.
Kim.
The rest of us?
Even the rest of the soldiers? Their brothers?
We come last. Dead last.
This guy was scared. I could hear it in his voice.
And Daniel and his men seemed to understand.
They were all scared.
Of what?
Of who?
Who is the company? Who did they work for?
“Stay tight,” the leader repeats. “Fortify this position. The rescue is coming. We will get you out.”
“How long?” Daniel asks again. “We need to know how long.”
“I really can’t say. A day. Two.”
“Two days?” Daniel says. “We’re not going to last two days. We’re not going to last another night. There is infected all around us.” He points to the subway tunnel. “That tunnel. They’re in that goddamn tunnel.”
“I’m sorry. I’m just following orders. I’m following protocol. You’d do the same thing in my position.”
The rescue is coming.
The recon team leaves us behind, exiting back out through the eastern blast door, back into the subway tunnel. They use the emergency maintenance shaft to get back to the surface.
“So we just wait?” I ask Daniel.
“Yeah,” he answers.
He turns and walks back over to his men on sentry duty. He tells them to stay vigilant, stay alert. He tells them we need to dig in and hold on for one more day.
Maybe two.
We had no choice but to wait.
And I want to believe the Evo Agent, I want to believe the heartless, soulless, killer robot.
But I don’t.
So we continue to wait for a rescue, waiting to be saved, waiting for something that is never going to happen.
Chapter 5
A day passes. No extraction. No help coming. It’s becoming more and more obvious that we have been cut off. That we have been left behind.
Left for dead.
We try and sleep through the night, but how could we?
Ben doesn’t even try and get any sleep. He continues working. He doesn’t stop. He fills container after container with fuel and oil.
He sets them aside, near the western tunnel. He then goes back and fills up the next container. The fuel and the oil leak out of the Humvees slowly, so the whole process is long and laborious. But Ben doesn’t complain. I still have no idea what he is doing. I guess he is stock piling fuel and oil because he knows we might need it if we ever make it back out into the desert.
Watching him work is hypnotic.
Jack and Kenji ask him if he wants any help. He does not. He is a man on a mission. A man possessed. I get the feeling that everything h
e does in life, he does with one hundred percent commitment and focus.
He even continued working when the recon team showed up. “No point talking to them,” he had said. “They’re not here for us.”
“Are you sure you don’t want a break?” I ask again.
He shakes his head. “No. I spent enough time resting in that prison, or whatever the hell that place was. It’s time to move. Staying here, staying in the one place is bad.”
“You think we should go?” I ask.
“Yeah.”
“Where?”
“Out. Up.”
“Aren’t you worried about the radiation? The fallout?”
“I’ll take nuclear fallout over this place any day of the week.”
Nuclear fallout or a secret underground facility overrun with zombies and monsters. These were our options.
And Daniel says we have been lucky. Sure as hell doesn’t feel like it.
Daniel is leaning against the tire of a Humvee. He is wide awake. He keeps checking his watch every five minutes. He knows how far away their base is. He knows how long it takes for the chopper to get there, to radio ahead. He knows how long the rescue should take to get here.
And judging by his body language, his face, the look in his eyes, I’m guessing that the time has come and gone.
I am convinced. I know it.
We need to act. We can’t just sit here in the dark, waiting to die.
It is time to go.
One of his men appears from the shadows. It’s Parker again. And again, he is breathing fast and speaking fast. But it’s not because he is out of breath. Not because he has been running. He is breathing fast and speaking fast because he is panicking. He is afraid. “Sir, we have a problem. It’s bad. There’s something… wrong.”
“What is it?”
“The men watching the eastern tunnel. Frost. Garcia. Clark. They’re gone. They’ve just vanished. Without a trace. Everything is gone. Their packs, their weapons. Ammo. Everything. Same thing happened to Miller. There’s something out there. There’s something out there and it’s hunting us. It’s not the infected.”
Again, a rush of adrenalin hits us all. Suddenly we are wide awake. We are completely alert.
“What is it?” Maria asks. “What could it possibly be?”
“Could be the General’s men,” Kenji suggests. “You said a few of them survived.”
